Industry News

Roberts Radio Broadcasting in Mississippi supports the idea of FM geo-targeting, and said it will ask the Federal Communications Commission to let it demo the technology.

Geo-targeting via FM boosters is being pushed by technology company GeoBroadcast Solutions, which has asked for an FCC rule change to allow it but has come up against opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters and several large radio groups.

Coming to the aid of GBS, Roberts Radio said it wants to demo the technology on its station WRBJ at 97.7 MHz. The station is in Brandon and serves Jackson.

Its participation is notable in part because it is an urban-formatted station led by African American entrepreneur Steven C. Roberts, board member of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters.

Those two organizations have expressed support for geo-targeting and have said it will help minority- and women-owned groups.

“WRBJ reaches the African-American community, with many small businesses that cannot currently afford to pay for an entire metro signal but desire to hyper-target zones within the station’s signal coverage,” the company stated in a press release.

“This will be the fifth Experimental Permit requested to demonstrate the technology and the third Experimental Permit request using the same booster configuration. The requested demo will build and operate up to five new on-channel FM boosters, and to originate limited programming on these boosters for 90 days.”

It said it wants to try targeting broadcasts “to appeal to specific diverse audiences encompassed within the boosters’ service areas without creating harmful interference to any broadcaster.”

The debate over the technology has been playing out in publicly filed comments in an FCC open proceeding.

The NAB expressed its opposition citing both technical and business concerns. GBS countered that it has solid technical data and that there’s no reason to think its proposal would cause a huge drop in ad rates or a rise in “redlining” certain parts of a given market.

According to the press release, Steven Roberts has told the FCC, “As a station owner and minority broadcaster in a market filled with stations owned by media conglomerates, my business is at a constant disadvantage” and that he “totally disagreed” with NAB’s concerns about “unintended consequences” for minority broadcasters. “I find NAB’s naked speculation disturbing.”

FM boosters in the United States are currently required to broadcast nothing but the signal of their associated primary stations. GBS wants to offer stations the ability to use custom FM booster networks to carry three minutes of unique content of specific interest to subsections of a given station’s coverage area, including unique commercials, news and weather.

The post Mississippi Station Wants to Demo ZoneCasting appeared first on Radio World.

A key advertising theme has emerged in the first two months of 2021: household cleaning supplies.

That’s why the parent company of such brands as Tide, Charmin, Crest, Bounty and Always is again the No. 1 parent advertiser on local cable, radio and broadcast TV, Media Monitors data show.

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Podcasting began in the early 2000s as a grassroots movement driven by alternative content, often produced in makeshift studios.

Since 2006, The Infinite Dial has tracked its growth and maturation into a mainstream media. The infinite Dial is based on research from Edison Research and Triton Digital.

[Read: Pandora, Spotify and iHeart Radio Lead in Brand Awareness]

Their most recent data suggest upticks in both numbers and diversity.

In 2006, The Infinite Dial’s data indicated 22% of the U.S. population 12+ were familiar with podcasting. That number has grown steadily to the estimated 78%, or 222 million who are aware today. Awareness and use are two different things however, but those numbers are up as well.

Podcast listening inched up from 55% to an estimated 57% for 2021, and monthly figures show an increase for both men and women, and the gender split is pretty evenly divided 50–50.

When broken down by demographics, the monthly data suggests that the 12–34 age group shows continued growth and leads with 56%. A slight drop in listenership from 40% to 39% was indicated in the 35 to 54 demographic, while those 55+ saw their numbers increase from 22% to 26%.

When comparing the ethnicity of monthly podcast listeners starting in 2011 through today, the data suggests that while they are still predominately white, there have been strong gains with Hispanic/Latino and Black listeners. These trends bring the overall podcast listenership more in line with the diversity of the American population.

When looking at the age of monthly podcast listeners from 2011 until today, the data shows growth in the 12–34 segment from 46% to 50%, while there was significant shrinkage in the 35 to 54 group from 40% to 29%. The 55+ demographic grew from 14% to 21%.

When asked how many podcasts they listened to in the last week, the answers ranged from one to 11 or more, but the average reported was eight.

The post Survey Says Podcast Demographics Continue to Diversify appeared first on Radio World.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prominent telecommunications, media, and technology law firm Fletcher Heald & Hildreth has elected a new Member of the firm. It’s an active litigator who first joined the firm in January 2020 and continued to have a substantial hearing and deposition schedule — remotely — through the COVID-19 pandemic.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON TWITTER!

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The future of television arrived Thursday in Western New York, as five local television stations, owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., TEGNA, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Nexstar Media Group, are the latest in the U.S. to begin broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV.

For those across Lake Ontario in Toronto, a taste of ATSC 3.0-powered television is that much closer to fruition.

