The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report has been released, and it shows a huge jump in commercial airings by one of the nation’s largest department store brands.
For the week ending February 7, Macy’s finished at No. 7, powered by more than 36,000 radio spots.
That’s the big news of the week, as language learning app Babbel dips behind Progressive.
Here’s the full report:
The AWARN Alliance has elected its 2021 Steering Committee, the organization’s governing body that provides guidance to the AWARN Alliance and its executive director.
The Alliance also clarified its core education, promotion and collaboration mission, while embracing its vision to “save lives and protect communities by leveraging advanced emergency alerting, news and information powered by ATSC 3.0 NEXTGEN TV.”
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With Deloitte LLP Vice Chairman Kevin Westcott’s ascension to industry leader of its U.S. technology, media and telecommunications practice, a position opened up at Deloitte.
It needed a leader to specifically focus on telecom, media and entertainment.
Deloitte has found that person.
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It’s known around Plattsburgh, N.Y. for offering “everything that rocks.” With a Class A signal, this FM also scrapes the Burlington, Vt., area across Lake Champlain.
Now, this property — with a broadcast tower just down the road from the infamous Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. — is being spun.
The seller? It’s none other than Randy Michaels.
The deal is hardly a surprise: The buyer has been operating the station for months.
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Streamline Publishing’s Radio + Television Business Report is pleased to once again acknowledge the individuals in command of local television with the opening of our 2021 nomination window for Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders.
As was seen in 2019 and in 2020, these television industry executives have demonstrated in various ways how to motivate their local and regional teams to success. They are all winners, and will appear in a ranked list based on RBR+TVBR reader voting and the RBR+TVBR editorial board.
These power players represent an industry that’s sprung to action in a time of crisis,
and they deserve full commendation for their leadership today.
You may cast your vote through Friday, February 26, 2021, at 5pm Eastern Time.
With the biggest media merger in recent months poised to potentially propel its stock price in the coming months, Gray Television has selected the day it will release its fourth quarter and full-year 2020 financial results.
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BONITA SPRINGS, FLA. — In June 2019, the CBS affiliate serving Southwest Florida was the subject of a RBR+TVBR feature story for one unfortunate achievement: it had been prevented from being received by Dish Network subscribers in a DMA that includes such fast-growing cities as Fort Myers, Naples, Estero, and Marco Island.
And, this retrans impasse had stretched into its sixth month.
Eventually, the locally based TV station owner and Dish struck a new agreement. Alas, that agreement expired — right before Super Bowl LV.
This, once again, put CBS viewers who are Dish subscribers in Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties in the dark once again.
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With much of the company’s executive leadership team still mourning the January 27 death of legendary radio programming pro Bill Tanner, SummitMedia has entered into a fresh — and bigger — agreement for ratings and audience measurement services from the nation’s dominant provider of consumption data.
The Birmingham, Ala.-based radio broadcasting company led by Carl Parmer has inked a new long-term agreement for Nielsen Audio services across SummitMedia’s nine markets.
The new accord incorporates “an expansion and enhancement” of the service level to include Continuous Diary Measurement (CDM).
As such, SummitMedia now has what Nielsen Audio describes as “full, unqualified subscriber access to the monthly CDM currency ratings, TAPSCAN software and Nielsen Scarborough in all markets where available.”
In addition to its home market of Birmingham, SummitMedia’s stations are located in Greenville-Spartanburg; Honolulu; Knoxville; Louisville; Richmond; Wichita; Omaha; and in Iowa. The company was formed in 2013, when Cox Media Group sold to Parmer 24 stations comprised of the Alabama; South Carolina; Hawaii; Kentucky; and Virginia properties.
“We are looking forward to utilizing Nielsen’s measurement and data analytic capabilities to showcase SummitMedia’s value to the advertiser and agency communities,” said Parmer, who serves as Chairman/CEO of SummitMedia. “Consumers’ media habits are evolving at an incredibly rapid pace and having a faster read on audience trends is imperative. Continuous Diary Measurement will enable our teams to react more strategically and quickly.”
Nielsen Managing Director Brad Kelly added, “SummitMedia has placed their trust in us to deliver an accurate and timely read on radio audiences. Equipped with CDM, SummitMedia’s talented sales pros will be well positioned to optimize revenue and attract new advertisers by delivering better, faster, keener insights to the local radio ad marketplace.”
— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau
EUREKA, CALIF. — In the region of California behind the “Redwood Curtain,” National Football League fans largely support the San Francisco 49ers or the Raiders. Still, when it comes to the Super Bowl, everyone with an interest in the NFL — or the commercials in-between the game action — are of interest to just about anyone.
