NC Radio: Dick Broadcasting Inks Eastlan For Ratings Data

Dick Broadcasting has become the latest broadcaster to not renew with Nielsen and move to Eastlan.

They are first to do so in a PPM market. Under the terms of a new multi-year agreement, Eastlan Ratings will field its initial audience measurement study in the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem market in Summer 2015.

In the market, Dick operates: WKRR FM Rock 92 (licensed to Ashboro), and Top40 WKZL 107.5 FM (licensed to Winston-Salem).

WKRR 92.3 FM (100 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

To some it may appear a bold step but to Dick Harlow, Dick Broadcasting's Vice President and General Manager, the move to Eastlan is really common sense.

"I was surprised to learn that we are the first to make this switch in a PPM market. The meter was supposed to be the savior and all it's done is increase our annual payments to Nielsen. And now we find out to win in the PPM game you need a magic black box to job the system. At some point, enough is enough. We look forward to working with Eastlan Ratings to see who people in the Triad choose to listen to rather than who they are exposed to. Plus the sample size will be about triple the number of meters now in the market."

WKZL 107.5 FM (100 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

"It's funny how quickly things have changed in the past couple of years," said Eastlan President/CEO Mike Gould.

"After more than 16 years of providing radio ratings in markets coast-to coast, we're finding broadcasters and media buyers who don't know the Eastlan story are few and far between. Our methodological hybrid of telephone recall (landline and cellular) and e-surveys isn't sexy but it's fair and it's reliable. We are thankful that Dick and his colleagues trust Eastlan as their preferred ratings vendor. We are going to help save them a lot of money by getting their ratings investment back in line with the realities of today's radio revenue stream."

Beginning Of the End For Rush?

Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh still has a year left on his current $400 million radio deal, but the radio is already rumbling over what will happen on his next round.

Limbaugh is still the face of syndicated conservative talk radio.

But, according to David Hinckley at The NY Daily News,  the ratings for syndicated conservative talk have flattened or dropped for several years, despite the gift of a Democratic President to hammer, and some think the format is wearing down.

“Today’s talk radio is fast fading into the sunset because of a format stuck with 1990s rhetoric,” says Daryl Parks, media blogger, self-described Republican and former N/T Brand Manager for Clear Channel. “A constant right-wing political drumbeat no longer resonates as generational power shifted from Boomers to Gen X’ers and now Millennials, groups that have a more centrist belief in regards to many social issues..”

According to Parks, Premiere Networks and its owner CCM+E/iHeart Media has crammed down Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck on its talk stations, not allowing local stations to make needed changes to their programming, changes that could provide some hope of staying relevant.  It was a great business model…in the 20th century.

St. Louis Radio: 102.5 Freshens-Up As KEZK-FM

CBS RADIO/St. Louis announced today that Fresh 102.5 has re-branded as 102.5 KEZK-FM on-air, online and through mobile devices on Tuesday, May 26th at 7:05 AM during the Vic Porcelli morning show.

As 102.5 KEZK, the station updated its look, while continuing to play the Adult Contemporary hits listeners have come to love and expect from Fresh 102.5, plus LOTS more ‘80s music.

Click Here For Playlist 

Fresh 102.5 will maintain its status as “St. Louis’ Official At Work Station” by playing today’s hits from artists like Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and Maroon 5, plus yesterday’s favorites from bands like Hall and Oates, Michael Jackson, Madonna and more.

KEZK 102.5 FM (100 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

CBS RADIO St. Louis Senior Vice President and Market Manager John Sheehan said, “The KEZK call letters have always been synonymous with Adult Contemporary radio in St. Louis. Bringing back the familiar name, along with an updated sound, will give St. Louisans a great at-work listening option during the work day.”

LISTEN-LIVE: Click Here.

The revamped station will continue to feature the same great personalities, on-air at 102.5:

• Vic Porcelli – weekdays, 5am – 9am 
• Trish Gazall (pronounced “Gazelle”) – weekdays, 9am – 2pm 
• Greg Hewitt – weekdays 2pm – 7pm 
• John Tesh- Sundays, 6:00- 9:00 AM

R.I.P.: KLBC-FM Texoma Morning Personality Bob McKenzie

Bob McKenzie

Longtime Texoma area radio personality and KLBC 106.3 FM morning show co-host Bob McKinzie passed away unexpectedly Saturday. The 66-year-old had been a constant in the area radio scene for decades.

For McKenzie, radio broadcasting was a vocation and not just a job. He started as a disc jockey in high school and even continued his on-air work while in the Air Force working for AFRTS in Thule, Greenland.

