Billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are testing an unproven theory in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination: that their vast personal wealth can buy the trophy, reports the Associated Press.
Not since Texas businessman Ross Perot spent $63.5 million in 1992 (more than $100 million in today’s dollars) on his run for president as an independent have candidates for the White House banked so much on their massive fortunes alone on delivering results. Donald Trump spent about $65 million of his own money in 2016. Bloomberg has spent more than three times that amount in a little over two months.
Bloomberg, who founded a financial data and media company and served three terms as New York mayor, and Steyer, a California businessman, have saturated key primary states with hundreds of millions in TV and social media advertising. They’ve also recruited top staff with above-market salaries while offering political figures and groups generous contributions as they work to build networks of support.
To the dismay of many in the party, it might work.
“People underestimate the billionaires at their own peril,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive Democratic strategist in New York. “Just because you have all the money in the world doesn’t mean you will win the nomination and become president. But it’s a hell of a head start.”
Compared to the money flowing into television ads — Michael Bloomberg alone is spending over $53 million on airtime — the dollars going into social media are still small, reports Yahoo! News.
As interest in advertising on social media expands, a number of candidates appear to be moving into Snapchat, which is popular among younger people. According to a Pew study, more than three-quarters of young adults in the U.S. age 18 to 24 are Snapchat users. Another survey shows nearly 80 percent of black, non-Hispanic teens and 64 percent of Hispanic teens are active Snapchat users.
Snap has made every global political advertising purchase on its app public in a searchable database called the political ads library. Yahoo News reviewed the 2019 data and found a modest playing field: The campaigns of Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Trump were the only ones buying ads on the app.
.Both Warren and Buttigieg made concerted efforts to target young African-American voters, with Warren focusing on ads about criminal justice and gun control at Southern historically black colleges and universities, and Buttigieg focusing a series of ads on reparations.
The Conclave, which celebrates 45 years of educating radio broadcasters this year, announces that a reduced Early Bird Registration Rate of $199 is now available for #CONCLAVE45, the 45th Conclave Summer Learning Conference, at TheConclave.com.
#CONCLAVE45 will be held on Tuesday, June 16-Wednesday, June 17, 2020, at the Delta Hotels Minneapolis Northeast.
The Conclave Summer Learning Conference is specifically designed to help broadcasters grow their careers and stations by providing access to high-level executives from companies across the radio stratosphere in a relaxed and intimate environment. #CONCLAVE45 will focus heavily on ratings-generating fundamentals and effective practices, plus strategic ways to operate in the voice-first device, social media, and podcasting spaces. Among the #CONCLAVE45 highlights will be the signature keynote session of industry leaders, “Ask Me ‘Almost’ Anything”, along with a new lineup of radio’s thought leaders discussing the industry’s future and how radio companies, stations and pros can compete long-term.
Conclave Chair Lori Lewis said: "The Conclave is all about access -- access to the excellent industry minds we wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to interact with and learn from. It’s also important to showcase managers, programmers, and talent of all market sizes. There’s much to be learned from everyone. The full agenda is forthcoming. Please feel free to reach out to me with ideas at lori@lorilewismedia.com.”
Register today at the $199 Early Bird Rate for this summer destination event for radio professionals at: TheConclave.com.
In December, ESPN Podcasts set a new record for the month with a verified unique audience of 6.9 million. The total represents an increase of 43% over December 2018 and is the 12th consecutive month of year-over-year growth – each month of 2019.
In addition, ESPN podcasts had 40 million downloads, up 36% from December 2018. It was the third straight month with 40 million or more downloads. Originally produced podcast content (sport-specific shows, LeBatard and Friends podcasts, 30 for 30 and ESPN Daily) is driving the growth, up 57% over December 2018.
ESPN’s unique podcast audience is verified by Podtrac.
Helping boost ESPN’s podcast business is ESPN Daily, which debuted October 21 and has nearly tripled in downloads since then. ESPN Daily has been downloaded five million times, and in December the show had 544,000 unique listeners, 33% more than in November.
