Among the fresh commercials getting a Super Bowl LVI airing on February 13 was a fun spot from a fitness center featuring Lindsay Lohan, playing at her past with a focus on the future.
The spot is the signature component of a campaign that has increased its use of Spot TV in the last week.
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Aside from a new effort from one of the nation’s biggest pharmacy chains, there’s little movement of note in the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report.
Is that a good thing?
For some, the static nature of the report suggests brands that are investing in radio are committing to the medium, with Indeed, Progressive, DuckDuckGo and Wendy’s among the brands favoring Spot Radio of late.
For others, however, greater activity from these brands’ peers, and from brands in other categories, could still be seen — something that could push the iHeartRadio promotional spots out of the report altogether.
Walgreen’s is new at No. 9 this week, while Babbel and ZipRecruiter are also seen on the latest report.
With roughly four hours to go before NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl LVI was to begin, Mediacom cable TV service subscribers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA, Arizona’s Prescott Valley region, and the home of the NFC Champions from 1994-2015 have regained the opportunity to watch the “Big Game” without having to resort to “rabbit ears” or other alternatives.
It ends a 409-day “blackout” due to the absence of a retransmission consent agreement, and comes just days after an agreement with DISH was reached — an action that only further suggests that a TEGNA takeover by Standard General in partnership with Apollo Global Management is coming soon.
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To mark World Radio Day, the Saudi Broadcasting Authority launched Al-Ekhbariya Radio, the first news radio station in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 13.
The station is affiliated with the government-owned Al-Ekhbariya TV channel and can heard on FM in the capital city of Riyadh (93.0 MHz), Jeddah (107.7 MHz) along the Red Sea coast, and Dammam (99.0 MHz) in the Eastern portion of the country.
SBA CEO Mohammed bin Fahd Al-Harithi told the Saudi Press Agency that the launch is part of the SBA’s effort to make greater use of all media platforms, develop more local content, and meet different societal tastes.
[Read More of Our Coverage of Radio Around the World]
Station director Mubarak Al-Ati told the Al-Ekhbariya TV “Today” program that the station is part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plans to build a more diverse and sustainable economy along with a vibrant society. “Launching the station is in the interest of the Saudi media renaissance to keep pace with the developments the kingdom is undergoing at all levels. Saudi media will continue to leap and advance in service of the kingdom’s leadership and people.”
According to UAE News, the station will have a network of 85 correspondents and will focus 80% of its programming on local news with the remainder focused on Arab and international news.
The post Saudi Arabia Launches Its First News Radio Station appeared first on Radio World.
Established in September 2011 by UNESCO, World Radio Day celebrates the profound influence of radio technology in spreading diverse, democratic discourse. Because of the medium’s relatively low cost and massive reach, it remains one of the most accessible forms of communication.
At the National Inventors Hall of Fame, we have the privilege of honoring some of the world’s greatest inventors, several of whom have played a significant role in developing radio technology. In recognition of the 10th anniversary of World Radio Day, we invite you to learn about NIHF Inductee Reginald Fessenden, who is known not only for discovering amplitude modulation (AM) radio, but also for conducting the first radio broadcast.
A Varied Background
Fessenden was born on Oct. 6, 1866, in what is now Québec. The son of an Anglican minister, he studied at Trinity College School and later at Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Quebec.
In addition to teaching, he landed a job as principal of the Whitney Institute, a newly formed school in Bermuda. It was there that he met his wife, Helen Trott, and became interested in the field of science.
[Read More from Radio World About Fessenden]
Fessenden later moved to New York City to work for fellow NIHF Inductee Thomas Edison. While he began as a tester at the Edison Machine Works in 1886, he impressed Edison so much that just one year later, he was promoted to the position of chief chemist at the newly built Edison Laboratory in West Orange, N.J.
Unfortunately, Edison’s companies ran into financial hardship during the late 1880s, and Fessenden was let go. Undeterred, he continued working in the field of electrical engineering and eventually returned to the classroom to teach at the University of Pittsburgh.
A History-Making Broadcast
In 1900, Fessenden left academia for a job at the U.S. Weather Bureau, where he was challenged to adapt radiotelegraphy for use in weather forecasting. Frustrated with the cumbersome and slow process of decoding radiotelegraphy messages, he began exploring ways to transmit voice. Through his experiments, Fessenden realized that combining radio waves with a locally generated wave of a slightly different frequency created an audible frequency that could transmit the human voice.