Bob spent the last several years teamed with Scott Corbin on the KLBC’s highly successful “Bob and Scott” show.  Listeners were accustomed to Bob’s easy going, conversational style and many considered McKinzie “part of the family.”

According to the KLBC website, "McKinzie was a dedicated and tireless worker who strived constantly to make sure KLBC and it’s sister stations, KSEO and KBBC, always sounded professional.  In addition, he was always there to lend a hand. Whether it was taking care of the needs of a shut-in friend or helping co-workers, family and friends. If something needed to get done. Bob made sure it got done."

IL Radio: Spox Asks For Court Order Against WPRW Radio Reporter

Josh Schmidgall

Communications Manager Nora Dukowitz for the Cuity of Bloomington, Ill has asked a judge for a stalking "no contact" order against a N/T WPRW Cities 92.9 FM radio reporter Josh "Fitbump" Schmidgall.

A summons for a June 4 court hearing was served Friday afternoon on Schmidgall.

Dukowitz asks in her petition that Schmidgall be barred from threatening or stalking her City Hall office or her home in Normal. She also asks that he not possess a Firearms Owners Identification Card or possess or buy firearms.

City attorney Jeff Jergens said Friday the petition was not filed by the city, but by Dukowitz as a private citizen.

Nora Dukowitz

Dukowitz told The Pantagraph that she asked for the order after Schmidgall showed up at her home unannounced Monday afternoon where she was home sick.

Dukowitz said she received an email from Schmidgall on last Monday asking for an appointment and when she did not respond, he said he would use "Plan B" to get answers to his questions. Shortly after the email, he came to her home, she said.

"This is not about me avoiding the press. A line has been crossed here," she said.

Ian Bayne, who is co-host with the reporter known as "Fistbump," said Schmidgall was not available to answer questions Friday.

When asked about the basis for the petition, Bayne said "it's because of requests for answers about the city from our reporter to Nora Dukowitz."



Bayne claims Schmidgall has been denied access to the communications manager's office at City Hall.

Charter, TWC Make A Deal

Charter Communications Inc. has sealing a $56.7 billion deal for Time Warner Cable Inc., giving cable mogul John Malone the prize he has been chasing for two years, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The acquisition by Charter, which is backed by Malone’s Liberty Broadband Corp., would vault the cable operator into the ranks of the biggest U.S. broadband and pay-television companies.

The firms have agreed to terms for a cash-and-stock deal that would value Time Warner Cable at $195 a share, according to people familiar with the matter.

As part of the transaction Charter would also merge with small operator Bright House Networks, said people familiar with the deals. The combined cable giant would have 23 million total customers, second only to Comcast’s 27 million among cable operators.

The Wall Street Journal

News of the advanced deal talks comes only a month after Time Warner Cable went back on the block after Comcast terminated the companies’ planned $45.2 billion merger in the face of serious pushback from Washington regulators. A Charter-TWC deal could be in for a stringent review in Washington as well, some analysts have said.

Read More Now (Paywall)

Discussing plans to buy Time Warner Cable, president and CEO of Charter Communications Tom Rutledge says this deal is very different from the previously proposed one with Comcast.

Danish Radio's Rabbitt Killing Sparks Outrage

A Danish radio station reportedly has killed a nine-week old rabbit live on air, saying it intended to stimulate a debate around the “widespread hypocrisy in our relationship to animals”.

The Guardian reports presenters brought the rabbit, which they called Alan, into the studio on Sunday morning, where he was clubbed with a bicycle pump.

Asger Juhl, one of the presenters, later took the rabbit’s body home and skinned it, saying he planned a dinner for his children.

Radio24syv said Denmark has some of the world’s most industrialised agriculture. Its stunt provoked a strong backlash and calls for a boycott.

Every day in the nation of Denmark, thousands and thousands of animals are put down to fill the meat counters in our...
Posted by Radio24syv on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

In a response to Radio24syv’s Facebook post, Stan Kosjaks wrote: “Don’t try and justify it you heartless bastards, the only reason you killed a small, defenceless animal on air is to boost your ratings.

Report: What We Want From The Connected Car

Click to enlarge

People spend an average of six and a half hours per week in their cars, and as dashboards become digital platforms it's creating a massive new market for carmakers, digital-media companies, and even marketers. Revenues from connected services are expected to top $152 billion by 2020.

