Radio+Television Business Report

In a move the company says will “further accelerate its leadership” in the over-the-top (OTT) space, The E.W. Scripps Co. is collaborating with a digital Goliath to bring its OTT ad offerings to local businesses.

At the same time, Scripps has selected its preferred sell-side platform for Connected TV.

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LOS ANGELES — He was the toast of NATPE 2020, with a syndicated daily talk show picking up affiliates left and right. Then came COVID-19, and a controversy surrounding comments deemed anti-Semitic made by the veteran talent on a podcast, which he has since repented for.

With his syndicated morning show back on his flagship FM in Southern California and Debmar-Mercury gearing up a fall 2021 delayed debut of his TV show, Nick Cannon is ready for a big decade ahead.

On October 9 and 10, he’ll be a key figure at the live-and-in person NAB Show in Las Vegas — another sign that the media industry’s biggest annual gathering remains a go.

Cannon on Tuesday (5/18) was confirmed for two NAB Show events, just as brokers, PR professionals and tech companies committing to booths begin to make their final decisions on whether or not to start making travel plans.

As far as the NAB is concerned, the answer is yes.

Cannon will appear on Saturday, October 9, during the NAB’s Sales and Management Television Exchange (SMTE). There, he will discuss his long-running career in TV. On October 10, he will appear during an NAB Show Main Stage celebrity session.

This also affirms the NAB’s commitment to shifting sessions one day earlier than in the past, with key events starting Sunday rather than on a Monday.

The NAB Show’s full dates are October 9–13, 2021.

Cannon produces and hosts his daily radio show, “Nick Cannon Radio,” and weekend show “Cannon’s Countdown,” both syndicated nationally by Skyview Networks, as well as “Power Mornings with Nick Cannon” on Meruelo Media-owned KPWR-FM (Power 106) in Los Angeles.

“Nick Cannon,” a daytime talk show set for national syndication from Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, will launch in fall 2021 with a slew of affiliates already committed from one year ago.

Additionally, Cannon currently serves as the executive producer and host of FOX’s “The Masked Singer.”

He began his career in television as a teenager on Nickelodeon’s sketch-comedy show “All That.” Cannon is also known for his work as creator, host and executive producer of MTV’s sketch comedy show “Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘N Out,” which recently aired its 15th season.

“Nick Cannon has entertained millions with his unique brand of humor and gregarious personality throughout his three-decade career,” NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith said. “We are excited to hear how his business acuity and industry experience have guided his success in radio, television, film and music as we welcome attendees back for the 2021 NAB Show.”

Nick Cannon also serves as the label head and music business curator of Ncredible Entertainment, where he has helped discover and develop award-winning talent such as H.E.R. and Kehlani. In 2009, he was named chairman of the TeenNick network and became the youngest television chairman in history.

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group (AMG) is welcoming a former WarnerMedia executive just hours after it was confirmed that the AT&T arm will be spun off and merged into Discovery Inc. in 2022.

John Buckholtz, most recently Vice President of Advertising Sales for Warner Media/Warner Bros. Domestic Television — where he also held earlier positions as Vice President of Station Sales and Director of Sales — since 1997 — will hold the title of VP/Ad Sales for AMG Global Syndication.

He will will focus on advertising sales, brand sponsorships, and revenue partnerships for all of AMG’s Entertainment Studios television series programming and content.

The Entertainment Studios programming portfolio comprises nearly 70 television shows.

Buckholtz, who will be based in New York, reports to AMG Global Syndication President of Ad Sales Darren Galatt.

Prior to Warner Media, Buckholtz worked for MTM Television Distribution (a division of Mary Tyler Moore Enterprises) as Vice President of Sales — where he also held the previous positions of Vice President of Northeast Sales and Midwest Manager.

“I am thrilled to have John Buckholtz on the Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios sales team,” Galatt said. “John is an excellent sales executive who has enormous experience and vast relationships throughout the advertising community. John’s passion and sales talent will help us achieve greater market share.”

A veteran radio programming pro has just been named Director of Development for the company that says it invested online research for radio in the 1990s.

Taking the role at TroyResearch is Fletcher Keyes.

It marks a reunion of sorts for Keyes, who will be paired with company President Jonathan Little.

