Saga Communications is adding to its stable by making a deal that will give it a Class D 10kw daytimer and its FM translator.
The facilities serve an area north of Springfield, Mass., where the radio industry pure-play already enjoys a formidable presence.
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One month ago, a major PR splash was initiated in support of H.R. 4130, legislation introduced by a South Florida Democratic House member that would “provide fair treatment of radio stations and artists for the use of sound recordings, and for other purposes.”
To date, the bill dubbed the “American Music Fairness Act” has the support of six co-sponsors. They all gave their yea nod to the bill on the day it was introduced.
No other House members have joined them. Instead, a resolution in both chambers of Congress has only been fortified.
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Three Democratic Senators on Thursday (7/22) teamed together to introduce legislation that, if passed, would help financially support local news organizations through tax credits to incentivize hiring more journalists, subscriptions, and advertising from local small businesses.
The NAB’s soon-to-retire President/CEO, once a Republican U.S. Senator, applauded the arrival of companion legislation to a bipartisan House bill that first surfaced on June 16.
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Last week, it was announced that the FCC would be considering some changes to its political broadcasting rules at its monthly open meeting in August. This had some voicing concerns over major changes ahead of mid-term elections.
But, as respected D.C. communications law attorney David Oxenford notes, the proposed changes are “almost ministerial.”
The Wilkinson Barker Knauer legal eagle took a look at the proposed changes, and he concludes, “it turned out that the changes were instead very minor.”
How so? “The proposed rule changes revise the Commission’s rules on two matters that are already part of the practices of stations and the lawyers who advise them on political broadcasting matters.”
Two changes are being proposed.
The first, as RBR+TVBR previously reported, pertains to a write-in candidate showing they are legally qualified and therefore able to take advantage of the FCC’s political broadcasting regulations. This includes ad rates for political candidates deemed qualified.
The second is, in Oxenford’s words, “just a rule change to conform FCC rules to statutory requirements that broadcasters include, in their online public files, information about the sale of advertising time to non-candidate buyers who convey a message on a matter of national importance, i.e., a federal issue ad.”
Thus, there are no significant changes ahead of the 2022 Congressional elections to worry about.
The rule changes are up for consideration at the Commission’s August 5 monthly Open Meeting. If the Commissioners agree, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on adoption of the rules will move ahead. That’s expected to occur.
With the Q4 and 2020 financial results for iHeartMedia released following the Closing Bell on February 25, the nation’s largest audio media content creator and distributor revealed that it was implementing a new operational structure.
This saw its financials reported in two separate segments – digital audio and multiplatform, which includes all radio stations. It also saw a veteran iHeart radio programming talent shift away from the company’s broadcast side and take on a COO role for the unit comprised of iHeart’s podcasting and digital properties.
At year’s end, a new COO will be needed for The iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group — Darren Davis is stepping down, concluding nearly 30 years at iHeart and its predecessors.
In an internal note shared with iHeartMedia staff and provided to the trade publication it owns, Inside Radio, before other radio industry news organizations, the company noted that Davis, “a longtime and valued member of iHeart senior management,” has decided to step down from his role, effective Jan. 1, 2022.
“Anyone who knows Darren knows he has a deep love for iHeart and a true passion for our business and our success,” iHeartMedia says.
Davis will be continuing with iHeart as an outside advisor following his formal departure as a full-time employee in January.
Officially, Davis, according to iHeart, “is looking forward to spending more time on a variety of other projects he’s passionate about.” They include real estate development, local community projects, and traveling with his family.
“Although his day-to-day operating expertise will be missed, we appreciate all he’s done for our company and are very pleased that he will continue his association with us, albeit on a more limited basis.”
Davis was named COO concurrent to the naming of Conal Byrne as CEO of The iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. In addition to the podcasting and digital properties, the group includes digital advertising technology companies Jelli, RadioJar, Unified, Voxnest, and Triton Digital, recently acquired from The E.W. Scripps Co.
