Radio+Television Business Report

The woman who has served as President/CEO of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) is no longer in the role.

Effective today, Maurita Coley has retired from the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

Her replacement is immediately taking over her position.

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With the Memorial Day holiday weekend leading one department store chain to bump up its ad spend, one health and beauty brand greatly accelerated its spending at spot TV to finish at No. 3 in the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten TV report.

At the same time, a big Procter & Gamble Co. brand is back on the weekly report.

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By Rosemary Ravinal

Masks off! … If you are fully vaccinated.  Yet, some people may opt to continue to WFH, at least part of the time.  Knowledge workers have become accustomed to working remotely, and splitting time between the office and home is expected to become the new normal, according to a PwC’s Remote Work Survey 2021.

How should businesses combine the flexibility of remote work with the opportunities of in-office interactions?  Hybrid solutions provide the best of both worlds with employees rotating in and out of offices configured for the virtual world.

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When it comes to retransmission consent fees, there’s perhaps no more touchier subject for both broadcast TV station owners and for MVPDs that earn revenue for bringing crystal-clear signals of these stations to their customers.

For companies such as Gray Television, Nexstar Media Group, TEGNA and The E.W. Scripps Co., retrans consent revenue is more important than ever, as broadcast TV’s core advertising trends remain hazy against local digital growth and evolving viewer habits.

Then, there are the “cable” and satellite TV providers, who consistently finger-point at broadcast TV owners for demanding more and more from them, even with substantial investments in local news departments and ATSC 3.0 NEXTGEN TV transitions.

The MVPDs have lamented that they have no choice but to pass the increased cost in carrying local TV stations on to customers. That’s exactly what is now happening for those who rely on Charter Communications’ Spectrum services. Higher bills are on the way.

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HOBE SOUND, FLA. — Until now, a licensee of radio stations in Upstate New York and the South has seen the involvement of two principal owner-operators and the investment of a Palm Beach County-based private equity and growth-oriented entity “that provides patient capital to exceptional management teams.”

It seems this investment has proven to be a smart one, and puts Jim Leven and Bruce Mittman in a positive light. They have filed paperwork to buy out this equity investor’s stake in their company, Community Broadcasters.

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On October 19, 2020, a broker release obtained by RBR+TVBR revealed that Ramar Communications had agreed to sell The CW Network affiliate in Lubbock, along with two low-power facilities, to Gray Television.

The FCC eventually approved the deal, consummated by Ramar following the February 11, 2018, death of its founder, Ray Moran, at the age of 82.

Now, Moran’s legacy will live on as Ramar is purchasing a low-power TV station in Colorado.

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Many know him as the face of Wedel Software. Now, he’s the CEO of a brand-new ad sales platform for radio advertising called Adthos.

Raoul Wedel joins RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson from the Dutch city of The Hague to share more about the new product release.

How does Adthos from what is presently available in the marketplace? The Adthos Ad-Server is free … so how does Wedel make money?

Get the no-nonsense answers to these questions in this fresh podcast, presented by dot.FM!

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Raoul Wedel” on Spreaker.

It’s “listener-supported radio from Towson University” that brings the Baltimore metropolitan area a blend of eclectic Adult Alternative music that’s not so dissimilar to widely known WXPN, just up the road in Philadelphia.

That will soon change, however. But the new owners of WTMD-FM promise there will be no other differences, once this deal closes.

And, we’ve got the price tag to share.

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Workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test and measurement product maker Telestream has brought to market a cloud-native service that the company describes as an API-driven, cloud agnostic, media processing and transcoding service.

Introducing Telestream Cloud Transform, “built from years of proven media transcoding and workflow technology.”

Leading up the rollout is Tim MacGregor, the Senior Director and Head of Strategy and Product Development for Telestream Cloud.

“We’ve taken proven technology, the Telestream Media Framework, that’s the foundation of Telestream media workflows all over the world and built a cloud-native, API-driven, media processing and transcoding service that runs on our customers’ cloud provider of choice. Transform’s media processing pedigree ensures a future-proof path as standards and technology evolve, even as organizations develop their own workflow orchestration solutions.”

