Radio+Television Business Report

Allen Media Group-owned free-streaming platform Local Now has added the first “alpine lifestyle and ski/snowboard culture content TV channel” to the lineup.

It’s the latest example of how “FAST” channels are quickly becoming the visual answer to the fast-growing podcasting industry.

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The FCC has moved forward with a Forfeiture Order that imposes a $512,228 per-station penalty against 17 stations that enjoy shared services agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group, while reducing a penalty assessed to one licensee but not eliminating it.

This puts the cumulative financial penalty handed to eight individual licensees at $9,007,876, eliciting cheers from DirecTV parent AT&T and pro-MVPD advocacy group American Television Alliance (ATVA).

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Financial markets finished Thursday’s trading sessions on a mixed note, as the Nasdaq rose by 102.01 points to 14,762.58 and the Dow Industrials were off by 127.59 points to 34,930.93.

How did media stocks fare?

Activity was mostly on the rise, with Audacy, iHeartMedia, Beasley Media Group and Salem Media Group all on the rise as Cumulus Media shed 6 cents, finishing at $11.91.

On the TV side, Nexstar, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Scripps were among the gainers as Dish and Nielsen were down.

WideOrbit, known for its broadcast TV and radio inventory and revenue workflow management products, has initiated a round of executive promotions designed to “better align with, and better serve” its clients.

This sees its President and EVP/Sales stepping down from a role he’s held for 20 years.

Bruce Roberts will remain with WideOrbit, however, as a “mentor to WideOrbit managers,” and as an advisor to WideOrbit founder and CEO Eric Mathewson.

Roberts will also maintain his role as “a significant shareholder of WideOrbit.”

The departure results in Tim Swift adding the role of President to his Chief Operating Officer duties. He’ll continue to focus on improving operational efficiency and “ensuring WideOrbit continues to provide customers with best-in-class support and service,” the company said.

Swift joined WideOrbit in 2018 as VP Integrations after serving as a Controller at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City and as Director of Business Analytics at owner Bonneville International.

Concurrently, Toni Coonce will take on the role of Executive Vice President of Sales for WideOrbit. Coonce joined WideOrbit in 2006 as a TV Account Executive, and later served in the roles of Director of Sales/TV and Vice President of Sales/TV.

Other promotions at WideOrbit see Dave Aston as SVP/National Sales; Rick Dorn as VP/Local Sales; and SVP Don Durand shifting to WideOrbit’s Product division while continuing to consult on International Sales.

Furthermore, Senior Director Megan Tobin has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer, as Jeff Greenfield has been hired to serve as SVP/Buy Side. He’s the founder and COO of C3 Metrics.

“Bruce’s contribution to both WideOrbit management and revenue growth has been immense,” Mathewson said. “There is no doubt that without Bruce’s sales expertise, charisma, and patience, WideOrbit would not be nearly as successful an organization. Thankfully, we have a talented and deep bench of managers at WideOrbit, and we congratulate those taking on new roles to help WideOrbit clients as we continue to focus on providing our clients world-class software and support.”

 

He began his programming career in 1983 at “The Loop,” specifically WLUP-FM 97.9 in Chicago. Not bad for a 21-year-old who’d go on to program former Adult Alternative KFOG-FM in San Francisco, launched Sports Talker WMVP-AM in Chicago in 1994, and would create crosstown WDRV-FM “The Drive” under Bonneville International ownership in 1997.

Now, Greg Solk is being put in charge of the programming and operations for an entire group of stations in the nation’s third-largest market.

Audacy (formerly Entercom) has promoted Solk to VP of Programming and Operations for its Chicago market, effective August 1.

In this role, Solk will oversee programming and operations strategy for WXRT-FM, WBMX-FM “104.3 JAMS,” WUSN-FM “US99,” WBBM-AM & WCFS-FM, WSCR-AM “The Score” and WBBM-FM “B96.”

Solk has served as Brand Manager of “93XRT,” since 2017. A search for his successor is on.

