Industry News

Along the Wasatch Front, viewers seeking FOX programming can tune to KSTU-13. It’s a sibling to KUPX-16, the ION O&O serving Salt Lake City.

The stations are owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., and it could explain Scripps’ interest in a pair of low-power television stations serving Utah’s closest cities to Las Vegas, Nev.

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Allen Media Group isn’t just a growing broadcast TV station owner.

Its digital platform Local Now is gaining notice as a free streaming service for local news and entertainment, with localized content including local news programming meshed with movies and TV shows available for viewing.

Local Now is available on nearly all platforms across OTT on connected TV, Mobile and Web. Now, Local Now is accessible via the newest set-top boxes associated with one MVPD.

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Comscore has landed an expanded deal with ViacomCBS, which has renewed its National TV measurement contracts with the consumer data and analytics firm seeking to compete against Nielsen.

Comscore has been providing ViacomCBS linear TV measurement since 2014.

Since then, their relationship broadened to help build out Viacom’s Vantage Platform. Now, ViacomCBS will be calling on Comscore to boost its traditional linear advertising campaigns on Comscore’s National TV currency, “a key element as the media and entertainment company looks to diversify its partnerships around measurement across both its linear and digital assets.”

Comscore Chief Revenue Officer Carol Hinnant noted, “We highly value our innovative partnership with ViacomCBS and are now pleased to expand the relationship to include traditional linear currency solutions. Once again we are proud to partner with ViacomCBS to change the currency landscape.”

ViacomCBS Chief Operating Officer of Advertising Revenue John Halley added, “Under its new ownership structure, Comscore is making meaningful strides in investment, engineering, and product innovation to support the industry’s evolving needs as a cornerstone measurement provider. We believe Comscore can drive significant value for ViacomCBS, helping us achieve our goals around cross-screen measurement, while supporting our efforts toward a diversified currency strategy.”

International marketing intelligence service WARC‘s latest Global Advertising Trends report has been released. In it, WARC outlines “the new, long-term shifts in e-commerce, social media, online video and gaming for brands and consumers.”

What’s the key takeaway for broadcast media executives? Linear television advertising plummeted, making retransmission consent revenue more essential than ever in the U.S.

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The Society of Broadcast Engineers has issued helpful guidance to stations about what to do in light of the failure of an IPAWS Required Weekly Test on Monday.

“When FEMA issues an IPAWS test or alert it includes a “‘certificate,’ SBE explained in an email to members.

“This operates similar to a password for accessing different sites or files on a computer. In the case of a message from FEMA, a message without a correct signature, the EAS device should ignore the message.”

SBE reported that on Monday, April 26, the Required Weekly Test from IPAWS was transmitted with an incorrect signature.

“The test messages had a mismatch between the digest inside the message, and the digest computed by receivers. This is a part of the validation for an alert, and checking it is required by FCC Rule 11.56(c): ‘EAS Participants shall configure their systems to reject all CAP-formatted EAS messages that include an invalid digital signature.’”

[Read: FCC Will Explore EAS on the Internet]

SBE emphasized that all EAS devices should have rejected the test including units made by Sage Alerting Systems, Digital Alert Systems and Trilithic. The advisory describes how various models should have responded and what you should do next; read that here.

It also said all EAS units would have reported failed validations in a temporary log, and that users should check with their device manufacturer for the location of that file and the correct “signature validation” settings for the unit.

“Stations should check and correct any issues before the next test on May 3, 2021. Stations should insert a note in the station log indicating the failed test and the reason for failure.”

The post SBE Issues Guidance About RWT Failure appeared first on Radio World.

Cumulus Media named Tricia Gallenbeck as vice president/market manager for its five-station cluster in Eugene, Ore.

She most recently was VP/GM for Reno Media Group in Reno, Nev.

Previous posts include director of sales for Beasley Media Group in Fayetteville, N.C., and director of new business and events and general sales manager for Beasley Las Vegas.

