Radio+Television Business Report

On June 29, Cumulus Media enjoyed a banner day on Wall Street, with high trading volume fueling a notable increase in share value.

Could a successful pay down of debt, using cash on hand, be the catalyst for long-awaited long-term growth at a company that has successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization?

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Seventeen days ago, the nation’s No. 1 audio media company by number of radio stations announced it would prepay $250 million in term loan facilities while repricing its incremental term loan.

The announcement was icing on the cake for IHRT shareholders who have enjoyed an incredible rebound from COVID-19-influenced lows seen in March and April of 2020.

With iHeart’s June 24 closing price, a 473.5% improvement has been seen since March 30, 2020.

As of 1:27pm Eastern on July 9, IHRT sat at $26.02.

By comparison, IHRT was trading in the $17 range until mid-February, when COVID-19 fears pummeled the issue — and just about every other publicly traded company.

For iHeart, however, meaningful recovery for its battered stock began in May 2020. And, aside from a few profit-taking ebbs and flows, the growth of its stock is unprecedented.

What’s to come for a company that seeks to transition the bulk of Rush Limbaugh’s listening audience to a team of Clay Travis and Buck Sexton as questions on how to transition aging Top 40 personalities such as Ryan Seacrest loom?

As far as Wall Street is concerned, long-term forecasts are in line with what the company expects, as podcasting and digital revenue show no signs of a slowdown.

The 1-year revenue estimate put on IHRT by Wall Street analysts: $29.14.

For some, the buying and selling of broadcast media properties over the past 12 months has been nothing short of dismal. Aside from cash-rich non-profit broadcast ministries seeking FM properties they couldn’t get a decade ago, radio industry transactions have come in small trickles. The TV industry, on the other hand, has seen colossal mega-mergers involving companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. and Gray Television.

Television industry transactions of late have also included deals involving unbuilt low-power TV stations. With a sign-on deadline of Tuesday, time is rapidly ticking for those seeking to spin these facilities and cash out. For those still in need of a facility fire-up, an automatic forfeit of the CP looms.

Then, there’s a group of LPTVs for sale that are a bit unique. How so? They don’t need to be built until 2023.

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A group of minority shareholders in DTV America Corp. has taken another legal action against what it calls “a conglomerate of overlapping entities and their interlocking directors and officers” that presently possess majority control of the entity known for its low-power TV stations.

What is that “conglomerate”? It’s HC2 Holdings.

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Its mission was simple: To re-purpose 600 MHz and other spectrum and rapidly deploy a world-class 5G network in the United States.

This could explain why the individual behind Landover Wireless, a 30-year veteran of the global wireless telecommunications industry, had an interest in low-power TV stations.

That venture, however, was never fully realized. Earlier this year, it drafted two transactions selling unbuilt LPTVs to Jeff Winemiller. Now, it is spinning an unbuilt LPTV property in Idaho.

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One has been the EVP of Operations at Cumulus Media since April 2017 and has been with the company since the end of 2014. The other individual is also a EVP of Operations at the audio media company and has been there since January 2013.

Both executives are now getting presidential appointments from Mary Berner.

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Dave Milner and Bob Walker have each ascended to respective roles as President of Cumulus Operations, effective immediately.

They report to Berner, Cumulus’ President/CEO, who calls their elevation “a well-deserved recognition of their respective contributions to the company’s success. Over the past several years, not only has the scope of both Bob’s and Dave’s direct responsibilities grown beyond their market portfolios, they also play a significant and vital role in the operations of the Company overall. Moreover, in addition to being terrific executives, they are terrific colleagues as well.”

Milner, who joined Cumulus in December 2014, has a rich resume steeped in Northern California radio. He was President/Market Manager of iHeartMedia’s San Francisco stations from May 2012 through his arrival at Cumulus. Before that, he was VP of Sales for Entercom (now Audacy) in Sacramento. From 2004-February 2007, he worked for Cumulus — then led by the Dickey brothers. His role: GSM for the San Francisco stations.