FOX Sports Radio (FSR), a division of Premiere Sports Network, reports that The Herd with Colin Cowherd podcast – available on iHeartRadio and other platforms –amassed more than 70 million total listens in 2019.
Airing on more than 250 stations nationwide, the radio program also experienced double-digit growth in December 2019, with average quarter hour audience increasing +43% with Adults 25-54 and +51% with Men 25-54. (Source: Nielsen Audio, PPM, Exact Times, AQH, Dec. ‘19 vs. Dec. '18). Additionally, the program's fourth quarter audience on FS1 increased +21% over the previous year, and grew +18% overall in 2019.
Featuring Cowherd’s unique takes and unprecedented storytelling ability, The Herd reaches millions of fans across various platforms. Clips of The Herd have drawn more than 1.7 billion video views to date via Facebook, YouTube, FOXSports.com, the live-streaming FOX Sports Go app, Twitter video player and other platforms.
Airing simultaneously on FOX Sports Radio, iHeartRadio and FS1 from 12-3 PM ET, The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, topic-driven journey through sports.Featuring interviews with entertainers and news makers from across the spectrum of sports and pop culture, the program can be heard on more than 250 stations nationwide, FS1, The Herd with Colin Cowherd channel on iHeartRadio, FOX Sports channel 83 on Sirius XM, as well as podcasts on multiple platforms.
Daily clips can be accessed via the official Twitter handle @TheHerd, on the show’s Facebook page, TheHerdNow.com, its page on FOXSportsRadio.com, FOXSports.com, and via its official landing page on YouTube.
iTunes #1 Podcast features voice of Gillian Jacobs & Josh Gad
The popular new podcast “Blood Ties” tells the story of siblings Elenore and Michael Richland, who are left to pick up the pieces after their parents’ private plane vanishes en route to a family Christmas vacation in the Caribbean.
The Wall Street Journal reports it’s the kind of character-driven story that would fit right in with the true-crime miniseries typical on Wondery, the independent podcasting network known for cinematically produced, documentary-style shows like “Dirty John,” “Dr. Death” and “Over My Dead Body.” With similar narrative pacing, hyper-realistic sound effects and a topical story line, the podcast jumped to No. 1 on the Apple Podcasts chart when it launched in December and has remained at the top of it since.
But unlike Wondery’s best known tales,“Blood Ties,” which it also produced, isn’t true crime. It isn’t even true. It’s “verging on the precipice of being so believable that you question whether it is real or not,” says actor Josh Gad, who co-stars alongside Gillian Jacobs as Michael and Eleonore Richland, respectively.
Told over the course of six 20-minute episodes, the story unfolds atop a rich auditory backdrop of crashing waves, chirping birds, clinking ice, hissing voice messages and a dramatic score. Listeners eavesdrop as the Richlands make the shocking discovery that their father, a celebrated doctor-turned-entrepreneur, had been hiding a dark, criminal past.
It is the latest in a growing wave of fictional podcasts featuring top-tier talent and compelling, ripped-from-the-headlines narratives, arriving at a time when podcasting advertising revenues are poised to exceed $1 billion for the first time by 2021, according to a recent report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
The new fictional offerings hark back to the old days of radio plays, which enraptured listeners before the advent of television.
“I always thought it would have been so cool to live in a different time and a place where you could do a radio play, where you could do something like what Orson Welles did with ‘The War of the Worlds,’ ” the famous 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s novel that made some listeners wonder if Martians were really invading Earth, says Mr. Gad.
American adults are spending more time than ever with media. Yet as media channels proliferate, it has become increasingly important to determine where target audiences are spending their time. In this article, Marketing Charts highlight 3 key stats about online media audiences from its latest Media Audience Demographics study:
➤Internet Radio is The Key Medium for Hispanics
The results of their study indicate that when it comes to reaching Hispanics, internet radio is a critical medium. Indeed, online Hispanic adults are 21% more likely to listen to internet radio in a given month than the rest of the online population.
