Radio+Television Business Report

Sinclair Broadcast Group continues to lead the industry’s transition to the future of television, developing innovative solutions to meet its requirements for channel playout and live broadcasting.

These include a new 25,000-square-foot, SMPTE ST 2110 media operations center for Sinclair’s regional sports networks (RSNs) with cloud-hosted disaster recovery channels, and a large-scale ST 2110 production facility for its Tennis Channel featuring a cloud-based environment for pop-up live special events.

All were built around Imagine Communications infrastructure and playout platforms.

Don Roberts, VP of sports engineering and production systems at Sinclair Broadcast Group, makes the point that both business and technical requirements are driving Sinclair’s transition to IP connectivity and software-defined architectures ― and particularly cloud deployment. “This transition cannot be a simple lift and shift of legacy systems; it is the opportunity to take a fresh look at the way a broadcaster operates,” Roberts said. “We have to start from good user engagement, to understand what will change at each step. The transition to IP and the cloud is transformative. We can’t just flip a switch ― we have to redefine how the business works. This is change management as much as technology.”

A powerful advocate of the SMPTE ST 2110 family of standards, Sinclair has a long history in collaborating with Imagine Communications to develop IP playout and production systems. Following its 2019 acquisition of regional sports networks from Fox/Disney, Sinclair had to quickly develop a new playout strategy and decided to build an IP-based facility from the ground up to serve as a future-proof hub for the new RSNs.

“Armed with our experience with IP and our strong technical relationship with Imagine, we decided that our first step was to develop an on-premises solution for the RSNs,” Roberts said. “We also developed options to put some functionality ― like the archive and disaster recovery playout ― into the cloud. This enables us to use the Atlanta facility as a stepping-stone, continually refining the workflows and business cases that will help us transition to a hybrid approach that balances capability and cost.”

At the same time, Sinclair was developing a platform for its Tennis Channel, a service that features comprehensive coverage of the top 100 tournaments in the sport and more. The channel has a master control center in Santa Monica, Calif., which uses the flexible Versio platform, both on-premises for primary origination with Imagine’s ADC automation, and as software instances hosted in the AWS cloud for pop-up special events under the control of the cloud-optimized Version Automation system. IP connectivity allows simplification of the hardware architecture, for instance, through use of the virtual re-entry software features of Imagine’s Magellan SDNO to create virtual patch panels, router paths and workflows.

The Tennis Channel project presented Sinclair with a new set of technical, operational, and business challenges.  “Tennis is live and unpredictable, so we need our playout capabilities to be agile and responsive,” Roberts explained. “Software solutions like Versio give us that agility ― the ability to make a decision and have it on air virtually instantly. And because it can be hosted in the cloud, we simply spin it up at the beginning of each tournament and close the software when it ends.”

Central to the architecture at the Santa Monica center is Imagine’s Selenio Network Processor, which Roberts defines as “a broadcast Swiss Army Knife ― if you have a problem with a signal, throw an SNP at it.” Each 1RU SNP device hosts four independent, software-defined processing channels.  At the Tennis Channel facility, the SNPs act as IP gateways and support format conversion, which allows the facility to be primarily 1080p, but accommodate 4K and HDR UHD when needed, such as for the French Open Tennis from Roland Garros in Paris. The facility also uses the new SNP-MV multiviewer personality, allowing for tactical multiview displays to be quickly established wherever they are needed in the workflow.

The new Tennis Channel ST 2110 infrastructure debuted in December 2020. Sinclair then went live to and from the cloud during coverage of the 2021 Miami Open in March, marking the first time that any broadcaster had supported such a high-profile live sporting event via live cloud playout. The innovative combination of cloud playout and on-the-ground master control provided a solution that was particularly powerful in a time of COVID, which has challenged media companies to continue producing quality broadcasts, while ensuring a safe work environment for operational staff. The unique capabilities and integration of Imagine’s IP-enabled playout and core infrastructure products created a cutting-edge architecture and workflow that helped make this possible.

