Industry News

In a world where radio industry consolidation has created local, regional and national groups, a stand-alone FM is a rarity. In market No. 143, there’s a radio station that thrives. And, it’s owned by a person who balances ownership, which he loves, with a real estate business, a restaurant and hotel, a daily mid-morning Talk show, and the continued expansion of the American Blues Network.

To share a little bit about “JZ 94.5,” CEO Rip Daniels sits in with Adam R Jacobson on the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM. Among the things Rip discusses: the minority tax certificate and what it could bring — or not — to Radio ownership diversity.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Rip Daniels” on Spreaker.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Leadership Foundation is accepting applications through August 2 for the 2022 Broadcast Leadership Training (BLT) program. The BLT program is designed to prepare senior-level broadcasters to advance into ownership or executive positions. Women and people of color are especially encouraged to apply.

Now in its 22nd edition, the executive MBA-style program is the foremost executive training program for the broadcast industry. The program teaches senior-level broadcast professionals who aspire to advance as group executives or station owners the fundamentals of purchasing, owning and operating radio and television stations over ten months.

The 2022 Broadcast Leadership Training program will return to weekend sessions held in-person at the NAB Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The starting session will be held September 17-19, 2021.

“After a year and a half of a hybrid classroom, we couldn’t be more excited to welcome our next cohort back in-person,” said Michelle Duke, NAB Leadership Foundation president. “The Broadcast Leadership Training program is imperative to our goal of fostering growth and promoting diversity in the industry, and we are excited to immerse the 2022 class in the networking and relationship-building opportunities that uniquely thrive in a live environment.”

Broadcast professionals from all areas of the industry, including general managers, experienced sales managers and seasoned department heads, as well as regional and corporate executives, are encouraged to apply. Fellowship opportunities are available for women and people of color.

For sponsorship and speaking opportunities, please contact Tim Dotson, senior director of development, NAB Leadership Foundation, at tdotson@nab.org.

Marketron, the provider of enterprise revenue management and digital software solutions, is welcoming a 25-year sales and service leader to a role that makes him the company’s SVP of Client Success.

His chief task: the Marketron SaaS and digital client success teams.

Earning the role is Christian Kligora. He served as VP of Client Success for Gannett and the USA Today national brands and executive accounts team. He has partnered with companies including James Hardie Industries, Centura Health, Leprino Foods and hundreds of SMBs to help them better understand consumer buying journeys and simplify the fragmented advertising space, Marketron said.

“I’m excited to be working with the fantastic team at Marketron to create a client experience that’s a win for everyone — for us, for our clients and for their customers,”  Kligora said. “While I have years of experience on the client success side, I also know what it’s like to be a salesperson trying to sell digital products. So, I appreciate both the Marketron SaaS platform, which makes it easy for radio and TV stations to play in the digital space, and the company’s dedication to investing in strong, long-term client relationships that drive success all around. I believe that together we can build something truly amazing for Marketron clients.”

After nearly 12 years at the ABC affiliate serving New York’s Capital Region, a role that included oversight of a JSA with the market’s FOX affiliate, he became a member of the Nexstar Media Group family. With his transition from Media General, he’d move to Charlotte, where he’s served as the VP/GM of its two TV stations in the Queen City.

Now, this broadcast TV industry veteran as of July 26 will be heading to the corporate office to take on a regional leadership post.

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The “sage of South Central” is now on the way to possibly becoming the wise leader of the Golden State.

Larry Elder, the veteran conservative Talk radio host who has been associated with Salem Media Group since 2016, announced late Wednesday (7/21) that he has won his lawsuit against the State of California and Office of the Secretary of State, Shirley Weber — an action Elder made Monday after being left off of the preliminary list of candidates in the September 14 gubernatorial recall election.

As a result, Elder is on the ballot as a Republican candidate to unseat Democrat Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco Mayor.

