The FCC on Friday established a formal pleading cycle that will allow public comment in response to iHeartMedia‘s request to win Commission approval for greater foreign ownership and non-U.S. investment.
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Two top television broadcast executives will be joined by a key radio industry leader as the centerpiece of the opening session of NAB Show Premiere — a virtually delivered event scheduled for the midday hours, Eastern Time, on Monday.
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After two decades at the helm of a highly influential ABC affiliate that has long played a pivotal role in presidential elections, as the host of debates ahead of the New Hampshire primary, the President and GM of this Hearst Television property will soon retire.
This puts the wheels in motion on the search for a new leader at WMUR-9 in Manchester, N.H.
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And, just like that, 53 years of history crafted largely by Joseph Field disappeared with the push of a button as the New York Stock Exchange commenced its April 9, 2021 trading session.
Entercom Communications, which last week changed its corporate identity to Audacy and is in the process of transitioning its Radio.com brand to Audacy, officially said goodbye to its “ETM” ticker symbol. With that symbolic Opening Bell opportunity, a new era officially begins for Field’s son, President/CEO David Field.
The virtual appearance by Field’s C-Suite members as trading began followed a 30-minute interview on Clubhouse with Entercom CMO Paul Suchman, conducted by Radio Ink Editor Ed Ryan, that saw Suchman share details about how the name change to Audacy came to be.
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Jeffrey Wlodarczak, a Principal and the Entertainment/Interactive Subscription Services Analyst for top Wall Street investment house Pivotal Research Group, this week took a deep dive into the NBCUniversal component of media giant Comcast.
Wlodarczak conducted the review as part of an assessment of NBC’s “mostly” new reporting format. His report card shows that a “likely significantly rebounding NBC” — along with “healthy” cable EBITDA growth, despite the multitude of cord-cutting tales — will fuel Comcast share growth.
As such, he raised his target price on Comcast.
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Meet Erica Mandy. Today Erica is running a multiple six-figure podcast business and taking home more money than she made working for KCBS-2 and KCAL-9 in Los Angeles.
She is also now one of the most successful podcasters in the space.
You can hear Erica’s story of how she became a successful podcaster and how she’s making money doing what she loves at “How to Make Real Money Podcasting.”
After 10 years in broadcast journalism, which culminated with a job in the second-largest news market in the country, Mandy had heard from too many people that news felt overly depressing, time-consuming, and biased, and she wanted to try to help solve those problems.
She took a big career risk by quitting her TV job and starting a new podcast.
In 2017 Erica left CBS Los Angeles and launched her podcast The NewsWorthy. The 10-minute short-form daily podcast combines Erica’s love for news with her upbeat and positive delivery style.
In addition to being available on all podcast platforms, Erica sends out her daily news podcast by e-mail to subscribers by 4 a.m. The podcast is accompanied by a professionally written and well-sourced daily newsletter that details the national stories Erica covers in the podcast.
The NewsWorthy has been written up by Fast Company, Harper’s Bazaar, WWD, and The Penny Hoarder. It’s also been featured in Apple Podcast’s New & Noteworthy. And, in 2020 Erica went over the 10 million download mark. Listen and subscribe to The NewsWorthy HERE.
Mandy says, “I’m grateful we’ve been able to grow our audience and team into a sustainable business and podcast because it allows us to continue doing what we love: providing real value to our listeners on a daily basis. Our main motivation is hearing from listeners who feel less anxiety about the news, who voted for the first time, or who are having better, more informed conversations with friends, families, and co-workers. It makes all the risks and hard work over the last few years worthwhile, and we’re excited for continued growth and expansion in the future.”
Register now for “How to Make Real Money Podcasting,” July 13-15.
The event features one-on-one interviews with Mandy and other podcasters who are making REAL money podcasting. They will tell you how they’re making money and show you how you can make money. They will share their SECRETS with you to help you develop a successful and money-making podcasting strategy.
The agenda is up. The speakers are set. Are you ready to make money? Streamline Publishing’s co-owned Podcast Business Journal and Radio Ink Magazine are teaming up to help you maximize the revenue potential from your podcasting strategy.
Podcasting revenue has become a significant and profitable contributor to many big media corporations. By all projections, that pot of revenue is expected to become larger and larger over the next five years. Even during the pandemic podcasting was strong.
There are ways to generate revenue without hiring a huge team of writers, producers and Hollywood stars.
And for three days in July, you’ll get the opportunity to learn how.
Our conference website is up HERE.
Our agenda is set HERE.
We will be conducting one-on-one interviews with hosts and companies who are making REAL money. See who we have lined up already HERE.
Be one of the first to register HERE so you are ready to make money in July.
Are you eligible for costs incurred from your broadcast TV station’s “repack” move and still need cash from the U.S. Government to help pay those bills?
The FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau remind you that filing deadlines to submit all of your remaining invoices will commence soon.
Translation: Stop procrastinating!
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To the southwest of Corpus Christi, Tex., is Falfurrias, home to a Class B AM that has been owned and operated by a New Jersey-based Hispanic broadcast ministry since fall 2019.
