Feed aggregator

Rolling The Dice For Big Wins On Spot Cable

Radio+Television Business Report - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 13:36

The latest Spot Ten Cable report is out from Media Monitors, and the amount of activity seen last week from one QSR brand was enormous, putting a big user of Spot Cable in the home improvement category well far behind by play count.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Categories: Industry News

ENCO Partners with Benztown, Compass Radio for AI Initiative

Radio World - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 13:32

ENCO has joined forces with Benztown and Compass Media Networks to bring its SpecAI ad creation tool  to the North American radio broadcast market.

According to ENCO, the three companies will work together on initiatives that emphasize how artificial intelligence can help broadcasters create spec ads for sponsors on demand, “alleviating the time, energy and costs of traditional production methods while accelerating the sales process and time to market,” said the company in a press release.

The main initiative, SpecAI, uses generative AI models to create audio content and automate voice tracking for new spots.

ENCO said SpecAI’s workflow is simple. The user, typically an account executive within a media organization, first answers a few questions to determine spot length (30 or 60 seconds), writing style (casual, humorous, uplifting), and sponsor details (company name, address), using a web browser or mobile device.

SpecAI then generates three scripts to choose from, which, according to ENCO, users can manually edit or have re-generated through phonetics to perfect the copy. “The user then selects their preferred sound of the AI voice and music bed underneath before downloading the final down-mixed audio file,” said ENCO. “The process can be completed in seconds.”

Benztown and Compass Media Networks have worked closely with ENCO’s engineering team on SpecAI’s development. Specifically, Benztown has added user-selectable music beds that run underneath the AI voice while Compass Media has contributed to the user interface with its Specbyte and Cash by Creative platforms.

Dave “Chachi” Denes, president and co-founder of Benztown, said the music options will help set the tone for each spot. “The music in SpecAI is categorized by format,” he said. “For example, an account executive for an Adult Contemporary or Rock station has many options to add music that aligns with the client and station’s demographic. There will also be themed music available for holidays throughout the year.”

Compass Media will lead the sales and marketing efforts alongside Benztown employees, who will focus more on international clients.

[Check Out More Product Evaluations in Our Products Section]

The post ENCO Partners with Benztown, Compass Radio for AI Initiative appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

A Clear Home Improvement Leader At Radio

Radio+Television Business Report - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 13:31

On a national level, there are two big home improvement retailers actively seeking to sway consumers to purchase items in their ultra-huge stores. At Spot Radio, one of those brands emerged last week as a big user of national audio ads on the AM and FM stations tracked by iHeartMedia-owned Media Monitors.

And, that home improvement brand leader for the week ending October 29, 2023 is Lowe’s, jumping from No. 14 in rank based on play count week-over-week.

Competitor The Home Depot is present, but at No. 8 by play count.

The big activity of the week includes stalwarts at Spot Radio: Vicks, ZipRecruiter, Babbel and The Upside app.

There’s also efforts in the pay-as-you-go wireless services arena, thanks to Straight Talk and Boost Infinite.

 

 

Categories: Industry News

Audacy Gets Debt Repayment Delay OKs As NYSE Exit Is Final

Radio+Television Business Report - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 13:17

Audacy Inc. has disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has worked out a grace period extension with a lender, giving it more time to pay interest on its 2029 Notes without defaulting.

The audio content creation and distribution company concurrently entered into two other grace periods of varying lengths, as it learned that any return to trading on the NYSE won’t be happening anytime soon.

 

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Categories: Industry News

It’s Time To Select Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders

Radio+Television Business Report - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 12:30
WHO ARE THE BEST TECH-FOCUSED LEADERS IN RADIO & TELEVISION? The third annual “Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders” are now being considered for this year’s honors, and the selections are totally up to you! RBR+TVBR, the publication dedicated to the Business of Broadcast Media, is now accepting nominations from industry members for the 2024 Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders list. This salutes the leading information technology and engineering minds in broadcast media, who work diligently behind-the-scenes to ensure broadcast media remains relevant and resilient — keeping it future-proof. To make your nomination, please click here!

 

 

Categories: Industry News

Best of Show at IBC 2023 Guide Is Here

Radio World - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 11:53

A new program guide features all of the nominees and winners in the “Best of Show” Award program at the recent IBC Show.

The guide provides a great overview of new or recently introduced products that their manufacturers felt were particularly noteworthy. The guide features 154 pages of product news.

The awards were given by Radio World and our sibling publications TVB Europe, TV Tech and Installation. Companies pay a fee to enter. Not all products are awarded.

