Radio News

NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Metheny has taken his call for the activation of FM chips in all Apple iPhone handsets to Congress. Metheny appeared as one of three witnesses at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing held this morning focused on the policy concerns surrounding the use — and effectiveness — of Emergency Alert Systems. For Metheny, FM chips in smartphones is just a start: Next Gen TV, known as ATSC 3.0, has the potential to wake up sleeping devices and save lives.

What's next for the 34 radio stations The E.W. Scripps Co. picked up from Journal Communications in its 2015 merger, making Scripps a bigger broadcast TV entity in the process? The possible future for these properties is already the top discussion topic in the media brokerage community. A look at the most recent past could provide a fuller look at these now-available stations for potential buyers.

Disruption, conflict, crisis, loss of revenue, combatting or conforming to digital media, bad attitudes, apathy and Band-Aid solutions. These are some of the most significant concerns for broadcast operations to date, notes Media Information Bureau columnist Kelly Orchard. In this column, Orchard helps busy executives answer one question they probably haven't had time to even think about.

Efforts spearheaded by music industry lobbyists to introduce legislation on Capitol Hill that would increase music licensing fees have largely fizzled since the start of the 115th Congress. A bi-partisan group of senators led by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch and Tennessee GOP senator Lamar Alexander hope that anti-royalty sentiment will change, thanks to their introduction today of a law they say would be "the most significant change in music licensing laws in decades." The NAB has already spoken up about the senators' bill, and it's concerned but pleased. We have an RBR+TVBR Observation to share.

Tech company Triton Digital and Edison Research announced Monday that the results of the 2018 U.S. Infinite Dial will be broadcast via Facebook Live on Thursday, March 8 at 2pm EST. Infinite Dial studies consumer behaviors related to media and technology in America.

That's the focus of a panel at the 2018 Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference being held March 13-14 in Miami. The panel will be moderated by Tomás Martinez, CEO and owner of Solmart Media. Martinez is responsible for managing the company’s three Southwest Florida stations: WZSP-FM, WZZS-FM, and WTMY-AM.

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings has given notice in an SEC filing that it is demanding repayment of a $30M note from iHeartCommunications, its parent company.

Prometheus Radio Project is locking horns with the FCC again. It’s taking the Commission to court over the deregulation of its broadcast media ownership rules and the loosening of other regulations. It is joined in the action by the Media Mobilizing Project.

As a variety of horrific disasters including hurricanes and wildfires demonstrated all too acutely throughout 2016, the importance of radio in providing life-saving information and communications cannot be denied or compromised. While the recent EAS false alarm that threw Hawaiian residents into a state of panic was just that — false — imagine a worst-case scenario, one in which the alarm signaled real danger. Is your station ready? Attendance at a just-added Hispanic Radio Conference session will ensure you are.

McLaughlin — who was to be honored with the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Broadcasters Foundation of America’s Golden Mike Award dinner, March 5, in New York City — was the man who launched Rush Limbaugh into syndication.

As we reported earlier, Cumulus has turned to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York for relief from “extremely unprofitable contracts” it holds in Chicago. Now we learn that iHeartMedia is seeking to cash in its marker with the troubled company.

BIA/Kelsey has released the numbers for radio and TV deals in 2017. It may not have been a banner year, but it was strong nonetheless. There are, however, indicators that may augur well for 2018.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF) has extended the call for entries for the 43rd annual Gracie Awards by a full week. This is being done in response to a high volume of requests for extensions, AWMF notes.

The first-of-its kind standard that outlines measurement and reporting requirements for digital audio advertising and content in either browser or App environments requiring a software-based audio player have been finalized. Here's what the MRC has codified.

With all of the excitement expressed by the radio industry over smart speakers, and how they have the potential to bring AM and FM radio back in to the home, few have discussed the flip side of the entry of Google Home and Amazon Echo devices. Could they actually cut, rather than add, to the time spent listening to radio? Business Insider says the answer could be "yes," and uses a recent study from NPR and Edison Research to back up its report—and perhaps throw a wrench into the radio industry's amour for Alexa.