Radio News

The former Market Manager and GM for BiCoastal Media's Medford, Ore., station group is heading up Interstate 5 straight to Exit 299A, and a single-story office park located within walking distance of The Old Spaghetti Factory. Once there, he'll take over as VP/Market Manager for Entercom's Portland, Ore., cluster.

A 45-year radio industry veteran who serves as president of Mercury Capital Partners has agreed to pay $2.3 million for a trio of AM radio stations serving some of the nation's biggest markets. In a deal filed with the FCC on Monday, the Charlie Banta-led Universal Stations LLC is the buyer. The seller is tied to Banta, making this deal a bit of a reorganization.

A Class A FM serving the growing Casa Grande, Ariz., area and nearby San Tan Valley portion of the Phoenix DMA has been sold by Univision Communications. Who's the owner? None other than the prolific buyer led by a man named Mike Novak. Who's the broker? Kalil & Co., representing the seller.

There's a stagecoach that's rolled in with some new radio spots, and the delivery is big enough to land a major financial institution into the latest Media Monitors Radio Spot Ten report.

A silent FM radio station on the campus of a major university along the Wasatch Front will soon be brought back to life. That’s thanks to a transaction that sees one of the most prolific buyers in recent months adding yet another station to its stable of noncomms. In other TRANSACTIONS TODAY from RBR+TVBR: Greg Davis adds to his Atlanta-area stable with this deal involving a MARTA rail station parking lot.

The nation's No. 1 owner of broadcast radio stations is again extending a somewhat complex series of private offers to its bondholders— exchange offers and consent solicitations for each issue of existing notes originally set to expire on April 14. Why? Discussions with note holders regarding the terms of the exchange offers are still ongoing. What does this mean for iHeart?

As per the terms of a $150M strategic investment offer made on May 8 by KKR to Pandora, any end of a proposed injection of funds in the streaming audio company from KKR would involve a termination fee. A closer look at Sirius XM's investment in Pandora clearly shows that Sirius XM is eating the fee, and immediately matching KKR's offer ... and more.

Simple math makes for easy guidance affirmation. With a huge $480 million cash infusion from Sirius XM replacing a $150 million strategic investment offer from KKR made May 8, Pandora stands firm with its guidance for the current quarter and for the full year as offered during its Q1 2017 conference call.

In late April, the Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones — Mexico's equivalent of the FCC — said sí to new regulations that require all smartphone manufacturers to enable the chip that allows every headset to receive FM radio signals. This makes the nation the first on planet Earth to require everyone from Samsung to Apple to bring local FM signals to one's mobile device. Will the USA be the last nation to take such action?

Less than 24 hours after the Recording Academy revealed that it has gained additional bipartisan support in the House of Representatives for its "Fair Pay Fair Play Act," the NAB-supported "Local Radio Freedom Act" has attracted two more backers in the lower body of Congress.

The Sea Lounge Bar & Restaurant has received positive reviews on Yelp since May, and its Jamaican and Caribbean fare seems to be a hit on the west side of Mt. Vernon, New York, just above the Bronx. Now, it's received its first violation warning. No, it's not for live roaches in a reach-in cooler that had food products. It's actually for a pirate radio station coming from the quick service eatery, and it's courtesy of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau.

Here's more evidence that single-digit growth for radio is what the industry's C-Suite executives can expect over the next five years. PwC has just released its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2017-2021, and for the U.S. radio revenue is expected to rise from $22 billion in 2016 to $24.1 billion in 2021—reflecting a compound average growth rate of 1.9%.

An Illinois couple seeking to receive royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings they own have been thwarted in their home state from getting any dollars from the biggest owner of broadcast radio stations in the U.S.

The Media Bureau has released the comment deadline and reply comment deadline, respectively, for its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the matter of the elimination of the FCC's Main Studio Rule.

A 72-year-old broadcast engineer who has worked for PMB Broadcasting and iHeartRadio stations in the Columbus, Ga., market has died following complications from his unwitting involvement in a June 3 high-speed car chase in the neighboring city of Phenix City, Ala.