Industry News

With the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election’s official results determined on November 8, 2020, financial markets promptly roared in approval on Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. Among the company’s starting their COVID-19 induced slumps on Wall Street was Audacy Inc., formerly Entercom.

Things looked good for Audacy, at first. Then came the Ides of March. Since then, Audacy shares have slumped. On Thursday (5/19), they dipped again, reaching a fresh year-to-date low.

In fact, Audacy’s share growth since the election of Joe Biden as U.S. President has been erased.

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The latest ratings report from the Radio Joint Audience Research body (RAJAR) in charge of measuring radio audiences across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland is out. For iHeartMedia interloper Global, the first quarter of 2022 data was a bright one, as the company touted its national and London performances for spoken word LBC and Hot Adult Contemporary Heart, in addition to Top 40 Capital and Adult Contemporary Smooth.

Audio consultant Matt Deegan took a close look at the entire report. And, in a blog post made early Thursday, he made note of a big new trend — smart speaker consumption of radio. There’s much to take away for U.S. broadcasters, in particular the age of the typical smart speaker user.

 

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A lay apostolate with broadcast signals in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, has agreed to part ways with a radio station serving Bismarck and its FM translator licensed to Williston, N.D.

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Richard Dawkins has been promoted to president of audio for Bauer Media Group. He will now lead the company’s audio business and “take advantage of the opportunities ahead,” per a press release making the announcement.

Dawkins joined Bauer Media Group as chief operating officer of audio in 2019. “This role saw him focus on new opportunities for the business and maximise the performance of its operations through new launches, commercial opportunities and introducing new ways of working,” said Bauer.

Prior to that role, he spent more than a decade at the BBC in a variety of senior roles, most recently as chief operating officer of BBC Content.

Yvonne Bauer, owner and CEO of Bauer Media Group, said Dawkins has already added “enormous value” to the company. “I look forward to starting a new era for Bauer Media Audio,” she said.

Dawkins succeeds Paul Keenan, who joins the company’s executive board as the new chief operating officer.

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Bauer has operations across eight countries in Europe, representing various radio and audio brands including The Voice in Denmark, Radio Nova in Finland and numerous companies in the U.K.

“This is a brilliant opportunity to lead a fantastic team and a strong business with our reach already exceeding 57 million weekly listeners,” said Dawkins.

The post Bauer Media Group Promotes Dawkins to President of Audio appeared first on Radio World.

LOS ANGELES — She is a five-decade veteran of Warner Bros. Television. As of today, she’s now serving as EVP of Ad Sales for AMG Global Syndication, an arm of Byron Allen‘s Allen Media Group.

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It is being described as “one of the industry’s first transitional platform approaches,” one that maximizes dynamic advertising potential for television providers by inserting targeted ads simultaneously on both linear and connected streams.

Introducing the Parity ADS Platform, courtesy of Viamedia. The platform, which seeks to maximize live streams for IP-delivered distribution, can insert regionally targeted ads on linear streams ad the same time as on spot cable, thus providing a match to the local ads running on traditional cable TV systems.

The timing is intriguing, as reports show the scatter market down some 30% over the past four years as NewFronts and Upfronts conclude for 2022-2023.

And, it is a further indication that melding IPTV with traditional cable TV will help advertisers reach a bigger audience, in particular in a world where cord-cutting is not slowing down.

“Our new Parity ADS Platform is one of the industry’s first transitional approaches and introduces the immediate next step to achieving fully dynamic advertising,” Viamedia President/CEO David Solomon said. “This presents an enormous opportunity for our MVPD partners around the country to essentially turn their linear inventory into connected TV (CTV) inventory, all while better serving their local communities, businesses and advertisers.”

He added, “The industry is beginning to catch on to the benefits of a parity approach. As subscribers are transitioned to streaming, there’s often not enough impressions to sell independently. By replicating the same ad on two platforms, MVPDs are able to optimize linear and CTV feeds for advertisers, maximizing inventory and ad sales during the migration. This system is specifically developed to drive greater demand and value for existing advertising inventory.”

