iHeartMedia's rock WZZO 95.1 FM has announced the debut of the new Rover’s Morning Glory, effective April 1st. Rover’s Morning Glory (based at WMMS Cleveland) will broadcast weekdays from 6:00am – 10:00am.
Rover's arrival follows the recent death of morning co-host Kevin “The Bearman" Schutts.
WZZO also announced the debut of The Keith Show in afternoon drive, hosted by former morning host Keith Moyer. The Keith Show will feature all the guests and bits that Keith has made famous on WZZO over the past 33 years.
Keith Moyer
“I can’t wait to go live and introduce the Lehigh Valley to the crazy group of people on my show,” said Rover, Host of “Rover’s Morning Glory.” “While the legendary Bearman will never be replaced, we’ll do our best to pick up the torch and keep running!”
Moyer also commented on his move to afternoons, “I am thrilled for many reasons! My dream job has arrived. No more getting up at 3AM, I can actually stay out past 6PM, & I can spend more quality time with my family and friends and TV. I will be doing what I did in mornings, but now in the afternoon thus keeping The Bearman and Keith’s legacy alive! Plus, being the only live afternoon drive show, I have the freedom to get out of the studio and broadcast from all over the Lehigh Valley. The Bearman and Keith will never be replaced, but Rover’s Morning Glory is a great alternative and will be the second best morning show in WZZO’s history! Look out. Here it comes, The Keith Show!”
The demand that “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett pay Chicago back for an alleged hate crime hoax despite being cleared of criminal charges punctuated an increasingly heated war of words Thursday that stretched to the White House and New York, reports The Chicago Tribune.
The day began with President Donald Trump tweeting that the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI were “to review” what happened in the Smollett investigation, which ended in stunning fashion Tuesday when Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges alleging he’d staged a racist and homophobic attack on himself.
After Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he was going to try to force Smollett to pony up for the costs of the police investigation, Smollett’s lawyers countered by saying city officials were the ones who owed an apology.
And from New York, Smollett’s attorney, Mark Geragos, in town for a trial, accused Emanuel of “acting literally unhinged” in his criticism of Smollett, saying the investigation was fatally flawed and was dropped because it was “going to become embarrassing.”
The developments indicated that the fallout from the politically charged case — which has captured worldwide attention since the attack was first reported two months ago — may be far from over.
State’s Attorney Kim Foxx continued to take heat for her office’s handling of the case as two prosecutors’ associations blasted the secretive fashion in which the case was resolved.
After Trump tweeted earlier in the morning that he would tell the FBI to investigate how Smollett’s charges were dropped, Emanuel, appearing on WGN 720 AM, called on the president to “just sit this out.”
“… I take umbrage that you have a person sitting in the Oval Office who drew a moral equivalency in Virginia between those who were fighting bigotry and those who were perpetuating bigotry,” said Emanuel, citing Trump’s reaction to a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Hours later, the city notified Smollett’s attorneys by letter of its demand he pay $130,106 — the cost of the police overtime hours expended in the investigation.
If Smollett does not pay, the letter warned, the city “may prosecute you for making a false statement to the city.”
The Atlanta Braves have partnered with Cumulus and Rock WNNX 100.5 in a multi-year agreement for them to become the team’s new FM home.
The game broadcasts begin with Braves Opening Day Thursday.
“Cumulus has been a great partner for the Braves radio network over the years and we are looking forward to having our games back on Rock 100.5,” said Derek Schiller, Atlanta Braves President and CEO. “Rock 100.5 gives us a fantastic opportunity to bring the excitement of this young Braves baseball team to Atlanta’s favorite rock station.”
Rock 100.5 adds additional coverage to metro Atlanta on the FM dial.
“We’re excited to associate the Rock 100.5 brand with one of Atlanta’s iconic brands. Our fan base maps perfectly with the Atlanta Braves,” said Sean Shannon, Vice President and Market Manager for Cumulus Atlanta. “We’re looking forward to many sunny seasons of Atlanta Braves baseball on Atlanta’s best and only rock station, Rock 100.5.”
During the season the radio broadcast will feature combinations of four broadcasters – Ben Ingram, Jim Powell, Joe Simpson and Don Sutton.
The Braves enter the 2019 season as defending National League East Champions, with the reigning Rookie of the Year, Ronald Acuña and Manager of the Year, Brian Snitker.
ESPN Audio conducted a custom live sports audio study with Nielsen that ran from Aug. 30, 2018 to Jan. 17, 2019. During that window an estimated 22.3 million fans listened to live sports on terrestrial ESPN Radio – 9.2 percent of the U.S. population (P12+).
