Neil Young and Joni Mitchell‘s decisions to pull their music from Spotify this week come at a real cost — hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for each of them that’s unlikely to be made up elsewhere.
Until Wednesday, when Spotify announced it was complying with Young’s demand to remove his catalog, the streaming platform accounted for about 43% of Young’s global streaming revenue, Billboard estimates. (While Young claimed Spotify plays were 60% of his worldwide streaming income, that percentage is most likely his global plays and royalties would be less since Spotify pays less on average per stream than many of its competitors.)
At an estimated $2.8 million in streaming royalties last year, that means Young’s decision will forego about $1.2 million each year for him and his label, Warner Music/Reprise. Of that, Young likely received half — $600,000 — under terms of a standard heritage contract. Overall, Spotify streams accounted for about 14% of Young’s total solo sales and streams recording revenue, which Billboard estimates at almost $8.46 million last year.
For Young, personally, the decision to pull his music from Spotify will cost him about $754,000 annually, by Billboard‘s calculations.
Mitchell’s personal annual loss, based on her catalog’s performance for 2021, would be about $257,000 in total artist and publishing royalties, Billboard estimates.
Spotify’s market capitalization fell about $2.1 billion over a three-day span last week, coming after folk rocker Neil Young yanked his songs from the audio-streaming giant to protest Joe Rogan’s misinformation-spreading podcast, reports Variety.
Shares of Spotify fell 6% from Jan. 26-28. Over the same time period, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 1.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.1%. For the sake of comparison, Netflix’s stock recovered a bit, up 4.9% over the last three days, after getting hammered following its Jan. 20 earnings report.
Spotify stock closed Thursday (Jan. 27) at a 19-month low of $171.32/share. That came after Young said Monday that he was demanding the company drop his music, saying that Spotify “can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Spotify removed Young’s songs on Jan. 26. In a post Wednesday, Young wrote that “Spotify has recently become a very damaging force via its public misinformation and lies about COVID” and referred to an open letter from doctors and health professionals issued earlier this month calling on Spotify to crack down on coronavirus-related falsehoods on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
To be sure, Spotify’s stock price was already on the slide — having plummeted 25% year-to-date as of Jan. 25, the day before Young’s catalog was pulled off Spotify. Investors have been rattled by signals that Spotify’s growth may be slowing, particularly after Netflix’s warning of a significant cooldown in first quarter subscriber net adds (which precipitated a 24% drop in its share price).
Also, it’s worth noting is that Spotify’s stock rebounded slightly Friday, closing up 1% to $172.98/share, amid a broader market upturn. However, that came before Joni Mitchell announced that she, too, would be removing her music from Spotify, according to Variety. “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue,” the singer-songwriter wrote.
For Spotify investors, the concern is that the artist exodus could snowball in the coming days and drive a material number of customer cancellations.
Hashtags #CancelSpotify, #DeleteSpotify and #ByeSpotify were trending on social media in the wake of Young’s ultimatum and Spotify’s decision to remove his music.
Rogan, whose exclusive multiyear distribution deal with Spotify for his podcast is estimated to be worth more than $100 million, hosted the No. 1 most-listened to podcast on Spotify in 2021, according to the company.
Young on Friday doubled down on his anti-Spotify stance, slamming the streamer’s audio quality as “shitty, degraded and neutered” and announcing a partnership with Amazon giving new customers to Amazon Music Unlimited four months free of the premium streamer.
Spotify Technology SA outlined steps it will take to halt the spread of misleading information about Covid-19 on its audio-streaming service in an attempt to quell a growing controversy over its support for the podcast host Joe Rogan.
Bloomberg reports Spotify published internal rules Sunday governing what content is and isn’t allowed on its service, and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said in a blog post that the company will add an advisory to any podcast episode that addresses the coronavirus. That advisory will direct listeners to a hub offering more information about the pandemic.
Spotify created rules governing acceptable content on its service years ago and created a hub with Covid-19 information early in the pandemic. While those policies have been accessible for employees, the company didn’t make them public until Sunday after a series of scandals jeopardized its business.
Singers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from Spotify last week in protest of Rogan, a popular podcaster who has hosted several outspoken skeptics of the Covid-19 vaccines. Both Young and Mitchell suffered from polio as children, and their rebuke of Spotify followed a letter from more than 200 medical professionals criticizing the company as well.
“We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we haven’t been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly,” Ek wrote in the blog post. “This, in turn, led to questions around their application to serious issues including Covid-19.”
It remains to be seen whether the action will be enough to quell the maelstrom. The rules outlaw dangerous, deceptive, sensitive and illegal content, including anything that advocates or glorifies serious physical harm, deceptive content, interferes with an election or infringes on a copyright. Spotify’s post doesn’t mention Rogan by name, nor does it specify any podcasts it has already taken down. None of Rogan’s episodes violate Spotify’s policies, stocka company spokesperson said.
Rogan presented a public relations conundrum for Spotify ever since the company paid more than $100 million for the exclusive rights to his show. He offers a hospitable environment for guests with controversial points of view about the pandemic, politics and just about every other topic.
According to The Associated Press, Rogan responded to the fallout on Sunday, saying in a video on Instagram that he was only seeking to have conversations on his podcast with people who have “differing opinions.”
“I’m not trying to promote misinformation, I’m not trying to be controversial,” Rogan said. “I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people.”
He also said that he schedules the guests on his podcast himself, and that he would try to book doctors with different opinions right after he talks to “the controversial ones.” Rogan noted that he earlier sat down on the show with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the chief medical correspondent for CNN, Dr. Michael Osterholm, who is a member of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, and Dr. Peter Hotez from Baylor College of Medicine.
