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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 Washington thinks it’s time for an EAS modernization. National tests of the Emergency Alert System would be mandated every three years under a bill currently making its way through the Senate. It’s part of an effort to modernize the public warning infrastructure. “In times of an emergency, information is crucial,” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) says. “This bill takes important steps to expand our nation’s public warning system to ensure the largest number of people is reached.” Johnson drafted the bill with Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and that bipartisan alliance quickly got the proposed Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Modernization Act passed by the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The bill requires the FCC and FEMA to fine-tune the alerting system on the basis of geographic location and risk, and to make sure EAS works across as many devices as possible. And while it doesn’t specifically require radio or TV stations to transmit messages in languages other than English, it would require the agencies to come up with a way that ensures people with limited proficiency with the language understand the message. The same requirement applies to reaching the disabled. There would also be a new push to make sure rural areas are covered. As for the three-year national testing cycle, the bill says that is to ensure EAS “is resilient and secure and can withstand acts of terrorism and other external attacks.” Other proposed changes could be coming. Under the bill aiming to modernize the Emergency Alert System, the FCC would issue annual reports on how EAS is performing, while FEMA would establish a three-year task force to develop recommendations for additional improvements. The bill would give commercial and public broadcasters a seat at that table. It would also include state and local governments, representatives from the emergency management community, equipment vendors, the cable and satellite television industry, disabled groups, and those who represent the non-English speaking community. Johnson says it would work to ensure “effective training and collaboration so that when an emergency hits, we are ready.” Broadcasters have long held their role in EAS as sacred and while the legislation could put new requirements on stations, the National Association of Broadcasters is embracing the effort. “Radio and television broadcasters play a crucial role as ‘first informers,’ providing local communities with up-to-the-second information when disaster strikes,” EVP Dennis Wharton says. NAB is also pledging to help the bill’s sponsors to bring other lawmakers on board. Rear Admiral (ret.) David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, told Inside Radio last month he doubts the planned 2015 national EAS test will occur this year. With several issues still being considered by the Commission, Simpson said he thinks holding off makes sense. “I just don’t think we’d give the broadcasters enough time to get ready so I think more realistically the 2016 timeframe would be what we’re looking at,” he said. The commissioners are currently reviewing the test outline and until they green-light the proposal laid out by the Bureau, no date will be set. Sports-loving Bilingual Hispanics are ESPN’s best friends. Nearly 80% of Hispanics in the U.S. live in households where English and Spanish are both spoken with many going back and forth between the two languages. For ESPN, those bilingual Hispanics are highly valued because they consume more of the company’s content on more platforms, including radio. When it comes to video, 41% of ESPN’s 20 million Hispanic users switch between ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Bilinguals, who enjoy both international and American sports, are ESPN’s heaviest Hispanic users, representing 52% of usage. But there’s less back and forth between the two languages within the company’s audio platforms. “To listen to sports talk radio, you need to be really proficient in the language,” ESPN associate director of Hispanic research Heather Coghill said during a press conference yesterday. “There isn’t the added benefit of seeing pictures and video to help follow along.” ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes represent what she calls “different, unique, incremental audiences.” Radio is benefitting from the growth [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 of mobile access among Hispanics. The average Hispanic spends 90 hours a month online with three-fourths occurring on a mobile device and most of it via apps. That’s helped grow listening to ESPN Deportes live streams and podcasts. Advertisers using a mix of platforms and languages received the biggest bang for their marketing bucks, ESPN research shows. A campaign or sponsorship seen in English on ESPN TV and heard in Spanish on ESPN Deportes Radio produced better results than ones that used a single platform or language. “We feel that total market campaigns are most effective and that’s true for audio, too,” Coghill said. Meet America’s Biggest Sports Fans. Which city has the biggest sports fans is a fiercely debated question. But answering it for population segments is much easier. Bilingual Hispanics take the trophy, hands down. At 87%, the amount of Hispanic and general population sports fans is equal. The number of Hispanics who describe themselves as avid sports fans (34%) is only slightly higher than the total population (31%). But the number jumps to 40% among Hispanics who speak Spanish and English. Because of their dual acculturation, bilingual Hispanics avidly follow more different sports (4.4) than Hispanics overall (3.6) and non-Hispanics (3.1). “They’re fans of the international sports they grew up watching with their dads, uncles and grandfathers like soccer and boxing but they’re also influenced by their peers in the U.S.” ESPN associate director of Hispanic research Heather Coghill said during a press conference yesterday. Unsurprisingly, soccer is the most viewed sport among Hispanics, capturing nearly one third of all their sports viewing time. But the NFL (14.4%), NBA (5.7%) and MLB (3.4%) also have big Hispanic audiences. Break it out by language and there’s a different story. Viewing to NFL, NBA and college sports is sharply lower among Spanish-dominant Hispanics, while soccer, boxing and wrestling score higher. Half of all their sports viewing was for soccer in 2014, no doubt influenced by the World Cup. The NFL was a distant second at 4.3%. Hispanics who speak only or mostly English don’t look much different from the general population. Bilinguals, on the other hand, still spend about a third of their time with soccer but also watch the NFL, NBA and MLB. Q2 read: ‘an emphatic okay.’ Better, but it’s not “gangbusters.” That’s the no-spin assessment of second quarter business from Salem Media Group CEO Ed Atsinger. It’s why he says his company has been so focused on cutting costs this year. “With the radio industry pacing continuing to be soft, we’ve had to take a hard look at our expenses and put in place a number of cost-savings to try to increase our overall efficiency,” Atsinger told analysts on a conference call. He said the company eliminated “a number of positions” during March, from the executive ranks right down through the radio and digital operations. “It will continue to be a focus for us throughout the year,” Atsinger said. Radio president Dave Santrella said his view on Q2 is “an emphatic okay” after a flattish April sprouted some improved sales in May, with June on track to be the best month of the quarter. The movie ad category has picked up a bit, he said, and with better weather comes more events. There’s also the return of a key Salem Radio Networks talk talent, Michael Medved, who stepped away from his show to fight throat cancer. “We’re seeing some advertisers that went away when Michael had a prolonged illness and they’re starting to come back,” Santrella said. And yet despite all of those positive indicators, there’s no cause for celebration just yet. “It remains pretty tepid,” Santrella told analysts. Salem by the numbers. For the second quarter Salem is projecting revenue to decrease 2% to 4% blaming a loss of political revenue for part of the decline. That follows Q1 when revenue slipped 0.5% in radio and 0.8% for the company overall. “In a nonpolitical year, we’re pretty pleased with that result,” CEO Ed Atsinger said yesterday, calling it “another challenging quarter [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com THURSDAY, MAY 7, 2015 for the radio industry.” Salem Radio Network revenue fell 9%, and only its contemporary Christian (+4%) and news-talk (+2%) formatted stations posted growth in the quarter. But Atsinger also noted block programming sales gained ground and NTR billing soared 21%. Survey uncovers consumer desire for customizable content from AM/FM radio. Radio stations are masters at promotion, and new survey data from Bridge Ratings suggests more time to promote their apps may be in order. Bridge found that just 14% of the people it surveyed reported having a station app on their smartphone. And among those who did download one, just a third said they used it. What would get listeners to use a station app more often? Bridge says 41% of those surveyed said they’d probably tap the app more often if it offered custom content specific to them that they select.