“ESPN Radio’s live events are at the core of what makes it so valuable to our advertisers,” said John Fitzgerald, ESPN vice president, multimedia sales. “This study has shown that once again our unparalleled lineup of marquee match-ups continues to grow our audience nationally and increase the reach of ESPN Radio.”
The results showed significant building of the total audience week to week during the study. Live events on ESPN Radio during the time-frame included:
College Football, including bowl games and the College Football Playoff
Westwood One has announce that The Ty Bentli Show will be introduced to a huge new fan base.
United Kingdom’s Bauer Media is launching the first-ever nationwide Country Music radio station in the UK, Country Hits Radio, and The Ty Bentli Show is the only American radio show tapped by Bauer to represent the world of Country Music. Bentli and his co-hosts Chuck Wicks and Tricia “TJ” Jenkins will entertain fans during PM drive time across the UK.
Country Hits Radio launches on April 5, 2019 via DAB in top markets London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, South Yorkshire, Lancashire, Humberside, Tyne & Wear, Teesside, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Tayside, Inverness and Ayr. The Ty Bentli Show joins a lineup of presenters that includes Jennie Longdon, Baylen Lenoard, and Una Healy (of The Saturdays). Country Hits Radio will feature a playlist spanning Keith Urban to Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood, Florida Georgia Line, and more!
Bentli said, “Every trip I’ve taken to Europe, I’ve sat for hours with a notepad and an AM/FM headset listening to radio at a table or park and taking notes with a fantasy in my head that maybe someday I’d have the chance to be a presenter in the UK. Not only will I now be living that dream, I get to do it in a way that’s never been done! Bauer is spreading COUNTRY across the UK and I can’t wait to take our UK listeners behind-the-scenes to understand what makes their favorite artists tick, while also sharing hilarious moments, real-life insecurities and triumphs of our daily experiences as they intertwine with the Music City, and the stars that make the country music we play!”
James Brownlow, Content Director for Country Hits Radio, Said “Since we have the responsibility of launching the UK’s first-ever national Country music radio brand, it was vitally important to everyone at Country Hits Radio that we pull together a team that could represent the current Country music scene as well as authentically engage UK and world audiences with original, entertaining, and market-leading content. This vision led us directly to The Ty Bentli Show. After speaking to Ty and the team at Westwood One and Cumulus Media, we knew this was the right fit. Great Britain is going to have one brilliant Country music party each weekday on their way home!”
“We’re delighted that Bauer Media recognized that by giving The Ty Bentli Show a featured role on Country Hits Radio channel, they are giving their UK audience a front-row seat to Nashville’s country music scene,” added Suzanne Grimes, EVP, Marketing for Cumulus Media and President, Westwood One “Ty’s unique interview style attracts the who’s who of country music, and we are excited to share the program with an entirely new audience of country music fans.”
Sean Hannity's Fox News show hit a six-week high in viewers Wednesday with the host's latest interview with President Donald Trump.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hannity delivered 4.3 million viewers with the interview, Trump's first since he claimed "total exoneration" following the delivery of special counsel Robert Mueller's report to Attorney General William Barr. It's the most for the show since Feb. 11, when it drew 4.38 million viewers for an installment that included live coverage of a Trump rally.
Tucker Carlson Tonight (3.49 million viewers) and The Ingraham Angle (3.27 million) also had strong showings flanking Hannity, per early Nielsen figures — continuing a strong run for the network's primetime hosts since the Mueller report was delivered on Friday.
Fox News has led each of the past four weeknights in both viewers and the key TV-news demographic of adults 25-54, and by sizable margins. The primetime opinion shows have improved by double-digit percentages over both the previous week and their yearly averages, while MSNBC's and CNN's are down.
That's in keeping with a pattern of Fox News and its conservative hosts surging on news cycles perceived as positive for the White House. During negative cycles for the administration, MSNBC's left-leaning opinion shows tend to rise.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson ratcheted up his rhetoric against rival network CNN this week dismissing the news outlet as a political entity following the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, reports The Hill.
“CNN is not a news outlet, it's a super PAC. It is running unregulated campaign ads 24 hours a day,” Carlson declared on his show. “Someone ought to call the [Federal Election Commission] FEC about it.”
