Cumulus Media Inc. and Rdio announce a powerful content, promotion and advertising partnership that provides listeners with a one-stop solution for their audio needs while offering advertisers new opportunities to engage with consumers.
The strategic partnership will provide Cumulus with a financial interest in the larger digital music ecosystem and allows Rdio to launch free, ad-supported products in the United States while accelerating the activation of new users and subscribers.
Cumulus will obtain a significant equity stake in Pulser Media, Rdio’s parent company, in exchange for exclusive content, media and on-air promotional commitments over a fiveyear period. In addition, Rdiowill leverage the Cumulus sales infrastructure to monetize its upcoming ad-supported free products, including music on-demand, custom playlists andexclusive content curated by Cumulus.
Available in over 30 countries, Rdio is the digital music service founded by the co-creator of Skype. On Rdio, music fans discover, play and share more than 20 million songs and build a digital music collection that’s available to stream on the web, on mobile and offline. Rdio offers listeners an ever-growing catalog and an endless variety of passive listening options, including personalized radio stations. The New York Times has recently called Rdio its “go-to music app” for its “beautiful design and user interface,” while Mashable has lauded it as the “music discovery version of a candy store.”
“This partnership leverages our premier broadcast and content assets along with Rdio’s acclaimed digital audio platform -- enabling consumers to listen to whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want,” said Lew Dickey, CEO of Cumulus.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Cumulus and their robust network of radio stations and premium content,” says Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio. “This monumental deal is the first time a digital and a broadcast platform have come together in this way and we’re eager to bring the Rdio experience to the greater Cumulus listening audience.”
RBC Capital Markets initiated and facilitated this transaction.
What radio knows about its listeners needs to change and fragmentation of the audience makes reaching your target listener tricky, but not impossible.
According to RadioWorld, those are the overall points made by Nielsen President of Global Product Leadership Steve Hasker Wednesday in Baltimore.
Speaking to attendees of the Nielsen Audio Client Conference and Jacobs Media Summit, Hasker gave those who interpret audience data for their stations a glimpse into how Nielsen views what it hopes to give its clients so they can make money.
Calling the current economy “the new normal,” Hasker says the recession is business as usual and that means “as you think about your business going forward, don’t expect rapid change.”
“Don’t expect a nice glide path into growth,” he said, as he believes economic recovery will be “a bumpy process.”
While Nielsen is noticing more fragmentation of the audience as Americans tune to radio, TV, online and mobile, that doesn’t mean radio and TV are doomed, he said. He actually called that “utter BS,” and acknowledged that while having more media choices makes radio’s path more difficult path to navigate, fragmentation actually means consumers are consuming more content.
However, radio needs to basically relearn the habits of young listeners, Hasker said, because youth behave differently from their elders in two ways: they are very active on social media and care more about their own content than what they hear from an advertiser. They are also more influenced by their friends than is the rest of the audience.
The move may signal that the same forces currently driving consolidation in the digital news industry at large are starting to gain momentum among the ranks of conservative news publishers online.
In theory, bringing more of the sites under a smaller number of roofs will appeal to the ad buyers who oversee rising digital marketing budgets while simultaneously providing cost savings for the publishers. Thus, the increasing pressure to consolidate.
Salem is well-positioned for a buying spree, in large part due to the profit generated from its 102 radio stations throughout the U.S. In fiscal year 2012, Salem generated $108 million of gross profit on $229 million of revenue. Of the company’s operating income, significantly more came from its radio group ($47 million) than from its websites ($3.7 million).
Now Salem is essentially using the radio profit to help expand the Internet side of its media portfolio. It’s a strategy that makes sense given the broader trendlines in advertising. According to Nielsen, global ad spending in the second quarter of 2013 increased 26.6 percent on the Internet while declining 0.9 percent on radio.
Jeff Sottolano has been named Director, Programming, CBS Radio, it was announced Wednesday by Chris Oliviero, Executive Vice President, Programming, CBS Radio. The appointment is effective on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014 with the position being based in New York. Sottolano currently serves as Program Director of CBS Radio’s WIP-AM/FM in Philadelphia.
"Jeff has consistently and successfully answered every challenge he’s faced during his career at CBS Radio,” said Oliviero. “With such diverse format experience and a respected reputation, both in and outside our company, I have no doubt he is ready to tackle this exciting and critical next chapter. Jeff will be a great complement to our corporate programming team.”
Sottolano will support program directors in 27 major markets to further drive ratings growth at CBS Radio’s 126 stations. He will focus on identifying and recruiting on-air talent, both established and up-and-coming, as well as seek out new format opportunities.