He continued developing this idea, which he named the heterodyne principle, and on Christmas Eve 1906 he used his technology to successfully transmit human voices from Brant Rock Station, Mass., to ships off the Atlantic coast. The ships at sea enjoyed a broadcast that included Fessenden playing “O Holy Night” on his violin and reading a passage from the Bible.
To ensure the broadcast worked, he requested sailors send him a letter describing what they had heard on the other end. Their responses confirmed that the transmission was a success.
However, it would take another 10 years for this modern idea of radio transmission to become commercially viable with the availability of electron tubes (also known as vacuum tubes) to serve as the oscillator.
Fessenden held over 200 U.S. patents, and thanks to his celebrated 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast, he is considered by many to be the father of modern radio.
Discover More World-Changing Hall of Famers
To learn about more NIHF Inductees whose innovations have helped improve the lives of people around the world, we invite you to visit our blog.
The author is a content strategist at the National Inventors Hall of Fame based in North Canton, Ohio.
The post Reginald Fessenden: Father of Modern Radio appeared first on Radio World.
Before we get too much further into 2022, I’m hoping we can focus on making it a better world for ourselves and our listeners in as many ways as possible.
When you read the many summaries of the headlines 2021, you couldn’t help but notice that climate was one of the top stories. From extremely cold temperatures in Texas and record highs on the Pacific Coast to hurricanes and enormous forest fires, weather effects dominated the news.
Yet as I listen to commercial stations around the United States, I rarely hear the terms “climate change” or “global warming” mentioned other than news radio coverage. The exception is conservative talk radio, where the seriousness of climate change is still rejected as a left-wing scare tactic.
“Pluralistic ignorance” is a useful phenomenon to understand if our industry wants to help improve conditions we face with climate change, COVID and the economy.
Pluralistic ignorance happens when people misjudge beliefs and actions of others and then act accordingly, even when it goes against what they actually believe.
A prime example of pluralistic ignorance comes from a 2019 survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. It discovered that the American public underestimates how many people in our country believe that global warming is real.
It might be surprising to you to learn that Americans on average think that only 54% of others believe that global warming is occurring, when actually 69% of Americans surveyed at that time really did believe it was happening. And the latest survey from September indicates that this belief about global warming has grown to 76% of the American public believing that “global warming is happening,” an all-time high since the program began its surveys in 2008.
Taos Communications station KTAO in New Mexico has been using solar power since 1991.While I understand talk radio has an audience to serve, these stats make me wonder if its programmers are doing enough research to make sure that the once-sacred cow of poo-pooing climate change should be reassessed, even for their listeners.
After all, it is common for Americans of radically different political stripes to want the same thing. The crux of conflict is how it should be done.
Regarding policy proposals, an April 2021 Pew Research survey reports that among specifically conservative-leaning Republicans, 86% favor planting about a trillion trees around the world to absorb carbon emissions, 69% support tax credit for businesses to develop carbon-capture and storage technology, and nearly half support tougher restrictions on power plant carbon emissions. Those results are not what common wisdom might predict.
And if you take a look at the comparison maps of the Yale Program’s 2018 survey of Democratic and Republican views of climate change, you will see that most Republicans at least “somewhat agree” that global warming should be taught in our schools — and an astounding number at least “somewhat support” the funding of research into “renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.”
That’s a far cry from the notion that politically conservative Americans couldn’t care less about climate change.
Broaden the conversation
For most of the listening universe in America, it’s past time that stations started openly supporting climate change initiatives, or at least letting the conversation take place.
Where to start? There’s a 90-second piece called “Climate Connections,” produced five times a week by The Yale Center for Environmental Communication that’s on many public radio stations; it could use more support from commercial radio. If you’re interested, email editor@yaleclimateconnections.org. If not, Yale’s climate change focused websites https://yaleclimateconnections.org/and https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/ offer many ideas for how you can incorporate messaging into your programming.
There are even studies showing how the public views specific topics you may consider addressing.
Along with addressing the topic regularly, stations can help support local and national initiatives and execute promotions, events and concerts with the proceeds benefiting organizations working to fight climate change.
Taking political affiliation into consideration, it’s easy to find resources that support different climate change initiatives. Google “climate change solutions” or “climate change education” and you’ll find everything from Greenpeace to the Brookings Institution and the Senate Bipartisan Climate Caucus.
Is it possible to run all or part of your radio station using solar energy? KTAO in Taos, N.M., famously has been using solar since 1991. If you’ve got to “get it in the budget” for next year, there’s no better time to plan for the future than now.
