Radio+Television Business Report

The “sage of South Central” is now on the way to possibly becoming the wise leader of the Golden State.

Larry Elder, the veteran conservative Talk radio host who has been associated with Salem Media Group since 2016, announced late Wednesday (7/21) that he has won his lawsuit against the State of California and Office of the Secretary of State, Shirley Weber — an action Elder made Monday after being left off of the preliminary list of candidates in the September 14 gubernatorial recall election.

As a result, Elder is on the ballot as a Republican candidate to unseat Democrat Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco Mayor.

“This is a huge victory for voting rights, our republic, our campaign, you and for California,” he declared on Twitter in announcing the court win. “Now let’s go save our state!”

At issue was the submission of what Elder said was more than 300 pages of tax returns required to become a candidate. Weber’s office said Elder filed incomplete information on those returns connected to redaction issues.

The judge considering Elder’s lawsuit agreed with him, finding that he indeed abided by ballot requirements and that California should have refrained from its demands of having candidates submit five years’ worth of tax returns.

With Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl making the ruling just hours before Weber was set to certify the final list of candidates, Elder is now one of 43 total recall candidates.

Elder on July 13 stepped away from his daily talk show, which airs on such stations as KRLA-AM 870 in Los Angeles, in order to run for Governor of California. Filling in for him through the election is Carl Jackson, who hosts a Saturday evening Talk program based at WORC-AM in Orlando. Jackson has been a regular fill-in host for veteran Salem Talk host Dennis Prager.

Because of the FCC’s Equal Time rules, Elder must step away from the show while the race for governor of California is on. Should he lose, he will return to the program. Should he win, Salem has a decision to make while Elder packs his bags and heads to Sacramento.

 

For the first time, NBCUniversal will have an individual charged with leading a centralized data unit, and the development and implementation of the company’s enterprise-wide consumer identity and data strategy.

Taking the newly created role of Chief Data Officer is John Lee, and he will sit within the NBCU Global Advertising & Partnerships division. I

Lee reports to President and Chief Business Officer Krishan Bhatia.

Specifically, Lee and his team will develop NBCU’s first-party data strategy and create data-driven partnerships to support advertising, marketing, consumer experience and analytics use cases across NBCUniversal’s TV & streaming properties and the NBC News Group, as well as Universal Filmed Entertainment and Universal Parks & Resorts.

Working collaboratively across NBCUniversal as well as in partnership with Comcast and Sky, Lee will support teams within Advertising Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations & Technical Services, and more to prioritize the role of data in consumer experience and product development, monetization, and partnerships at the company, it said.

“Lee will combine his decades-long expertise driving customer experience, identity resolution, and data management with NBCUniversal’s commitment to creating a unified data platform focused on data interoperability, partnership, and privacy. Specifically, he will lead a team of data scientists, strategists, and developers who will enable and enhance monetization opportunities across NBCUniversal’s One Platform; develop an integrated audience graph; and bring the company’s market-leading identity capabilities, from the NBCU Audience Insights Hub to NBCU ID and more, to life.”

Lee added, “The next era of media and advertising will be defined by data and identity, and I am thrilled to join the team at NBCUniversal to build this future for our partners, the industry, and consumers. From theme parks to movie studios, digital and streaming to linear, NBCUniversal is poised to deliver a unified consumer identity vision that meets the needs and expectations of both consumers and marketers while maintaining the trusted relationships the company has built, creating new ways to generate revenue and scale investments with privacy in mind.”

Lee joins NBCU from Merkle, a Dentsu company, where he served as Global Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and led the development and execution of the company’s business vision, value proposition, and long-term planning.

AD-ID NOW STANDARD

Lee’s announcement came alongside news from NBCUniversal that Ad-ID is now its new standard for advertisers across One Platform, a partnership that the company boasts “brings a pristine viewing environment to consumers on every screen and offers marketers the highest-quality, most efficient and effective advertising solution.”

 

Paging Soohyung Kim.

TEGNA‘s board of directors on Thursday (7/22) declared a second bumped-up dividend payable to shareholders on Oct. 1, so long as they are stockholders of record as of market close on September 3.

