Radio+Television Business Report

In a move that further cements the importance of quality metrics for social media advertising and for marketers, Twitter has integrated Nielsen‘s cross-media planning and measurement services into its video advertising platform.

It’s an “expanded integration” of Nielsen’s audience measurement and outcomes cross-media offerings, the company says.

The integration includes a new subscription to Nielsen Media Impact (NMI) and Nielsen Ad Intel, along with greater access to Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR).

‘Together, these tools will enable Twitter to help video advertisers do more robust pre- and post-campaign planning, maximize ad inventory, understand cross-media planning, and deliver campaign results with increased speed and agility,” Nielsen asserts.

“With a highly engaged audience and powerful premium video content, Twitter is where advertisers can connect with consumers in the moments that matter most to them,” said Doug Brodman, Twitter’s Director of North America Agency and Platform Solutions. “Nielsen’s cross-media suite will make it easier to augment our client’s video strategy and planning with Twitter’s premium video inventory and optimize audience reach and frequency alongside other top video platforms. Ultimately, this expanded partnership brings increased transparency, clarity and value to Twitter’s video solutions for our agency partners and advertisers.”

To bolster its use of NMI and TAR, Twitter will use Nielsen’s National TV Ratings data for added insights of ad campaigns across platforms. “Each solution and dataset provides Twitter with unique tools and capabilities to strengthen one of its most brand safe and impactful surfaces for advertisers: Twitter Amplify, a video ad platform that gives advertisers pre-roll and sponsorship opportunities next to premium video content,” Nielsen explains. ‘The implementation of Nielsen’s measurement and planning tools, provides a holistic view of campaign performance across all video platforms including TV.”

“To compete in a fragmented ecosystem, publishers require tools that help them plan their cross-media media strategies efficiently as well as provide deeper analysis and more robust insights of an advertiser’s campaign across screens,” said Jay Nielsen, SVP of Planning Products at Nielsen. “Twitter’s use of NMI and Ad Intel levels the playing field and ensures they have the same metrics and tools as agencies and advertisers, facilitating alignment on a common goal and plan. With TAR’s expedited capabilities, Twitter will now be able to better monetize the incremental reach and frequency delivered by ads on their platform. Altogether, our expanded collaboration will help Twitter maximize their video platform and unlock more value for advertisers as this type of video consumption continues to grow.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. — On March 24, a Cumulus Media Classic Rock station with a 33-year heritage and strong brand affinity across Western New York and much of Ontario’s most populous areas found itself in the center of a controversy that attracted binational attention.

One of its morning hosts, against his own better judgment, made comments about how his toaster settings corresponded to the skin tone of some African American female celebrities. Not only were the comments aired live, but they also appeared in a condensed version of the “Morning Bull” distributed as a podcast. That proved to be an even graver error. And, it has now cost WGRF-FM “97 Rock” its Program Director and its entire wake-up program.

As RBR+TVBR first shared via Twitter Wednesday evening (4/7), Cumulus Media issued a statement to Buffalo media confirming that, “Upon further consideration following the racist incident that occurred on The Morning Bull Show, we decided to terminate the whole morning show in addition to the Program Director.”

This results in the exit of Rich Gaenzler and the female component of the Morning Bull, Chris Klein, who is heard in an audio clip of the incident widely distributed on Twitter to be egging on Rob Lederman. He’s the longtime 97 Rock morning show voice whose presence dates back to Norton in the Morning, the predecessor to The Morning Bull. Lederman prefaced his comments by noting, “I may get into trouble for this.”

That proved to be an understatement, as his comments not only led to the dismissal of Gaenzler and Klein, but also PD John Hager.

Hager’s dismissal is particularly noteworthy. In 2018, he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of service at WGRF. After starting as a part-timer, Hager took the overnight shift in 1983 and later moved to afternoon drive. In January 1985, a format change to Adult Contemporary led to Hager’s exit. But, he’d find his way back in September 1988, relaunching 97 Rock after an infamous April Fools’ Day prank at the former WPHD “brought back” the rock ‘n’ roll brand as a joke Buffalo hoped wouldn’t be.

Now, Hager is on the sidelines, victim of a morning show segment gone wrong.

While Lederman was immediately terminated, Gaenzler and Klein were suspended following the March 24 broadcast, which gained national attention after Marcel Louis-Jacques shared an audio clip of what Lederman said via Twitter. Louis-Jacques is the Buffalo-based reporter for ESPN NFL Nation and covers the Buffalo Bills.