 

Digital Nirvana, a provider of media-monitoring and metadata generation services, has brought to market Trance 3.2, the latest version of its cloud-based application for closed captioning and transcription.

Trance 3.2 has several new features that the company says ‘will enable faster, more efficient production of publishable closed captions and translations.”

New features include upgrades to the tool’s natural language processing (NLP) capabilities that make it possible to identify grammar and style regulations and configure Trance to follow them. And thanks to advancements in machine learning, there are improvements to the machine translation model that satisfy captioners’ increased need for localization in multiple languages, quickly translating the content frame by frame while retaining the entire context.

“Our latest changes to Trance add a new level of completeness to the product in terms of covering the entire caption generation and localization workflow. Trance not only brings large-scale efficiency to each part of the process, but it also provides a platform where users can do everything related to transcription, captioning, and text localization in just about every imaginable use case,” said Russell Vijayan, director of business development at Digital Nirvana. “There’s no need for users to review the entire set of content in order to adhere to strict grammar and style guidelines. Instead, now grammar rules can be set as a standard instruction to the system. A 90-minute piece of content can now be captioned in a couple of hours versus a week or so.”

Trance is designed to use machine learning and AI capabilities to enhance the process of generating transcripts, closed captions, and translations for media content. Production houses, OTT platforms, broadcast networks, closed captioning companies, and any content producer that publishes content over broadcast outlets or the internet with closed captions and translations enabled will benefit from the following major improvements:

• The transcription window now uses an advanced speech-to-text engine that generates accurate, machine-transcribed text, which is displayed in a user-friendly UI through which users can quickly make changes.
• Users can now export the transcript, if required, and the time-coded transcripts can be used as metadata to make the video content readable by machines.
• While previous versions of Trance allowed users to input various parameters to tell the system how to split transcripts and present them in the captioning window, the latest update also uses NLP technology to enable transcript splitting based on grammar rules and styles. Every streaming platform has its own, ever-evolving grammar and captioning style, and adhering to those rules has been a challenge for captioners. The new change ensures users spend less time correcting things when splitting the transcripts for generating captions/subtitles.
• Now, all users with permission can upload media from their logins instead of waiting for administrators to do it.
• Workflow enhancements ensure users can access jobs directly from the list of available work items in their dashboard.

Trance can be a critical tool in a variety of use cases, such as generating transcripts for audio content, importing an existing transcript and syncing it with video, or importing existing captions and opting for a caption QC service that compares the captions against streaming-platform guidelines and flags any nonconformance. Users can generate machine translations after the captioning process is done. They can also import an existing-caption sidecar file, retain the timecodes, and generate a high-quality machine translation that would help with the localization process. Trance also makes it possible to change the frame rate, apply timecode references, and export sidecar outputs in various formats.

Because Trance is a cloud-based application, the upgrades are available to Trance users immediately.

The “premium” connected TV/OTT advertising platform designed for regional and local advertisers launched by TEGNA that as of 2020 sees Gray Television as a minority stakeholder has widened its partnership with IHS Markit.

The move is designed to bring Polk data to Connected TV and OTT campaigns for automotive advertisers — something broadcast TV should very much take note of.

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There’s a new individual in charge of the day-to-day operations at a pair of Nexstar Media Group TV stations in market No. 142 — a role that also involves management of Vaughn Media’s dual ABC/The CW affiliate serving Kansas’ state capital.

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The latest Media Monitors Spot 10 Radio report is out, and it shows a job search website building a formidable lead over all other comers.

It speaks strongly of the long-term category potential for job seeker websites, and of the pressures of auto insurance brands to wisely divide their ad budgets between national radio and other forms of media.

Indeed is the big spot radio leader for the week ending June 13 with some 54,165 spot plays. This is far above the No. 2 advertiser by spot count, Progressive. 

Meanwhile, big advertisers such as The Home Depot and GEICO are much lower in play count than Indeed, setting the stage for a full category development opportunity for traditional radio.

 

There’s perhaps no bigger category at linear media today than auto insurers. And, there’s a fierce fight for supremacy shaping up at Spot Cable.