SiriusXM's SXM Media today announced the introduction of AudioID powered by AdsWizz, a first-to-market listener identity solution offering marketers new avenues to reach, target, and connect with consumers at scale. AudioID puts content and audiences first, providing an improved consumer experience across multiple platforms and a better way for brands to buy audio advertising.
AudioID is the most recent example of SiriusXM's investment in audio ad technology and solutions to make advertising across satellite radio, streaming music, and podcasts as simple as pressing play or turning the dial. From in-car to at-home to mobile, SXM Media is committed to making premium audio advertising intelligent, accessible, and impactful for listeners and marketers.
"Today's announcement exemplifies the power of joining together advertising solutions from SiriusXM, Pandora, Stitcher, and AdsWizz. We have always led the way when it comes to audio advertising. From running the first-ever streaming audio ad on Pandora to launching our Stand for Sonic Diversity initiative, we take our leadership position very seriously. So coming off of a record year, we're taking another giant leap forward with the introduction of AudioID," said John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer, SiriusXM. "With this new identity solution from AdsWizz, we'll be able to create better experiences for listeners, greater value for creators and publishers, and even more impact for marketers."
As traditional digital identifiers erode in the market and audio content such as podcasts increase share of ear, AudioID is the future of listener identity. With an algorithm that accepts and matches a variety of consented listener signals and inputs then weighs them accordingly, this new identity solution responds to ad requests by finding or creating unique, anonymized AudioIDs. These IDs can then be tapped into for everything from reach and forecasting to frequency capping, advanced first-party targeting, enhanced measurement, and more.
AudioID's U.S.-based identity launch offering will live within the walls of SXM Media. The product will leverage datasets across the tens of millions of known Pandora, SiriusXM, and Stitcher listeners, matching them to create AudioIDs. This will allow for a better ad experience for consumers, marketers, and publishers, tapping into listener behavior and preferences in a way that supports the future of identity safety while helping marketers achieve their goals. Beginning later in 2022, AudioID will extend SXM Media's first-party audience targeting to opted-in, off-platform parties across AdsWizz, giving marketers and publishers in the U.S. access to better, smarter data and targeting across their audio investment. With increased publisher adoption and following regulatory guidelines, long-term, AdsWizz's platform has the potential to expand AudioID globally; strengthen any identifier with robust, privacy-centric segmentation; drive greater insights and understanding around listener behaviors; and define a new identity framework for the audio ecosystem at large, one that centers around consumption, content, and preference data versus personal consumer signals.
"We are entering a new era of identity – both in culture and in technology – that defines us not by who we are on paper or the cookies we leave behind, but by our interests and passions. AudioID is a consumer-first, privacy-conscious infrastructure that will deliver our audiences the best experiences and give marketers access to data-driven capabilities like never before," said Chris Record, Senior Vice President and Head of Ad Product, Technology & Operations at SXM Media & AdsWizz.
AudioID is based on several fundamental founding principles:
Innovative & Additive: AudioID will always remain an innovator in audio identity and additive to the overall audio advertising ecosystem.
Flexible & Iterative: To support marketers and publishers, AudioID will be flexible in its acceptance of inputs from data providers, publishers, alternative identifiers, and other third parties. In addition, AudioID is expected to be an ever-evolving, iterative technology that will continue to develop with the needs of the media and marketing ecosystem.
Private & Optional: Privacy protection is embedded into AudioID by design as an anonymized identity solution that enhances consumer privacy. Publishers and marketers will maintain control of their data resources, with AudioID always remaining an optional (versus required) solution for external parties.
Intelligent & Science-Driven: Developing AudioID is a team of technologists and data scientists from around the world committed to using the latest tech and knowledge and applying it to the product.
AudioID is the newest addition to SXM Media's broader data and intelligence infrastructure, which includes a full-service suite of products for marketers and publishers. Data is at the heart of SXM Media, offering advertisers enhanced control over their audio campaigns, providing consumers best-in-class listening, and giving both publishers and creators the opportunity to increase revenue. This infrastructure includes existing agreements with data onboarders and third-party data sets, as well as housing the hundreds of first-party audience segments and predictive audience solutions created and trained by SXM Media's in-house data science team and serviced by strategic data consultants.
David Kantor, CEO of Urban One’s Radio One and Reach Media Divisions, announced this week the promotion of Colby Tyner to Senior Vice President, Programming Radio One and Reach Media.
From his early days working as an intern and assistant program director in Philadelphia at WUSL and as a music director at Power 105 (WPPR) in New York City, to his second tour in Philadelphia, followed by his days in radio in Cleveland, Colby “Colb” Tyner is an industry veteran who has held various positions at Radio One over the last 20 years.
Colby Tyner
In his previous role as Vice President of Programming at Radio One, Tyner increased ratings within several brands, procured major talent for NTR events and TV One programs, and launched nationally syndicated radio shows like The Morning Hustle and Get Up Mornings with Erica Campbell. Additionally, Tyner has provided leadership for significant, myriad revenue-generating programming and promotional initiatives and has executive produced Reach Media’s podcast series, The Undressing Room, in partnership with Macy’s.
“I am pleased to formally announce the well-deserved promotion of Colby Tyner.” said David Kantor, CEO of Radio One and Reach Media. “Colby has been instrumental in the ratings success of both our Network and local programs. His leadership has led us to execute format leading quality content that entertains, educates and engages our listeners.”
Upon reflection of his tenure in radio and his most recent appointment to SVP Programming, Tyner stated, “It can be hard to find your way in the media industry. I’m very appreciative of Radio One, who gave me my first program director position, and I’m also thankful for the continued opportunity to grow in this business. I’d like to especially thank Ms. Hughes, Alfred Liggins, and David Kantor for their constant support and for allowing me to lead this amazing group of programmers and talent.”
