According to an amended statement of ownership filed Monday with the SEC, the sixth-largest institutional investor in radio industry pure-play Saga Communications has lowered its attributable interest in the company.
Based on reported share totals as of March 30, this puts this investment management house founded by Larry Fink out of the top 10 of Saga’s Wall Street dollar-injectors.
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The Museum of Broadcast Communications has revealed the selection of the Radio Hall of Fame 2021 nominees, comprised of 24 people and shows in six categories. The nominees were chosen by the Radio Hall of Fame Nominating Committee, with input from the radio industry and listeners.
Voting for inductees began July 12 in four of six categories:
These categories will be voted on by a panel of 600 industry professionals.
On July 26, listeners nationwide will vote on the other two categories, Music Format On-Air Personality and Spoken Word On-Air Personality. The winners in those categories will be determined by the public and the Radio Hall of Fame Nominating Committee. The outcome of the listener vote will count as one vote among the committee votes.
Radio listeners may vote once starting July 26 at www.radiovote.com.
The 2021 Radio Hall of Fame inductees will be announced Monday, August 16, and honored in-person at the 2021 Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony on October 28 at Chicago’s Wintrust Grand Banking Hall. Tickets will go on sale August 16.
THE 2021 RADIO HALL OF FAME NOMINEES TO BE VOTED ON BY INDUSTRY VOTING PANEL ARE:
Longstanding Local/Regional (20 years or more)
John & Ken- KFI-AM / Los Angeles
Melvin Lindsey-Washington (The Quiet Storm)
Matt Siegel- WXKS-FM “KISS 108” / Boston
Brother Wease (Alan Levin)- WAIO-FM Radio 95.1 / Rochester, NY
Active Local/Regional (10 years or more)
Laurie De Young- WPOC-FM /Baltimore
Mercedes Martinez- KMXB-FM/ Las Vegas
Elliot Segal- WWDC-FM “DC101” / Washington, DC
Bob Stroud- WDRV-FM “97.1 The Drive” / Chicago
Longstanding Network/Syndication (20 years or more)
Dr. Bobby Jones-host, The Bobby Jones Radio Show
Dan Patrick-host, The Dan Patrick Show
Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me– NPR
Suzyn Waldman-color commentator, New York Yankees Network
Active Network/Syndication (10 years or more)
Bob & Sheri-co-hosts, The Bob & Sheri Show
Kim Komando-host, The Kim Komando Show
Sid Mark-host, Sounds of Sinatra
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo-host, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo Show on SiriusXM
THE 2021 RADIO HALL OF FAME NOMINEES TO BE VOTED ON BY LISTENERS/RADIO HALL OF FAME NOMINATING COMMITTEE ARE:
Music Format On-Air Personality
Russ Parr-host, The Russ Parr Show
Javier Romero-morning host, WAMR-FM /Miami
Alex Sensation-morning host, Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS)
Steven Van Zandt-host, Little Steven’s Underground Garage
Spoken Word On-Air Personality
Alex Bennett-morning host & talk show personality
Larry Elder-host, The Larry Elder Show, Salem Media
Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison-co-hosts of Preston & Steve-93.3 WMMR / Philadelphia
Sally Jessy Raphael-talk show personality
Kraig T. Kitchin, the Radio Hall of Fame chairman, commented: “I’m so thrilled to recognize our 2021 nominees, and look forward to our upcoming in-person induction ceremony in Chicago Thursday, October 28. We’ll not only welcome 2021 inductees, but we will also welcome and honor the 2020 inductee class on that special evening this fall.”
Dennis Green, who serves as the Radio Hall of Fame’s Nominating Committee chair, added, “It is an honor to chair the Nominating Committee of the Radio Hall of Fame and recognize our industry’s most esteemed professionals and their tremendous achievements informing and entertaining audiences throughout their careers. We look forward to welcoming the 2021 inductees as well as the 2020 inductees to honor them in person this year in Chicago.”
The Mix Group is a presenting sponsor of the 2021 Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The Radio Hall of Fame was founded by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. The Museum of Broadcast Communications took over operations in 1991.Around Thanksgiving Day 2019, word first surfaced that veteran radio industry executive John Fullam would be retiring at year’s end. By late January 2020, his successor had been named.
Now, the man selected to take on Fullam’s duties has departed the company formerly known as Entercom. As a result, Fullam is back, serving as the interim SVP/Market Manager of Audacy‘s Denver stations.
Chuck Sullivan, who became SVP/Manager of KQMT-FM 99.5 “The Mountain,” KALC-FM “Alice 105.9, Adult Standards KEZW-AM 1430 and KQKS-FM 107.5 and KQKS-HD2 “Comedy 103.1″ on Feb. 3, 2020, is no longer with the company.
