Radio+Television Business Report

Knowledge of trade secrets, and their possible use for technology at another company, is a serious matter. It extends across multiple industries, including Radio.

Just ask Cumulus Media‘s national radio arm Westwood One. On Tuesday, it filed a lawsuit against an operation that provides 24/7 music radio programming with national talent and custom content.

Patent infringement is the crux of the matter.

As first shared by RBR+TVBR via Twitter late Wednesday, Westwood One filed a complaint for patent infringement against Local Radio Networks (LRN).

The filing was made March 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. Specifically, Westwood One claims LRN infringed on patent numbers 7,860,448 (Methods and Computer Programs for Localizing Broadcast Content) and 7,412,203 (Systems, Methods and Apparatus for Operating a Broadcast Network).

In the complaint, WWO accuses LRN of infringing on the “Methods and Computer Programs” patent “by making, using, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing its Radio Velocity Control computer hardware and software technology.”

Westwood One explains that the LRN Program “is a system that comprises several components: a Voice Tracker tool, an LRN Portal, a server, and a cloud storage site, each with its own code.”

Thus, in the view of the Cumulus-owned WWO, Radio Velocity Control is comprised of much of what Westwood One holds a patent for.

How could LRN gain explicit knowledge of the elements of the “Methods and Computer Programs for Localizing Broadcast Content” patent?

Former Westwood One employees went to work for LRN and shared the information with their new employer, it seems.

The complaint fingers LRN VP/Programming Operations Chris Reeves, who was VP/Operations at Westwood One from July 2009 until joining LRN in July 2017; Jonathon Steele, Director of Programming Operations at LRN from July 2017 who was previously a Westwood One Operations Manager; LRN Director of Creative Services/Voice Talent Chris Hatton; LRN VP of Regional Affiliate Sales Matt Caldaronello, who joined in January 2019 after serving for nearly 13 years as WWO’s VP of Affiliate Management; and EVP/Operations Patrick Crocker, who came on board at LRN in June 2019 after 23 years and 4 months at WWO, exiting as SVP/Affiliate Management.

In a statement released March 3 to the media, LRN said the claims “are legally and factually baseless” and that it “intends to vigorously defend against those claims.”

LRN was launched by Steve Swick in 2015 and, it claims, developed and uses its own technology.

“Six years after LRN’s successful launch in 2015, Westwood One is apparently giving up on trying to fairly compete and instead is trying to now use the courts to do what its programmers, engineers and affiliate sales people could not do,” the LRN statement reads, concluding that LRN “will not be bullied by a corporate radio Wall Street giant.”

In the complaint, Westwood asserts LRN knew about the alleged infringement since May  2020, when LRN was sent a cease and desist letter from WWO.

Similar claims are being made by WWO regarding the “Systems, Methods and Apparatus for Operating a Broadcast Network” patent. That’s because LRN has a software program that informs customers it delivers maximum custom localization and station owner control — an alleged infringement of WWO’s proprietary technology.

Skyview Networks, which distributes LRN’s music formats, is not involved in the lawsuit.

— Additional reporting by Ed Ryan and Rob Dumke

When it comes to its tactics for bringing those responsible for some of the music heard across the radio dial, there’s perhaps no rights organization more brash than the Irving Azoff-founded Global Music Rights (GMR).

GMR has been a thorn in the side of the Radio industry for years, with ongoing litigation with the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC) a top story in 2019 and 2020.

Now, the powerful artists and publishers’ rights organization that’s tangled with the RMLC for five years is taking a page straight out of the Mafia film Goodfellas by handing Radio a “pay up, or else” approach to its new licensing agreements set to commence April 1.

As first reported by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, GMR — which represents a wide swath of writers and publishers ranging from Billy Joel and Bob Seger to current pop stars Ava Max and Drake — has issued communication to radio stations that air music in its library that their current licensing agreements expire on March 31.

The new deal is straight out of Mission: Impossible, if not reminiscent of the Goodfellas character Henry Hill’s description of how his mafiosos go about collecting payments from those who owe money. On April 1, a nine-month interim licensing agreement would start. But, a 20% royalty increase comes with the signing of a new deal.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the Radio industry, which has seen sequential improvements in its quarterly earnings since the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic some 11 months ago. Still, most publicly traded radio broadcasting companies have carefully balanced cash on hand and their debt leverage by moving forward with a reduction in force. At iHeartMedia, the industry’s largest audio media company, job losses came after an infamous January 2021 employee reduction effort — one that was never reported by iHeartMedia-owned trade publication Inside Radio.