Now, Erick Salgado is saying goodbye to this station.
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On Wednesday (4/7), ViacomCBS confirmed that Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os, and news division leader David Friend will not return to their positions and will be exiting the company.
Dunn’s attorney on Thursday issued a statement that clarifies Dunn’s departure from ViacomCBS.
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Search. Social. Mobile. Each has played their role in digital advertising and its evolution. Now there is the voice era. But, some brands may think of smart speakers in ways that don’t fully take advantage of the ways it can converse naturally with consumers, through a Voice AI platform.
Where are marketers on this opportunity, and where is linear media such as TV and radio? Andy Whatley, the senior vice president for global business development and partnerships at Instreamatic, the company focused on enabling voice interactivity and measurability in the audio ad market, has much to share on the topic.
Andy is the latest guest on the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Andy Whatley, Instreamatic” on Spreaker.
Have you assessed the maturity of your consumer data? What about the level of capabilities seen across your organization?
It may be a fine time to do so. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA Global) has just released its findings of a survey powered by EY that reviewed consumer data accessible to senior U.S. marketing leaders.
Your clients have a lot of work to do.
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The advertising sales division of Comcast Cable has launched a new “function” in a move it says will better serve advertisers’ evolving needs for audience delivery within a rapidly changing TV marketplace.
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On April 1, Hispanic consumer-focused Entravision Communications disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would not be able to file its annual report in a timely manner to the financial regulatory agency.
There’s a good reason for this, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is fully aware of the situation. Still, the NYSE had to move forward with handing Entravision a non-compliance warning.
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In a move that further cements the importance of quality metrics for social media advertising and for marketers, Twitter has integrated Nielsen‘s cross-media planning and measurement services into its video advertising platform.
It’s an “expanded integration” of Nielsen’s audience measurement and outcomes cross-media offerings, the company says.
The integration includes a new subscription to Nielsen Media Impact (NMI) and Nielsen Ad Intel, along with greater access to Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR).
‘Together, these tools will enable Twitter to help video advertisers do more robust pre- and post-campaign planning, maximize ad inventory, understand cross-media planning, and deliver campaign results with increased speed and agility,” Nielsen asserts.
“With a highly engaged audience and powerful premium video content, Twitter is where advertisers can connect with consumers in the moments that matter most to them,” said Doug Brodman, Twitter’s Director of North America Agency and Platform Solutions. “Nielsen’s cross-media suite will make it easier to augment our client’s video strategy and planning with Twitter’s premium video inventory and optimize audience reach and frequency alongside other top video platforms. Ultimately, this expanded partnership brings increased transparency, clarity and value to Twitter’s video solutions for our agency partners and advertisers.”
To bolster its use of NMI and TAR, Twitter will use Nielsen’s National TV Ratings data for added insights of ad campaigns across platforms. “Each solution and dataset provides Twitter with unique tools and capabilities to strengthen one of its most brand safe and impactful surfaces for advertisers: Twitter Amplify, a video ad platform that gives advertisers pre-roll and sponsorship opportunities next to premium video content,” Nielsen explains. ‘The implementation of Nielsen’s measurement and planning tools, provides a holistic view of campaign performance across all video platforms including TV.”
“To compete in a fragmented ecosystem, publishers require tools that help them plan their cross-media media strategies efficiently as well as provide deeper analysis and more robust insights of an advertiser’s campaign across screens,” said Jay Nielsen, SVP of Planning Products at Nielsen. “Twitter’s use of NMI and Ad Intel levels the playing field and ensures they have the same metrics and tools as agencies and advertisers, facilitating alignment on a common goal and plan. With TAR’s expedited capabilities, Twitter will now be able to better monetize the incremental reach and frequency delivered by ads on their platform. Altogether, our expanded collaboration will help Twitter maximize their video platform and unlock more value for advertisers as this type of video consumption continues to grow.”
BUFFALO, N.Y. — On March 24, a Cumulus Media Classic Rock station with a 33-year heritage and strong brand affinity across Western New York and much of Ontario’s most populous areas found itself in the center of a controversy that attracted binational attention.
One of its morning hosts, against his own better judgment, made comments about how his toaster settings corresponded to the skin tone of some African American female celebrities. Not only were the comments aired live, but they also appeared in a condensed version of the “Morning Bull” distributed as a podcast. That proved to be an even graver error. And, it has now cost WGRF-FM “97 Rock” its Program Director and its entire wake-up program.
As RBR+TVBR first shared via Twitter Wednesday evening (4/7), Cumulus Media issued a statement to Buffalo media confirming that, “Upon further consideration following the racist incident that occurred on The Morning Bull Show, we decided to terminate the whole morning show in addition to the Program Director.”
This results in the exit of Rich Gaenzler and the female component of the Morning Bull, Chris Klein, who is heard in an audio clip of the incident widely distributed on Twitter to be egging on Rob Lederman. He’s the longtime 97 Rock morning show voice whose presence dates back to Norton in the Morning, the predecessor to The Morning Bull. Lederman prefaced his comments by noting, “I may get into trouble for this.”
That proved to be an understatement, as his comments not only led to the dismissal of Gaenzler and Klein, but also PD John Hager.