The two worked together in Madison, Wisc., radio, at WZEE-FM (Z104), WMMM (Triple M) and WOLX-FM in Baraboo.

Keyes said, “I’m a radio person ready to help radio with tools that make a difference.
I was a Troy customer for many years. I liked it so much, I joined the company!”

Little remarked, “It’s great to have another person who knows and loves radio joining
my team. Fletch has been a ratings winner as a morning jock and program director and
he knows research. He shares my commitment to helping radio be the best it can be.”

Now in its third decade, TroyResearch provides comprehensive music testing and
perceptual studies for radio and a sales generating tool, the Brand Awareness Study, for radio, television, digital and print.

SummitMedia, the owner of radio stations in such markets as Honolulu and Birmingham, Alabama, has appointed a VP of Engineering.

He is a radio veteran with more than 30 years of engineering experience and was Chief Engineer for the company.

Earning the job is Tom Scott. He’ll manage engineering for all of SummitMedia’s markets, which also include Greenville-Spartanburg; Knoxville; Louisville; Omaha; Richmond; Springfield, Mo.; Wichita; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

“We are delighted for Tom to direct all Engineering efforts for SummitMedia,” said SummitMedia CEO Carl Parmer. “It is certainly a well deserved promotion. His depth
of knowledge and strategic vision will be invaluable to us as we continue to innovate
and evolve the technical side of our business.”

He succeeds Dennis Sloatman, who has retired.

Scott has previously served as a Chief Engineer for Cox Media Group and iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel.

Marketron, the provider of enterprise revenue management and digital software tools, has launched a new website that provides ideas, information and tools that salespeople and sales managers working in broadcast and media can use to help them close more business.

With educational webinars, case studies and creative assets among the offerings, Aspire by Marketron (aspire.marketron.com), “helps salespeople stay on top of the latest selling techniques and trends, deliver more compelling proposals more quickly, and increase their sales and revenue,” the company says.

Todd Kalman, a senior vice president of sales at Marketron, calls Aspire “another impactful resource to help everyone build their digital sales acumen and close more deals.”

Resources available on Aspire include webinars on current selling techniques and trends, as well as a searchable catalog of downloadable creative assets, including real-world examples that can be downloaded and incorporated into existing sales proposals.

“Aspire users can hone not only their digital advertising knowledge but also their prospecting skills, identifying the businesses spending money and using that insight to curate a strong target account list,” Marketron says. “They can train themselves on digital advertising and become the local marketing experts, thereby gaining more success for their advertisers and increasing their overall share of advertising dollars spent in the market.”

TORONTO — RadioPromoHub Inc., a company that built a workflow system for radio, has changed its name.

The new name, SPARC Media Hub, “better reflects the product and the services offered,” the company claims.

Why SPARC Media Hub?

It is an acronym that stands for “Sales”, “Promotions”, “Announcers”, “Reception” and “Creative”.

“We’re excited about the name change,” said Skyler Richard, the co-owner. “It really helps
our clients fully understand our product and allows the company to grow into different
media sectors.”

Along with a creative workflow and promotional tools, SPARC Media Hub also contains several prep tools like a collaborative prep list, custom prep sheet builders, a phone screener, built-in texting and more.

SPARC Media Hub is available for cash only in the U.S. and for barter in Canada through Orbyt Media.

NEW YORK — The Radio Mercury Awards’ Call for Entry for its 30th anniversary event will open on June 7.

For 30 years, the Radio Mercury Awards have celebrated creative excellence in radio and audio by honoring work that successfully harnesses the power of sound.

“In 2021, the Radio Mercury Awards reflect the current advertising environment for radio and related audio platforms, including broadcast commercials, integrated campaigns, podcasts, PSAs, jingles, sonic branding and music,” honors organizer RAB says.

Beginning this year, all entries will be open to work in any language for work that was broadcast, aired digitally, released or transmitted initially and primarily in the U.S. and its territories between June 1, 2019 and August 9, 2021.

Entries will be priced at $30 for all categories, except for entries for the student category, which will have no cost.