Walker is responsible for the P&L of 65 markets across the Cumulus portfolio, and started his tenure at the company as SVP of Brand Solutions. He’s one of the rare individuals who shifted from television to radio, as he served as WXIA-11 in Atlanta President/GM under Gannett ownership from 1996-2010. He’d been associated with “11Alive” since May 1988, first handling marketing and sales roles.

From April 2010 until arriving at Cumulus, Walker was EVP/GM of Network and Content at The Weather Channel.

It’s repeatedly put the blame on nearly every retransmission consent impasse, leading to a “blackout” of local TV stations, on the station owner.

It’s unabashedly in support of anything that favors a MVPD.

Now, the American Television Alliance (ATVA) has commented on a half-million-dollar-plus Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture handed to Gray Television by the FCC for allegedly violating the Commission’s Top Four station rule.

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How has the advertising landscape evolved in Northern California? What’s the sense of “new normal” client activity, in particular for Spanish-language radio?

The return of live events is a big deal. Automotive is on the rebound.

Those are just some of the takeaways from Angie Balderas, the SVP of Integrated Marketing Solutions at Entravision Communications in Sacramento.

She’s the latest guest in this all-new InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Angie Balderas” on Spreaker.

In the last week, NEXTGEN TV has gone live in such markets as Charlotte and Little Rock.

You can now add the California state capital to the list of cities where ATSC 3.0-powered television is now available for those that actually have the next-gen TV sets needed to get the signals.

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Although its shares are down from a five-year high seen in mid-April, TEGNA‘s stock price hasn’t been this good since September 2015, just months after it changed its name from Gannett and spun off its newspaper assets.

With a healthy 1-year target estimate handed to TEGNA by Wall Street analysts and a beneficial long-term prognosis in hand, company executives could be preparing a positive Q2 2021 earnings report. We now know when those results will be released.

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A TV attribution provider and ad monitoring company based in Paris is now a part of the Nielsen family of global data, measurement and analytics services.

For an undisclosed price, the Dutch company that is the dominant audience measurement and consumer data services firm in the U.S. is acquiring TVTY.

“TVTY brings a wide range of outcomes capabilities that improve TV campaign execution,” Nielsen says. “TVTY’s solutions enable advertisers and agencies to seamlessly optimize their spend based on the outcomes most important to their business.”

TVTY will complement and expand Nielsen’s TV Attribution and Ad Intel services.

Nielsen’s Chief Growth Officer and President, International, Sean Cohan says the purchase of TVTY aligns to Nielsen’s strategy to deliver cross-media outcomes as a complement to audience measurement. He says, “TVTY bolsters Nielsen’s ability to size an audience with analytics. Together we will be powering a better media future for marketers.”

Eliott Reilhac, TVTY’s CEO, comments, “We believe that TV advertising will be increasingly bought and optimized based on business outcomes. We are grateful for the passionate team, partners, and clients that have allowed us to build the platform needed for this new reality. Today, we are humbled to join the Nielsen family, and we know there is no better place to achieve our vision on a global scale.”

TVTY has a U.S. presence in New York and operates in more than 20 countries worldwide.

The company owns and operates four FM stations in Kentucky’s largest market.

Now, it is welcoming an individual as President of the station group. He’s no stranger to one of those FMs, as he managed the property during the 1990s under Prism Radio Partners ownership.

He’s also one of the founding members of the former Triad Broadcasting executive team.

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Havas Media Group (HMG) has launched a program designed to help advertisers direct more revenue to support Black-owned — and Hispanic-owned radio stations — across the United States.

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What happens when your broadcast TV duopoly is too successful?

Just ask Gray Television. The FCC on Wednesday (7/1) issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture against the company for its “apparent violation” of its Top Four rule.

This puts the initial success and plan of action for its Alaska operations in question.

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For a generation of Boston radio listeners, the call letters are very familiar. Today, WMEX is associated with a Class D AM at 1510 kHz licensed to Quincy, Mass.