With seven in 10 Americans being at least “somewhat worried” about global warming, it’s time to broaden the conversation about this crucial aspect of the future that we all share.
The post Radio, Influencing the Future for Good appeared first on Radio World.
Almost three decades into democracy, radio is thriving in South Africa. Radio listenership in the country is consistently higher than the global average. And it in fact increased during the COVID-19 lockdowns of the past two years.
This is perhaps not surprising given that radio acts as a companion and that people were confined to their homes and so more likely to tune in, more often. But during the pandemic, radio has also played an important role in bringing educational broadcasts to youth who did not have access to the internet. People also listened to radio station podcasts during lockdown, and podcast listenership in South Africa is also higher than the global average.
Despite South Africa’s divisive history, I have argued that this is because radio listening provides background texture to everyday life. It’s a social activity which reminds people that there is a social world “out there” and helps them link to it.
The numbers
Radio is a universal mass medium in South Africa, since more people have access to radio receivers and broadcasts than they do television sets. In fact, radio remains the most popular and pervasive medium across the continent. This is despite the proliferation of cellphones, the growth of social media apps and on-demand streaming music services.
[Read More of Our Coverage of Radio Around the World]
One might assume that fewer people would listen to the radio given these technological innovations. But the most recent measurement figures show that radio audiences in South Africa continue to grow.
In 2021, about 80% of South Africans had tuned into a radio station within the last week, with most people still listening on traditional radio sets. There are 40 commercial and public broadcast stations and 284 community stations in South Africa.
Radio audience numbers in South Africa have not declined as they have in North America, due to an increase in streaming service options. There is, in particular, high listenership among young people, who listen to radio as a source of both news and companionship.
Vernacular radio
World Radio Day is a good time to reflect on the role of the medium in a country like South Africa, characterized by inequality and an ethnically divisive history under apartheid.
Historically, South African broadcasting has not provided a common space of public communication, but instead reinforced notions of separateness, in line with apartheid narratives of difference. As I argued in my book Broadcasting Democracy, people “consume” radio, making strategic choices about which stations to tune into on the basis of their personal or group identities.
Commercial music radio stations in particular are still often seen and sometimes even explicitly framed along racial lines. There is a plethora of radio stations in all 11 official languages available at the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corp.
South African scholar Liz Gunner has shown how a station like the Zulu language Ukhozi FM has been significant in connecting with urban and rural listeners to navigate post-apartheid Zulu identity. Ukhozi FM has the highest radio listenership with nearly 8-million listeners. While during apartheid language and ethnic differences were used as a means to segregate citizens, today these are celebrated as part of a diverse “rainbow nation”.
The public sphere
Despite the continued popularity of vernacular radio, English-language talk radio stations and shows still attract African language speakers who frequently phone in and participate. This could be linked to the dominance of English-language media in South Africa and the fact that English media spaces are also often dominant.
In other words, despite the range of vernacular options, English stations are perceived as being sites of the public sphere and attract debate and conversation between a diverse range of South Africans.
[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]
Regardless of language, talk radio shows are booming with vibrant conversations, highlighting the important role of radio as a space to bring together geographically diverse South Africans to debate matters of social and political importance.
Aside from identity, radio also plays a key role as a companion for people, as in this study where the majority of youth said that radio “keeps me company”. Another recent study confirmed that listeners often see their preferred radio station as a companion and feel a deep connection with both the station and its DJs.
Social media
While traditional listenership is growing in South Africa, people are also listening more online and interacting with radio stations in different ways, for example via social media platforms.
Whereas in the past listeners could only access radio hosts via calling in to the station, they can now easily and instantly reach them via apps like Twitter. And equally instantly receive responses. While calling in to a station usually implies negotiating one’s way past a call screener or producer and engaging on a specific topic, Twitter communication is often more casual, relaxed and personal.
Radio is thus no longer a one-dimensional platform or “blind medium”, and this is a key contributing factor to its growth. And radio listeners are able to now communicate directly not only with the station, but also one another.
Community radio
And with 284 stations, the role of community radio in South Africa also remains key to continuing to build and consolidate democracy. Originally designed as the “voice of the voiceless”, community radio emerged as part of the liberalization of the airwaves in the early 1990s. They were a key strategy in the repositioning of the apartheid-state media landscape.
Like many other organizations in the NGO sector, community stations have faced financial challenges after the withdrawal of international donor funds which sustained them during the apartheid period. But they are still flourishing, as evidenced by the large number of stations still in existence.
