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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015 IHeartRadio gains ground on streaming competitors. Since relaunching in 2011, iHeartRadio has been adding registered users at a pace of about 10 million every six to seven months. The streaming radio service has now surpassed 60 million registered users, putting it in closer proximity to competitors such as Pandora and Spotify. Comparisons of iHeartRadio to pureplays are difficult. First, iHeart doesn’t require users to register to listen to live radio streams so its total reach is larger than the number who have registered. Second, pureplays offer free and paid services making apples to apples comparisons difficult. That said, Spotify in early January said it had over 60 million active users globally, including 15 million paying subscribers. Active users are defined as those that have used the service in the past 30 days. As of last year’s third quarter, Pandora had 76.5 million active users and more than 200 million registered users. In other metrics released Friday, iHeartRadio said it hit nearly 90 million unique visitors, nearly 80 million social media followers and 75% brand awareness. The iHeart app has more than 500 million downloads. The new metrics follow first-time deals with Sony, LG and other partners that have put the service into more than a dozen more devices, spanning auto, in-home entertainment and gaming. At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman told Adweek listening will continue to grow as apps are embedded in more multi-purpose devices, such as game consoles, home entertainment systems and connected cars. One station and five EAS tones lead to repercussions for all Univision stations. It was supposed to be a humorous morning show skit, but the FCC didn’t find the misuse of Emergency Alert System tones a laughing matter. So it’s slapped Univision Spanish CHR “X-96.3” WXNY-FM, New York with a $20,000 fine for the January 28, 2014 violation. The station wasn’t able to plead ignorance to the rules during the investigation. After all, morning personality Luis Jimenez and his crew openly acknowledged during the sketch that using the EAS tones was illegal. Even so, they repeatedly played the tones five times during a comedy routine that was a mix of Spanish and English. “I think it’s illegal — eso es para emergencias (that’s for emergencies),” Jimenez said to his co-hosts. The FCC was alerted to the violation by an unnamed New Jersey listener. “Misuse of the emergency alert system desensitizes the public to the importance of the tones and poses a serious danger to the nation’s public safety, whether those tones are transmitted with programming that is in English, Spanish, or any other language,” Enforcement Bureau chief Travis LeBlanc says in a statement. Under a settlement with the FCC, Univision has agreed to pay a $20,000 fine and put a three-year compliance and employee training plan in place for WXNY and every other Univision Radio station nationwide. Univision tells the FCC it’s already begun taking steps to educate on-air talent and staff about the proper use of EAS. It also points out that its decision to dismiss Jimenez and his co-hosts last July was unrelated to the EAS violation. Alpha Media adds Fredericksburg cluster. In the end, Larry Wilson won the cluster he’d been looking at for months — even after sitting out of the auction held to sell the Fredericksburg, VA cluster. Wilson’s Alpha Media has struck a deal to buy the four stations from the private equity firm that earlier emerged as winner at a bankruptcy sale. Sandton Capital Partners is selling “New Country 93.3” WFLS-FM, rhythmic CHR “99.3 The Vibe” WVBX, classic rock “96.9 The Rock” WWUZ and talk/ sports WNTX (1350) to Alpha. Employees were informed of the long-rumored sale on Friday and Wilson tells Inside Radio he’s especially excited to acquire the market’s top-rated WFLS-FM. No management or programming changes are expected. Financial terms of the sale weren’t immediately released. As a lender to Free Lance-Star, Sandton emerged as the owner of the stations last May during a bankruptcy auction. The private equity firm submitted a $30.2 million bid, which included a credit bid [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015 of $13.9 million — the most the court would allow. Wilson says it was a number that convinced him to walk away without Alpha putting its own bid into the mix. After the Federal Communications Commission rejected Sandton’s request to keep the cluster and its grandfathered ownership with the Free Lance-Star newspaper intact, it had 12 months to find a buyer. After a few return trips to Fredericksburg, Wilson says a deal was hatched. “The stations will be in very capable hands,” Sandton partner Robert Orr says in a statement. The firm continues to look for its next radio investment. Alpha Media has grown to 93 stations, including nearby clusters in Richmond, VA; Hagerstown, MD; and Bluefield, WV. Car dealers become the foot soldiers of satellite radio. Sirius XM Radio added a record 1.3 million used car trial subscriptions during the third quarter of 2014, showcasing how important the pre-owned market has become for the company. Since SiriusXM began working with local dealers to make satellite radio available to their used car customers in mid-2011, more than 15,000 dealers have joined the program that gives buyers of a vehicle with a factory-installed receiver three months of free satellite radio. There are more cars on the road today with a receiver built into the dashboard, many of which aren’t activated, and that has SiriusXM looking at fine-tuning its pricing and promotions to appeal to those drivers who may not think it’s worth adding another expense to their lives. “We’re experimenting with what’s the best way to get the best yield out of those trial funnels as that wider disparity of incomes and demographics come through,” CEO Jim Meyer said during a recent conference call. The number of self-paying customers who drop the service –—the so-called churn number — has remained pretty steady at roughly 2%. January is typically the month that SiriusXM loses its biggest number of customers as annual plans end. Inside Radio News Ticker...CRS returns unemployment rate...The economy may be improving, but there are still plenty of people struggling. So the Country Radio Seminar has announced it will offer a $99 “unemployment rate” to its annual Nashville conference. The discounted registration requires proof of joblessness. It will be the first time CRS has offered the discount in consecutive years. CRS will also offer single-day and single-panel passes. The pricing flexibility has allowed CRS attendance to grow despite tighter company travel budgets...Tulsa morning host ‘Biggie’ dead at 40... An impromptu memorial has been created outside the studios of IHeartMedia rock KMOD-FM, Tulsa (97.5) following the Friday death of morning personality Shay “Biggie” Adams. He’d been off the air since November battling an undisclosed illness. Adams was 40. He and radio partner Corbin Pierce had been on KMOD-FM since 2012 after moving over from rhythmic CHR sister “92.1 The Beat” KTBT. “We have all lost a treasure,” Pierce said in his statement. Read more People Moves HERE. SALES SPECIAL: How to win the radio sales game in 2015. Regardless of the sport, every team begins the season with a winning record. It’s not so different for radio salespeople. They stare at the January page on the calendar as a yearly reset to their annual billing and personal bottom line. Inside Radio caught up with several sales consultants and asked them the best way AEs can win the game in 2015. The (sales) past is (sales) prologue. The relatively slower pace of January is a prime opportunity to crunch last year’s numbers with a mission to use that information to strategize for 2015. Consultants say sales reps should look at what the average client spent each month, what the value of the typical order was, and where areas of potential growth may exist. Consultant Jim Taszarek calls it a “treasure trove” of sales information. “It tells you what a salesperson was good at last year, what worked for them, the client and the station, and gives them a map for how to duplicate and expand on that this year.” Consultant Mark Levy says the results of that data can then be used to craft a tailored pitch focused on adding another daypart, station or day of the week to their typical buy. He also suggests presenting a client with an explanation for why each spot will cost at least an extra dollar in 2015. For a station with 12 units an hour around the clock, Levy calculates that will add up to an additional $104,000 a year out of the gate. And while sales managers and clients may be in an annual mode, Levy thinks elongating the calendar by a month or two can pay off. “Consider rewriting annual contracts so you don’t have to renew in January or February, which are notoriously slow business months,” he says. Take a hard look at the client list. Client needs analysis is certainly nothing new, but the start of a new year gives sales reps a once-a-year opportunity to focus on key accounts.