 

Mobile devices and apps continue their strong growth trajectory, according to TechSurvey 2022. The annual survey of core radio listeners by Jacobs Media shows radio station apps are playing a larger role among those who listen to streaming audio.

More than 90% of respondents to this year’s survey own a Smartphone, and those devices are playing a bigger role in how people stream radio stations, according to TechSurvey. 

“The number of radio listeners streaming audio from their P1 station’s website is going down. Meanwhile, more people are using that radio station’s mobile app to stream their audio,” said Fred Jacobs, president of Jacobs Media. “Mobile has in fact become more important.”

The most popular app among those respondents with a Smartphone, according to TechSurvey, is their P1 station’s mobile app, with 56% of respondent having downloaded it on their phone or tablet. The most popular apps list also includes YouTube (48%), Pandora (42%), Spotify (40%), iHeartRadio (32%) with TuneIn further down the list (11%).

The survey shows seven in 10 respondents have downloaded a radio or music app to their Smartphone, and those numbers range by age from a low of 40% (Greatest Generation) to a high of 89% (Gen Z).  

Growth of Smart Speakers, while still an important audio outlet, has flattened, according to TS 2022. Ownership of Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices ranked at 35% in TS 2022 with no growth in that percentage from the previous year.

“From our previous focus groups, when we have talked to folks about Smart Speakers and the reason why they haven’t bought one yet, most often the number one reason is privacy. They don’t like the idea of something listening to their private conversations,” Jacobs said. “Smart Speakers are gaining a reputation and image for being invasive from a privacy standpoint. And Google and Apple will have to figure out how to market around that issue.” 

For those survey respondents who already own a Smart Speaker, the use of it can be quite varied, but listening to music has two of the top three spot, according to TS 2022. The number one option for those who frequently use their device is streaming music (Pandora, Amazon Music, etc.) But in the top three is listening to an AM/FM radio station.    

“So when you think about AM/FM radios disappearing from the home and Smart Speakers appearing in the home, this is another great reason why radio stations need to be promoting their presence,” Jacobs said.   

Millenials listen to their P1 station on Smart Speaker about 8% of the time during a typical week. That number drops to 6% for Boomers, according to TS 2022.

Jacobs Media, whose Jācapps mobile app development company designs apps for radio stations, shares the full results with the 470 radio stations in the United States that participated in the survey.

This is the fifth in a series of stories examining the results from TechSurvey 2022. Click here to read part four.

The post TechSurvey 2022: Mobile Apps Still Gaining in Popularity appeared first on Radio World.

Quu Inc. has added two members to its management team.

Pete Benedetti was named EVP of revenue, while Lori Olsen becomes Quu’s administrative and contracts manager. The roles are new; both will report to CEO Steve Newberry.

Benedetti has a background in acquiring, owning and integrating radio stations. He is a NAB and CBA board member, and founder and CEO of AlwaysMountainTime, a role he’ll continue as Krista Benedetti is promoted to president and will oversee day-to-day operations for that company.

Olsen will manage Quu’s business relationships with its clients. She has worked in office and contract administration for Westwood One and Global Dial.

Quu is a technology that allows stations to add synced sales and programming messages called Visual Quus on vehicle dashboards.

[Related: “Quu, Xperi Expand Their Relationship”]

The post Quu Announces Two Hires appeared first on Radio World.

FM radio stations in the United States that want to use directional antennas will now be able to use computer modeling verification.

The Federal Communications Commission has unanimously approved this proposal, which four antenna manufacturers had pushed for while another one opposed it.

“Right now, more than one-fifth of our FM radio stations use directional antennas,” noted Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement. “These antennas increase the operating power of a station in a specific direction while still respecting the interference ratios that are essential for shared use of these airwaves. This is smart — and spectrally efficient.”

