He’s been “an integral part” of the Fox Television stations team for 14 years and was “a natural fit” for this position, says Fox TV Stations CEO Jack Abernethy.
Meet the new SVP of Digital Operations for the Fox owned-and-operated over-the-air stations.
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Until his surprising defeat in the 2018 Democratic Primary Election to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Crowley spent 20 years in Congress representing a working class section of Queens, New York. Today, he’s in the National Capital Region, settling into his first month as Chairman of musicFIRST — a lobbying group described by The Recording Academy as “a coalition that fights for fairness and equity for music creators.”
To say Crowley hit the ground running is perhaps an understatement. Just days after his appointment, he was Tweeting about how “it’s past time to pay artists for their work.” Now comes the introduction of the American Music Fairness Act — crafted in part with Crowley’s input.
In an exclusive interview, Crowley shares why this bill’s introduction is important, and how it differs from multiple failed attempts in recent years to get Congress to pass a radio royalty proposal.
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If at first you don’t succeed … then dust yourself off and try again.”
Those are the lyrics to Aaliyah’s early 2000 chart-topper “Try Again,” the first single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 based solely on airplay. Without radio, would it have been a hit? Would Aaliyah’s place in the annals of rock ‘n’ hip-hop history be sealed?
The argument that Radio cements the success of recording artists continues to be debated, as does the belief by recording industry advocates that the artist isn’t getting its fair share of the royalties they deserve from the airplay of their songs. Numerous attempts at giving singers and musicians more money from Radio have come and gone in the last five years.
The latest effort, which takes a novel scaled royalty payment approach, has just been introduced in Congress. It’s a bipartisan bill from two Members who’ve tried before, and now seek support of what they’re calling the “American Music Fairness Act.”
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From our “Who’s Buying What” page: WSIE 88.7 “The Sound” recently put in a bunch of Heil Sound microphones as part of a studio upgrade project. The mics were donated by the manufacturer.
The station at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville installed 14 PR30s as well as PL2T booms and PRSM shockmounts. The mics are being used in its main studio, production and voice tracking rooms.
[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]
Jason Church is director of operations and general manager at The Sound. Heil quoted him as saying that at WSIE, students are taught skills that apply to traditional radio, streaming, podcasting, YouTube and other media. “They come here and work on real equipment and learn to present themselves on the air in a professional manner.”
The school and the manufacturer are both located near St. Louis. Their partnership was arranged by Michelle Levitt, marketing director for Heil Sound, who was contacted by a representative at the school about underwriting partners.
Users and suppliers are both welcome to submit news for “Who’s Buying What.” Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post WSIE Installs Heil Mics appeared first on Radio World.
Penthera offers a suite of streaming products to OTT providers designed to improve the video experience for their users. Its technology assists in the reduction or elimination of buffering and video quality issues, ensuring that stream abandonment doesn’t happen.
The company has just released a study that looks at the habits and preferences of U.S. Hispanics toward streaming video. Given their role as first-adopters of technology, we believe the findings are important for all in the TV industry to understand.
What’s the biggest takeaway Penthera can share? Its Chief Marketing Officer, Jodi Susman, offers details in this InFOCUS Podcast presented by dot.FM.
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Jodi Susman, Penthera” on Spreaker.
Advanced advertising company OpenAP has formed a new strategic alliance with AT&T’s ad technology platform that will enable OpenAP’s OpenIDSM audiences inside Invest TV, Xandr’s buyer self-service platform for linear television.
Buyers using Invest TV will now be able to activate unified audiences across all of the U.S.’s largest premium TV publishers and utilize those audiences in their Invest TV buying workflows.
Xandr will adopt the OpenID, a unique identifier launched by OpenAP that enables centralized activation of advanced audiences for use in campaign targeting, and OpenAP will accept demand from Xandr’s Invest TV buying platform. Invest TV will use OpenAP’s Audience Activation API, RFP and Proposal APIs, as well as its Campaign Post API, supporting interactions between Invest TV clients and publishers accepting demand through OpenAP’s platform.
The collaboration signals a commitment from both organizations to grow the market for audience-based advertising across the entire national video footprint.
With this integration, OpenAP and Xandr will enable a buyer to activate an audience target centrally with OpenIDs and use that OpenID audience within Invest TV to define deals, distribute and collect RFPs across publishers, review and request changes to proposals and analyze post-campaign reporting.
Advertisers will benefit from a consistent ID-based audience used for transacting on a national footprint of premium television advertising inventory, enabling deduplicated reach estimates and reporting.
More than ever I am paralyzed by choice.
I first recognized this syndrome way back in the days of Blockbuster. I’d spend 45 minutes looking at movies and leave with nothing. I experience this now with Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and podcast platforms.
Trader Joe’s has capitalized on this uncomfortable consumer experience by offering fewer choices. Instead of 10 choices of mustard, there are two or three.
As I attempt to listen to the latest audio talk apps, 10 zillion podcasts and nearly every song ever released, I can’t stop thinking about choice.
In a world of many audio choices, broadcast radio is the solid utility. With finite choices on radio, it’s easy to decide; this obvious intrinsic advantage is one we take it for granted.
I hope the big guns in our industry are constantly engaging the auto industry regarding the ongoing expansion of the new immersive car dashboard. Ignoring broadcast radio’s placement on the evolving car radio real estate is perilous.
