Radio+Television Business Report

Until eleven months ago, his voice could be heard in morning drive at WIHT-FM “Hot 99.5” in Washington, D.C., and WFLZ-FM in Tampa, in addition to stations in Baltimore, Louisville, Memphis and Harrisburg via Premiere Networks syndication.

He also hosted a Sunday night program, also syndicated, that aired on some 100 stations.

In April 2020, iHeartMedia canceled the programs, hosted by a Syracuse University alum legally named Peter Deibler.

Now, legions of former listeners are joining members of the radio industry across the U.S. in remembering the life of the man known as “Kane,” as he has died “after a long illness” at the age of 43.

Lawyers for Deibler’s family at Joseph, Greenwald & Laake P.A. released the news to local Washington, D.C., media Monday morning (3/8). He passed away on Friday, March 5, at Shady Grove Adventist Medical Center.

As an anchor for Hot 99.5 from 2006 until his surprising dismissal amid a major reduction-in-force initiative at iHeartMedia, “Kane” also served as a contributor to NBC O&O WRC-4 in Washington.

“Although co-hosts came and went, Kane remained a constant, comforting voice for thousands of people driving to work, dropping the kids off at school and running errands,” lawyers for Deibler’s family said in a statement.

In another statement sent to WRC-4 by the former employer of “Kane” and those associated with The Kane Show, iHeartMedia said, “We are deeply saddened to share the news that Kane has passed away. Kane has been an important part of our iHeart family for many years, from his early days at WFLZ in Tampa, to his network of stations and success at HOT 99.5 in D.C. and ‘Club Kane.’ Please keep Kane’s family and his girls in your thoughts and prayers.”

Deibler was father to two daughters, Sam and Sophie.

“The family is requesting that their privacy be honored during this difficult time,” his representatives said.

A memorial service will also be planned at a future date.

Deibler made headlines in June 2016 after being arrested for assault after his soon-to-be ex-wife accused him of second-degree assault, The Washington Post reported at the time.

It was a blemish on a storied career that began at WKCI-FM “KC101” in New Haven, where he was an intern while still in high school, Lance Venta of RadioInsight.com reports. He’d later hold nights at WWHT-FM “Hot 107.9” in Syracuse and joined WFLZ in 1998 for evenings.

Two years later, he moved to Washington, to join the former XM Satellite Radio.

In 2004, Deibler would return to Tampa, as PD/afternoon host of WFLZ. Then, in October 2006, “The Kane Show” would debut at Hot 99.5; he’d continue to host afternoons on 93.3 FLZ in Tampa.

DISH Network Corporation has embarked on a big business initiative that’s designed to shift it away from strictly offering direct broadcast satellite TV services that, quite often, do not offer consumers every local channel due to its penchant to play hardball with respect to any retransmission consent accords.

It involves 5G, and wireless technology. DISH just took another step toward achieving that goal, by acquiring a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that’s using the T-Mobile infrastructure.

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So much for that COVID-19 subscriber bump.

Full market estimates from Kagan, the S&P Global Market Intelligence media research group, are out. And … they’re not pretty.

Millions of subscriptions by multichannel video services were shed in 2020. As such, the cord-cutting story is real.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate late Friday (3/5) approved a budget reconciliation bill that doesn’t raise the minimum wage to a statutory $15 per hour and will put an extra $1,400 in the hands of many Americans.

The legislation also will direct hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 related emergency assistance to public radio and television stations.

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BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) has a new Vice President of Creative for its Latin arm.

Jesus Gonzalez will join the company as will oversee BMI’s Latin Creative team helping to sign and develop new talent, assist BMI’s family of songwriters and publishers and serve as a liaison between the Latin music community and the industry at large.

Based out of BMI’s Los Angeles office, Gonzalez reports to BMI SVP/Creative Alex Flores.

“Throughout his career, Jesus has forged strong relationships within the Latin music community as a songwriter and a music executive,”  Flores said. “His background gives him a deep understanding for both the artistic and business side of what we do, which is invaluable to our music creators, and his ability to forecast industry trends within the ever-growing Latin music space is second to none. I look forward to working with Jesus on developing new talent and supporting our incredible roster of Latin songwriters, producers, composers and music publishers.”

