9-13-13
Sirius XM and Bleacher Report are teaming up to create an all-new daily sports talk program launching Monday. Bleacher Report Radio, which will be hosted by SiriusXM's Steve Covino and Rich Davis, will air nationwide every weekday (11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. ET/8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. PT) on SiriusXM Sports Zone (Sirius channel 92 and XM channel 208).
8-12-2013
The Village Voice reports that Pacifica's WBAI/New York, a 50-plus-year-old noncomm, has laid off its entire news department and most of the rest of the on-air talent as well. Andrew Phillips, former GM of Pacifica's KPFA/Berkeley, comes in as interim PD.
The Voice reports that the problems are budget-related, as WBAI GM Berthold Reimers said, "We have barely made our transmitter payments." He told listeners, "Most of the producers whose shows you value will not even have the chance to say goodbye to you, for which I am deeply sorry."
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
7-30-13
A story like this always seems to pop up around the quarterly earnings call (Cumulus reports tomorrow at 11AM). Politico reports it would be a major industry shake up if Cumulus dropped Rush and Hannity from about 40 stations at the end of the year. Politico says Cumulus and Premiere are at odds over the cost of distribution and that Cumulus has been looking for local and regional talent "that will be left vacant by Limbaugh and Hannity." However, a source tells Radio Ink nothing has been decided and a deal could even be worked out in the next month or so.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
5-29-13
Digital revenue is all the rage. In the first quarter of 2013, according to the RAB, radio's digital revenue jumped 9 percent to $179 million. We see the record Pandora revenue numbers every quarter and we know there is money to be made in mobile...just ask Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan. So, how much of an effort is the radio industry putting into grabbing that digital dollar?
Borell and Associates Senior Research Analyst Greg Harmon released his third report in a series examining how media hires and pays digital account execuitives. According to the study, 11 percent of radio stations have dedicated digital sellers, compared to 44 percent in TV and 57 percent in newspaper. The average starting salary of a digital AE in radio is $32,200 according to the Borrell study. Newspaper pays an average salary of $34,458. Television $42,250. And a Pureplay Internet company pays $54,100. (All are before bonuses and commissions.)
The Borrell study reveals that when a company has a dedicated digital seller, it will average twice the online revenue of those without digital reps. That's because the sales staff exhibits a greater ability to consult with and educate advertisers and has stronger capabilities to understand and sell digital products. But not everyone wants to be part of this digital revenue shift. One radio manager is quoted in the survey saying, ?We should be focusing on our strength, audio advertising, not selling our clients the pipe dream of ?interactivity? that digital has promised but seldom delivers.? It?s a minority opinion, but certainly represents a sibling rivalry occurring in local media families where the cute digital brother gets all the attention."
Hiring digital sales reps is on the upswing again. The first Borrell study in 2009 revealed that 60 percent of respondents had at least one rep whose sole focus was digital products. By 2011, the recession had cut that figure to 46 percent. This latest survey shows 62 percent of sales managers in newspapers, radio, TV, and yellow pages companies reporting that they employ digital-only reps.
The Borrell report examines responses from 220 media managers in the pureplay, newspaper, radio, TV, and directory industries. One-third were from newspaper companies, 56 percent from broadcasting, 12 percent from yellow pages, and 4 percent from Internet pureplays. It includes more than 200 open-ended responses from those managers offering insights and suggestions on digital vs. traditional sales compensation plans.
For more information about this survey, contact Greg Harmon at gharmon@borrellassociates.com
(5/30/2013 7:49:38 AM)
You have to forgive the sales manager. He has spent his career doing marketing the real way by building brands through a powerful medium that probably reaches tens of thousands of people in his market simultaneously. A medium that can make a clients business thought of first and liked the best. Now, he is asked to talk to businesses about how they can get 50 likes on their Facebook page. What does truly building a client's business have to do with that? That's "old school".
Add a Comment | View All Comments Send This Story To A Friend
5-16-13
The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Howard Stern is the buyer of a $52 million mansion in Palm Beach. It was a private sale for an oceanfront home sold by textile and apparel executive Martin Trust and his wife, Diane. The paper says the couple bought the home in 1986 for less than $5 million. Two buildings sit on the lot with a total of 39,094 square feet of living space, inside and out. The main house has 18,673 square feet and the additional building has 1,196 square feet. Rush Limbaugh also owns a home in Palm Beach
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
12-25-2012
The New York Daily News is reporting that the nurse who killed herself after being tricked by DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian attempted suicide twice before. The paper says 46-year-old Jacintha Saldanha, visited family in India in 2011 when she overdosed on pills. And nine days later, she tried to jump from a building. Read the full story HERE
8-26-2012
The Detroit Free Press reports there's a lot of optimism around Detroit for the second half of 2012. It appeared as if auto sales were tapering off but the paper has several optimistic quotes about the auto market. J.D. Power and Associates Senior V.P. John Humphrey said, "August continues this summer's trend of healthy growth in retail sales as dealers work to sell down inventory in time to make room for 2013 models."
