Industry News

Radio World has a fresh look starting with this issue, in a format that’s intended to brighter, cleaner and more enjoyable for you to read.

Also:

An AoIP project helps Denver stations prepare for the new normal. Ford’s Scott Burnell says radio stations are missing an easy opportunity to compete better in the dash. John Bisset and Chris Wygal share tech tips. Entercom execs talk about audio’s power to engage.

All that and more in the March 3 edition.

The post Inside the March 3 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

The National Black Radio Hall of Fame has inducted more than 35 individuals and groups into its hall of fame roll.

Combining the 2020 and 2021 inductees into one class, these individuals are being recognized for the impact they’ve had on radio and in the wider community. The nonprofit organization, which was established in 2010, recognizes the contributions of personalities and pioneers of African-American radio.

The awards honor individuals in several categories including Community Service Artist of the Year, Gospel Radio Personality and the National Terrestrial Talk Radio Award. The awards also recognize individuals through the National Black Radio Hall of Fame Posthumous Award. This year that award was given to six individuals for their contribution to radio including former Baton Rouge radio host Guy Brody, radio host Yvonne Daniel who was part of the first all-female team on WSDM(FM) in Indiana, and Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg who cultivated a 48-year career as a Detroit R&B DJ and station owner.

Other awards include the Lifetime Media Achievement Award given to Joe Madison, known as “The Black Eagle,” who served as a talk radio host and civil rights activist who broke the Guinness World Record for longest talk show marathon when he stayed on the air 52 hours to raise funds for the Smithsonian. Talk show hosts Joyce Littel and Derek Boazman were also honored as were House Music Pioneer Award winners Bobby Holiday and Requaya Ward.

The complete list of 2020 and 2021 winners can be found below.

In addition to recognizing Black voices and promoting the historical perspective of African-Americans in national radio, the organization also offers educational and scholarship programs to connect communities to increased higher learning opportunities.

2020/2021 National Black Radio Hall of Fame Inductees:

National Black Radio Hall of Fame Posthumous Award — Guy Broady, Yvonne Daniel, Big George, Burke Johnson, Martha Jean the Queen, Irene Johnson Ware

Radio/Music Career Artist of the Year — Bobby Rush

Community Service Artist of the Year — Tony Terry

Radio Media Specialist Award — Harry Lyles, Lyles Media Group

Lifetime Media Achievement Award — Joe Madison, “The Black Eagle,” the Madison Show

Special Black Radio Original 13 Award Presentation — Given by Jill Gibson for Dorothy Brunson Family, Marshall Thompson the Chi-Lites Willie Martin “Perculator”

African-American Radio Promoter Award — Ted Astin, Arlinda Garrett, Leroy Little

African-American Station Owner Award — Mutter Evans, The Davis Group, Roscoe Miller

Community Service Personality Award — Derrick Chatman, Monica Pearson

Talented Sisters of Radio Award — Carol Blackmon, Shirley Ellis, Renee Miller

Talented Brothers of Radio Award — Mitch Faulkner, Bill Gay, Doug Steele

Gospel Radio Personality Award — Twanda Black, Melissa Summers, Larry Tinsley

Hip Hop Radio Personality Award — Dncredible Freddie Fred, Ryan Cameron, Greg Street

House Music Pioneer Award — Bobby Holiday, Requaya Ward

National Terrestrial Talk Radio Award — Derek Boazman, Joyce Littel

The post New Members Inducted into the National Black Radio Hall of Fame appeared first on Radio World.

Publicly traded radio and television broadcasting companies on Tuesday saw a flurry of highly divergent activity on Wall Street.

Meredith Corp., Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entercom were among the key gainers.

The decliners range from Saga Communications to Disney and Cumulus Media.

One of the stations is a Class B AM with an FM translator. The other is a Class D AM, also with an FM translator. They serve an area to the west of metropolitan Cleveland, and for fifty years had been associated with the Wilber family.

That’s no longer the case.

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Another round of employee cuts at iHeartMedia last last week appears to include reductions in engineering departments at its broadcast operations.

Jerry Del Colliano in the online newsletter Inside Music Media put the number of iHeartMedia broadcast engineers cut at 39 as of Friday, with some of them expected to continue as contract help at stations.

Del Colliano reports that iHeartMedia will rely on a more regional approach to engineering staffing, in line with the company’s ongoing changes to its technology infrastructure and workflows. The company also is expected to outsource more of its engineering work as it continues to seek cost-cutting measures amid a weaker economic environment caused by the pandemic.

RadioInsight also reported on engineering cuts in a story Friday.

An iHeartMedia spokesperson declined to confirm the engineering staff cuts and offered no further comment to Radio World.

