Mobile Radio: So.'Bama Sports Inks Deal With CCM+E

South Alabama football, as well as its men's basketball and baseball, will have a new radio home this season.

The university announced a new contract this morning with Lite Mix WMXC 99.9 FM Lite Mix as the radio home for Jaguar football games and NewsRadio WNTM 710 AM for broadcasts of men's basketball and baseball games. This marks a departure from sports radio station WNSP 105.5 FM, which was the home of Jaguar football its first five seasons and men's basketball and baseball for several years.

The contract with Clear Channel Media + Entertainment provides for live coverage of all games involving the three Jaguar sports programs noted. The program's coaches' shows will also air on 710 AM.

South Alabama and Clear Channel Media + Entertainment signed a three-year agreement with the respective radio stations that includes options to extend the contracts at the conclusion of the three-year period.

Every South Alabama athletics broadcast will be available worldwide on all mobile devices at no charge via the Clear Channel Media + Entertainment's iHeartRadio platform, including iHeartRadio.com.

FCC Receives 647K Net Neutrality Comments

We’ve received about 647k #netneutrality comments so far. Keep your input coming -- 1st round of comments wraps up July 15.
— Tom Wheeler (@TomWheelerFCC) July 11, 2014

The Federal Communications Commission has so far received about 647,000 comments regarding net neutrality as the first round of public comments comes to a close, tweeted FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Friday.

The comments are in response to the open Internet rules the FCC approved by a 3-2 vote in May, which seek to set regulations on how Internet service providers (ISP) can distribute their capacity to customers.

The NY Daily News reports the controversial rules as they are currently proposed would ban ISPs from slowing down Web access to consumers, but may allow content providers, such as Netflix, to pay for more reliable Internet access to those same consumers.

Wheeler has said the rules would not divide the Internet between what he says are “haves” and “have-nots,” which is a sentiment those protesting the rules disagree with.

Following the close of the initial 60-day public comment period, a period for reply comments will open through Sept. 10. A final vote on the proposed rules is not expected to take place until the end of the year.

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FCC Votes to Spend $2B On WiFi In Schools

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a plan to spend $1 billion per year to provide Wi-Fi service in schools and libraries, according to The Hill.

The plan from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler passed in a 3-2 vote after an eleventh-hour compromise was reached to secure the votes of the commission’s two Democrats.

“Because of what we do today, 10 million kids will be connected next year who otherwise wouldn’t. That’s a good day’s work,” Wheeler said at Friday’s open meeting.

The Wi-Fi plan has proved controversial at the agency and on Capitol Hill.

Republicans warn that the agency will need to increase fees on U.S. phone bills to pay for the spending in Wheeler’s plan. Democrats have said the FCC should increase connectivity funding for schools and libraries across the board and worry that the Wi-Fi focus will take away funding for basic connectivity in schools and libraries.

Mignon Clyburn

Wheeler and the FCC’s two Democrats tweaked his original plan to ensure the Wi-Fi-only funding does not take away from funding on traditional broadband.

“It certainly is not perfect, and there are key aspects I would have approached differently, but the order makes key improvements,” FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (D) said.

The $1 billion in annual funding would come in addition to the annual $2.4 billion budget for the FCC’s E-Rate program.

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Nielsen Expands Communications Team With Key Hire

Andrew McCaskill

Nielsen today announced that Andrew McCaskill has joined Nielsen as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications. He will report to Chief Communications Officer Laura Nelson. In this role, McCaskill will have global responsibility for Nielsen’s corporate media relations efforts. He will be based in New York City.

“Drew brings a breadth and depth of experience that will be invaluable for Nielsen as we advance our communications efforts,” said Nelson. “We’re pleased to welcome him to the team.”

McCaskill brings more than 15 years of experience to Nielsen, most recently serving as a senior vice president in the New York office of public relations firm Weber Shandwick, where he led global communications strategy for numerous Fortune 500 companies and consumer brands.

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, he spent 13 years with William Mills Agency, managing operational and financial performance for a portfolio of insurance, banking and mortgage clients such as LexisNexis, Xerox Mortgage, TransUnion and Vanilla VISA Gift Cards. He developed and executed comprehensive communications strategies and media relations campaigns for more than 100 technology companies and financial institutions. Earlier in his career, he held roles with Turner Broadcasting and The Coca-Cola Company.

Report: Nielsen Expanding In Texas, FL

UPDATE 6AM TUESDAY 7/15/2014: Nielsen is also expanding its Tampa Bay outbound call center team and plans to hire more than 300 agents. The new hires will be obtaining data for client-specific Nielsen studies, according to a statement. Information about the available positions is posted on Nielsen's website. . The company's facilities are at 501 Brooker Creek Blvd., Oldsmar.