Based on the latest data from Media Monitors, of the three brands in this hot advertising category, Liberty Mutual Insurance is the one that finishes at the top.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAB Leadership Foundation has elected to present its 2021 Corporate Leadership Award to Procter & Gamble — an honor the leading linear media advertiser will receive during the televised Celebration of Service to America Awards, airing July 10 on selected broadcast stations.

The Corporate Leadership Award is given to a leading business outside of the broadcast industry that, the NABLF says, exemplifies an extraordinary focus on community service and corporate social responsibility.

“Through products, programs and philanthropy, P&G generously provides for vulnerable communities and individuals in need,” NAB Leadership Foundation President Michelle Duke said. “In honor of P&G’s commitment to building a better world today and for the next generation, we are pleased to present them with our Corporate Leadership Award.”

During the pandemic, P&G worked to support and safeguard communities. The company donated tens of millions of dollars in product, in kind and cash to help ensure families had access to everyday cleaning, health and hygiene essentials, and supported nursing homes, shelters, community groups, food banks and other relief agencies. P&G also modified manufacturing equipment to produce hand sanitizer in nearly a dozen of its global manufacturing sites, helped produce critically needed non-medical face masks in the early months of the pandemic, and leveraged its marketing expertise to support public health measures.

Like broadcasters, P&G is also dedicated to helping communities during and after natural disasters. For example, P&G launched “Tide Loads of Hope” in 2005 to provide those displaced by Hurricane Katrina with a simple need—freshly cleaned laundry. Since its inception, the mobile laundry program has provided 68,000 loads of laundry to more than 90,000 people affected by natural disasters. During the pandemic, Tide Cleaners in the U.S. also provided free laundry services for frontline responders.

“P&G people believe we have a responsibility to society,” P&G’s Chief Communications Officer Damon Jones said. “We will continue to step up and step forward to use our reach and resources to be both a force for good and a force for growth in a way that will have a lasting, positive impact on people and communities around the world.”

Speaking on Monday (6/14) at the Credit Suisse 23rd Annual Communications Conference, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell announced that NBCUniversal has officially completed its Upfront.

This led the company’s Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships, Linda Yaccarino, to pen her observations of how the 2021 Upfront sets the stage for the future.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fourteen members of the House of Representatives and a trio of Senators have added their support to the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) — a resolution opposing “any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge” on local broadcast radio stations.

This raises the number of co-sponsors to 138 in the House and 18 in the Senate.

Adding their support recently for the Local Radio Freedom Act in the House are Reps. Jack Bergman (R-MI-1), Larry Bucshon (R-IN-8), John Carter (R-TX-31), Liz Cheney (R-WY-AL), Vicky Hartzler (R-MO-4), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-6), Trent Kelly (R-MS-1), Darin LaHood (R-IL-18), Frank Mrvan (D-IN-1), Amata Radewagen (R-AS-DL), Tom Rice (R-SC-7), Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD-2) and Chris Stewart (R-UT-2). Adding their support for the resolution in the Senate are Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS).

Reps. Kathy Castor (D-FL-14) and Steve Womack (R-AR-3) are the principal cosponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act in the House of Representatives. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and John Barrasso (R-WY) are the lead cosponsors of a companion resolution in the Senate.

And, it has the support of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). The group expressed their thoughts penned Friday (6/11) in a letter to Congressional leaders.

Specifically, the NRB asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to support the LRFA in order to “protect local radio stations that play music as part of their programming from having to pay new performance royalties that would cripple, and in some cases decimate, the ability of such radio stations to continue operations.”

“Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over the air, or on any business for the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station broadcast over the air,” reads the Local Radio Freedom Act.

Vincent Létang, the EVP of Global Market Research at MAGNA, has some downright exuberant things to say about the post-pandemic global advertising recovery that’s already underway for linear and digital media.

“As [the] economic recovery is stronger and faster than anticipated in several of the world’s largest ad markets — the U.S., U.K. and China, in particular — and consumption accelerates, brands need to reconnect with consumers,” he says.