Carter Brokaw serves as the President of Digital Revenue for the division; Jessica Jerrick holds the role of EVP/Digital Distribution and Platform Partnerships.
The iHeartMedia Multiplatform Group, which includes the company’s AMs and FMs, is led by CEO Greg Ashlock, Chief Revenue Officer Tim Castelli and Hartley Adkins, President of the Markets Group.
FROM ‘WASH’ TO SHINE
Davis first broke into the radio industry in Washington, D.C., some 29 years ago, at Adult Contemporary WASH-FM 97.1 under then-owner Outlet Communications. It was a volatile time for Radio in the Nation’s Capital. Emmis had sold Top 40 WAVA-FM to Salem, leaving a format void. Alternative WHFS-FM and Hot AC WRQX-FM “Mix 107.3,” both defunct, were leaders. For WASH, thanks in part to Davis’s early efforts as a programming intern, longevity and listener loyalty would provide dividends that make the station a survivor, still attracting large audiences today.
Davis rose to PD at age 23, staying at WASH through its acquisition by AMFM Inc. in 1997 and, in 1999, its transfer of control to iHeart predecessor Clear Channel. He later served as a Regional VP/Programming for iHeartMedia Detroit and Chicago; and as SVP/Programming and EVP/GM of National Programming.
In July 2014, Davis was appointed President of iHeartRadio, then a part of Clear Channel Networks Group. Among his accomplishments in that role: building and managing the Premium Choice national network for iHeartRadio and developing iHeartMedia’s strategic national programming capabilities.
Three years later, iHeart announced that Davis would sign a four-year contract extension. That agreement saw Davis continue to oversee the iHeartRadio Network, Premiere Networks, Total Traffic + Weather Network, and the NBC News Radio Network, as well as iHeartMedia’s in-house audio and visual creative agency.
The extension came following the January 2017 launch, which Davis led, of the subscription-based on demand ‘iHeartRadio Plus’ and ‘iHeartRadio All Access’ services powered by Napster.
As such, Davis’ contract is expiring. Rather than ink a new deal, he’s moving on while assisting in various ways as an outside consultant with deep inside knowledge of the nation’s biggest audio media company.
For the NAB and the Big Four broadcast TV networks, it’s Stop! Stand there where you are,
before you go too far.
Tell that to David Goodfriend, Founder and Chairman of Locast. If there’s any tune he’s humming along to, it has the lyrics, And we can build this dream together, standing strong forever … Nothing’s gonna stop us now.
Despite efforts in court to squelch the donation-based, IP-distributed “free” TV service, Locast has just entered its 35th market.
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Here they come. And, many are happening on the very same day, making life a potential juggling act for media industry analysts and investors.
Second quarter 2021 financial results for nearly every publicly traded radio and TV company are on the way, starting the first week of August.
Here’s what to expect with respect to when each earnings call and Q2 2021 report release occurs — along with a time change for Gray Television‘s earnings call.
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Its Class B signal covers all of the Phoenix market during daylight hours, and even at night it reaches most of the Valley of the Sun.
In recent years, it has served the Spanish-speaking community largely concentrated in central Phoenix and the west side of the valley.
Now, this AM is trading hands, and is being sold by Amigo Multimedia.
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An AM/FM combo, along with another FM, in New Mexico are being spun.
So is an unbuilt FM translator.
The buyer is a Texas-based LLC that’s a bit of, um, an “exciter.”
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In a world where radio industry consolidation has created local, regional and national groups, a stand-alone FM is a rarity. In market No. 143, there’s a radio station that thrives. And, it’s owned by a person who balances ownership, which he loves, with a real estate business, a restaurant and hotel, a daily mid-morning Talk show, and the continued expansion of the American Blues Network.