Transform is designed to empower development teams writing their own code for media processing pipelines to access Telestream’s transcoding and media processing technology. According to the company, Telestream Cloud Transform represents “the most efficient way to process video content using a cloud-native API, taking full advantage of the performance and scalability offered by a range of popular cloud providers.”

MacGregor said, “As more companies seek to adopt the cloud for cost and efficiency reasons, many have determined that their unique requirements preclude a one size fits all approach. These organizations need a service that can be started within minutes with a powerful API that allows easy automation with their existing systems.”

Telestream Cloud Transform supports a wide variety of codecs and formats including AVCI, AVC Ultra, DNxHD, DNxHR, IMX, J2K, XAVC, XDCAM, and ProRes 422/444.

For company and product information, visit www.telestream.net.

Inovonics has released its new DAVID IV 719N FM/HD Radio Broadcast Processor with Network Interface.

The updated offering adds Web Access for set-up, control, and increased networking capabilities to the company’s existing DAVID IV 719 processor.

And, the new model comes minus any price increase.

Ben Barber, President & CEO of Inovonics, says the addition of a Network Interface to the 719 processor gives it two important features. One, the Web GUI can be controlled from any web enabled device; adding SNMP “makes remote management and control a breeze.”

The 719 DAVID IV processor dates to 2011.

The new model adds an intuitive, menu-driven Web interface for remote set-up, monitoring and control.

For more information about price and availability, please contact Inovonics at 831-458-0552

Something new and exciting is on the horizon for radio stations, an answer to today’s most
pressing challenges – changing consumer behavior, ROI expectations of advertisers and of
course keeping step with developments in the digital space.

But before we find out more about that, let’s look in more detail at how the land lies currently.

The world of radio continues to evolve, new innovations and changes in consumer habits
are forcing broadcasters to think in ever more creative ways to target listener advertising.
New technology allows the integration of finer data points such as location, device and even
audience profile to support truly targeted approaches. And with the continuing steady
creep of digital into the space we can expect to see an even split between terrestrial/digital
ad-playout before too long. Campaigns are now routinely multi-platform, highly targeted
and data-driven, creating multiple challenges for broadcasters. Radio advertising is arguably facing the biggest upheaval in its long history.

So, all of this begs the question – how can radio stations make the most of these changes
and not be left behind? After all, so many are dealing with legacy systems, with manual
tasks often needed to bridge the gap between these and new technologies. And where
there are manual tasks there are inefficiencies, and by association an impact on flexibility.
How long before the march of progress threatens to overwhelm the capability of
broadcasters to deliver true value for their advertisers?

What’s the answer?

But instead of focusing on what’s lacking, let’s look instead at possible answers to these
questions. Any solution should be easy to integrate – or even better, require no integration
at all – with existing technology. No overhaul or replacement (or downtime or high cost) to
plan for and manage. The ability to easily sell, schedule and execute multi-platform
campaigns with minimal intervention and maximum automation should also be high on the
wish list. And not forgetting the flexibility and capability to make the most of all that
valuable data to support truly targeted ads.

A breakthrough in broadcasting

It’s this set of needs that have led to the creation of the Adthos Ad Server, the first of its
kind ad-serving technology specifically created for radio. A lightweight yet powerful addition

to any existing traffic or playout system that allows digital audio and radio to be sold
seamlessly within a single integrated campaign. Instant reconciliation and an intuitive
customer interface provide for updates and insights on a complete campaign at a moment’s
notice, with the ability to replace a spot in real time delivering incredible responsiveness.
And this is just the first release of many that Adthos will do this year.

But perhaps the most surprising thing about the Adthos ad-server: it’s absolutely free.

Want to know more? Of course you do.   www.adthos.com

 

With The Home Depot in command at spot radio, its biggest national competitor has responded by upping its radio spot load.

Meanwhile, a big retailer is back, thanks to a Memorial Day Weekend ad campaign designed to woo shoppers to its stores.

That’s the gist of the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report.

As shown below, Macy’s and Lowe’s are back on the report, while Indeed and Progressive are bested by Home Depot.

TORONTO — Imagine Communications has expanded its storage portfolio with the release of Versio IOX Express NAS, providing broadcast and production facilities with “a high-availability shared storage solution that enables on-air scalability and pay-as-you-go expansion.”