The Fox News personality, who has frequently blasted the rival network in monologues on his show, unleashed his latest criticism following the conclusion of Mueller's 22-month probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Carlson accused the competing network of pivoting to focus on efforts to defend the Affordable Care Act following the Justice Department's announcement this week that it would side with a district court ruling that found the health care law unconstitutional.
"In the space of just 24 hours, that channel went from the Russia conspiracy network to an extended advertisement for the Affordable Care Act, as written by Barack Obama," Carlson claimed, referring to CNN.
Carlson reiterated his attacks against the network after Attorney General William Barr released a summary of Mueller's findings to Congress on Sunday.
According to Barr's summary, Mueller did not find that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the election. Mueller did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice by interfering with the probe itself.
Rush Limbaugh called on President Trump to appoint a special counsel to investigate the origins of the Mueller report in an interview with FOX News' Bret Baier on Thursday. Limbaugh said the American people deserve to know how they have been manipulated on FNC's 'Special Report.'
"It is outrageous and some of these people need to be held accountable," Limbaugh said. "I hope the president calls a special counsel to look into this because the American people deserve to know how they've been manipulated, how they have been used. They deserve to know with the Democratic party the American left descending from the Obama administration attempted to pull off here."
"It better never, ever happen again," he said. "This is probably the biggest political scandal certainly of our lifetimes and maybe even longer."
Billboard told rapper Lil Nas X to take his horse and giddy up when they decided to remove his viral hit “Old Town Road” from their country charts because they determined it wasn’t country enough, reports The Associated Press.
The song, which debuted on the charts just three weeks ago, has been turned into a meme on social media app Tik Tok. It features references to the Western-themed video game “Red Dead Redemption 2,” and plenty of cowboy imagery in its lyrics, but also a trap beat and a softly plucked banjo from a Nine Inch Nails sample.
The song debuted at No. 19 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart for the week of March 16, between Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Wallen. In a story first reported by Rolling Stone, Billboard removed the song from the country chart, although it remains on rap/hip hop charts and reached 32 on the all genre Hot 100 chart.
“Upon further review, it was determined that ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard’s country charts,” Billboard said in a statement. “When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition. While ‘Old Town Road’ incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”
Lil Nas X was recently signed to Columbia Records.
The song has spawned dance videos and got a shout-out on social media from Justin Bieber. Texas Tech’s basketball team posted a video of the team dancing to the song in the locker room and country singer Jake Owen tweeted at the rapper, saying he wanted to jam with him.
Barbara Walters launched The View in 1997, and judging from Ramin Setoodeh’s forthcoming explosive expose, Ladies Who Punch, she was a bit of a control freak.
When she launched the show, she hand-picked the panel, which included Joy Behar, Star Jones, Debbie Matenopoulos and Meredith Viera; when Jones left in 2006, she brought Rosie O’Donnell on.
But after just a year, O’Donnell was on Walters’ bad side, having drawn negative attention from bold-faced viewers like Kelly Ripa, and allegedly not getting along with then-exec producer Bill Geddie, per the book. So Walters threatened to quit if O’Donnell didn’t get the boot.
“If you re-sign Rosie to this show, Bill and I are going to quit,” Walters, 89, told ABC Daytime President Brian Frons in 2007 over dinner at Spago in Beverly Hills, according to Ladies Who Punch.
O’Donnell, 57, did exit, and reappeared briefly in 2014 only after Walters left.
When Walters stepped down, she thought the show would be canceled, the book alleges.
"I'm really sad," Matenopoulos recalls telling Walters, according to the book. "My mom wants me to tell you, you can't do this! Nobody is going to watch the show after you leave."
"Oh, baby," Walters then responded loudly. "How long can the show go on? It's going to be canceled in a few years."
But even though she’s stepped back, Walters still tried to run the show, according to the book. She would call the control room, and even told the book’s author that she didn’t like several of the hosts who came after her.
Short-lived co-hosts on The View have included Candace Cameron Bure, Jenny McCarthy, Raven-Symone and Sara Haines.
Orban, the leader in world-class audio processing, will demonstrate SmartRadio cloud- and web-based processing technology during the upcoming NAB Show in Las Vegas.
SmartRadio is a next-generation data-driven radio platform developed by a European company, Broadcast Partners, and was designed to deliver “radio as a service;” it consists of several components: multichannel Smart production, Smart publication and data-driven Smart tools. Together these components create a modern hybrid “start to end” modular production environment.
