Boston Radio: Bloomberg To Launch On WXKS-AM

Bloomberg Radio wants to become the pulse of the Hub’s business and finance community with a new 24/7 station that launches 12:01 a.m. Friday on WXKS 1200 AM.

“There’s been a retrenchment in business coverage and we hope to come in there and fill that void,” Al Mayers, head of Bloomberg Radio and a Melrose native, told the Boston Herald. “Boston’s a great center for the things that our customers are very interested in.”

Bloomberg has 26 journalists in Boston who will be contributing regularly to show content, Mayers said. The station format will be guest-driven and will feature interviews anchored by eight hosts, he added.

The station will provide a signal for those with HD radio on 94.5FM-HD2. Bloomberg Radio has also formed a content partnership with Bentley University, which will provide the station access to faculty and staff for content and commentary.

WXKS, which is owned by Clear Channel Communications, has gone through several AM formats, including progressive talk and comedy.

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Tampa Radio: Sportsradio WHFS-FM Struggles For Listeners

It started, as many major broadcast projects do, with a flurry of optimism, a display of resources and a high-profile news conference.

But according to Eric Deggans at tampabay.com,  about seven months after debuting the Tampa Bay market's first FM sports talk radio station, officials at CBS Radio are downplaying a restructuring that has seen the departure of the station's first program director, the firing of one on-air personality and the abandonment of its 24/7 live and local format.

At the start of February, nationally syndicated sports talk star Jim Rome began airing on WHFS Sportsradio 98.7 the Fan, ending the station's live and local programming around the clock.

Mike Pepper, the program director who developed the inaugural lineup, left the company last week after moving to sales a few months ago.

And Todd Wright, a former host with ESPN Radio and Yahoo Sports Radio, was also let go, making room to move Nanci Donnellan, the Fabulous Sports Babe, up from an overnight time slot to 7 p.m.

Arbitron Inc. says WHFS's average share of listeners across its entire broadcast day has dropped 41 percent, from 1.7 when it was known as Play 98.7 in January 2012 to 0.7 in January 2013.

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What’s Up With Ben And Skin?

Since leaving KESN ESPN 103.3 FM  D/FW last week (see original posting, Click Here) fan listeners have been missing their guys.

In case you missed it we declined a final offer from ESPN on a new deal. We're parting ways w/ them for now. Future is unwritten. Stay tuned
— Ben Rogers (@BenRogers) February 25, 2013

Could the reference ‘for now” indicate the door is open for a deal after all? If not, something seems to happening with legal eagles being involved.  Maybe they’re looking for an non-compete out.

@jrobb2344 @ammonsme @skinwade Guys, in situations like this, that's how it goes. Lawyers involved, etc. if u can be patient, it's all good
— Ben Rogers (@BenRogers) February 26, 2013

Well, the wait may end sooner-than-later.

S.A. Radio: John Lisle Gets KZEP-FM Morning Show

John Lisle

San Antonio radio legend John Lisle  will return to morning radio as a rock jock again…but without longtime partner Steve Hahn.

“The John Lisle Show” will debut on classic rock’s KZEP-FM (104.5) on Monday; his show will run from 6 to 10 a.m.

“We’re extremely pleased to welcome John Lisle to the KZEP family,” said Paula Newell, operations manager at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment San Antonio. “John has a great ability to connect with listeners and has a rich history here in San Antonio. He will definitely give KZEP listeners the jump-start they need to get the day rolling.”

Jeanne Jakle at mysanantonio.com writes Lisle’s stints of subbing for Charlie Parker on another Clear Channel station – WOAI-1200 AM –  paid off for the ousted radio star.

Lisle with former KISS radio partner Hahn and former female sidekick Kelley Kendall reached local legend status after hosting mornings for rock station KISS-FM for 20 years.

It broke many a fan’s heart when the “Lisle and Hahn” show was given the boot  more than a year ago. The station cited lagging ratings as the reason.

Eventually, the morning KISS gig went to a syndicated radio show led by fun-and-games personality Billy Madison.

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Philly Radio: WMMR’s Preston Elliot Saves Choking Son

Preston Elliot

Choking is the leading cause of injury and death among young children. Preston Elliot, who’s on the Preston and Steve radio show, says it happened to his son during dinner Monday.

The WMMR 93.3 FM personality shared the scary family episode with listeners on his morning show. He said it happened during the meal with his wife and three children.

“It was just confusion very quickly, and I realized, okay, he’s choking,” explained Preston to KYW3 TV.

It was his 10-year-old son, Carter, who wasn’t breathing. Preston jumped into action, demonstrating on Stahl what he did — the Heimlich maneuver.

But the first few times didn’t work.

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ISPs Now Monitoring for Copyright Infringement

The nation’s major internet service providers on Monday said they are beginning to roll out an initiative to disrupt internet access for online copyright scofflaws.