This is of particular interest for marketers targeting this segment because Hispanics under-index in all forms of traditional media. Among the online media types analyzed in the report, internet radio leads by a significant margin as the channel for which they most over-index the average adult.
In short, close to one-fifth of internet radio listeners are Hispanic, while about 1 in 10 are non-Hispanic Black.
➤Affluents Are Using… Snapchat?
It’s not a huge surprise that LinkedIn is the social network that has the heaviest audience tilt towards Americans in households earning upwards of $100k, given its professional nature.
But what network comes second? Surprisingly, that accolade goes to Snapchat, which has for some time been the favorite social network among teens.
Americans in households earning $100k+ also over-index the adult average for Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram usage, among others. But it’s interesting to see Snapchat’s position here: given that it is already a youth-oriented platform, its appeal to higher-income adults should make it an attractive option for marketers.
Marketers using social media to reach target audiences will also be encouraged by research indicating that around one-third of consumers globally say their purchases are influenced by positive reviews on social media, while MarketingCharts’ US Purchase Influencers Report reveals that around 1 in 8 Americans say they have made a purchase based on ad(s) on social networking platforms.
➤Newspaper and Magazine Sites Appeal Most to the Middle-Aged
It’s somewhat expected that the age groups that over-index most in online TV program viewing and internet radio listening are the youngest brackets – the 18-24 and 25-34 groups. Yet that isn’t the case for the other digital media type analyzed: print media online, for which the 35-44 and 45-54 brackets are the highest-indexing groups.
This is particularly true for Americans in the 35-44 age bracket, who are 30% more likely than the average online adult to visit a newspaper or magazine website in a typical month. This is a significant lift from the previous yea, when they were 18% more likely to visit.
The next group – those between 45-54 years old – are 18% more likely to visit such sites, again up from 2018 when they were largely in line with the average among all adults.
The 54-page study contains an impressive 45 charts and tables (sample chart here), including an array of cheat sheets comparing traditional, digital and social media across demographic groups.
The rise of on-demand music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music has not only changed the way we pay for music but also the way we consume it. With their curated playlists and endless opportunities to individualize the listening experience, streaming services promote a more track-based consumption as opposed to the album model that dominated the industry before the dawn of the digital age. What Apple started by selling single tracks for 99 cents on the iTunes Store appears to be accelerated by the rise of streaming services: the decline of the album format.
According to Nielsen’s latest year-end music report, album sales (both physical and digital) in the United States dropped to 113 million units in 2019, down from 501 million in 2007. At the same time, overall music consumption is rising, which means that people aren’t listening to music any less than they used to, they just listen differently. Mega hits such as Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” are streamed billions of times, as they are featured prominently in curated and personal playlists.
Interestingly, the streaming model isn’t only changing the way music is listened to but also the way it’s made. Since streaming services typically pay artists a certain fee per individual stream, songs are getting shorter on average and, catering to skip-happy listeners with limited attention spans, they are also getting to the first chorus quicker than they used to.
Queen Elizabeth II is starting 2020 trying to heal disharmony within her own family after Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, decided to “step back” as senior royals —- and announced the news without consulting the monarch.
After initial talks between courtiers to the senior royals over the couple's unorthodox declaration of independence, Buckingham Palace said Saturday that the queen would meet Monday at her Sandringham estate in eastern England with Charles, William and Harry to agree on "next steps.""
The Associated Press reports the palace said “a range of possibilities” was on the table, but the queen was determined to resolve the situation within “days not weeks."
Harry's next scheduled public appearance is a rugby event at Buckingham Palace on Thursday. Meghan, meanwhile, has flown to Canada, where the couple and their 8-month-old son, Archie, spent a six-week Christmas break. They announced this week they plan to “balance” their time between the U.K. and North America, with Canada their likely base. Meghan is American but lived in Toronto for several years while filming the TV show “Suits.”
Harry has spent his entire life in the public eye, but has not always been happy with scrutiny by a media he blames for the death of his mother, Princess Diana. She died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by photographers.
