Industry News

BOCA RATON, FLA. — A South Florida Democrat who in recent years emerged as a major proponent of legislation that would impose new artist royalty payments on broadcast radio stations in the U.S. has announced that he will step down following the Congressional recess for the 2022 midterm elections.

It’s a major blow to groups including musicFIRST and SoundExchange and perhaps a sign that the NAB-supported “Local Radio Freedom Act” has proven successful on Capitol Hill.

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The “streaming war” continues, with players like Netflix facing stiff competition from ad-supported and ad-supported hybrids such as Hulu and Discovery+. It’s a story the digital video PR machine churns out every day in a bid to declare victory over linear television.

While some believe the OTT story is overblown and a bubble could pop in just months, the ad spend for OTT seen in 2021 as determined by MediaRadar is something everyone in broadcast media should take note of.

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How vital is it for marketers to “bridge the gap” between linear television and streaming?

Just ask HDRadio and Tivo parent Xperi Corp., and a cross-channel TV advertising firm that has planned and executed successful TV campaigns for hundreds of brands.

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BOCA RATON, FLA. — The largest private owner and operator of communications infrastructure in the United States has announced that it has successfully issued $1.368 billion of tower revenue notes secured by its portfolio of 3,526 tower sites.

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BOCA RATON, FLA. — It’s known across South Florida as a “BIG” home for rock and roll favorites ranging from Ozzy Osbourne and Eric Clapton to Men at Work and Tears for Fears. Now, this longtime iHeartMedia property that’s home to veteran local morning host Paul Castronovo could be on the hook for a big fine for a nearly three-year old contest.

Why? The FCC says it violated its rules for failing to be clear on the contest’s eligibility period.

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iHeartMedia faces a possible $20,000 fine in a contest rules violation case. The Federal Communications Commission said the company’s history of contest rule violations played a factor in the amount of the penalty.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau said the case involves a contest — ironically called “You Can’t Win” — that was held by WBGG(FM) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A person who attempted to participate on May 30, 2019, had won a separate station contest, the “Southwest Flyaway Fridays,” on March 1, so the station call screener didn’t allow him to participate. The listener then argued that the station wasn’t following its own contest rules.

When the FCC inquired, the company replied that an employee had applied a past exclusion rule incorrectly but it also said this wasn’t relevant because the listener would have been ineligible anyway. But the commission ruled that the “plain language” of the contest rules indicated otherwise.

Even if there was an ambiguity, it continued, FCC precedent is that ambiguous rules are to be “construed against the interests of the promoter of the contest.”

The commission also didn’t accept the station’s argument that the person raising the complaint didn’t have “standing” in the case. (Readers who are involved in creating radio station contest rules may wish to read the FCC NAL for specifics of why the commission didn’t accept iHeart’s various arguments.)

The base forfeiture in contest cases is $4,000 for each violation; the FCC opted to increase the proposed penalty to $20,000 in part because the station also failed to maintain the contest rules on its website for at least 30 days after the end of the contest, as required.

But another factor in raising the amount, the FCC said, is that “the licensee is the pro forma assignee of an affiliate with a history of violating the Contest Rule.” The commission listed several examples of contest cases 2000 to 2012 involving stations owned by what was then called Clear Channel.

The station has 30 days to pay the fine or to reply with any counter argument.

This was the second time in as many days that the FCC has mentioned problems of past rule compliance by a major broadcast group; in an unrelated case we reported earlier, the commission took Cumulus to task for various past EEO and other infractions.

The post No, Really, You Can’t Win appeared first on Radio World.

ASCAP reported record revenue for 2021, collecting $1.335 billion.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers said, “Increases in collections from the audio streaming and audio-visual sectors pushed ASCAP’s domestic revenue to $1.011 billion in 2021, up 4.4%, an increase of $42.5 million over 2020. This was the first year that ASCAP domestic revenues from U.S.-licensed performances surpassed $1 billion.”

It said the strategic growth plan it launched in 2015 has driven revenues to grow at a 5% compound annual growth rate since then.

“ASCAP’s identification, matching and processing of trillions of musical performances drove record-setting distributions that exceeded $1 billion for the fifth year in a row and increased $41 million over the previous year, for a total oaf $1.254 billion available for distribution to its more than 850,000 songwriter, composer and publisher members in 2021.”

It said the total available for domestic distributions of licensed and administered performances was $912.6 million, a 2.4% increase over 2020. It said strong domestic performance offset a drop in revenue from foreign societies of 9.7% “due largely to business closures and the lack of vaccinations.” But its international distributions were up 5.9%.

Its annual report is posted at www.ascap.com/annualreport.

The post ASCAP Reports Record Revenue appeared first on Radio World.

For two decades, he’s served as Marketing Director for the CBS and The CW Network affiliates serving the Cleveland TV market.

Now, he’s packing his bags and will soon enjoy Sonoran desert sunsets and perhaps a meal or two at El Charro.

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Its assets include NPR Member station WFYI-FM and PBS Member station WFYI-20 in Indianapolis.

Soon, it will be adding a low-power TV station to its property collection — thanks to a donation being made by a prolific trader of late in the LPTV arena.

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It’s been a topic of interest among marketers and advertisers for the last several years. And, for radio, achieving “addressable advertising” prowess hasn’t been easy.

Audacy Corp. believes it has a solution.

Introducing ADAN — the Audacy Digital Audience Network.

The audio content creation and distribution company formerly known as Entercom called ADAN “an addressable aggregate of over 60 million listeners that other audio platforms and streaming platforms do not reach.’

How so? As Audacy explains, each month the company connects with 200 million “fans” across its broadcast and digital assets.

More than 60 million of these listeners can be found on ADAN across its streaming content, on the Audacy app and on its podcasts.

“Through this high-performing audience solution, ADAN can target precise audiences at scale and deliver high-performing digital audio media strategies for Audacy’s advertising partners,” the company asserts. “Fully integrated into its tech stack, ADAN plans are optimized in real time, yielding actionable brand insights and detailed campaign reporting.”

Among the declarations from Audacy is that ADAN audiences skew “more affluent, are more likely to be college educated and are more diverse.” Then, there is the all-important unduplicated reach to listeners “that other audio platforms do not deliver.”

Audacy did not qualify this claim against competing organizations such as iHeartMedia.

“The creation of ADAN is exciting as we continue to build our Audacy streaming audio and podcast assets,” said Brian Benedik, Audacy Corp.’s Chief Revenue Officer. “The marketplace has moved to audience-based investment and our new ADAN offering is highly scaled with unduplicated digital listeners. We can target these audiences with precision and optimize campaign performance for better marketer outcomes. Our Audacy local and national sales teams are looking forward to working with our agency and brand partners in this capacity.”

Components of the Audience Network include Audacy’s broadcast brands; and podcasts from Audacy’s Cadence13, Pineapple Street Studios and American Public Media.

Exclusive stations, curated music stations from Audacy brands, talent and influencers and digital streams of MLB play-by-play broadcasts via flagship partnerships are also included in ADAN.