Now, this incarnation of WMEX is about to be sold. Who’s the buyer?

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On December 30, 2020, the sale of a former Tribune Media property serving the Big Apple formally closed. As a result, The E.W. Scripps Company was no longer the owner of The CW Network’s New York flagship, WPIX-11.

How Scripps ended up with the station, and how it ended up selling it, is a story of its own. Originally, Sinclair Broadcast Group planned to operate WPIX via a Joint Sales Agreement with Cunningham Broadcasting Corp., and its officer and director, Michael Anderson. That arrangement ended up in flames, triggered by former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s concerns over “sham” transactions created to push Sinclair’s planned merger with Tribune Media through the regulatory test.

Now, the current ownership of WPIX has come under scrutiny. But, it isn’t the Commission that’s complaining. Rather, it is one of the largest MVPD operators in the nation — and the owner of two direct competitors to WPIX in the Big Apple.

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Travel between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, and you’ll cross Putnam County, Indiana.

Here, a 3kw FM offering Adult Contemporary programming is the local home of Indianapolis Colts football, Indiana Pacers basketball and St. Louis Cardinals baseball.

And, it is about to be sold to a new owner.

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Since 2016, she has served as the Director of Sales for the Nexstar Media Group-owned FOX and The CW Network affiliates serving the second-largest market in Colorado.

Now, she’s being promoted to VP/GM.

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Behind Atlanta, it’s the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. South.

And, its residents now have access to ATSC 3.0-powered next generation broadcast TV signals.

NEXTGEN TV is now available in Charlotte.

Those with select new TV models manufactured by LG Electronics, Samsung, and Sony are now able to tune to ATSC 3.0-powered signals for Cox Media Group’s unaffiliated WAXN-64 and ABC affiliate WSOC-9, Nexstar Media Group’s FOX affiliated WJZY-17, Gray Television’s CBS affiliated WBTV-3 and TEGNA-owned NBC affiliate WCNC-36.

Its spoken word stations are among the most listened-to commercial radio properties in North America.

Now, the company formerly known as Entercom is moving forward with taking its news brands further into the digital realm. To do so, it’s committing to journalists in 8 newsrooms across the U.S. to help shepherd a “multiplatform transformation” for Audacy.

This, Philadelphia-headquartered Audacy says, allows it to offer more original digital news content as well as in-depth reporting. This will complement breaking news broadcast coverage.

And, it undoubtedly adds to the exclusive content on the Audacy app, which had been Radio.com.

A centralized digital team dedicated to news is taking shape. This will see Audacy add more than 50 journalists in eight of its newsrooms across the country.

“This coordinated, multi-platform focus will allow the company to produce an array of fresh audio and local reporting that will be distributed across the Audacy network,” the company said on Wednesday (7/7).

Is Audacy hiring the journalists, or are they adding duties to their current responsibilities at all-News and News/Talk radio stations the company owns? RBR+TVBR’s request for clarification was not immediately responded to.

What is clear is that Audacy will create original podcasts and “other specialty digital content” that will add to the local reporting at Audacy all-News and News/Talk stations.

Audacy EVP/Programming Jeff Sottolano is overseeing the initiative.

“The past year has underscored the crucial role of journalism and the demand for trusted quality content has never been higher,” Sottolano said. “Audacy’s local news brands have been delivering on-demand news and information for decades and are now poised to build on that foundation. While other news organizations are downsizing, this further investment will allow us to leverage the credibility of our news brands to expand our reach and engagement while continuing to deliver the premier coverage our audience is accustomed to and relies on.”

Plans also call for an original national weekly podcast that highlights “the most pressing story of the week” and draws on reporting and interview content from across the Audacy network of news brands; daily in-depth podcasts and on-demand audio that explore local stories and issues that most affect listeners’ lives; as well as custom newsletters and in-app experiences that offer audiences a chance to explore areas of interest and interact directly with Audacy brands.

Additional details will follow in the coming months.