Here in the states, that will yield the highest growth rate for the advertising market since the earliest days of the Reagan administration — an era of high interest rates for home buyers and a recessionary atmosphere fueled by “Reaganomics.”

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Know someone worthy of being honored with a prestigious Medallas de Cortez award for excellence in U.S. Hispanic radio?

Now’s your time to make your nomination for a 2021 honor.

The Medallas de Cortez awards, sponsored by vCreative, will be presented at the annual Hispanic Radio Conference, set for Sept. 22-23.

The awards have become a highly coveted symbol of excellence in Hispanic radio. In its twelfth year, these exclusive radio awards will shine a spotlight on the top talent in Spanish-language radio and at radio stations superserving Hispanic audiences — including noncommercial stations in key U.S. Hispanic markets.

Nominations can be made in seven categories:

• Marketer (may be someone from a station, an agency, or a client)
• National/Syndicated Personality
• Local Personality
• Program Director
• Sales Manager
• General/Market Manager
• Station of the Year

The nominations deadline is July 12, so please make your selection today.

The Medallas de Cortez awards are named in honor of Raoul Cortez, who founded KCOR-AM in San Antonio — the first full-time Spanish-language station in the United States — in 1946. Nominations are open to anyone, Hispanic and not, who is involved in Hispanic broadcasting. The goal is to make sure everyone dedicated to this segment of the industry has an opportunity to be recognized for their contributions to excellence in radio.

 

Click here to register for the Hispanic Radio Conference today!

Sales teams have endured many changes over the past year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many broadcast stations have downsized. More companies are using part-time sellers and are embracing remote work.

The result: compensation has been all over the place.

Now, as pandemic restrictions are set to outright disappear on Tuesday (6/15) in the state of California as another sign that the worst of COVID-19 is behind us, companies are rebuilding.

The biggest challenge: hiring in an extremely competitive job market.

How can you best compete to hire the top sellers?

The first step is to share your information in our second annual RBR+TVBR/Media Staffing Network Sales Compensation Study.

With your input, valuable insights into emerging and changing trends can help station owners and managers plan budgets and goals while remaining competitive in hiring.

“For example, we have seen that many television stations are now offering longer security periods than in the past,” says Laurie Kahn, President/CEO of Media Staffing Network. “We have learned that a large percentage of sellers are coming up on retirement in the next few years. We have also learned more about how the selling of products and services is being handled by sales departments.”

This year’s survey includes additional questions designed to provide an understanding of the television industry’s efforts in building diverse teams, selling podcasts, how their sales teams fared during the pandemic.

The same sales survey is being offered to newspaper and radio industry sales positions. This will paint a portrait as to how the television business compensates their sales associates, compared to competing local media.

Ideal respondents include owners, managers, sellers, and human resource professionals. All survey participants and their responses are confidential.

Each person who fills out the survey will earn a chance to win a $100 American Express Gift Card in a random drawing. 

The survey will be live for five weeks, starting Monday, June 14. The survey closes at the end of Friday, July 16.

Findings from the study will be released in conjunction with the Small Market Television Show. The event will be held in conjunction with the 2021 NAB Show in Las Vegas. Respondents will receive an early overview of the study. 

“This information from the RBR+TVBR/Media Staffing Network Sales Compensation Study is helpful to all television broadcasters, and the more responses we receive, the more accurate and insightful the study results will be,” Kahn says. “Please share this survey with your staff and peers so we can get you the most information available.”

Click here to take the survey:  http://bit.ly/TVCompStudy21

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has confirmed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Commission, has selected the day it will conduct a nationwide test of the EAS and Wireless Emergency Alerts.

The date chosen: Wednesday, Aug. 11.

The time: 11:20am Pacific, or 2:20pm Eastern.

There is a backup date of August 25, should there be an unforeseen glitch that prevents the test from occurring on August 11.

All EAS Participants must renew their identifying information in ETRS Form One on or before July 6; the ETRS is now available for the acceptance of 2021 filings.