In this collaboration between Orban and Broadcast Partners, SmartRadio utilizes the new Orban OPTICLOUD audio processing engine to provide cloud- and web-based Smart audio processing for cloud-based radio programming for online and DAB+ radio stations. OPTICLOUD offers three levels of audio processing depending on stations’ needs and budget, ranging from basic entry-level processing up to and including Orban’s powerful Xponential Loudness algorithm.
The SmartRadio platform enables broadcasters with multiple transmission sites or with multiple online and/or DAB+ radio channels to remotely manage not only content, but each entity’s audio processing.
“Broadcast Partners is very well known in Europe for its build out and management of transmission networks for a substantial number of public and commercial radio stations nationwide in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany,” said David Day, Orban President. “With this new cloud-based processing available through our OPTICLOUD platform, Broadcast Partners can provide audio processing for each of their customers without the need for physical processing equipment. This type of processing platform has global potential for a wide range of users.”
After two seasons in Nashville, The E.W. Scripps Company announced it's dropping its syndicated daytime talk show Pickler & Ben.
The show, hosted by country singer Kellie Pickler and Emmy-winning television personality Ben Aaron, premiered in September 2017 and featured guests ranging from music legend Dolly Parton to celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan in its first season.
"We were really disappointed to have to announce that we were going to be sunsetting Pickler & Ben after season two," Scripps' Brian Lawlor, president of local media, said on a call about the company's fourth quarter results. "We loved the show. Audiences loved the show."
According to Scripps, the path to long-term profitability for the show that airs in 176 markets is limited.
Producers include country star Faith Hill, former "Oprah Winfrey Show" producer and co-founder of Happy Entertainment Lisa Erspamer and Jason Owen, CEO of Sandbox Entertainment.
The show will continue to air until September, according to The Tennessean.
Some of the music industry’s most prominent figures will flood New York on Friday for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. The star-studded event will celebrate the careers and accomplishments of some of the biggest names in the industry.
According to Newsweek, this year’s ceremony is a particularly special moment for Stevie Nicks, who is being inducted into the Hall of Fame for a second time. The legendary singer was initially inducted along with Fleetwood Mac bandmates back in 1988. The historical achievement marks the first time a female artist has been honored by the foundation twice. The Beatles members Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, have all been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice, as well as artists Michael Jackson, Jimmy Page, Paul Simon and Neil Young.
Eric Clapton holds the highest honor of three Hall of Fame mentions for his contribution to Cream, The Yardbirds and his solo career.
While it’s expected many of the inductees will perform during the event, the foundation has yet to release the specific lineup. However, the full list of presenters was released on Monday.
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails will present The Cure while Queen rockstar Brian May is slated to announce Def Leppard. Harry Styles will serve as Stevie Nicks’s presenter, Janelle Monae for Janet Jackson, Duran Duran’s John Taylor and Simon Le Bon for Roxy Music, The Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs for The Zombies and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne for Radiohead.
➦In 1888...Earle Ross born (Died of cancer at age 73 – May 21, 1961). He was a radio and film actor.
While in school he became interested in dramatics and was usually cast as a villain or an old man because of his unusual voice characteristics. In 1908 he worked with Colonel Bill Selig in his first 5-reel movie film The Holy Cross. In 1912, he ventured to the East Coast and worked on Broadway in such shows as Where the Trail Divides and Cost of Living. From there, he started his own chain of theaters but went broke in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Ross became a radio broadcast pioneer and had his own show, The Earle Ross Theater of the Air and also starred in Inspector Post, a continuing radio drama. Ross's most memorable roles were on radio: that of Judge Horace Hooker on The Great Gildersleeve and Howie MacBrayer on Point Sublime.
Jack Benny
➦In 1932...Jack Benny first appeared on radio as a guest of Ed Sullivan. He was then given his own show later that year, with Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor —The Canada Dry Ginger Ale Program, beginning May 2, 1932, on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26, moving the show to CBS on October 30. With Ted Weems leading the band, Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933.
Arriving at NBC on March 17, Benny did The Chevrolet Program until April 1, 1934 with Frank Black leading the band. He continued with The General Tire Revue for the rest of that season, and in the fall of 1934, for General Foods as The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny (1934–42) and, when sales of Jell-O were affected by sugar rationing during World War II, The Grape Nuts Flakes Program Starring Jack Benny (later the Grape Nuts and Grape Nuts Flakes Program) (1942–44).
On October 1, 1944, the show became The Lucky Strike Program Starring Jack Benny, when American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes took over as his radio sponsor, through the mid-1950s. By that time, the practice of using the sponsor's name as the title began to fade.