Sottolano began working with CBS Radio in 2001 when he joined WZNE-FM in Rochester, N.Y. as an intern. He was named Promotions Director in 2002, and two years later was promoted to Program Director/On-Air Personality where he helped lead the station through significant programming updates that resulted in ratings increases.
In 2006, Sottolano transferred to WYSP-FM in Philadelphia where he assumed a variety of programming and marketing roles during his tenure, including Program Director beginning in 2008. He was instrumental in launching the Danny Bonaduce Show.
Sottolano assumed programming oversight of WIP in 2011 when the AM sports station premiered a simulcast on WYSP as SportsRadio 94WIP. The two stations currently broadcast local and national programming with CBS Sports Radio featured on 610AM. WIP’s signature properties include play-by-play coverage of Eagles football and Phillies baseball, as well as “Wing Bowl,” an annual competitive eating contest.
In addition, Sottolano created the programming lineup of Phillies 24/7 on CBS Radio’s WOGL-HD4, the first ever HD multicast station dedicated to a MLB team, and works closely with the local Philadelphia stations’ digital assets.
One longtime veteran of local radio will be replaced by another, when Clear Channel Syracuse Market Manager Joel Delmonico calls it a career at the end of the month, according to cnyradio.com. The company announced General Sales Manager Rick Yacobush as the heir to the company’s highest-ranking position in Syracuse.
Yacobush has nearly 40 years of experience in the Syracuse radio market, starting out on-air as “Rick Charles” for 1490 WOLF before transitioning into sales. Yacobush has been with stations that would eventually become the Clear Channel Syracuse cluster for the past 26 years, with 18 of those years in management.
Kevin Legrett, Clear Channel Senior VP of Operations Northeast, says “Rick’s unique ability to maximize our assets will allow us to serve the community as well as our advertisers in a multi-platform fashion.”
Current Market Manager Joel Delmonico announced last month that he will retire by the end of the year, following more than 30 years in Syracuse radio, including 21 years as market manager. Yacobush officially takes over on January 1, 2014.
Clear Channel’s Syracuse cluster includes country powerhouse WBBS B104.7 FM, top 40 WWHT Hot 107.9 FM , mainstream adult contemporary WYYY Y94 FM, urban adult contemporary WHEN Power 620 AM , and NewsRadio WSYR 570 AM / 106.9 FM.
The company also announced Wednesday GSM Barbara Miller was promoted to Director of Sales.
For the first time, Friday night’s 7:30 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden will be simulcast over WHTZ 100.3 FM, Z100, according to The NY Daily News.
That includes every act from the opener, Jason Derulo, to the closing antics of Miley Cyrus.
In between: Fall Out Boy, Pitbull, Robin Thicke, Ariana Grande, Fifth Harmony, Austin Mahone, Macklemore, Enrique Iglesias, Selena Gomez and more. If it’s not a complete who’s who of top 40 pop in 2013, it’s the best class picture anyone is apt to snap this year.
Those who want to watch as well as listen can stream the show live on Yahoo, and those who want to savor the highlights can catch them in a two-hour special Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. on CW.
“We’ve been working a long time to bring Jingle Ball to more fans,” says Tom Poleman, president of national programming for WHTZ parent Clear Channel — and not only with streaming. Versions of Jingle Ball will visit more than a dozen cities this year. It’s a model that Clear Channel could use in the future with other music formats, such as country.
But the Jingle Ball mission, says Poleman, remains unchanged. “We want to put the biggest names on one stage,” he says.
Texas Rangers radio play-by-play voice Eric Nadel has won the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting, according to ESPN. He will be honored on Saturday, July 26, 2014, in Cooperstown, N.Y., as part of Hall of Fame weekend.
This was Nadel's fourth consecutive year as a finalist for the award, given annually by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Next season will be Nadel's 20th as the lead voice on radio broadcasts and 36th year of broadcasting Rangers baseball. It's the longest tenure of any announcer in the history of the franchise and the second-longest continuous current stint with one team in the American League.
He was inducted into the club's Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nadel joined the Rangers in 1979 and called games on television and radio during his first three seasons. Starting in 1982, he and Mark Holtz were the radio duo for 13 seasons before Holtz, who passed away in 1997, moved over to television in 1995.
Nadel, a graduate of Brown, got his start calling football and hockey games on the university's radio station. He also had stints with minor league hockey teams in Minnesota and Oklahoma City before landing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
102.7 KIIS-FM overnight personality
Dave Styles is moving on up to a better time slot. However, he's
crossding the hall to make it happen.
Styles is taking over afternoon on KBIG104.3 MYfm. He replaces Damien Fahey.
