In late March, Keith Stover — also known to a generation of Pittsburgh radio listeners as Keith Clark — moved forward in filing paperwork with the FCC that would make him a majority owner of a pair of FM radio stations serving the Columbia, S.C., market.
Late last week, that transaction formally closed.
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In February 1993, another of the FCC’s Docket 80/90 Class A additions to the FM radio dial began serving a portion of the Mid-Hudson Valley. Seven months later, it would come under the ownership of Will Stanley.
Together with his wife, the Stanleys created a heralded and unique offering replete with Adult Alternative, Americana and folk music — most of it produced at the station’s Northern Dutchess County offices and studios.
On June 22, Stanley passed away at the age of 73.
But, WKZE-FM 98.1, licensed to Salisbury, Conn., and based in Red Hook, N.Y., will live on.
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In September 2018, a forlorn AM radio station that had been serving Brazilians with Portuguese-language fare became the latest station to capitalize on the massive growth of the Spanish-speaking population in Central Florida. Only, it didn’t adopt another music format.
Instead, iHeartMedia gave birth to a spoken word format, today an anomaly in the Latin media world.
It now appears the decision was a savvy one.
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As of August 9, the nation’s largest broadcast TV station owner will have its news EVP/CFO.
The appointment comes following the promotion in October 2020 of Tom Carter to President/COO, a move that saw him retain his financial role.
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Workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring, and test and measurement product manufacturer Telestream says its Vantage Media Processing Platform now supports Dolby Atmos immersive audio and Dolby Vision HDR.
Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content is now available worldwide from the leading streaming and broadcast service providers and can be experienced on millions of devices. With Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos encoding, content owners, producers, and distributors using Vantage will be able to meet their customers’ demands for incredible picture and sound quality.
Dolby Vision transforms viewing experiences with ultra-vivid picture quality — incredible brightness, contrast, color, and detail that bring entertainment to life. When compared to a standard picture, Dolby Vision can deliver colors never-before seen on a screen, highlights that are up to 40 times brighter, and blacks that are 10 times darker. With Dolby Vision, Vantage customers will be able to automate and efficiently process their content while also ensuring that their creative intent is maintained throughout the entire creative process — from post-production to distribution.
Dolby Atmos is an immersive audio technology that transforms entertainment with moving audio that flows above and around the listener. It brings people inside the action as the sounds of people, places, things, and music come alive with breathtaking realism. Dolby Atmos is now widely available across film and TV streaming, gaming, live sports broadcast, and music streaming platforms. Having Dolby Atmos support in Vantage gives content creators and distributors the ability to automate the creation, processing, and delivery of media assets that are available in this powerful audio technology.
— Doug Hansel
He’s been at Comscore for four years, and in that time saw a lot of changes in the C-Suite.
Now, he’s opting to “pursue new interests” in five weeks’ time.
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On July 14, RBR+TVBR reported on the sale of WROZ-FM “Fun 101.3” by Hall Communications.
It turns out Hall wasn’t done with divestments in central Pennsylvania.
Hall on Friday submitted to the FCC an asset sale agreement that confirms it is exiting the Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York, Pa., region.
The seller’s broker: Kalil & Co.
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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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