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to meet for the first time today on the crisis over Russia's massive troop build up on the border with Ukraine and fears of its possible invasion. The United States requested the meeting, with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield saying Thursday that Russia’s actions pose, quote, "a clear threat to international peace and security and the U.N. Charter." Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky angrily responded, calling it a "clear PR stunt" as he tweeted, "I can’t recall another occasion when a [Security Council] member proposed to discuss its own baseless allegations and assumptions as a threat to [international] order from someone else." In order to block the meeting, Russia would need the vote of nine of the Security Council's 15 members. However, AP cited a senior Biden administration official as saying they are confident the U.S. has enough support on the issue that that won't happen. The official said, "It goes right to the heart of the role of the Security Council itself. This preventive diplomacy is exactly what the council is supposed to be doing, and I think member states understand that."
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said members of the U.N. Security Council will press Russia on Monday about Moscow’s massing of troops near Ukraine and rising fears it is planning an invasion. https://t.co/fbipI4kmNh
➤NORTH KOREA CONFIRMS TEST LAUNCH OF INTERMEDIATE-RANGE MISSILE ABLE TO HIT GUAM: North Korea confirmed on Monday that it had carried out a test-launch Sunday of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that would be capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam. The test-launch was the most significant by North Korea since 2017, as it continues with a flurry of recent test launches to try to pressure the U.S., seeking sanctions release and international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state. AP cited a senior Biden administration official as saying the U.S. will respond in the coming days in a way meant to demonstrate to North Korea that the U.S. is committed to our allies' security in the region.
➤FEDERAL TRIAL CONTINUES TODAY OF OFFICERS ACCUSED OF VIOLATING GEORGE FLOYD'S CIVIL RIGHTS: The federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers accused of violating George Floyd's civil rights is set to resume for its second week today, with the focus expected to be on testimony about the Minneapolis Police Department's policies and training. Prosecutors charged J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao didn’t follow their training when they failed to act to save Floyd’s life in May 2020 as Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nine-and-a-half minutes, leading to his death. Inspector Katie Blackwell, the police department’s former head of training, began testifying last week and is expected to be back on the stand. She said officers are instructed that they have a duty to intervene if a fellow officer is using unreasonable force, and give any necessary medical aid until medical personnel arrive. But she acknowledged under defense questioning that there's no "intervention scenario" when officers are trained in use-of-force scenarios, and that recruits are told they should never argue with an instructor. Chauvin was the most senior of the four officers, and Lane and Keung were rookies.
BREAKING: Just over three-quarters of Americans (76%) want Pres. Biden to consider "all possible nominees," while 23% want him to follow through on his commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, per a new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/FHLGrgJg9Z
➤TRUMP SUGGESTS PARDONS FOR JANUARY 6TH CAPITOL ATTACK PARTICIPANTS: Former President Donald Trump suggested at a Texas rally Saturday night that he could pardon people who participated in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol if he is elected president again.
Trump said, "If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly." More than 700 people have been arrested and charged with federal crimes in connection with the riot. Among them are more than 150 people charged with assaulting police officers, more than 50 charged with conspiracy, and 11 charged with seditious conspiracy, including the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group.
Among those criticizing Trump's suggestion of possible pardons yesterday were Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, often a Trump ally, who said on CBS' Face the Nation, "I don’t want to send any signal that it was OK to defile the Capitol. There are other groups with causes that may want to go down the violent path if these people get pardoned." When he was president, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of numerous political allies, friends and associates.
Dozens of handguns and shotguns were among items stolen by thieves who raided cargo containers on trains near downtown Los Angeles, authorities said. “These guns were unguarded, unprotected," said Capt. German Hurtado of the LAPD. https://t.co/Kak8TpKIQV
➤AT LEAST NINE KILLED IN LAS VEGAS 'MASS CASUALTY' VEHICLE CRASH: Officials said Sunday that nine people, including four children, were killed in what North Las Vegas Police spokesman Alex Cuevas called a "mass casualty" traffic collision on Saturday afternoon. There were a total of 15 people and six vehicles involved in the North Las Vegas crash, and one person remained hospitalized in serious condition. Cuevas said a Dodge Challenger ran a red light while going at high speed and hit several vehicles. Three adults and four children in a van that was one of the first vehicles hit all died, as did the driver and a passenger in the Challenger. The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to help with the investigation.
➤FORMER MISS USA CHESLIE KRYST DIES AT 30: Miss USA 2019 and Extra host Cheslie Kryst died on Sunday at the age of 30. Authorities claim Kryst jumped from a 60-story building at 350 W. 42nd Street in New York City at approximately 7:15 a.m. local time. She lived on the ninth floor of the building and was last seen on a 29th-floor terrace, according to reports.
Cheslie Kryst
Kryst’s family said in a statement, "In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie. Her great light was one that inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength. She cared, she loved, she laughed and she shined."
Kryst was crowned Miss USA as Miss North Carolina in 2019. She was one of four Black women who held the major pageant titles that year.
On Good Morning America in December 2019, Kryst said, “People will comment on our social media and be like, 'Why are we talking about your race? You guys are just four, amazing women.' And I'm like, 'Yes, we are four amazing women, but there was a time when we literally could not win!'"
Kryst’s family continued, "Cheslie embodied love and served others, whether through her work as an attorney fighting for social justice, as Miss USA and as a host on Extra. But most importantly, as a daughter, sister, friend, mentor and colleague – we know her impact will live on.”