TEGNA’s leader notes the move comes in recognition of the company’s strength. Yet, its stock price has moved steadily downward since mid-April.

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BIA Advisory Services has revised upward its 2021 forecasts for U.S. Local Advertising Revenues by 3.9% from its November 2020 estimates.

The projection is split between traditional and digital media. But, it shows that the divide is narrowing, BIA notes.

BIA now expects local ad revenue in 2021 of $142.4 billion, from $137.6 billion.

And, the new data show traditional advertising is just 8% ahead of digital media that include mobile, online, over-the-top, email, and traditional media’s online ventures.

“There’s an acceleration in the market that couldn’t be accounted for last fall,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA’s SVP and Chief Economists. “The economy is growing and we’re observing
money being spent to reach audiences through various media.”

Fratrik points to OTT as growing 16% this year, surpassing the trajectory of mobile as more
consumers take advantage of various streaming services on their TV screens.

Local television advertising this year will dip to $16.2 billion in 2021.

That’s possibly due to the record political ad dollars seen in 2020. Local TV ad dollars were bounce back next year, reaching $19.3 billion in 2022 — with $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion, respectfully, coming from digital platforms.

Local radio advertising will rebound somewhat, to $11.7 billion in 2021 and $12.3 billion in 2022.

The big takeaway: 2022 will see digital platforms for Radio inch past the $1 billion mark, reaching $1.04 billion.

The revised forecast also sees a 5.6% increase in overall compound annual growth in U.S.
spending in local ad markets and expects the amount to reach $157.1 billion in 2022 and $162.1 billion in 2023. The digital media share will first leapfrog to 51% over traditional media by 2023.

In a game-changer for broadcast radio in the digital space, iHeartMedia has unveiled an interactive feature from Amazon Alexa designed to allow listeners of an iHeart radio station’s audio stream to make song requests and dedications — bringing a new level of interactivity to what’s largely been “FM” for two generations.

Introducing voice-enabled air personality interactivity with Alexa.

It’s available as of today for Alexa users who listen to Country WCOS-FM 97.5 in Columbia, S.C.; and Top 40s KZZP-FM 104.7 in Phoenix, WXXL-FM in Orlando and KHKS-FM “Kiss FM” in Dallas. More stations will launch their capabilities soon, iHeartMedia says.

“Ever wish you could talk directly to your favorite radio DJs? Now you can!,” boasts the iHeart literature.

For a broadcast media company that pioneered voice-tracking and the importation of air talent across multiple markets, the very idea of communicating with a “live on the air DJ” is perhaps a chuckle-inducing notion.

That said, radio stations across all ownership groups over the last decade have rarely seen listeners phone in to request a song.

Thus, iHeartMedia deserves applause for using the smart speaker — the leading at-home device for audio content consumption — as a tool allowing listeners to better connect with the radio DJs and stations they hear on the company’s radio stations.

How does it work? “One can simply use their voice to seamlessly request songs and even dedicate them to family and friends,” iHeart explains. “Alexa will then send the request to the station, where radio DJs can queue them for on-air playback in front of millions of other listeners.”

Consider it the 2021 version of a once-normal activity seen for any popular music station, minus the telephone.

“We’re excited that for the first time our listeners will be able to talk to us directly through Alexa,” iHeartRadio Chief Product Officer Chris Williams said. “This is a direct line to allow our audience to talk back, to share their thoughts and help influence what you hear on the radio.”

Song requests and dedications “are just the beginning,” iHeart says, noting that iHeartRadio “is already experimenting with the latest Alexa updates to deliver even more interactive features in the future.” This includes Q&As with on-air personalities and show hosts, voice-driven polls, and contests.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

As many radio industry executives struggle with ways to combat local digital’s nonstop suction of dollars from AM and FM radio stations, Cox Media Group has opted to link up with Amazon Advertising as part of a Local Solutions plan to bring advertisers a 360-degree consumer touchpoint option.

Thanks to a strategic initiative announced Wednesday (7/21), Cox Media Group Local Solutions advertisers will be able to reach local audiences with Amazon Advertising digital offerings.

