Industry News

The Dec. 23, 2020 issue includes Dan Slentz and John Bisset with tips about cleaning equipment in a pandemic. The RadioDNS Technical Group leads an effort to measure consumption across devices. WorldDAB advocates celebrate growth. Buyer’s Guide looks at antennas, RF support and power protection.

All this and our Excellence in Engineering Award recipient!

Read it here.

The post Inside the Dec. 23 2020 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

With a handful of exceptions, including Cumulus Media, radio and TV stocks were largely on the rise as the final trading week of 2020 kicked off on Monday.

Among the gainers: Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Dish, which just resolved its retransmission consent impasse with Nexstar Media Group.

RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

Travel around Manchester, England, and you’ll hear radio stations with the same branding — Radio X, Capital, Heart, Smooth Radio, and Greatest Hits Radio — as other stations across Great Britain.

In Australia, the Nova and KIIS brands can be found in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Now, Canada is swiftly becoming a nation where national branding of radio stations, while retaining their unique program offerings, is being employed to help attract more advertising.

Interestingly, it hasn’t exactly happened in the U.S. — yet.

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In just days, the much-anticipated — and heavily marketed — discovery + OTT platform bows. How is Discovery telling consumers about its pending debut? Ironically, it is using cable TV to push viewers away from MVPDs and toward its soon-to-debut streaming service.

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At Spot TV, GEICO is most certainly one of the stalwarts with respect to ad activity by commercial count.

Indeed, it is No. 2 for the week ending December 27. But, there’s a big new No. 1, and it is a germ-fighting brand.

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RBR+TVBR EXCLUSIVE

Gene Loving has enjoyed a remarkable career in radio broadcasting. In the 1960s, his syndicated interviews with The Beatles could be heard on stations across the U.S., as he attracted big audiences for his daily radio program at WGH-AM 1310 in Norfolk.

In 1991, he co-founded the original Max Media Properties, and its current incarnation dates to 2001, when Loving teamed with local TV sales veteran John Trinder and the late Chuck McFadden — a former GM of WTVZ-TV in Norfolk — to build a company that today includes radio stations in the Tidewater region, including WGH.

Now, the ownership partners are shifting at Max, with Loving gaining a greater stake in the company.

It’s thanks, in part, to the departure of a key institutional investor.

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It was a largely expected deal. Still, the Media Bureau of the FCC used the time-honored tactic of burying big news before a major holiday to tell the world of its decision.

It has given its OK to a transaction that will see a global private investment firm and a related media-focused operating and investment company take majority ownership interest in the biggest multimedia company targeting U.S. Hispanics.

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A radio industry notable has moved forward in forming a “SPAC” focused on sports media. It is an effort sparked by the man who once owned the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club.

But, it also involves the man who serves as President/COO of the company this industry leader founded in 1979, and three board members.

Among those board members: the former head of ESPN Audio, Traug Keller.

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For those who were raised in Upstate New York, SPAC is shorthand for a popular outdoor concert venue in Saratoga Springs. On Wall Street, a “SPAC” is shorthand for a “Special Purpose Acquisition Company” — like the one Cumulus Media co-founder Lew Dickey Jr. created for an early 2019 merger with international digital music streaming platform Akazoo.

Now, another radio industry notable of the last 25 years has moved forward in forming a “SPAC” focused on sports media. It is an effort sparked by the man who once owned the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club.

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For years, it was safe to say that GEICO was the biggest user of broadcast and cable to reach consumers, given their dominance at spot radio, spot cable and spot TV according to Media Monitors. That’s not true today, as one of its auto insurance competitors has surged to the top of the latest Spot Radio report.

As shown below, State Farm is the big leader at Spot Radio, and accounts for a stunning 94,230 spot plays.

By comparison, GEICO is ranked No. 8 for the week ending December 27, with some 45,757 spot plays detected. That puts GEICO slightly below Progressive in an ever-competitive brand category.

While State Farm is firmly ensconced at the top, Bank of America and Merrill are again major users of spot radio, as is Pfizer — the maker of one of two approved COVID-19 vaccines.