“Greg has been an invaluable partner who is respected and appreciated by his team at WXRT, across Audacy, and throughout the industry,” said Rachel Williamson, Regional President and Market Manager for Audacy in Chicago. “He has been influential in the success of many of the biggest brands across Chicago and I could not be more excited to promote him into this enhanced role overseeing our Chicago programming strategy.”

Solk said, “The past four and a half years at WXRT have been among the most rewarding of my career — especially the opportunity to work alongside legendary talents. Along with so many others behind the scenes, this team returned WXRT to the top echelon of our great city’s broadcast properties. Now, I look forward to continuing to work with Rachel and our group’s superb brand/programming leaders. Together we will do our best to continue enlightening, entertaining and delighting the millions we serve on our airwaves and through our growing digital channels.”

Solk entered the Audacy family through its tax-free merger with CBS Radio; in February 2017 he was named PD/OM of WXRT and the former WJMK-FM. Before that, he served as SVP/Programming for Hubbard Broadcasting, working across all seven of its markets.

 

Thanks to an asset purchase agreement signed July 21, Edward de La Hunt and Tamara de la Hunt, are now the sole owners of a group of AM and FM stations and four FM translators serving the Minnesota cities of Park Rapids and Walker.

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He was the Group VP of Business Development at Xandr, the advertising and analytics division of AT&T.

Now, he’s the head of strategy and business development at advertising data, measurement and analytics software company EDO Inc.

And, he’s not to be confused with the SVP of Business Development at NATPE who served as Group Publisher of Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News under former owner NewBay Media.

It’s a different Charlie Weiss who is now at EDO Inc., which is also welcoming Mark Berner as Vice President of Engineering.

It’s part of a bigger effort at the company, which seeks to expand its convergent TV ad
intelligence and effectiveness abilities.

Weiss is now in charge of strategic and platform partnerships across the media
and data landscape, and reports to EDO President/CEO Kevin Krim.

Krim commented, “We are entering a pivotal stage of disruption in Convergent TV and growth as a company serving this special industry. Mark brings critical engineering and management experience to our growing team of top data science, engineering, and product talent; and Charlie is a proven change agent with an impressive history of building and leading strategic partnerships.”

In the chaotic post-pandemic viewing and streaming media ecosystem, Latino viewership continues to reflect the broad range of contemporary U.S. Latino identities and household demographics.

According to a recent Horowitz Research survey, demand is ever-expanding for new, high-quality Spanish-language content on par with English-language content among individuals and families with identities ranging from Hispanic to Afro-Latino/a/x and across language and acculturation segments nationwide.

Join us September 22-23 in Miami for the live and in-person Hispanic Radio Conference! Click here for all of the details and to register.

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MIAMI — Under his leadership, Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS)‘s three radio stations in its home market of Miami-Fort Lauderdale have emerged as some of the nation’s top Hispanic media properties.

Now, he’s being promoted to an executive VP role that will involve all of SBS’s markets across the U.S. and widen his role with the Mega TV broadcast television arm.

Donny Hudson, a veteran of Spanish-language media sales, has been promoted to EVP/Local Media. He’ll oversee the radio, TV and digital operations across the company, with a focus on sales, and retains his position of GM for SBS/Miami, comprised of WXDJ-FM “El Zol 106.7,” WRMA-FM “Ritmo 95.7” and WCMQ-FM “Z92.” He will also oversee management of SBS’s LaMúsica app.

He reports to President/COO Albert Rodriguez, who commented, “Donny has proven to be an industry leader in the over 20 years with SBS. As General Manager, he has spearheaded numerous initiatives and alongside his team, has delivered incredible results for the company. His belief in ‘teamwork’ is what has allowed him to be a great leader and respected by the staff, which is one of the most important qualities for success. Congratulations to our new EVP of Local Media.”

Hudson, who was recently appointed to the Florida Association of Broadcasters Board of Directors, added, “I am honored to have been selected for the position of EVP of Local Media. As part of the SBS family for over two decades, I have learned, grown, and most of all have been blessed with a team of incredibly talented professionals. I am a true believer that you are only a great leader, if you have an amazing team. I am grateful and honored for this opportunity.”

