Industry News

Uncle Sam and Procter & Gamble were the two most frequent advertisers on U.S. radio in 2020.

Media Monitors issued rankings of the top advertisers for the year as measured by the number of spots they ran. (See charts at bottom; the first ranks the top parent companies, the second shows the top specific brands.)

It said the federal government ran about 5.9 million radio spots in measured markets, including ads promoting the census, while P+G ran about 5.3 million. Those two organizations also held the top spots last year.

But Progressive Insurance doubled its number of instances, airing about 2.7 million spots in 2020, rising from No. 9 to No. 3.

“Several new brands entered the top 10, including Babbel, which entered the top 100 at number five,” Media Monitors stated. “In September, the company reported its app had been downloaded more than 10 million times. Allstate jumped to number six from number 57, while Quicken Loans entered at number eight, up from number 18.”

Home Depot slipped in the rankings to No. 3 after being first last year; Lowe’s climbed to No. 4. Companies shooting way up the ranks from last year include T-Mobile and Allstate.

Falling out of the top 10 from last year’s parent rankings are former No.3 Live Nation Worldwide, which presumably reflects the loss of events during a pandemic, as well as Indeed Inc. and McDonalds.

The post These Companies Ran the Most Radio Spots in 2020 appeared first on Radio World.

Noted broker Larry Patrick, Managing Partner of Patrick Communications, is also a licensee of radio stations. And, he’s poised to gain control of three FMs as a court-appointed receiver, and immediately facilitate their sale to VCY America.

There’s just one small problem. The individual who lost control of the trio of radio stations, Ed Stolz, is engaging in what Patrick’s legal counsel calls “willful interference with court orders.” Now, it wants the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Judge that’s been overseeing the case to send Stolz to jail until Patrick gets the properties and can sell them — per the court’s directive.

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By Mario Xavier Carrasco

America is often described as a “melting pot” of different nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures. Much to the dismay of Teddy Roosevelt (who in a 1916 speech noted “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism”), Americans have perfected naming each ethnic group within our borders distinctly, and those names have evolved.

For example, we dove into the names by which Hispanics prefer to identify. Responses ranged from “Latino/Latina” to country of origin, to the hotly debated yet emerging term “Latinx.”

We see a similar pattern among Black Americans, who do not identify with labels such as “African American” despite its use in the U.S. Census, media, and other databases.

But what about the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S.: Asians? As with Hispanics, marketing to Asians must be nuanced because of the complexity of their demographics. Hispanic audiences span 20 countries of origin.

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American households are cutting the cord on their cable subscriptions more rapidly than previously reported.

That’s according to fresh data from more than 2,100 U.S. consumers reviewed for the second Future of TV survey by The Trade Desk.

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The CEO of Townsquare Media will be presenting on behalf of the local media company at NobleCon17 – Noble Capital Markets‘ 17th annual investor conference.

Bill Wilson will take the spotlight at approximately 4:30pm Eastern on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

And, he’ll have a virtual podium, as the COVID-19 pandemic has led Noble to hold an online-only affair accessible at no cost by visiting www.noblecon17.com.

Additionally, a high-definition, video webcast of the presentation will be available from Jan. 20 on the equity investor relations section of Townsquare’s website.

The webcast will be archived for 90 days following the event.

Townsquare Media shares concluded Monday’s trading at $7.21 and were down 2 cents with seven minutes remaining in trading on Jan. 12.

On November 30, 2016, DirecTV gave birth to a virtual MVPD designed to provide a “skinny bundle” to consumers who weren’t interested in a costly monthly subscription plan. Branded as DirecTV NOW, it didn’t require a contract.

At first, consumers seemed to like the vMVPD. Then came a name change to AT&T TV NOW, and a decline in subscribers following a summer 2018 peak.

Now, AT&T TV NOW packages ‘”are no longer available for new customers.”

There’s no official notice — just a marketing note informing consumers that AT&T TV NOW has merged with AT&T TV.

While no new customers are being accepted, current AT&T TV NOW customers will continue to have access. However, there’s no indication for how long.

The move comes as industry chatter persists that AT&T will eventually sell DirecTV to Dish, creating a DBS scenario akin to the satellite radio arena, where Sirius and XM merged to establish a financially viable operation.

Meanwhile, the U-Verse platform AT&T operated in the TV space prior to its merger with DirecTV is still being phased out.

The end of AT&T TV NOW follows the end of Sony PlayStation Vue, a “skinny bundle” that had been a feature tied to the popular video game console.

Crossings TV can be found over the air on low-power TV station KBTV-8 in Sacramento; on Comcast Xfinity systems in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco and Seattle-Tacoma; and on Charter Spectrum systems in Los Angeles in New York — some of the nation’s biggest Asian American population centers.