➤STUDY: ONE IN FOUR PEOPLE STRUGGLE TO KEEP UP WITH FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY ARE USING TOO MANY APPS: Do you often get lost in all your phone apps? A YouGov survey found 25 percent of people reported struggling to keep up with friends because they are using too many apps. The phenomenon is known as “app fog” and is caused by confusion when multiple apps are used to message friends. The survey found 33 percent said they’d missed a night out or an important event with friends as a result of this confusion, and 47 percent said they’d rather just use the messaging app if they could. The data showed young people’s relationships were far more affected by app fog than older generations. App fog caused nearly 20 percent of young respondents to lose touch with a friend, compared to just five percent of those in the older age group.
➤STUDY: MEN CONCERNED ABOUT FERTILITY SHOULD LIMIT CELL PHONE USE TO PROTECT SPERM QUALITY: Men who have worries about their fertility should limit their cell phone use. Researchers analyzed several studies and found the radiofrequency electromagnetic waves (RF-EMWs) emitted by cell phones decrease sperm quality by reducing their mobility, viability, and concentration. Researchers from Pusan National University note in a press release: “Knowing that the number of cellphone users is most likely going to increase in the future, it’s high time we start considering exposure to RF-EMW as one of the underlying factors causing a reduction in sperm quality among the male population.” Previous research has shown that RF-EMWs emitted by cell phones can be absorbed by the human body to result in potential side effects on the brain, heart and reproductive function.
🏈BENGALS, RAMS TO FACE EACH OTHER IN THE SUPER BOWL: The Super Bowl teams are set after yesterday's conference championship games, the Cincinnati Bengals vs. the Los Angeles Rams. This is the first trip to the Super Bowl for the Bengals since 1989, and comes just two years after they were the worst team in the NFL. The Rams last were in the Super Bowl three years ago, losing to the New England Patriots 13-3 in February 2019. The Rams will be playing in their home stadium, with the Super Bowl set for SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on February 13th.
Bengals Defeat Chiefs: Led by quarterback Joe Burrow, the Bengals came back from being down 18 points at 21-3 to get a 27-24 overtime victory over the Kansas City Chiefs to win the AFC championship. Evan McPherson kicked in a 31-yard field goal with 9:22 left in OT for the win. The Chiefs won the coin toss to start overtime, giving them a big advantage, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw an interception to Von Bell on the third play, giving Cincinnati the ball.
Rams Beat 49ers: The Rams also had to mount a comeback for the win after beginning the fourth quarter down 17-7 to the San Francisco 49ers. But quarterback Matthew Stafford led the team to a touchdown and two field goals, and Travin Howard sealed the 20-17 victory with an interception of Jimmy Garoppolo with 1:09 left to play for the NFC title. Stafford, a 13-year veteran, is going to the Super Bowl in his first year with the Rams after having never before won a playoff game.
🎾NADAL WINS AUSTRALIAN OPEN FOR RECORD-BREAKING 21ST GRAND SLAM TITLE: Rafael Nadal won the Australian Open on Sunday for his men's record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title, breaking a tie with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. But it took five hours and 24 minutes for the sixth-seeded Spaniard to do it, having to come back after losing the first two sets to second-seed Daniil Medvedev and win the next three for a 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory. Federer, who didn't play in the Australian Open because he's recovering from knee surgery, and Djokovic, who was deported after a days-long saga because he wasn't vaccinated against Covid-19, both posted congratulations on social media.
Barty Wins Women's Title: Top-seed Ashleigh Barty had an easier time on Saturday, beating 27th-seeded American Danielle Collins in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (2) for the women's championship. It was the first time in 44 years that an Australian won a singles title at the Australian Open.
🏈ESPN: RAIDERS TO HIRE JOSH MCDANIELS AS NEW HEAD COACH: ESPN reported Sunday that the Las Vegas Raiders are expected to hire New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as their new head coach. McDaniels last was a head coach with the Denver Broncos for two seasons 2009-10, and was fired after the third week in his second season. Jon Gruden resigned as the Raiders' head coach in October after reports of emails he wrote before he was with the Raiders that had racist, misogynistic and anti-gay language. Rich Bisaccia was promoted to interim coach.
🏀SUNS DEFEAT SPURTS 115-110 FOR 10TH STRAIGHT WIN: The Phoenix Suns defeated the San Antonio Spurs 115-110 last night (January 30th) for their 10th straight win. The Suns overcome a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter for the victory, also becoming the first team in the league so far with 40 wins, and doing so with only nine losses.
🏒AVALANCHE TOP SABRES 4-1 FOR 10TH WIN IN A ROW: The Colorado Avalanche beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 last night (January 30th) for their 10th win in a row, tied for the second-longest in franchise history. It was also their 18th straight win at home, the fifth-longest in NHL history. The Detroit Redwings hold the record for the longest, 23 straight games, from November 2011 to February 2012.
President Biden's nominee for the FCC Gigi Sohn, a vocal, progressive telecom lawyer and activist who co-founded an advocacy group funded by billionaire George Soros, is being vehemently opposed by Senate Republicans. She has received at best lukewarm support from moderate Dems in the Senate, making her nomination a tough lift for the Biden administration.
Gigi Sohn
According to Charles Gasparino at the NY Post, Sohn’s latest confirmation hurdle: Her name appearing on a settlement agreement between a little-known outfit named Locast and some of the nation’s biggest broadcasters.
Sohn’s role in the deal and the conflicts it may pose, varies depending on whom you speak to. Locast was created in 2018 by a progressive telecom exec named David Goodfriend to do something pretty innovative: Giving people who can’t afford cable access high-quality local programming by siphoning and streaming broadcast signals of the big media companies. The service was billed as a freebie, but Locast welcomed $5 monthly donations.