Ron MacEachern is a GM for several dealerships. He's quoted as saying, "The market growth is very, very steady." The paper says U.S. consumers are on track to buy 1.3 million vehicles in August, or 16 percent more than a year ago. That would translate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14.5 million -- the strongest pace for any month this year. Automotive website Edmunds.com also is projecting a selling rate of 14.5 million.
5-24-12
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that David Gow's Gow Communications, which currently owns KGOW-AM and Yahoo Sports Radio, will pick up KFNC-FM and operate the FM station as an ESPN Radio affiliate. Radio Ink spoke to both Gow and broker Larry Patrick earlier this week, and both said nothing would be made official about the deal for another 30 days.
Cumulus placed several stations into a prepackaged bankruptcy proceeding last year. Boker Larry Patrick won a majority share of the stations, and this FM was a not a station Cumulus was particularly interested in keeping in its cluster. There has been speculation for weeks that Gow would be getting KFNC, but neither side wanted to announce until the ink was dry. That is, until the Chronicle ran the story yesterday. You can read it HERE.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
(PROGRAMMING)
(by Buzz Knight) The pace at radio stations across America is dizzying. Christmas seems like yesterday. We are about to reach the end of the first quarter. Time flies when you're zooming through the day. Now is an appropriate time to take a pause and evaluate your performance. Here's a checklist to assist you as you take an up-close and personal look at how you're doing:
1) Are you running technology or is technology running you?
Evaluate yourself honestly in this area. Are you so fixated with your smartphone, IPAD or laptop that you don't allow yourself to actually think? Have you become such a slave to social media that you no longer have live interaction with those around you?
2) Is your personal or organization's performance incrementally better in ways that you can see and measure from last quarter?
Quarterly ratings evaluations are only partly relevant due to Christmas patterns, so year to year reviews can be more valuable. Have you set personal performance goals that you can see the difference?
3) Have you chosen a specific group of staffers to mentor and has their performance improved?
This group should not only consist of a challenged group, but should also consist of an up and coming group of individuals that hold great promise and can benefit you with growth.
4) Have you prioritized a second quarter plan and is it still relevant?
Have all the individuals involved with your plan been aligned with the strategy and do they have the tools needed to accomplish the mission?
5) Are you encouraging your teams throughout the radio station to have healthy debate in an effort to make your product better?
Are all of the issues or opportunities out on the table for your brands?
At the end of the day, its' your job to get everyone on the bus and enjoy the ride! I'm sure there's a deeper checklist to help you focus your internal vibe but simplicity of action can be your best place to start.
Buzz Knight is the Vice President of Program Development for Greater Media and he can be reached at bknight@greatermediaboston.com. Knight was named among ?Best Programmers? by Radio Ink Magazine in 2007 and 2010. He has served on the programming subcommittee of the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) and is currently a member of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) COLRAM Committee.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
3-13-2012
RADAR, a research arm of Arbitron, says it sampled 396,000 people twelve and older. The report includes data from all 48 Arbitron PPM markets and the information was collected between January 6th and December 7th of last year. Arbitron says the data represents "93% of the population tuning in to radio on a weekly basis. Here are some of the details Arbitron released about the data.
Arbitron says the data shows:
- 22.7 million persons aged 12 to 17 listen weekly.
- 66.4 million adults 18-34 listen to radio weekly.
- 126.2 million adults 18-49 listen to radio weekly
- 119.4 million adults 25-54 listen to radio weekly.
and
- The Hispanic audience 12 and older increased by nearly 2 million from one year earlier. Arbitron says "radio reaches 95% of Hispanics aged 12 and older.
? Hispanic Adults 18 to 49 added about 1 million weekly listeners according to Arbitron.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
2-12-2012
The Miami Herald is reporting that WQAM afternoon drive host Sid Rosenberg owes $44,500 to a Costa Rica-based website. The paper interviewed Frank Soviero who says he works for http://www.1betvegas.com/ and has been in Miami trying to collect on the money Rosenberg owes for two months. ?We can?t sue Sid since what we do is illegal in the United States. I?ve tried everything. He comes up with 100 bucks here and there, and he gives me a big hug," Soviero is quoted saying in the paper.