Sullivan joined Entercom in 2014 as the SVP/Market Manager for the company’s Milwaukee market. In 2015, his role expanded to include oversight of Entercom’s Madison, Wisc., stations. Prior to joining Entercom, Sullivan served in leadership roles for Cumulus Broadcasting, including as VP/Market Manager for the company’s Mobile cluster and as Market Manager for five stations in Destin-Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Before that, he served as a managing partner for Ocean Broadcasting in Wilmington, N.C., from 1996 to 2006.
Sullivan’s exit comes as KQKS Program Director Victor Starr has also exited Audacy.
He had been PD of the station since March 2016.
In a request for comment, an Audacy spokesperson tells RBR+TVBR Sullivan “has left the company to pursue other opportunities.”
In 1975, Fullam entered the radio business at a now-defunct company called the Home News Corporation. This saw him serve as VP/GM of venerable Rock station WRKI-FM “I95” in Brookfield, Conn., a popular station serving Fairfield County and Westchester County, N.Y. An October 1992 acceptance of similar duties at WKQI-FM in Detroit served as the catalyst for a 44-year career that saw him take key positions at AMFM Inc., Clear Channel, CBS Radio and Entercom, serving as SVP/GM/Market Manager of its Denver stations. Fullam gained that final role in November 2017, a two-year deal.
It is licensed to Ashland City, Tenn., but has a signal that covers all of Nashville during daylight hours. While the AM has just 35 watts at night, there’s a 100-watt FM translator that allows it to cover Nashville’s western neighborhoods.
These facilities are heading to a new licensee, pending FCC approval. And, it is a certainty that “The Mighty 790” is involved in their future.
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Its a tiny town in Lewis County, Mo., that had under 550 residents in the 2010 U.S. Census.
It’s important enough of a locale for Gray Television to make a deal for a low-powered TV station based in this tiny burgh.
There’s a perfectly good reason it is buying the facility, when one looks at a map.
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The FCC’s “Auction 111” is coming, and the Commission has just set its Comment and Reply Comment Dates so it may hear from the public on competitive bidding procedures.
The auction involves Construction Permits for Low Power TV stations and for TV translators.
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On June 29, Cumulus Media enjoyed a banner day on Wall Street, with high trading volume fueling a notable increase in share value.
Could a successful pay down of debt, using cash on hand, be the catalyst for long-awaited long-term growth at a company that has successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization?
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Seventeen days ago, the nation’s No. 1 audio media company by number of radio stations announced it would prepay $250 million in term loan facilities while repricing its incremental term loan.
The announcement was icing on the cake for IHRT shareholders who have enjoyed an incredible rebound from COVID-19-influenced lows seen in March and April of 2020.
With iHeart’s June 24 closing price, a 473.5% improvement has been seen since March 30, 2020.
As of 1:27pm Eastern on July 9, IHRT sat at $26.02.
By comparison, IHRT was trading in the $17 range until mid-February, when COVID-19 fears pummeled the issue — and just about every other publicly traded company.
For iHeart, however, meaningful recovery for its battered stock began in May 2020. And, aside from a few profit-taking ebbs and flows, the growth of its stock is unprecedented.
What’s to come for a company that seeks to transition the bulk of Rush Limbaugh’s listening audience to a team of Clay Travis and Buck Sexton as questions on how to transition aging Top 40 personalities such as Ryan Seacrest loom?
As far as Wall Street is concerned, long-term forecasts are in line with what the company expects, as podcasting and digital revenue show no signs of a slowdown.
The 1-year revenue estimate put on IHRT by Wall Street analysts: $29.14.
For some, the buying and selling of broadcast media properties over the past 12 months has been nothing short of dismal. Aside from cash-rich non-profit broadcast ministries seeking FM properties they couldn’t get a decade ago, radio industry transactions have come in small trickles. The TV industry, on the other hand, has seen colossal mega-mergers involving companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. and Gray Television.
Television industry transactions of late have also included deals involving unbuilt low-power TV stations. With a sign-on deadline of Tuesday, time is rapidly ticking for those seeking to spin these facilities and cash out. For those still in need of a facility fire-up, an automatic forfeit of the CP looms.
Then, there’s a group of LPTVs for sale that are a bit unique. How so? They don’t need to be built until 2023.
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A group of minority shareholders in DTV America Corp. has taken another legal action against what it calls “a conglomerate of overlapping entities and their interlocking directors and officers” that presently possess majority control of the entity known for its low-power TV stations.
What is that “conglomerate”? It’s HC2 Holdings.
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Its mission was simple: To re-purpose 600 MHz and other spectrum and rapidly deploy a world-class 5G network in the United States.
This could explain why the individual behind Landover Wireless, a 30-year veteran of the global wireless telecommunications industry, had an interest in low-power TV stations.
That venture, however, was never fully realized. Earlier this year, it drafted two transactions selling unbuilt LPTVs to Jeff Winemiller. Now, it is spinning an unbuilt LPTV property in Idaho.