The whole operation was legal, Locast contended, because it was a nonprofit, which could under law take those signals and distribute them to customers as long as the entity doesn’t make any money.
What Locast was doing understandably irked the big networks, NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox. They sued, stating that Locast violated copyright laws, essentially stealing their content. Moreover, Locast’s ask of that $5 donation meant it was looking to make money.
Locast was run by a nonprofit named Sports Fans Coalition of New York. The outfit had some smart legal minds advising it, including Sohn, a Georgetown law professor with a deep résumé in telecom law.
Both sides went to court confident of the path to victory, but in September of last year, Southern District Judge Louis Stanton sided with the big broadcasters. Locast was forced to shut down; the judge said the company wasn’t a nonprofit — those donations in his view went beyond what is “necessary to defray the actual and reasonable costs of maintaining and operating.”
The terms seemed steep: Locast appeared to owe $32 million in damages. Goodfriend and Sohn both signed the settlement and that was supposed to be the end of the story.
The backstory on all of this could derail Sohn’s nomination as it makes it way to a vote in the Commerce Committee this Wednesday. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican on the committee, questioned Sohn during her Dec. 1 hearing. He then asked her in writing how Locast came up with the full $32 million payment to the broadcasters — a seemingly big chunk of change for an outfit billed as a not-for-profit.
A senior GOP committee aide told the Post “discrepancies between [Sohn’s] testimony at the hearing and the details of the settlement … are driving Wicker to call for a new hearing.”
Sohn and Goodfriend, for their parts, declined to comment. A person close to both with knowledge of the settlement says, however, that Wicker is grasping for conflicts that don’t exist and certainly shouldn’t disqualify Sohn from the FCC.
This week look for fourth-quarter earnings releases by SiriusXM and iHeartMedia on Monday and Spotify on Tuesday. Warner Music Group (Feb. 8) and Eventbrite (Feb. 10) are slated for the following week.
According to Glenn Peoples analyst for Billboard, all eyes should be on Spotify, a bellwether company for the streaming-driven music business. Spotify is xpected to report revenue from 2.54 to 2.68 billion euros, monthly active users from 400 to 407 million, and subscribers from 177 to 181 million. Investors could ding Spotify’s share price if its numbers are on the low end of those ranges. The high end of Spotify’s fourth-quarter guidance would represent a 9 million-subscriber gain — its highest of the year but 2 million lower than the 11 million added in each of fourth quarters the previous two years.
But looking forward is more important than looking back at past performance, stated Peoples. The real numbers to watch are Spotify’s guidance for the first quarter and full-year 2022 and the implied growth in those forecasts. Solid 2020 and 2021 growth means expectations are understandably high this year. First-quarter subscriber growth is historically some of the lowest in any year: in 2021, Spotify added 3 million subscribers in the first quarter compared to 7 million in both the second and third quarters. If guidance is perceived as too low, some people might wonder if Spotify will follow the path of high-profile stay-at-home companies — such as Netflix, Zoom and Peloton — whose stocks initially benefitted from changes in how people worked, exercised and were entertained during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stay-at-home stocks have disappointed after investors mistook temporary changes in consumer behavior for permanent shifts in how people work and live. That partly explains why Netflix’s stock sank nearly 30% in the three days following its underwhelming forecast for first-quarter subscriber growth of 2.5 million, less than half of Wall Street’s expectations and about a third lower than its subscriber additions a year earlier. It's partly why Peloton shares have cratered, the company dropped prices and sales forecasts were lowered.
Howard Hesseman, the actor and improvisational comedian best known for playing a stuck-in-the-’60s radio disc jockey in the TV sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died on Saturday in Los Angeles.
He was 81.
Howard Hesseman 1940-2022
His wife, Caroline Ducrocq, said he died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from colon surgery last summer, reports The NY Times.
Hesseman received two Emmy nominations for playing Dr. Johnny Fever on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” which ran on CBS for four seasons from 1978 to 1982.
The series portrayed a struggling Top 40 rock radio station, where the staff rages against the age of disco with hard rock and punk songs. Hesseman’s hard-living character, having been pushed from a Los Angeles station where he was a star, serves as a senior member of the counterculture at the Midwestern outlet after smooth-talking his way into a job.
Johnny Fever was a cherished character on TV who embodied the essential traits of 1960s counterculture: the worship of rock bands; not-so-veiled drug references; long, shaggy hair.
He told WXYZ-TV Detroit in 2012 that the show was made up of “a lovely company of actors, bolstered by a lovely bunch of writers, so it made going to work fun every day.”
George Howard Hesseman was born Feb. 27, 1940, in Lebanon, Ore., and raised as an only child by his mother and stepfather.
Hesseman, who was also admired for his improvisational talent, played small parts in “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Sanford and Son.”
George Spiro Dibie, the former national president of the International Cinematographers Guild, recalled in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation that Hesseman’s experience was evident on the set of “Head of the Class,” a sitcom that ran on ABC from 1986 to 1991.
“He was even telling some directors what to do,” he said. Mr. Hesseman played Charlie Moore, a teacher at a Manhattan high school contending with a class of overachieving students.
Harry Steele, the former President of Canadian radio empire Newcap Capital Corporation, has died.
Steele made his mark in the 1970s and ’80s in transportation, communications and accommodations with interests in hotels, airlines, radio stations and newspapers.
He took over ownership of Eastern Provincial Airlines (EPA) in the late 70’s before deregulation. It served Atlantic Canada. He bought the Q Radio network in the early ’80s, then in the late 1990s surprised everyone in the industry when he purchased the VOCM Radio Network.
Along the way, Newcap Broadcasting expanded country-wide with dozens of radio and TV stations.
Former VOCM news director Gerry Phelan says Steele was as down-to-earth as anyone he has ever met.