During the event, a test message will clearly state that the alert is only a test.

FEMA will transmit the EAS portion of the nationwide test through a hierarchical, broadcast-based distribution system, otherwise known as the “daisy chain.” Because the test will be disseminated in this manner, FEMA indicates that “full message text and multilingual messaging will not be available.”

FEMA explains, “[T]he intent of conducting the test in this fashion is to determine the
capability of the [EAS] to deliver messages to the public in the event that dissemination via internet is not available.”

The Media Bureau adds that testing the daisy chain will allow the FCC and FEMA to assess whether the national EAS would perform as designed, if activated, and help to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of broadcast-based alerting as part of our national emergency communications infrastructure.

For further information regarding the nationwide EAS test, contact Maureen Bizhko, Attorney Advisor, Policy and Licensing Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, at 202-418-0011 or maureen.bizhko@fcc.gov; Rosemary Cabral, Attorney Advisor, Policy and Licensing Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, at rosemary.cabral@fcc.gov; or Christina Clearwater, Deputy Chief, Policy and Licensing Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at christina.clearwater@fcc.gov. 

It signed on the air in 2009 as a Class A FM serving the Adirondack Mountains town of Saranac Lake, N.Y. Since January, it has been one-half of a Variety Hits operation branded as “Lake FM,” with coverage of nearby Tupper Lake provided by that second FM.

Now, a deal is in the works sending the Class A to a new licensee.

It sees noted longtime media executive turned licensee Randy Michaels agreeing to its sale.

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DTV America Corp. has of late been an entity fully controlled by HC2 Holdings, today led by Wayne Barr and until nearly a year ago by Philip Falcone.

As part of a capital-raising campaign led by HC2’s current leadership, DTV is spinning a group of low-powered TV stations in various locales.

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“Every presentation is a performance,” says veteran public relations executive Rosemary Ravinal, who has emerged from the pandemic as a Zoom etiquette expert for the professional work force.

“It is a performance with a specific audience in mind, concise content, delivered with energy and authority,” she writes in this new column. “Whether you are doing a virtual presentation or in-person, there are common best practices that will ease your discomfort and greatly improve your impact.”

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Fueled by stronger than anticipated digital advertising results, respected Wall Street financial analysts at MoffettNathanson are raising its 2021 overall U.S. ad growth estimate.

This offset will be partially offset by lower than expected broadcast and cable advertising.

But, what do the radio advertising trends look like? Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson offers a few details.

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On September 19, 1921, one of America’s oldest radio stations will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

On Friday (6/11), the 100 day countdown to a century of serving New England began for a station currently offering an all-News format, owned today by iHeartMedia.

WBZ-AM 1030, a Class A 50kw directional facility using 2 towers on the opposite of Nantasket Beach, Mass., is the station already saluting itself. This will see on-air and online vignettes recalling the most memorable moments in the station’s history.

“For a station to broadcast for 100 years is nothing short of amazing,” said Alan
Chartrand, Market President of WBZ parent iHeartMedia/Boston. “Listeners and advertisers
consistently utilize this heritage brand as evidenced by WBZ’s continued ratings and
revenue success. People lean into objective news sources to remain informed and none
has been more dependable than WBZ NewsRadio.”

Rob Sanchez, Vice President of News, Talk & Sports for iHeartMedia in Boston, added, “WBZ NewsRadio is defined by our strong, unmistakable presence in the communities we serve. As the media landscape continues to evolve, our reach has only increased as WBZ listeners have adopted streaming on smart devices and the iHeartRadio app.”

With FM accessibility via WXKS-FM 107.9 HD2, the primary listener connectivity point for WBZ remains its booming AM signal, which covers all of eastern Massachusetts; Rhode Island; southern New Hampshire; and coastal Maine. At night, WBZ’s signal expands to much of the Northeast. While a Class A, it shares that designation with a Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, radio station.

The WBZ of today features all-news programming from midnight to 8pm weekdays, and Nightside with Dan Rea from 8pm until midnight. Saturday evenings feature talk programming, while The Ric Edelman Show holds the 10am-noon Sunday slot.