Hager’s dismissal is particularly noteworthy. In 2018, he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of service at WGRF. After starting as a part-timer, Hager took the overnight shift in 1983 and later moved to afternoon drive. In January 1985, a format change to Adult Contemporary led to Hager’s exit. But, he’d find his way back in September 1988, relaunching 97 Rock after an infamous April Fools’ Day prank at the former WPHD “brought back” the rock ‘n’ roll brand as a joke Buffalo hoped wouldn’t be.
Now, Hager is on the sidelines, victim of a morning show segment gone wrong.
While Lederman was immediately terminated, Gaenzler and Klein were suspended following the March 24 broadcast, which gained national attention after Marcel Louis-Jacques shared an audio clip of what Lederman said via Twitter. Louis-Jacques is the Buffalo-based reporter for ESPN NFL Nation and covers the Buffalo Bills.
The next morning, WGRF offered music in-between station liners and IDs. By 10:30am, midday host J.P. was on the air. Afternoon host Carl Russo took over at 3pm.
As dawn broke in Buffalo on April 8, all vestiges of the Morning Bull were erased from the WGRF website. Continuous music continued between station liners and IDs, as has been the case since March 25. The 97 Rock Twitter feed has been scrubbed of any Morning Bull posts, while the Morning Bull’s Twitter feed still exists but hasn’t been updated since March 24. Meanwhile, 97 Rock’s Facebook page has also seen all mentions of the Morning Bull removed — except for a 90-second statement from Cumulus/Buffalo Market Manager Jim Riley that served as a formal apology for Lederman and the Morning Bull.
Lederman’s comments led such local advertisers as Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and West Herr Automotive Group to cancel their contracts with Cumulus/Buffalo, Nexstar-owned WIVB-4 reported Wednesday.
U.S. financial markets finished Wednesday’s trading session on a mixed note, with the Dow Industrials rising 16.02 to 33,426.26 and the Nasdaq dipping 9.54 points to 13,688.84.
Companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. were in the green, with a $20.16 finish, as Nexstar continued its impressive growth with a $145.71 conclusion to the day’s trading.
In contrast, TEGNA was down 30 cents to $19.90 after a fresh five-year high.
Also down: several radio broadcasting companies. Saga Communications shares are at $21.25, dipping 55 cents. Audacy, formerly Entercom, shed 17 cents to finish at $5.07.
In late January 2021, the President of CBS Television Stations and the stations’ SVP of News were suspended while parent ViacomCBS investigated an increasing number of allegations against them for gender and racial misconduct.
It appears the claims, first reported by Meg James for the Los Angeles Times, are meritorious enough to lead ViacomCBS to severe its ties with the pair.
In a statement shared by CBS News, the company confirmed that Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os, and news division leader David Friend will not return to their positions and will be exiting the company.
“On an interim basis, Bryon Rubin will continue to run the stations group while Kim Godwin will continue her oversight of Stations’ news operations until new leadership is in place,” ViacomCBS explained.
The announcement comes as an external investigation into CBS Television Stations management, conducted by Keisha-Ann Gray at Proskauer Rose, is still in progress, ViacomCBS says.
James’ reporting first brought to light stories that Dunn and Friend allegedly bullied female managers and blocked efforts to hire and retain African American journalists. In particular, James focused on KYW-3 and WPSG-TV in Philadelphia. Dunn ran the stations from 2002-2004, before a five-year run as the head of WCBS-2 in New York. At KYW-3, 45% of the station’s on-air reporters and anchors are Black, indigenous or other people of color.
The immediate response to her article, which followed a separate report questioning the $55 million purchase of WLNY-55 in Nassau-Suffolk and how Dunn received a membership at an exclusive golf club owned by the station’s seller as part of the transaction, was explosive. National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) representatives reportedly met with members of the ViacomCBS C-Suite that James identified as CBS Entertainment CEO George Cheeks and ViacomCBS EVP Marva Smalls, who leads all D&I initiatives at the company.
According to the Times, NABJ leaders demanded that Dunn be dismissed, along with Friend. Friend had been in his role as SVP/News since June 2010 and was also WCBS’s News Director — a role he’s held since 2006.
The NABJ took issue with the hiring practices at WCBS-2, which “only recently” hired a full-time Black male reporter after five years without one. The NABJ also takes WCBS-2 to task for having one full-time Black female reporter and one Black news producer in New York, a market where more racial diversity in the newsroom would reflect the total viewership.
The departure of Dunn concludes a tenure that included a November 2019 honor at the Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts Awards. That award recognizes women and men who’ve had a profound and lasting effect on the broadcast TV industry. He was also selected by RBR+TVBR readers as one of Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders in 2020.
It has operated an AM and two FMs in the Augusta-Waterville, Maine, market since 2007.
Now, it is converting this long-standing LMA into outright ownership.
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“His career was filled with accomplishments,” begins a three-minute report that encapsulates as best as possible the life and professional career of Ted Koplar.
Koplar, whose family helped make KPLR-11 in St. Louis one of the nation’s most-viewed independent television stations, died April 4.
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