At SBS, Hudson has held the roles of SVP of Consolidated Sales, Local Sales Manager, and Director of Local Sales over two stints. Before joining the company a second time in May 2017, he served as EVP/Sales for America CV Network and its “America TeVe” operation in Miami. Hudson has also served as GSM of Univision Radio’s WRTO-FM in Miami and, under Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. ownership, in key sales positions for WRTO and siblings WAQI-AM, WQBA-AM & WAMR-FM in Miami.

Hudson is a 1989 graduate of the University of Miami. He began his career in radio immediately upon graduation at WSUA-AM 1260 in Miami, then known as “Radio Suave.” 

MIAMI — In 2018, Univision Communications teamed up with Combate Global to give Spanish-language television audiences craving Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) programming with a Latin flair a home.

The partnership turned out to be so beneficial that Univision is taking a major stake in the MMA franchise.

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It’s a new way to bet on Sports. And, it’s so attractive that it’s led Cumulus Media to become the latest owner of broadcast radio stations to delve into the potential riches of the athletically focused gaming and wagering world.

 

WynnBET, the premier mobile sports betting app from Wynn Resorts, the global leader in luxury hospitality, and CUMULUS MEDIA (NASDAQ: CMLS), a leading media, advertising, and marketing services company, announced today the launch of a multi-year, multi-platform partnership which activates CUMULUS MEDIA’s ability to reach more than 250 million listeners each month to drive users to the WynnBET app. Under the terms of the deal, WynnBET becomes one of CUMULUS MEDIA’s largest advertising and marketing partners.

With this partnership, WynnBET benefits from CUMULUS MEDIA’s massive reach and strong consumer engagement across multiple touchpoints, including national exposure in Westwood One’s marquis play-by-play programming, and endorsements from preeminent sports host Jim Rome; local connections via advertising on Cumulus’ radio stations, multiple studio sponsorships, and brand endorsements from local personalities; extensive digital exposure via social media, streaming, podcasting, and smart speakers; and on-site events. Additionally, the companies plan to create content that both entertains listeners and deepens consumer engagement with the WynnBET brand.

As part of the agreement, WynnBET leverages CUMULUS MEDIA’s unique advanced targeting technology, which enables WynnBET to customize multiple brand messages and deliver tailored content to different markets and demographics across hundreds of radio stations.

“This partnership with CUMULUS MEDIA provides WynnBET the ability to deliver specific, customized messaging to targeted markets throughout Cumulus’ network of hundreds of stations,” Wynn Interactive CEO Craig Billings said. “In addition, WynnBET will have a significant advertising presence on Westwood One’s nationally syndicated programming, including football pre-game and play-by-play, and we will work with Cumulus to create some exciting, branded content over the life of the partnership.”

“With Wynn’s focus on exceptional quality and high-touch customer experiences, we believe WynnBET will be a leader among the sports betting apps, and we are excited to deploy our unique assets to grow its business,” said CUMULUS MEDIA CEO Mary G. Berner. “The sports betting market is now the fastest growing advertising category, and this innovative partnership solidifies Cumulus’s position in this exciting arena.”

For 22 years, he was a key officer of Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian broadcast ministry known as WAY Media. Under his leadership, he launched its biggest FM, serving West Palm Beach and Florida’s Treasure Coast.

Since 2016, he’s been a consultant to leaders on fundraising and sponsorship strategies.

Now, he’s back in radio. And, he’s ready to go to battle against an insurgent in the National Capital Region: Educational Media Foundation.

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Solid State Logic (SSL) has brought to market the latest V3.1 feature release for the System T broadcast platform with key developments providing significant production flexibility and expansion.

Core to the release is support of the next generation TE1 and TE2 Tempest audio engines. These engines provide a flexible model for managing production capacity, allowing users to expand their processing requirements with the addition of new software “processing’ licenses.

With the inclusion of an agile “pay as you go” model, users can increase their production capability for user-defined project periods such as large one-off sporting or entertainment events.

The new Tempest engines will be available to customers as of August 2021.

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One has been promoted. The other is returning to the fold.

Put them together, and they’ll be the latest Affiliate Sales leaders for Cumulus Media-owned Westwood One.