Stations like Bush Radio, the oldest community radio project in Cape Town, still boast an exciting lineup of alternative talk and music content. And smaller community projects like Rx Radio, a children’s radio project based at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, also play a key role in providing children’s entertainment produced by children themselves.
Radio plays a significant role in South Africa as form of education and entertainment. The diverse and vibrant range of stations is a unique feature of the South African media landscape.
Tanja Bosch is an associate professor in Media Studies and Production at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the author of the book Broadcasting Democracy: Radio and Identity in South Africa. Her Twitter feed is @radionerd76.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.
The post Radio Is Thriving in South Africa: 80% Are Tuning In appeared first on Radio World.
The National Association of Broadcasters has laid out its top policy priorities for the 117th Congress with a list of policy priorities that include preserving local journalism in the age of big tech, increasing diversity in broadcasters, preventing harmful changes to advertising tax treatment, and ensuring broadcast ownership rules reflect the competitive marketplace.
Its list of policy priorities began with preserving local journalism in the age of big tech.
Noting that journalism and a free press are bedrocks of American democracy, the NAB said that while “free, accessible and reliable content remains in high demand, it is being undermined on multiple fronts.”
As the “advertising market has become dominated by a few giant online platforms, broadcast stations’ advertising revenues have significantly declined, making local journalism more difficult to support,” the NAB said.
“As Congress considers the competitive challenges and antitrust concerns raised by digital platforms and their impact on local news and information, it should support laws and policies that recognize and uphold broadcasters’ unique and essential role in democracy and a free press,” the NAB said.
[Read More of RW’s Congressional Coverage]
In opposing a performance tax on local radio stations, the NAB contended that a “performance tax would financially cripple local radio stations simply for airing music, jeopardizing local jobs, stifling new artists and harming local radio listeners. Broadcasters strongly support the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 33, S. Con. Res. 9), a resolution that opposes a performance tax and is supported by more than 230 bipartisan members of the House and Senate.”
In terms of its policy priority of increasing diversity in broadcasting, the NAB noted that “the most impactful program to expand diversity in broadcast ownership – the Minority Tax Certificate Program – was eliminated by Congress in 1995. That program had provided tax incentives to those who sold their majority interests in broadcast stations to minorities, and broadcasters support legislation to reinstate it.”
“Broadcasters support the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act (H.R. 4871) and the Broadcast Varied Ownership Incentives for Community Expanded Service Act, also known as the Broadcast VOICES Act (S. 2456), introduced in the House and Senate respectively during the 117th Congress,” the NAB said. “Reinstating the Tax Certificate Program at the FCC would encourage investment in broadcast station ownership for women and people of color and dramatically help underrepresented voices realize their dreams of radio and television station ownership.”
The NAB also came out against preventing harmful changes to advertising tax treatment.
“Under the U.S. tax code, advertising is treated as an ordinary and necessary business expense deductible in the year it is incurred,” the NAB said. “In the last few years, some in Congress and in state legislatures have proposed changes to the tax treatment of businesses’ advertising as a means of raising revenue. These modifications would have a devastating impact on radio and television stations, as well as local newspapers, by discouraging businesses from advertising….Congress should oppose legislation that modifies the tax laws to make advertising more expensive for businesses.”
In terms of relaxing ownership regulations, the NAB stressed that “TV and radio stations are best able to serve their local communities when allowed to compete effectively in the marketplace….Broadcasters urge policymakers to support the FCC’s modernization of radio and TV ownership rules to reflect the current marketplace and account for the rise and increasing influence of digital media.”
More information on the policies that broadcasters will focus on during the rest of the 117th Congress is available at nab.org/advocacy.
The post NAB Lays Out Top Policy Priorities for 117th Congress appeared first on Radio World.
MIAMI — Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) has filed a petition for declaratory ruling with the FCC that would allow foreign investors to indirectly own up to 49.9% of the Hispanic media company’s equity in the aggregate.
Should that happen? The Media Bureau wants to know.
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As the court-appointed receiver of three radio stations tied to Ed Stolz, Larry Patrick was directed by a California federal district judge to move forward with the sale of Stolz’s three FM radio stations licensed to Royce International Broadcasting. The action, the judge said, was necessary in order to provide past-due royalty payments tied to the airplay of music on those FMs.
Then came Stolz’s bankruptcy filing, in a Nevada court. As RBR+TVBR reported this week, the Nevada Federal Bankruptcy Judge — in an oral ruling — paved the way for Stolz to regain ownership of the properties.
Paperwork reflecting the unwinding of a deal engineered by Patrick has now been filed with the FCC.
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