Political Ads Flood Pandora

If you live in Florida and spend much time on Pandora's streaming service, CNBC reports chances are you're hearing a lot of "Rick Scott for Governor" commercials. How often depends on how much you like country music.

Meanwhile, with the 2014 mid-term elections just two weeks away, Pandora fans in Arkansas and North Carolina are hearing plenty about their states' U.S. Senate races.

In an era of data-driven marketing and money rapidly shifting from old media to the Web, few companies are as favorably situated as Pandora is to take advantage of the transition, particularly when it comes to the advertising dollars that flood U.S. elections. According to consulting firm Borrell Associates, political ad spending this year will reach $8.3 billion, with half of that coming in August, September and October.

Here's why Pandora is a treasure trove for politicos: The service had 76.4 million active users listening to 5 billion hours of radio, mostly on mobile devices, in the second quarter. When consumers sign up, they hand over their ZIP code, age and gender. In August, Pandora had more than six times the number of listening sessions as its closest online competitor, iHeartMedia, according to Triton Digital.

As if that weren't enticing enough for campaign advertisers, earlier this year Pandora informed political operatives that musical tastes say something about how people vote and provided an added filter for marketers. Country music fans more often live in Republican areas, while those who prefer jazz, reggae and electronic music tend to reside in areas favoring Democrats. Like R&B? Odds are you're a Democrat. Leaning slightly the other way are fans of gospel and new-age songs.

Candidates are all over it. Sean Duggan, vice president of sales at Oakland, California-based Pandora, said the company is serving ads for about 400 campaigns (individuals and issues) in this election, double the number from the 2012 season, when President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney both advertised on Pandora.

"We have scale and can be really discrete with targeting, with very little waste," said Duggan.

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Atlanta Radio: President Making Radio Rounds

President Obama

President Barack Obama may be a pariah on the election trail for many political candidates given his low approval ratings.

But African Americans still overwhelmingly support him. So Obama is making the rounds of radio shows that target blacks in an effort to drum up the vote, according to media blogger Rodney Ho at
ajc.com.

He recently did  interviews with syndicated shows Rickey Smiley (heard on Hot 107.9), Yolanda Adams (on Praise 102.5) and Steve Harvey (on Majic 107.5/97.5).

Collectively, those three personalities draw millions of listeners.

But Obama went for a more targeted audience this morning by talking with Ryan Cameron on WVV 103.3 FM V103. Cameron’s top-rated show is the only local non-syndicated radio show in Atlanta that is geared to a black audience.

Philly Radio: Dick Morris To Leave WPHT

Dick Morris

Talker Dick Morris announced this afternoon he is leaving his position at Talk Radio WPHT 1210 AM. Morris said he wanted to campaign for 2016 Republican candidates. Morris was hired by the station in March of last year, according to philly.com.

Morris will stay on through the election.

Station operations manager Andy Bloom said he did not have any plans to replace Morris as of yet and could not comment on whether the station would go in a different direction now that Morris has left.

CBS Radio Philadelphia Senior Vice President and Market Manager Marc Rayfield said he had known about Morris' timeline for awhile. "He has done a great job for WPHT and we knew his busy schedule might one day make doing a daily radio show difficult," he said via e-mail.

Rayfield said the station will make an announcement about Morris' replacement as soon as next week.

InsideRadio has reported that consultant Walt Sabo has hosted a show under the name Walter Sterling.

Report: TV News Blacks Out Bad Election News for Democrats

In less than two weeks, voters head to the polls in midterm elections that seem certain to yield strong Republican gains, if not outright control of the U.S. Senate. Such a political sea change is big news, but a new Media Research Center study finds that, in contrast to their enthusiastic coverage of the 2006 midterms when Democrats made big gains, the Big Three broadcast evening newscasts are all but ignoring this year’s political contests.

MRC analysts studied every election story on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from September 1 through October 20 in both 2006 (the midterm election in George W. Bush’s second term) and 2014 (the equivalent election under President Barack Obama). Even in a changing media landscape, Big Three evening newscasts are a principal news source for more than 23 million viewers, beating all of their broadcast and cable competition.

They found that, when Democrats were feeling good about their election prospects eight years ago, the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and ABC’s World News aired a combined 159 campaign stories (91 full reports and another 68 stories that mentioned the campaign). But during the same time period this year, those same newscasts have offered a paltry 25 stories (16 full reports and 9 mentions), a six-to-one disparity.

Amazingly, since September 1 ABC’s newly-renamed World News Tonight has yet to feature a single mention of this year’s campaign, let alone a full story. In contrast, eight years ago ABC’s World News aired 36 stories that discussed that year’s midterm campaign, including a weekly Thursday night feature that then-anchor Charlie Gibson promised would look at the “critical races.”

Back then, the elections were a major news topic; this year, a regular viewer of ABC’s evening newscast would have no indication that any were even taking place.

CBS and NBC have scarcely been more comprehensive. In 2006, CBS aired a total of 58 evening news stories that discussed the campaign, while NBC Nightly News aired 65 stories. This year, those numbers have fallen to just 14 and 11 as of October 20, declines of 76% and 83%, respectively.