Earlier Posting...

Nielsen, a media and marketing research firm, said Thursday that it plans to expand its call center in Dallas and hire more than 500 employees through the fall, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The Dutch-owned company inherited the telemarketing center at 8585 N. Stemmons Freeway last year when it acquired rival Arbitron Inc. About 250 people have worked there for more than six years.

Nielsen said it plans to double the size of the call center by adding roughly 18,000 square feet as it “shifts more volume to Dallas to support broader Nielsen call-center functions.” The company’s website shows two other U.S. call centers, in San Antonio and Oldsmar, Fla.

Nielsen said the jobs will include research interviewers, team leaders and various support staff, but it declined to specify a pay range for the jobs.

North Texas is a magnet for call-center operations.

“Dallas has been attracting a tremendous number of call centers, back-office centers, shared centers — whatever they’re called,” said Susan Arledge, managing principal of real estate firm Cresa Dallas. “It’s big names you’ve heard of and names you’ve never heard of.”

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Atlanta Radio: Report..WKHX Goes More Current

In recent months, the once dominant Atlanta country station  WKHX 101.5 FM Kicks has gone back to being almost exclusively current based after a foray mixing in older tunes from the 1990s, according to Rodney Ho at ajc.com.

The Cumulus station is now matching-up as closely as possible to CCM+E's WUBL 94.9 FM The Bull, which has been the leading country station in the ratings almost across the board since last November.

This past June, the Bull had its biggest month in its eight-year history, landing at No. 5 among all radio stations with a 5.7 rating compared to a 3.5 for Kicks, tied for 14th place, based on Nielsen Audio ratings.

Among 25 to 54 year olds, the Bull ranked in third place.  Kicks came in 13th. A year ago in June, both stations were tied for ninth place with a 4.2 rating.

When the Bull arrived in late 2006, Kicks had no trouble beating back the upstart for much of the battle. While the Bull began pulling in younger listeners over time, Kicks maintained its overall lead with only a few exceptions until late last year.

Kicks first began salting in 1990s cuts more heavily in the fall of 2011 as a way to differentiate itself from the Bull. For a time, it was playing three or four songs from the era of Faith Hill, Travis Tritt and Garth Brooks, or about 20 percent of all songs spun, according to Mediabase 24/7, which tracks radio airplay.

But starting last year, the station began trimming back the 1990s to one per hour with about 10 percent of songs spun prior to 2000. Then earlier this year, the 1990s were down to 6 percent of songs spun. By the spring, Kicks had even cut back songs from the 2000-09 era. Just 17 percent of all songs spun were more than four years old.

Now? Ho writes there is just a single song per hour prior to 2010, most from the 2000s.

Surprisingly, Kicks is now slightly more current than the Bull, which spun 14 percent of its songs from 1990 to 2009.

WKHX 101.5 FM (100Kw)..WUBL 94.9 FM (78Kw)

Ho also notes Kicks runs more ads than the Bull. Both stations usually have two commercial stop sets per hour but Kicks averages six to seven minutes per break while the Bull typically runs five to six.

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Boston Radio: Red Sox A Snoozer For Sports Talk

Are the swooning Red Sox dragging sports-talk radio down with them??? That appears to be the case, according to the new spring ratings book.

The Boston Herald reports Entercom-owned WEEI 93.7 FM and CBS’ WBZ-FM 98.5 FM The Sports Hub both took some hits in April, May and June with ’EEI — the station that broadcasts the Sox games — getting no bump from the returning World Champs, and The Sports Hub losing audience overall but really tanking in June.

According to the numbers for both stations’ target audience, men 25-54 years old, WEEI stayed pretty flat in the ratings for the three months ending in June. WEEI — which is choking on the $17 million it pays per year for the rights to air the Sox games — picked up nothing in the early part of the season, when the team should still have had some leftover World Series goodwill. The nighttime ratings, when most of the games are broadcast, were also down across the board.

Over at The Sports Hub, there was good news and bad news: The station finished No. 1 in the target demographic in the all-important morning and afternoon drive times. But The Sports Hub lost ground every month compared with last year, and ratings were way down in June — cut nearly in half from June 2013!

WEEI GM Phil Zachary says he doesn’t think the Sox’ poor play is translating to bad sports talk numbers.

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Report: Apple Eyeing New Direction For Ads

Jimmy Iovine

Madison Avenue is betting that Apple’s advertising business is headed for a shake-up — and according to The NY Post, they know just the man to do it.

Ad executives salivating over the juicy prospect point to signs that the tech giant is tiring of longtime creative agency TBWA Media Labs after 30 years and is ready to put its entire account up for grabs.