To share a little bit about “JZ 94.5,” CEO Rip Daniels sits in with Adam R Jacobson on the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM. Among the things Rip discusses: the minority tax certificate and what it could bring — or not — to Radio ownership diversity.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Leadership Foundation is accepting applications through August 2 for the 2022 Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) program. The BLT program is designed to prepare senior-level broadcasters to advance into ownership or executive positions. Women and people of color are especially encouraged to apply.
Now in its 22nd edition, the executive MBA-style program is the foremost executive training program for the broadcast industry. The program teaches senior-level broadcast professionals who aspire to advance as group executives or station owners the fundamentals of purchasing, owning and operating radio and television stations over ten months.
The 2022 Broadcast Leadership Training program will return to weekend sessions held in-person at the NAB Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The starting session will be held September 17-19, 2021.
“After a year and a half of a hybrid classroom, we couldn’t be more excited to welcome our next cohort back in-person,” said Michelle Duke, NAB Leadership Foundation president. “The Broadcast Leadership Training program is imperative to our goal of fostering growth and promoting diversity in the industry, and we are excited to immerse the 2022 class in the networking and relationship-building opportunities that uniquely thrive in a live environment.”
Broadcast professionals from all areas of the industry, including general managers, experienced sales managers and seasoned department heads, as well as regional and corporate executives, are encouraged to apply. Fellowship opportunities are available for women and people of color.
For sponsorship and speaking opportunities, please contact Tim Dotson, senior director of development, NAB Leadership Foundation, at tdotson@nab.org.
Marketron, the provider of enterprise revenue management and digital software solutions, is welcoming a 25-year sales and service leader to a role that makes him the company’s SVP of Client Success.
His chief task: the Marketron SaaS and digital client success teams.
Earning the role is Christian Kligora. He served as VP of Client Success for Gannett and the USA Today national brands and executive accounts team. He has partnered with companies including James Hardie Industries, Centura Health, Leprino Foods and hundreds of SMBs to help them better understand consumer buying journeys and simplify the fragmented advertising space, Marketron said.
“I’m excited to be working with the fantastic team at Marketron to create a client experience that’s a win for everyone — for us, for our clients and for their customers,” Kligora said. “While I have years of experience on the client success side, I also know what it’s like to be a salesperson trying to sell digital products. So, I appreciate both the Marketron SaaS platform, which makes it easy for radio and TV stations to play in the digital space, and the company’s dedication to investing in strong, long-term client relationships that drive success all around. I believe that together we can build something truly amazing for Marketron clients.”
After nearly 12 years at the ABC affiliate serving New York’s Capital Region, a role that included oversight of a JSA with the market’s FOX affiliate, he became a member of the Nexstar Media Group family. With his transition from Media General, he’d move to Charlotte, where he’s served as the VP/GM of its two TV stations in the Queen City.
Now, this broadcast TV industry veteran as of July 26 will be heading to the corporate office to take on a regional leadership post.
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The “sage of South Central” is now on the way to possibly becoming the wise leader of the Golden State.
Larry Elder, the veteran conservative Talk radio host who has been associated with Salem Media Group since 2016, announced late Wednesday (7/21) that he has won his lawsuit against the State of California and Office of the Secretary of State, Shirley Weber — an action Elder made Monday after being left off of the preliminary list of candidates in the September 14 gubernatorial recall election.
As a result, Elder is on the ballot as a Republican candidate to unseat Democrat Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco Mayor.
“This is a huge victory for voting rights, our republic, our campaign, you and for California,” he declared on Twitter in announcing the court win. “Now let’s go save our state!”
At issue was the submission of what Elder said was more than 300 pages of tax returns required to become a candidate. Weber’s office said Elder filed incomplete information on those returns connected to redaction issues.
The judge considering Elder’s lawsuit agreed with him, finding that he indeed abided by ballot requirements and that California should have refrained from its demands of having candidates submit five years’ worth of tax returns.
With Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl making the ruling just hours before Weber was set to certify the final list of candidates, Elder is now one of 43 total recall candidates.