“This is a huge victory for voting rights, our republic, our campaign, you and for California,” he declared on Twitter in announcing the court win. “Now let’s go save our state!”

At issue was the submission of what Elder said was more than 300 pages of tax returns required to become a candidate. Weber’s office said Elder filed incomplete information on those returns connected to redaction issues.

The judge considering Elder’s lawsuit agreed with him, finding that he indeed abided by ballot requirements and that California should have refrained from its demands of having candidates submit five years’ worth of tax returns.

With Sacramento Superior Court Judge Laurie Earl making the ruling just hours before Weber was set to certify the final list of candidates, Elder is now one of 43 total recall candidates.

Elder on July 13 stepped away from his daily talk show, which airs on such stations as KRLA-AM 870 in Los Angeles, in order to run for Governor of California. Filling in for him through the election is Carl Jackson, who hosts a Saturday evening Talk program based at WORC-AM in Orlando. Jackson has been a regular fill-in host for veteran Salem Talk host Dennis Prager.

Because of the FCC’s Equal Time rules, Elder must step away from the show while the race for governor of California is on. Should he lose, he will return to the program. Should he win, Salem has a decision to make while Elder packs his bags and heads to Sacramento.

iHeartRadio introduced a voice-enabled “Request a Song” feature for Alexa.

Highlighting a partnership with Amazon, it says the feature lets listeners “communicate with their favorite DJs by requesting and dedicating songs live on the radio.”

On an Alexa-enabled device, the listener can speak to request and dedicate songs; Alexa will send the request to the station, where radio DJs can act on it.

[Read: For Radio, Audio Is the “New Now”]

The company says the feature is enabled by updates to Alexa’s voice AI. It says it is working on more interactive features including Q&As with DJs and show hosts, voice-driven polls and contests.

The feature was introduced first on stations in South Carolina, Arizona, Texas and Florida, with more planned.

The company posted a video with Chief Product Officer Chris Williams explaining the new skill, see it above. He calls the feature “a direct line to allow our audience to talk back, to share their thoughts and help influence what you hear on the radio.”

The post iHeart Adds “Request a Song” Feature in Alexa appeared first on Radio World.

For the first time, NBCUniversal will have an individual charged with leading a centralized data unit, and the development and implementation of the company’s enterprise-wide consumer identity and data strategy.

Taking the newly created role of Chief Data Officer is John Lee, and he will sit within the NBCU Global Advertising & Partnerships division. I

Lee reports to President and Chief Business Officer Krishan Bhatia.

Specifically, Lee and his team will develop NBCU’s first-party data strategy and create data-driven partnerships to support advertising, marketing, consumer experience and analytics use cases across NBCUniversal’s TV & streaming properties and the NBC News Group, as well as Universal Filmed Entertainment and Universal Parks & Resorts.

Working collaboratively across NBCUniversal as well as in partnership with Comcast and Sky, Lee will support teams within Advertising Sales, Marketing, Product, Operations & Technical Services, and more to prioritize the role of data in consumer experience and product development, monetization, and partnerships at the company, it said.

“Lee will combine his decades-long expertise driving customer experience, identity resolution, and data management with NBCUniversal’s commitment to creating a unified data platform focused on data interoperability, partnership, and privacy. Specifically, he will lead a team of data scientists, strategists, and developers who will enable and enhance monetization opportunities across NBCUniversal’s One Platform; develop an integrated audience graph; and bring the company’s market-leading identity capabilities, from the NBCU Audience Insights Hub to NBCU ID and more, to life.”

Lee added, “The next era of media and advertising will be defined by data and identity, and I am thrilled to join the team at NBCUniversal to build this future for our partners, the industry, and consumers. From theme parks to movie studios, digital and streaming to linear, NBCUniversal is poised to deliver a unified consumer identity vision that meets the needs and expectations of both consumers and marketers while maintaining the trusted relationships the company has built, creating new ways to generate revenue and scale investments with privacy in mind.”

