Deace Signs With USA Radio Networks

12-17-14

Conservative talker Steve Deace will soon be covering afternoon drive for USA Radio Networks. The political columnist, commentator, and author is now heard weekdays on 44 stations from 9pm-midnight. Beginning January 20, the program will move to 3-6pm ET, Monday through Friday.

USRN Chief Content Officer Tim Maranville says, "We believe that Steve can help our affiliate stations gain market share in afternoon drive. He's not just another conservative mouthpiece. He connects with the listener because he reflects their ongoing frustration with Washington and political media."

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Saga Sells Ag Networks To Learfield

12-4-14

Learfield Communications and Saga Communications announced that the two companies have reached an agreement under which Learfield has acquired the Minnesota and Michigan News and Ag Radio Networks from Saga. The agreement becomes effective immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed. Saga CEO Ed Christian said, "Learfield is very well respected in the radio business and has a proven track record in network operation. The service Learfield provides to its affiliate radio stations is unmatched, and its news and agriculture networks are first rate." Saga is out of the Ag Radio Network Business but still owns the Illinois Radio Netowrk.

Learfield was founded in 1972 as a regional news and farm radio network. This acquisition brings to seven the number of state radio news networks operated by Learfield, and adds significant coverage to Brownfield Ag News, America's leading farm radio network. In total, 382 radio stations are now served by Learfield's agriculture programing and 431 radio stations by Learfield news services.

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Envision Networks Debuts New Name

2-10-14

CEO Danno Wolkoff says, ?Envision Networks is a more accurate representation of our current evolution and growth in radio, digital, streaming, and product placement. The Envision Networks? name and branding now reflects everything we supply to radio stations and other media while creating a desirable audience for our advertisers and partners.? The 11-year-old network provides content and services to more than 1,500 radio stations across the country.

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What's Next for WSJ Network's Abramson?

8-6-2013

Nancy Abramson started in radio as a DJ at WLIR in 1981. In 1986 she was hired by ABC Radio Networks as a manager of network programming. Abramson worked for the ABC Radio Network for 10 years until taking a position as a radio marketing manager at the Wall Street Journal Network. It was the start of a very long career with WSJ. Abramson would eventually rise to executive director of the network in 2006, a position she'll occupy until next month. As the network goes through a re-organization she's decided to move on. We recently interviewed Abramson to ask her why she stayed so long, what her biggest accomplishments were, how the network survived the recession, and why she's leaving.

Her former boss at the network Paul Bell worked with Abramson from 1999 until 2013. "We had a great run together. It was a challenging, creative and very collaborative environment. We worked for a great brand and made the most of a tremendous opportunity to re-shape the way business news on the radio was reported, so that listeners could hear money news in a way they could easily relate to. Nancy has been a outstanding advocate for the Journal's early morning and evening long-form shows, as well as audio delivered on the web. And her relationships with our affiliates across the country were more often than not long standing friendships as well as strong business partnerships. I miss working along aide Nancy and I wish her all the best wherever she lands in business ."

Here's our full interview with nancy Abramson

You've been with the WSJ network since 1996. That's a pretty long time to be with one company. What has kept you there so long?                                                                                                                               I worked for a classic, big brand. Yet we ran our network like a small business. Everyone was empowered and was asked to handle different roles. I also worked for a great boss, Paul Bell, who gave me independence, support, and was interested in collaboration. I personally think happiness is often dependent on control, both personally and professionally. If you feel you have control of your environment, feel that you can make an impact, and have a creative outlet, then you are a productive and happy employee.

The big question is the obvious one: Why are you retiring? 
We are re-organizing and I am moving on. I am not retiring. I still have things to do. 
What would you consider your biggest accomplishments over the years?
We built the WSJ Radio Network into the largest business news provider in the U.S. by following some very simple sales and programming rules:
-- Listen to the customer. Don?t tell them what they want, listen to what they need.
-- Make the news and information conversational and listener oriented. Business news can be confusing and very technical. It?s not easy to take complicated market information and make it relatable.
-- By following these rules, we turned The Wall Street Journal This Morning into a morning talk radio staple. The show originally started as a business show. It was fairly successful as a pre-morning drive program. But it really hit its stride four years ago when we moved to a more general news approach, following the lead of The Wall Street Journal newspaper. We are now on 240 stations, 90 run more than one hour of the program. Many stations use the entire four hours as their morning drive program drive including WGST Atlanta, WLAC Nashville, WHLO Akron, WLAP Lexington.
-- Also, we had to overcome adverse business conditions. For example, in 2008 we were confronted with ratings declines based on talk-radio attrition and PPM reporting. But we managed to keep our ratings stable by continually adding new affiliates. Sometimes it felt like we had to run to stay in place, but I am proud that we were able to keep our audience numbers relatively consistent.
-- I am also proud of the launch of The Daily Wrap. Unfortunately, the show was a casualty of various revenue issues, but I think we provided a welcome alternative in the talk radio arena ? particularly in evening talk radio. The show was built upon the resources of The Journal, summed up the day?s events, featured marquee guests and newsmakers, was PPM friendly, and integrated easily into our affiliates? formats.
-- I am also proud of putting together a tremendous team, including Susan O?Connell and Susan Moran, with whom I worked at ABC Radio Networks. That?s where we learned the rules of syndication, namely the importance of customer service and the significance of establishing a relationship of trust with the customers. I am proud I created that environment of trust for our team here, and for our clients. We continually aspired to be excellent. That goal permeated our dealings with our customers, our product, our marketing, and  our technical performance. 
When the recession hit, what did you do to keep the business alive?
Fortunately, that created an even higher demand for business news, enabling us to attract more radio customers and add new content. Our sales agent also saw an appetite for business news and was able to attract advertisers who wanted to associate their messages with our iconic brands during a time when people were searching for information about their money. Our research shows, year-in and year-out, that readers stay with the Journal because it?s an information source they trust. So when the 2008/2009 recession hit, the radio marketplace knew that they could broadcast our reports and be assured the information was accurate.
What is/was the hardest thing working at the network as it relates to working with radio stations?
With so many big groups having their own syndication arms, we have had to work harder and be more persuasive to convince stations that we fit a need that they couldn?t fill. That takes creativity and relationship building. We have always maintained that we are the ?Switzerland? of network radio.