What’s more, the industry is buzzing that Apple will look to music maestro Jimmy Iovine, the boss of newly acquired Beats headphones and its sister music-streaming service, to help it regain its marketing mojo.

The fashionable Beats brand, which Apple acquired for $3 billion, outmaneuvered official World Cup sponsor Sony with its “Game Before the Game” ad campaign. So many soccer stars sported Beats that Sony had them banned from the arena.

Although Apple hasn’t put its ad account up for a formal review, critics say such a move can’t come soon enough for the iPhone maker.

Smartphone rival Samsung, which turned up the heat last year by lampooning Apple in a series of clever ads, is back with another mocking campaign. This one shows iPhone users huddled around power outlets trying to charge up their devices while Samsung users go by on their merry way.

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Nielsen Releases Final Batch Of June PPMs

Nielsen released Friday the last batch of June PPM results for 12 markets:

• Austin
• Milwaukee-Racine
• Indianapolis
• Ralegh-Durham
• Norfolk-Viriginia Beach-Newport News
• Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket RI
• Nashville
• Greensboro-Winston/Salem-High Point
• West Palm Beach-Boca Raton
• Jacksonville FL
• Memphis
• Hartford-New Britain-Middletown CT

To see the Topline results for Nielsen subscribers: Click Here.

Anthony: "I Will Never Apologize"

Anthony Cumia

The Anthony Cumia non-apology tour landed at the late-night satirical talk show Red Eye on Fox News Channel over the weekend in his first TV appearance since he lost his radio gig, according to The Inquisitr.

Satellite radio provider SiriusXM fired the outspoken Cumia, the co-host of the Opie & Anthony Show, after a racist and obscenity filled Twitter rant following what he claims was a mugging.

The tweets have since been deleted.

In defense of what went down on social media, Anthony Cumia told the Red Eye panel that he was in Times Square taking photographs at 4 am when an altercation with a woman occurred. He admitted that in retrospect that he should have cooled off first before sending out the tweets. “I defy anyone to be that angry, especially after an assault, and come off reasonable,” he added.

Under questioning from panelist Andy Levy, Cumia insisted his tweets weren’t racist. “I was talking about people [who] instantly go to violence … I walked down the street. She called me a white m—-r f—-r and started punching me in the face … so I addressed her and others [who] act like that.”


Cumia also said that SiriusXM acted in a hypocritical fashion in terminating him because he’s been engaging in the same freewheeling commentary and earthy language on the radio network for 10 years. “To fire me for something on social media is kind of hypocritical, I think. There wasn’t even any outrage. No one approached SiriusXM and said ‘Oh my God, you’ve got to fire him.’ It was such a kneejerk reaction in this day and age …”

Cumia added that he would never offer up an apology for his social media rant, even if it would mean reinstatement by SiriusXM.

Anthony Cumia is launching a podcast starting August 4. Opie is likely to continue broadcasting Opie without Anthony with show fixture and popular comic Jim Norton taking over the co-hosting duties.

Indy Radio Rallies Hundreds To End Violence

Public officials, faith leaders and Indianapolis radio stations united Saturday against the recent spike of violence.

The "Indy United on the Circle" event was held at Monument Circle in an unprecedented effort to send a message to the community that the violence must stop.

Mayor Greg Ballard, Congressman Andre Carson, community leaders and public safety officials said the event was a call for peace to support the city's law enforcement officers. The Indianapolis Power and Light company building at Monument Circle displayed blue lights Saturday in solidarity.

The event followed an especially violent week in Indianapolis that claimed the life of Metro Police Officer Perry Renn .



All Indianapolis radio stations including Emmis, Entercom, Clear Channel, Cumulus and Radio One affiliates, WTTS and WEDJ were listed as the event's hosts.

NYC Radio: Scott Shannon Hosting T-J Martell Golf Classic

Bid now @charitybuzz to play golf with @ScottShannonCBS @HudsonNational! http://t.co/PympsPWvzw #charitygolf #ScottShannon
— TJ MartellFoundation (@tjmartell) July 14, 2014

Morning Personality Scott Shannon of WCBS 101.1 FM will be hosting the T.J. Martell Foundation Golf Classic on July 28 at the Hudson National Golf Club.

Tony Martell, a music executive, formed the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research after his son succumbed to leukemia. So far, the foundation has raised over $260 million.

Lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker, will be on hand for a special guest performance at the event.

Both Scott and Darius will be auctioning off two spots to join them in a round of golf. The money will go to benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation.

To place a bid to play golf with either Scott’s or Darius’ teams: Click Here

Albany Radio: R.I.P. Longtime Radio Exec Bob Ausfeld

Bob Ausfeld

Albany Boradcasting General Manager Bob Ausfeld died Sunday night, from complications following heart transplant surgery last week.