Click here to open to the radio products. Or click on the cover image to read the full guide.

The post Best of Show at IBC 2023 Guide Is Here appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

Broadcasters Clinic Will Be Shorter (and Earlier) Next Year

Radio World - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 10:46
Attorney David Oxenford speaks to engineers at the 2023 Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, Wis.

The Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, Wis., will be condensed into two days rather than three next year. The conference will also be held earlier than in the recent past.

The popular technical event is sponsored by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and is headed into its 68th year. The Society of Broadcast Engineers has recognized the clinic for several years running with its “Best Educational Event” award.

In 2024 the clinic will be held on Sept. 10­ and 11, with a reception on Sept. 9.

“Tuesday will feature two concurrent sessions, one focused on radio and the other on TV,” the organizers announced. “Wednesday will bring all the engineers into the same hall for sessions relevant to all broadcast engineers.”

Traditionally the third day has featured TV-focused topics. The content from that day will now run concurrent to the radio content on Tuesday.

“The schedule and space for exhibitors will not change, but the schedule change means more TV-oriented engineers will be on hand for the exclusive exhibitor time on Tuesday.”

Registration will open in late spring.

Program Chair Jim Steinhart has posted on the clinic website that the 2023 conference this month drew attendees from at least 23 states, with approximately 45 exhibitors.

The post Broadcasters Clinic Will Be Shorter (and Earlier) Next Year appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

East Of Atlanta, An AM/FM Goes To Executor

Radio+Television Business Report - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 10:38

A 1kw Class C AM from 1 tower in Monroe, Ga., and its 250-watt FM translator, could soon be in the hands of a new owner, in addition to a Class A Country FM.

The licensee of these facilities, which cover a small portion of the Atlanta DMA, has died, and paperwork seeking FCC approval of a transfer of control to the executor of the deceased owner’s will has now been filed.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Categories: Industry News

Attention Measurement: The iSpot.TV ‘Transparency’ Play

Radio+Television Business Report - Mon, 10/30/2023 - 09:59

“As legacy, black-box solutions give way to modern and transparent TV measurement
capabilities, the industry is at an important crossroads.” That’s a conclusion given by iSpot.TV in a just-released quarterly analysis on “TV transparency” that places a spotlight on how to best determine how many viewers are consuming a particular video entertainment offering.

“With audience migrations, the surge in streaming, the unpredictability of TV seasons and escalating sports rights costs, the TV landscape is being reshaped by disruptive forces,” iSpot.TV says. However, against these changes, there is one constant.

 

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Categories: Industry News

This Is One Tower-Climber You Don’t Want to See

Radio World - Sun, 10/29/2023 - 07:00

If you don’t live in the southern United States you may not have had to deal with kudzu (yet).

Kudzu, the tower-climber that ate the South.

According to the Nature Conservancy, kudzu is a semi-woody vine that was brought to the United States from Asia in 1876 as an ornamental, and it was used during the 1930s to ’50s for erosion control.

That was a mistake. 

“Known as ‘mile-a-minute’ and ‘the vine that ate the South,’ this creeping, climbing perennial vine terrorizes native plants all over the southeastern United States and is making its way into the Midwest, Northeast and even Oregon,” the organization states on its website.

The accompanying photo shows kudzu at work and offers a great example of why you need to inspect your tower sites regularly. 

I’m curious how this AM station stays on the air when it rains, as the vine will have grown right across the base insulator.

Dan’s busy browser

Frequent contributor Dan Slentz has been perusing the World Wide Web again and brings us several more useful discoveries. 

The first is a cool neon-style LED “on air” sign that is powered by USB and costs under $20. Dan found it on Temu and says he can’t believe how bright the sign is. A 5VDC wall adaptor will power it. (It literally is a “cool” find because it generates very little heat.) 

Dan says this would be useful at small studios, remote broadcast locations and podcast setups. Head to www.temu.com  and search “neon on air light.”

Dan Slentz found this inexpensive on-air sign.

Dan’s next find is appropriate for this time of year. It’s a web-based tool to predict sun outages and sun interference for geostationary-orbit satellites. 

Using the app is straightforward. You pick a satellite from the list and select C or Ku band, then enter the antenna size and choose the season. Then double-click on your location on the map. A grid at the bottom will give you a window of time when you can expect sun outage. 

At www.satellite-calculations.com, scroll down to Sun Outage Prediction Tool.

