Hitch Radio Aims To Turn-Up The Dial

A new start-up aims to turn the dial on the radio industry.

Hitch Radio founder Ayinde O. Alakoye said, "Radio's heard by 94 percent of the U.S., but its live nature makes it really hard to share, so we've created Hitch Radio, the world's first instant messaging app for live broadcast radio."

Alakoye's goal is to capitalize on what he calls radio's flawed distribution model. And he says he has the chops to pull it off. He's a former radio ad sales executive and one of the original creators of the iHeartRadio.

In his latest venture, Hitch Radio, listeners get access to 20,000 stations around the world via their smartphones. Users can search by song, artist or genre. But unlike other music apps, Hitch Radio users can instant-message their friends about what they're listening to. If the message goes unopened within 3 minutes, which happens to be the average length of a song, the message disappears.

Hitch Radio is available on both iOS and Android and is free to use.

Alakoye told CNBC he expects to nab more users by giving them access to celebrity playlists. His plan is to pair "the sexiness of the stars, with the sexiness of the music." He would not disclose any artists' names.



Jessica Peltz, a venture capitalist with KBS Ventures, said the music industry's notorious legal challenges could pose a threat to the start-up.

But the founder said he's not concerned. "Our business model is that we pay radio stations 75 percent of our revenue and they actually pay 100 percent of the royalties to the artist for every song that's played, so there's no royalty challenge for us," Alakoye told CNBC.

According to Alakoye, since launching in March, the Hitch Radio app has hit over 15,000 downloads. "We anticipate being profitable within the next 12 months," Alakoye said.

ASRP: AM Radio Is Done Sez Colin Cowherd

Colin Cowherd the  guest on the latest About Sports Radio podcast with Zach McCrite this week.

During the podcast, Cowherd is bearish on the prospects of terrestrial radio. “In the next five to ten years, I don’t even think they will have radios in cars,” he said.  “You’ll have your television set in your car.  So I think podcasts and digital (and) Sirius is the future. I think terrestrial (radio), AM especially, is done in five years.”



 Inside the episode:

• Colin talks about how he got the bug for doing sports talk, via play-by-play and television. [2:55]
• Colin remembers the first time he thought sports radio might be a viable career. [4:21]
• Was Colin always confident in his ability or did it develop over time? [6:31]
• Colin gives some great advice to aspiring sports talk hosts. [7:55]
• “Don’t worry about being perfect.” [9:17]
• Colin goes through his show prep process. [10:23]
• The dynamic of topic development between Colin and his staff before air. [12:30]
• How often does management talk to Colin about his content? [14:17]
• Does Colin get paralyzed by market-specific ratings? [15:38]
• Where will sports radio be in five to ten years? [18:10]
• The biggest differences between Colin’s show when he began at ESPN Radio in 2003 and now. [21:19]
• How does Colin conform to the new “bite-size” world of topic delivery and consumption? [22:31]
• The sports radio version of nails on a chalkboard to Colin. [24:23]
• “There’s no money in being right.  A lot of guys are more right than me and they’re doing overnights.” [25:45]
• The thing that Colin does that annoys the people around him the most. [28:58]

Moonves Douses Speculation on CBS Purchase, Merger

Les Moonves

“I would like to buy CBS. I’m not going to,” media mogul says onstage at ReCode Code Conference.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves once again downplayed rumors that he would buy the company he runs, during a conversation at ReCode’s Code Conference on Wednesday.

“The board of directors will decide the fate of this company,” he said on stage, according to The Wrap. “I would like to buy CBS. I’m not going to.”

Moonves also reiterated that there are no plans for CBS to merge with Viacom, despite continued rumors.

The exec also said talks are ongoing for CBS to be included in an unnamed Apple TV service, though he doesn’t know when it will happen, and money is the main negotiation sticking point.

“Apple TV is trying to change the universe, as did Sling, as is Sony,” he said of the tech giant planning to offer smaller bundles of channels over the web.

“I think the age of the 200 channel universe is slowly dying,” he continued. “The good news for us, is any one of those groups will need CBS. We have the NFL, which is must have television. Any of those bundles we will be a part of that and we should get a better proportion of the share of that universe than we currently do on cable.”

CT Radio: Zac Davis New iHM PD At WKSS, WKCI

Zac Davis

iHeartMedia/Connecticut has named Zac Davis Program Director for Top40s WKSS KISS 95.7 FM Hartford and WKCI KC101 FM New Haven.