The hardball tactics GMR is taking came without any input or negotiation from the RMLC, Radio Ink reports.

And, GMR’s unilateral royalty rise comes as its court battle with RMLC has been delayed due to the pandemic, creating a legal back log. The discovery process in the groups’ case is not set to conclude until the end of 2021.

A PRE-COVID GUNSLINGER

On February 17, 2020, one month before the novel coronavirus sent most of the U.S. into a pandemic-fueled lockdown, GMR and RMLC engaged in a war of words over who was in the wrong with respect to the litigation and where the court was heading.

In GMR’s view, Judge Terry Hatter Jr. of the Central District of California “dealt a significant defeat” to the alliance of radio broadcasting companies known as the RMLC, “denying its attempts” to dismiss the lawsuit.

However, what GMR’s public relations veteran Larry Solters didn’t mention is that, should RMLC be able to prove the facts it is alleging, then GMR is the entity that is “an illegal cartel,” RMLC said at the time.

Meanwhile, the fight between GMR and the RMLC won the support of the Trump-era Justice Department. In late December 2019, DOJ urged a federal court to reject attempts by the Nashville-based RMLC “to misconstrue the laws that prohibit its illegal, price-fixing, cartel behavior.”

That statement came after GMR in October 2019 sued Entravision Communications for non-payment of royalties for music played — according to GMR — on English-language Rocker KFRQ-FM in Harlingen, Tex.; Classic Rocker KOFX-FM in El Paso; Hot AC KVLY-FM “107.9 MIX FM” in McAllen-Brownsville; and Los Angeles stations KDLD-FM “Súper Estrella Clásica” and simulcast KLYY-FM/KSSE-FM “José” from January 2017.

The GMR letter to Radio became known on the same day SoundCloud introduced what it is calling “fan-powered royalties — a fairer and more transparent way for artists to earn money on SoundCloud.”

It is designed to assist independent artists whose livelihoods were greatly crippled by COVID-19, with a lack of live performances eating into earnings in a major way.

“With fan-powered royalties, money made from listeners goes directly to the artists they listen to,” SoundCloud explained. “This equitable payout model is what independent artists across the industry have been asking for, and as an artist-first platform, we’re excited to be the first music company to roll it out.”

The fan-powered royalties go into effect April 1 for “Pro Unlimited” subscribers in the Premier monetization program and Repost by SoundCloud artists, including those in Repost Select.

How does it work? “The more fans listen on SoundCloud, and listen to your music, the more you get paid,” it explains.

Under the old model, money from dedicated fans went into a giant pool paid out to artists based on their share of total streams — a model, SoundCloud says, “mostly benefits mega stars.”

We all do it. In fact, our editor is doing it right now.

Music, and spoken word content such as a news report, is more than ever being consumed by U.S. consumers over a smartphone.

New data from Edison Research only confirms the trend.

Listening on a mobile device now accounts for 30% of all time spent listening to audio by those age 13+ in the U.S.

That’s an impressive 67% increase from 2014, the latest Share of Ear report from Edison Research finds.

As Edison notes, the gap between listening on a traditional radio receiver and a mobile device among those ages 13 and higher has narrowed remarkably quickly since 2014. In fact, 31 percentage points separated the two in 2014 and only five percentage points separate the two today, it says.

Nevertheless, the traditional AM/FM radio receiver — largely in the automobile — still accounts for the largest share of audio consumed.

Of course, that percentage has decreased the most since the survey began, and now accounts for a mere 35% of all audio consumption, compared to 49% in 2014. 
 
Mobile devices have already surpassed traditional radio receivers in the younger age groups.

Among those age 13-34, 46% of total daily audio consumption is done on a mobile device; 20% is done on a traditional AM/FM radio receiver, possibly because younger drivers tend to have older automobiles without today’s connected car accessories such as Bluetooth and USB connectors.  
 
Edison stresses that these statistics speak to device only, and not the audio product that is delivered by the device.

Mobile devices can deliver a wide range of audio products, including radio station programming. 
 