With a promise of improved audio and video for consumers and the benefit of data services for TV station licensees, the stations saw planning and rollout of NEXTGEN TV coordinated by BitPath.

While competitors, the participating stations worked together to ensure that current programming remains available to all viewers, regardless of whether their television service is provided over-the air or by a cable or satellite company.

The stations now using NEXTGEN TV delivery are WGRZ-2, WIVB-4, WKBW-7, and Sinclair dup WUTV-29 and WNYO-49.

Those stations, with the exception of WNYO, can be viewed across much of Southern Ontario, including the GTA, where Rogers includes WGRZ, WIVB, WKBW and WUTV as part of its local channel lineup.

The Federal Communications Commission is continuing its freeze on changes in the St. Louis market in an effort to protect four former stations.

On March 17, 2020, the Media Bureau extended the temporary freeze it put in place a year ago on accepting any minor change applications that conflict with the most recently licensed facilities of certain former AM radio stations in that market.

It was back in February 2020 that a judge dismissed renewal applications in the case of four AM radio stations: KFTK(AM) in East St. Louis in Illinois, WQQW(AM) in Highland, Ill., KZQZ(AM) in St. Louis and KQQZ(AM) in DeSoto, Mo.

[Read: FCC Hands Down Decision on Four St. Louis AM Stations]

At that time, the judge decided that ownership of the station was not clear — it was alleged that some stations were actually controlled by a convicted felon. After back and forth, the bureau said the original licensee, Entertainment Media Trust, did not effectively prove ownership. As a result, the bureau dismissed the four applications and imposed a related filing freeze on the acceptance of any AM minor change applications that would potentially conflict with any of these four stations’ expired licenses.

With an auction filing window on the horizon, the bureau set up the freeze to avoid the possibility of mutual exclusivity with any submitted applications. The bureau said that the freeze would remain in effect until the close of the window or when the bureau announced it was lifting the freeze.

“This freeze was intended to avoid the possibility of mutual exclusivity with applications submitted during a forthcoming auction filing window, and thus promote a more certain auction process,” the Media Bureau said.

Then in February 2021, a new auction of AM and FM broadcast construction permits was announced — including construction permits for the previously licensed four AM stations. The new public notice is to announce that the ongoing filing freeze is now extended. The extension will terminate the day after the filing deadline for the post Auction 109 long-form applications.

The post FCC Extends Freeze to Protect Four Stations appeared first on Radio World.

As cord-cutting began to rapidly increase in recent years, Wall Street became increasingly focused on looming National Football League television rights negotiations.

Why? As MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson points out, “the singular importance of this sport on the Pay TV eco-system” is a vitally important topic to flush out.

With Thursday’s announcement that the NFL has handed exclusive rights for Thursday Night Football match-ups to Amazon, Nathanson has some “significant takeways” that need to be discussed.

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In 1974, Steven C. Roberts teamed up with his brother, Michael, in creating a minority-owned business consulting and construction management firm headquartered in St. Louis. Fifteen years later, they expanded beyond commercial real estate investments with the creation of a broadcast media operation, serving the biggest city in Mississippi.

Now, Roberts is ready to demonstrate how a much-debated new technology the FCC could soon authorize for voluntary use by an FM radio station can aid a minority or women-owned station.

A ZoneCasting demonstration is on track for “The Beat of the Capitol.”

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After amassing a formidable stable of low-power and full-power television properties between the first quarter of 2017 and third quarter 2019, HC2 Holdings appears to be in the midst of a significant asset paring.

The company now led by Chief Executive Officer Wayne Barr Jr. has signed off on its fourth divestment deal since the start of 2021.

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The nation’s No. 1 audio media company, iHeartMedia, has made another notable move in the podcasting arena. Three new shows will shine a light on the “curious tales, historical oddities and stranger-than-fiction true stories that are often left out of history books.”

“We are excited to share our newest slate of iHeartRadio Original Podcasts focused on the curious true stories left out of history books,” said Jason English, Lead Executive Producer of iHeartRadio Original Podcasts. “This spring you can spend time with the Black cowboys who found freedom on the high plains after the Civil War; get a first-person account of the most insane government project in American history; and meet desperate World War I veterans who camped outside the White House for months during the Great Depression.”

The first historical podcast in the slate, “Black Cowboys,” available now, tells the story of what freedom looked like for Black Americans after the Civil War. The podcast shares a more honest version of the settling of the Wild West and shines a light on the one-in-four cowboys who were Black. Upcoming podcasts include “Operation Midnight Climax,” which details the stranger-than-fiction events that took place at a CIA-run brothel in the 1950s; “The White House Coup,” which chronicles a club of powerful Wall Street millionaires in a plot to overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR); and other little-known odd histories of historical figures and events.

New and upcoming iHeartRadio Podcast Originals include “Operation Midnight Climax,” just launched, and “The White House Coup,” coming in April.