According to wired.com, the so-called “Copyright Alert System” is backed by the President Barack Obama administration and was pushed heavily by record labels and Hollywood studios.

The plan, more than four years in the making, includes participation by AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. Others could soon join.

After four offenses, the historic plan calls for these residential internet providers to initiate so-called “mitigation measures” (.pdf) that might include reducing internet speeds and redirecting a subscriber’s service to an “educational” landing page about infringement.

The plan does not prevent content owners from suing internet subscribers. The Copyright Act allows damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.

The Center for Copyright Information, the new group running the program, maintains it is not designed to terminate online accounts for repeat offenders. However, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act demands that internet service providers kick off repeat copyright scofflaws.

The program monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing services via internet snoop MarkMonitor of San Francisco.

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R.I.P.: Allman Brothers Guitarist Dan Toler

Dan Toler

Guitarist Dan Toler, of the rock band The Allman Brothers, died on Monday after a long battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He was 65.

Known as “Dangerous Dan,” Toler was a member of The Allman Brothers from 1979 until 1982. He played guitar on the band’s hit albums, including “Enlightened Rouges” and “Brothers of the Road.”

Toler also played in several other groups, such as Dickey Betts & Great Southern, along with his late brother David “Frankie” Toler. The brothers also played together in the Gregg Allman band and eventually formed The Toler Brothers Band in the 90s.

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Funeral Held for Mindy McCready

Gayle Inge will always remember her daughter as a little girl in a car seat belting tunes into a hairbrush.

Mindy McCready, country music singer and North Fort Myers native, always wanted to be a star, Inge said.

According to the Fort Myers, FL News-Press, Inge addressed a crowd of mourners Tuesday during her daughter’s funeral at Crossroads Baptist Church on Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers.

As a child, McCready charged neighbors admission to watch her perform in the backyard, Inge said.

Friends and family shared countless anecdotes that illuminated McCready’s witty, spunky personality, and showed how much fun they had with her. But they addressed the singer’s darker side as well.

McCready died Feb. 17 in Arkansas of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She was 37.

McCready’s boyfriend David Wilson – father of their infant son, Zayne – died about a month before McCready, also of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Inge said she often texted McCready to comfort her after Wilson’s death. She knew her daughter was in a dark place, and thought and hoped she would come home to Southwest Florida to be with her family.

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Report: Recorded Music Industry Shows Growth

It’s been a long time coming, but the global recorded music industry is finally “well on the road to recovery,” declared Frances Moore, chief executive, IFPI, at the London launch of IFPI’s annual Digital Music Report.

In 2012, strong growth in digital sales and services helped fuel a 0.3% rise in global recorded music revenues – the first year of industry growth since 1999, says IFPI.

BillboardBiz reports the Digital Music Report, which was unveiled today (Feb. 26) at IFPI's London offices, placed total digital revenues for 2012 at $5.6 billion, up 9% on 2011’s figure of $5.2 billion. Digital now accounts for more than a third of total industry revenues (34%) with digital revenues making up more than 50% of all recorded music income in Norway, Sweden and the U.S.

This year's report also stated that:

Subscription services saw a 44% rise in the number of fee-paying customers, with 20 million paying subscribers globally in 2012. Last year, subscription services are expected to have accounted for over 10% of total digital music revenues for the first time.

Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” was the top-selling single of 2012 moving more than 12.5 million units worldwide. Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” featuring Kimbra was the second best-selling single of 2012, moving 11.8 million units. Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was at No. 3 with worldwide sales of 9.7 million units.

Adele’s “21” is the first album to top the global albums chart for two consecutive years since IFPI began reporting global best-sellers in 2001. The all-conquering, Grammy-winning set sold 8.3 million units in 2012 and 18.1 million in 2011. The next best-selling artist album globally was Taylor Swift’s “Red,” moving 5.2 million units worldwide. One Direction’s first two studio albums “Up All Night” and “Take Me Home” were the No. 3 and No. 4 best-selling albums of 2012 globally, selling 4.5 million units and 4.4. million, respectively.

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Country Artists Set for DWTS

Kelli Pickler

With season 16 of Dancing With the Stars just weeks away, 12 new cast members – including former Olympic champs Dorothy Hamill and Aly Raisman, as well as Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump – were announced on Good Morning America Tuesday.

People Mag reports there may also be a country music rivalry in the ballroom: two singers, Wynonna Judd and Kellie Pickler, will dance this season.

Here's a full list of the season 16 pairs announced Tuesday:

• Boxer Victor Ortiz and new pro Lindsay Arnold

• Singer Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough

• Country star Wynonna Judd and Tony Dovolani

• Soap star Ingo Rademacher and Kym Johnson

• Disney Channel star Zendaya Coleman and Valentin Chmerkovskiy

• Comedian Andy Dick and Sharna Burgess

• Reality star Lisa Vanderpump and new pro Gleb Savchenko

• Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and Mark Ballas

• Olympic skater Dorothy Hamill and Tristan MacManus

• Comedian D.L. Hughley and Cheryl Burke

• NFL star Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff

The season premieres March 18 on ABC.

