Chicago Radio: WGN 720 AM Shuffles Line-Up

Wendy Snyder, Bill Leff

Garry Meier

John Williams will return to middays and Garry Meier will lose his afternoon slot in a new weekday program lineup to be unveiled Wednesday at WGN 720 AM, according to Chicago Media blogger Robert Feder.

Williams, a mainstay of the Tribune Broadcasting news/talk station for 15 years before he left in December 2012, will be heard from 10 a.m. to noon on WGN, starting Tuesday.

He’ll broadcast from Minneapolis, where he continues to host afternoons at WCCO 830 AM.

John Williams

Meier, who has occupied afternoons on WGN since 2009, is being reassigned to WGN.fm, the “freeform media” online streaming portal, where he is expected to fulfill the remaining year and a half of his contract.

Replacing Meier from 3 to 7 p.m. on WGN will be the duo of Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder, who currently co-host from 9 a.m. to noon.

Meier, 64, a suburban Chicago native, was one-half of the legendary radio team of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier before they broke up in 1993. Meier later worked with Roe Conn at WLS AM 890 before severing that partnership in 2004. Since then he’s been working solo, including the past five years on WGN.

Although Meier will continue to be the highest-paid personality on WGN’s payroll, his move off the 50,000-watt broadcast station can only be seen as a demotion. According to Feder, he was given the news by deCastro and Manley when he got off the air Tuesday, which turned out to be his last show for WGN.

NBC First In Prime-Time In 18-49 Demo

NBC will finish the traditional broadcast TV season as the most-viewed network in prime-time among the 18-49 demographic, according to data from Nielsen.

That’s good news for the network’s sales teams, whose advertiser clients typically covet that demographic most, reports WSJ’s CMO Today.

NBC will also finish the season as the second most-viewed network in total viewers behind CBS. The performance comes after NBC spent nine years in fourth place in total viewers, and a third-place ranking last season that was at the time heralded as an improvement.

The network’s viewership was buoyed by its coverage of the Winter Olympics, “Sunday Night Football,” and shows such as “The Voice” and “The Blacklist,” the company said.

FCC's Wheeler Defends Net Neutrality Plan

Tom Wheeler

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler strode into a congressional hearing on Tuesday, greeted the committee’s members — and then occupied the lone seat opposite a host of lawmakers who quickly piled on the criticism, reports Politico.

Both Democrats and Republicans expressed deep misgivings with Wheeler’s controversial approach in the increasingly political debate over net neutrality, the idea that Internet providers should treat all web traffic equally. Almost a week after the FCC voted on party lines to advance Wheeler’s proposal, lawmakers summoned him to the Capitol and politely but pointedly aired their frustrations — the first of many such exchanges still to come over the future of the open Internet.

Even among members of Wheeler’s own party, there are many who fear the FCC chairman’s plan could allow AT&T, Verizon or others to strike deals with companies like Netflix for faster delivery of their content — though Wheeler argued at the hearing to the contrary. And Republicans, who oppose any net neutrality regulation, questioned Wheeler for weighing new rules at all.

For his part, the chairman labored to assuage skeptical lawmakers, detailing repeatedly how his proposal would not break the Internet or hobble its many users.

He stated: “I’ve consistently said, there is only one Internet. There is not a fast or slow Internet.”

It could be the first of many such entanglements for Wheeler, who appeared at an oversight hearing convened by Chairman Greg Walden’s (R-Ore.) telecom panel. The FCC is many months away from final net neutrality rules, after voting 3-2 to open comments on the proceeding.

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Congressmen Rip FCC Over Internet Plan

Tom Wheeler

“You didn't hit this out of the ballpark,” Congressman Henry Waxman tells FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler

The Wrap reports Congressmen on Tuesday accused Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler of doing too much to regulate the web on one hand while also doing too little on the other.

At a hearing of a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the FCC proposal to take some steps to preserve an open internet but not others drew catcalls from a number of Republicans for going overboard and threatening future investments in web products and technology upgrades.

“Many of our content creators have a tremendous amount of concern your actions have inserted a good bit of uncertainty in all things internet,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

The panel's chairman, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., described Wheeler as being in “rough waters.”

