Industry News

Jack Mortenson, co-founder of Christian radio company Mortenson Broadcasting, died on April 1. He was 85.

According to his obituary from Milward Funeral Directors, the Rev. Jack Maurice Mortenson died at his home in Lexington, Ky.

“As the eldest son of traveling evangelists, Jack became intricately involved in his parents’ ministry at an early age by assisting them with musical presentations,” it stated.

His father was Dr. E. M. Mortenson. The family founded Faith Memorial Baptist Church in Canton, Ohio. “It was during those years at Faith Memorial that Jack and his father pursued their vision for Christian radio in founding Mortenson Broadcasting Co.,” the obituary reports.

“The company was founded with the mission statement of ‘Helping to make and keep the home sacred.’”

Their first station was WTOF(FM), “Tower of Faith,” launched in 1960 in Canton. The second was WHKK(FM) serving the greater Cincinnati area.

The company grew to 40 stations in 18 U.S. markets and also started one of the nation’s first networks of Black gospel radio formats. According to the company website, “MBC continues to lead a growing trend of transition from general Christian formats to formats directed to specifically targeted audiences. These specialized formats have included Christian teaching and preaching, Christian talk, Contemporary Christian music, Southern Gospel music, Urban Christian Talk, Urban Gospel and Hispanic, which is the latest and fastest-growing targeted Christian audience.”

Mortenson Broadcasting received the 2012 National Religious Broadcasters Milestone award. According to his obituary, Jack Mortenson continued to work until his hospitalization in mid-March.

The post Jack Mortenson Dies at 85 appeared first on Radio World.

The advertising sales division of Comcast Cable has launched a new “function” in a move it says will better serve advertisers’ evolving needs for audience delivery within a rapidly changing TV marketplace.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON FACEBOOK!

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

On April 1, Hispanic consumer-focused Entravision Communications disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would not be able to file its annual report in a timely manner to the financial regulatory agency.

There’s a good reason for this, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is fully aware of the situation. Still, the NYSE had to move forward with handing Entravision a non-compliance warning.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

In a move that further cements the importance of quality metrics for social media advertising and for marketers, Twitter has integrated Nielsen‘s cross-media planning and measurement services into its video advertising platform.

It’s an “expanded integration” of Nielsen’s audience measurement and outcomes cross-media offerings, the company says.

The integration includes a new subscription to Nielsen Media Impact (NMI) and Nielsen Ad Intel, along with greater access to Nielsen Total Ad Ratings (TAR).

‘Together, these tools will enable Twitter to help video advertisers do more robust pre- and post-campaign planning, maximize ad inventory, understand cross-media planning, and deliver campaign results with increased speed and agility,” Nielsen asserts.

“With a highly engaged audience and powerful premium video content, Twitter is where advertisers can connect with consumers in the moments that matter most to them,” said Doug Brodman, Twitter’s Director of North America Agency and Platform Solutions. “Nielsen’s cross-media suite will make it easier to augment our client’s video strategy and planning with Twitter’s premium video inventory and optimize audience reach and frequency alongside other top video platforms. Ultimately, this expanded partnership brings increased transparency, clarity and value to Twitter’s video solutions for our agency partners and advertisers.”

To bolster its use of NMI and TAR, Twitter will use Nielsen’s National TV Ratings data for added insights of ad campaigns across platforms. “Each solution and dataset provides Twitter with unique tools and capabilities to strengthen one of its most brand safe and impactful surfaces for advertisers: Twitter Amplify, a video ad platform that gives advertisers pre-roll and sponsorship opportunities next to premium video content,” Nielsen explains. ‘The implementation of Nielsen’s measurement and planning tools, provides a holistic view of campaign performance across all video platforms including TV.”