"I'm pumped to be doing afternoons
on an incredible station that has Los Angeles buzzing," said
Styles, who also serves as the in-stadium entertainment host for the
Los Angeles Dodgers. He also hosts a syndicated Australian show, The Hot
Hits: Live From L.A.
"The opportunity to continue working
amongst friends I've made over my 10 years here, makes it that much
sweeter," Styles added.
Replacing Styles on KIIS-FM is Alex
Gervasi, who currently does middays on KHFI 96.7 Kiss FM, Austin.
CCM+E L.A. VP/Programming and MYfm PD
Andrew Jeffries said, "The evolution of both KIIS & MYfm
continues -- Dave and Alex fit seamlessly into our world, and they're
great talents -- it's their time to shine."
Classic R&B and hip-hop radio station KDAY 93.5 FM has been sold to Meruelo Media, a Los Angeles company that has been expanding its holdings.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, according to the LA Times.
The station had been on the market for more than two years. Earlier this year, another company attempted a nearly $20-million deal to buy KDAY from Magic Broadcasting of Florida, but that deal fell apart.
The previous group, RBC Communications, had planned to switch the format to Mandarin language, which startled some longtime listeners. Under its new owners, the station will remain an English-language outlet.
KDAY 93.5 FM 60dBu Coverage
Meruelo executives said Wednesday they also intend to keep the old-school hip-hop format, which should cheer fans of the station who earlier this year launched a social media campaign, Save KDAY, and collected signatures to protest a potential change in programming.
Meruelo Media plans to invest in the station to make it a more robust player in L.A. -- the nation's largest radio market with an estimated $500 million a year in advertising spending.
KDAY has a rich history in Los Angeles. In the 1980s, the original KDAY-AM (1580) station was the first 24-hour hip-hop station in the U.S., helping launch the careers of such rappers as Dr. Dre and LL Cool J. But the station was sold in 1991 to Los Angeles real estate mogul Fred Sands for $7.2 million. Sands flipped it to a business news station with the call letters KBLA.
Investors revived the KDAY brand in 2004. They reformatted a Spanish-language FM station, KZAB, and promised a return to the previous station's hip-hop roots under the banner of KDAY 93.5 FM. Over the years, the station underwent several programming changes.
BRS Media's Web-Radio, the Official Holiday Internet Radio Directory, announced Wednesday that well over 550 Internet only and terrestrial AM/FM radio stations featuring seasonal favorites are streaming online this year. Listeners can "Tune-In" a record number of online webcasts and sites that broadcast Christmas music from around the world.
For the 18th consecutive year Web-Radio features Christmas stations and holiday Internet radio streaming Online. Internet listeners can choose from hundreds of stations that are broadcasting holiday music 24/7. The number of holiday stations on the Internet continues to climb; currently 559 stations are streaming online. The total number of Christmas stations streaming continues to grow year over year.
"It's extremely exciting to see the growth in the number of Holiday stations webcasting online." remarked George T. Bundy, Chairman & CEO of BRS Media Inc., "Internet Radio listeners are just one click away from hundreds of stations streaming holiday cheer. Whether at Work, at Home, on the Mobile Phone, or Shopping Online, listeners have a worldwide variety of Christmas stations to choose from, everything from Classic Standards & Smooth Jazz to Oldies & Country are all online."
The Web-Radio Christmas section includes everything from Christmas Classics and Smooth Jazz, to Romanian Traditional Christmas Carols and Classic Christmas Oldies. The Christmas Music section is available at: http://Web-Radio.fm/Christmas/.
Spotify is expanding its mobile presence with free access to its music catalogue on smartphones and tablets.
On tablets, all users (not just Premium subscribers) will find the same experience they encounter on the desktop, according to PC Mag. Smartphone users will be a tad more restricted, but can still access all their Spotify playlists.
Previously, non-paying Spotify users could only listen to Spotify Radio on the mobile apps. But now, they can discover new music, save, shuffle, and share.
In the mood to listen to Lady Gaga or Phil Collins without interruption from similar artists? Just search for a particular singer, hit "shuffle play," and listen to their entire catalogue.
If you'd rather discover new music, or are looking for inspiration at the gym or during Christmas tree trimming, visit the Browse option to find themed playlists (pictured), curated by Spotify employees for various moods, genres, and moments.
All Spotify users, however, can now get the Led out, thanks to a new partnership between the music-streaming company and legendary rock band Led Zeppelin. The group's Swan Song/Atlantic catalog is now available exclusively on Spotify.
In a slow rollout, the first two albums (Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II) are online now. Each day through Saturday, two more albums will hit Spotify; on Sunday, the final six will be available, including the 2012 album Celebration Day.
In 1896...Guglielmo Marconi gave the
first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London.
