The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a framework to provide direct, read-only access to communication outage reports filed with Network Outage Reporting System and Disaster Information Reporting System to agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, tribal nations, territories and the federal government.
[Read: FCC Will Explore EAS on the Internet]
The rules will allow participating agencies to share NORS and DIRS information with first responders and other government officials who play a vital public safety role during crises and have a need to know this information.
Furthermore, the sharing of this information is expected to speed-up response and repair of the downed networks and infrastructure.
The post FCC Adopts Communications Outage Reporting Plan appeared first on Radio World.
The year 2021 may be looked upon as the beginning of a time of transition for social media, a period when the industry giants began to lose ground to the new kids on the block. The Infinite Dial 2021, from Edison Research and Triton Digital, chronicles the latest data and stats for social media, which it has been tracking since 2008.
Social media experienced regular growth between 2008 and 2016, when it began to plateau. It gained two percentage points from 2020 to 2021, when the research estimates that 82% of the population are using it, for an estimated total of 233 million Americans.
[Read: Survey Says Podcast Demographics Continue to Diversify]
The research suggests that Facebook continues its lead in social media brand awareness, recognized by 93% of respondents, followed by Instagram and Twitter. There is, as usual, some variance between awareness and usage.
Overall usage figures from Triton Digital and Edison Research show Facebook again in the lead with 61% of respondents, followed by Instagram with 43% and Pinterest holding the number three position with 31% of those surveyed. As this data is parsed by demographics, the usage figures begin to tell a story.
When usage numbers are crunched for the 12–34 demographic, Facebook fell from 62% in 2019 to 57% for 2021. Over the same time period, Instagram rose from 66% to 70%. Without a doubt, The Infinite Dial’s data suggests that the biggest mover was TikTok, which went from 25% in 2020 to 44% in 2021. A new player for 2021, Parler, made its debut at 3%.
The usage numbers for those aged 35–54 show similar trends. 2020 numbers for Facebook were 74%, which dropped to 71% in 2021. Over the same period, Instagram inched up slightly from 38% to 40%, while TikTok jumped from 5% to 16%. Parler grabbed 8% in its first showing.
The numbers for the 55+ group look a bit different. According to the data, Facebook still leads, but only by 57% for the current year, up from 52% in 2020. Instagram went from 15% to 17% over the same period. TikTok saw an increase from 2% to 6%, while Parler won over just 6% of the senior demographic.
When the numbers are compared from 2015 to 2021 for social media brand used most often, The Infinite Dial’s data suggests some interesting trends. Facebook has steadily headed downward, from 65% to 47%, making 2021 the first year that Facebook is not indicated as the most-used platform by a majority of social media users. Much of Facebook’s loss seems to have been taken up by those in the 12–34 demographic’s interest in Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
The post Survey Says Social Media Ecosphere has Modest Growth appeared first on Radio World.
Jutel is highlighting new technical architecture for its RadioMan platform. It is a virtual browser-based radio production and playout system built in the cloud.
The company said web-native technologies and architecture enable more flexible deployment models.
“RadioMan users can move freely in-between different locations, as laptops and tablets are used as a thin clients to access RadioMan virtually through a web browser,” it states on its website.
The system can deploy in a cloud environment, on physical hardware or as a hybrid.
“Every radio station can benefit from taking out expensive on-site hardware and moving to virtual environments, especially small, pop-up, temporary and web-only radio stations. Instead of having expensive on-site infrastructure throughout many locations, RadioMan allows for the infrastructure to move to one centralized location.”
It said RadioMan also allows the user to access it using any browser on any thin client. “With older systems, users tried to access one machine, which created a bottleneck that slows processes down considerably,” it said.
“However, RadioMan’s built-in load balancer allows the user to redirect HTTP traffic across the load-balanced back-end infrastructure. The back-end itself is run on Apache web servers and the messaging between the front and back-end infrastructure is controlled via web-native ActiveMQ messaging.”
The company deployed PostgreSQL database with RadioMan 6 to make it more affordable and easier to deploy.
