Media News

As RBR+TVBR continues its look back at 2017 and peek into what will make headlines in the next 12 months, we reviewed the total number of broadcast radio and TV transactions seen since January. Given all of the talk about what the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai would do for the deal-making market, was 2017 a disappointment for brokers? Here's what Robert Heymann, Chicago-based Director for Media Services Group has to say about that.

The Mentoring & Inspiring Women in Radio (MIW) Group has opened the application window for its 2018 Mildred Carter MIW Group Mentoring Program. Currently in its 17th year, this experience pairs up-and-coming women who currently work in the radio industry with female professionals recognized as leaders in all aspects of radio broadcasting and media. Beasley Media Group has committed to provide support as the lead sponsor of the 2018 initiative.

The seven-year Director of Traffic and Weather Operations at a big Hubbard Radio station has just joined iHeart-owned Total Traffic & Weather Network to oversee its operations in the New York Tri-State Area.

This individual will transition from her current role in sales oversight for the five Neuhoff markets to her new VP/Market Manager position. She will also continue to serve as Corporate Vice President/Special Projects for the company.

Radio One has promoted the VP/GM of its Atlanta radio stations to a Regional Vice President position. The move gives this nine-year veteran of the Urban One radio division's Peachtree City stations new duties that now include Reach Media, the radio programming syndication arm of publicly traded Urban One.

Don't think for a minute that Democratic FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn had the backing of multicultural broadcasting companies with respect to the soon-to-die Main Studio Rule enacted in 1939. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) on Tuesday immediately responded to the Commission's 3-2 party-line vote to kill the rule by offering its congratulations.

This industry advocate will be stepping aside at year's end as the EVP of the NAB Television Department. But, he won't be any less active at the NAB Education Foundation (NABEF).

The individual who has served as VP/Sales of Hearst Television since 2014 has just been promoted to SVP/Sales. His resume includes stints for WPIX-11 in New York, WBAL-11 in Baltimore, and the CW affiliate in the Nation's Capital.

A veteran marketing and creative executive at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises' Telemundo has accepted the role of SVP/Marketing & Creative for the Telemundo Networks. She will continue to be based in Miami.

Two weeks after 14-year company veteran Adam Symson took the reins as President/CEO of The E.W. Scripps Company, he's already putting his stamp on the media operation previously led by the now-retired Rich Boehne. 

Some media companies say they are all about serving the communities in which their stations are located. One company, with stations in small cities located across New York State, South Carolina, and Florida's Panhandle, is all about community. If not, this operator's very name would be a misnomer. In this exclusive RBR+TVBR INFOCUS report, we peek inside the studios and offices of a cluster of stations owned by a company that's all about being loyally local.

Urban One's Radio One has assigned its OM for the company's Cleveland and Cincinnati radio stations additional duties for its Columbus, Ohio, stations. The move comes as the individual that had been leading the company's radio properties in the Ohio state capital drives west on I-70 to become Radio's One new OM in Indianapolis.

Univision Communications has just made a statement that suggests it is recommitting to its radio division, thanks to a newly announced effort designed to expand the millennial and Latino-focused media company's integrated music strategy.

After a 57-week review process, the Justice Department on March 24, 2008 gave its blessing to the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio with XM Satellite Radio, creating the entity today known as Sirius XM. After 11 years without a direct competitor, will Sirius XM soon have one? There are suggestions that big streaming audio purveyor TuneIn Inc. is primed to take it on.

One of Western New York's more familiar faces is returning to the local TV news scene, in a move that could jolt Nexstar-owned WIVB-4 and The E.W. Scripps Co.'s WKBW-7 just as both stations are seemingly gaining momentum in Buffalo.