Stay focusedThere’s no question that we continue to deliver our product to smart speakers, apps and other live streaming platforms, so we’re in the game and can continue to grow revenue.
However, let’s not lose focus! For the foreseeable future, we should continue to pour power into promoting broadcast properties and reasons to tune in. This is where radio wins.
[Related: “So, Where Does Radio Go From Here?”]
I’m not opposed to promoting listening on digital platforms, but there is limited air time and advertising money to invest in sparking interest for tune-in.
When I hear stations promoting listening on a smart speaker or app four times an hour, I wonder if the station is missing a chance to promote a reason to actually tune in. By now, don’t our audiences know we’re on all these platforms?
Growing audience on digital platforms requires a specific on-platform approach that is often missing from promotional strategy.
However I’d be remiss if I didn’t salute Clubhouse. This latest Talk app, is a natural social media evolution. Their promotional geniuses created demand and buzz by limiting listening to “invitation only.”
It was born on iPhone. Android arrived only in May.
Not listened yet? Browse topics, click on one and hear amateur hosts pontificate to micro-audiences. Raise your hand and join the conversation.
Sometimes it’s more like a conference call than a talk show. It’s sad news for Clubhouse that this is easy to replicate, as Clubhouse will be challenged by Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, Discord, Telegram, Reddit, Leher, Riffr, Spoon, and even LinkedIn.
A threat to local radio? Not in terms of obtaining consistently large local audiences, or competing for local advertising. Still, if I were searching for new talent, I’d be hunting for those rare natural hosts who could be groomed for radio.
What about podcasts? Talk about choices! I subscribe to 20. I listen regularly to four.
With hundreds of thousands of podcasts, discovery is an issue. The potential is huge with explosive younger listener growth.
Will podcasting steal hours from broadcast radio, or grow overall time spent listening to audio? I’m going with the latter, but so much depends on the quality of local radio. Jukeboxes will eventually fail. Winners will have compelling local talent; local information; local entertainment; local community involvement and yes even local news (bring it back!).
The future of local radio depends on the choices we make today.
[Read more Promo Power columns by Mark Lapidus.]
The post Your Listeners Have Many Choices appeared first on Radio World.
“TV has and will continue to transform as Connected TV becomes more widely adopted, moving from tested to trusted across all types of advertisers.”
That’s the viewpoint of “the largest independent global measurement and attribution platform for converged TV.” While they certainly have a bias, TVSquared’s latest Connected TV report is worth a look.
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Talk about a really small mobile package for radio stations, Roland has beefed up its Go:Mixer Pro smartphone outboard audio mixer peripheral with features that a radio crew might find of use.
The battery-operable Go:Mixer Pro-X expanded support for Android and iOS mobile devices, a guitar/bass input pad switch, and the ability to use a headset mic or the inline mic on smartphone earbuds as a sound source.
[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]
Up to seven audio sources can be used: XLR microphone (with 48 V phantom power), electric guitar or bass, a stereo instrument like a keyboard or drum machine and two stereo line-level devices. The headphone jack supports an additional mic feed, and a loop back function allows music and other audio from a connected mobile device to be mixed in as well.
Go:Mixer Pro-X is equipped with both USB Micro-B and four-pole TRRS analog jacks, providing plug-and-play operation with most iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Three different cables ship with the mixer, providing connection to Lightning, USB-C, and four-pole TRRS jacks on mobile devices. Power is via four AAA-size batteries or through the device connection when the USB Micro-B connector is used.
The Go:Mixer Pro-X is expected to ship in August with a price of $149.99.
Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.
Info: www.roland.com
The post Roland Extends Go:Mixer Line appeared first on Radio World.
Each of ViacomCBS’ global content leaders have been elevated as part of a structure shift that places each of these executives in charge of their respective genres within Paramount+.
The big announcement: Tanya Giles has been selected to serve as a centralized programming head to chart content strategy for Paramount+ and Pluto TV globally.
Giles, who currently serves as General Manager of MTV Entertainment Group, will become Chief Programming Officer for Streaming. It’s a newly created role, in which Giles will oversee and execute “a holistic programming strategy” for the global content offering across both Paramount+ and Pluto TV, maximizing mix, prioritization, timing and impact of ViacomCBS resources, franchises and brands “to drive sustained audience acquisition and engagement.”
She will report to Tom Ryan, President and CEO of ViacomCBS Streaming. “Tanya is a stellar media executive who brings a deep familiarity with our brands and audiences, as well as an unmatched talent for harnessing data to make high-impact programming decisions,” Ryan said. “Our content leaders know their genres better than anyone and have been integral to building a strong slate for Paramount+ and growing its audience. Our new structure will enable us to tap into their collective expertise even more effectively, further cementing Paramount+ as a true super service that delivers the content audiences love, all in one place.”
The “global content leaders” mentioned at the top of this report?
Here’s what is about to transpire:
As part of the realignment, Kelly Day, President of Streaming and Chief Operating Officer, ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI), will work closely with Giles and ViacomCBS’ content leaders “to ensure the company is executing against its global streaming strategy.” Day will continue to report to Tom Ryan and Raffaele Annecchino, President and CEO of VCNI.
Scott Mills will continue to oversee BET+ in his capacity as President, BET, reporting to Nevins.
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