The next morning, WGRF offered music in-between station liners and IDs. By 10:30am, midday host J.P. was on the air. Afternoon host Carl Russo took over at 3pm.

As dawn broke in Buffalo on April 8, all vestiges of the Morning Bull were erased from the WGRF website. Continuous music continued between station liners and IDs, as has been the case since March 25. The 97 Rock Twitter feed has been scrubbed of any Morning Bull posts, while the Morning Bull’s Twitter feed still exists but hasn’t been updated since March 24. Meanwhile, 97 Rock’s Facebook page has also seen all mentions of the Morning Bull removed — except for a 90-second statement from Cumulus/Buffalo Market Manager Jim Riley that served as a formal apology for Lederman and the Morning Bull.

Lederman’s comments led such local advertisers as Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and West Herr Automotive Group to cancel their contracts with Cumulus/Buffalo, Nexstar-owned WIVB-4 reported Wednesday.

 

 

U.S. financial markets finished Wednesday’s trading session on a mixed note, with the Dow Industrials rising 16.02 to 33,426.26 and the Nasdaq dipping 9.54 points to 13,688.84.

Companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. were in the green, with a $20.16 finish, as Nexstar continued its impressive growth with a $145.71 conclusion to the day’s trading.

In contrast, TEGNA was down 30 cents to $19.90 after a fresh five-year high.

Also down: several radio broadcasting companies. Saga Communications shares are at $21.25, dipping 55 cents. Audacy, formerly Entercom, shed 17 cents to finish at $5.07.

In late January 2021, the President of CBS Television Stations and the stations’ SVP of News were suspended while parent ViacomCBS investigated an increasing number of allegations against them for gender and racial misconduct.

It appears the claims, first reported by Meg James for the Los Angeles Times, are meritorious enough to lead ViacomCBS to severe its ties with the pair.

In a statement shared by CBS News, the company confirmed that Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os, and news division leader David Friend will not return to their positions and will be exiting the company.

“On an interim basis, Bryon Rubin will continue to run the stations group while Kim Godwin will continue her oversight of Stations’ news operations until new leadership is in place,” ViacomCBS explained.

The announcement comes as an external investigation into CBS Television Stations management, conducted by Keisha-Ann Gray at Proskauer Rose, is still in progress, ViacomCBS says.

James’ reporting first brought to light stories that Dunn and Friend allegedly bullied female managers and blocked efforts to hire and retain African American journalists. In particular, James focused on KYW-3 and WPSG-TV in Philadelphia. Dunn ran the stations from 2002-2004, before a five-year run as the head of WCBS-2 in New York. At KYW-3, 45% of the station’s on-air reporters and anchors are Black, indigenous or other people of color.

The immediate response to her article, which followed a separate report questioning the $55 million purchase of WLNY-55 in Nassau-Suffolk and how Dunn received a membership at an exclusive golf club owned by the station’s seller as part of the transaction, was explosive. National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) representatives reportedly met with members of the ViacomCBS C-Suite that James identified as CBS Entertainment CEO George Cheeks and ViacomCBS EVP Marva Smalls, who leads all D&I initiatives at the company.

According to the Times, NABJ leaders demanded that Dunn be dismissed, along with Friend. Friend had been in his role as SVP/News since June 2010 and was also WCBS’s News Director — a role he’s held since 2006.

The NABJ took issue with the hiring practices at WCBS-2, which “only recently” hired a full-time Black male reporter after five years without one. The NABJ also takes WCBS-2 to task for having one full-time Black female reporter and one Black news producer in New York, a market where more racial diversity in the newsroom would reflect the total viewership.

The departure of Dunn concludes a tenure that included a November 2019 honor at the Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts Awards. That award recognizes women and men who’ve had a profound and lasting effect on the broadcast TV industry. He was also selected by RBR+TVBR readers as one of Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders in 2020.

It has operated an AM and two FMs in the Augusta-Waterville, Maine, market since 2007.

Now, it is converting this long-standing LMA into outright ownership.

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“His career was filled with accomplishments,” begins a three-minute report that encapsulates as best as possible the life and professional career of Ted Koplar.

Koplar, whose family helped make KPLR-11 in St. Louis one of the nation’s most-viewed independent television stations, died April 4.

