Industry News

Townsquare Media, the “local first” company that uses digital media, programmatic solutions and its radio stations to best connect brands with listeners across small and mid-sized U.S. markets, has locked in the date it will release its Q3 2021 financial results.

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Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer of Westwood One and its parent, Cumulus Media, is well-known for being the radio industry’s biggest cheerleader. Every week, his blog posts illustrate the continued strength of a business that continues to lose dollars to digital media and lacks respect among many Madison Avenue decisionmakers.

Perhaps that will soon change, as he’s now taking the lead position of Cumulus’ newly created “audio media and creative advisory group for marketers and agencies.” 

Introducing the Audio Active Group (AAG), described as a “natural evolution from a sponsor-focused research and insights group to a true comprehensive marketing advisory.”

How so? The Audio Active Group seeks to partner with clients to measure the impact of the entire audio campaign — not just the Cumulus/Westwood One investment.

It will specialize in audio creative best practices, media planning, strategic allocation within radio, and measurement of the entire radio investment.

“One-third of brands in audio today are new to the medium. As major brands discover audio, they have lots of questions about audio creative strategy, media planning, and campaign measurement, and we have a deep understanding of what audio campaigns can accomplish,” said Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Marketing for Cumulus and President of its Westwood One national radio arm. “Under Pierre’s deft leadership, we are the only company that measures the impact of the entire audio investment and uses our trove of creative-testing and campaign-effectiveness data to help guide clients’ media investments and creative strategy.” 

The Audio Active Group publishes weekly audio insights, advertiser case studies, and sales videos:   ·        The Audio Active Group’s weekly reports and the latest up-to-date audio insights are available here.  ·        The Audio Active Group’s library of weekly sales videos is available here. 

During the 2020 Christmas season, a well-known brand of TexMex-style food products integrated some of its offerings into a Lifetime yuletide yarn. The products also found their way into one of Food Network’s top cooking programs.

Did those product placements translate to a bump in sales? TV measurement and analytics firm 605 and the company that handled the product integration agreements teamed up to find the answer.

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For two generations of Top 40 radio listeners, Saturday evenings may have involved tuning in to a syndicated program that was never shy to play a European dance track or take requests from those tuning in across the U.S.

John Garabedian‘s “Open House Party” was a fave from Poughkeepsie to Eureka, with its roots at iHeartMedia-owned WXKS-FM “Kiss 108” in Boston, where Garabedian first found success with the program.

Garabedian sold “Open House Party” to United Stations in 2012, and retired as host on January 28, 2017. But, he was still active in radio, thanks to his ownership of four FMs and two FM translators on Cape Cod.

That ownership is about to end, thanks to a deal brokered by Kalil & Co.

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On September 17, RBR+TVBR readers first learned about some of the key findings in the just-released study, “The Future of Audience and Revenue,” produced by Futuri, with the assistance of SmithGeiger. On September 24, a White Paper with further details from the study was released.

With many insights for radio and for television, we asked Daniel Anstandig, founder and CEO of Futuri Media, to summarize much of the 36-page report. He obliged and is our guest on the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Daniel Anstandig” on Spreaker.

SWANSEA, WALES (U.K.) — With the announcement this month of the cancellation of NAB 2021, Quicklink has announced a series of virtual NAB 2021 webinars.

They’ll occur on October 5 and 6, during which the Quicklink team will announce and give a first-look at the Quicklink Virtual Event Production Solution.

The product gives users “professional, high-quality guest contributions, build and create a professional production, and broadcast to multiple physical, digital and social destinations – all on your own hardware or cloud instance.”

Quicklink will also offer details on its Quicklink Manager remote contribution management platform.

The 40-minute live webinar will include discussions on language localization, contributor session termination, and triggered notifications.

Registrations will have access to watch live and receive an on-demand version after the events have taken place.

To register for Quicklink’s Virtual NAB webinars, click here.

TM Studios is welcoming an industry veteran who has been charged with representing the company’s radio industry products to clients across the Western United States.

It’s an individual with on-air experience at Smooth Jazz stations in Cleveland and Denver, and for Jones Radio Network and Dial Global.

Taking the position is Greg Allen. 

“TM Studios presents the perfect opportunity for me to collaborate with stations all over the country,” Allen said. ‘Under the leadership of Greg Clancy, Dave Bethell and Chris ‘UK’ Stevens, TM is poised for great success. I look forward to partnering with our clients to solve their audio branding challenges while helping to increase ratings and revenue.”

Clancy, co-owner of TM Studios added, “We are thrilled to have someone with Greg’s passion and experience join our team.”