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NBCUniversal 3Q Earnings Rise Amid Growth at Broadcast TV Unit

Brian Roberts

Cable giant Comcast on Thursday reported improved third-quarter financials for its entertainment arm NBCUniversal, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The entertainment company reported higher operating cash flow and revenue than in the same period last year driven by growth in the broadcast TV and theme park units, partially offset by lower film results amid tough year-ago comparisons.

The NBCUniversal performance helped Comcast overall beat earnings expectations with a profit of $2.59 billion, up 48 percent from the year-ago period, on revenue of $16.79 billion, up 4 percent. Wall Street analysts had on average projected earnings of $1.85 billion on revenue of $16.83 billion for all of Comcast.

• Comcast's cable systems lost 81,000 video subscribers in the latest quarter on a net basis, down from a year-ago loss of 127,000. That marked the company's best third-quarter result in seven years, management said.
• At NBCUniversal, broadcast TV unit revenue and operating cash flow increased amid NBC ratings improvements. Film unit revenue and operating cash flow dropped amid a more modest film slate than in the year-ago period, which had been boosted by the theatrical success of Despicable Me 2. The latest quarter included results from such theatrical releases as Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson, and James Brown biopic Get on Up.
• The company's theme parks unit posted strong financial growth, while the cable networks unit grew revenue and operating cash flow only slightly.

"At NBCUniversal, we had another outstanding quarter with double-digit operating cash flow growth, driven by ratings momentum at NBC Broadcast and the successful opening of 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley in Orlando'," said Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts.

Broadcast TV revenue rose 7.7 percent in the third quarter to $1.77 billion, with operating cash flow up from $34 million to $142 million. The company cited "an increase in advertising revenue due to strong ratings at the NBC broadcast network, as well as higher retransmission consent fees and an increase in content licensing revenue."

FCC Hits 'Pause' On Two Major Deals

New Geek News graphic

Reviews of Comcast's proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and AT&T's offer to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion have been paused by the Federal Communications Commission, the agency said on Wednesday.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, it's the second time this month that the FCC stopped the clock on its 180-day procedure. The agency says it is targeting early 2015 for completion of its reviews. The AT&T-DirecTV deal was on its 76th day of review while Comcast-TWC was on its 85th day.

Both of the controversial merger proposals are under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers, consumer groups and other media companies such as Netflix, Discovery Communications and Dish Network.

All four of the companies involved in the two merger proposals are expected to make certain concessions designed to encourage both the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice to approve the transactions, such as selling off certain assets.

Some competitors and content providers, though, have been asking that renegotiated carriage deals be part of the equation and, in some cases, that assurances be made that certain channels will be added or not dropped from consumer packages if the companies are allowed to merge. Comcast has responded by accusing Netflix, Discovery and others of using the FCC review procedure to advance their own financial interests.

One hold-up is that the FCC wants to know what Comcast, TWC, DirecTV, AT&T and their competitors are paying media companies like CBS and 21st Century Fox for rights to their content. The content companies, though, are hesitant to supply such sensitive financial details.

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MI Radio: After Ten Years, WLDR Drops Country Format

WLDR 101.9 FM dropped it scountry music format Wednesday.

Rebranding itself as 101.9 The Bay, the station now broadcasts an contemporary format, "All The Hits Without The Rap".

The change also affects simulcast partners WBNZ 92.3 FM in Frankfort and WARD  750 AM in Petoskey. The station had broadcast country music for 10 years.

“Country is a fantastic format,” WLDR General Manager David Barr told the Traverse Record-Eagle. "Unfortunately it’s the kind of music that doesn’t have mass appeal in offices and retail stores. Since we dropped adult contemporary a decade ago, there has been a hole in Traverse City for that type of music."

WLDR 101.9 FM (100Kw) 60dBu Coverage

WLDR will mark 50 years on the air in 2015.

WA Radio: Opponents Help Kill New Tower Plans

Opponents of 150-foot radio towers proposed by Bellingham's KRPI 1550 AM had friends in high places, according to The Herald.

Three Canadian government officials were scheduled to speak at a hearing next week in front of the Whatcom County hearing examiner, including Kerry-Lynne Findley, a member of parliament.

“It is an international incident, it really is,” said Steve Wolff of Point Roberts, a member of the Stop the Radio Towers Cross Border Coalition. The group of Point Roberts and Tsawwassen, B.C. residents filed a pre-hearing motion asking the county to deny a conditional-use permit to build the five towers near the Canadian border.

KRPI 1550 AM Coverage

KRPI broadcasts in Punjabi to a Canadian audience.

The conditional-use permit triggered the hearing, which was scheduled to run for five days at least. Hearing Examiner Michael Bobbink canceled the hearing after saying he would deny the permit because the towers were too tall — 150 feet, which would be much higher than Point Roberts’ 45-foot limit.

Point Roberts and Tsawwassen residents were also concerned about possible ill health effects, although medical science hadn’t established a link between radio waves and disease.

One opponent, an engineer, put it this way: People are concerned about holding a half-watt cell phone to their heads. The 50,000-watt towers, because they would be arranged to direct their signal northward, effectively have a power of 100,000 watts in that direction. Imagine, Wolff said, getting this level of power 24-7, for a lifetime.