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Byron Allen has enjoyed considerable growth with his Entertainment Studios film studio and his recently formed Allen Media Group, which presently owns 14 broadcast TV stations. He also purchased well-regarded African American lifestyle and entertainment brand The Grio, in 2016.

With more growth very much part of Allen’s plans, his Allen Media Group arm is partnering with one of the nation’s biggest wireless services companies in hosting a Black-owned Media Summit for a yet-to-be determined day in May — right in the heart of Upfront time.

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A trio of products produced and distributed by Orban Labs have received Portable People Meter (PPM) encoding certification by Nielsen.

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How to U.S. consumers currently feel about the COVID-19 recovery where they live?

Nielsen posed that question to a group of respondents, and it has the answer — along with a host of other data tied to one’s activity tied to health, schooling, employment, and transportation across the now 13-month old pandemic.

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The Hispanic television industry’s Upfront parade was once a “thing,” with lavash presentations and plenty of pomp in between five-star entertainment from the top Latin music acts of the day and open bars galore.

Then came the “total market” mantra, eliminating some unique Upfront events in Midtown Manhattan. This followed the demise of some networks, including Nuvo TV and MTV Tr3s, and COVID-19’s shift of in-person events to virtual affairs.

With early to mid-May still the Upfront window for the TV industry, an upstart Hispanic media company will offer two marketer and advertiser presentations. One is entirely focused on digital opportunities — setting this company apart from its peers.

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In February 1998, Chuck Cotton took on the role of President/GM of what was then AMFM Inc.’ Oahu-based Hawaiian radio stations.

He stayed through the company’s evolution to iHeartMedia, and was the leader of the company’s Honolulu station group in November 2020, when its top-rated Hawaiian Pop station found two of its morning show members in hot water for insensitive remarks made live on the air during a Thanksgiving fundraiser for the needy.

Cotton is now gone from KDDN-FM “Island 98.5” and iHeart’s other Hawaii radio brands. Succeeding him is a new Market President, who takes the role April 9.

Succeeding Cotton is Scott Hogle, who rises from SVP/Sales for the cluster, comprised of the aforementioned “Island 98.5,” heritage Adult Contemporary KSSK-AM & FM, Alternative KUCD-FM, News/Talk KHVH-AM, FOX Sports Radio affiliate KIKI-AM, Rhythmic Top 40 KUCD-FM “93.9 The Beat” and FM Translator “Pop! 99.1,” which is heavy on K-Pop and Asian pop music. He’ll work closely with the programming, business, and sales teams and oversee all of the station’s on‐air and digital programming as well as create new revenue opportunities. Hogle reports to iHeartMedia Markets Group Division President Tony Coles.

“Scott has been an integral part of our success in Honolulu for over 23 years,” Coles said. “His natural gift to connect and lead, his deep roots in the community, and relationships with our clients will enable Scott to build upon the incredible track record of our stations.”

Hogle, like Cotton, has been associated with the stations since 1998, just prior to AMFM Inc.’s sale to Clear Channel for $15.9 billion, consummated in October 1999. The stations entered the iHeart family via an April 1997 purchase of Patterson Broadcasting’s entire group of AM and FMs by Capstar Broadcasting Partners under Steve Hicks.

Hogle began his career in sales at WXRI-FM in Norfolk, which is today WNOH-FM.

Hogle is also the author of “PERSUADE, The 7 Empowering Laws of the SalesMaker,” and is a motivational teacher on the subjects of sales and leadership, both domestically and internationally.

“It’s a great honor to lead the A‐Team for iHeartMedia in Honolulu,” Hogle said. “Nothing is more rewarding than living in paradise and leading for a company like iHeart that embraces our local culture, community, and customers. It’s empowering for us as a team to work for the leader in the media marketplace and love what you do at the same time.”

Hogle is also heavily involved in his community, and is an Executive Board Member for Youth with a Mission. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the Salvation Army of Honolulu.

The iHeart statement noting Hogle’s promotion did not address Cotton’s departure after 23 years. Under Hogle’s leadership, KDDN came under fire for comments made during a charity radiothon by morning hosts “Slick Vic” Harris and “KreyZ” Oshiro, in response to a local musician’s tale of homelessness and hunger.

The situation was addressed internally, Cotton said in a statement released at the time; the hosts were fired from the “Island 98.5 Wake Up Crew.” Cotton apologized to the local Hawaiian music artist, Paula Fuga, in person.