The HTML interface runs inside the RadioMan deployment and there is no need for third-party plug-ins. The REST API allows for a user to build interactivity so that MAM, traffic and newsroom systems can be integrated with RadioMan.
Jutel, based in Finland, was founded in 1984 by Jorma and Reijo Kivelä and their business partner Timo Turunen, founded the company in 1984. The first RadioMan was introduced in 1992.
The post Jutel RadioMan Gets New Architecture appeared first on Radio World.
He joined Fox Corporation in 2019 as Executive Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel.
Now, he will oversee the company’s legal function as Claudia Teran remains Executive VP and Corporate General Counsel, as well as General Counsel of FOX Sports.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Its Twitter feed brags that it is “the most engaging college in the nation by The Wall Street Journal, 5 years in a row!”
Soon, however, it will be minus a medium used since 1968 “to proclaim God’s Word to generations of listeners.”
That’s because its owner, a university in Iowa, is selling the 100kw Class C1 facility.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Software company Radio Workflow has a new chief executive officer and has added sales and support offices in Billings, Mont., and Davenport, Iowa.
The firm is based in New Jersey and also has a presence in Australia.
Fletcher M. Ford is the new CEO; he joined Radio Workflow as a partner in 2020. The company did not have a CEO prior.
“Other members of the key management team will be Robert Maschio, director of sales, and Shane Zammit, director of product,” the company stated in an announcement. Those three also are the owners.
The company makes sales, traffic, billing and production software and recently introduced a browser-based traffic and billing system. It also plans the launch of a site called MyRadioDeals.com.
[Related: “Radio Workflow Provides Dividends to Regional Media”]
The post Radio Workflow Names Ford as CEO appeared first on Radio World.
A new NBCUniversal event that promised to “unite the power of the media and entertainment industry with the solutions focus of a developer conference” went off without a virtual hitch on Monday morning.
And, as hyped since early February, the global ONE21 gathering offered marketers a showcase of the insights, stories, technology and data into how the entire Comcast NBCUniversal Sky family sees commerce shaping the connection between content and advertising.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Prior to mid-February, it would have been a major market coup for a Talk station in need of a boost. Today, it only begs the question of why, and for how long, the Talk station has committed to a show with an expiry date.
The Rush Limbaugh Show, starting today, is now heard on a Talk station in the biggest city in the U.S. by square miles. It was previously heard on a crosstown News/Talker that has prepared for life without Rush.
Has iHeart or program syndicator Premiere Networks?
Now in the noon to 3pm time slot on WBOB-AM 600 in Jacksonville, a 50kw Class B blowtorch by day from 2 towers with 9.7kw at night from five towers is The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The AM’s signal stretches from Gainesville up past Savannah, Ga., and to much of the Charleston, S.C., market. But it boasts an FM translator — W266CX at 100.1 MHz in southeast Jacksonville — that gives WBOB all-important MHz coverage.
The program as today continues on with pre-recorded snippets of the late Rush Limbaugh, with Brett Winterble, Todd Herman and Ken Matthews taking turns setting up the content. Premiere has indicated this will continue until a transition to a new offering to its affiliates.
For Cox Media Group‘s WOKV-FM, the dominant spoken word FM along Florida’s First Coast, that wasn’t good enough.
Local personality Mark Kaye, who 4 1/2 years ago shared with RBR+TVBR five reasons why Snapchat matters for Radio, officially replaced Limbaugh’s program by shifting to the Noon-3pm time slot on WOKV today (3/22).
Kaye had been previously hosting the 10am-Noon shift on WOKV, following his morning co-host role on Cox Top 40 sibling WAPE-FM. Kaye is no longer heard on the pop music station.
With Cox’s decision to move on from the late Limbaugh, WBOB had an opportunity. With local market rights to the show now available, should it benefit from the now-deceased host as long as it can?
The answer for PD Gary Walsh and WBOB owner Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting Corp. was a definitive “yes.”
“Rush Limbaugh is a pioneering force in broadcasting,” said WBOB GM Jonathan McClellan. “He redefined talk radio and shaped the conservative political message for our country. We value the future of his legacy, and we believe his talented team will
drive the momentum of the movement far into the future. We welcome this monumental
voice.”