The Federal Communications Commission requires that people stay less than five meters, or 16.4 feet, from an individual tower with this amount of power.

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TopicPulse Provides Custom Trending For Stations

LDR Interactive announced this week that its TopicPulse Social Media Monitoring System has launched new partnerships with E.W. Scripps Television and Hubbard Broadcasting's WTOP 103.5 FM in Washington D.C.

TopicPulse is a real-time social media monitoring system for newsrooms and content producers, that scans social media including Twitter and Facebook, local message boards, and news sources to track trending topics in a local market.

Producers can also access trending video and images, and see which primary demo (gender and age group) is most inclined to engage with the topic on social media. TopicPulse also features a Tweetmap that showcases the market's most popular tweets and hashtags on a local map, enabling producers to create hyper-local content based on up-to-the-minute social trends.



E.W. Scripps Television uses TopicPulse to fuel a nationally syndicated 4PM show called THE NOW, which uniquely focuses on trending topics and social buzz in each local market. The hour-long program features a mix of local, national, and international news, as well as viral stories, videos, entertainment and lifestyle stories. The show has already launched on WCPO 9 Cincinnati, KMGH Denver's 7, KSHB 41 Action News in Kansas City, WXYZ in Detroit, KNXV in Phoenix, WEWS in Cleveland, WFTS in Tampa, and WPTV in West Palm Beach. LDR Interactive has also developed customized graphics for the show, which make it possible to put social trends directly on air instantly.

WTOP-FM in Washington, D.C. partnered with LDR Interactive to bring TopicPulse to its "glass enclosed nerve center newsroom" to track the social media engagement within the beltway.

"TopicPulse has been a difference-maker and smart addition to our newsroom toolkit.  The more information we have to track what our audience is interested in, the greater the opportunity is to better serve their needs, and TopicPulse helps us get there," said Joel Oxley, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Hubbard Broadcasting's WTOP-FM and Federal News.

"We've been quietly deploying TopicPulse in major markets across the US this year," said Daniel Anstandig, CEO of LDR Interactive and Creator of TopicPulse. "Whether you are creating content for a national TV show or a local market radio morning show, TopicPulse provides the real-time insights that on-air talent and producers need in an instant. It's a secret weapon for content producers."

Westwood To Air NFL Back-To-Back-To-Back-To-Back

Westwood One, the exclusive radio network partner of the NFL, Wednesday announced it will air four consecutive NFL games this Sunday, October 26, 2014.

This special day of back-to-back-to-back-to-back NFL broadcasts kicks off at 9:00 am ET with the NFL’s International Series game, between the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons, live from Wembley Stadium in London, England.  Westwood One is the only network partner to be able to deliver all four windows of NFL games to the fans.

Westwood One will broadcast the following four NFL games this Sunday (complete with play-by-play/analyst assignments):

• 9:00 am ET    Detroit Lions vs. Atlanta Falcons @ Wembley Stadium, London - Dave Sims and Mark Malone
• 12:30 pm ET  Houston Texans @ Tennessee Titans  - Kevin Lee and Ross Tucker
• 3:30 pm ET    Philadelphia Eagles @ Arizona Cardinals  - Tom McCarthy and Rod Woodson
• 7:30 pm ET    Green Bay Packers @ New Orleans Saints  - Kevin Kugler, James Lofton, and Chris Doering (sidelines)

Westwood One’s primetime NFL broadcasts can be heard on more than 500 radio stations nationwide, as well as on SiriusXM satellite radio, NFL.com/Audiopass, and NFL Mobile from Verizon.

Boston Radio: WRKO Host Rips Ex-Sponsor Over Illegals

Jeff Kuhner

Looks like WRKO 680 AM morning guy Jeff Kuhner’s rant about big local advertiser Dunkin’ Donuts won’t cost his company any more of the coffee giant’s business, even though he blasted their java as “mud water,” the doughnuts and muffins as “stale” and opined that half the chain’s employees were “illegals.”

But, according to The Boston Herald, that may be because DD’s already pulled most of their ads from Entercom’s stations, dumping WRKO and WEEI and retaining only WAAF.

In case you missed it, Kuhner hammered the cherished local coffee company after its CEO, 
Nigel Travis, called for amnesty for 11 million immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. Kuhner spent a few minutes ripping Travis for the amnesty comments, then went off on the chain’s products and asked whether listeners would boycott Dunks.

“The coffee sucks,” he said. As for the doughnuts and muffins, Kuhner added: “I wouldn’t feed ’em to the sea gulls.”

“I’ll tell you why Nigel Travis, the CEO of D and D, I’ll tell you why he wants amnesty for 11 million illegals,” he said (completely botching, by the way, DDs’ nickname). “I bet half his workforce is illegal.”

Kuhner went on to say that when he visits the Dunks near the Entercom studios in Brighton,
“There’s only one person there who speaks English.”

Michelle King, director of global public relations at Dunkin’ Brands Inc., said the company was “aware of the comments made by the WRKO talk show host.”

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