800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2014 Streamlining is helping FCC speed-up its license renewals. The Federal Communications Commission is crediting an expedited review of complaints by the Enforcement Bureau for speeding up decision-making at the agency. The result, according to FCC special counsel Diane Cornell, is the Media Bureau has granted more than 950 license renewals during the past several months. It is part of a wider review of procedures which the top aide to chairman Tom Wheeler says is streamlining the agency’s processes. “We have had several working groups as well as staff throughout the Commission focusing on new approaches to simplify how we do business, with the goal of improving the efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of the Commission’s work,” Cornell writes in a blog post. It’s an effort that has seen over 1,500 dormant proceedings closed this year, including an additional 751 over the past few months. The commissioners have been voting on groups of non-controversial items at their monthly meeting, the so-called consent agenda, which has finalized more than five dozen bureau-level decisions this year. The FCC also created a “rocket docket” – which accelerates applications set for review – and streamlined internal coordination efforts, Cornell says. CMA survey: Radio is top music discovery platform. Nearly eight in ten country music fans (78%) use AM/FM radio to listen to music, beating all other platforms by a country mile, including YouTube (45%), CDs (43%), digital music libraries (34%), streaming apps (33%), AM/FM radio streams and satellite radio (21% each) and cable TV channels (20%). So says a new survey conducted for the Country Music Association by Ipsos Research of country fans who discovered a new song or artist within the past seven days. Radio also came in first as the most used platform by a four-to-one margin over anything else and was the top music discovery platform (43%), ahead of YouTube and music streaming apps (tied at 13%). The research turned up strong awareness for music streaming services. While YouTube and Pandora dominate usage at 48% and 41%, respectively, iTunes Radio (20%) and iHeartRadio (19%) placed third and fourth. IHeartRadio scored higher among 35-54 year-olds (26%). The survey was fielded from July 25-30 among respondents who said they consistently listen to country music and have discovered a song or artist (new or old) they hadn’t heard before within seven days of taking the survey. Survey: Discovery via streaming more likely to lead to music sales. One goal of the Country Music Association study of music discovery platforms was to learn more about the relationship between discovery and subsequent actions, like researching an artist or song or making a music purchase. Half of those who said they discovered a song or artist within the past seven days said they researched their music discovery immediately, mainly via YouTube or Google. Older releases garnered higher NEWS INSIDE >> levels of follow-up action (58%) than a new artist (51%) or a new release (49%). The STUNT FORMATS SET number that said they purchased a song after discovering it for the first time were lower STAGE IN TAMPA & but still significant: 29% for an older song, 17% for a new artist and 20% for a new NORFOLK release. Discovering music on digital platforms, such as streaming apps and YouTube, [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2014 was more likely than AM/FM radio to lead to further engagement with the song, such as using Google or Shazam to find it or sharing it on social media. Half of those who discovered a song on a streaming app and 57% who first learned about it on YouTube researched it afterwards, compared to one third for AM/FM radio. It’s worth pointing out that taking action on a musical discovery while listening to AM/FM radio in the car, where most radio listening takes place, isn’t as simple as searching for it online while using a connected mobile device or PC. The study also showed that digital discovery was more likely to lead to an early purchase. New artist discovery was linked more to streaming apps and TV compared to radio, which drove more new release discovery. Stunt formats set the stage for new launches in Tampa and Norfolk. Will Tampa listeners start the New Year with a new home for soft and easy favorites? Or blazin’ hip- hop and R&B? Beasley Broadcast Group is letting listeners in on the decision-making for the new direction for one of the stations it recently acquired from CBS Radio. After dumping sports and going all-Christmas, WHFS-FM, Sarasota-Bradenton (98.7) is polling listeners online for where the format wheel should land come January 5th. Listeners can sample and vote on a ballot of 14 format options. Beasley is casting a wide net with everything from the increasingly popular classic hip-hop format (“98.7 The Skool”) to classic rock (“The Arrow”) to classic country (“The Cow”). There are also music montages for CHR, oldies, soft AC, active rock, gospel, urban and alternative. In the meantime, the station is programming an all-over-the-road mix that runs the gamut from Daft Punk to Donna Summer to the Irish Rovers. Beasley closed on WHFS in early December as part of a multimarket swap with CBS Radio. The new format’s arrival date coincides with the day that Bubba the Love Sponge Clem is indicating he’ll return to the Tampa airwaves, where he made his biggest mark in radio. Beasley also airs Clem’s show in Ft. Myers. In other post- Christmas stunting, iHeatMedia has launched Missy FM on the former home of urban AC “Kiss FM” WKSA, Norfolk (92.1). Voiced by Missy Elliott, the female rap superstar who hails from nearby Portsmouth, the station plans to introduce its new format on Monday. ABC News will launch with 1,000 affiliate stations. As ABC News breaks away from Westwood One to chart a new solo course on January 1, the network says it has signed more than 1,000 affiliate stations for its ABC News, ABC Digital and ABC Air Power products. Of that number, ABC says 200 are new affiliates and many have signed up for more than one ABC service. In a note to news division staffers, ABC News president James Goldston said the company has surpassed its goals for signing new affiliates. “Not only have we retained many key affiliates, but we have added several of the most iconic, most-respected and most-listened to stations in America,” Goldston said, including Hubbard Broadcasting news WTOP-FM Washington (103.5), Tribune news-talk “Radio 720” WGN, Chicago and iHeartMedia talk KFI, Los Angeles (640). ABC Radio says it has signed distribution agreements for its programming to be heard globally through Armed Forces Radio and across Canada via Canadian Press. Townsquare Media and Saga Communications have signed up for its ABC Digital service and the network says it has signed “hundreds” of affiliates for the ABC Air Power entertainment and music service. The network has been pounding the pavement for affiliates since August, when it announced it would no longer align with Westwood One, choosing instead to go it alone as part of a reinvigorated ABC Radio. The stakes for clearances rose higher when Cumulus said it would launch a new CNN-based white label news product via Westwood One. Cumulus owns about a third of current ABC News affiliates, including the big news and talk stations in New York (WABC), Los Angeles (KABC), Chicago (WLS) and San Francisco (KGO). With an eye on podcasting, WideOrbit buys Castfire. In another deal designed to grow its reach into digital media, ad management provider WideOrbit has acquired Castfire, which makes technology for managing and monetizing on-demand content such as podcasts. WideOrbit says it plans to integrate Castfire’s video and audio publishing platform with Abacast Clarity, the streaming audio services platform it bought in June. WideOrbit CEO Eric Mathewson says the Castfire purchase [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2014 makes good strategic sense in light of growing consumer interest in podcasts and other on-demand content. Combining Castfire with the Abacast Clarity system, he says, will help audio and video broadcasters, streaming radio services and podcasters drive revenue from both on-demand content and live streams. The goal is to build an on-demand content management system with the ability to dynamically target and insert ads based on device type, geography, dayparting and other parameters. While its ad trafficking systems are more common in TV than radio, Wide Orbit software manages more than $30 billion in ad spending a year. The San Francisco-based company is betting big on using its ad trafficking infrastructure to transition broadcasters and online publishers to new ways of distributing content and driving new revenue. This year alone it shelled out more than $50 million buying and developing digital ad transaction technology. Ad agencies reject lower viewability threshold for digital advertising. Ad agencies say temporary guidelines calling for 70% of online ad impressions to be viewable aren’t acceptable and that advertisers should only have to pay for the part of their online campaign that consumers can actually see. In a letter to members, the agency trade group the 4A’s rejected a call by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) that recommended that measured impressions in digital campaigns be held to a 70% viewability threshold in 2015.