The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has officially been inked on the growing list of institutions of higher learning that no longer want to put its dollars toward the upkeep of a broadcast radio station run by its enrolled students.
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As the $2.65 billion merger between West Palm Beach-headquartered ION Media and The E.W. Scripps Co. winds its way toward completion, a series of amendments have been submitted with the FCC that have seen the inclusion — and now exclusion — of three stations that had been designed for sale to INYO Broadcast Holdings, which is getting a host of spin-off properties.
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A partnership that enables “a new way” to measure TV marketing has been brought to market.
And, it is being billed as a “first-of-its-kind solution” that combines MarketCast‘s data science expertise and Kinetiq‘s ad detection platform to measure competitive benchmarking for tune-in TV attribution.
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SAVANNAH, GA. — Just how much did Gray Television‘s broadcast TV stations and digital platforms attracted in the form of political advertising in 2020?
It’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the twin U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia are the icing on the cake.
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Gray’s total tally for political advertising since Jan. 1, 2020, is now upward of $400 million, net of commissions and agency fees.
There’s more: Since Election Day, Gray’s local television stations and digital platforms in the Peach State have run approximately $20 million net in political campaign and political issue advertisements related to the two run-off election races for U.S. Senate seats.
With the special elections scheduled for Jan. 5, 2021, and President-Elect Biden campaigning for the Democratic candidates in Atlanta on Tuesday, Gray expects political advertisements in Georgia to continue well past New Year’s Eve and into the first days of 2021.
Gray has a presence in Augusta, Albany, Columbus and tiny Thomasville, Georgia, where WCTV-6 also serves Tallahassee, Fla. Most notably, Gray owns long-dominant CBS affiliate WTOC-11 in Savannah, Ga.
ATSC 3.0-powered next generation television signals have been launched in the biggest DMA to date: the home of Russell Wilson, and the setting for the cinematic classic “10 Things I Hate About You.”
Seven Seattle TV stations are now broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV, the new digital broadcast standard.
It makes the Seattle-Tacoma DMA the largest market where NEXTGEN signals are available, following the recent launch of Tampa-St. Petersburg.
The stations offering ATSC 3.0-powered signals are Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s ABC and Univision affiliates, KOMO-4 and KUNS-51; Cox Media Group‘s CBS affiliated KIRO-7; FOX O&Os KZJO-22 “Joe TV” and KCPQ-13; and TEGNA‘s NBC and unaffiliated KING-5 and KONG-16.
BitPath led the planning process and coordinated efforts across Seattle’s seven local television stations.
In a major about-face that signals a fresh retransmission consent deal — perhaps under pressure from key Massachusetts legislators on Capitol Hill — Comcast‘s Xfinity cable TV service will no longer be pulling the plug on stations from “neighboring DMAs” that would have seen all Hearst Television stations not bound by must-carry rules removed from its channel lineups.
It’s also signals a big victory for some small communities near Brunswick, Ga.
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Media ad sales platform Matrix has formed a group of thought leaders from across the industry, including some of its own executives, to identify outcomes and workflows that will advance how television will be bought and sold within the next three years.
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A graduate of the University of Georgia and Vanderbilt University School of Law, he’s served as an artist manager and has been a professional drummer with The Chris McCarty Band.
Since August 2008, he’s been in the Atlanta office of legal giant Greenberg Traurig LLP.
Now, he’s leaving, as the music and entertainment industries has come calling … sort of.
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Former Senior VP and Head of Corporate Communications and PR Esther-Mireya Tejeda exited in September, later resurfacing as SoundExchange‘s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.
Soon afterward, Jennifer Morales Mathews exited as VP/Corporate Communications and PR and shortly thereafter took the role of Public Relations Manager at Amazon Music.
The exits left a big hole at Entercom Communications. Now, it has filled it with Tejeda’s successor.
Now SVP/Head of Corporate Communication and PR at the audio media company that owns Radio.com and podcasting platforms Pineapple Street and Cadence13 is Ashok Sinha.
He will serve as a member of Entercom’s executive leadership team, reporting to Chief Marketing Officer Paul Suchman.