"We heard from some of the best CHR programmers in the country, and Zac's successes in the format, coaching top-tier personalities and his highly strategic thinking separated him from the pack," said Dave Symonds, SVP/ Programming, iHeartMedia Hartford.

"We are thrilled and eager for him to start."

Davis most recently served as iHeartMedia Myrtle Beach's SVP/Programming.  Other stops along his career have included Program Director of WDCG G105 in Raleigh; Operations Manager of Max Media's KDHT & KJHM in Denver; with stops at WRDU in Raleigh; WABB in Mobile; WGBT in Greensboro; KOSO Modesto and WBVD Melbourne.

WKSS 95.7 FM (16.5 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

"I'd like to thank Rod Phillips, LJ Smith, Jimmy Feuger and WGTR morning co-host Adam Dellinger for everything they've done for me in Myrtle Beach. I've loved working with the whole team keeping our Myrtle Beach brands on their winning records," said Davis.

"Now I'll get to continue my path in CHR, and work for Dave Symonda, someone I've respected for years. I'm excited to join such a talented group of people – these are stellar brands and I look forward to continued success."

WKCI 101.3 FM (12 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

Martina McBride Stands Up for Female Artists

Martina McBride

Martina McBride isn't taking Country un-consultant Keith Hill's talk of lettuce and tomatoes with a grain of salt.

"Trust me, I play great female records and we've got some right now; they're just not the lettuce in our salad," said radio consultant Hill in an interview with Country Aircheck.

"The lettuce is Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, Keith Urban and artists like that. The tomatoes of our salad are the females."

Keith Hill

The answer to how to get more listeners? "If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out," Hill advised.

According to eonline.com,  that didn't sit too well with McBride, who's sold more than 14 million albums in the U.S.

McBride took to Facebook to address Hill's comments:

Wow.....just wow. Just read this from a major country radio publication. How do you feel about this statement? I...
Posted by Martina McBride on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

And she wasn't afraid to pass on what Hill was claiming, including the following excerpt from the Country Aircheck interview in her post:

"If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out," Hill was quoted as saying. "The reason is mainstream Country radio generates more quarter hours from female listeners at the rate of 70 to 75%, and women like male artists. I'm basing that not only on music tests from over the years, but more than 300 client radio stations. The expectation is we're principally a male format with a smaller female component. I've got about 40 music databases in front of me and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%."

As you might imagine, the dust-up is causing some women on Music Row to give voice to their anger, according to The Tennessean.

For many, this is proof that female artists are being discriminated against in country radio. Only 20 percent — 10 of the Top 50 hits — are sung by female leads (whether solo or groups). Of the Top 50 songs that are 18 months or older, only 12 are sung by women — and nine of the 12 songs are by only three women.

Radio consultant Jaye Albright posted on Facebook, "…He is simply wrong. You could make a case that males sometimes don't relate to specific songs put out by women and that does cause more releases by men to do better on average what the typical female hit does but I have never seen any evidence that women do not like songs by females!"

CMT senior vice president Leslie Fram says, "I can tell you that working and programming radio for over 20 years, this is simply not true. Top 40 is primarily a female format and the majority of artists on their chart are women. This posting is taking us 20 steps backwards. It's an insult to every female artist in the format."

Chicago Radio: Ramonski Luv OUT At WSRB

Ramonski Luv

Crawford Broadcasting's Urban WSRB 106.3 FM and nightime personality Ramonski Luv have parted company.  It's the second time in a year that he's been dismissed.

The 52-year-old Luv, whose real name is Raymond Wade, joined WSRB last December are being let go by iHM's WVAZ 102.7 FM V103 in July 2014.

Luv was fired by WVAZ one day after ratings for “The Real Show” he hosted with Joe Soto had returned to No. 1 in the market.

CRM sources insiders as saying WSRB dismissed Luv over missed station appearances and managerial frustration over broken company rules (off-air).

A Chicago native and 30-year veteran of urban radio, he created and hosted Chicago's first all-rap show "Rap Down" in the '80s.

NBC Sports Radio Adds Kate Delaney To Lineup

Kate Delaney

NBC Sports Radio makes it official!  The 24/7 sports network has added seasoned sports talker Kate Delaney to its weekend lineup.  The Kate Delaney Show airs Saturdays and Sundays from 12 noon-3 pm ET, replacing The Anita Marks Show.

The Kate Delaney Show features Delaney with players, coaches, experts and analysts.  From the locker room to the playing fields and beyond, Delaney serves up the real scoop on what’s happening in the world of sports.