What is your opinion on how the network business has evolved since 1996?
Holy cow. How hasn?t it? Aside from consolidation, PPMs, Internet radio...not to mention the balance of local to network programming on radio stations has changed dramatically.
What advice could you give to radio managers?
Be multi-faceted and keep learning. I remember about 10 years ago I was in a meeting with a senior manager at Dow Jones. He asked me for a risk analysis of the next year?s revenue. He just assumed I had an MBA and that this was something I could do in my sleep. Meanwhile, I?m thinking, ? MBA? I started in this business as DJ.? But, I learned. More recently, I?ve had to increase my word power beyond ?AQH" and ?50 K-W blow torch? to include webcasts, session starts, iHeart, Stitcher, Tune In. In the past year we expanded our digital reach with online partnerships and added exclusive WSJ Radio content on the Ford  SYNC AppLink system.

What are you planning to do next?
I love radio and have been talking to folks about my next move. I have a couple of requirements: to work in an environment where the business is building and people are laughing.

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Roberts Joins Envision Radio Networks

3-12-13

Rick Roberts joins Envision as an additional host of America Weekend. He'll work America Weekend every Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. ET. Roberts has worked at KOA/Denver, KCMO/Kansas City, KRLD/Dallas, KOGO/San Diego, and KFMB/San Diego. Roberts joins fellow America Weekend hosts Paul Harris (Saturdays and Sundays 9 a.m. to noon) and Turi Ryder (Sundays noon to 3 p.m.).

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(AUDIO) Fox Will Not Roll Over to New Sports Networks

8-21-2012

As the countdown to the new radio sports network battle approaches, Senior Vice President for Sports Programming at Premiere Networks Don Martin tells Radio Ink his powerful brand - with backing from Clear Channel - are a force to be reckoned with as this format explodes. Martin is part of our special series focusing on sports talk, which is part of the upcoming Radio Show issue of Radio Ink Magazine in September. Here's a short preview  from Martin who says, although he loves his competitors, they should not expect Fox Sports to roll over for them. Tomorrow we'll here from long-time sports talker Jim Rome.

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Radio Networks Form New Organization

6-25-2012

American Urban Radio Networks, Crystal Media Networks, Cumulus Media, Dial Global, Premiere Networks and United Stations are part of a newly formed organization designed "to promote effective, reliable reporting and stewardship of network radio audio commercials and programming." The Network Radio Compliance Council?s mission is to establish best practices, providing advertisers, agencies and radio stations with better tools for the placement and reporting of commercial audio.

Meg Montury of Premiere Networks has been elected chair and Chris Buehler of Dial Global as Vice Chair. The Council will host quarterly meetings with invited guests, including radio vendors, ad agencies and additional network radio companies.

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(SOCIAL) Do All Social Networks Deserve Attention?

Your station might have a cast of thousands to manage all your social network properties. Far more likely, you have one, maybe two poor saps tasked with overseeing ?that social stuff.? Mom always tried to keep me calm in fits of overwork with her philosophy of, ?all you can do is all you can do.? And that holds true for radio stations with their finite resources and personnel.

However, the developers and innovators out there are not concerned with your limited resources. They keep coming up with social network ideas and keep on launching them. Some languish in obscurity. Others grow in the public consciousness until they reach a tipping point, at which time you?re forced to decide whether you?re going to have a presence on them or not. You can only do so much. But to help you decide where to aim your resources, let?s take a look at who the big performers are.