British tabloids have a voracious appetite for stories about the royal family, who are treated as an engrossing national soap opera. Some columnists have been critical of Meghan, depicting her as a meddling American interloper into the royal family; others highlighted her biracial heritage with words like “exotic.” In 2017, Harry accused the media of directing "a wave of abuse and harassment" at his then-girlfriend that included articles with negative "racial undertones."
Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markel, Duchess of Sussex, spent the holidays at a multi-million dollar estate -- fit for a king – loaned to them by a millionaire who has gone to great lengths to hide his identity, reports Fox Business Network.
The sprawling 11,416-square-foot waterfront hideaway called Millie Fleurs-- French for a thousand flowers -- is located near Victoria, British Columbia. Built in the French country style, it has five bedrooms, eight baths and is situated next door to a 2,000-square-foot guest cottage.
A spokeswoman for the couple, who officially announced plans to step back from their senior royal duties this month, declined to say whether they paid for the vacation, according to the Daily Mail. The opulent property was previously listed on Sotheby’s for more than C$18 million totally furnished, which amounts to just over $14.1 million in greenbacks, according to the Daily Mail.
After fending off scrutiny from the media for years, it's no surprise the royals took off to a gated estate hidden in the lush forest of British Colombia before announcing plans to forge a new path for themselves.
The home was reportedly sold two years after it was listed in 2012 by Bernadette Wolfswinkel, to a buyer who convinced the real estate agent to sign a non-disclosure agreement, according to the Mail. Some observers have speculated the owner is a Russian businessman.
The owner reportedly used a complex corporate shell to keep his name a secret, according to the Mail, which reported that the owner of record is the Towner Bay Country Club Ltd.
The practice is slated to become illegal in British Columbia later this year, the outlet reported. The Land Owner Transparency Act is designed to end the use of shell companies by creating a public registry of property owners in the area.
The royal couple only learned of the millionaire’s identity through music producer David Foster, who reportedly arranged for the couple to stay in the mansion, the outlet reported.
Their get-a-way came just before Meghan and Harry announced they would move part-time to North America and seek financial independence.
Seth MacFarlane, the creator of “Family Guy,” “American Dad!,” “Ted” and “The Orville” is leaving his longtime home at 20th Century Fox Television, which bet on MacFarlane when he was just a recent college graduate trying his hand at animation, reports The LA Times.
On Friday, NBCUniversal said it was going into business with MacFarlane with a multiyear production deal for new TV shows. MacFarlane, however, will be free to shop film projects to other studios while his signature TV show “Family Guy” will continue to run on Fox.
Financial terms were not disclosed. However, the NBCUniversal deal is valued at slightly less than $200 million, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. Incentives were built into the contract that could boost that amount.
The deal comes less than a year after Walt Disney Co. took control of the Fox movie and television studios, and as NBCUniversal tries to bolster its programming for the NBC broadcast network, its cable channels and an ad-supported streaming service called Peacock that debuts in April.
MacFarlane, 46, who has branched out by recording music and as the star of his productions, becomes the latest top TV show producer to sign a lucrative deal.
Ralph “Birdman” Lockwood, the legendary zany morning man of 1970s Montreal radio, died Sunday, thr Montreal Gazette reports.
Lockwood was born in Hazleton, PA., where he got his start in the business hosting a nightly polka show in the early 1960s on WAZL 1490 AM.
Ralph Lockwood - 1985
He made his Montreal radio debut in 1968 at CFOX, but left in 1971 and landed a job on a morning show in West Palm Beach, Fla. Returning to Montreal in 1972, Lockwood quickly became one of the city’s top morning men at CKGM, then at 980 AM.
An early morning institution, he had a penchant for corny one-liners and double entendres — and doing his show shirtless.
The Montreal Gazette’s Mike Boone once wrote of him: “Lockwood’s constituency never included listeners who liked to be eased out of bed by a radio morning show. But if you were the type who enjoyed being plunged into the day by high-voltage, crack-a-minute radio, the Birdman was a class by himself.”