In 1901...Marconi sends first Atlantic
wireless transmission
Italian physicist and radio pioneer
Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission
across the Atlantic Ocean, disproving detractors who told him that
the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or
less. The message--simply the Morse-code signal for the letter
"s"--traveled more than 2,000 miles from Poldhu in
Cornwall, England, to Signal Hill in Newfoundland, Canada.
Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1874 to an
Italian father and an Irish mother, Marconi studied physics and
became interested in the transmission of radio waves after learning
of the experiments of the German physicist Heinrich Hertz. He began
his own experiments in Bologna beginning in 1894 and soon succeeded
in sending a radio signal over a distance of 1.5 miles. Receiving
little encouragement for his experiments in Italy, he went to England
in 1896. He formed a wireless telegraph company and soon was sending
transmissions from distances farther than 10 miles. In 1899, he
succeeded in sending a transmission across the English Channel. That
year, he also equipped two U.S. ships to report to New York
newspapers on the progress of the America's Cup yacht race. That
successful endeavor aroused widespread interest in Marconi and his
wireless company.
Signal Hill, Newfoundland
Marconi's greatest achievement came on
December 12, 1901, when he received a message sent from England at
St. John's, Newfoundland. The transatlantic transmission won him
worldwide fame. Ironically, detractors of the project were correct
when they declared that radio waves would not follow the curvature of
the earth, as Marconi believed. In fact, Marconi's transatlantic
radio signal had been headed into space when it was reflected off the
ionosphere and bounced back down toward Canada. Much remained to be
learned about the laws of the radio wave and the role of the
atmosphere in radio transmissions, and Marconi would continue to play
a leading role in radio discoveries and innovations during the next
three decades.
In 1909, he was jointly awarded the
Nobel Prize in physics with the German radio innovator Ferdinand
Braun. After successfully sending radio transmissions from points as
far away as England and Australia, Marconi turned his energy to
experimenting with shorter, more powerful radio waves. He died in
1937, and on the day of his funeral all British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) stations were silent for two minutes in tribute to
his contributions to the development of radio.
In 1915...Legendary singer Frank Sinatra, dubbed "Ol' Blue Eyes" and the "Chairman of the Board," was born. He died May 14, 1998 at 82.
In 1957...KEX, Portland, Oregon Disc
Jockey Al Priddy, was fired for playing Elvis Presley's rendition of
"White Christmas." He violated the radio station's ban
against the song. The station had banned Presley’s interpretations of Christmas carols, believing that such a sexually-charged performer had no business recording religious music.
In 1961...Ham radio satellite Oscar 1
was launched with military Discoverer 36
In 1971...David Sarnoff, who founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and throughout most of his career led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), died at age 80.
In 1995...the CBC (Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation) announced the Radio Canada International
service would end on March 31.
In 2003...Unkle Roger McCall, a long-time DJ
on WCMF-FM, Rochester, New York, was fatally wounded by a gunshot in
a robbery attempt. His killer has never been brought to justice.
In 2008...Spike O'Dell did his last
broadcast on WGN-AM. He spent 21 years with the station, 8 of them
doing mornings.
In 2012...Veteran broadcaster (KABC-Los Angeles, KLAC-Los Angeles, KIEV-Los Angeles, KGIL-Los Angeles, KING-Seattle) Ray Briem, who ruled the Los Angeles overnight airwaves with his radio talk show for 27 years (1967-1994), died of cancer at 82.
A new study proposed by the Federal Communications Commission has caught the wrath of 16 GOP members of the Commerce Committee, who, according to AdWeek, see it as a sneaky way to bring back the Fairness Doctrine.
Although the Fairness Doctrine—requiring broadcasters to give equal time to both sides of controversial issues—was scrapped in 1987, it wasn't until August 2011 that it was officially taken off the books.
The purpose of the FCC's "Multi-Market Study of Critical Needs" is to help the commission take action to lower market entry barriers in the broadcast space. As part of the $900,000 study, the FCC intends to do a qualitative analysis of providers by examining the station news process—how stories are selected, prioritized and produced. To do that, the study would query journalists and station owners about their news philosophy and what impacts story selection.
That, say the GOP lawmakers, crosses the "freedom of the press" line.
Fred Upton
“Given the widespread calls for the commission to respect the First Amendment and stay out of the editorial decisions of reporters and broadcasters, we were shocked to see that the FCC is putting itself back in the business of attempting to control the political speech of journalists," they wrote in a letter on Dec. 10. "The commission has no business probing the news media’s editorial judgment and expertise," wrote Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and 15 other lawmakers.
Just as curious, the GOP lawmakers asked new FCC chair Tom Wheeler to explain why the study was only limited to one market, Columbia, S.C., when it originally would have covered several markets of varying sizes.
