Radio News

A Texas state appeals court in San Antonio on Wednesday sided with iHeartMedia in ruling that a stock transfer was allowed under the terms of its loan agreements. The decision is a blow to creditors who attempted to declare a default on billions of dollars of the company's debt, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

Three separate groups have asked the FCC to tweak their respective FM translators, so as to diminish interference from fully licensed co-channel FM stations. One of these owners is The Walt Disney Co. The other is a company that was forced to shut down a controversial translator in the Raleigh-Durham area, which made Lakes Media Network owner Tom Birch very, very happy.

Investors are once again expressing confidence in a solid Wall Street performer that recently became the newest pure-play radio broadcasting company in the U.S. After a shaky summer that saw its shares dip from $49.25 on June 1 to $37.75 on July 24, Saga Communications is clawing back toward the $50 range.

Region 31 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Los Angeles has made good on its September pledge to move forward with a formal complaint on unfair labor practice charges filed by SAG-AFTRA against Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS)‘s two FM radio stations in Southern California.

Three years ago, American University's NPR member station in Washington, D.C., closed on its acquisition of a station in Virginia that would serve as a simulcast partner, bringing its coverage to an ever-expanding region south of Quantico. Now, the school in Northwest Washington is retreating from the Old Dominion.

There are two individuals taking similarly big jobs in the Big Apple and the New York Tri-State Region for iHeartMedia. Concurrently, there's a new Regional SVP of Sales for iHeartMedia's Pittsburgh/West Virginia region, and she'll be starting hew new duties on Monday, Oct. 16.

Is it true, or false, that the heavier the modulation, the further an AM radio signal will reach? Featured Media Information Bureau columnist Ken Benner says it is a widespread fallacy. Yet, some radio stations remain unconvinced. The result is a cacophony of audio assailants that can perhaps be easily preventable. 

A solid Q2 performance shows that turnaround strategies implemented by Cumulus President/CEO Mary Berner are working. However, Wall Street remains wary of Cumulus' towering debt, and the company's stock and stockholders' equity levels are too low for Nasdaq to keep CMLS stock on the exchange. Cumulus is appealing the twin reasons for a delisting, but does it have any option left aside from an OTC Markets move?

Interim CFO duties have been handed to Lisa Knutson, as the owner of radio and TV stations works out a severance agreement with Timothy M. Wesolowski. Details were outlined in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing made Friday by The E.W. Scripps Co.

The FCC in December 2016 received a minor modification request for the CP of a noncommercial FM in Coggon, Iowa. An informal objection to the licensee's request came on Feb. 7, from Kirkwood Community College. Subsequent oppositions to the objection and reply comments were then submitted to the FCC. The Media Bureau has now rendered a decision in the matter.

The freshest quarterly data crunched by CFOs and signed off by CEOs across the radio industry landscape will soon be shared with Wall Street observers and investors. Among the companies to deliver their latest financial figures is Emmis Communications. The radio company that's also the parent to TagStation will deliver its fiscal 2018 Q2 results on Thursday morning. 

There's no getting around this bruising bit of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence-owned media research group Kagan: U.S. broadcast station mergers and acquisitions volume reached $189.6 million in Q3 2017. This is the lowest quarterly deal volume of the year. But, the previous two quarters were skewed by two billion-dollar deals.

According to an SEC filing made by Urban One, Karen Wishart's first day as a company EVP was Monday, and she's already working with Chief Administrative Officer Linda Vilardo on a successful transfer of her duties to Wishart. Vilardo's last day of employment is Dec. 31, and we now know how much Wishart will earn in 2018.

Factors that will affect the outlook for local advertising will be discussed during an upcoming Distance Learning webinar offered by MFM and its BCCA subsidiary. The discussion will delve into the forces driving local media purchases in the coming year and features insight and observations from two leaders at BIA/Kelsey.

Still not convinced that the Amazon Echo or Google Home are more than just fads and that their growing presence in U.S. households isn't important to the radio broadcasting industry? A new report from Futuresource Consulting indicates that the smart home market will be worth $6 billion by the end of 2017, and it's rising fast.