Finally, if you need to route cables, check out the fun and interesting catalog of a New York-based company called Snake Tray. It provides a variety of cable trays, from simple and inexpensive to larger and heavier-duty models. You can download all 100+ pages of the catalog in PDF form here

Snake Tray offers a variety of cable management solutions. Helpful Pi

KRYZ(LP), a community station in Mariposa, Calif., secured its transmitter site network from hackers using three Raspberry Pi devices and technology from Atsign, a network services provider.

“The move to Atsign came after the station’s network programming was mysteriously switched to a Swedish radio station feed playing Scandinavian rock,” Atsign said in a release. The disruption took the radio station several hours to correct.

“Atsign and KRYZ worked together to implement a security solution that closes all of the tower’s network attack surfaces (i.e., no listening network ports) yet still allows KRYZ to receive crucial operational data from the tower so they can easily and remotely monitor their [site’s] health and status,” it said.

“Additionally, using ‘SSH No Ports,’ the station’s administrator can still access the network to administer and update the crucial network.” SSH No Ports is a technology that uses an encrypted control plane to initiate SSH connections without opening ports on your devices.

One of the Raspberry Pis is used as a jump box that allows administrators to use SSH No Ports to access and administer equipment in the shed including the other two Raspberry Pis. The second is used to process the digital audio stream using an audio tool. The third is used to monitor the transmitter’s health and status, and to send alerts if there are problems.

You can read a description of this project here at “Secure Your Radio Station With Networking 2.0.” 

Feed the grapevine! Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

[Read Another Workbench by John Bisset]

The post This Is One Tower-Climber You Don’t Want to See appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

Letter: Radio in Phones Is a Non-Starter

Radio World - Sun, 10/29/2023 - 07:00

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

Dear RW: A recent letter from Tim Lynch called for Congress to require that cellphones and tablets come equipped with an AM/FM receiver chip.

I wish there was OTA radio in my phone, but unfortunately radio in a smartphone or tablet does not work well. Back when Emmis was promoting FM in phones, some phones were made with FM “chips.” There is no way to do a “Front End Module” at low-VHF in a phone — it’s way too big — so the front end of the receiver is compromised before you get to the antenna. 

There is no way to place an efficient omnidirectional or diversity low-VHF antenna inside a phone. What you get is an insensitive receiver. Users can’t get stations they get on other radios unless they are very close, and they can’t rotate the receiver or walk into to shadows without losing the signal. 

Streaming, texting or making a phone call (unless you are near the FM transmitter) is a much more stable connection. People expect that if they have a radio, it will work as well as the car radio, and it will work anywhere the phone has “bars.” Instead, it works just like the receiver you bring to the hotel with you. Maybe if you sit it in the window with antenna extended on the best side of the building you can get that NPR station.

When wireless earbuds came along, even a poor receiver in a phone became unachievable. Without the earphone cords for an antenna, this is a receiver far to deaf to sell.

In a past life, I got to trial a couple of phones with FM. If you want to experience this, go buy a cheap FM “transistor radio” and break off the antenna. Now put it in your pocket and wander. Count how many stations are strong enough to be pleasurable listening. Do it again away from the transmitters in suburban and rural areas where people live and might have to evacuate to.

The answer to the question “Why can’t I get a phone with a radio receiver?” is “Because it will never work well enough to be a viable product, so they stopped making them.” It’s not a political thing, it is a technical thing. Broadcasting directly to a phone has to be UHF.

[Check Out More Letters at Radio World’s Reader’s Forum Section]

The post Letter: Radio in Phones Is a Non-Starter appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

Don’t Let AoIP Intimidate You

Radio World - Sat, 10/28/2023 - 07:00

Shane Toven is senior broadcast engineer at Educational Media Foundation and its K-LOVE and Air1 Networks. This interview is excerpted from the free ebook “The Evolution of AoIP.”

Radio World: At this stage of its implementation across radio, what would you say is the most important thing that engineers should know about audio over IP?

Shane Toven: While it can be complex, there are easy ways to implement it now. For example, the proliferation of Dante into the broadcast field has lowered the barrier of entry. I have seen it a lot in television and other facilities, and I was kind of surprised to see it making inroads into broadcast.

Traditionally it has been used in live and installed sound, but it’s a straightforward system for broadcasters to work with, and the hardware is inexpensive. You can get dongles for analog, AES, USB and Bluetooth to move audio on and off of a Dante network for less than $200. And it can, in fact, talk to other AoIP standards using AES67, though it’s not as straightforward once you move out of a pure Dante world.