Elder on July 13 stepped away from his daily talk show, which airs on such stations as KRLA-AM 870 in Los Angeles, in order to run for Governor of California. Filling in for him through the election is Carl Jackson, who hosts a Saturday evening Talk program based at WORC-AM in Orlando. Jackson has been a regular fill-in host for veteran Salem Talk host Dennis Prager.
Because of the FCC’s Equal Time rules, Elder must step away from the show while the race for governor of California is on. Should he lose, he will return to the program. Should he win, Salem has a decision to make while Elder packs his bags and heads to Sacramento.
For the first time, NBCUniversal will have an individual charged with leading a centralized data unit, and the development and implementation of the company’s enterprise-wide consumer identity and data strategy.
Taking the newly created role of Chief Data Officer is John Lee, and he will sit within the NBCU Global Advertising & Partnerships division. I
Lee reports to President and Chief Business Officer Krishan Bhatia.
Specifically, Lee and his team will develop NBCU’s first-party data strategy and create data-driven partnerships to support advertising, marketing, consumer experience and analytics use cases across NBCUniversal’s TV & streaming properties and the NBC News Group, as well as Universal Filmed Entertainment and Universal Parks & Resorts.
Working collaboratively across NBCUniversal as well as in partnership with Comcast and Sky, Lee will support teams within Advertising Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations & Technical Services, and more to prioritize the role of data in consumer experience and product development, monetization, and partnerships at the company, it said.
“Lee will combine his decades-long expertise driving customer experience, identity resolution, and data management with NBCUniversal’s commitment to creating a unified data platform focused on data interoperability, partnership, and privacy. Specifically, he will lead a team of data scientists, strategists, and developers who will enable and enhance monetization opportunities across NBCUniversal’s One Platform; develop an integrated audience graph; and bring the company’s market-leading identity capabilities, from the NBCU Audience Insights Hub to NBCU ID and more, to life.”
Lee added, “The next era of media and advertising will be defined by data and identity, and I am thrilled to join the team at NBCUniversal to build this future for our partners, the industry, and consumers. From theme parks to movie studios, digital and streaming to linear, NBCUniversal is poised to deliver a unified consumer identity vision that meets the needs and expectations of both consumers and marketers while maintaining the trusted relationships the company has built, creating new ways to generate revenue and scale investments with privacy in mind.”
Lee joins NBCU from Merkle, a Dentsu company, where he served as Global Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and led the development and execution of the company’s business vision, value proposition, and long-term planning.
AD-ID NOW STANDARD
Lee’s announcement came alongside news from NBCUniversal that Ad-ID is now its new standard for advertisers across One Platform, a partnership that the company boasts “brings a pristine viewing environment to consumers on every screen and offers marketers the highest-quality, most efficient and effective advertising solution.”
Paging Soohyung Kim.
TEGNA‘s board of directors on Thursday (7/22) declared a second bumped-up dividend payable to shareholders on Oct. 1, so long as they are stockholders of record as of market close on September 3.
TEGNA’s leader notes the move comes in recognition of the company’s strength. Yet, its stock price has moved steadily downward since mid-April.
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BIA Advisory Services has revised upward its 2021 forecasts for U.S. Local Advertising Revenues by 3.9% from its November 2020 estimates.
The projection is split between traditional and digital media. But, it shows that the divide is narrowing, BIA notes.
BIA now expects local ad revenue in 2021 of $142.4 billion, from $137.6 billion.
And, the new data show traditional advertising is just 8% ahead of digital media that include mobile, online, over-the-top, email, and traditional media’s online ventures.
“There’s an acceleration in the market that couldn’t be accounted for last fall,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA’s SVP and Chief Economists. “The economy is growing and we’re observing
money being spent to reach audiences through various media.”
Fratrik points to OTT as growing 16% this year, surpassing the trajectory of mobile as more
consumers take advantage of various streaming services on their TV screens.
Local television advertising this year will dip to $16.2 billion in 2021.