— Additional reporting by Amber Hunt, on Maui

Following a report citing three individuals close to the matter that appeared in POLITICO, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) confirmed early Wednesday that its President/CEO — former Oregon Senator Gordon Smith — will transition to a 36-month advisory and advocacy role at the end of 2021.

His successor is the NAB’s Chief Operating Officer.

Smith will be succeeded by Curtis LeGeyt, who will take on the media industry’s largest and most influential lobbying and advocacy association on Jan. 1, 2022.

In a video message to NAB members, Smith said, “It has been my great honor to give the lion’s roar for broadcasters – those who run into the storm, those who stand firm in chaos to hear the voice of the people, those who hold to account the powerful – and to stand with those of the fourth estate who have the hearts of public servants.”

Smith joined the NAB as its President/CEO in November 2009. Under his leadership, NAB saw its New York show grow as the Radio Show evolved to a co-production with the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB). The 9-0 Supreme Court decision in FCC v. Prometheus, which saw the NAB join the Commission in its fight to win approval of cross-ownership rule “modernization” the FCC approved in November 2017, is perhaps the crown achievement of the NAB during Smith’s run as its head.

Before joining the NAB, Smith was a well-admired two-term Republican Senator from Oregon. After leaving the Senate, he served as a senior advisor in the Washington offices of Covington & Burling LLP.

Among those saluting Smith is Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb, who serves as the NAB Joint Board of Directors.  “Gordon is the ultimate statesman, bringing people together from both sides of the aisle to discuss ideas, find common ground and lead NAB to success on countless fronts,” Wertlieb said. “On behalf of the leadership of NAB, we extend our sincere gratitude for more than a decade of service to the broadcast industry. We look forward to continuing to work with Gordon and benefiting from his guidance for years to come.”

Wertlieb noted that Smith worked closely with the board leadership on a succession plan that will enable him to continue to serve NAB in a special advisory role through December 31, 2024, which includes lobbying on behalf of the broadcasters.

“I am also delighted to share that NAB is in the enviable position of having cultivated top talent within the organization to provide for a smooth and stable transition in leadership,” Wertlieb said. “Curtis has the utmost confidence of the NAB leadership and staff to lead our association into the future.”

LeGeyt has been with NAB for nearly a decade, during which time he led several highly successful legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of broadcasters, including the permanent reauthorization of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR), inclusion of $1 billion in RAY BAUM’s Act to reimburse stations impacted by the spectrum auction repack, and successful passage of the Music Modernization Act.

Prior to assuming his current role as COO, LeGeyt served for five years as NAB’s EVP of Government Relations. Before joining the NAB, LeGeyt was senior counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, of Vermont.

“I am honored and humbled to be named the next leader of this great organization,”  LeGeyt said. “To represent the broadcast industry and the local stations that bind our communities together in a moment of such tremendous change across the media landscape is a privilege. Our stations’ role in communities across this country has never been more important, and I look forward to working every day to ensure their ability to grow and thrive.”

MORE ON CURTIS LeGEYT FROM THE RBR+TVBR ARCHIVES:

NAB COO Talks Up Radio Value At Senate DMCA Briefing Adam Jacobson What did the NAB’s COO say Wednesday to a group of U.S. Senators regarding the scope of music rights within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)?  Curtis LeGeyt had a lot to discuss, and much of his conversation centered on the role broadcast radio plays in the U.S.

Standard General and its leader, Soohyung Kim, may be intent on grabbing greater influence in the broadcast TV company it has invested in.

But, its latest attempt to woo over shareholders may fall on deaf ears. Why? TEGNA stock finished upward again on Tuesday, bringing it to its highest point in five years.

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In November 2019, paperwork was filed at the FCC indicating American General Media (AGM) would be growing its Bakerfield properties with a Class A FM licensed to Arvin, Calif., to the south on a high peak allowing the signal to reach the southern San Joaquin Valley.

It is now known that the deal never closed. Now, this FM is going to a woman in Glendale, Calif., who is agreeing to pay more than what AGM had planned to spend.

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In June 2013, David Walker agreed to purchase a Class C3 FM serving the Lubbock, Tex., market. Today, it is the “Red Dirt Rebel,” focused on Texas-flavored country music.

Walker hopes it will continue to serve as a home for this local music. But, that will only come with more financial stability.

His Walker Radio Group has voluntary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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As first reported Wednesday morning (4/6) by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, Bustos Media Holdings has agreed to purchase an FM radio station with a broadcast tower due east of Portland, Ore.