ATT, GM Planning Smartphone On Wheels

AT&T and General Motors said on Monday that they were working together to add wireless service in 2014 to most Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in the United States and Canada.

According to  The Bits Blog at nytimes.com, the companies have not determined how much the service will cost, but AT&T said it would make its latest network technology, 4G LTE, available for the vehicles.

“The car is going to be a smartphone with four wheels,” Glenn Mr. Lurie AT&T’s president of amerging enterprises said in an interview. “The opportunities are endless when you think about adding an LTE pipe to a car.” He said potential apps might display real-time traffic on a map or perform enhanced vehicle diagnostics, giving consumers a deeper understanding of what is happening inside their cars. Children sitting in the back seat might be able to stream Netflix over the wireless connection.

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Source: fizziology

Report: Radio Growing Share In Digital Revenue

Radio gained digital share in 2012, and it looks like many stations are building on that momentum in 2013, according to a report issued by Borrell Associates on behalf of the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Moreover, there appears to be significant profit in local digital sales operations, the report states.

The report, Benchmarking: Local Radio Stations' Online Revenues, says that radio grew its online ad revenues 22 percent last year, outpacing the 20 percent overall increase in local online ad expenditures. That was enough to achieve a share increase of two-tenths of a point, to 2.0 percent.

The report is based on Borrell's annual industry-wide survey of more than 6,200 local online operations, including more than 2,000 radio stations in 527 clusters. This report analyzes data derived from three principal sources: media ad revenue, local business ad spending, and a special radio manager survey asking questions about digital revenue resources, sales methods, expenses and other digital operations.

The growth signaled a boost for the radio industry, which had lost digital advertising market share for three years against aggressive sales from newspaper, TV, Yellow Pages and Internet pure-play competitors. The results offer strong evidence that radio is turning the corner in digital sales, according to the report.

Overall, radio sellers closed $370.7 million in local online advertising last year. Borrell expects the number to pass $420 million this year as many radio groups double down on digital sales efforts.

Much of that growth will be fueled by stations budgeting for unusually high growth. In a survey of 1,075 radio stations administered in January as part of the report, 17 percent said they expect growth of 30 percent or more this year.

There's more good news for radio: Stations are diverting their focus from banner advertising and branching out to sell other, more popular formats like email advertising, paid search and even video ads. While banner ads were the largest single source of revenue for 32 percent of the stations who participated in the survey, the number dropped to 22 percent for 2013.

The full study is available to RAB members on RAB.com, by clicking here. A free webinar featuring the study results will also be presented by the RAB and Gordon Borrell, on Thursday, March 7, at 10AM CST. To register for the webinar, follow this link.

Arbitron's Cross-Platform, Mobile Revenues Rise

While still a very small part of its business, Arbitron more than doubled revenues for its cross-platform and mobile measurement efforts in 2012.

According to David Goetzl at mediapost.com, some have suggested that Arbitron continuing to work on projects in the cross-platform arena as a stand-alone company is a plus for the industry and reason to oppose its potential acquisition by Nielsen.

Arbitron -- whose portable people meter (PPM) technology offers a variety of prospects outside its core radio measurement business -- saw cross-platform/mobile revenues climb to $3.2 million last year, up from $1.5 million in 2011.

On the radio front, CEO Sean Creamer stated that last year contracts were renewed with several leading clients, which included a deal with Cumulus. The company recently announced it would work with Cumulus on cross-platform initiatives, which may include streaming audio. Nielsen has said the Arbitron deal would move it into that arena, partly because of the nearly completed phase-in of contracted PPM price increases.

Overall, radio revenue increased in 2012 "primarily" due to the PPM-based service, although no exact figures were cited.

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Report: Google Subscription Music Service Coming

Google Inc. , developer of the Android mobile-phone platform, plans to start a subscription music-streaming service to challenge Spotify Ltd., said two people with knowledge of the situation.

According to Bloomberg Business Week, negotiations are under way with major record labels to license their music, said the people, who sought anonymity because the talks are confidential. Google, which also owns the YouTube video website, is also discussing renewing deals that cover the use of songs in videos made by consumers, they said.

The worldwide service is targeted for a third quarter start, said one of the people. The effort would strengthen Google’s ties to consumers through its Android software, the most popular operating system in smartphones, as consumers access more music and videos on the go. Spotify lists 5 million paying subscribers and 20 million users of its ad-supported service in 17 countries.

Apple, maker of the iPhone, is also planning a music service that would challenge Spotify in streaming and Pandora Media Inc. in Web-based radio, people with knowledge of the situation said in September.

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