“Mobile devices, particularly of course the phone, have been gaining on the traditional radio receiver as the primary listening device for as long as we have been measuring Share of Ear, but with the disruptions of the last year the gap has narrowed dramatically,” said Edison Research President Larry Rosin. “As fewer people have a standard radio receiver in their homes these days, naturally more listening comes through digital devices.”  
 
COVID-19 disruptions meant Americans spent more time consuming audio at home in 2020 and less time consuming audio in-car, the prime location for listening to a traditional AM/FM receiver. This, Rosin added, could explain some of the change in the past year.

“Further data analysis in the coming year will be needed to see if these audio habits remain post-quarantine,” he said.

How the Share of Ear® study is conducted: Edison Research conducts a nationally representative study of Americans ages 13 and older to measure their time spent listening to audio sources. Respondents complete a 24-hour diary of their audio listening on an assigned day. Diaries are completed both online and by-mail using a paper diary. Diaries are offered in both English and Spanish. The Share of Ear study is released quarterly and is available on a subscription basis.

Entravision Communications Corp., which owns radio and TV stations superserving U.S. Hispanic consumers, has determined when it will share its final fourth quarter and full-year 2020 financial results.

The announcement came on a highly active day for the company’s stock.

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The desert landscape surrounding Palm Springs, Calif., has gotten a big boost in recent years from The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which due to COVID-19 is cancelled for 2021. The region is also a big LGBTQ haven.

Now, the Coachella Valley has emerged as an investment opportunity for one Louie Comella. He’s the head of a media company that’s buying radio properties in the market due east of L.A.

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Central Virginia’s Classic Rock station, a Class C3 FM with a signal covering the Lynchburg half of the Roanoke market, has been owned by regional licensee Todd P. Robinson‘s WVJT LLC since August 2012.

Now, Robinson is selling the station to a nationally known operator that’s also locally based.

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In recent months, the Jeff Andrulonis-led Colonial Radio Group has successfully shifted the focus of its media operations from the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and Western New York to the Carolinas.

Now, one of Colonial’s three FMs in South Carolina is being spun.

The buyer? It’s a Maryland licensee whose behind an Oldies operation heard on an AM and a trio of FM translators due northeast of Baltimore.

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The iHeartMedia Region Senior Vice President of Sales for the Kentucky-Indiana Metro has been selected to serve as Market President for its Indianapolis radio stations.

Earning the promotion is Kristy Beebe.

As Market President, Beebe will 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.

She will report to Earl Jones, President for iHeartMedia Kentucky-Indiana Metro.

Beebe will be based in Indianapolis.

“I am so excited for Kristy’s well-deserved promotion to Market President,” said Jones. “She has earned the opportunity to lead our Indianapolis market. Kristy has been an incredible sales leader, coach, and major contributor to the success of iHeartMedia Kentucky-Indiana Metro.”

Beebe has held various sales leadership positions throughout her career, including Local Sales Manager and General Sales Manager for iHeartMedia Toledo and iHeartMedia Louisville. She began her career in sales at iHeartMedia in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio and is a graduate of Lourdes University.

“I am so thankful to Earl Jones and the iHeartMedia team for this new leadership opportunity,” said Beebe. “I am ready to lead the Indianapolis team to new heights as we work together to provide unmatched service to our listeners, advertisers and the community.”

On Sept. 17, 2019, East Arkansas Broadcasters (EAB) — the radio broadcasting company owned by Bobby Caldwell — agreed to a transaction that would bring a local newspaper back to life.

There’s just one problem: His plan to purchase the Stuttgart Daily Leader in Stuttgart, Ark., and resume daily print publications at present runs afoul of media cross-ownership rules that the FCC rewrote, but were remanded by the Third Circuit federal court of appeals.

With the Supreme Court considering whether to uphold or toss the Third Circuit decision, Caldwell has moved forward with another deal — one that doesn’t involve cross-media concerns.

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It was developed to help entertainment providers improve content discovery and viewership KPIs on their platforms.

Introducing “Personalized Imagery,” a Gracenote platform the Nielsen-owned entity says brings linear and streaming TV providers the ability to display program images capturing different aspects of a TV show or movie based on viewer consumption.

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BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s broadcast TV stations will now be using air chain technology that comes courtesy of a South Korean software company expressly designed to assist the company as it deploys NEXTGEN TV across the U.S.

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Frequency control remains one of the biggest pain points in TV advertising.

Now, three major broadcast TV station owners are addressing this issue. It involves the use of a “full stack solution” — an infrastructure-as-a-service adtech platform designed to increase local reach.