WBZ is one of the original Westinghouse radio stations, and has been at its present dial position since 1941. It was a member of the NBC Blue Network, and then switched in 1942 to the Red Network. That lasted until August 1956, when a dispute over daytime programming led WBZ to take on a “MOR” music approach. At this time, legendary hosts including Dave Maynard entered the WBZ annals of history.

In the 1960s, WBZ became a Top 40 station, competing with WMEX. But, in 1969, WRKO had emerged as the market’s hit music leader. This led WBZ, even with its much bigger regional signal, to shift toward Adult Contemporary as it adopted a more Full Service approach, incorporating Sports programming and Talk shows.

In 1985, as many AMs were doing, Full Service programming gradually faded. By the time the Persian Gulf War began in 1991, all music programming was done. This resulted in WBZ becoming “Boston’s News Station.”

Meanwhile, WBZ’s ownership was still associated with the old Westinghouse, this time as a CBS Radio property with Viacom a part of its historical ownership lineage. With CBS Radio’s merger with Entercom, now Audacy, in 2017, the company opted to swap WBZ — along with a group of other stations — to iHeartMedia.

You’ve heard the reports about the demand in the 2021 Upfront season being quite strong.

But, there’s an ugly truth that MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson can’t get past.

Starting in 2015, TV ad spend, most like due to declining cable network impressions, has “decoupled” from U.S. economic growth.

The erosion forecast isn’t pretty.

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At the end of November 2019, Urban WBLS-FM 107.5 and Hip-Hop WQHT-FM “Hot 97” in New York shifted from Emmis Communications’ full ownership to a newly created entity that saw Emmis become a 23.72% interest holder in MediaCo Holding Co.

The remaining 76.28% interest holder is Soohyung Kim-controlled Standard General, the private investment group that has stakes in TEGNA, Bally’s Corporation and Cumulus Media. 

Now, MediaCo has selected a CEO while appointing a President/COO, creating an executive team for the Gotham operation that also includes Fairway Outdoor.

Starting July 1, MediaCo’s CEO is Rahsan-Rahsan Lindsay — most recently an Urban One EVP. As CEO, Lindsay will be responsible for setting MediaCo’s overall strategic vision and expanding its radio and outdoor divisions — with an emphasis on transforming the digital business.

Lindsay spent 9 years at Urban One, where he directed advertising sales, integrated marketing and sales operations for TV One and sister network CLEO TV. In 2020, he took over the role as head of iOne Digital ad sales and One Solution, Urban One’s cross-platform marketing group, as well as One X Studios, the branded content production arm of Urban One.

Before that, Lindsay spent nearly eight years in Ad Sales for Viacom Media Networks, focused on new business development for MTV, Comedy Central, Spike, CMT, and TV Land. He also served as VP of Ad Sales for MTV2, mtvU, and Palladia.

“The opportunity to work with iconic brands like HOT 97 and WBLS is just too good to pass up,” Lindsay said. “I see a number of potential ways to further cultivate both brands, build on their well-established legacies, and drive new revenue streams. I’m also energized by the opportunity to leverage the Fairway footprint in a way that helps fulfill the MediaCo mission to connect with broader audiences.”

Does MediaCo’s desire to “expand” its radio division involve the acquisition of additional stations?

That remains to be seen, as Emmis continues to seek the right buyer for WLIB-AM 1190 in New York.

Speaking for MediaCo, board member Laura Lee said, “Rahsan-Rahsan is a talented and dedicated leader with the right strategic vision, relentless drive, and passion for media required to lead the MediaCo team at this critical time. He forged his career at the intersection of technology and media, and his vast experience and keen perspective will be invaluable in taking the company into the future.”

Joining Lindsay in the C-Suite, as President/COO, is Bradford Tobin. He joined MediaCo in August 2020 and leads the business operations, and formerly served as a general counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Standard Diversified Inc. He’s also been general counsel for RadioShack.