But FM rules hadn’t kept pace. Now, she said, FM broadcasters will have an option that was already available to AM and TV broadcasters.

“A group of broadcasting stakeholders brought this to our attention last fall. We started a rulemaking to address this discrepancy. We took a close look at the record and the need to incorporate evolving technologies into our policies.”

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All four commissioners approved the change. It means FM stations, including LPFMs, that want to use directional antennas will no longer be required to provide signal measurements from physical antenna mockups. They can use computer modeling — typically prepared by the antenna manufacturer — after the model is initially verified for accuracy. This is expected to save broadcasters money and time.

The change was advocated by antenna makers Dielectric, Shively, RFS and Jampro, as well as broadcaster Educational Media Foundation. But antenna maker ERI had expressed opposition, saying the change could have the potential to “create protracted and contentious interference disputes” since the disputes would involve full-service FM stations that are licensed as a primary service.

This image of a physical scale model and a computer equivalent was provided by Dielectric as part of the FCC comments in the proceeding.

 

The proposal also had drawn support from the NAB. 

“NAB supports the FCC’s order allowing computer modeling of FM directional antennas, which would eliminate the need for unnecessary measurements without jeopardizing broadcasters’ service to the public,” spokeswoman Ann Marie Cumming told Radio World. “We appreciate the commission incorporating into the order our recommendations for updates to the present rules that ensure the integrity of the modeling process. We thank Chairwoman Rosenworcel and her fellow commissioners for working to reduce regulatory burdens on broadcast radio and modernizing these outdated rules.”

[Also see “FCC Explains Its Reasoning on FM Computer Modeling”]

The post FCC OKs Computer Modeling for Directional FM appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC has changed its mind about which applicant should be the tentative winner of a construction permit for a new noncommercial FM in northwest Mississippi.

It’s a case involving mutually exclusive applications filed in the 2021 NCE filing window. 

The commission originally selected Full Potential Ministry as the tentative selectee in MX Group 130, for an FM station in Coahoma, Miss. 

The Media Bureau had found that the Full Potential application as well as another filed by Open Sky Radio Corp. were both eligible for a fair distribution preference, part of the process that it uses to choose among MX applicants. And because Full Potential’s proposed second NCE service exceeded Open Sky’s by more than 5,000 people, the FCC staff at first chose the Full Potential application.

But Open Sky Radio, which hopes for a CP to serve nearby Clarksdale, then filed a petition to deny. 

It argued that the bureau had improperly relied on a revised document that Full Potential provided after the close of the window. It said that the document originally attached to the Full Potential application did not include population numbers. It also noted that, after the close of the window, the Media Bureau staff uploaded to the Full Potential application a revised document containing population figures.

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Open Sky pointed out that in an earlier NCE filing window, the bureau consistently rejected fair distribution claims if their population numbers were missing. It also said that the instructions for the 2021 window stated that supporting documents had to be filed prior to the close of the window. So it said the FCC should reject Full Potential’s fair distribution claim. (Full Potential did not file an opposition to the Open Sky petition.)

In this week’s ruling, the FCC has agreed with Open Sky. It said that after the close of the filing window, its staff had received an email from Full Potential’s engineer stating that he had experienced problems with the FCC’s LMS filing system, and asked to replace the original fair distribution exhibit with a revised one. It said its staff misconstrued this email as suggesting that LMS had not accepted the original fair distribution exhibit.  

“However, LMS had in fact accepted this exhibit, which was missing several population figures, and it is clear that FPM simply uploaded the incorrect attachment.”

The FCC says it has consistently rejected such post-window amendments that claim, for the first time, a fair distribution preference or which attempt to correct population figures.

So, it now has conducted a new analysis and found that Open Sky Radio Corp. is the tentative selectee for NCE MX Group 130.

As in all such cases, petitions to deny this decision must be filed within 30 days, after which the commission intends to grant a CP.

The post Open Sky Radio Wins MX Appeal in Mississippi appeared first on Radio World.