“To compete in a fragmented ecosystem, publishers require tools that help them plan their cross-media media strategies efficiently as well as provide deeper analysis and more robust insights of an advertiser’s campaign across screens,” said Jay Nielsen, SVP of Planning Products at Nielsen. “Twitter’s use of NMI and Ad Intel levels the playing field and ensures they have the same metrics and tools as agencies and advertisers, facilitating alignment on a common goal and plan. With TAR’s expedited capabilities, Twitter will now be able to better monetize the incremental reach and frequency delivered by ads on their platform. Altogether, our expanded collaboration will help Twitter maximize their video platform and unlock more value for advertisers as this type of video consumption continues to grow.”

BUFFALO, N.Y. — On March 24, a Cumulus Media Classic Rock station with a 33-year heritage and strong brand affinity across Western New York and much of Ontario’s most populous areas found itself in the center of a controversy that attracted binational attention.

One of its morning hosts, against his own better judgment, made comments about how his toaster settings corresponded to the skin tone of some African American female celebrities. Not only were the comments aired live, but they also appeared in a condensed version of the “Morning Bull” distributed as a podcast. That proved to be an even graver error. And, it has now cost WGRF-FM “97 Rock” its Program Director and its entire wake-up program.

As RBR+TVBR first shared via Twitter Wednesday evening (4/7), Cumulus Media issued a statement to Buffalo media confirming that, “Upon further consideration following the racist incident that occurred on The Morning Bull Show, we decided to terminate the whole morning show in addition to the Program Director.”

This results in the exit of Rich Gaenzler and the female component of the Morning Bull, Chris Klein, who is heard in an audio clip of the incident widely distributed on Twitter to be egging on Rob Lederman. He’s the longtime 97 Rock morning show voice whose presence dates back to Norton in the Morning, the predecessor to The Morning Bull. Lederman prefaced his comments by noting, “I may get into trouble for this.”

That proved to be an understatement, as his comments not only led to the dismissal of Gaenzler and Klein, but also PD John Hager.

Hager’s dismissal is particularly noteworthy. In 2018, he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of service at WGRF. After starting as a part-timer, Hager took the overnight shift in 1983 and later moved to afternoon drive. In January 1985, a format change to Adult Contemporary led to Hager’s exit. But, he’d find his way back in September 1988, relaunching 97 Rock after an infamous April Fools’ Day prank at the former WPHD “brought back” the rock ‘n’ roll brand as a joke Buffalo hoped wouldn’t be.

Now, Hager is on the sidelines, victim of a morning show segment gone wrong.

While Lederman was immediately terminated, Gaenzler and Klein were suspended following the March 24 broadcast, which gained national attention after Marcel Louis-Jacques shared an audio clip of what Lederman said via Twitter. Louis-Jacques is the Buffalo-based reporter for ESPN NFL Nation and covers the Buffalo Bills.

The next morning, WGRF offered music in-between station liners and IDs. By 10:30am, midday host J.P. was on the air. Afternoon host Carl Russo took over at 3pm.

As dawn broke in Buffalo on April 8, all vestiges of the Morning Bull were erased from the WGRF website. Continuous music continued between station liners and IDs, as has been the case since March 25. The 97 Rock Twitter feed has been scrubbed of any Morning Bull posts, while the Morning Bull’s Twitter feed still exists but hasn’t been updated since March 24. Meanwhile, 97 Rock’s Facebook page has also seen all mentions of the Morning Bull removed — except for a 90-second statement from Cumulus/Buffalo Market Manager Jim Riley that served as a formal apology for Lederman and the Morning Bull.

Lederman’s comments led such local advertisers as Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and West Herr Automotive Group to cancel their contracts with Cumulus/Buffalo, Nexstar-owned WIVB-4 reported Wednesday.

Nautel appointed Charles Sotto to the role of business development manager on its U.S. broadcast team.

“Sotto will work directly with Nautel’s regional sales managers serving key radio station accounts across the United States, and will be based in Cincinnati, Ohio,” the manufacturer announced.

[Read: Nautel Participates in India’s Digital Tests]

Sotto is former Southeast regional sales director for GatesAir. He also spent several years with Harris in the early 2000s as national accounts manager for broadcast systems and special markets.

He also has worked for Sony as a major account manager, involved in large-scale technical intricate including the launch of DirecTV in the U.S., Latin America and Japan.