BBDO Atlanta Chief Creative Officer Robin Fitzgerald will return as the 2021 Chief Judge, after serving in the same role in 2020. In her role as BBDO Atlanta’s chief creative officer, Robin provides creative leadership to such clients asThe Home Depot, Georgia Lottery, Sanderson Farms and Honey Baked Ham.

Prior to BBDO Atlanta, Fitzgerald spent 15 years in Los Angeles, working at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Finalists for the show will be announced in late September, and winners will be announced on November 17.

Triton Digital has expanded the reporting and categorization capabilities within its podcast platform, Omny Studio.

“To provide publishers with a more comprehensive view of the content published by their organization and/or networks, Omny Studio’s reporting functionality has been enhanced to include granular visibility into the total number of episodes and total minutes of audio content published,” iHeartMedia subsidiary Triton notes.

Triton added that its users can now see an overview of the tools that accompany the content, including ad markers, transcriptions, and Headliner videos. “This information can be compared to previous reporting periods and tracked over time, making it easy for publishers to trend both the creation and growth of their show portfolios over time.”

Additionally, podcasters using the Omny Studio platform can now add custom metadata fields to their content, including categories. “By utilizing custom categories, podcasters can increase the discoverability of their shows, helping them to appear in relevant user searches and as a result, grow their audiences,” Triton says.

“We are confident that these expanded and enhanced capabilities will provide our users with the insights and flexibility they need to continue to both create and share engaging content while growing their audiences.” said Mitchell Secrett, Omny Studio Product Manager at Triton Digital. “These latest feature releases further Omny Studio’s position as the leading enterprise-level audio management platform in the world.”

To learn more about the Omny Studio platform, contact OmnyStudio@tritondigital.com.

U.S. stock markets fell on Monday, with the Dow Industrials dipping 54.34 to 34,327.79. The Nasdaq composite index was down 50.93 to 13,379.05.

How did media issues fare to start the week? AT&T was off 2.6%, while Discovery Inc. shares finished the day with a 5% decline.

The Discovery dip was a mild surprise, as shares were on the rise ahead of the Opening Bell on word that it was acquiring WarnerMedia in a blockbuster Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger. Yet, DISCA finished at $33.76, falling $1.79 per share on exceptionally heavy volume of 88.34 million against average volume of 15.2 million shares.

AT&T, which also saw exceptionally heavy trading volume, saw “T” slip $0.85 to $31.39.

Elsewhere, Urban One shares improved to $5.43, up 4%, as Saga Communications’ recent burst in share value appears to be fizzling. On Monday, a 7% decline put SGA at $21.84.

Also on the downturn is Audacy, which sits at $4.18 after a 4 cent decline.

Educational Media Foundation is primarily known as a buyer. Thus, it is rare when the owner of the KLOVE and Air1 Christian music networks decides to part ways with a property.

That’s just happened, in West Virginia.

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Early Monday, the big merger news in the cable TV industry became official: WarnerMedia is becoming part of Discovery Inc.

Interestingly, the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report shows a big decrease in the number of promotional spots for Discovery+, the OTT arm launched January 4.

Is the coming tax-free merger the reason, or a mere coincidence?

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Amid the self-promotional announcements from iHeartMedia, including podcast pitches, there’s a shining example of how a brand has taken to AM and FM radio and established itself as a top-of-mind job search source.

Indeed, the use of spot radio is a success story worthy of sharing with CMOs across the U.S.

As seen in the latest Spot Ten Radio report for the week ending May 16, Indeed is the big No. 1 among fully paid advertisers, topping Progressive, Babbel and GEICO.

In fact, Indeed competitor ZipRecruiter may wish to increase its radio budget to better compete with its rival. While the job search category is burgeoning for radio, the spot differential as seen by Media Monitors suggests ZipRecruiter has room for growth — and for becoming a household name via AM and FM.

Warner Tillman is parting ways with an AM/FM combo that includes an FM translator and no less than four boosters designed to give that FM station coverage of Eastern Washington’s largest metropolis.

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DAYTON, OHIO — On June 21, 2007, a group of AM and FM radio stations were placed into the Aloha Station Trust.

Now, the final FM properties placed in this trust originally overseen by the late Jeanette Tully and now led by former Backyard Broadcasting head Barry Drake are being removed from the trust.