Why did Frank Washington (pictured, below), founder and CEO of the Sacramento-based channel, and COO Daniel Sakaya, each decide to focus their careers and attention to the build-out of a television channel that offers a variety of programming targeting all of these different groups?

They share this, and more, in a fresh InFOCUS podcast presented by DOT.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Crossings TV” on Spreaker.

The National Association of Broadcasters now is taking entries for its Crystal Radio Awards.

The awards honor community service efforts by radio stations in 2020.

Stations should submit entries via NAB’s new member platform, My NAB, describing their community service efforts for the past calendar year.

The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31; finalists will be announced in February.

Entry information is available here.

Last year’s recipients were AM station WSGW in Saginaw, Mich., and FM stations KRMG Tulsa, KUBL Salt Lake City, WDNS Bowling Green, WKRQ Cincinnati, KRWM Seattle, KVTY Lewiston, WHUR Washington, WREW Cincinnati and WSUN Tampa Bay.

The post NAB Crystal Radio Entries Are Open appeared first on Radio World.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF) is extending the deadline to submit entries for the 46th Annual Gracie Awards at the regular rate.

The new deadline date for the regular rate is January 21.

But, AWMF is also offering “a further extended deadline” of January 28, although this will come at an additional cost.

The Gracie Awards, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, celebrate programming and individual achievement by, for and about women in television, radio and digital media. Submissions from all facets of media are encouraged.

A SALUTE TO FIELD REPORTERS

Journalists have continued to work tirelessly on the front lines to provide coverage of the unprecedented events in the first two weeks of 2021, AWMF says.

“Due to the bravery of these storytellers and the timeliness of this important coverage, AWMF has added 10 new categories specifically dedicated to January 2021 Frontline Special Reports for on-air talent and programming in television, radio and digital media,” it says.

A full list of the new categories can be found here.

“We know the circumstances of the past year led to delivering content to audiences in ways we never expected, which is why we are more committed than ever to honoring the remarkable work that has been created by, for and about women,” says Becky Brooks, AWMF’s executive director. “As our biggest fundraiser of the year, the Gracie Awards enable the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation to deliver on its promise of furthering the connection, education and recognition of women in media, even during turbulent times.”

The Gracie Awards Gala, previously scheduled for May 2021, has been postponed to September 20.

The Gracie Awards Luncheon, previously scheduled for June, has been postponed to July 21.

The 2021 Gracie Awards entry eligibility air dates for the traditional categories are from January 1-December 31, 2020. New Categories are exclusive to January of 2021. Entry details, including pricing and updated categories, can be viewed at https://allwomeninmedia.org/gracies/call-for-entries/.

The application to judge content for The Gracie Awards is available until January 22. Learn more about Gracies judging and view the application at https://allwomeninmedia.org/gracies/judging/.

A Florida AM radio station is now on the air full-time with all-digital transmission, committing its 1470 signal strictly to listeners who have digital receivers.

Neal Ardman told Radio World that WMGG switched on its new Nautel transmitter, purchased for this purpose, on Tuesday morning. The station has an FM translator that continues to serve analog listeners at 96.1. The station airs Spanish-language programming.

If all-digital HD Radio technology for AM takes off in the United States, WMGG’s move would be seen as an important milestone.

Until now — beyond various test projects involving the National Association of Broadcasters and others — only one AM station in the country, Hubbard’s WWFD outside of Washington, D.C., has been using the technology consistently. It did so under special temporary authority while expressing the intent to retain it permanently. A second in Indiana, WIOE, experimented with it for several months last year but then turned it off for the time being.

But WMGG is believed to be the first station to take the step since the Federal Communications Commission said it would allow AM owners to deploy all-digital under normal operational rules rather than under an STA.

WMGG is a Class B station in Egypt Lake, near Tampa, airing a directional signal via a diplexed array. It has 2.8 kW power by day and 800 watts at night.

Ardman said the station had been testing the all-digital mode at night until throwing the switch this morning full-time. He expressed excitement about the digital quality and the lack of noise in areas where the signal usually fights noise sources.

The station has changed its legal IDs but so far has not done additional marketing or branding.

Among reasons for making the switch, he said, is the receiver penetration of HD Radio in cars in the market, which he said was in the 30% range and growing. Ardman said he expects that over time, major broadcast groups in the country will come to embrace the all-digital format.

A Radio World interview with Ardman will be featured in a ebook later this month about what’s next with all-digital on AM in the United States.

Under the recent FCC order, all-digital operation is allowed both day and night. There’s a 30-day waiting period before converting to all-digital “so that transitioning AM stations can provide adequate notice to the commission, consumers and other potentially affected stations.”

Digital stations still must participate in the national Emergency Alert System.

[Read more “Takeaways From the Digital Radio Order,” October 2020]

The post WMGG Has Turned on All-Digital AM appeared first on Radio World.