She will report to Don Morin, regional vice president, who also is market manager for Boise. He mentioned Gallenbeck’s “strategic approach to management coupled with her ability to build a winning culture.”

The cluster includes KUJZ(FM) airing sports; KZEL(FM) with classic rock; KUGN(AM), news/talk; KNRQ(FM), which is alternative; and KEHK(FM) with Hot AC.

Radio World welcomes announcements for People News focused on our key readership categories of engineering and upper management. Send to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Gallenbeck to Lead Eugene for Cumulus appeared first on Radio World.

The Media Sales Institute (MSI) has entered into a strategic alliance with Media Staffing Network (MSN). The arrangement brings MSN’s media recruiter’s expertise to the MSI curriculum at the 2021 NABOB MSI.

The event is scheduled for October 25-November 24, at the Atlanta University Center (AUC) and hosted by Morehouse College.

“This new partnership will allow our candidates to gain a better insight into how to research prospective employers and create an effective personal marketing presentation,” said MSI Developer Jeffrey P. Myers. “Additionally, our alliance includes incorporating MSN’s expertise in the first Media Sales & Operations Department (MSD) collegiate curriculum in the country, which is being developed at the AUC and housed at Clark Atlanta University (CAU), starting in 2022.”

MSN CEO and founder Laurie Kahn (pictured) added, “With our tutelage, we can better prepare the MSI graduates to address the position for which they are applying. Sadly, many colleges and universities are not as up to date on what a recent graduate should include on their resumes. Nor do they teach their students how to best stand out and showcase their value when they have little to no work experience.”

The MSI curriculum was developed in 1999 by Personal Selling Principles (PSP), a media management and sales marketing company, and is designed to properly expose and prepare talented individuals for a career in media sales. Since 2006, PSP has partnered with the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) to host the MSI Program at various colleges and universities.

The 10-day “intense” curriculum addresses the ever-evolving media sales process and concludes with sponsoring companies interviewing the candidates for open sales and operations positions.

A familiar name to Radio World readers Paul Shulins is the subject of our latest Who’s Buying What news.

His Shulins Solutions, a provider in select engineering services and broadcast consulting, recently installed its Stellar Eclipse monitoring system at a shared combiner and antenna facility serving four Houston stations.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

Shulins Solutions offered this description of the system: “Stellar Eclipse with our exclusive VSWR Sentinel is designed to protect and monitor these systems by constantly monitoring the VSWR on all inputs and outputs to the combiner system, refreshing these values many times every second. Anytime a VSWR is detected that exceeds a preset threshold, hard relay interlock relays are controlled that can open interlocks on connected transmitters. RF power is then removed from the system when an unsafe condition exists, thereby saving the systems from costly damage.”

It added that it, “provides unique cloud-based monitoring of many shared systems often overlooked in an individual stations remote control.”

Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Stellar Eclipse in Space City appeared first on Radio World.

From our People News page: iHeartMedia promoted Shari Gonzalez to its president for the Miami/Fort Lauderdale group, which is market No. 11 in Nielsen Audio ratings.

She succeeds Brian Olson.

She’ll report to Division President Linda Byrd, who in the announcement complimented Gonzalez for her “competitiveness, work ethic and ability to move her team in the direction we need to go.”

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Gonzalez joined the company in 2015 and most recently was region SVP of sales in Miami.

Prior she was general sales manager and director of sales for CBS in Washington, the market where she got started as a sales assistant and worked her way up into sales leadership.

In the announcement, Gonzalez said Miami/Fort Lauderdale “is experiencing a boom like no other market in the country, and the South Florida market is filled with a culture and uniqueness that is second to none.”

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Gonzalez Takes Helm in Miami for iHeart appeared first on Radio World.

MIAMI — Nearly one month into the second quarter of 2021, Spanish Broadcasting System late Monday (4/26) officially revealed its financial results for the final three months of 2020.

While its television arm enjoyed double-digit year-over-year revenue improvement, its core radio station group suffered from a double-digit year-over-year revenue decline.

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