However, they’re not being sold. Rather, these “Big” Dayton-market properties are being donated.

Who’s getting WRZX-FM & WYDB-FM?

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The Director of Sales for a pair of Sinclair Broadcast Group TV stations serving Asheville, N.C., and the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Clemson region of upstate South Carolina, is rising to VP/GM of the MyNetworkTV and ABC affiliates.

Be sure to follow RBR+TVBR on our new LinkedIn community page!

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What will emerge in mid-2022 as a new Discovery Inc., with WarnerMedia‘s assets merged into what will be a new company, is poised to surge past the company led by Bob Bakish and ultimately controlled by Shari Redstone and National Amusements, Inc.

That’s the biggest takeaway of the blockbuster Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc., announced early Monday, by S&P Global Market Intelligence’s TV Networks research analyst.

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The NAB on Friday filed comments with the FCC regarding a proposal to extend the Emergency Alert System to the Internet — including through streaming services. Congress is requesting a study of the issue.

But, the NAB cautions that updating EAS to enable internet alerts would be too complex, and likely infeasible, at this time.

Whether that is conjecture or a confirmed fact is perhaps up to debate. And, given the comments come on behalf of the biggest lobbying voice for broadcast media, there’s likely a tinge of defending radio and TV’s most important “go-to-now!” emergency traits before Congress.

That said, the concept of bringing EAS alerts to those streaming audio or video is clever, and likely one of concern for the American public.

Is it worth the investment in both time and dollars?

The NAB appreciates the Commission’s “forward-looking consideration of how EAS alerts may be disseminated through the internet,” consistent with legislation passed in this fiscal year. “The public interest benefits of expanded access to EAS alerts via internet services are plain, and we applaud Congress for requesting a study of this question,” the NAB’s top legal counsel say. “However, at least for the time being, certain technical challenges and open policy questions make it extremely burdensome, and likely infeasible, to update the EAS system to enable alerts to consumers provided through the internet.”

Before explaining why it would be so difficult, the NAB attorneys took the approach of demonstrating how broadcast radio and TV have a key role as “first informers” and are “essential service providers.” This empowers broadcast media to access disaster areas, the NAB says.

This led the NAB to illustrate the “reliability” of the EAS today, given how local radio and television stations “diligently implemented the ability to receive alerts from FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), routinely test and upgrade their
EAS equipment as needed and take other steps — both voluntary and mandated — to
support EAS, and at their own expense. In addition, broadcasters are often the leaders (and in some cases the only engaged members) of their State Emergency Coordinating Committees.’

The NAB and individual broadcast companies also partner with the FCC and FEMA on various emergency-related initiatives and advisory groups intended to further
improve public alerting.

Today, to the broadcast media lobbying group’s knowledge, there are no pure-play independent streaming services that participate in EAS. Furthermore, the only online audio outlets that may retransmit EAS messages are websites and apps while simulcasting radio stations, and similar online video outlets while simulcasting local television news programming, as well as over-the-top (OTT) services that livestream local television channels.

Yet, wouldn’t it be prudent if Netflix, Hulu or similar over-the-top services offered EAS messaging?

To be clear, any on-demand service would be, today, technically impossible to integrate into EAS. Pure-play content streamers, in the NAB’s view, are not “well-positioned to participate in the existing EAS ecosystem” for live streaming feeds or on-demand content.

Here’s why, as the NAB sees it: “With respect to ingesting EAS alerts, the FCC states that
streaming services’ ‘large geographic service areas’ presents a monitoring challenge. Of
course, ‘large’ does not begin to describe the reach of a cloud-based service which is
available everywhere access to the internet is available. Video and audio streaming services
routinely have thousands or even millions of customers worldwide. NAB understands that the current web-based design and architecture of online streaming services does not typically incorporate or even contemplate any localized infrastructure that would enable a streaming service to monitor for EAS alerts based on either geography or the type of event.”

But, isn’t geotargeting and addressability the hallmark of digital media — and couldn’t Netflix easily incorporate EAS alerts using this granular data?

The NAB isn’t convinced of such a possibility, at least in the near-term.

The broadcast lobby also claims that streamers “simply lack the infrastructure and local presence to monitor other EAS Participants or alert originators for EAS messages.”

