Radio News

With music streaming subscriptions approaching 400 million worldwide in 2020, helped by podcasts, it's easy to overlook the continued significance of radio. Futuresource’s recent Audio Collaborative included a panel session exploring the Future of Radio. The key takeaway: community, companionship, and being live and local maintain radio's relevance.

In September 2015, a privately held radio broadcasting company with three FMs on the eastern end of New York's Long Island welcomed a new GM. It was a very well-known woman with a rich resume of top sales and management roles at radio stations in New York City. Now, she could be heading to prison for a fraud scheme conducted while at her last industry employer.

The Broadcasters Foundation of America has formally kicked off its annual year-end giving campaign, appealing to those in the broadcast industry for tax-deductible personal donations to the Guardian Fund and corporate contributions to the Angel Initiative.

John Malone's Liberty Media has a formidable stake in iHeartMedia. And, it can convert millions of Class B common stock into Class A iHeart shares. At the same time, Liberty has the power to execute hundreds of thousands of special warrants to purchase additional Class A IHRT shares over the next 60 days. Put it all together, and Liberty holds nearly 1 in 10 IHRT shares.

A much-scrutinized deal that involves the owner of radio stations in Canada -- and the Atlantic Broadband MVPD in the U.S. -- won't be had. The company Rogers parent Rogers Communications wanted to merge with rebuffed its unsolicited bids. Now, the multi-billion dollar offer has expired.

Jeff Andrulonis in the past year has refocused his radio station ownership on the Carolinas, and that's seen his Colonial Media + Entertainment shed properties in the Twin Tiers of New York and Pennsylvania. Now, Colonial is saying goodbye to an AM and its two FM translators in Maryland.

Until October 2019, Jamie McKibbin was primarily known as the GM of a group of Jackson, Mich., stations and as the host of a popular hour-long Saturday morning outdoors show. Then, McKibbin entered radio station ownership with his wife, Katina. It is now known that McKibbin, an active hunter, has died while out with a friend in a boating accident tied to their outdoorsman's outing.

It's the home of such conservative Talk hosts as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity and where the Kim Komando Show can be found on Sunday evenings. It's offices and studios are on the fourth floor of an office tower emblazoned with the logo of a 50-year-old Rock station. Now, this AM station, owned by Frank Iorio, is being sold.

A Tampa Bay AM radio station plans to make the switchover to all-digital broadcasting in early 2021. To help make the transition happen, the station has ordered a Nautel transmitter and associated equipment for the expressed use of HD Radio-exclusive transmissions, with analog broadcasts disappearing for good.

From October 2001 through October of this year, Jeff Luckoff was synonymous with a group of Motor City radio stations including Top 40 leader WKQI "Channel 95.5," WNIC-FM and Adult R&B WMXD "Mix 92.3." Now, he's surfaced in a different Michigan market, and has taken a role with Townsquare Media.

A pair of radio stations serving the African American community in northwest Ohio have disappeared from the most recent monthly ratings report for Toledo, the No. 105-ranked market as measured by Nielsen Audio. Why? Diaries submitted for inclusion in the ratings were tied to the FM pair.

Since 2013, this individual has been the VP/Sales for Entercom Communications' Denver station group. Now, she'll be shifting to the heart of Mid-America, as SVP/Market Manager for a five-FM, three-AM group of properties under the leadership of Regional President Doug Abernethy.

One of the leading Hispanic media companies across the South has expanded by entering the Lone Star State's capital region. Norsan Media is now in Austin, and it has already assumed control of a Class D AM and its FM translator by rebranding it as "La Raza," committing to regional Mexican programming.

Super Hi-Fi, which uses AI "to transform the space between songs into relevant and personalized content," has brought to market a group of integrated AI tools for audio entertainment services. The first use of the product comes with the premiere of a radio streaming service branded as Sonos Radio. Should broadcast radio be wary? iHeartRadio isn't.

RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson caught up with St. Simons Island, Ga.-based media broker Eddie Esserman in this fresh InFocus Podcast, presented by DOT.FM.  What is the deal-making market like eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic? Are there TV industry deals, or is Radio the more active of the two broadcast media? Listen to find out! LISTEN HERE