Current newscaster Brian Madore recalls the EPA strike in the 1980s when, despite the harshness of the dispute, nobody on the other side criticized Steele.
“That struck me odd,” says Madore, “because most labor disputes become personal at some point. Not that one, and I think that’s a testament to the man. I have said that to many people over the years.”
Premier Andrew Furey called it a sad day for Newfoundland and the entire province, calling Steele an “icon,” adding that the entrepreneur’s legacy will be felt across the nation “for a very long time.”
Sister Janet Mead, a nun from Australia who sang a rock ‘n’ roll rendition of The Lord’s Prayer during the 1970s, died Wednesday. She was 84.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide confirmed the nun’s death but did not give a cause, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported. Friends said she had been suffering from cancer, according to The Washington Post.
A reluctant pop star, Sister Mead preferred to speak out against welfare cuts for the working classes and opposed the Vietnam War. But it was her rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer,” composed and arranged by Arnold Strais in late 1973, that rocketed her to fame, the Post reported.
The song charted in the U.S. for 13 weeks beginning in February 1974, rising to No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 during Easter week. She became the first Australian artist to have a gold record in the U.S. and the song was nominated for a Grammy Award for best inspirational performance (nonclassical), the newspaper reported. The song lost to Elvis Presley’s version of How Great Thou Art.”
“The Lord’s Prayer” single was distributed to 31 countries and sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, according to the Australian Broadcasting Company. It became the only Top 10 song in which the entire lyrical content originated from words taken from the Bible.
Sister Mead became the second nun to have a hit record in the U.S. and globally, the Post reported. Jeanine Deckers of Belgium (Sister Luc Gabriel), known as “the Singing Nun,” had a hit with the French-language song “Dominique,” which stayed at No. 1 for four weeks in December 1963. The Belgian nun’s story was made into a 1966 film, “The Singing Nun,” which starred Debbie Reynolds in the title role.
➦In 1892...comedian Eddie Cantor was born Edward Israel Iskowitz in New York City. The man known for his “banjo eyes” and his five daughters was the first of the great vaudevillians to hit it big on radio, after an appearance on the Rudy Vallee Show in early 1931. In 1950 he jumped into TV & was an instant hit in the new medium. But he never fully recovered from a heart attack two years later, and died Oct 10, 1964 at age 72.
Cantor was regarded almost as a family member by millions because his top-rated radio shows revealed intimate stories and amusing anecdotes about his wife Ida and five daughters. Some of his hits include "Makin' Whoopee", "Ida", "If You Knew Susie", "Ma! He's Makin' Eyes at Me", "Baby", "Margie", and "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" He also wrote a few songs, including "Merrily We Roll Along", the Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. cartoon theme.
His eye-rolling song-and-dance routines eventually led to his nickname, "Banjo Eyes". In 1933, artist Frederick J. Garner caricatured Cantor with large round eyes resembling the drum-like pot of a banjo. Cantor's eyes became his trademark, often exaggerated in illustrations, and leading to his appearance on Broadway in the musical Banjo Eyes (1941).
➦In 1902...acclaimed actress Tallulah Bankhead was born in Huntsville Alabama. Her most important broadcast credit was as hostess of NBC Radio’s last hurrah, the star-studded “The Big Show” Sunday night variety extravaganza as the tidal wave of TV was taking effect.
➦In 1915..Radio-TV broadcaster Garry Moore was born Thomas Garrison Morfit in Baltimore. Moore (January 31, 1915 – November 28, 1993) was an American entertainer, comedic personality, game show host, and humorist best known for his work in television. He began a long career with the CBS network on radio in the 1940s and was a television host on several variety and game shows from the 1950s through the 1970s.
After dropping out of high school, Moore found success as a radio host and then moved on to the medium of television. He hosted several daytime and prime time programs titled The Garry Moore Show, and the game shows I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth. He was instrumental in furthering the career of comedic actress Carol Burnett. He became known for his bow ties and his crew cut fashion early in his career.
After being diagnosed with throat cancer in 1976, Moore retired from the broadcasting industry, only making a few rare television appearances. He spent the last years of his life in Hilton Head, South Carolina and at his summer home in Northeast Harbor in Maine. He died on November 28, 1993 at the age of 78.
Starting in 1937, he worked for Baltimore radio station WBAL as an announcer, writer and actor/comedian. He used his birth name until 1940, when, while on the air announcing Club Matinee hosted by Ransom Sherman at NBC, Chicago, Sherman held a radio contest to find a more easily pronounceable one. "Garry Moore" was the winning entry, which was submitted by a woman from Pittsburgh who received a prize of $100.
It was on Club Matinee where he met his long-time friend and broadcasting partner Durward Kirby.
Moore headed Talent, Ltd., a variety program on Sunday afternoons in 1941. In the years that followed, Moore appeared on numerous network radio shows. He started out as an announcer and then as support for broadcast personalities, one of whom was Jimmy Durante.
From 1943-47, Durante and Moore had a joint show with Moore as the straight man. Impressed with his ability to interact with audiences, CBS offered him his own show. Starting in 1949, the one-hour daytime variety show The Garry Moore Show aired on CBS. Moore briefly returned to radio as host of NBC's Monitor in 1969.
He died of emphysema Nov 28, 1993 at age 78.
➦In 1936...The Green Hornet“ was introduced by its famous theme song, “The Flight of the Bumble Bee”. The George W. Trendle radio production was first heard on WXYZ radio in Detroit, the same radio station where “The Lone Ranger” had originated 3 years previous. The title character in “The Green Hornet” was really named Britt Reid, and was supposedly the great nephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. The Hornet stayed on the air for 16 years.