Consider it a programmatic vitamin now in place at FOX Television Stations, properties owned by The E.W. Scripps Co. and at TEGNA TV stations, courtesy of MadHive.

FOX, Scripps and TEGNA are now tapping MadHive’s full stack solution to address this problem.

MadHive’s platform has incorporated tools for fraud detection, attribution, audience based-buying and delivery guarantees. Now, MadHive is offering the clients its “Audience Forecaster” platform.

The company says it can help the TV station owners in measure and control frequency across providers and DMAs.

There’s also the lingering issue of transparency for OTT and Connected TV, areas where broadcast TV companies are growing thanks to the availability of local news programming through station apps and platforms including Haystack TV and NewsOn.

MadHive CEO Adam Helfgott says, “The concept of delivery guarantees is a longstanding tradition in the world of linear, but delivery can be difficult to predict in the programmatic landscape. Developing an accurate forecasting methodology involves building a robust technical infrastructure capable of ingesting, organizing, and optimizing billions of signals.”

A Tampa Bay-based live event broadcast production firm and its streaming-for-broadcast tech subsidiary are teaming with a veteran WFTS-28 news anchor by having her newly launched business handle all local marketing and PR services.

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Total Traffic & Weather Network (TTWN), the iHeartMedia-owned provider of traffic, weather, news and sports content, has signed a new partnership agreement with “the world’s largest road-facing camera network.”

That’s Vizzion, and the new pact ensures its visual transit coverage reaches TTWN broadcast partners without cessation of service.

Vizzion’s nationwide aggregated traffic camera network encompasses imagery and live-feeds for use in traffic and weather reports.

The live look-ins are used by TTWN traffic reporters in more than 120 U.S. markets.

“Live imagery acts as a visually appealing add-on to the high-definition maps and graphics available through TTWN’s traffic presentation systems,” said Sean Beaudoin, Account Manager for Vizzion. “It’s important for broadcasters to deliver the most accurate data to their viewers, and the combination of TTWN’s hand-collected, real-time traffic and weather partnered with Vizzion’s 35,000 US-wide cameras makes for engaging and informative reporting.”

Michael Panarello, Vice President of TV Affiliate Sales and Operations for Total Traffic & Weather Network, added, “Live video enhances traffic storytelling. TTWN partners with Vizzion to give presenters the video content they need to create compelling, solutions-based reports showing viewers and digital users the real-time impact of incidents, congestion and weather on commute times.”

Publicly traded radio and television broadcasting companies on Tuesday saw a flurry of highly divergent activity on Wall Street.

Meredith Corp., Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entercom were among the key gainers.

The decliners range from Saga Communications to Disney and Cumulus Media.

One of the stations is a Class B AM with an FM translator. The other is a Class D AM, also with an FM translator. They serve an area to the west of metropolitan Cleveland, and for fifty years had been associated with the Wilber family.

That’s no longer the case.

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On November 5, 2020, Meredith Corp. revealed that it had propelled strongly into the first quarter of 2021. On February 4, the multimedia company with a local TV station group sat it enjoyed a strong fiscal Q2 2021 boost for those properties thanks to a political dollar windfall.

Do investors believe the fiscal Q3 for Meredith will be even bigger, given the company’s Tuesday stock performance?

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There are likely a lot of things on the slate of state broadcasters’ associations as it pertains to the key concerns of their member broadcast media owners and operators. Perhaps the biggest issue are the priorities a SBA has with the new Congress.

What can one SBA leader say about the early indications from Capitol Hill on what’s in store for radio and TV in your state? Justin Sasso, President/CEO of the Colorado Broadcasters Association, shares his observations on what’s been happening in his state — and much more — in a wide-ranging conversation exclusively found in this 100th episode of the RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by Dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Justin Sasso” on Spreaker.

It may seem obvious that corporations in the broadcasting field need to keep their records in order and up to date.

According to communications law experts John A. Knab and Erwin G. Krasnow, it is not only surprising how many fail in this enterprise, but also how much it ends up costing them.

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The “only programming network dedicated to the active adventure lifestyle in the United States” is saying goodbye to a low-power analog TV station it owns in the Reno, Nevada DMA.

The buyer? The entity that now controls the brand associated with this over-the-air station that in 2003 successfully won a carriage complaint in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., against Charter Communications.

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