Lee joins NBCU from Merkle, a Dentsu company, where he served as Global Chief Corporate Strategy Officer and led the development and execution of the company’s business vision, value proposition, and long-term planning.

AD-ID NOW STANDARD

Lee’s announcement came alongside news from NBCUniversal that Ad-ID is now its new standard for advertisers across One Platform, a partnership that the company boasts “brings a pristine viewing environment to consumers on every screen and offers marketers the highest-quality, most efficient and effective advertising solution.”

Local ad revenue in the United States is picking up and radio is participating in the trend, according to new data from BIA Advisory Services.

The research company said it has revised its 2021 forecasts for total U.S. local advertising revenues across media and business verticals to $142.4 billion, up $4.8 billion or 3.9% from its November estimates.

[Read: Brands that Cracked the Advertising Code in 2021]

“The projection is split between traditional and digital media but shows that the divide is narrowing, with traditional advertising only 8% ahead of digital mediums that include mobile, online, over-the-top, email and traditional media’s online ventures,” it stated.

The company quoted its SVP and Chief Economist Mark Fratrik saying, “There’s an acceleration in the market that couldn’t be accounted for last fall. The economy is growing and we’re observing money being spent to reach audiences through various media.”

For radio specifically, it said local advertising “will rebound somewhat to $11.7 billion in 2021 and $12.3 billion in 2022.” Of those numbers, digital platforms will contribute $940 million and $1.04 billion respectively.

OTT will grow 16% this year, “surpassing the trajectory of mobile as more consumers take advantage of various streaming services on their TV screens.”

Local TV advertising will decline to $16.2 billion in 2021 “but bounce up to $19.3 billion in 2022,” with $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion respectively coming from digital platforms.

“The revised forecast also sees a 5.6% increase in overall compound annual growth in U.S. spending in local ad markets and expects the amount to reach $157.1 billion in 2022 and $162.1 billion in 2023, while the digital media share will first leapfrog to 51% over traditional media by 2023,” BIA reported.

The post Local Radio Ad Revenue to “Rebound Somewhat” appeared first on Radio World.

Paging Soohyung Kim.

TEGNA‘s board of directors on Thursday (7/22) declared a second bumped-up dividend payable to shareholders on Oct. 1, so long as they are stockholders of record as of market close on September 3.

TEGNA’s leader notes the move comes in recognition of the company’s strength. Yet, its stock price has moved steadily downward since mid-April.

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This is one in a series of comments from the ebook “The Real World of AoIP.” We asked several manufacturers to identify the most important technical development or trend in the use of AoIP.

The use of AoIP simplifies workflows and can support future upgrades, says AEQ Sales Manager Gustavo Robles, who expects the trend will continue.

“Based on AEQ’s experience with more than 40 years in the market and one of the most  extensive catalogue of AoIP solutions, and in view of the projects we have done in the past year as well as the point of view of our clients, we believe that the next step in AoIP technology will be the integration and standardization of control protocols, equipment, signals and clocks, both in audio projects and in audio and video applications,” he said.

He noted the adoption of standards like SMPTE 2110 and SMPTE 2022, on which AEQ is working and offering in new products such as the Atrium console and audio router X_core.

“In many cases, broadcast companies have both radio and television facilities,” he continued. “Being able to use common — or at least compatible — AoIP solutions greatly simplifies workflows and improves the possibility of growth or upgrades to their studios in the future.”

The global health crisis of the past year and a half will have a permanent impact. “It’s important to note that the migration of standard radio clients to VoIP has been very significant … coinciding with the terrible COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

“End users have finally seen the great potential of AES67 technology, helping greatly in the ‘work at home mode’ mandatory at most program production centers in the world.

“New work habits that IP technology has made possible have come to stay and will establish themselves as a new industry standard.”

Read more opinions about trends in AoIP.

The post AoIP Supports New Work Habits appeared first on Radio World.