In a new report, BI Intelligence looks at revenue from connected-car internet services, consumer attitudes to these services and how they will pay for them (including getting ads in return for free content), and the potential for self-driving cars.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Connected-safety features bring in the most revenue of all of today's connected-car services, at $13 billion. But safety will lose its spot as the top revenue stream to driver-assistance in 2017. Connected-safety features will bring in $44 billion in 2020. These connections include alerting customers of road conditions, such as severe weather or an approaching hazard, as well as collision-avoidance. 
• Entertainment is one of the most popular features available for the connected car, but it is not a major revenue driver. The category will account for only $13 billion in revenue in 2020. Entertainment features include integrations with apps such as Pandora, Yelp, and Facebook. 
• But there's still a ways to go before mainstream consumers really understand how they can benefit from the connected car. About 80% of consumers have either never heard of connected cars or are unsure what the term refers to. 
• People who actually use connected car services are satisfied with them. About half of those who have a connected car actually use the car's connected features, and those who do use many of these features shows high levels of satisfaction with them.

• Consumers are pretty split on how they want to pay for these services. 25% of global consumers would be willing to receive in-car advertising if it meant they got free basic services in exchange. This means marketers are likely to have a big opportunity to tap into the connected-car market.

Daughters Allege B. B. King Was Poisoned

B.B.King

Two of B.B. King's daughters are alleging that the blues legend was poisoned to death by his closest associates. But the coroner says preliminary autopsy results don't support that contention.

CNN reports King's daughters, Patty King and Karen Williams, made the accusations in separate, but identically worded, affidavits filed over the weekend.

"I believe my father was poisoned and that he was administered foreign substances to induce his premature death," they said in their affidavits. "I believe my father was murdered."

King died May 14 in home hospice care in Las Vegas at age 89.

No investigation was conducted at the time of his death. And King's attending physician listed the cause as multi-infarct dementia, which is caused by a series of small strokes.

But the daughter's say that two of King's associates gave him medication to induce diabetic shock.

John Fudenberg, the coroner for Clark County, Nevada, told CNN that initial autopsy results found "no evidence to substantiate the allegations." But full forensic results will take six to eight weeks.

R.I.P.: KiSS-FM Ontario Morning Host Rich Griffin

Rich Griffin

Family, friends and industry colleagues are mourning the loss of a popular radio morning show host in Sudbury, Onotario, Canada

Rich Griffin suffered a fatal brain aneurysm this past weekend, CISS KISS 105.3 FM said on its website.

Griffin was 52 years old, according to the CBC.

Mike Allard, the program director at the station, hired Griffin 14 years ago to work on the weekday morning program.

He said on Monday morning, he helped fill in for his friend, alongside co-host Gary Beech.

"I co-hosted the show with Gary today because they have been partners, professional partners, for the last 14 years," he said.

"The studio has a place where both hosts sit and look at each other. In honour of Rich, we never touched his chair. We stood up and did the entire show together."

Griffin leaves behind his wife Nancy and five-year-old daughter Zoe.

RIP: Comedienne, Actress Ann Meara

Anna Mearea

Comedy great Anne Meara, the quick-witted half of the comedy team "Stiller & Meara," died at 85 on Saturday, CNN reports..

Meara and her husband, Jerry Stiller, were married for 61 years and worked together almost as long, the family said in a statement. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her children, comic actor Ben Stiller, daughter Amy Stiller and grandchildren.

"Anne's memory lives on in the hearts of daughter Amy, son Ben, her grandchildren, her extended family and friends, and the millions she entertained as an actress, writer and comedienne," the family statement said.

Meara was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of Irish-Catholic descent. She studied under acting teacher Uta Hagen and aspired to become a "serious" actor in the tradition of Maureen Stapleton and Kim Stanley.

Then she met Stiller, a Jewish boy from Brooklyn, and turned to comedy even though she "disdained" comedians, she said in a 2005 interview.

During the 1970s, Meara and Stiller wrote and performed many radio commercials together for Blue Nun Wine.




She had a recurring role on the sitcom Rhoda as airline stewardess Sally Gallagher, one of the title character's best friends. She also had a small role opposite Laurence Olivier in The Boys from Brazil (1978). In 1975 she starred in her own series Kate McShane on CBS, which she was nominated for an Emmy Award, but the series was cancelled after only 10 episodes.

Meara costarred with Carroll O'Connor and Martin Balsam in the early 1980s hit sitcom Archie Bunker's Place, which was a continuation of the influential 1970s sitcom All in the Family. She played the role of Veronica Rooney, the bar's cook, for the show's first three seasons (1979–1982). During that time, she acted in the movie Fame (1980), in which she played English teacher Elizabeth Sherwood. She also appeared as the grandmother in the TV series ALF in the late 1980s.