Prior to joining BMI, Gonzalez spent nearly seven years at Universal Music Group, where he was most recently SVP/Brands & Partnerships.

In that role, he spearheaded major collaborations between top Latin artists and global Fortune 500 companies, developed marketing plans around releases to amplify those partnerships and forecasted industry trends. During his tenure at Universal, he helped secure deals for internationally acclaimed performing songwriters, including J Balvin, Juanes and Luis Fonsi, with top brands such as Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi and Mastercard, to name a few.

Other roles include a stint as Vice President of Music Partnerships working with Rogers & Cowan, FRUKT and Octagon under the Interpublic umbrella, and he was the Principal partner at Maleco Music, a music and brand consulting agency.

As a songwriter, he is a voting member of the Recording Academy for the GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY Awards, and was a mentor for the 2020 Adweek Executive Mentor Program. Gonzalez received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside.

“Spurious Emissions.”

It’s something the FCC takes seriously, and will issue a Notice Of Violation for any offense. This week, two notices in one day were issued, and as Wilkinson Barker Knauer attorney David Oxenford notes, both involve low-power radio stations.

It shows that even micro FMs are subject to policing.

Specifically, Oxenford says an FCC Field Office cited Low Power FM operators for using transmission systems that, in addition to transmitting signals on their authorized channels, were also emitting signals on other channels that posed the potential for interference with other users on those other frequencies – sometimes not even broadcast frequencies.

In one case, the FCC noted that it was the FAA that reported the interference.

“All broadcast transmissions have the potential for these spurious emissions on channels other than the ones for which a station is authorized, especially if a station is near other stations as frequencies can interact to produce these unintended emissions,” Oxenford says. “When constructing and operating any broadcast station, care should be given to ensure that these off-channel emissions are not of a signal strength beyond that permitted by the FCC rules as interference can occur and the FCC can potentially impose fines.”

Neither of these NOVs proposes a fine.

Rather, each asks for a response from the operator of the LPFM station and reserves the right to impose a fine depending on the response and any corrective action that is taken, Oxenford says.

It should be noted that the Commission rarely publishes these “routine” NOVs in its Daily Digest. But, it did so with these two notices.

“This publication may be meant as a warning to all stations to ensure that their transmissions are within the permitted limits to avoid any enforcement action, so consider yourself warned!” Oxenford concludes.

A digital low-power TV station serving Florida’s state capital and a sibling LPTV facility located in Auburn, Ala., are being spun.

It’s a Game Day decision. Really. That’s the name of the seller in this transaction.

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RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

You never know where one can find the freshest ideas that can truly spark a radio station, making it vitally important — and fun — for its listeners.

One successful FM serving Canada’s biggest market has one that every AC, Classic Hits or Rhythmic “Old School” station should consider. Now.

Why? It demands appointment listening, audience engagement and involves something simply gratifying. When’s the last time one of your stations did that?

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In July 2015, a collection of 9 AMs, an FM and an FM translator were sold by what was left of the former Davidson Media Group. The buyer? A licensee controlled by Mark Janbakhsh.

He’s now in divestment mode, and has signed off on the sale of one of those AMs acquired nearly six years ago.

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As RBR+TVBR first reported on February 18, Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) not only completed its recapitalization effort and closed its previously announced offering of notes due 2026, but settled a court battle regarding its Series B Preferred Stock.

Further details regarding the company’s agreements with Series B shareholders are now known.

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The long-awaited spin of Nielsen Holdings plc‘s sale of what was recently rebranded as NielsenIQ is complete.

The multinational company that is the dominant ratings data and consumer research provider to U.S. TV and radio broadcasting and cable companies has completed its sale of Nielsen IQ — formerly branded as Nielsen’s Global Connect business — to affiliates of Advent International, in partnership with James “Jim” Peck.