Shane Toven

RW: There’s that issue of interoperability again.

Toven: With AES67 — how long has it been now since that standard was ratified? — we’re still not a whole lot better off than we were originally. Yes, it can make hardware with different AoIP standards talk to each other, but it’s anything but straightforward. You still have multiple discovery protocols, any one of which could potentially be implemented as part of AES67, or none at all. Further, you still have to deal with clocking and PTP, which is a topic in itself. A lot of these systems deal with clocking automatically in the background, but with AES67, you need to be more intentional about it and know what you’re doing. 

RW: How does EMF deploy AoIP? Is it all within studios or is it broader than that?

Toven: Both at studios and at transmitter sites. In the studios, we have an extensive Axia AoIP infrastructure, and we’re even looking at deploying AoIP over a managed WAN. Again, being intentional is critical when designing such a system in terms of IP schemes, clocking and routing. 

We work with several standards internally. Avid ProTools uses AVB; other systems use Dante; still others use NDI, which is another, more video-centric standard. Ultimately, you still have to get audio in and out of those systems, and if you want to do it over IP, you have to figure out how to translate between the various standards.

RW: What about STL type applications, point A to point B?

Toven: Our station sites each have at least one AoIP node — two for digital sites. Those are used mostly for routing audio within the rack; in most cases, they’re not used for any kind of STL application. I have used them that way, where you put one on either end of a microwave radio and link them up, and it can work quite well despite a sensitivity to timing and link conditions. Sometimes you’re just better off using a codec.

RW: What about security concerns?

Toven: That’s a great question. AoIP traffic itself in most cases (especially if it’s just multicast traffic) is pretty easy to sniff out because most AoIP streams use no real encryption. If security is a concern, the biggest thing is to follow best IT practices and limit access to those networks physically and electronically as best you can. 

The other concern, of course, is from the standpoint of hardware management. Again, you want to limit access where you have management interfaces and follow best practices in terms of strong passwords, changing default usernames and passwords, and the like.

RW: How does this discussion overlap with conversations about virtualization and the cloud?

Toven: They tie together extremely closely. In a virtual environment, you don’t have any sort of physical audio I/O. So how do you get your audio in and out of those systems? AoIP, which again can take any number of forms. It can be native AoIP traffic like AES67, Livewire, or WheatNet. But AoIP is definitely relevant to virtualization.

RW: We’re getting more accustomed to hardware becoming software and to software becoming a service. Is that playing out in AoIP?

Toven: Absolutely. You see manufacturers offering as software what they had offered as hardware — mix engines, codecs.  The hardware had essentially become a PC running software, so why not eliminate the PC? If you have an existing virtual environment, it’s just as easy to put that software inside of that virtual environment than it is to buy the box and have another dedicated box on your network. 

The drawback is that manufacturers don’t necessarily have control over that environment, so it’s more difficult to support. But from a user perspective, if you’re savvy in terms of virtualization and know how to fine-tune these environments, it can work really, really well. 

I’ll give you an example of how you can scale this technology. I recently was in American Samoa, where I replaced an entire air chain with a virtual environment. There was a stack of equipment — audio processor, RDS generator, the STLs. But I set up a virtual environment, loaded an instance of a virtual remote control and an instance of a virtual audio processor. The processor took AoIP in and spit out encoded MPX — uMPX in this case — and it worked amazingly well. I was really happy with the way it turned out. This setup allowed the elimination of an old 950 Megahertz STL hop. The station sounded so much cleaner by the time it was done, and it’s been very reliable.

I can do this halfway around the world, on a single station, yet it’ll absolutely scale to much larger levels, all the way up to massive enterprises.

RW: Are there any misconceptions we should dispel?

Toven: I think one of the most common things that intimidates people is thinking, “I need a whole bunch of knowledge about networks, switches and things like that.” 

While true, the necessary knowledge is of things like QoS, multicast, IGMP. Once you have a handle on those, you’ve got the basics of what most AoIP networks require. Any fairly simple managed switch will handle those features. 

The misconception is that AoIP is inherently complicated. While true at a certain level, there are simple ways to implement it. In fact, for a smaller facility, implementation is much easier because the smaller you get, the closer to plug-and-play you can get. In some cases, you can even get away with an unmanaged switch.

RW: Are there further developments that we ought to be watching for?

Toven: We need to keep watching what’s happening with AES67. There are still things that could be improved — particularly the control side, and discovery. Personally, I would like to have seen that discovery function implemented as mandatory, as it would make life a lot easier. 

