Industry News

WJR-AM in Detroit afternoon host Mitch Albom, the veteran journalist and author of the wildly popular “Tuesdays with Morrie,” is known for dispensing life wisdom that resonates with audiences worldwide. At his talk at the Miami Book Fair in November, Albom served up valuable lessons about great presentations that caught “Zoom expert” and public relations veteran Rosemary Ravinal‘s attention. In her view, what Albom said provides key learning lessons on how to perfect the great presentation.

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It’s an all-too-common danger with live radio: A guest or caller gets a bit salty and drops a word (or several words) that could lead to an FCC fine or a suit for slander. Thankfully, a simple audio buffer can provide a seven-second delay — just enough time for the producer or jok to react and spare tender ears.

The latest installment in Eventide’s 50 Years of Gear flashbacks to important moments in the company’s history goes back to 1977 and the Eventide Clockworks BD955 with its big yellow DUMP button before moving forward through time to discuss the company’s advances in digital delay technologies.

Check out “Flashback # 9.2 Dump & Go — The Profanity Delay” to enjoy this celebration of a classic tool for keeping the airwaves clean.

Send your equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Eventide Celebrates the Seven-Second Delay appeared first on Radio World.

According to the just released Infinite Dial 2021 UK, 41% of UK residents over the age of 16 have listened to a podcast in the last month. That’s approximately 23 million people.

The Infinite Dial 2021 UK was conducted by Edison Research and sponsored by Bauer Media Group UK and Spotify. The study surveyed 1,000 UK residents age 16+ on a variety of measures including online digital audio platforms, radio, social media, smart speakers, and more.

The study revealed that 71% of those age 16+ are familiar with podcasts, and 59% of those age 16+ have ever listened to a podcast putting the UK on par with the United States in terms of monthly listening. .

The UK is slightly behind the U.S. regarding weekly podcast listening as 25% of the UK population age 16+ has listened to a podcast in the last week versus 29% in the U.S.

Weekly podcast listeners in the UK listen to an average of five podcast episodes per week.

Seventy-five percent of UK residents age 16+ listen to online audio each month, and 66% of UK residents age 16+ listen to online audio each week.

According to Larry Rosin, President of Edison Research, “It is exciting to analyze the findings from the UK Infinite Dial in the context of other countries. It is evident that the UK is on par regarding many measures of consumption, including monthly podcast listening, and actually outpaces the US in areas like weekly radio reach and weekly online audio reach.”

Download the full report HERE.

The NBC affiliate serving the Panama City Beach, Fla., area of the Sunshine State has become the latest television station to receive a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for failing to timely file its quarterly TV issues/programs lists.

How much is Gray Television paying to the FCC as a result of the transgression?

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The media company known for its conservative Talk radio programming and its non-secular media assets serving Christians will see its C-Suite leadership present at the upcoming Singular Research “Best of the Uncovered” Investor Conference.

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The town of Port Jervis, N.Y., lies at the heart of the “other” Tri-State Area within the vast New York City DMA — New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

It is situated along the bucolic Delaware River, a popular spot for canoeing and camping enthusiasts, and its proximity to fast-growing Sussex County, N.J., is likely why a low-powered TV station licensed to this municipality has just sold for nearly $2 million.

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From our interview this week with the part-owner, GM and News Director of a 1,000-watt AM serving Plattsburgh, N.Y., to exclusive conversations with SBS President/COO Albert Rodriguez, groupM’s Brian Wieser, AURN’s Chesley Maddox-Dorsey and musicFIRST’s Joe Crowley, the RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, offers more insight on the key topics of interest to broadcast media’s C-Suite leadership. As 2021 soon comes to a close, take a moment and enjoy one of nearly 170 audio reports hosted by Radio + Television Business Report Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson.  

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For a full menu of our podcasts, simply click here

The FCC experienced a technical glitch just prior to Thanksgiving that knocked out hyperlinks to its Online Public Inspection File system on some radio station websites.

Service was fully restored by the afternoon of Dec. 1, according to the FCC.

What happened, exactly?

The OPIF is a way for listeners to view their favorite station’s licensing information and community involvement paperwork. Radio broadcasters are required to post a link to their online Public Inspection File on their own websites.

But a computer update to the OPIF portal apparently took the public file hyperlink offline for an unknown number of stations, according to the FCC.

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Users were getting “temporary bad gateway” errors because the online hyperlinks were not working. But public file materials were still available during the outage through the FCC’s website via the online public inspection search page. There were no compliance issues caused by the computer hiccup, the FCC said.

The commission regularly performs updates to its OPIF online database, and the most recent system update created the issue. “The public file information remained online at all times,” the FCC said, “with only the links at some radio stations’ websites unavailable.”

(Some quick thinking by several state broadcast associations, including the Alabama Broadcasters Association, resulted in some stations updating their URLs using all capital letters to remedy the situation. But radio stations need to make no further updates and all links to the FCC’s OPIF should be fully functional, according to the commission.)

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post FCC Computer Update Disrupted Public File Links appeared first on Radio World.

The President/CEO and the COO of Hearst Television’s Litton Entertainment arm have announced that they will each retire from their roles at the end of the year.

This puts Frank Biancuzzo, president of the recently created Hearst Media Production Group, in a position to directly oversee Litton.

Litton Entertainment is one of broadcast television’s top content providers, both in the U.S. and in the international marketplace. NATPE Miami is one of the big marketplaces for Litton, and come January its founder and chief executive, Dave Morgan, and Chief Operating Officer Pete Sniderman will no longer be involved in the operation.

Commenting on their retirement, Biancuzzo said, “Over the course of three decades, Dave has built a tremendous organization, recognized by the industry for unique programming that entertains, educates and inspires. Together with Pete Sniderman, they’ve positioned the company for an exciting and innovative period of growth.”

Commenting on his departure on December 31, Morgan said, “I’m most proud of our Litton partnerships and my Litton colleagues who helped me define the gold standard in quality, educational television in America. I leave the television industry better than I found it. We created a great company, and we’re pleased that Hearst Media Production Group will bring the resources to help grow Litton to the next level.”

Sniderman added, “I’m so gratified to have had the opportunity to make a contribution to programming that educated generations of young people. And I’m excited for the future of the enterprise — the people and the projects.”

Moving forward, Litton Entertainment’s management and creative teams, under the direction of Biancuzzo and the Hearst Media Production Group, will continue to expand original programming across linear and streaming platforms for domestic and international distribution.

Hearst acquired a majority interest in Litton Entertainment in 2017, and the balance in 2021, perhaps explaining the timing on the retirement of its founder/CEO and its COO.

Morgan created Litton Entertainment in 1989; he resides in Charleston, S.C.

Sniderman has been with Litton since 1995.

The E.W. Scripps Co.‘s digital multicast network super-serving African Americans has a new leader, effective today.

Taking the spot within the Scripps Networks arm is an individual who has held various roles at the network since it was launched in 2011 as the first offering from Katz Networks.

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