To bring Limbaugh to WBOB, The Dennis Prager Show was bumped.
Thus, WBOB has elected to replace a living Talk host’s program with that of a deceased one … for now. What’s on the table for WBOB could very well involve what Premiere decides to offer once it fully moves on from Limbaugh.
WBOB’s owner, Chesapeake-Portsmouth, is led by Nancy Epperson. She has family ties to Salem Media Group. But the lone involvement Salem has with WBOB is as a syndicated programming source. Following Limbaugh, America First with Sebastian Gorka, syndicated by Salem, airs in the 3pm-6pm slot. Mornings at WBOB are helmed by veteran local talk host and journalist Ed Dean.
While WBOB has elected to invest in Limbaugh’s legacy as a path for growth, Cumulus Media‘s rival to Premiere Networks, Westwood One, is in attack mode. On May 24, The Dan Bongino Show will be launched as a Noon-3pm Eastern offering. And, the show will air in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., where WMAL-FM has been a key bastion for conservative Talk in the Nation’s Capital.
“Critical Trends in Transmission” will be on the docket in the radio sessions of the Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit on April 1.
The summit is a one-day online event that is free and also includes a track about pro audio plus virtual exhibits. (Register here.)
“We’re pleased to welcome Geoff Mendenhall and John Kean, two of broadcast’s most respected engineers, to talk about transmission topics in our 30-minute roundtable,” said Radio World Editor in Chief Paul McLane.
John Kean ©2018 Patty Schuchman Photography.“Both of these gentlemen have been recipients of the NAB Radio Engineering Award; both have authored chapters in the NAB Engineering Handbook, among their many other accomplishments,” he said.
“We’ll have a discussion about the impact of the DTV spectrum repack in radio, the opening of all-digital as an option on the AM band, and audio streams on ATSC 3.0. We’ll also touch on the transport of FM composite baseband via IP networks, the growing interest in single-frequency networks and the possible impact of hybrid radio.”
Geoffrey N. Mendenhall, P.E., is an RF engineering consultant who has spent most of his 55-year career developing broadcast equipment technology for leading manufacturers. His many contributions have made him one of the industry’s best-known experts on FM transmission. He has authored over 50 technical papers on broadcast technology.
John Kean is a member of Cavell Mertz and Associates and has 45 years in television and radio technology. He is former senior technologist at National Public Radio, where he directed network projects and technical studies at NPR Labs, which he helped found. He also has done consulting engineering with Jules Cohen and Associates and with Moffet Larson and Johnson. He is active with the Audio Engineering Society and National Radio Systems Committee.
The post Summit Explores Trends in Transmission appeared first on Radio World.
WMMS, WTAM and the other iHeart stations in Cleveland will get a new home this year. The company will move its regional office, including nine stations, downtown from the suburbs.
The stations involved are WMMS(FM), WTAM(AM/FM), WMJI(FM), WGAR(FM), WHLK(FM), WAKS(FM), WKAS(HD2) and WARF(AM).
“The new location will be at 668 Euclid Avenue and will include a 10-year agreement lease with K&D Group,” the company said in a release.
The company currently has offices in the suburb of Independence, where it moved in March 2001.
It released these images showing the planned layout.
“The new agreement will move iHeartMedia Cleveland’s nine radio stations, along with the company’s sales, marketing, digital and Total Traffic operation to the new state-of-the-art street-level facility,” it stated. “The new offices are scheduled to open by the end of 2021.”
Planned entryway design.It said this will move more than 100 employees to downtown.
The announcement was made by Keith Hotchkiss, president of iHeartMedia Cleveland.
The post iHeart Will Move Cleveland Stations Downtown appeared first on Radio World.
PORTLAND, ORE. — A Nexstar Media Group TV station has launched its first podcast.
It’s part of a bigger plan to provide those in the Pacific Northwest’s second-largest market a local look at the six things they need to know … that they may not get from the abundance of full-power and low-power radio stations or the Oregonian newspaper as they start their day.