Over the past three decades, Ausfeld has led several area radio stations, including the former "K-Lite," WKLI 100.9 FM; rock station WPYX 106.5 FM, better known as PYX 106; and country powerhouse WGNA 107.7 FM.

Ausfeld left Townsqauare Media in late 2011 and began working as the general manager for Albany Broadcasting shortly after.

Bob Ausfeld has had heart issues for the past 15 years, but about two years ago it got bad enough to warrant a heart pump. He has been on the transplant list for the past two years, traveling to Boston every few weeks for testing and for adjustments to the heart pump.


#bobstrong Tweets

S-C Radio: R.I.P. Upstate Radio Personality Bill Drake

Bill Drake

For the past 38 years, William Bennett “Bill” Drake was the voice of Spartanburg.

Drake died Friday from cancer. He was 73, according to
goupstate.com.

Drake knew his life's goal was to be on the radio.  His first broadcast was on Sunday, Sept. 20, 1959. It was at a small commercial station two miles outside Ripon, WI . He walked the two miles from school to work through cow pastures.

After graduating in 1963, Drake worked for a station in Green Bay, Wis., but moved in 1966 as an announcer for WEMP, which was a major-market station at the time.

Drake had been in Milwaukee for six years and was a union steward at WEMP when he was fired in a wage dispute. With three children, all of preschool age, and a wife, he could not afford to be idle. He immediately placed ads in trade magazines and began searching for work.

The family moved to South Carolina in April, 1972, when Drake received a job offer to host an afternoon show on WIS Radio in Columbia. It wasn't long before he was doing a weekly show live from a Columbia shopping mall and hosting a live sports talk show.

The Drakes moved to Spartanburg in May 1976, after Charles Sanders, then-executive vice president of Spartan Radiocasting Co. WSPA Radio offered Drake the morning show, a slot he had missed in Columbia.

As the morning man at WSPA-AM, Drake would sign on the air at 5:30 a.m. on weekdays for his show, “Awake with Drake.” At 10 a.m., he would leave work and devoted the rest of his day to talking to people.

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July 14 In Radio History

In 1957…Master satirist Stan Freberg debuted a new weekly comedy program on CBS Radio in the time slot previously occupied by Jack Benny.



In addition to Freberg, the cast included June Foray, Peter Leeds, and Daws Butler. Billy May arranged and conducted the music. The program failed to attract sponsors and the network cancelled the series after 15 episodes. It was the last U.S. network radio show to devote itself purely to comedy.

In 1969...WBZ 1030 AM, Boston increased its talk programming to a full 10 1/2 hours-a-day.

Increased competition in the top 40 format — first from WMEX (1510 AM, now WUFC), which had programmed a top 40 format since 1957, then from WRKO, which adopted the format in 1967 — led WBZ to shift its music programming to adult contemporary in 1969, playing several songs an hour between 6 and 9 a.m. (though it was not unheard of for Carl DeSuze to play only one, if any, song an hour during his show), 10 to 12 songs an hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and 4 to 6 songs an hour between 4 and 7 p.m..

At night, WBZ programmed talk shows, with such hosts as Guy Mainella, a pioneer in sports talk;[36] Jerry Williams in the evenings; and Larry Glick's overnight show. Music was also programmed during the day on weekends.

Beginning in the late 1960s, WBZ made a major push into live play-by-play sports. From 1966 through 1979, and again from 1991 through 1994, WBZ was home to radio broadcasts of New England Patriots football.  In the fall of 1969, WBZ regained the radio rights to the Boston Bruins (which it had lost in 1951), and also began carrying Boston Celtics basketball. The Bruins stayed through the 1977-78 season.

During the 1970s, WBZ was one of a number of clear channel AM stations that petitioned to be allowed to increase their power; WBZ would have used 500,000 watts transmitting from Provincetown, Massachusetts to reach all of New England during the day. A backlash from smaller stations led to the petition being denied and station protections limited to a 750-mile radius, in effect canceling the entire clear channel service.

In 1984...FLASHBACK..from R&R Week of July 13, 1984:

In 1988…At the height of "Elvis is Alive" phenomenon, Nashville radio station WYHY offered $1 million to anyone who showed up at the studios with proof that Elvis Presley was still alive.


In 1990...Howard Stern debuted in the New York market on WWOR in 1990 as host of a talk show featuring his trademark of outrageous humor. The program entered national syndication in January 1991 and ultimately ended on August 8, 1992 because of the growing production costs.


In 2009…The iTunes Music Store reached 1.5 billion applications downloaded.