Rising to VP/Affiliate Sales for 24/7 Formats is Neal Weiner  — a 26-year veteran of Westwood One who has been a part of the Affiliate Sales team working with 24/7 Formats, Music and Entertainment Shows, Sports, and Prep Services. Weiner began his professional radio career at Westwood One Radio Group, in particular at the former KQLZ-FM “Pirate Radio 100.3” in Los Angeles.

Taking the post as Director of Affiliate Sales for the Music & Entertainment division is Sue Falco.

She spent six years at Westwood One in her first stint, as part of both the News/Talk and the Country affiliate sales teams. She spent the last decade as Director of Affiliate Sales with United Stations.

Both Weiner and Falco report to Senior Vice President of Affiliate Sales Stuart Greenblatt.

The financial pros at Zacks Equity Research have taken a magnifying glass to American Tower‘s potential earnings report for Q2, due Thursday morning prior to Opening Bell.

They very much like what they see. In fact, the projections suggest the company will beat Street estimates.

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There are thousands of stories all around you.

You simply need to understand what makes for good stories and how to use them for strategic communication, veteran public relations executive Rosemary Ravinal notes in this column.

 

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“Our second-quarter results demonstrate remarkable, continued growth across our business.”

Those were the opening words from Sirius XM CEO Jennifer Witz, who had many great highlights to offer before even starting her second sentence during the company’s earnings call held Tuesday for analysts and investors.

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On Monday (7/26), Democratic leadership at the FCC moved forward with the adoption of a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to refresh the existing record regarding the statutorily mandated collection of data on FCC Form 395-B — the paperwork used for EEO data collection by the Commission until the D.C. Circuit asked it to stop doing so 20 years ago.

Twenty-four hours later, Pew Research Center released statistics from the RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University that paint the present-day portrait of the local TV newsroom staff. What’s the diversity among those employed by TV news departments across the U.S.?

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For the 97 news outlets whose primary domain, its website, averaged at least 10 million unique visitors per month, traffic rose 11% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

That’s according to a fresh Pew Research Center analysis of the state of the U.S. news media.

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With third-party “cookie depreciation,” there’s now greater emphasis on first party data. As such, Nielsen has unveiled a new approach to measuring authenticated and unauthenticated web traffic.

This will see Nielsen become the only platform to validate first party server data with real consumer behavior.

The move means Nielsen will eliminate its reliance on digital identifiers while ensuring that advertisers and publishers “can continue to measure confidently in a dynamic, privacy-first media environment.”

The result, says Nielsen, will allow it to become “the leading platform to validate first party server data with real consumer behavior.”

“If the industry has learned anything since the rise of cookies, it’s that digital media measurement must remain scalable, flexible and useful,” said Mainak Mazumdar, Chief Data Officer at Nielsen. “Nielsen’s new cookieless measurement approach will further position the company to deliver deduplication across linear and digital as part of Nielsen ONE. Our new approach to measuring authenticated and unauthenticated digital traffic will enable us to scale across channels and platforms to ensure a comprehensive view of success and uncover areas for optimization.”

In the new world order, digital traffic will ultimately move into two distinct categories for measurement following the deprecation of digital identifiers:

• Authenticated: Traffic with identifiers on properties which have logged in environments or consented devices. To measure authenticated traffic, Nielsen will leverage all available identifiers and first-party data from participating clients, such as hashed email addresses, Unified ID 2.0 and select, verified self-reported demographic labels. This will ensure interoperability in the ad ecosystem, including with walled gardens, and simplify measurement for clients by reducing reliance on third parties.

• Unauthenticated: Logged out traffic or traffic on properties that do not have logged in environments or where no alternative identifiers can be provided. To measure anonymous traffic, Nielsen has developed a machine learning technique with  additional contextual data signals including time, browser, content and device information, as well as FLoC groups.  The model is validated against the panel for accuracy. Demographics  of unauthenticated behavior are also modeled and validated with panel observations for both representation and accuracy.

Late last year, Nielsen announced its ID Resolution System, which serves to unify the identity data that Nielsen receives in an interoperable way across the media ecosystem.  As part of the Nielsen ID System, the Nielsen ID Graph is calibrated against and validated by Nielsen’s people-based panels.