Walden suggested that Wheeler's willingness to examine the possibility of even stronger open internet regulation and his attempt to prevent broadcasters from controlling stations they don't technically own, could hurt local communities.

“These changes do not bring benefits to the communities served by these broadcasters, drawing into question how this change could serve the public interest,” Walden said.

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Judge: Orders Wife To Allow Doctors Access To Casey

Casey Kasem

A judge on Tuesday expanded the powers of Casey Kasem’s daughter to determine whether her father is receiving adequate medical care amid his ongoing concerns about the health and welfare of the ailing radio personality.

The NY Daily News reports Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel S. Murphy ordered Kasem’s wife, Jean, to comply with court orders allowing doctors to evaluate her husband, and also allow his daughter Kerri to see him. He also ordered Jean Kasem to surrender her husband’s passport and temporarily suspended her powers to determine her husband’s medical care.

Murphy’s orders came after the second hearing in a week in which lawyers for Jean Kasem have said they could not disclose where Casey Kasem is located. Authorities found him in Kitsap County in Washington last week after Murphy ordered adult protective services to locate him, but the judge said the lack of additional information and cooperation troubles him.

The judge has appointed an attorney and doctor to evaluate Casey Kasem, but neither has been able to contact him or his wife. The former radio show host is suffering from a form of dementia called Lewy Body Disease, according to court records.

Murphy ordered last week that Kasem, 82, could not be moved without another court order, and he stressed on Tuesday that Kasem should be medically evaluated as soon as possible.

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Spotify Hits 10 Million Global Subscribers

• Spotify has 10 million paying subscribers and more than 40 million active users across 56 markets
• Eminem is the most streamed artist of all time, and ‘Wake Me Up’ by Avicii is the most streamed song of all time on Spotify

David Ek

Spotify today announced that it now has 10 million paying subscribers and more than 40 million active users in 56 markets worldwide.

“We’ve had an amazing year, growing from 20 markets to 56 as people from around the world embrace streaming music. 10 million subscribers is an important milestone for both Spotify and the entire music industry,” said Daniel Ek, CEO and Founder, Spotify. “We’re widening our lead in the digital music space and will continue to focus on getting everyone in the world to listen to more music.”

Since Spotify’s launch in 2008, users have created over 1.5 billion playlists, collectively creating or updating over 5 million playlists each day.

To celebrate the music lovers and artists who made this milestone possible, Spotfiy has revealed its top performers:

• Most Streamed Artists: Eminem is the most streamed artist of all time, and Rihanna the most streamed female artist. David Guetta is the second most streamed male artist and Katy Perry the second most streamed female artist of all time.
• Most Streamed Song: “Wake Me Up” by Avicii is the most streamed song of all time with more than 235 million streams.
• Most Followed Artist: David Guetta is the most followed artist on Spotify with more than 5 million followers.
• In the past month: Top 100 Pop Tracks on Spotify was the most streamed playlist, while Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be feat. Jess Glynne” was the most played song in offline mode.

Tribune Earnings Down 30 Percent, Broadcasting Soars

Tribune Co. said Tuesday that its net income declined by 30 percent in the first quarter, as gains in broadcast revenues were offset by double-digit publishing declines and higher expenses.

Net income was $41.1 million, or 41 cents per share, compared with $58.4 million, or 58 cents per share a year ago. Tribune Co. had an operating profit of $74 million, an 11 percent decline.

Consolidated revenue for the first quarter was $852 million, up 21 percent from the same quarter last year. The acquisition of Local TV increased revenue by nearly $145 million, the Chicago-based media company said Tuesday.

Publishing revenue fell 3 percent to $454 million, with the largest declines at the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun.

Bolstered by last year’s acquisition of the Local TV station group, broadcasting revenue was up 67 percent to $398 million. The 19-station group, acquired last December in a $2.73 billion deal, accounted for nearly all of that increase.

Broadcasting advertising revenue increased 59 percent, or $113 million, with the Local TV stations bringing in $116 million of advertising revenue for the quarter.

Retransmission consent fees increased $46 million in the first quarter, with Local TV station contributing $24 million to that total. The fees, paid by cable operators to carry television programming on their systems, are a growing source of revenue for Tribune Co. and other station owners.

Broadcasting operating expenses were up 74 percent, or $142 million, in the first quarter. That increase includes $47 million in direct pay and benefits for the Local TV stations, and a $22 million increase in programming expenses.