Read the entire Herald story HERE
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
1-31-2012
Cromwell Group President Bud Walters is perhaps the definitive successful small-market operator. His deliberate and smart approach to building a company has served him well over the years. He?s achieved his goal of serving local communities with a great broadcast product, and his willingness to share his successes and experience with others has earned him a stellar reputation throughout the radio industry. Today, the Cromwell Group consists of 22 stations in towns like Decatur, Effingham, Mattoon, and Vandalia. And throughout the years, Walters has stuck to his plan of looking for undeveloped and underdeveloped stations and and achieving his mission of serving the community. The story of Walters' path to success is detailed in the latest issue of Radio Ink magazine. In it, he looks into his radio crystal ball. Here is a snippet of what he had to say.
"I think we have a great future. We have to find ways for what we do, from a programming standpoint, to be important to somebody. Then we have to make it available to them on whatever device they want it on. That includes smartphones, and obviously the dashboard, with however that changes, and anything else coming down the pipe. From a business standpoint, the fact is, more people are listening to radio now than ever before. If the numbers are correct, 93 percent of the population listens to radio. It?s like 235 million-240 million people a week. Those are really huge numbers. It doesn?t mean that people aren?t listening to other services, but that?s always been the case. People just have more choices now. Our challenge is to be one of those choices."
"On the advertising side, in a small town, we do have more bigbox stores than we used to have. We just have to keep finding different kinds of clients to do business with us. As the national people come in and go out, you just have to find ways to work with them. I am on the Executive Committee of the Radio Advertising Bureau. RAB is doing some wonderful things ? not everybody in the industry knows about it right now. The data resources that RAB has, folks are using them more than they ever have before. You can find all the copy you ever wanted. You can find all the information you want about any kind of industry. You can sign up for the articles. RAB has a new customer management system that about 2,000 people are using, small- and large-market broadcasters."
Bryan Broadcasting Vice President Ben Downs says of his friend, ?Bud didn?t pull records for Mr. Marconi, but he has played a role in a significant percentage of radio?s development. He?s always been willing to share his ideas and things he?s learned with people who are new to the business. Radio is blessed with a few special people who get into the business early and stay late. That love for our industry and our communities is what makes Bud and the owner-operators like him unique to radio. They?re why radio continues to remain relevant as we start looking toward the second century of radio broadcasting.?
To see the entire interview now, subscribe to our digital version HERE
To subscribe to our print issue, GO HERE
The Bud Walters issue also includes articles on:
- How to Train New Salespeople
- Changes to the RAB CRMS Course
- Small market Succes Stories
You can leave your comments about Bud Walters below or reach out to him directly at BudBayard@aol.com
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
You never know with Howard. This could be a publicity stunt in the end. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Stern is "in serious negotiations" with NBC to be the next judge on "America's Got Talent." Piers Morgan is leaving the program which leaves an empty seat at the table next to Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne. The Journal says Howard's asking price is $15 million a year and, the paper says, the program might even be moved from California to New York to accommodate Howard.
Howard continues to air his long-running successful morning program on SiriusXM. Read the entire journal article HERE
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
LinkedIn ad revenue is already at $140.8 million this year and according to a report released by eMarketer, worldwide social network ad revenues will reach $5.54 billion this year, eMarketer estimates, with just under half that amount, $2.74 billion, coming from the US market.
Revenue growth is solidly in the double digits in the US, but even more rapid growth elsewhere will mean spending outside the country will account for a slightly greater share each year. By 2013, non-US revenues will make up 51.9% of the total, which will hit nearly $10 billion worldwide. In the US, social networks will make $4.81 billion from ads that year, according to eMarketer's report.
The bulk of these dollars, in the US and around the world, will go to Facebook, while a much smaller share will go to Twitter and other social networks. eMarketer's first forecast of ad revenues for LinkedIn predicts the site will account for 3% of worldwide social network ad revenues this year, with $140.8 million. The site has more than tripled its ad dollars in two years, though growth is tapering off.
Gains in social network ad revenues mean these sites account for an ever greater share of all digital ad spending. This year, 8.8% of online ad dollars in the US and 6.9% worldwide will go to social networking sites, eMarketer estimates. By 2013, social network ad revenues will make up 11.7% of all online ad spending in the US and 9.4% around the world.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
Bloomberg is reporting that Nassau is facing an involuntary petition for bankruptcy from creditors for which the company owes over $80 million. Goldman Sachs says it is owed nearly $70 million of the $83 million from the Nassau debt. Fortress has also made a claim for more than $11.2 million, and P.E. Capital LLC. seeks $2.8 million. The Chapter 7 petition has been filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington. Nassau runs or owns stations in New Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
by David Oxenford
In 2009, the FCC adopted a uniform deadline for all commercial broadcast licensees to file an FCC Form 323 Biennial Ownership Report. The due date for that report was supposed to be November 1 of that year, but was postponed until July of 2010 when problems popped up with the new forms. The next Biennial Ownership reporting date was scheduled to be November 1 of this year (two years after the originally scheduled date for the first report to use the new form) - but the FCC today issued a Public Notice postponing the filing deadline for one month, to December 1.