AES70 is one development to keep a close eye on, as it allows for this control functionality. I would also keep an eye on technologies like Dante and NDI as they continue to grow, and on manufacturers like Telos and Wheatstone as they continue to develop their own products and look more toward the virtual world. 

Don’t forget the advantages of putting a lot of this stuff in the virtual realm. For one thing, it’s a good way to minimize the whole supply chain issue. If you can get a server, you’ve got your platform, you’ve got your hardware.

But don’t be intimidated. There are so many advantages to doing AoIP that far outweigh any drawbacks — like scaling all the way down to a single station out in the South Pacific. So don’t let it intimidate you. Dip your toes in the water and start playing around and I think you will like what you find.

[Check Out More of Radio World’s Tech Tips]

The post Don’t Let AoIP Intimidate You appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

Pleadings

FCC Media Bureau News Items - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 21:00
.

Applications

FCC Media Bureau News Items - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 21:00
.

Actions

FCC Media Bureau News Items - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 21:00
.

A Bitter End To Fiscal 2023 For Canada’s Corus

Radio+Television Business Report - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 16:26

TORONTO — Shares in Corus Entertainment Inc. tumbled by 25.3% to a new all-time low of $0.68 CAD on Friday, as investors reacted to an announcement from the Toronto-based media company that it has amended its credit facilities by increasing its total debt to cash flow ratio through August 31, 2024. Mandatory quarterly repayments of the Term Facility are re-introduced. Certain conditions related to the use of proceeds on asset disposals are changed and additional restrictions on distributions are introduced, the company said.

The announcement from Corus came concurrent to its fiscal Q4 and year-end 2023 results, which weren’t pretty. “Fourth quarter results reflect ongoing weakness in the advertising economy, further impacted by more recent distortions resulting from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that persisted much longer than anticipated,” said President/CEO Doug Murphy.

He continued, “We are focused on what we can control as we navigate through these challenges. We will prudently redirect capital from dividends to debt repayment. Our intense pursuit of efficiencies and improved productivity is resulting in significant expense reductions as we streamline our operating model and evolve our business into a multi-platform aggregator of premium video with leading cross platform monetization capabilities. Corus will benefit from a more normalized content supply in the quarters ahead with an improved cost structure as we await a concurrent improvement in the advertising economy.”

In fiscal Q4, television revenue was flat at $314.23 million CAD, moving from $314.17 million CAD, as segment profit slid to $49.774 million CAD from $59.018 million CAD. Radio revenue declined by 3% to $24.611 million CAD, from $25.42 million CAD, with segment profit actually rising to $2.98 million CAD, from $1.73 million CAD.

Importantly, Free Cash Flow was down to $31.654 million CAD, from $44.71 million CAD.

What’s the outlook from Corus? Not good.

The company expects its television advertising revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 to decline in the range of 15%-20% from the same period of fiscal 2023.

Furthermore, the amortization of program rights is expected to decline by a similar range along with the further implementation of additional cost management initiatives.

Corus has also suspended its dividend and intends to redirect the use of free cash flow from dividends on Class A and Class B shares to debt repayment, adding to the shareholder revolt, as some 7.19 million shares were traded on the TSX in Friday’s trading. Average volume for CJR-B is roughly 604,300 shares.

“While the Company continues to expect improvement in the macro-environment and the normalization of program supply over the medium term, visibility remains limited at this time,” it said.

Corus’ brands include the Global broadcast TV network; Pluto TV in Canada; cable networks in Canada including HGTV, Food Network and Disney Channel; and a group of broadcast radio stations that include CILQ “Q107” in Toronto, CHQR in Calgary; CJOB in Winnipeg and stations in such markets as London, Ont.

Categories: Industry News

Has The OTT Bubble Burst? Yes, Irish Research Finds

Radio+Television Business Report - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 16:09

The boom growth years for OTT platforms serving U.S. consumers are over.

That’s the breathtaking conclusion of a new research study from Dublin, Ireland-based Research and Markets that puts an exclamation point on the North American OTT television and video market, with forecasts offered through 2029.

The report finds that U.S. OTT TV episode and movie revenue will reach $82 billion in 2029, up from $74 billion in 2023. SVOD revenues will increase by $2 billion to $55 billion … with little growth from 2025.

The analysis forecasts 427 million SVOD subscriptions by 2029, up from 409 million in 2023.

Concurrently, AVOD for TV series and movies will contribute $22 billion by 2029; that’s up from $16 billion in 2023.

