Radio News

Urban One has priced its offering of $825 million in aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes due 2028, which RBR+TVBR first reported on Thursday. It's a private offering — exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Nearly three years after the death of Marianne Gittler, her husband Bill Gittler is selling their Class B FM serving southern Monterey County, Calif.. The buyer has a big group of radio stations in San Luis Obispo.

After 32 years at the now-Entercom Communications-owned News/Talk station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, the man behind the mic for the Morning News at WCCO-AM is hanging it up. An April 30 retirement date was revealed Friday morning.

In this exclusive InFOCUS podcast, presented by DOT.FM, WTOP General Manager Joel Oxley shares with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson how the Hubbard Radio all-News station serving Washington, D.C. covered all of the events of Jan. 6 -- including the 4am Eastern certification of the electoral college votes that seals the victory of Joe Biden as the next president of the U.S. LISTEN HERE

Urban One shares rose by more than 100% on Wednesday. By the Closing Bell on Thursday, UONE had given back nearly 22% of that gain. What's to come could be predicated on Urban One's Q4 results. And, the company released a sneak peek of its fourth-quarter financial report card on Thursday, ahead of the Opening Bell on Wall Street.

On January 4, RBR+TVBR exclusively reported on a matter involving Urban One and the Nasdaq stock market. The company had received notice from Nasdaq that it was no longer in compliance with its trading policies and, with no resolution, could face a delisting. Such an action was unlikely. Now, Urban One has guaranteed that it will not happen.

Townsquare Media on Wednesday told the SEC that it has successfully completed the previously announced sale of $550 aggregate principal amount of its 6.875% senior secured notes due 2026 at an issue price of 100.0%.

Urban One shares soared by 102.1% on Wednesday, with big gains coming in the afternoon hours. After-hours trading shows a decline, but it still represents a super surge for the media company super-serving African American consumers.

Is COVID-19 killing more than a handful of radio stations in Q1? The latest U.S. broadcast station totals from the FCC show another drop in the number of licensed radio stations during the quarter. Meanwhile, the number of FM translators licensed for broadcast continues to surge.

RBR+TVBR first learned of a headset for iPhones and iPads using the Lightning interface that brings FM radio broadcasts to users, using no data, in April 2018— ahead of that year's NAB Show. There, a demo yielded what so many in the radio world wanted — in addition to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. It is now known that Apple is no longer supporting the Soundot app.

The Victor Valley is officially ensconced within the vast Los Angeles DMA. But, "local" TV is hardly local, and newspapers are largely focused on San Bernardino, to the south, or Southern California's more populous communities. One radio group decided to tackle the local news void, both on-air and online.

Urban One shares skyrocketed in the summer of 2020. While values have receded since that big surge, they are still nearly four times the average price for UONE seen before June 1. However, there's a slight problem with Urban One, and the Nasdaq stock market has sent the company a notice that it needs to remedy it. Otherwise, it could face delisting.

What can broadcasters expect with respect to D.C. regulation in January 2020? David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker Knauer offered a detailed look at what's important to radio and TV station owners and managers.

A Form 314 filing transferring three FM stations stripped off ownership by Ed Stolz due to nonpayment of ASCAP royalty fees to a new owner has been made. The filing was submitted by the stations' receiver, and the buyer is a non-secular broadcast ministry with a significant presence in the American West.

"While 2020 challenged us, you and your team demonstrated the importance of local broadcasting and what it means to give back," the NAB says. As this year concludes, the NAB Leadership Foundation is asking you to telling your station's story during the 2021 Celebration of Service to America Awards.