Industry News

Quu Inc., a technology company known for its capability of adding dynamic visuals to radio broadcasts, is adding to its “Success Team.”

This sees the arrival of a Customer Success Manager, and a Technical Success Manager. Each report to CEO Steve Newberry.

New to Quu are Jackie Bart and Joe Marshall.

In the newly created roles, Bart and Marshall will work directly with operations, sales, and programming teams on the local level. In addition, they will guide stations through installation, on-boarding, training, and support to publish synced programming and sales messages, or “Visual Quus,” on car dashboards.

“We’re excited to welcome Jackie and Joe to the team as we take the next step in Quu’s evolution,” said company founder and Chief Technology Officer Joe Harb.

“Jackie’s deep training experience with Arbitron and Scarborough Research as well as Joe’s technology experience with Harris/GatesAir demonstrate their tremendous professional credentials,” Newberry said. “They are outstanding individuals with a sincere passion and focus on training, service, and success. These critical hires demonstrate Quu’s focus on not simply selling software and services to radio stations, but ensuring our partners know how to use Quu’s powerful tools to engage listeners, upsell radio’s core product, and make ads more effective.”

The app that offers live streaming of every iHeartMedia radio station and those of its partners, on-demand streaming by recording artist, and an array of podcasts has just hit a big register user milestone.

The iHeartRadio app has officially surpassed 150 million registered users.

In addition, iHeartRadio has now recorded more than 3 billion app downloads, with monthly downloads peaking as high as 28% as compared to last year.

One big reason for this growth: iHeartRadio’s “continued dedication and innovation in the growing podcasting space,” the company says.

“As the No. 1 podcast publisher globally according to Podtrac, iHeartRadio has doubled down on growing our expansive library of iHeartRadio Original podcasts, which includes some of the most-listened-to podcast series in the world,” iHeartMedia posts.

Among its podcasts are “Stuff You Should Know,” “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” “Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach + Donald” and  “Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.”

Additionally, iHeartRadio has added to its streaming catalog, which features millions of songs and curated playlists across a variety of moods and genres.

It’s not just our listeners that are growing, but iHeart’s social audience, too.

iHeartRadio now has a total social audience of 234 million.

Red House Streaming, a CP Communications brand, continues to lure local and national talent seeking professional production and streaming services to its new St. Petersburg, Fla. studio.

Nancy Weil, proprietor of The Laugh Academy, is the latest to call on Red House Streaming studios, leveraging its production sets, broadcast-quality workflow and experienced crew to produce custom videos for her clients.

Red House Streaming studios offers two adjacent 600-square-foot studios, virtual sets, and 5,000 feet of additional production space for content producers. The studio accommodates
on-set talent who wish to live-stream productions or record content for later distribution.

Red House Streaming studios is also equipped to support REMI at-home productions that originate from remote locations, strengthened by an onsite network operations center to monitor and manage all production and content delivery tasks.

A leading authority on the relationship between humor and grief, Tampa-based Weil turned to Red House Streaming studios to bring her customized, content-rich lectures, programs and seminars to clients that could no longer see her on the road.

“COVID-19 put an immediate halt to my live speaking engagements,” said Weil. “I went from being a road warrior traveling at least two weeks a month to being home 24/7.”

Weil soon discovered that the funeral homes, hospice groups and conferences that regularly called on her talents still had a thirst for her unique services. She began offering virtual events through standard conferencing software platforms, but found the results mixed and the limitations frustrating.

“There are so many peculiarities when presenting over a virtual stream, from general video and audio glitches to incorrect meeting links to complete loss of internet connectivity,” she said. “I wanted to present as a professional speaker, and offer a pleasant and consistent experience for my clients. I saw a local news story about Red House Streaming studios, and they seemed to be the right production partner to help me manage these production dynamics that I could not guarantee on my own.”

Weil started shooting in the studio in March, pre-recording her custom programs for each client. Red House Streaming studios shoots and post-produces each video, using Panasonic 4K cameras, NDI networking and Adobe Premier Pro editing as essential workflow components. The videos are subsequently delivered to clients direct and shared on Weil’s Vimeo account, with select clips expected to post to her website in the coming weeks.

“With Red House Streaming studios, every project can now be fully unique,” Weil said. “We load special graphics and create virtual sets specific to each program and client. We frame each shot to ensure the background is perfect for each segment. Props are essential to what we do at The Laugh Academy, and they can accommodate anything I bring onto the set as a part of each program. I can monitor what is happening on displays around the studio to ensure everything is going exactly as planned. On top of everything else, the service is surprisingly affordable, with excellent technical support as needed. The quality of the content my clients receive is absolutely worth the fees I pay.”