The ability to manage a system from tens or hundreds of miles away is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.

That’s why Imagine believes Versio IOX Express offers all the tools needed for simple and effective storage management, whether onsite or working remotely.

The products are offered in bundles of predefined capacity and bandwidth and are delivered with software and hardware ready for immediate deployment. For 24/7 broadcasters, Versio IOX Express provides a flexible path forward, enabling scaling of capacity or bandwidth ― without having to take the system off air.

“Our goal in developing Versio IOX Express was to hit all the technical requirements we know broadcasters demand, but do it at an unprecedented price point,” said Steve Reynolds, President of Imagine Communications. “With the latest addition to our IOX portfolio, we can now offer our customers affordable, high-availability storage, delivered as defined, packaged solutions with all the software installed. All they need to do on site is connect the network and start delivering content.”

Powered by the EditShare EFS solution, built on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) enterprise-grade hardware, Versio IOX Express is designed to sustain prolonged operation in the most demanding environments. True shared storage access eliminates the need for resource-intensive asset transfers, making it ideal for fast-turnaround environments such as news and sports. Coupled with the parity stack and RAID protection, Versio IOX Express guarantees the fastest client recovery time of less than 20ms, providing effectively uninterrupted service to on-air playback servers or editing applications.

Versio IOX Express is offered in predefined bundles, allowing users to choose capacity and parity stack topology to suit their needs. This simplifies the order process and makes pricing transparent. Users can choose from a single device, relying on the internal RAID-6 protection; a 1+1 configuration with stack mirroring; or a high-availability N+1 single-stack parity architecture. Available options include configurations that provide as much as tens of gigabits per second of assured bandwidth across the network, even during degraded or rebuilding modes, guaranteeing the performance required in high-pressure applications.

— RBR+TVBR Canadian News Desk, in North York, Ontario

Univision’s Uforia is bringing back its experiential virtual music series Uforia Live.

This year the Uforia Music Series in-person shows will include Livestreams.

“Music’s ability to bring us together has been one of the bright spots of the last year and our new digital reality has allowed us to explore new ways to experience awe-inspiring
performances,” said Jesus Lara, President of Radio at Univision. “As we mark the return of
Uforia Live, we are thrilled to partner with Rocket Mortgage to give Latin music fans more of the exclusive, live virtual concert experiences they have come to love and expect from Uforia,”

Uforia Live is an extension of Univision’s Uforia brand. Uforia also features an audio network of 58 O&O radio stations and 212 affiliates.

— Rob Dumke

A veteran technology executive and the CEO of global athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica Inc. are the newest members of the Walt Disney Company Board of Directors.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON TWITTER!

 

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With the Memorial Day holiday weekend coming in hours, Miami-based Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) early Friday released its first quarter 2021 results, ahead of an earnings call for analysts and investors in six days.

How did the multimedia company targeting U.S. Hispanics perform in the first three months of the year?

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By Rob Dumke

Charter Communications‘ Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund has invested $1 million in the Carolina Small Business Development Fund (CSBDF).

The nonprofit certified community development financial institution (CDFI) will provide low-interest loans to small businesses in Charter’s North Carolina service area.

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In much of Connecticut, Rocker “I-95” is perhaps used more than the actual Interstate highway traversing the southern portion of the Constitution State. It’s a heritage station based in Danbury, and has a Country sibling that is today one-third of a Hudson Valley-focused Country station.

Both FMs have a new Market President and Chief Revenue Officer.

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Connected TV adoption has exploded. But how are advertisers fairing amid the transition from linear to what in the U.S. is called “CTV”?

That’s a question Innovid and Digiday believe they have the answer to, as it has released the results of a survey of 100+ brand marketers and agency execs’ thoughts on the state of Connected TV advertising.

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“There is no small irony in the observation that the deal to combine WarnerMedia and Discovery will, at least initially, have a far greater impact on linear TV than it will on streaming,” note Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson, the esteemed Wall Street analyst house. “Yes, the deal is ostensibly about assembling the right assets for a DTC future. But perhaps its most significant impact early on will be that it slows rather than hastens the pace of the transition.”

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