This delay was justified so asto give broadcasters, especially those with many media interests held in different companies, more time to complete what can be a cumbersome process of filling out all of the reports and exhibits that need to be submitted. Reports need to be filed by December 1, but all information still needs to be reported as of October 1 of this year - a standard reporting date that will remain constant each year to give the FCC a snapshot of the composition of ownership in the broadcast world.
The revised ownership report filing process was adopted so that the FCC could get an accurate report on the ownership of broadcast properties by minorities and women, a goal that has taken on added significance in light of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal's recent decision in Prometheus Radio Project v FCC, rejecting the FCC's efforts to diversify ownership in the media through the use of a system giving preferences to qualified entities, i.e. small businesses. As we wrote last month, the Court found that the FCC's goal was to promote minority and female ownership, which was not fostered by its concentration on small businesses.
One of the issues on which the Court faulted the FCC was the lack of information about the current broadcast ownership interests of minorities and women, so that the FCC could do a "Adarand study" as to whether there are effects of past discrimination reflected in the current ownership of broadcast stations that need to be remedied by affirmative action efforts based on race or gender. These new ownership reports are designed to help to provide that information.
Noncommercial broadcasters are not yet subject to these new Form 323 requirements and the obligation to submit the reports at the same time as their commercial brethren. The FCC is still considering whether to put noncommercial broadcasters on that same schedule. Until that decision is made, noncommercial broadcasters continue to file every other year on the anniversary of the due date for their last license renewal application.
Commercial broadcasters should be aware of this December 1 date, and make sure to comply with the Form 323 requirements. As this obligation applies to all commercial broadcasters, and now will have been in effect for two cycles, you can be sure that the FCC will not be too happy about broadcasters who miss this deadline this time around.
David Oxenford is a partner in Davis Wright Tremaine's Washington, DC office. David has represented broadcasters for over 25 years on a wide array of matters from purchases and sales of broadcast properties and the negotiation of programming agreements to regulatory matters.
Add a Comment Send This Story To A Friend
7/15/2011
That's the word from eMarketer. An eMarketer report estimates 37.5% of US internet users ages 12 and up will listen to internet radio?including online streaming of terrestrial broadcasts and online-only radio stations?or podcasts at least weekly this year. On a monthly basis, 44.3% of web users will tune in to online radio. The study also says by 2015 Internet listening use will jump to 157 million people.
It?s a positive and long-overdue development for the U.S. recording industry, with favorable repercussions for brand marketers and consumers,? Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst, told the E-Commerce Times. ?Spotify has a good chance of succeeding in the U.S., but to do so, it will have to demonstrate ? through the quality of its product and aggressive marketing ? that it?s a better value than the likes of Rhapsody, Rdio and MOG.?
Check out the emarketer chart of Internet Radio growth HERE
Sean Kingston is currently in the trauma ward of a Miami hospital, following an injury reportedly suffered in a jet ski accident on Sunday (May 29).
According to the Miami Herald, Kingston (real name: Kisean Anderson) was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital after he and a female passenger aboard his personal watercraft crashed into the Palm Island Bridge around 6:00 p.m. EST. A boater rescued the pair from the water, and Miami Fire Rescue crews rushed Kingston and the passenger to the hospital.
A representative for Jackson Memorial Hospital has confirmed to Billboard.com that the 21-year-old pop star is in the Ryder Trauma Center. The singer is currently "being evaluated," although no details regarding his injuries have been released.
Kingston's publicist has issued the following statement: "Sean Kingston was in a accident today. No further details are available at the moment. He and his family thank everyone for the well wishes."
Since breaking out with debut single "Beautiful Girls," which topped the Hot 100 for four weeks in 2007, Kingston has scored hits like "Take You There," "Fire Burning" and "Eenie Meenie" with Justin Bieber, who he joined on tour last year.
Log in to create your profile, speak your mind and connect with listeners like you.
Already a member? Sign in now, or log in with your Facebook account.For the full Billboard experience, you need to be a member. Sign up. It's free.
Your password has been sent to the email address you provided. Please sign in below :
Log in through Facebook instead.