Weil is now planning live streams with the Red House Streaming studios team. She plans to continue using the studios after she eventually returns to the road.

— Brian Galante

IBC 2021 is being pushed back.

Last month the show’s organizers had said they planned to have the event in September as scheduled, but also that they had plans in place to allow the option of pushing back to December if necessary; and they’ve now triggered that option.

So the show at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre will take place Dec. 3 to 6.

IBC CEO Michael Crimp said that, against a background of optimism about the pandemic, the show board met yesterday. “We’ve pleased to announce we’ve decided to hold IBC 2021 in December. The reasons are mainly safety and readiness to engage.”

Crimp said it was important for participants including exhibitors to have a final decision as soon as possible.

As we reported earlier, this year’s event is expected to have more of a festival feel, with a large perimeter to the site that will enable attendees to move around more freely. Attendees are to have their temperatures checked, and there is to be no physical onsite registration.

Crimp said those plans are still in place, though they could be eased if the health environment improves further in the interim.

Crimp said surveys of the show community showed sentiment for the December date.

He said the decision will allow “more vaccinations, clearer systems and more confidence.” He characterized the later date as the “strongest of two [schedule] opportunities.”

“We also had to consider the ability of the supply chain to deliver a high-quality event. We believe that key services such as airports and airlines, and hotels will have established smooth operations and be able to provide a more streamlined service by December.”

The post IBC Show Postponed til December appeared first on Radio World.

An end-to-end integration between WideOrbit‘s WO Traffic and WO Automation for Radio applications and the PromoSuite Production radio workflow platform has arrived.

This product, the companies say, can provide benefits to radio stations using PromoSuite Production, including speeding up the order entry process, streamlining cart number assignments, eliminating duplication, and reducing overhead associated with dubbing audio files into WO Automation for Radio.

“This integration will enhance the experience for our radio customers,” said William ‘Dub’ Irvin, WideOrbit’s VP of WO Automation for Radio. “We’re constantly looking for ways to help our clients eliminate errors, reduce repetitive manual tasks, and increase efficiency. The best part is that these improvements positively impact several departments, including sales, production, and programming.”

The new integration has three connection points between WO Traffic, WO Automation for Radio, and PromoSuite Production. First, when an AE enters an order for a client and needs a spot produced, the client information is automatically and seamlessly populated into PromoSuite Production, eliminating duplicate effort in communication. Information only needs to be entered once. Second, cart number assignments are immediately synced between the two systems. Third, audio files are directly dubbed into WO Automation for Radio.

PromoSuite’s Vice President of Product Design & Development, Rey Mena, commented, “Our main priority is and always has been to improve efficiencies for our clients. When you’re able to eliminate unnecessary or tedious processes, you increase productivity and revenue. Regardless of the department, we are continuously looking, building, and creating upgrades and enhancements at the station, market, and company level. This integration showcases the advancements and opportunities we’re delighted to make available to our partners.”

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There’s little change in activity shown in the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten TV report. However, the big new No. 1 is noteworthy, as it reflects a big investment in broadcast by Sanofi US for a treatment for skin disorders.

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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has helped in bring to fruition a study that seeks to offer a better understanding of how young people are engaging with media today.

Roughly 50 tweens and teens were asked, among other things, how they find new shows, apps, or videos. Their findings conclude that young people crave authenticity as they grapple with the issues of today.

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The latest Media Monitors Spot 10 Radio report is out, and there’s a lot of iHeartRadio-focused activity for the week ending May 23.

This actually helps paint a clear picture as to what brands are committing to Radio, and which brands use it sporadically or … not at all.

As shown below, Progressive — fueled not by Flo or Jaime but that tongue twister-loving voiceover artist that’s become more omnipresent than ever for the auto insurance brand — is a big No. 1.

The Home Depot is back in action, with a new effort putting it some 5,000 or so play counts behind Progressive.

Their activity pushes Indeed to No. 3 among fully paid advertisers, as Wendy‘s is upping its Radio activity.

GEICO and Babbel are each softer for the week.

With its stock in recovery mode and forward momentum at its secular spoken word AM radio stations, Salem Media Group is gearing up for appearances at a pair of investor conferences.

The first of the two events is scheduled for Thursday morning.

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