In making the announcement, Nielsen CEO David Kenny thanked the NielsenIQ team “for their invaluable commitment and contributions over the years,” while acknowledging that, even after the spin-off, a “strong working relationship” is anticipated.

Speaking of the post-spin Nielsen, Kenny continued, “This is a transformative time for Nielsen. We have redesigned our products, our business platform, and our operating model, positioning Nielsen to better deliver the solutions our clients need in the rapidly changing global media ecosystem. We are now fully aligned around three essential solutions —Audience Measurement, Audience Outcomes and Gracenote Content Services — that are designed to drive growth by leveraging a single media platform across a global digital-first footprint.”

Nielsen Holdings on November 1 announced that it had signed a definitive agreement under which affiliates of Advent International, one of the largest global private equity investors, in partnership with former TransUnion CEO Peck, will acquire the Nielsen Global Connect business for $2.7 billion.

The agreed-to price is subject to working capital, cash, debt-like items and other customary adjustments.

Nielsen also received warrants in the new company exercisable in certain circumstances.

David Rawlinson will remain CEO of NielsenIQ.

The deal’s closing comes just days after Nielsen and Roku announced a new strategic alliance that the companies believe will help shape the future of media and TV measurement.

Advisors
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Guggenheim Securities, LLC are acting as financial advisors to Nielsen, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Clifford Chance LLP, DLA Piper, and Baker McKenzie are serving as legal advisors to Nielsen. Ropes & Gray LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP are serving as legal counsel to Advent and BofA Securities is serving as lead financial advisor, with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., RBC Capital Markets and UBS Investment Bank also advising. Financing for the transaction is being arranged and provided by Bank of America, UBS Investment Bank, Barclays, Deutsche Bank AG New York, HSBC, RBC Capital Markets, MUFG and Wells Fargo.

Tech stocks paced a wave of declines on Wall Street Wednesday, as the Chair of the Federal Reserve declined to say whether or not the Central Bank will work to put a kibosh on inflationary pressure.

Media stocks were caught up in the dips.

Among the bigger decliners is Salem Media Group, down 34 cents to $2.47 after the company posted lower Q4 2020 adjusted EBITDA.

Also off sharply: Beasley Broadcast Group and iHeartMedia.

Cavell, Mertz & Associates President Garrison Cavell and Garvey Schubert Barer attorney Erwin Krasnow have made suggestions on assessing station potential from the technical side and deciphering station coverage maps, and have then explored treasures that might be found in cyberspace and by poking through the stacks of station paperwork in various Media Information Bureau columns appearing at RBR+TVBR. Today, they take a look at tire kicking.Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC’s Media Bureau is reminding all low power television and TV translator stations that the digital transition date — when stations must terminate all analog television operations — is fast approaching.

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Updated at 3:10pm Eastern

For 15 years, she was the go-to person for all of the corporate-level communication from Univision Communications, the multimedia giant focused on Spanish-speaking U.S. Hispanics that is now under majority ownership of ForgeLight LLC and Searchlight Capital Partners.

With that shift in control, several changes transpired. Wade Davis replaced Vince Sadusky as CEO. Steve Mandala was fired, with Donna Speciale brought in to the C-Suite.

Now, big changes have come to the corporate communications team.

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The E.W. Scripps Company has agreed to broadcast a commercial-free special across its local stations next week in a move it hopes will “spark a national dialogue around implicit bias while advancing conversations at the local level in the 41 markets where it operates.”

“Each of us have experiences and backgrounds that shape how we think and how we interact with the world around us,” explains Scripps Local Media President Brian Lawlor. “As a steward of the public airwaves with a station footprint that reaches into nearly a quarter of U.S. TV households, Scripps has a powerful platform from which we can help facilitate critical conversations about the implicit biases we all carry and what they mean for how we connect with one another.

With that, every market where Scripps has a station will air the 60-minute special, “Hidden Bias of Good People,” hosted by Dr. Bryant T. Marks, Ph.D.

“We’re proud to bring this special with Dr. Marks to our viewers in every market in order to provide a safe space for these discussions – neighbor to neighbor – about identity and bias,” Lawlor said.