As such, not getting the game due to a retransmission consent “blackout” is a big frustration — one that fueled the ire of a Member of Congress, in addition to pro-MVPD lobby ATVA.
Lo and behold, just before 11am Eastern on Game Day, AT&T and Cox Media Group scored a touchdown for DirecTV subscribers in markets where CMG owns TV stations.
Among those markets: Humboldt County, Calif.; Dayton, Ohio and Seattle.
There, CMG owns the CBS affiliate, home of Super Bowl LV.
In a joint statement, AT&T confirmed that the DirecTV owner and CMG entered into a new multi-year retransmission consent agreement. As such, the prevention of any DirecTV customer receiving a CMG-owned station was immediately lifted.
Had a deal not been reached, viewers in the Seattle and Dayton DMAs with DirecTV as the television service of choice would have been left scrambling for an alternative to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, led by Tom Brady, smother the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Tampa.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“The parties appreciate consumers’ patience during this negotiation,” the companies said Sunday.
The stations impacted by the retrans impasse and Sunday signing include not only the legacy Cox Media Group stations but also those acquired by Apollo Global Management from Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting and later merged into a new CMG under Apollo majority control.
The stations now back on DirecTV include:
The return of all of these stations to local DirecTV lineups on Sunday morning (2/7), after being yanked Tuesday (2/2), came following an all-out assault on Apollo and CMG by the American Television Alliance (ATVA).
“As a result of Wall Street giant Apollo Global Management’s ongoing and egregious broadcast blackout of its Cox Media Group subsidiary stations, fans in players’ hometowns and college towns won’t be able to watch them suit up with their team for Super Bowl LV this Sunday,” the ATVA stated in a communiqué released late Friday.
It noted how viewers in Seattle with DirecTV were threatened from being able to watch two former University of Washington football players now on the Buccaneers roster.
The ATVA also pointed to Alex Cappa, a Bucs Guard who once played at Humboldt State University in Eureka, Calif.
Chalk that up as another frustration point for locals who had to ensure a “blackout” of CMG-owned CBS affiliate KVIQ-14 and NBC sibling KIEM-3 on Suddenlink systems across much of January. That impasse led some in Humboldt County to drop Suddenlink and shift to DirecTV. Then came the DirecTV/CMG impasse.
Across the impasse with AT&T, CMG stuck to its guns — and even offered a statement that is wholly false.
We cannot force AT&T/DIRECTV to keep retransmitting our stations – we are dark because AT&T/DIRECTV has chosen to remove KIEM and KVIQ from its service. We are hopeful that AT&T/DIRECTV will abandon its blackout of our stations to the detriment of viewers in favor of meaningful negotiations that lead to a mutually beneficial deal for all parties.
In retransmission consent negotiations, both the MVPD and the TV station owner are responsible for reaching a retransmission fee accord that is both prudent and fair to each party.
As AT&T and CMG fought just days after CMG and Altice USA-owned Suddenlink scuffled over a fresh retransmission consent deal, Rep. Jared Huffman spoke up, noting that he’s moving forward with a bill that would go far to end retrans impasses such as these.
“My constituents are tired of these finger pointing exercises where big media conglomerates blame each other while consumers get screwed by blackouts,” Huffman said. “I’m sure there’s some blame to go around, but CMG is the common denominator in the two recent blackouts. At a minimum, that suggests they’re not working proactively to protect consumers. At worst, it suggests they’re using consumers as hostages by letting blackouts happen to maximize their negotiating leverage. Either way, it’s unacceptable.”
While viewers in big markets such as Seattle and Dayton were in the crosshairs of the potential Super Bowl “blackout,” it is smaller markets such as Eureka-Arcata, Calif.; Yuma, Ariz.; and Greenwood, Miss.; that have seen repeated squelching of signals presently owned by CMG.
In late January 2020, former Northwest Broadcasting stations under Apollo/CMG control were blocked by Dish Network due to a retrans impasse.
That followed a “blackout” by DirecTV of the Northwest-owned stations in October 2019, a reprise of earlier problems between the DBS provider and Brian Brady-led Northwest. In January 2011, the then-Northwest stations were prevented from reaching DirecTV customers in January 2011 and did not return until four weeks later, just in time for the Super Bowl. Then came a new impasse and “blackout,” in late August 2012.
Reporting by Ethan Hunt in Eureka, Calif. Editing by Adam R Jacobson in Boca Raton, Fla.