Who is Sinha? He has been VP of Corporate Communications at WarnerMedia since October 2016, and in that role most recently headed internal and external communications strategy for WarnerMedia’s technology organization, as well as employee communications across the company’s direct-to-consumer, sales and distribution divisions.
Before joining WarnerMedia, Ashok was SVP/Corporate Communications at Publicis Media from March 2013, VP/Corporate Communications for Current TV for 11 months, Director of Communications for Oxygen Media for 15 months, and Chief of Staff at (RED) for 20 months.
From May 2005-September 2008, he was Manager of Communications and Public Affairs for MTV Networks’ Logo, at the time a LGBTQ-focused cable TV offering.
“As a lifelong consumer of music and the spoken word, I believe in the power of audio and its ability to engage, entertain and inform the world,” Sinha said. “I’m delighted for this opportunity to join Entercom and its award-winning corporate communications team, and lead the charge as we tell the story of audio in this dynamic time for media.”
Subscription video on demand (SVOD) consumers between the ages 13 and 49 have become more culturally literate, primarily due to Netflix, YouTube creators and social media featuring increasingly diverse and global content.
In fact, more than half of Gen Zers and parents have watched a show in a language they do not speak, with Hispanics over indexing on this trend.
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MESA, ARIZ. — In June, Vic Michael’s Mountain Community Translators executed a lease-to-sale conversion for an FM translator that has been rebroadcasting a “relevant” AM’s Christian-themed programming.
Now, Michael is selling a second FM translator using the Shaw Butte antenna farm north of downtown Phoenix, and it’s going to a local Hispanic operation.
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Forecast LIVE is this year’s virtual version of Radio Ink’s annual Forecast conference, the radio industry’s premier financial summit, gathering the smartest minds in media and advertising to forecast revenue and analyze projections and trends for the coming year.
Don’t take it from us – here’s what attendees are saying: Caroline Beasley “From incredible speakers to real and relevant insights, Radio Ink’s annual Forecast gathering is an absolute ‘must attend’ event for forward thinking leaders, decision makers, and influencers working within and outside of the media industry! And this year’s virtual event was no exception.” – Caroline Beasley, Beasley Media GroupPierre Bouvard “Radio Ink’s Forecast 2021 was spectacular: It felt like two days of knowledge and insights were compressed into a few hours. Very actionable! As Ghandi said, ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.’”
“Thank you for not letting this just not happen this year. I enjoyed it very much. Your team did an amazing job executing this event virtually. All of the sessions were very informative and helpful.”
“The best online event I have attended. Just enough time, great content, well produced. Great work!”
“Great Sessions! Eye Opening and Thought Provoking… Each session provided an honest view of where our industry is today, where it’s headed, and how we need to pivot to meet the needs of tomorrow.” – Danny Tankersley, Wide Orbit “The team did an outstanding job. I think that the program was great and went off technically well.” – Andrew Rosen, Miller Kaplan “The speaker lineup, production pieces and hosts stepped up big time in a virtual time of need for the industry. It was lively and informative while giving lots for the attendees to think about in contemplating 2021 and beyond.” – David Pearlman, Pearlman Advisors “Forecast is one-stop shopping for an overview of where the industry is and where it is going. I gain information and knowledge that I use throughout the year and find myself quoting panelists and keynotes such as Matt Britton. This year’s virtual event was spectacular.” – Heather Cohen, The Weiss Agency “Thank you for a wonderful, informative conference. Excellent!!!!”
Broadcasting companies publicly traded on Wall Street were largely up at the Closing Bell on Tuesday. One company, however, sticks out for another dip in value.
That would be Entercom.
Shares dipped 2.2% to $2.28 in heavier-than-average trading of 2.41 million. Average trading for Entercom is 1.93 million shares.
In contrast, Cumulus Media enjoyed a 3.3% gain as shared reached $9.14, and iHeartMedia gained 5 cents, to $12.45.
On the TV side, it was another banner session for Nexstar Media Group, with gains also seen by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 1979, The Media Institute was established as a nonprofit foundation specializing in communications policy issues of concern to all Americans, including the promotion of Freedom of Speech and encouraging a competitive media environment.