Beginning on April 12, 1938, the station supplied the series to the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and then to NBC Blue and its successors, the Blue Network and ABC, from November 16, 1939, through September 8, 1950. It returned from September 10 to December 5, 1952.
➦In 1954...Major Edwin Armstrong - founder of FM radio - died at age 63, an apparent suicide.
Edwin Armstrong
He has been called "the most prolific and influential inventor in radio history". He invented the regenerative circuit while he was an undergraduate and patented it in 1914, followed by the super-regenerative circuit in 1922, and the superheterodyne receiver in 1918. Armstrong was also the inventor of modern frequency modulation (FM) radio transmission.
Armstrong was born in New York City in 1890. He studied at Columbia University. During his third year at Columbia, Armstrong came up with his first major invention: the first radio amplifier. He had learned how Lee DeForest's radio tube worked, then he redesigned it by taking the electromagnetic waves that came from a radio transmission and repeatedly feeding the signal back through the tube. Each time, the signal's power would increase as much as 20,000 times a second.
This phenomenon, which Armstrong called "regeneration," was an extremely important discovery in the early days of radio. With this development, radio engineers no longer needed 20-ton generators to get their stations on the air. Armstrong's single-circuit design provided the key to the continuous-wave transmitter that is at the core of radio operations today. He graduated with his B.S. in engineering in 1913. He patented his creation and licensed it to the Marconi corporation, in 1914.
Soon after graduation, Armstrong was sent to Paris to serve in World War I. There he came up with his second major invention, the superheterodyne receiver, after he had been put on a project to improve ability to intercept shortwave enemy communications. The superheterodyne receiver is still part of virtually every tuner in today's radios, televisions and radars.
In 1920, Westinghouse bought Armstrong's patent for the superheterodyne receiver, and started up the nation's first radio station, KDKA, in Pittsburgh.
Radio became very popular at about this time, and more and more stations came to the airwaves. The Radio Corporation of America, or RCA soon bought up all of Westinghouse's radio patents, as well as the patents of other competitors.
By then, Armstrong was back at Columbia University working as a professor. In 1923 he married Marion MacInnes, secretary to the president of RCA, David Sarnoff. Later that decade he became embroiled in a corporate war for control of radio patents. This continued through the early part of the 1930s, and Armstrong was unsuccessful in most of his court battles. Meanwhile, however, he pursued a solution to the problem of static in radio. By the late 1920's he had decided the only solution was to design an entirely new system. In 1933 he presented the wide-band frequency modulation (FM) system, which gave clear reception even in storms and offered the highest fidelity sound yet heard in radio. The system also allowed for a single carrier wave to transmit two radio programs at once. This development was called "multiplexing."
In 1940 Armstrong got a permit for the first FM station, which he established in Alpine, New Jersey. In 1941 the Franklin Institute awarded Armstrong the Franklin Medal, one of the science community's highest honors.
Armstrong went on to prove that FM was capable of dual-channel transmissions, allowing for stereo sound. This capability of FM could also be used to send two separate non-stereo programs, or a facsimile and telegraph message simultaneously in a process called multiplexing. He even successfully bounced a FM signal off the moon, something not possible with AM signals.
According to damninteresting.com, AM radio was big business in the pre-television days, and there were powerful people who wanted things to stay as they were. Innovation only meant smaller profits for them. At that time there was no more influential man in radio media than the founder of RCA, David Sarnoff. Known as "The General," Sarnoff controlled all the technical aspects of radio; he also created the NBC and ABC television networks. He was also an important early supporter of television and developed the current NTSC standard for TV that we have used for over 60 years.
Regenerative Circuit 1912
Seeking to kill FM radio before it could threaten his profits, Sarnoff's company successfully lobbied the FCC to have the FM spectrum moved from Armstrong’s frequencies to the ones we use today: 88 to 108 MHz. The FCC ruling said that the 40 MHz band was to be used for the new television broadcasts, in which RCA had a heavy stake. RCA also had an ally in AT&T, which actively supported the frequency move because the loss of FM relaying stations forced Armstrong's Yankee Network stations to buy wired links from AT&T. The deck was stacked against the future of FM broadcasting.
Matters became worse when Armstrong became entangled in a new patent suit with RCA and NBC, who were using FM technology without paying royalties. The cost of the new legal battle compounded the financial burden that the problems with the Yankee Network had caused. His health and temperament deteriorated as the FM lawsuit dominated his life. His wife of thirty-one years, unable to cope with his worsening personality and financial strain, left him in November of 1953. RCA's greater financial resources crushed Armstrong's legal defences, and he was left penniless, alone, and distraught.
On February 1, 1954, Armstrong's body was discovered on the roof of a three-story wing of his apartment building. In despair, he had thrown himself out the window of his thirteenth-floor New York City apartment sometime during the night. He died believing he was a failure, and that FM radio would never become accepted.
Through the years Armstrong’s widow would bring twenty-one patent infringement suits against many companies, including RCA. She eventually won a little over $10 million in damages. But it would take further decades for FM radio to reach its potential.
Following Armstrong’s death, television’s emerging popularity ended radio’s golden years. Slowly, listeners learned that FM radio was clearly better for musical high fidelity than AM broadcasts.
Radios started to have an FM band included with the AM band in the late 1950s and 1960s. By the 1970s, FM audience size surpassed that of AM, and the gap has been growing ever since.
He held 42 patents and received numerous awards, including the first Institute of Radio Engineers now IEEE Medal of Honor, the French Legion of Honor, the 1941 Franklin Medal and the 1942 Edison Medal. He is a member of the National Inventors Hall.