MORE FROM THE RBR+TVBR ARCHIVES:
Suddenly, Suddenlink Impasse With Cox Ends RBR-TVBR It was hardly expected, considering all of the back and forth rhetoric and typical “it’s their fault” statements between a TV station owner and an MVPD in the midst of heated negotiations during a retransmission consent accord impasse. But, Altice USA-owned Suddenlink on Thursday restored each of the Cox Media Group stations that had blocked from viewers. Could Suddenlink/CMG Impasse Lead To Congressional Action? Adam Jacobson CMG stations once owned by Brian Brady’s Northwest Broadcasting have been blocked from Suddenlink customers due to a retransmisson consent fee impasse entering its third week. Now, the Member of Congress serving Northwest California is ready to take action on Capitol Hill that could help thwart such disputes — and the consumer harm they create. Apollo-Controlled CMG Caught In a Small MVPD Retrans War RBR-TVBR Despite what station management led by Rob Rohr (pictured) calls its “best efforts,” the dominant TV station serving Ohio’s Miami Valley was “blacked out” by a small MVPD serving a county due north of metropolitan Dayton. There’s a lot more to the story, as the county impacted is the subject of a 2018 FCC action that amended the market for this Dayton TV station.
No TV station today would send a crew to a news conference with a 16 mm film camera. Today’s radio reporter would think you were crazy if issued a reel-to-reel recorder before heading out on a story.
Audio and video have seen multiple generations of improvements leading to today’s digital gear. But for many radio and TV crews, one basic item has turned 55 years old and does not appear to be getting replaced.
In October 1965, Electro-Voice Vice President of Broadcast and Recording Equipment Lou Burroughs proclaimed, “The 635 is dead, long live the 635A!”
In a newsletter to customers, Burroughs wrote, “There is increasing demand for a small, lightweight, high-output microphone for stand and handheld use.” Click the image below to read the letter.
In a Broadcasting magazine full-page ad, Electro-Voice mentioned that the original 635 had been in use since 1947. The 635 was designed to be used on a stand: the cable connector was adjacent to threaded stand mount attached to the microphone through a hinge. It was unwieldy as a stick mic. The ad copy for the 635A included what at the time was a marketing boast, “the new 635A will take over as the new standard.” (Click the image to read the ad.)
It turned out to be a prescient line. With so little 1965 technology still in use, the endurance of the 635A is remarkable. Electro-Voice’s Guy Low attributes the longevity of “our most iconic product” in part to its utilitarian, workhorse role.
Burroughs noted what is likely the key to the 635A’s success. “I have one unit that was purposely dropped on hardwood and concrete floors 27 times during tests without altering its frequency response.”
One major market chief photographer referred to the 635A as a “hammer” for its resilience. There are 635As of uncertain vintage lurking in many an audio box, scuffed and perhaps with a dented screen, but still sounding as good as new.
While the 635A does not make as many appearances on entertainment TV as it used to, its presence is a unifying element for news conferences over the last six decades.
In 1967, Stanford University scientists announced a breakthrough in genetic research. At least three 635As were used to capture the sound of the event.
Electro-Voice management has not considered withdrawing the 635A from its catalog, as demand for the original model continues year after year.
“There isn’t necessarily a need for any bells and whistles to be added,” to the 635A, Low said. The original 635A model came in Electro-Voice’s standard fawn beige color and was 6 inches long. Over time, the company added a black color option, the 635L, which is 3.5 inches longer than the original, and the 635N/D-B, which uses Electro-Voice’s neodymium element.
EV 635A published frequency responseElectro-Voice’s Low adds the 635A is attracting a new generation of fans, “We are hearing from kids who are using these mics on stage and studio … and people like them because they are robust and durable and they kind of hearken back to the era when things were built to last.”
Electro-Voice aficionados were a bit concerned in 2006, when the company became part of the German conglomerate Bosch. The American name for microphones, speakers and other audio products was now part of an organization that made RTS intercoms but had many interests, including the aviation, automobile, and security sectors.
Low said little has changed as the parent firm, “lets each brand’s core competencies remain in place.”
Those same technical developments that have affected broadcasting have led to podcasting and home studios. Low added the company’s standard studio microphone, the RE20, is seeing record sales numbers, likely due to demand from podcasters trying to recreate the sound of radio stations, “people imitate what they see.”
Electro-Voice has no official records of how many 635A microphones have been sold in the unit’s 55-year history. But even if Electro-Voice were to discontinue its manufacture, its resiliency and the many thousands likely sold would keep the 635A in use for a long time to come.
Kevin Curran, Ph.D., is a veteran broadcast journalist and member of the journalism faculty at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
The post In Appreciation of the EV 635A appeared first on Radio World.
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