As Spotify inches closer to radio-like services, having recently hired veteran Los Angeles programming executive Kevin Weatherly, this could also change given the right technological advancements it wishes to invest in.

The NAB is steadfast in offering a “don’t count on it”-styled response to such suggestions.

“Even if such a mechanism could be created, requiring streaming services to somehow monitor, manage and prioritize all EAS alerts from the thousands of sources in every municipality (or EAS operational area) across the entire country would be extremely problematic,” the NAB said, adding that it also dismisses the belief that creating a process for streaming services to differentiate between market areas they serve when determining what kinds of EAS alerts to monitor, even with advice from state and local government officials, would help solve this problem.

Then, there’s the scenario of a Florida-based family watching a local newscast live on a streaming app — only the newscast is from a California-based TV station. “This could lead to dangerous confusion” if an EAS alert came on, the NAB says.

That said, the viewer could likely realize that, if locales in California were mentioned, they would be thousands of miles outside of harm’s way.

With Rick Kaplan and Larry Walke signing off on the NAB petition, the association concludes, “In light of all these challenges, NAB urges the Commission to report to Congress that EAS should not be extended to internet-based services at this time.”

It’s now up to legislators on Capitol Hill to judge for themselves if the NAB’s efforts have merit, or are simply crafted to defend one of the most valuable traits of over-the-air media — owned by companies whose revenues have been battered by digital entities.

Most of the time we receive a reader e-mail or, on rare occasion, a hand-written letter from a RBR+TVBR Member, the topic of conversation is usually about our poor proofreading and copy-editing, our choice of wording in a Headline E-mail subject line, or request that RBR+TVBR gives up trying to win a Pulitzer Prize by offering up very lengthy stories on a very esoteric subject.

Today’s RBR+TVBR Mailbag, however, includes a letter that was worth sharing. The topic: the lack of presets on a brand-new Sport Utility Vehicle’s snazzy OEM in-dash entertainment system.

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Four years ago, 8 rack units brought to life the first ATSC 3.0 air chain. Then came a reduced footprint, in April 2019, followed by the 2020 arrival of the first 1-rack unit using a Blade server.

Now, a cloud application on Amazon Web Services (AWS) today is in place for what powers NextGen TV.

It’s the latest advancement since June 2017 for ATSC 3.0 Air Chain technology pioneered by DigiCAP.

The Seoul-based company provided Air Chain technology first moved forward with its ATSC 3.0 tools by working with the three major South Korean broadcast networks during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, enabling them to transmit live 4K over the air.

These first-generation Air Chains were eight rack units (RU) tall.

After the PyeongChang games, DigiCAP analyzed data from their 14 live ATSC 3.0 broadcast sites. Two years later, they introduced an improved version that was only two RU tall, a 75% reduction in size. But the inside changes were significant.

Sang Jin Yoon, SVP of Business Development at DigiCAP, noted, “We took data from extensive field tests at our Korean broadcast sites and analyzed the data using static and dynamic code analysis to holistically optimize our software.  In addition, we rebuilt the software to be more useful in the US, including improving the user experience by redesigning the system administrator, making our software compliant with the evolving ATSC 3.0 spec, and providing more meaningful system status information, and adding features to make DigiCaster more operation friendly.”

in June 2020, as the first commercially licensed ATSC 3.0 broadcast stations were launching in the U.S., DigiCAP introduced a new version on a single RU COTS blade. Yoon noted, “Every year COTS servers get less expensive and more productive. The use of software infrastructure in this configuration is a way to take advantage of the savings and efficiency boosts. Migrating from appliance to software is the unstoppable trend.”

Then, in February of this year, DigiCAP posted the first ATSC 3.0 Air Chain on Amazon Web Services (AWS). “This service will enable installations to go more quickly and let broadcasters pay for their Air Chains with a low monthly service fee instead of a large upfront equipment charge,” DigiCAP said.

Yoon concluded, “Our software infrastructure approach is catching on. Of the 28 US markets that have launched ATSC 3.0, DigiCAP has one or more users in over half of them. Add to that the 14 broadcast stations we have in South Korea and it makes a solid footprint for moving forward.”