Delaney, a regular fill-in on NBC Sports Radio, is an Emmy award-winning broadcaster who has interviewed more than 12,000 people in her 20-year radio and television career.  She is one of the first women to ever host a solo sports radio talk show on WFAN in New York City and KRLD in Dallas. She’s covered 15 Super Bowls, 10 U.S. Opens, and 15 Final Fours.  She has also been to the Kentucky Derby 10 times along with the other two Triple Crown races, the Preakness and the Belmont.

Delaney’s not just a face on the tube or a voice on the radio. As a businesswoman she ran The Golden Broadcasters radio network as Chief Operating Officer. She negotiated contracts for millions of dollars with show hosts, advertisers, and network personnel and helped to negotiate the rights for the Texas Rangers for CBS. Delaney has worked with the Las Vegas Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Radio Shack, McDonald’s, Southern Methodist University, and many more organizations. Her book, Level the Playing Field, Balls, Brats & Other B.S., is a best seller on Amazon.

 “It’s a major coup for us to have Kate with us on the weekends,” said Jack Silver, NBC Sports Radio’s Program Director.  “She connects really well with sports fans.  She’s smart, funny, and she knows her way around the world of sports. Kate brings great energy, insight, and opinion to our weekend lineup.”

Delaney adds, “I've always had a great passion for sports and its many personalities, and it has allowed me to work in markets across the country.  I feel so fortunate to now bring my experience to NBC Sports Radio, where I join an incredibly talented and dedicated team of professionals.”

FCC To Clamp Down Even Further On Robo Calls

There is nothing consumers hate more than robocalls, spam text messages and unwanted telemarketing calls. But even though more than 200 million people are on the federal government’s Do Not Call list, robocalls still manage to get through to cell phones.

Hoping to plug the regulatory loopholes, the Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler is proposing new rules that will allow carriers to offer consumers call-blocking technologies and give consumers more control over who gets to call their phone numbers, reports kathyonthehill.com.

The proposal, which the FCC will vote on in its June 18 monthly meeting, is intended to clarify some of the provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a 1991 law managed by the FCC.

Over the last couple of years, the FCC has faced increasing pressure from consumer groups, lawmakers and 39 State Attorneys General to do something to plug the loopholes in the law. It’s the top complaint at the FCC, which last year alone, received more than 215,000 TCPA complaints. The proposal is intended to resolve more than 20 pending petitions at the agency.

“At the FCC, we see consumer protection as one of our most fundamental missions,” Wheeler said in a blog post Wednesday explaining his proposal.

Report: The Web Is Huge Video Pipeline

In five years, 80 percent of the entire world's Internet consumption will be dominated by video. That number will be even higher in the United States, approaching 85 percent.

The Washington Post reports the figures come from Cisco, which publishes an annual study peering into the near future of the Web. The newest report, out Wednesday, predicts that by 2019, the Internet will have become more or less a big video pipe. Part of the growth will come from adding new people to the Internet — for the first time, over half the world's population will be digitally connected. But individual Internet users are also expected to consume more video over time, and at a higher quality, which will put tremendous new burdens on the world's Internet infrastructure.

"The cord-cutting household [consumes] more than twice as much data per month as non-cord-cutters," said Robert Pepper, Cisco's vice president of global technology policy.
 Five years ago, Americans were spending less than an hour a day on mobile devices. Today, it's more like three hours a day, accounting for more than half of the time we spend consuming digital media in general, according to the latest in an annual report released Wednesday by Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker.

"The Voice" Propels NBC To Ratings Win

With “The Voice” delivering the #1 and 2 ratings of the week among primetime programs on the Big 4 networks, NBC has tied for #1 for the week of May 18-24 in adults 18-49 and won the week outright among the Big 4 networks in adults 25-54 and other key measures. According to “live plus same day” viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research, NBC averaged a 1.2 rating, 5 share in adults 18-49 and 5.6 million viewers overall for the week.

Tuesday’s “Voice” season finale ranked #1 among primetime telecasts on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox last week and Monday’s final competition episode finished #2.

Joining those two “Voice” telecasts in the week’s top 30 primetime Big 4 programs were Tuesday’s encore “Voice” recap (tied for #12), Wednesday’s “Chicago P.D.” (tied for #16), Wednesday’s “Law & Order: SVU” (tied for #16), Monday’s “The Night Shift” (tied for #24) and Wednesday’s “The Mysteries of Laura” (#30). Rankings exclude sports pre- and post-game shows.

Tuesday’s “Voice” finale also ranked #1 among primetime shows on the Big 4 last week in adults, men and women 25-54; men and women 18-49; and men 18-34.