Broadcasting operating profit was up 37 percent, or $17 million, with the Local TV stations accounting for $16 million of that total.

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Study: Pandora's Rank As Leading Streamer In Jeopardy

That just one of the highlights of a new study released this week by Clear Voice Research.

The study cites two main factors working against Pandora’s continued market leadership:

• While awareness of streaming services as a whole is nearly universal, awareness of specific services is relatively low. So far, Pandora has benefited disproportionately from this phenomenon. Awareness of Pandora stands at 88% of US consumers—a level rivaled only by iTunes Radio at 87%. Its next closest competitor in this regard—iHeartRadio—is familiar to 73% of the potential market. Awareness declines from there, with the least known service—Rdio—at only 30%. But as the market approaches saturation and competition heats up, awareness of Pandora’s competitors will invariably rise, leading to an erosion of its market position.
• Increased competition as growth levels out and the market tightens. Three competitors—iTunes Radio, Spotify and Grooveshark—are poised to challenge Pandora. iTunes Radio has made tremendous gains since its launch in September of last year. About 15% of US consumers report using it—putting it in the same league as iHeartRadio and Spotify—over a much shorter period. The main driver of this service’s appeal is the ability to customize playlists using a combination of personally owned iTunes tracks and streamed music keyed to similar songs. Spotify and Grooveshark offer more traditional, but nonetheless appealing alternatives to Pandora based largely on their customization options.

Altanta Radio: The Zone Drops Local Sports Talk

Sports talk station WQXI 790 AM The Zone is going all syndication with ESPN, effectively throwing in the towel against two much stronger competitors, according to Radio/TV/Media blogger Rodney Ho at ajc.com.

The station’s website now just shows the ESPN Radio lineup. Staff was told at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

This means the local morning show with JP Peterson and Alge Crumpler is out and so is afternoon host Mike Bell, the remaining link to the good old days, and his on-air partner Dave Archer. (Bell’s contract was good for at least another year.) John Michaels is a casualty as well.

In many ways, the arrival of 92.9/The Game in October 2012 was the beginning of the end for 790/The Zone.

Either way, it’s been a sad, steady decline for the Zone.

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Zucker: CNN Won't Be Shamed Into Benghazi Coverage

Jeff Zucker

CNN President Jeff Zucker has offered some hints as to how his network will cover potential hearings on the White House response to the 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya last night at the Deadline Club’s annual awards dinner, according to Mediaite.

Unlike some other cable news networks that were left unmentioned, Zucker said CNN would not be “shamed” into covering the Republican-led investigation if it did not contain any real news.

“We’re not going to be shamed into it by others who have political beliefs that want to try to have temper tantrums to shame other news organizations into covering something,” Zucker reportedly told The New York Times’ Bill Carter, who interviewed him for the event.

“If it’s of real news value, we’ll cover it.”

Fox News has consistently covered the Benghazi story more than CNN or MSNBC, and recently started cutting away from President Barack Obama’s press conferences so long as the questions pertained to other matters. Presumably, any future Benghazi hearings will be big news on Fox.

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Americans Hate CableTV Companies

Americans hate their cable companies, according to data out yesterday (May 20th) from the American Customer Service Index, which found that while the average company scores in the high 70s on the index out of 100, subscription-TV companies are down around just 65.

Customer satisfaction with subscription-TV services fell 4.4 percent in just the last year, with every major cable company seeing a drop in their already low customer satisfaction scores.

Faring worst of all was Time Warner Cable, which has the lowest marks, at 56 on the index, while AT&T's U-verse and DirecTV had the best ones, at 69, although that's still below the average for companies across industries.

One of the reasons for the lower satisfaction is the constantly rising prices, as subscription-TV prices have averaged an increase of six percent a year, four times the rate of inflation. Additionally, the price increases continue while the service is still not very good, and customers have few options -- or even none -- to switch to other services.

More Marketers Take Automated Ad Buying In-House

For years major marketers have employed agencies to purchase ad space on their behalf.

Now, thanks to the rise of automated ad-buying systems, that is beginning to change. Marketers are increasingly opting for “programmatic” technology to buy digital advertising themselves, as opposed to paying third-parties to do so, reports WSJ’s CMO Today.

