Radio News

Thanks to the efforts of music rights coalition musicFIRST, the NAB is at war with groups such as the RIAA on Capitol Hill over any new fees or royalty payments for the airplay of recorded music on the nation's AM and FM stations. Why is musicFIRST pushing so hard in the early months of the Trump Administration? Here's the NAB's take on that.

The annual deadline for filing federal income tax is nearly here, and that saw Jackson Hewitt soar in the newest Media Monitors Radio Spot Ten report.

In an exclusive interview with RBR + TVBR, Rep. Ted Deutch explains why he has emerged as a key member of Congress on the issue of performance rights and radio's "fair share" — something many industry leaders have assailed as a "tax on radio."

Attorney Henry Gradstein contends that there is "no question" that in Florida, a recording artist owns their audio recordings. Gradstein is representing Flo & Eddie in a Florida Supreme Court case now underway that will determine whether Sirius XM is liable for royalty payments for pre-1972 recordings.

There's a battle brewing on Capitol Hill, and the NAB is doing its part to get more support of the "Local Radio Freedom Act" by putting its message directly in the hands of Legislative Aides and Legislative Correspondent -- and, quite possibly, a member of Congress.

The company's Term Loan D and Term Loan E offers will now expire one week later than originally scheduled. The same goes for iHeart's private exchange offers for a series of outstanding debt securities. Why is this being done? As of 5pm Eastern on Tuesday, no existing notes had been tendered into the exchange offers.

A Class C1 95kw facility serving the Wichita market created to grow and expand employment opportunities in the radio industry for people who are blind or visually impaired will soon be owned by a Manhattan, Kansas-based media company that recently expanded by acquiring several stations from Alpha Media.

What happens when a 50-50 owner partnership in your media properties turns sour? Just ask Charles L. Jordan III and Tim Walker of Mason, Texas. Here's how a matter that involves alleged embezzlement of funds was resolved.

House legislation introduced Wednesday would allow performing artists to opt out of having their music played on the radio if the performing artist is not being paid an agreed-upon performance royalty. We've got an RBR + TVBR OBSERVATION on the "PROMOTE Act" everyone needs to read.

Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) has resolved a lingering license renewal issue for its biggest radio station -- caused by a 11-year-old indecency complaint -- by agreeing to a $10,000 Consent Decree with the FCC. The settlement, which resolves the Media Bureau's investigation of the alleged indecency allegations, also settles issues arising from the Bureau's review of this station's 2006 and 2014 license renewals.

A Class A assigned to the 97.7 MHz frequency in the Medford, Oregon, suburb of Butte Falls has signed on the air. The owner knew little, if anything, about the town before being awarded an FCC license for the station, KORJ-FM. It didn't matter: Threshold Communications partners Jim Bryan and Ron Wulff were the lone bidders in a Commission auction for the brand-new station.

Bonneville International's KMVP-FM "Arizona Sports 98.7" in Phoenix was stung and prevented from delivering a live broadcast yesterday as part of its NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship coverage. A nasty competitor wasn't to blame.

The nation's leading radio company by number of stations has created a position for an individual charged with convincing advertisers, brand managers and CMOs why its cross-platform opportunities matter when achieving strong ROI is the goal.

It's time to talk about "Generation Z," and the youngest of this group, RBR+TVBR's Editor-In-Chief writes in this Intelligence Brief. "It may be scary to fathom this, but we're talking about teens born after 2000," he notes. But, what's possibly scarier is why the media industry C-Suite shouldn't ignore this cohort, based on the latest Think With Google report.

WAVA's Station Manager has been tapped to succeed David Ruleman as the head of Salem Media Group's Washington, DC cluster. Ruleman is set to step down, ending a career that began in 1968.