This is an audio recording of the March 6, 1954 final broadcast of Major Edwin Armstrong's experimental FM station at Alpine, NJ. This broadcast came a month after the inventor of FM radio jumped to his death.
The audio track is accompanied by historical photos and footage
➦In 1968...The Tet Offensive began in SourthVietnam and 9 military broadcasters were attacked in their quarters in Hue. They held out for 5 days until a final assault set the building afire and they fled. Three were killed, 5 became POWs for 5 years. Only one escaped. This is the aftermath. Photo from AFVNVETS.NET.
➦In 1992...Radio/TV Sportscaster Howard Cosell retired from his ABC Radio duties at age 73. He would pass away little more than 3 years later.
➦In 2000...73-year-old Peter Tripp, who wowed radio audiences with his mid-1950s Top-40 countdown record shows on WHB in Kansas City, and later at New York City's WMGM 1050 AM, died January 31, 2000, at Northridge California Hospital, following an apparent stroke suffered at his home in West Hills, California.
Billing himself as "The curly-headed kid in the third row", he became one of the nation's best known Top40 countdown personalities beginning in 1954 at Todd Storz' WHB in Kansas City, and at Loew's Theatres' WMGM in New York City from 1955 through 1960 with his "Your Hits Of The Week" program.
Lee Rodgers
➦In 2013… Lee Rodgers, a conservative talk-radio host who was a constant on San Francisco airwaves for almost three decades, died at age 75. He had been undergoing experimental heart surgery at the time. In the early 1990’s, between Bay area assignments, he spent a year as talk show host at Seattle’s KIRO Radio.
He was born and raised in poverty near Memphis, Tennessee, lost part of a leg at age 13 working in timber industry. He began his broadcasting career at WIND in 1963 as a disc jockey and sportscaster, followed by stints with radio stations in St. Louis, Miami and Chicago.
After 10 years with KGO San Francisco, Rodgers went north to Seattle's KIRO radio. One year later, he returned to the Bay Area where "the most interesting and spirited dialogue in talk radio takes place."
➦In 2014…San Francisco radio veteran Chris Edwards died after an extended illness at age 72.
Chris Edwards
He had started in Bay Area radio in 1968 with the morning show at the original KYA-AM, a highly rated Top 40 station. Later, he hosted KYA afternoons from 2 to 6. In the 1980s, he hosted the “Chris Edwards Solid Gold Time Machine,” Sunday nights from 6 to 10, at K-101 where he was a sales executive.
Born Edward Christian Reinholtz on Nov. 10, 1941 in Mount Vernon, New York. He loved radio from a young age, earning an amateur ham radio license as a teenager, and hosted his first radio show, "Moonglow with Edwards," on WRUF at the University of Florida. It was there that he took the on-air name Chris Edwards, which combined his middle and first names.
Edwards moved to KSFO-AM/KYA-FM as an account executive, also hosting a Saturday morning show until the end of 1991. For the next 20 years, he worked in sales at radio stations including KFRC, KABL and KKSF. He retired from KGO/KSFO in the summer of 2011.
Harry Wayne Casey is 71
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Composer Philip Glass is 85.
Actor Stuart Margolin (“The Rockford Files”) is 82.
Bluesman Charlie Musselwhite is 78.
Actor Jonathan Banks (“Better Call Saul,” ″Breaking Bad”) is 75.
Actor Glynn Turman (“The Wire,” ″A Different World”) is 75.
Minnie Driver is 52
Singer Harry Wayne Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band is 71.
Singer John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) of the Sex Pistols is 66.
Actor Anthony LaPaglia (“Without a Trace,” ″Murder One”) is 63.
Actor Kelly Lynch is 63. Singer-guitarist Lloyd Cole is 61.
Actor Paulette Braxton (“The Parkers,” ″In The House”) is 57.
Bassist Al Jaworski of Jesus Jones is 56.
Actor Minnie Driver is 52.
Actor Portia de Rossi (“Arrested Development,” ″Ally McBeal”) is 49.
Comedian Bobby Moynihan (“Saturday Night Live”) is 45.
Actor Kerry Washington (“Scandal,” ″Ray”) is 45.
Singer Justin Timberlake is 41.
Actor Tyler Ritter (“The McCarthys”) is 37.
Singer Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line is 35.
Singer Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons is 35.
Actor Joel Courtney (“Super 8,” “The Kissing Booth”) is 26.
Howard Hesseman, the actor best known for playing DJ Dr. Johnny Fever in “WKRP in Cincinnati,” has died, his manager of 35 years, Robbie Kass of Kass Management, confirms. He was 81, reports The Wrap.
“Unfortunately, I can confirm that Howard passed away on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Los Angeles,” Kass said, adding that Howard underwent colon surgery several weeks ago and suffered complications of the surgery.
Hesseman starred in all 90 episodes of “WKRP in Cincinnati,” from 1978 to 1982, and returned to star in nine episodes of the series revival, “The New WKRP in Cincinnati,” in the 90s. His character’s real name was John Caravella, and he was very big in the anti-disco movement.
As “Dr. Johnny Fever,” Hesseman notched two nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, in 1980 and 1981.
Following “WKRP in Cincinnati,” Hesseman landed two more beloved television roles. He starred as teacher Charlie Moore on the ABC series “Head of the Class” from 1986 to 1990, and as Sam Royer, the man who married Ann Romano (Bonnie Franklin) on “One Day at a Time” from 1982 to 1984.
On film, Hesseman would go on to be known as Captain Pete Lassard, in “Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.”
Over the course of his career, Hesseman had small guest appearances in several beloved shows, including “That 70s Show,” “ER” and “Boston Legal,” among several others. His last credited TV role came in 2017, where he appeared in two episodes of the ABC comedy “Fresh Off The Boat.”