Allen is based in Cleveland, where he once was a host for WNWV “107.3 The Wave.” He later worked at the former KHIH-FM in Denver, under Adams Communications ownership.

TM Century in late 2020 was acquired by Reatro Ventures-owned Media10, joining the ARC Software family of products for Radio. ARC was developed by Sun Broadcast Group founder and former CEO Jason Bailey.

Simplifying cloud-based production.

That’s a key focus of a virtual technology portal that will serve as a primary connectivity point for learning about the latest enhancements to Evertz‘s BRAVO Studio cloud-based control room.

The scalable BRAVO Studio is a collaborative live switching platform that gives broadcast operators an environment that simulates a traditional control room, allowing users to produce shows in the cloud.

It incorporates web-based interfaces that can be accessed from anywhere.

And, BRAVO Studio allows staff to collaborate with any number of team members to produce live events from their own homes, regardless of the size or complexity of the projects they are working on, Evertz notes.

The platform encompasses such Evertz products as MAGNUM OS Orchestration and Control, which provide signal routing solutions.

Other useful functionality includes multiviewing, VUE user interfaces for operations and access to the DreamCatcher suite of live production tools.

Evertz will introduce the latest additions during its Evertz Connected 2021: Fall Edition. It is scheduled for October 1-15. Registration is free and is now open at connected.evertz.com.

In other product news, Evertz has integrated its Ease Live graphics engine into BRAVO Studio. “This means that program creators can deliver many more interactive options to consumers, allowing them to make bets, select players, view statistics, view highlights, or take part in quizzes – all of which will keep viewers engaged in the live production,” Evertz says.

Evertz is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.

Sierra Wireless‘ 5G New Radio (NR) module has been integrated by AVIWEST, a provider of live and recorded video contribution systems, into its mobile video encoders.

This, the companies say, is designed to help broadcasters remotely stream HD video from live sporting and other events.

The encoder with 5G module has already been used by broadcasters to live stream video from the Tokyo Olympics, as well as professional football and basketball tournaments to remote video production facilities.

The benefits: Simplified operations and lower production costs, Sierra Wireless promises.

“5G will fundamentally transform live video production, making it simpler and less expensive, while eventually enabling new, more entertaining, immersive, and exciting viewing experiences with additional mobile, Point of View (POV), and other cameras,” said Ronan Poullaouec, CTO at AVIWEST. “With the Sierra Wireless EM9191 module, AVIWEST’s mobile video encoders can use 5G networks to stream high-definition video from live events to broadcasters’ production facilities, allowing these broadcasters to realize the cost, simplicity, and other benefits of 5G-powered remote video production today.”

The EM9191 module for the broadband edge is currently available globally, from Sierra Wireless’ global network of partners.       For more information, visit:    www.sierrawireless.com/products-and-solutions/embedded-solutions/5g-iot/   www.sierrawireless.com/EMSeries      To contact the Sierra Wireless Sales Desk, call +1 877-687-7795 or visit http://www.sierrawireless.com/sales.  

A company widely known for its radio imaging, voiceover, programming, podcasting and jingle services has inked an agreement with a web design and development company serving radio for 20 years that will extend its tech platform to Benztown clients.

Envisionwise presented by Benztown delivers to users three technology products that deliver and maintain station websites, Alexa Skills and Text Messaging services for radio: LinkedUpRadio, Pivot Radio and TextMeMan.

Stations can activate one, two or all three products, with the convenience
of one log-in for multiple stations. Envisionwise presented by Benztown also offers
continuous live concierge support.

“The platforms are scalable and give stations more capabilities for less money, with no long-term commitments with both cash and barter options,” the company says.

LinkedUpRadio is a custom-designed website platform that allows individuals or groups to manage all station websites, ads, content, and social networking in one system, with no coding or special skills required.

LinkedUpRadio websites are designed for radio stations housing  blogs, image sliders,
schedules, photos, and custom forms, among other items. “A variety of premium add-ons
available for unlimited digital revenue opportunity,” Benztown notes.

Pivot Radio develops custom Alexa Skills for radio stations that integrate with Amazon
smart speakers. Benztown comments, “Stations can schedule pre-rolls and outro advertisements while managing the Alexa voice and the visual display graphics through a simple admin interface. Pivot Radio handles all development, submissions and establishes an Amazon Alexa skills store presence for each station’s skill. Custom banner graphics are
provided help promote skills and analytics are available to share with station advertisers. Pivot Radios newest skill feature provides an opportunity for stations to take client requests over Alexa.”

Lastly, TextMeMan connects stations directly to listeners through texts for contests, giveaways, song requests, and local updates, including news, events, and advertising promotions. Listeners can receive both SMS or MMS messages, with options to opt in and out at any time.