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One has been the EVP of Operations at Cumulus Media since April 2017 and has been with the company since the end of 2014. The other individual is also a EVP of Operations at the audio media company and has been there since January 2013.
Both executives are now getting presidential appointments from Mary Berner.
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Dave Milner and Bob Walker have each ascended to respective roles as President of Cumulus Operations, effective immediately.
They report to Berner, Cumulus’ President/CEO, who calls their elevation “a well-deserved recognition of their respective contributions to the company’s success. Over the past several years, not only has the scope of both Bob’s and Dave’s direct responsibilities grown beyond their market portfolios, they also play a significant and vital role in the operations of the Company overall. Moreover, in addition to being terrific executives, they are terrific colleagues as well.”
Milner, who joined Cumulus in December 2014, has a rich resume steeped in Northern California radio. He was President/Market Manager of iHeartMedia’s San Francisco stations from May 2012 through his arrival at Cumulus. Before that, he was VP of Sales for Entercom (now Audacy) in Sacramento. From 2004-February 2007, he worked for Cumulus — then led by the Dickey brothers. His role: GSM for the San Francisco stations.
Walker is responsible for the P&L of 65 markets across the Cumulus portfolio, and started his tenure at the company as SVP of Brand Solutions. He’s one of the rare individuals who shifted from television to radio, as he served as WXIA-11 in Atlanta President/GM under Gannett ownership from 1996-2010. He’d been associated with “11Alive” since May 1988, first handling marketing and sales roles.
From April 2010 until arriving at Cumulus, Walker was EVP/GM of Network and Content at The Weather Channel.
It’s repeatedly put the blame on nearly every retransmission consent impasse, leading to a “blackout” of local TV stations, on the station owner.
It’s unabashedly in support of anything that favors a MVPD.
Now, the American Television Alliance (ATVA) has commented on a half-million-dollar-plus Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture handed to Gray Television by the FCC for allegedly violating the Commission’s Top Four station rule.
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How has the advertising landscape evolved in Northern California? What’s the sense of “new normal” client activity, in particular for Spanish-language radio?
The return of live events is a big deal. Automotive is on the rebound.
Those are just some of the takeaways from Angie Balderas, the SVP of Integrated Marketing Solutions at Entravision Communications in Sacramento.
She’s the latest guest in this all-new InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Angie Balderas” on Spreaker.
In the last week, NEXTGEN TV has gone live in such markets as Charlotte and Little Rock.
You can now add the California state capital to the list of cities where ATSC 3.0-powered television is now available for those that actually have the next-gen TV sets needed to get the signals.
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Although its shares are down from a five-year high seen in mid-April, TEGNA‘s stock price hasn’t been this good since September 2015, just months after it changed its name from Gannett and spun off its newspaper assets.
With a healthy 1-year target estimate handed to TEGNA by Wall Street analysts and a beneficial long-term prognosis in hand, company executives could be preparing a positive Q2 2021 earnings report. We now know when those results will be released.
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A TV attribution provider and ad monitoring company based in Paris is now a part of the Nielsen family of global data, measurement and analytics services.
For an undisclosed price, the Dutch company that is the dominant audience measurement and consumer data services firm in the U.S. is acquiring TVTY.
“TVTY brings a wide range of outcomes capabilities that improve TV campaign execution,” Nielsen says. “TVTY’s solutions enable advertisers and agencies to seamlessly optimize their spend based on the outcomes most important to their business.”
TVTY will complement and expand Nielsen’s TV Attribution and Ad Intel services.
Nielsen’s Chief Growth Officer and President, International, Sean Cohan says the purchase of TVTY aligns to Nielsen’s strategy to deliver cross-media outcomes as a complement to audience measurement. He says, “TVTY bolsters Nielsen’s ability to size an audience with analytics. Together we will be powering a better media future for marketers.”
Eliott Reilhac, TVTY’s CEO, comments, “We believe that TV advertising will be increasingly bought and optimized based on business outcomes. We are grateful for the passionate team, partners, and clients that have allowed us to build the platform needed for this new reality. Today, we are humbled to join the Nielsen family, and we know there is no better place to achieve our vision on a global scale.”
TVTY has a U.S. presence in New York and operates in more than 20 countries worldwide.
The company owns and operates four FM stations in Kentucky’s largest market.
Now, it is welcoming an individual as President of the station group. He’s no stranger to one of those FMs, as he managed the property during the 1990s under Prism Radio Partners ownership.
He’s also one of the founding members of the former Triad Broadcasting executive team.
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Havas Media Group (HMG) has launched a program designed to help advertisers direct more revenue to support Black-owned — and Hispanic-owned radio stations — across the United States.
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What happens when your broadcast TV duopoly is too successful?
Just ask Gray Television. The FCC on Wednesday (7/1) issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture against the company for its “apparent violation” of its Top Four rule.
This puts the initial success and plan of action for its Alaska operations in question.
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