He left CKGM in 1981, but remained a Montreal media mainstay. He went on to CFCF radio’s afternoon show before moving to TV as host of a daily morning show on CFCF-TV. For a time, he was also the the play-by-play man on the Montreal Concordes’ CJAD football broadcasts, and host of a weekly football highlights show on CFCF TV.
In 1985, CKGM, hoping to revive its flagging morning show, hired Lockwood for five years at a six-figure salary. But the effort failed and Lockwood was fired in 1987.
A year later, Lockwood returned to the United States to host the morning show on WSBA in York, PA. He worked there for 11 years, going on to do radio consulting and public relations.
Joel Chaseman, a broadcasting executive who became chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co.’s broadcasting subsidiary, Post-Newsweek Stations Inc., died Jan. 11 at his home in North Bethesda, Md.
Chaseman, who had risen through the broadcasting ranks from news to program syndication, had been president of the Westinghouse Television Station Group when he left New York in 1973 to take the same title at Post-Newsweek Stations. He also became a board member of The Washington Post Co.
During his 17-year tenure leading the company’s broadcasting arm, including four television stations, he had a leading role guiding policy and development. The stations’ operating margins, former Post publisher Katharine Graham wrote in her memoir, “Personal History,” “grew competitive with the best in the business.”
“Joel was the man who built Post-Newsweek Stations (now Graham Media Group) over more than a decade,” Graham’s son and successor as publisher, Donald E. Graham, wrote in an email. “He started the company on its path to news leadership. He was a trusted adviser to Katharine Graham and a key director of her company.”
Joel Alan Chaseman was born in Trenton, N.J., on Feb. 18, 1926, and grew up in Albany, N.Y. After service as a Navy radar technician in World War II, he graduated from Cornell University in 1948 and became an announcer at radio stations in Elmira, NY, and at a TV station in Baltimore.
Later, he was general manager of the company that produced “The Steve Allen Show,” among other programs, and served as general manager of 1010WINS, when the New York station owned by Westinghouse went to an all-news format in 1965.
➦In 1905..."Scientific America" published an advertisement for the "Telimco", a device guaranteed to received signals for as far as one mile. It cost $7.50.
The Telimco system included a battery-operated spark transmitter, shown on the left, plus a tapping-coherer receiver, also battery operated, shown on the right. (The use of a spark transmitter and tapping-coherer receiver meant it could only be used to send and receive telegraphic dots-and-dashes, and not full audio.) This small ad--which measured just 2-1/4 inches wide by 1-1/8 inches high (60 by 28 millimeters)--appeared on the back pages of the magazine, mixed in with the advertisements for sundry offering by numerous other small firms. It is generally believed that this was the first-ever advertisement run by a company selling complete radio systems to the general public.
The Telimco brand name was a contraction of The Electro Importing Co. In addition to Telimco Wireless Telegraph Outfits, you could also buy Telimco Experimental X-Ray Outfits, Telimco-meters, Telimphones, etc.
➦In 1910...Opera was first aired during an experimental broadcast, courtesy of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
The first public radio broadcast consisted of performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Riccardo Martin performed as Turridu, Emmy Destinn as Santuzza, and Enrico Caruso as Canio. The conductor was Egisto Tango. This wireless radio transmission event of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso of a concert from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City is regarded as the birth of public radio broadcasting.
The New York Times reported on January 14, 1910,
"Opera broadcast in part from the stage of the New York City Metropolitan Opera Company was heard on January 13, 1910, when Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn sang arias from Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, which were "trapped and magnified by the dictograph directly from the stage and borne by wireless Hertzian waves over the turbulent waters of the sea to transcontinental and coastwise ships and over the mountainous peaks and undulating valleys of the country." The microphone was connected by telephone wire to the laboratory of Dr. Lee De Forest.”