Broadcaster-friendly FAST (advertising on online linear channels) will account for $6.5 billion of the AVOD total in 2029; up from $4.3 billion in 2023.

“These forecasts reflect the new reality,” Research and Markets concludes. “Subscriptions are stuttering as the market matures and consolidates. Advertising growth will be lower than our previous forecasts. Platforms are more cautious about increasing content spend, which will stifle subscriber development.”

Categories: Industry News

Cumulus Earnings Strained Under Slow National Ad Market

Radio World - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 16:04

Cumulus Media on Friday said it remains focused on operational cost cutting in the face of slow national advertising sales. 

The company has cut $20 million in operating expenses so far this year, according to company executives. However, the radio station owner is still trying to grow its digital business. 

Cumulus posted quarterly net revenue of $207.4 million for the period ending Sept. 30, 2023. That’s down 11% compared to the same quarter in 2022.  

Spot sales in the broadcast division of Cumulus, especially national, are struggling, according to the earnings report released Friday. Broadcast radio revenue of $105.8 million in the third quarter was off 15% compared to the same three months in 2022. 

Cumulus reported total broadcast radio revenue of $146 million, which includes the company’s Westwood One radio network business. Network revenue in the quarter was off 22.8% YOY with revenue of $40.3 million.

Digital appears to be the lone bright spot in the company’s third quarter report with revenue volume up 6.6% YoY. Cumulus posted digital revenue of $37.2 million in the third quarter, or about 18% of total revenue, according to the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

In a statement released as part of its third quarter report, Cumulus CEO Mary Berner said: “Despite the challenging environment, we maximized performance by continuing to focus on areas we can control, including growing each of our digital businesses, reducing costs, and improving our balance sheet through non-core asset sales and debt reduction.”

Cumulus has “tripled its digital sales force in the past three months and expects to add additional resources in the area to drive further growth,” Berner said on the Friday earnings call with investors.

“As we have been doing in recent quarters to mitigate the revenue pressures from the depressed national ad market, and to free up resources for digital investments, we continue to meaningfully reduce costs. During the third quarter we executed an additional $5 million of annualized fixed costs,” Berner said.      

The cut in total expenses in the third quarter were driven by fixed cost reductions as well as lower variable costs, according to the financial report. Thanks to the cuts Cumulus reported net income of $2.7 million in Q3.

On Friday’s earnings call, analyst Michael Kupinski from Noble Capital Markets asked Cumulus Chief Financial Officer Frank Lopez-Balboa to identify in what areas the company is taking money out.  

“The areas where we are reducing costs are not impacting revenue. And we are actually increasing our sales force focus, which has been a key focus of ours. The areas that we continue to get efficiencies are in areas like real estate. We are operating in a different way and we continually are looking at our footprint across the country. 

“We are also being very judicious in terms of our use of external contractors and external contracts and where possible we have been very successful renegotiating contracts at better rates,” Lopez-Balboa told investors.     

The company reported total debt of $675 million at the end of September 2023. Cumulus reports it has reduced its debt by $130 million since the beginning of last year. “Reducing debt is the best way to maximize financial flexibility and strategic optionality heading into what we hope to be a recovery year,” Berner told investors. 

Cumulus has sold off some assets to help the balance sheet. The company reported it completed the sale of WDRQ(FM) in Detroit for $10 million in the third quarter of 2023.

Looking ahead to Q4, Berner says the market “remains choppy with company revenue pacing down low double digits.”

Despite the continued weakness in national markets, Berner says the broadcaster is seeing initial indications from key national advertisers that the outlook is improving for 2024. 

“That tone, combined with the anticipation of a robust political spending cycle, gives us cautious optimism that we may be seeing the early signs of a market recovery,” she said.

[Sign Up for Radio World’s SmartBrief Newsletter]

The post Cumulus Earnings Strained Under Slow National Ad Market appeared first on Radio World.

Categories: Industry News

Essential Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Voice

Radio+Television Business Report - Fri, 10/27/2023 - 16:02

“Your voice identifies you as uniquely as your looks and your fingerprints do,” notes veteran public relations professional and public speaking professional Rosemary Ravinal. “It isn’t just a means of communication; it’s an essential tool that influences how you’re perceived and connects you to the world.”

Whether your work requires you to speak often, or you’re someone who simply wants to maintain a strong and clear voice, taking care of your vocal toolbox is crucial. In this column, Ravinal offers seven indispensable tips for preserving and enhancing the health of your voice.

 

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Categories: Industry News

Pages

Subscribe to REC Networks aggregator