Until recently, covering the Rose City wasn’t possible. Now that it is, Bustos isn’t waiting for the deal to close to attract new listeners. A format change has already transpired at this FM.

How much is Bustos spending to obtain it? We have the details.

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As Q1 2021 came to a close, so did Star Communications Inc.‘s intent to own an AM/FM combo and an FM translator serving a small West Virginia city situated between Charleston and Parkersburg.

The facilities have been sold, and await FCC approval before being handed to a new owner.

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It’s been nine months since Philip Falcone exited HC2 Holdings Inc. under a black cloud, with accusations that Falcone defaulted on loans leading to today’s efforts under new chief executive Wayne Barr Jr. to raise capital by divesting non-core assets.

For Falcone, he’s swiftly moved on, and in Q1 2021 became an active buyer of low-power TV stations through a newly created entity.

He’s at it again, and has just entered the Pacific Northwest’s biggest market.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — When it comes to texting and hand-held communications, there’s perhaps no group of National Capital Region residents more experience and savvy with such devices as the Gallaudet University student body and faculty.

This Northeast Washington institution has provided higher education opportunities to the deaf and hard-of-hearing for generations. While TV has been, along with print media, major services consumed by the hearing impaired, radio has been left out.

American University‘s NPR Member station, across town in Northwest Washington, has changed that — thanks to ENCO.

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To bring WAMU-FM‘s programming to all Washingtonians, the station deployed an enCaption4 captioning system from ENCO.

This generates live, automated transcripts of its on-air audio via the WAMU.org website — not so dissimilar to the audio transcripts of FCC open meetings found on the agency’s website.

As of today, live on-air captions remain in beta test. “We’re working to add live real-time captions to our radio broadcast,” WAMU says. “While we continue to refine this early release effort, please pardon our errors and inaccuracies.”

Interestingly, the caption feed is several seconds ahead of the audio streaming feed; this suggests the captions are synched with the over-the-air broadcast.

The inspiration for WAMU’s captioning project came when a deaf political candidate seeking office in Washington requested to appear on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show and wanted the broadcast to be accessible to all.

“At that moment, it stood out to us that we hadn’t been serving that important part of the population before and that there was demand for bringing our content to this audience,” said Rob Bertrand, WAMU’s Senior Director of Technology.

For that particular broadcast, the station used a service provider with live human transcription and live sign language interpretation for that particular broadcast. From there, Bertrand knew that a different approach would be needed to serve the hearing impaired community on an ongoing basis. “The timing of the content can be unpredictable, which means we can’t schedule a transcriptionist or sign language interpreter,” Bertrand said. “We realized there was now technology that would allow us to automate the process. Automated closed captioning has existed for television for some time. What if we could take the equipment used to generate captions for TV, and instead use it for radio to bring captions to our website?”

The enCaption4 was selected by Bertrand after learning of lots of positive feedback from broadcasters using it for television. “We did a demo of enCaption4, and our web development team came up with a way to present the captions it creates on our website,” he said.

How does it work?

Audio from WAMU’s Telos Alliance Axia audio-over-IP backbone is converted by an Axia xNode to an AES/EBU signal that serves as the input to enCaption4. Then, enCaption4 ingests the same on-air signal path being routed to WAMU’s transmitter and online streaming encoders, enabling live, 24/7 captioning of all of WAMU’s on-air content. The captions created by enCaption4 are then fed to the station’s website, where they are displayed in a dedicated transcription page.

As a pilot project until now, WAMU developed a small but loyal following, with roughly 150 people routinely watching the station’s captions for around 30 minutes per day. WAMU expects this to grow once the service starts getting promoted.

Furthermore, WAMU plans to upgrade its content management system to allow integration of its internal data sources with enCaption4, thus providing a dictionary that will further increase the accuracy of WAMU’s captions with the spellings of challenging local names and events.

The station also ultimately intends to integrate the captions directly into its core streaming player.

— Reporting by Brian Galante. Editing by Adam Jacobson.

Adam Jacobson is a 1994 graduate of the American University School of Communication.

It started off as a Generation Z and Millennial-focused news and information offering distributed strictly in the “over the top” (OTT) space. Then, it morphed into a MVPD-distributed cable channel.

Now, Newsy is headed to free-to-air television as a “DigiNet,” come this autumn.

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