That’s possibly due to the record political ad dollars seen in 2020. Local TV ad dollars were bounce back next year, reaching $19.3 billion in 2022 — with $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion, respectfully, coming from digital platforms.
Local radio advertising will rebound somewhat, to $11.7 billion in 2021 and $12.3 billion in 2022.
The big takeaway: 2022 will see digital platforms for Radio inch past the $1 billion mark, reaching $1.04 billion.
The revised forecast also sees a 5.6% increase in overall compound annual growth in U.S.
spending in local ad markets and expects the amount to reach $157.1 billion in 2022 and $162.1 billion in 2023. The digital media share will first leapfrog to 51% over traditional media by 2023.
In a game-changer for broadcast radio in the digital space, iHeartMedia has unveiled an interactive feature from Amazon Alexa designed to allow listeners of an iHeart radio station’s audio stream to make song requests and dedications — bringing a new level of interactivity to what’s largely been “FM” for two generations.
Introducing voice-enabled air personality interactivity with Alexa.
It’s available as of today for Alexa users who listen to Country WCOS-FM 97.5 in Columbia, S.C.; and Top 40s KZZP-FM 104.7 in Phoenix, WXXL-FM in Orlando and KHKS-FM “Kiss FM” in Dallas. More stations will launch their capabilities soon, iHeartMedia says.
“Ever wish you could talk directly to your favorite radio DJs? Now you can!,” boasts the iHeart literature.
For a broadcast media company that pioneered voice-tracking and the importation of air talent across multiple markets, the very idea of communicating with a “live on the air DJ” is perhaps a chuckle-inducing notion.
That said, radio stations across all ownership groups over the last decade have rarely seen listeners phone in to request a song.
Thus, iHeartMedia deserves applause for using the smart speaker — the leading at-home device for audio content consumption — as a tool allowing listeners to better connect with the radio DJs and stations they hear on the company’s radio stations.
How does it work? “One can simply use their voice to seamlessly request songs and even dedicate them to family and friends,” iHeart explains. “Alexa will then send the request to the station, where radio DJs can queue them for on-air playback in front of millions of other listeners.”
Consider it the 2021 version of a once-normal activity seen for any popular music station, minus the telephone.
“We’re excited that for the first time our listeners will be able to talk to us directly through Alexa,” iHeartRadio Chief Product Officer Chris Williams said. “This is a direct line to allow our audience to talk back, to share their thoughts and help influence what you hear on the radio.”
Song requests and dedications “are just the beginning,” iHeart says, noting that iHeartRadio “is already experimenting with the latest Alexa updates to deliver even more interactive features in the future.” This includes Q&As with on-air personalities and show hosts, voice-driven polls, and contests.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
As many radio industry executives struggle with ways to combat local digital’s nonstop suction of dollars from AM and FM radio stations, Cox Media Group has opted to link up with Amazon Advertising as part of a Local Solutions plan to bring advertisers a 360-degree consumer touchpoint option.
Thanks to a strategic initiative announced Wednesday (7/21), Cox Media Group Local Solutions advertisers will be able to reach local audiences with Amazon Advertising digital offerings.
Simply stated, CMG Local Solutions advertisers can now programmatically buy display and OTT ads through the Amazon DSP and analyze their campaign performance with “full-funnel measurement” products offered by Amazon Advertising.
The goal: expanding local advertisers’ reach and increasing sales.
“This is an exciting new opportunity for CMG Local Solutions and our advertising partners,” said Joe Weir, a SVP of Digital at CMG. “Amazon Advertising’s digital offerings, combined with CMG Local Solutions’ unmatched product expertise, high performing products and platforms and CMG’s long-standing heritage, enables us to help local businesses achieve their marketing goals more effectively.”
— RBR+TVBR Wire Services
He was the face behind HC2 Holdings until the middle of 2020. Today, he’s amassing a collection of low-power broadcast TV stations through his recently formed Sovryn Holdings.
Now, Philip Falcone is acquiring another LPTV property. It’s located in the Valley of the Sun.
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