Simply stated, CMG Local Solutions advertisers can now programmatically buy display and OTT ads through the Amazon DSP and analyze their campaign performance with “full-funnel measurement” products offered by Amazon Advertising.

The goal: expanding local advertisers’ reach and increasing sales.

“This is an exciting new opportunity for CMG Local Solutions and our advertising partners,” said Joe Weir, a SVP of Digital at CMG. “Amazon Advertising’s digital offerings, combined with CMG Local Solutions’ unmatched product expertise, high performing products and platforms and CMG’s long-standing heritage, enables us to help local businesses achieve their marketing goals more effectively.”

— RBR+TVBR Wire Services

He was the face behind HC2 Holdings until the middle of 2020. Today, he’s amassing a collection of low-power broadcast TV stations through his recently formed Sovryn Holdings.

Now, Philip Falcone is acquiring another LPTV property. It’s located in the Valley of the Sun.

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For three weeks, Suddenlink customers in the Greenville-New Bern, N.C., area have been unable to tune to the market’s ABC affiliate.

The reason? A retransmission consent agreement expired June 30, and there’s no new deal in place. The station’s owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, now says there likely won’t be one — period.

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Digital Alert Systems, a provider of emergency communications products for video services providers, has released an important update of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) digital certificates used to authenticate messaging from the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

The company has released updated IPAWS Certificate Authority (CA) credentials for the DASDEC and One-Net series of Emergency Alert System/Common Alerting Protocol (EAS/CAP) encoder/decoders.

They replace a certificate in the current certification chain that will expire on August 21.

All U.S. DASDEC and One-Net users are advised to replace the soon-to-expire certificate to ensure the required message authentication continues to operate properly. Digital Alert Systems reminds all EAS participants the FCC requires them to “configure their systems to reject all CAP-formatted EAS messages that include an invalid digital signature.”

Digital certificates, called CAs, are used by FEMA to create a chain of trust between an EAS device and the IPAWS servers. The DASDEC and One-Net EAS/CAP devices use these special digital certificates to validate the authenticity of IPAWS-sourced CAP alerts. These certificates are designed to expire on a specific date and time, requiring the issuing authority to publish new certificates as replacements.

All DASDEC and One-Net customers using the IPAWS system must have the latest certificates in place so only messages authenticated through IPAWS are processed. IPAWS users who do not update their equipment before Aug. 21 could see this error message: “Event Log: Digital Signature VERIFICATION ERROR: Signer UNTRUSTED! Check for correct CAP decoder CA file.” Alternatively, the device might simply ignore valid IPAWS alerts.

The new field service bulletin and CA file are now available from the Digital Alert Systems website. DASDEC and One-Net customers should go to the website, download the field service bulletin for instructions, and link to the new CA file.

VCY America has been in the news of late because of its pending acquisition of three FMs once controlled, and still licensed to, Royce International Broadcasting. 

As VCY waits for a Federal District Judge in California to finally give ownership of the trio formerly operated by Ed Stolz, it is moving forward with the purchase of a Class A FM serving Iowa’s largest market.

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Total Traffic and Weather Network (TTWN) has forged an expanded newswire content partnership with the owner and operator of 14 religious non-commercial stations across Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Under the agreement, TTWN will provide news, sports, show-prep and audio content via its 24/7 News Source wire service to The JOY FM’s radio stations.

The 24/7 News Source provides its affiliate partners with market-customized text and audio news, weather, sports, and entertainment updates, including format-specific content and show-prep, plus the ability to instantly click-n-share stories via social media.

TTWN affiliate partners include more than 200 Christian Radio affiliates.

“It’s an exciting time for The JOY FM as we continue to expand our coverage across much of the Southeast, including Georgia, Florida and Alabama,” says Jerry Williams, Operations Director with The JOY FM. “Our partnership with Total Traffic & Weather Network has been an important part of our programming for many years and we wanted to continue to equip our news team with the timely and accurate content that 24/7 News Source Pro provides. We look forward to many more years of partnership with TTWN.”