That way they don’t have to pay agency fees and they don’t have to share their data and whatever they learn from their campaigns with other companies.

Ad tech firm Casale Media says it has seen a significant shift in this direction over the past 18 months. During the fourth quarter of 2012, just 3% of the companies using its buying systems were marketers themselves. By the fourth quarter of 2013 that portion had more than tripled, reaching 11% of buyers.

NPR Cancels 'Tell Me More', Eliminating 28 Jobs

NPR announced Tuesday that it would cease broadcast of the weekday program Tell Me More on Aug. 1 and eliminate 28 positions as part of a larger effort to end the company's persistent budget deficits.

"These times require that we organize ourselves in different ways and that we're smarter about how we address the different platforms that we reach our audiences on," NPR Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson said. "We're trying to make the most of the resources that we have and ensure that we keep radio healthy and try to develop audience in the digital arena."

Before the departure of former CEO Gary Knell last year, NPR's board of directors voted to require its executives to go into fiscal 2015 — which starts Oct. 1 — with projections of a balanced budget. Tuesday's cuts, in combination with buyouts earlier this year, will reduce the network's costs by $7 million a year. The reductions are expected to help bring fiscal 2014's deficit in at the approved level of more than $6 million.
The earlier buyouts led to the departure of dozens of people throughout the company. Eight of the 28 positions being eliminated are already vacant, Senior Vice President for News Margaret Low Smith told staffers.

Ultimately, NPR's total head count will be 7 percent lower than where it stood last year — there will be 9 percent fewer newsgathering positions. NPR has run deficits in all but one of the past six fiscal years, including the one ending Sept. 30.

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Paul McCartney Cancels Concerts Due To Illness

Paul McCartney has canceled the rest of his Japanese tour — including a show at the famed Nippon Budokan, where the Beatles played in 1966 — due to poor health, MTV reports.  According to Rolling Stone, the former Beatle is under doctor's orders for "complete rest" in order to ward off a suspected virus.

In a statement, organizer Kyodo Tokyo said McCartney "will regrettably have to cancel the remaining Japanese shows. Paul is still not feeling better and this cancellation is unavoidable".

The virus already forced McCartney to postpone a handful of shows, and in a previously released statement, the musician said he was "really looking forward to playing Japan again." He continued, "Unfortunately my condition has not improved overnight. I was really hoping that I'd be feeling better today. I'm so disappointed and sorry to be letting my fans down."

Research: Six Kinds Of Radio Consumers

New research by Mark Kassof & Co. reveals that 35% of those ages 18-64's can be characterized as "Radio Junkies," or consumers who love radio.

The research  takes a broader look at radio listeners…analyzing consumers based on their attitudes toward radio:  what they want from it, what they get from it, how they feel about it, and even how they see themselves.

Radio is a very important part of the "Radio Junkies'" lives. They're interested in radio personalities, and the vast majority like personalities "that seem like personal friends." The vast majority are also interested in radio contests.

The "Junkies" score highest on 12 of 16 personal/psychological motivations for listening to radio. Their top motivations are getting in a better mood, getting an energy boost, or relaxing and unwinding. They listen to radio more than average, and virtually all agree that they "pay a lot of attention to it."

P1’s of every format are represented among the “Radio Junkies,” as in most of the groups. But the “Junkies” include a higher-than-average percentage of CHR and Urban P1’s.

These findings are based on a "deeper dive" into data from 1,000+ online surveys of 18-64 year-olds conducted early this year.

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R.I.P.: LA Radio Personality Andy Rush

Andy Rush

Andy Rush, veteran of KNX-FM, KMPC-FM, KCSN, and KSWD 100.3 FM The Sound, died last Saturday of a heart attack, apparently related to a pulmonary embolism.

He was 60, accordingto Don Barrett's LA Radio.

Bryan Simmons, a decades-long friend and former KROI/KROY-Sacramento colleague Bryan Simmons stated,  “Andy worked at KROI and later KROY from 1977 to 78 as the midday and later AM drive host and again from 1980 to 82 with a stop in between as the morning man at KZAP in 1979." “He later worked at KFOG and KRQR-San Francisco, returning to his hometown of Los Angeles to work in Los Angeles. I just cannot believe he’s gone.”