The announcement was made by Wendell Lonergan, Nautel head of broadcast sales.

Send items for People News to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Nautel Adds Sotto in Business Development Role appeared first on Radio World.

Orban Labs said three more of its on-air processors have received certification from Nielsen for the integrated PPM encoding option.

“The company’s Optimod-FM 5500i, 5700i and 8600Si processors have received Nielsen certification and are now available with onboard PPM encoding,” the company said.

[Read: Orban Ships XPN-AMs With Nielsen PPM Encoders]

“These three products join Orban’s XPN-AM, which was the industry’s first processor to receive Nielsen certification and has been shipping with internal PPM encoding since last fall.”

PPM encoding is an option on the three FM processors.

Orban President David Day said in the announcement, “We’re pleased to report that this encoding is now taking place via Orban processors at stations in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, as well as other significant U.S. markets nationwide.”

[Related: How the XPN-AM processor came to have PPM built in]

The post Three Orban FM Processors Get PPM Certification appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. financial markets finished Wednesday’s trading session on a mixed note, with the Dow Industrials rising 16.02 to 33,426.26 and the Nasdaq dipping 9.54 points to 13,688.84.

Companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. were in the green, with a $20.16 finish, as Nexstar continued its impressive growth with a $145.71 conclusion to the day’s trading.

In contrast, TEGNA was down 30 cents to $19.90 after a fresh five-year high.

Also down: several radio broadcasting companies. Saga Communications shares are at $21.25, dipping 55 cents. Audacy, formerly Entercom, shed 17 cents to finish at $5.07.

In late January 2021, the President of CBS Television Stations and the stations’ SVP of News were suspended while parent ViacomCBS investigated an increasing number of allegations against them for gender and racial misconduct.

It appears the claims, first reported by Meg James for the Los Angeles Times, are meritorious enough to lead ViacomCBS to severe its ties with the pair.

In a statement shared by CBS News, the company confirmed that Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os, and news division leader David Friend will not return to their positions and will be exiting the company.

“On an interim basis, Bryon Rubin will continue to run the stations group while Kim Godwin will continue her oversight of Stations’ news operations until new leadership is in place,” ViacomCBS explained.

The announcement comes as an external investigation into CBS Television Stations management, conducted by Keisha-Ann Gray at Proskauer Rose, is still in progress, ViacomCBS says.

James’ reporting first brought to light stories that Dunn and Friend allegedly bullied female managers and blocked efforts to hire and retain African American journalists. In particular, James focused on KYW-3 and WPSG-TV in Philadelphia. Dunn ran the stations from 2002-2004, before a five-year run as the head of WCBS-2 in New York. At KYW-3, 45% of the station’s on-air reporters and anchors are Black, indigenous or other people of color.

The immediate response to her article, which followed a separate report questioning the $55 million purchase of WLNY-55 in Nassau-Suffolk and how Dunn received a membership at an exclusive golf club owned by the station’s seller as part of the transaction, was explosive. National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) representatives reportedly met with members of the ViacomCBS C-Suite that James identified as CBS Entertainment CEO George Cheeks and ViacomCBS EVP Marva Smalls, who leads all D&I initiatives at the company.

According to the Times, NABJ leaders demanded that Dunn be dismissed, along with Friend. Friend had been in his role as SVP/News since June 2010 and was also WCBS’s News Director — a role he’s held since 2006.

The NABJ took issue with the hiring practices at WCBS-2, which “only recently” hired a full-time Black male reporter after five years without one. The NABJ also takes WCBS-2 to task for having one full-time Black female reporter and one Black news producer in New York, a market where more racial diversity in the newsroom would reflect the total viewership.

The departure of Dunn concludes a tenure that included a November 2019 honor at the Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts Awards. That award recognizes women and men who’ve had a profound and lasting effect on the broadcast TV industry. He was also selected by RBR+TVBR readers as one of Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders in 2020.

It has operated an AM and two FMs in the Augusta-Waterville, Maine, market since 2007.

Now, it is converting this long-standing LMA into outright ownership.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)