Introducing The Daily 6 from KOIN-6, the CBS affiliate serving Portland.
It marks the station’s first daily podcast, and will be released every morning at 7:15am Pacific.
The podcast is part of the KOIN Podcast Network. It’s a hub for on-demand weather reports and Beyond the Headlines reports, which have appeared sporadically as part of the beta test of the network.
The reports are audio-focused. One is hosted by Ian Costello.
Listening to the podcasts can be done from KOIN’s website or via popular platforms including Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay, Spotify, Stitcher and Podbean.
— Joshua Dudley
The Leon Black leadership era at the company that holds a majority stake in Cox Media Group has abruptly come to an end.
Nearly eight weeks after a Apollo Global Management “Conflicts Committee” and its board of directors completed a previously announced independent review of its Chairman and CEO’s previous professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — the convicted sex offender tied to the trafficking of minors who died in prison, Black has officially abdicated the top role at Apollo.
It comes several months ahead of the transition plan released in January.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Entercom will use an HD-2 FM channel in Chicago as it continues to feel its way in expanding radio programming about sports betting.
It announced launch of “The Bet 105.9 FM-HD2,” which will be part of its BetQL Audio Network and an affiliate of CBS Sports Radio.
Until now, that HD-2 channel carried a simulcast of its main station, WCFS(FM), which is branded as WBBM Newsradio.
Because it is a digital subchannel, the content will only be heard by listeners with HD Radio receivers in Chicago. HD Radio developer Xperi has said that receiver penetration continues to increase in major markets.
The company said The Bet format “will feature national sports talk and sports betting programming heard across Entercom’s robust portfolio of sports stations, as well as the BetQL Audio Network.”
Entercom recently made similar moves in Los Angeles, where the content is heard on an HD-3 channel, and Denver, where Entercom is using an AM station for the format.
[Related: “Entercom Tries Betting Radio in L.A., Denver”]
Rachel Williamson, regional president and market manager in Chicago, said in the announcement that since legalization in 2019, “sports betting has exploded in the state of Illinois and we’re delighted to enter the arena of this rapidly growing landscape to deliver insightful content to our listeners with the launch of this new station.
Programming includes “BetQL Daily” with Joe Ostrowski and Ross Tucker and “You Better You Bet” with Nick Kostos and Ken Barkley.
[Related: “Radio Gambles on Sports Betting”]
The post Entercom Expands Gambling Radio to Chicago appeared first on Radio World.
FORT MYERS, FLA. — The owner of the CBS affiliate serving Southwest Florida, perhaps the last market in the U.S. where three of the Big Four network affiliates are owned by independent broadcasters, has just signed a new agreement for “industry-leading local TV measurement currency” across its stations in the market.
The deal isn’t with Nielsen.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
FORT LAUDERDALE — Comscore’s five-year stock trend is far from pretty.
Two years ago, SCOR was suddenly slipping from a $20 price range; it started 2017 in the mid-$33 range. By August 2019, Comscore shares were at $1.86.
Today, they start the week at $3.83 in pre-market trading. For CEO Bill Livek believes they’re seriously undervalued.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
So far in 2021, the biggest campaign — by a wide margin — using spot cable is that of Discovery, to promote the launch of its much-ballyhooed Discovery+ over-the-top platform.
For the week ending March 21, No. 2 GEICO’s play count on ads was nearly half of that seen by Discovery.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
There’s some exciting activity being seen at spot television as the final days of Q1 2021 are upon us.
Automotive advertising can been seen. What’s intriguing is what brand is the leader.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
The gap between rival auto insurance specialists widened last week at Spot Radio, the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report shows.
In fact, the leader in the category — the new leader for all of spot radio — outpaced GEICO by more than 20,000 spot plays.
As shown below, Progressive is No. 1 with 53,621 plays as GEICO finishes the week at No. 7 (including iHeart promotional campaigns).
The other activity of note involves Indeed, while Babbel is No. 3 among fully-paid advertiser efforts.
Please show your support by using the Ko-Fi link at the bottom of the page. Thank you for supporting REC's efforts!