The show returned to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley's "raid" of NBC talent in 1948-49. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run, which ended on May 22, 1955. CBS aired repeats of previous 1953-55 radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny for State Farm Insurance, who later sponsored his television program from 1960 through 1965.
➦In 1937...The radio soap opera Our Gal Sunday made its first national broadcast on CBS. It continued until January 2, 1959. The origin of this radio series was a 1904 Broadway production, Sunday, which starred Ethel Barrymore. This play was the source of the catchphrase, "That's all there is, there isn't any more."
➦In 1941...Under the provisions of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, stations assigned to 760 kHz were shifted to 770 kHz, which has been WJZ / WABC's dial position ever since. WABC started off as WJZ when it signed on October 1, 1921.
➦In 1967...AFTRA members called the union’s first national strike, after negotiations broke down over staff announcer contracts at owned-and-operated stations in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and over first-time contracts for “Newsmen” at networks and owned-and-operated stations.
The 13-day strike involved all 18,000 members in more than 100 locations across the country. Many familiar faces were absent from the TV screen, including that of Walter Cronkite of CBS News whose temporary replacement was Arnold Zenker, formerly a radio announcer in Wilmington, Delaware.
From March 29 to April 10, 1967 there was a strike called by AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). This meant that all the union talent, including the WABC airstaff, was taken off the air and replaced by management personnel. It was all very strange. But, according to the tribute site, musicradio77.com, PD Rick Sklar could turn anything into a promotion, and the strike was no exception.
Listen to an aircheck which features a brief montage compiled from hours of tape. It includes:
The "strikebound sound" jingle that Rick Sklar ordered from PAMS (Series 31).
Hal Neal, president of ABC Radio, filling in as a newsman giving background on the strike.
The "super pickets" promo. This was, of course, a take-off on the station's weekly "superhit sounds" promo which featured excerpts from the week's top 5 songs. It's a promotion masterpiece and it worked. Whenever one of the All Americans tried to take part in the picket line outside the ABC building, they'd be mobbed by autograph seekers!
Rick Sklar worked as the booth announcer in the evening.
Finally the strike ended. And within 30 minutes of the announcement, Cousin Bruce was back on the air.
Gene Klavan, Dee Finch
➦In 1983...Dee Finch, who for 16 years was the straight-man partner of Gene Klavan on WNEW Radio's ''Klavan and Finch'' early morning show, died at age 65 of a heart attack after attending his mother's funeral in Binghamton NY.
From 1947 to 1952, he teamed up with Gene Rayburn in a zany disk-jockey show known for an irreverence toward commercials and a penchant for inserting incongruous material in the music being broadcast. He retired in 1968.
Klavan commented on Dee Finch in 1984: “He was spectacular. He was more than a straight man. People say a straight man, but he had a marvelous sense of humor. A great voice and a fetching laugh. I mean if he laughed even I couldn’t help it, I would break up, basically he was a really good actor. He adlibbed, we never prepared anything, even though I used to hope we would sometimes. He had a great understanding of what we were doing. We were two minds without any.”
➦In 2003…Longtime radio personality Bob Anderson died after a heart attack in Portland, ME at age 59.
➦In 2005...Don Rose died in his sleep at age 70 (Born -Donald Duane Rosenberg; July 5, 1934). He was one of American's best radio personalities. He worked at legendary stations like KFRC, San Francisco; WFIL, Philadelphia and other markets.
Rose was born Donald Duane Rosenberg in North Platte, Nebraska, and got his first experience in broadcasting at age 15 while reporting on his trip to the Boy Scout National Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for KODY in his hometown.
He began his career in 1955 at KWBE in Beatrice, Nebraska, while majoring in accounting at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He moved to KLMN/Lincoln shortly thereafter, and then was hired by KOIL/Omaha, a job that appeared to be so promising that he dropped out of college in his senior year. He was fired by the station four weeks later.
His next job, at KTSA/San Antonio, also lasted only four weeks. Returning to Nebraska, he held an announcing position at KRNY/Kearney for about 15 months before being terminated again. His next employer, the Union Pacific Railroad, offered only manual labor — pounding spikes into the railbed — but he continued to pursue work in radio, and acquired a job at KTUL/Tulsa.
His next broadcasting position was in KWMT/Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he first complemented his jokes with cowbells and other barnyard sounds. His stay in Fort Dodge wasn't lengthy, but it was there that he met his future wife, Kae, to whom he remained married for the next 45 years of his life.