On Tuesday, the soon-to-depart Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, addressed the organization in a virtual luncheon that saw him quip about a Commission predecessor before offering “some thoughts on where the federal government should go” once he departs on January 20, 2021.
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The November 2020 Nielsen Audio ratings for Colorado Springs have just been released, and guess what — the top 5 stations, 12+, are all owned by Cumulus Media.
Yes, stations owned by Bahakel and a News Press and Gazette-owned Talk station, do not appear publicly in the ratings. Nevertheless, this group of radio stations’ success is very noteworthy. What’s the No. 1 reason for this cluster-wide strength?
Scott Jones, Vice President and Market Manager for Cumulus Media’s Colorado Springs operations, shares the answer and more in this fresh RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast!
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Scott Jones, Cumulus Media” on Spreaker.
TORONTO — The President of Cogeco Media, a takeover target of Rogers Sports & Media, has exited the Montréal-based owner of 23 radio stations across the Canadian province of Québec.
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If the Radio Zindagi brand sounds familiar to you, it should. On October 2, RBR+TVBR reported on the sale of an AM radio station in Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y., with 10kw during daylight hours and 220 watts at night, using a directional two-pattern signal with 2 towers.O
The station aired the network, providing South Asians with music and entertainment tied to Indian, Sri Lankan and Pakistani culture. A format change was anticipated.
That happened. Now, Radio Zindagi is set to return, thanks to a fresh spin of the station by the entity that just bought it.
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Late Friday (12/11), the newly formed Independent Broadcasters Association (IBA) released its first Financial Benchmark Analysis, a review of the broadcast operations of non-corporate-owned AM and FM radio stations across the U.S.
IBA called on the services of media and sports specialty accounting and advisory firm dk east associates to produce the report, which is available to members only.
RBR+TVBR has an exclusive look at some of the topline results, and the performance could put publicly traded corporate entities back under Wall Street’s ever-scrutinizing magnifying glass.
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Townsquare Media on Tuesday (12/15) moved forward with initiating a $550 million bond offering — a move that prompted the local media company to pre-release its fourth quarter earnings well ahead of schedule.
What does the owner of radio stations in small and mid-sized markets, which has excelled in programmatic and local digital across its markets, have to report with two weeks remaining in 2020?
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The Nielsen Audio rankings for two top markets — one in Virginia and the other in the Lone Star state — will continue to display the stations for an entity operating under two different names in each of these locales.
A new agreement is in place that sees the dominant audience measurement company’s rankings for Norfolk and Austin now include Sinclair Telecable and Waterloo Media stations, respectively.
It’s a new multi-year for the Hampton Roads stations, comprised of News/Talk WNIS-AM, Sports Talk WTAR-AM and FM translator W243DJ, Adult Hits WNOB-FM “BOB FM,” Country WUSH-FM 106.1 and Alternative WROX-FM 96.1 “96X.”
And, it is a renewal in Austin for stations that Sinclair Telecable, which is not related to Sinclair Broadcast Group, had 49.9% controlling interest in before acquiring the remaining interest in the six station, two translator cluster from Emmis Communications for $39.3 million. That deal received FCC approval in September 2019.
The Austin radio cluster includes eight station brands: KLBJ-AM 590 (with an FM Translator at 99.7 MHz), Rock KLBJ-FM 93.7, No. 1-rated Adult Hits KBPA-FM 103.5 “Bob FM,” dominant Regional Mexican KLZT-FM 107.1 “La Zeta,” Hot Adult Contemporary KGSR-FM 93.3, Alternative KROX-FM 101.5 “101X,” “Austin City Limits Radio” on an FM translator at 97.1 MHz, and Spanish Contemporary “Latino 102.7” via a second FM translator.
Both Austin and Norfolk use the Portable People Meter (PPM) to create audience estimates based on one’s exposure to broadcast media via traditional radio and encoded audio streaming; Nielsen Audio’s PPM ratings do not measure one’s own listening, given the PPM technology and proximity to others’ listening habits, be it at a restaurant or retail establishment.
The new deal includes use of sales software provided by TAPSCAN.
Norfolk is also an Eastlan Ratings market, with surveys in the winter and spring offered through 2019 by the company.
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