As we’ve reported before, the company has been building workflows around centralized content distribution centers that it calls AI-enabled Centers of Excellence. Its modernization initiative has resulted in layoffs in programming, sales and engineering, according to those familiar with the developments.

iHeartMedia was already sharing engineers between markets in many cases, sources have told Radio World. Following cuts in early 2020, the company created emergency response teams handle major technical crisis.

The company has never described the exact role of the regional hubs, but the technical overhaul of operations includes more remote voicetracking and a move of some broadcast operations into a cloud-based platform. It is consolidating some broadcast facilities and downsizing others, according to sources familiar with its plans.

The company has been downsizing headcount. According to its most recent 10K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as of Feb. 22, it had approximately 10,200 employees. A year ago, according to investor filings, it had approximately 11,400 employees.

Here’s how iHeartMedia described its modernization efforts to the SEC in a recent filing: “In January 2020, iHeartMedia announced key modernization initiatives designed to take advantage of the significant investments that the company has made in new technologies to build an improved operating infrastructure to upgrade products and deliver incremental cost efficiencies,” it stated.

“This modernization is a multi-pronged set of strategic initiatives that we believe positions the company for sustainable long-term growth, margin expansion, and value creation for shareholders. As targeted, our investments in modernization delivered approximately $50 million of in-year savings in 2020, and we remain on track to deliver annualized run-rate cost savings of approximately $100 million by mid-year 2021.”

Del Colliano, a skeptic of iHeartMedia’s recovery plan since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2019, was again critical. “This is an attempt by iHeart, always looking to assuage public opinion, that technology is the bad guy when in reality the actual savings are not coming from innovations in broadcast equipment or internet technology, but from sustained attempts to reduce their 10,000+ workforce by as much as possible as soon as possible,” he wrote.

The post Reports: iHeartMedia Makes Cuts to Engineering Staff appeared first on Radio World.

On November 5, 2020, Meredith Corp. revealed that it had propelled strongly into the first quarter of 2021. On February 4, the multimedia company with a local TV station group sat it enjoyed a strong fiscal Q2 2021 boost for those properties thanks to a political dollar windfall.

Do investors believe the fiscal Q3 for Meredith will be even bigger, given the company’s Tuesday stock performance?

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There are likely a lot of things on the slate of state broadcasters’ associations as it pertains to the key concerns of their member broadcast media owners and operators. Perhaps the biggest issue are the priorities a SBA has with the new Congress.

What can one SBA leader say about the early indications from Capitol Hill on what’s in store for radio and TV in your state? Justin Sasso, President/CEO of the Colorado Broadcasters Association, shares his observations on what’s been happening in his state — and much more — in a wide-ranging conversation exclusively found in this 100th episode of the RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by Dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Justin Sasso” on Spreaker.

It may seem obvious that corporations in the broadcasting field need to keep their records in order and up to date.

According to communications law experts John A. Knab and Erwin G. Krasnow, it is not only surprising how many fail in this enterprise, but also how much it ends up costing them.

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Two radio station licensees in Florida have received notices of violation from the Federal Communications Commission for spurious emissions.

In one case, the commission believes a low-power FM station was causing interference to aviation frequencies at Orlando International Airport. In that instance, the Enforcement Bureau issued a notice of violation to WBVL(LP) in Kissimmee, Fla., licensed to Sucremedia Inc.

The commission says the Federal Aviation Administration began receiving interference to aviation frequencies on Dec. 15, 2020. The interference was reported to the Enforcement Bureau on Dec. 26. The next day, the bureau’s Miami office investigated.

It said WBVL is licensed on 99.7 MHz at a maximum effective radiated power of 89 Watts, but the FCC said its agents measured excessive spurious emissions from the station transmitter on six frequencies — 114.145, 115.850, 118.385, 120.995, 134.585 and 135.765 MHz.

The rules in this situation require that the LPFM stop operations within three hours. The FCC says it made numerous attempts to contact the station but that WBVL didn’t go off the air until at least 41 hours later.

Once WBVL was off the air, the interference to the Orlando International Airport ceased.

In a separate case this week the Miami office issued a notice to Cornerstone Broadcasting Corp. for spurious emissions on 133.0626 MHz that the FCC attributes to Cornerstone’s FM translator at 97.3 in Deland, Fla. That translator serves WJLU(FM) in New Smyrna Beach.

In both cases the FCC has instructed the licensees to provide information about the emissions and any steps they have taken to resolve the situation, while reserving the option of taking further action.

The post Fla. LPFM Gets Interference Notice appeared first on Radio World.

The “only programming network dedicated to the active adventure lifestyle in the United States” is saying goodbye to a low-power analog TV station it owns in the Reno, Nevada DMA.

The buyer? The entity that now controls the brand associated with this over-the-air station that in 2003 successfully won a carriage complaint in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., against Charter Communications.

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