The few radio receivers able to pick up this first-ever "outside broadcast" were those at the De Forest Radio Laboratory, on board ships in New York Harbor, in large hotels on Times Square and at New York city locations where members of the press were stationed at receiving sets. Public receivers with earphones had been set up in several well-advertised locations throughout New York City. There were members of the press stationed at various receiving sets throughout the city and the general public was invited to listen to the broadcast.
The experiment was considered mostly unsuccessful. The microphones of the day were of poor quality and couldn't pick up most of the singing done on stage. Only off-stage singers singing directly into a microphone could be heard clearly. The New York Times reported the next day that static and interference kept the homeless song waves from finding themselves.
➦In 1913...producer/host Ralph Edwards was born near Merino Colorado. Best known as producer/host of TV’s This is Your Life, he came to prominence as the host of radio’s zany Truth or Consequences, a game show which ran for 38 years on radio & TV. As producer he brought to the airwaves TV’s The People’s Court, still on the air 25 years later. He died of congestive heart failure Nov. 25 1997 at age 84.
➦On 1918...actor Steve Dunne was born in Northampton Mass. He succeeded Howard Duff on radio as the star of The Adventures of Sam Spade. On TV he starred in the series Professional Father & The Brothers Brannigan, and appeared repeatedly on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Brady Bunch, The Millionaire & Lux Video Theatre. He died Sept. 2 1977 at age 59.
➦In 1922...WHA 970 AM in Madison, Wisconsin began broadcasting.
WHA's history dates back to 1914 when Professor Edward Bennett started using the call sign 9XM. A year later, the call sign was transferred to the University of Wisconsin and used for many experiments in the physics department. Professor Earle M. Terry managed many of these tests, and he eventually decided that the station should start making regular weather broadcasts. From December 4, 1916 onward, the station transmitted regular reports in Morse code.
While most early radio stations in the United States were shut down when the country entered World War I, 9XM's early transmissions were considered important enough to continue, spending much of the war broadcasting weather information to ships sailing on the Great Lakes.
Regularly scheduled audio broadcasts began in February 1920. A six-day-per-week schedule began on January 3, 1921, notable for the introduction of the first radio broadcast of a weather forecast. The station received its WHA call sign on January 13, 1922.
➦In 1928… Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television at Schenectady NY, using a perforated scanning disk and high-frequency neon lamps.The first public demonstration of television was given by Ernst F. W. Alexanderson.
➦In 1934...a comedy-variety hit of early radio The Al Pearce Show debuted on NBC Blue, after 5 successful years on KFRC San Francisco.
➦In 1958...St. Louis radio station KWK (now KXFN 1380 AM) declared Rock n’ Roll dead. After giving their rock records a final play, the station staff broke them
➦In 1962..singer Chubby Checker set a record, literally, with the hit, “The Twist”. The song reached the #1 position for an unprecedented second time — within two years. “The Twist” was also number one on September 26, 1960.
➦In 1970....RCA's David Sarnoff retired at the age of 79, and died the following year, aged 80.
➦In 1980...Andre Kostelanetz, the Russian-born arranger & orchestra leader who had his own CBS radio show in the 1930’s, and went on to pioneer the era of easy listening music, Andre Kostelanetz died in Haiti at age 78.
➦In 2006...Bob Grant did last long-form form talk show at WOR 710 AM, NYC.
➦In 2011...the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council banned Dire Straits ‘85 hit “Money For Nothing” because a homophobic epithet in the song is no longer acceptable. “The panel concluded that, like other racially driven words in the English language, ‘faggot’ is one that, even if entirely or marginally accepted in earlier days, is no longer so,” said CBSC chair Ron Cohen in an official statement. Many Canadian stations ignored the ban.
➦In 2012…Former Radio, TV newsman Richard Threlkeld was killed in a car accident at age 74. He one of the last US journalists to leave Saigon at the end of the Viet Nam War in 1975.
➦In 2016…Sportscaster Jim Simpson, whose career spanned the early 1950’s to the early 1990’s, whose smooth delivery on a wide variety of events was part of NBC Sports for 15 years before he was hired in 1979 as ESPN’s first play-by-play voice, died at age 88.