Dr. Marks is the founder and chief equity officer of the National Training Institute on Race and Equity.

Scripps notes that the TV special is “interactive and conversational, with a goal of helping viewers understand the unconscious biases we all carry based on our upbringings and environments. Implicit, or unconscious, bias refers to attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control.”

Marks has provided training to police departments and to executives and professionals in educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and local and federal government agencies, among others.

In addition to airing the special, Scripps’ local TV stations are producing multiplatform content to aid viewers in engaging with the topic of implicit bias. Planned content includes an in-depth series on race relations and stories examining the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion to employers and job seekers.

Scripps TV stations also will host Facebook Live discussions and Zoom Q&As with local experts.

The RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast on Tuesday celebrated its 100th episode, as Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson conducted an exclusive interview with Colorado Broadcasters Association President/CEO Justin Sasso to learn more about the key topics the CBA is addressing in Washington, D.C. for radio and TV station owners in the Mile High State.

Among them: ATSC 3.0 transition in a state with weather and terrain challenges, and the ongoing fight for radio with respect to royalty fees. The discussion came just 24 hours after GMR sent a take it-or-leave it letter to radio stations regarding a new nine-month interim license, effective April 1, that includes a 20% rate hike.

Didn’t hear the podcast? Easily do so from our new embedded player at RBR.com!

Coming March 9: Jay Prasad, Chief Strategy Officer at LiveRamp TV, discusses his expectations for TV advertising ahead of the 2021-2022 Upfronts.

And, to access the other 99 episodes of the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM, just click here!

LOS ANGELES — Salem Media Group, the Camarillo, Calif.-based company known for conservative Talk radio stations branded as “The Answer” and a host of sibling radio properties devoted to Christian music and teaching, has successfully turned its financial fortunes from severely shaking to solid and growth-filled.

How did Salem accomplish this in the fourth quarter? Its just-released earnings report shows it comes down to two non-broadcast segments.

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LOS ANGELES — It is owned in part by NBCUniversal, Charter Communications and ViacomCBS and is known for its privacy-focused audience connectivity, collaboration, and authentication platform.

Now, it is leveraging TransUnion’s portfolio of identity and data-driven audience products, focused on privacy-focused identity, data modeling, audience creation and activation.

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As of 11:37am Eastern, Sinclair Broadcast Group shares were trading at $35.98, up 23 cents from Wednesday. Consider it icing on the cake for a company that has seen significant share growth since late October.

Still, Sinclair’s fiscal health is far from perfect. That could explain why the Baltimore-based company is engaging in a reduction in force impacting 5% of its employee roster — including those at its headquarters.

According to the Baltimore Sun, nearly 600 jobs will be culled across the U.S. by Sinclair; the company has not issued any formal statement on the reduction in force effort.

Why? “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt across all sectors of the economy, something that can have a profound impact on a company as diversified as ours,” the company said in a statement to the daily newspaper.

While its unusual for a media company squarely focused on visual media and not audio media, which has seen big staff furloughs and layoffs due to the novel coronavirus, to blame COVID-19 for layoffs, Sinclair is unique among its peers: it invested heavily in the ex-FOX regional sports networks. With no live sports across much of 2020, viewership — and advertising support — plummeted.

That, it appears, has contributed to the fiscal challenges fueling the layoffs about to transpire.

“In response to this, we are currently undergoing enterprise-wide reductions across our workforce, including corporate headquarters, to ensure we are well-positioned for future success,” the statement to the Sun said.

Sinclair’s full-time roster of employees numbers 9,211. Additionally, the company has 2,219 part-timers who are on contract and not considered employees.

Sinclair’s Q4 2020 performance was good: Earnings per share exceeded Wall Street analyst estimates, while revenue came in line with forecasts. However, the RSN arm of Sinclair, battered by COVID-19, is its most underperforming segment. Distribution revenue for Local Sports dipped to $513 million from $724 million, as advertising slid to $14 million from $60 million.