From Iowa it was on to WEBC/Duluth, Minn., followed by his first taste of big-market success, as morning host at WQXI/Atlanta ("Quixie In Dixie"), his fame made ever-lasting by his inclusion as the 1967 entry in the popular series of "Cruisin’" LP records. Originally hired for the nine-to-noon slot, he was shifted to morning drive shortly after his arrival, and soon became the number one deejay in town.
With Dr. Don as morning anchor, KFRC was voted "Station of the Year" four times by Billboard Magazine.
He was considered by many to be the king of radio in the Bay Area during the final decade of AM's musical dominance.
He was named by Billboard Magazine as Disc Jockey of the Year on both the East Coast (while with WFIL Philadelphia) and on the West Coast (while with KFRC San Francisco). One of Rose's characteristic "sound bite" mannerisms when he was at KFRC was to state the words "that's right" in a continuous fashion that was intended to sound "crazy" or funny, which also served to represent the overall morning zoo radio format, style and "feel" of his show.
"I'm married to radio," he told The Chronicle (San Francisco) in 1975, "and I'm thinking about suing it for nonsupport. I would describe my show as therapy, for myself."
Dr. Don Rose raised a total of over $10 million by hosting March of Dimes Superwalks for 20 years. As well, he emceed many golf tourneys, including his own, with proceeds going toward Special Olympics and special education.
Despite his cheerful persona, Rose suffered over three decades of debilitating pain from assorted medical problems. In 1972, he underwent a botched heart surgery, which caused chronic knee infections that required 11 more operations and led to his losing his kneecap. He broadcast his daily radio show flat on his back from his home hospital bed for months. In 1984, after a fall made the knee problems worse, one leg was amputated.
Dr. Don Rose last Top40 Show On KFRC-AM:
Rose had to alter his on-air act in 1986 when KFRC changed its format to Big Band Music and its imaging to Magic 61. He left KFRC permanently by the end of the year.
His departure from KFRC was followed by a short stint at KKIS/Concord-Walnut Creek beginning in 1987, where his son, Jay, was chief engineer. After a failed attempt at buying the station, Dr. Don moved to mornings at San Francisco's K101 (KIOI); four months later, he suffered a heart attack while on the air. He never returned to broadcasting on a full-time basis.
Deloitte Global predicts that global radio revenue—which includes advertising, subscription fees, and public license fees from digital and analog AM/FM broadcast, satellite radio, and internet streams of AM/FM radio—will reach $40 billion in 2019, a 1 percent increase over 2018. Further, radio’s reach is expected to remain vast, with more than 85 percent of the adult population in the developed world listening at least weekly, the same proportion as in 2018.
Deloitte Global predicts that adults around the world will listen to an average of 90 minutes of radio a day, about the same amount as in 2018. Unlike some other forms of traditional media, radio is expected to continue to perform relatively well with younger demographics. In the United States, for example, more than 90 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds are expected to listen at least weekly in 2019, for an average of more than 80 minutes a day. In contrast, TV viewing among 18- to 34-year-olds in the United States is falling at three times the rate of radio listening.
Advertisers, meanwhile, continue to direct ad dollars to radio because of its audience demographics.
As for where consumers tune in, approximately 90 percent of U.S. and Canadian radio listeners across all age groups listen while in the car, according to Deloitte Global. Yet consumers are also listening in other places: About half of Americans and Canadians ages 25 to 75 tune in to live radio while at home. A nontrivial proportion are also listening at work, with the percentage highest among 18- to 24-year-olds—at 30 percent—and declining to roughly half that (16 percent) for those ages 55 to 75 years.
Why do consumers listen to radio? Deloitte Global’s research suggests there is no single, powerful, universal reason. In the United States and Canada, 36 percent of the 18- to 34-year-old audience listen to discover new music, while only half that proportion (19 percent) of 55- to 75-year-olds do. For some demographics, more than half of radio listeners say the main reasons they tune in are the facts that radio is live, free, and easy to enjoy in the car.
In a world where digital changes everything, radio may be the exception. In the realm of traditional media, print newspapers are locked in an ongoing struggle for profits—and, in some cases, their very existence. And although TV ad revenues continue to grow, at least a little, the decline in minutes of TV watching by young people suggests that TV is likely to face challenges ahead. The prospects for radio look brighter. In 2017, radio attracted about 6 percent of global ad spending (about 9 percent in North America), and in 2019, it will likely be around 6 percent again—numbers that indicate advertisers know radio campaigns can be an effective part of the overall media mix. With revenue expected to remain steady and consumers still tuning in, the future of radio looks solid.