TTWN is owned by iHeartMedia.

Conventional wisdom, in the words of MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson, calls for “a massive reacceleration in subscriber growth starting in Q4,” flowing into 2022 with some 28 million new Netflix subscribers.

But, what if that conventional wisdom is wrong, Nathanson asks.

He’s not alone. Shares tumbled at the start of Wednesday’s trading session on the Nasdaq, and were off 4% as of 11:15am Eastern. With more OTT competition and a big slowdown in subscriber growth, is churn a concern — making Sirius XM a sounder investment than the “House of Cards” streaming video pioneer?

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NBCUniversal and Sky, Comcast’s twin visual media and entertainment arms, have launched a global consultancy and research arm.

And, in a sign of the times, it is centered around culture.

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It was a busy Tuesday on Capitol Hill for Members of the lower body of Congress, as the House of Representatives passed five communications and technology bills.

Among the legislation approved: the MEDIA Diversity Act of 2021 (H.R. 1754). House Members also passed a non-binding resolution reaffirming Congress’s commitment to media diversity that sees them pledge to work with the private sector on solutions eliminating barriers to media diversity.

It’s now up to the Senate, and its Republican members, to get a Senate version of H.R. 1754 passed and readied for President Biden to sign.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — He’s known to some as America’s “truth detector,” and in April celebrated five years as the host of a syndicated Talk radio show distributed by Salem Media Group‘s SRN.

For Angelinos, Larry Elder‘s a well-known conservative voice, having spent two decades at KABC-AM 790.

Last week, Elder revealed that he seeks to become a Republican candidate for California governor. He is not on the preliminary list of 41 candidates, however. Sacramento has a reason. Elder isn’t buying it, and has sued California’s office of the secretary of state.

In Elder’s view, he is the victim of “shenanigans” orchestrated by California Democrats intent on keeping Gavin Newsom as Governor, with a victory against some declared candidates as Caitlyn Jenner in a recall election scheduled for September 14.

In a statement released late Monday, Pacific Time, “the Sage from South Central” said he’d submitted over 300 pages of tax returns required to become a candidate. As the secretary of state sees it, Elder filed incomplete information on those returns connected to redaction issues.

That’s bogus, Elder claims. As such, he wants the courts to force Secretary of State Shirley Weber to list him as a candidate on the final certified list.

“We’ve complied with everything the secretary of state has required of us,” Elder said. “The politicians in Sacramento know I’m the only candidate who can beat Gavin Newsom. They are afraid, and they are using whatever shenanigans they can to try to trip me up. It won’t work. Frankly, this action by the secretary of state is not simply unfair and absurd but a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent.”

Elder is perhaps one of the more prominent Republicans that could challenge Newsom in September.

— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau, with editing by Adam R Jacobson

According to a newly made SEC filing, there’s a Michigan-based institutional investor that now holds 5.2% of the publicly traded shares associated with Gray Television.

What do we know about this holder, MBX Capital LLC?

It’s controlled by an Indian-American billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist.

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When you are communicating your big ideas, persuading, and inspiring others, it is your voice that helps establish your authority and humanity. Yet audio problems continue to plague meetings on Zoom and other platforms. Here are some tips to help overcome those challenges, courtesy of veteran PR pro Rosemary Ravinal.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the first time ever, the FCC is entering into partnerships with 11 federal, state, and local agencies to assess the delivery of Wireless Emergency Alerts in areas across the country during a planned nationwide test on August 11.

The FCC also sent letters to nationwide wireless providers asking them to provide information on their performance following the upcoming test.

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It’s been an active few weeks for NEXTGEN TV rollouts, with more markets firing up lighthouses to help usher in the next era of broadcast TV.

In this edition of the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle shares new details about the pace of the rollouts, and the increase of ATSC 3.0 signals in the Phoenix Model Market.

Schelle also has an update on the Motown 3.0 Open Test Track, NEXTGEN TV promotional efforts, and just how affordable an ATSC 3.0-enabled set is today.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Anne Schelle, Pearl TV” on Spreaker.

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