For the 52-week 2014-15 season to date, NBC ranks #1 among the Big 4 networks in adults 18-49 as well as men 18-49 and adults and men 18-34.

NBC Nightly News Scores Ratings Win

“NBC Nightly News” was #1 in total viewers and both demos A25-54 and A18-49 for the week of May 18-22, 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research data. The NBC broadcast has been #1 in total viewers for 3 of the past 4 weeks.

Season-to-date, Nightly is the #1 evening news broadcast in total viewers and all key demographics.

Weekly Highlights:

• Nightly averaged 7.594 million total viewers, +53,000 (+1%) more than ABC World News Tonight and +696,000 (+10%) ahead of CBS Evening News.
• Nightly averaged 1.758 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +11,000 (1%) and CBS by +218,000 (+14%).
• Nightly delivered a 1.5 A25-54 rating, tied with ABC and +2 tenths more than CBS.
• Nightly averaged 1.256 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +53,000 (+4%) and CBS by +169,000 (+16%).
• Nightly delivered a 1.0 A18-49 rating, tied with ABC and +1 tenth more than CBS.

Why We Mishear Lyrics

If you think the lyrics to Creedance Clearwater Revivals's song "Bad Moon Rising" include "there's a bathroom on the right," you’re not the only one.

Scientists say mistakes like this one are actually fueled by our prior knowledge.

It's a phenomenon called "mondegreens," and German researchers confirm that it happens all the time. Dr. Mark Liberman, professor of linguistics and director of the Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania explains that when you hear a song, you're getting an input signal that is muddled with background music, rhythms, and syllabification, making it hard for your brain to interpret everything at once.

He tells Yahoo Health, "When the signal is more ambiguous... then more of our perceptions are likely to be invented." The bad news is once you experience a modegreen you're likely to hear the wrong lyrics every time you hear the song. Dr. Andrew Nevins, a linguistics professor at Britain's University College London adds that consonants are typically more confused than vowels, and unstressed syllables are more easily confused than stressed syllables.

This explains why so many people hear the lyric "got a long list of ex-lovers" from the Taylor Swift song "Blank Space" as "all the lonely Starbucks lovers."

Steven Tyler Goes Country

Elaina Smith, Steven Tyler and Shawn Parr

Steven Tyler-- who is in the middle of recording a country album-- paid a visit to NASH Nights Live with Shawn Parr and Elaina Smith Tuesday to talk about his new country single, "Love is Your Name".

Senate Bill Introduced To Grandfather TV Station JSAs

A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill earlier this month that would grandfather current joint sales agreements between TV stations, overturning an FCC rule that makes it harder for a TV station to sell advertising for another in the same market, according to KatyOnTheHill.com.

The FCC’s rule, passed in March last year in a party line vote, disallowed any TV joint sales agreements where the station sold more than 15 percent of the advertising time on a competing station.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and co-sponsored by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Tim Scott (R-N.C.).

“Joint sales agreements in Missouri and across the country have helped save TV stations from going dark, increased program diversity, and enabled local news programming for many TV broadcasters,” Blunt said in a statement. “For instance, a JSA enabled a Joplin, Missouri station to upgrade its Doppler radar system, which helped save lives during the devastating tornado of 2011.”

The FCC has approved more than 50 such agreements, but decided to change its rules in March. In the FCC ruled stations had two years to unwind any joint sales agreements that exceed the newly imposed limits.  The STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014  delayed the FCC’s amendments to joint sales agreement (JSA) rules, giving  JSA parties an additional six months to comply with the amended rules.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has defended the rule, arguing they were an end-run around media ownership rules and hurt smaller companies trying to enter the business.

The rule has already led to stations having to go off the air, said GOP commissioner Ajit Pai who opposed the rule. “And that disturbing trend will only accelerate if scores of existing JSAs are terminated next year. For the sake of television viewers across the country, I agree with Sens. Blunt, Mikulski, Schumer and Scott that we should not let that happen.”

R.I.P.: Longtime ND Broadcaster Jim Bollman

Jim Bollman

Longtime Grand Forks area personality Jim Bollman died Wednesday at 79-years-of-age

Bollman's daughter Lana Beaton said he "passed peacefully, surrounded by love" just after 6 p.m.

The news of Bollman's passing Wednesday evening came less than a day after his family announced cancer treatments had stopped and that he had started hospice care.

Bollman retired in 2012 after working for 55 years in radio, the last 45 in Grand Forks. At the time, he was working a morning shift at KNOX 1310 AM.