Radio News

The endless commercial break. It’s so bad that Radio Ink Editor Ed Ryan’s daughter, 24, won’t even listen to the radio. Is the stopset slog a problem for Hispanic radio? Ryan probed four of the industry’s top executives as the moderator of the Hispanic Radio Executive Leadership Roundtable on Wednesday afternoon at the Hispanic Radio Conference in Miami.

The MSNBC weekend anchor and co-host of the Latina-To-Latina podcast participated via Zoom in an engaging Hispanic Radio Conference interview conducted by SBS EVP/Programming Jesus Salas. The focus: the power of podcasting targeting Hispanics, and just how personal it can be for those listening to what Alicia Menendez has to say.

Radio stations that are clients of Marketron have been impacted by a weekend incident that saw Russian hackers invade the ad scheduling software business, crippling operations. Among those impacted: Hall Communications. And, the stations' EVP went to Gray Television-owned WCAX-3 to share how the Marketron troubles directly impacted their operation.

A Scripps executive who serves as Associate Dean of the Broadcast Leadership Training program, has signed on to a letter co-signed by the program's two other associate deans and the program's dean that asks the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader to throw their support behind a reinstatement of the Minority Tax Certificate program.

The FCC has its hands full with several proposals involving Radio. At the Hispanic Radio Conference on Thursday, Commissioner Nathan Simington could offer some clarity on these and other rulemakings of particular concern.

“ It is unfortunate that the record labels’ focus is on gimmicky press conferences and questionable Survey Monkey polling rather than serious conversation,” Gordon Smith says.

The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report has one big takeaway with respect to the most active ad category at broadcast media: auto insurance brands. At radio, there is a leader that is not present at Spot Cable. It shows that broadcast media is the preferred way to go for achieving stronger ROI.

As the first half of 2021 ended, Cumulus Media could count itself among a select group of publicly traded broadcasters that were enjoying strong interest in investors on Wall Street. Shares reached $14.75 after bottoming out at $9 on May 4. Today, Cumulus shares are moving closer to that six-month low point, punctuating a 90-day decline for the company's stock.

It has been tied to the company's Flint, Mich., radio stations yet has a signal that's based in Lapeer and covers such Michigan towns as Sandusky and Almont, to the east of Port Huron and Midwestern Ontario. Now, Townsquare Media has decided to part ways with this outlier. The buyer? A religious noncommercial broadcast operation.

Riverfront Broadcasting, led by Carolyn Becker, has attracted national attention for its operations in the Heartland of America. With operations in such markets as Yankton, S.D., Riverfront is now scaling back in a small way. It is saying goodbye to an AM, FM and FM translator serving a small city in Iowa.

One of the many early radio stations that predates KDKA in Pittsburgh, credited by many as the "first" commercially licensed radio station, didn't get commercial licensed to Boston until its relocation there in 1931. Before then, it was located in Springfield, Mass.  That explains in part why WBZ-AM 1030 on Sunday will commence its 100-day centennial celebration.

The importance of fact-based broadcast radio and television journalism at a time when misinformation is running rampant on social media is a key mission for local news organizations across the U.S.  It's also integral to the NAB, which has unveiled a new ad campaign giving a boost to local stations in particular.

On its surface, a follow-up report to the U.S. Latino Podcast Listener Report, released in July by Edison Research, offers rather encouraging findings on the percentage of U.S. Hispanics who've listened to a podcast. Now, Edison believes the growth opportunity is even stronger.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation is the latest organization to institute a "COVID Change" for an upcoming in-person gathering. The 46th Annual Gracie Awards will now be a virtual affair.

Colin Benedict, the VP of News for Morgan Murphy Media, played an integral role in the planning and execution of a May 2021 effort across all of the multimedia company’s markets to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations. With the cancellation of the NAB Show, is a “Vaccine Day” more important than ever, and can radio and TV make it happen? Learn more in this encore InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM. LISTEN HERE