Experian Hitwise tracks visits (not unique visitors), the thinking most likely being that a repeat customer should not be regarded as a less valuable customer. You don?t mind your listeners coming back to the station, right? Each visit is an engagement. Here?s the Experian Hitwise list of the top social networks, with their number of U.S. visits each received in March:

1. Facebook            7 billion

2. Twitter            182 million

3. Pinterest             104 million

4. LinkedIn            86 million

5. Tagged            72 million

6. Google+            61 million

Facebook is, well, Facebook. For now, and the foreseeable future, it is the foundation of social networking, with the No. 2 network not even close. Every brand should be using Facebook as the primary location from which they form genuine, two-way relationships with fans and customers. In addition to facilitating those relationships, Facebook is also busy changing the way brands market themselves, promoting a seismic shift away from ads and toward content in order to preserve the user experience. I wish radio had thought of that. Many new networks and functions that come along can be embedded in a tab view within the Facebook environment, making Facebook the mother ship of all who may come after.

Twitter can be polarizing. Users are either ?Twitter people? or can?t stand its character limitations and hashtags. But as a very different animal to Facebook, used in a very different way strategically, those brands, celebrities, and experts who benefit from a steady stream of breaking news-style bulletins, or who are perfecting the use of Twitter to conduct customer service, have a useful tool indeed.

The Pinterest phenomenon continues, now seizing the position of third-most popular social network in the U.S. In its first couple of years, Pinterest actually languished. Then the interior design world discovered it and became the fuel to its fire. The degree to which you embrace Pinterest depends on your ability to visually present your station, and on your target demographics. The Pinterest ratio is still around 60/40 women to men. Pinterest has, without a doubt, become the stunner of the industry. It?s also reminded us that something that isn?t on our radars could pop up and take the social consumer base by storm. The power of an idea to explode like that is what keeps the social space so exciting.

LinkedIn is the network that got surpassed by Pinterest. But that doesn?t mean it?s in decline. LinkedIn is a platform whose angle is that it exists for a specific purpose: that being business and job networking. Many challengers have come along, but LinkedIn remains king of that hill. With the talk of user activity shifting to being based around interests as opposed to friends, and with users seeking to use social networking for more specific, utilitarian purposes as opposed to time-passing activities, LinkedIn is positioned well to meet the social needs of the working world. Your AEs should be all over it.

Ever hear of Tagged? Well it?s bigger than Google+! Tagged is geared mostly toward discovery and people matching. You may want to be friends, you may want to date them, but you meet these new people mostly through social games, shared interests, etc. It?s not new. Tagged was founded in 2004 and has been profitable since early 2008. As long people want to virtually meet new people, Tagged should continue its growth. For brands, though, it?s a paid advertising play. They offer custom integrations like home page takeovers, contests, sweepstakes, promotions, custom profiles, surveys, and polls. You don?t get to be a person.

Then there?s Google+. What are we supposed to do with Google+? After a launch accompanied by trumpets and fanfare, brands have largely sat on the sidelines, waiting to see what must-have value proposition the network brings. There?s plenty of potential, considering Google?s family of products that could be integrated. Brands also see the advantages of playing ball in the social space of the ?lords of search.? But right now, Google+ sits at No. 6. Not failing (Experian Hitwise says total visits in March were up 27 percent from February, and it?s enjoyed steady growth since it started), but not setting the world on fire either. ComScore shows users spent 3.3 minutes on Google+ in January, compared to 7.5 hours for Facebook. Google+ has got to do something to pull itself out of ?lowest priority? status.

That?s the social networking smorgasbord that?s laid out right now. So go ahead and pick your portions.

Mike Stiles is a brand content specialist with the social marketing tech platform, Vitrue. Check out his monologue blog, The Stiles Files and follow him @mikestiles

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Jerry King to Run Cumulus Media Networks Operation

12-15-2011

 King leaves McVay Media, where he was the past 20 years, most recently as Vice President of Operations and Programming. You may also recall Mike McVay is part of the new Cumulus team. King's title will be Director of Operations for Dallas. He'll oversee the network?s Dallas operations, as well as the program directors and the 24/7 satellite delivered radio programming in fourteen different formats originating from Dallas. Mr. King joins Cumulus on January 1st.

?I?ve had one of radio?s best jobs over the past years as a consultant,? Mr. King said. ?But, this network opportunity is simply too dynamic to pass on. I?m looking forward to re-joining Mike, working with the talented programmers at the Cumulus Media Network Dallas, and being a partner as we write new pages of radio history with the team at Cumulus.?

(12/15/2011 3:26:45 PM)
What a great choice. Jerry King is a true professional with great talent.

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AdLarge Strikes Deal With Benztown Radio Networks

AdLarge Media has been selected by Benztown Radio Networks to handle advertising sales representation for various Benztown Radio Networks Products and services. ?We?re extremely pleased to be in business with Benztown Radio Networks,? says AdLarge Media VP/Business Development Frank DeSantis. ?They have in short order carved a significant niche in the national radio marketplace and are clearly poised for tremendous growth. All of us at AdLarge are excited about supporting them as they move forward.?

?As we continue to expand our profile and product offerings, our ad sales relationships grow as well,? says Benztown Radio Networks President Dave ?Chachi? Denes. ?AdLarge Media brings years of expertise and great energy. Their strong ties with a diverse advertising market will certainly contribute to our success.?

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