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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015
Christmas format rode higher ratings wave in 2014. Santa spiked the holiday punch bowl with a little more ratings juice in 2014. The average Christmas station notched a 9.6 share in the 6+ demo in Nielsen’s Holiday 2014 survey, up a full share from 2013’s 8.6. The numbers reflect the 11 stations in non-embedded Day One PPM markets that went all-Christmas in 2014 and 2013. Of them, nine posted a higher 6+ share in 2014, two held steady and none declined. With the majority of PPM ratings not coming until later this week, it’s too early to know if the higher trend will hold up across all PPM markets. One likely reason for the bigger bump is that the 2014 survey, which covered December 4-31, reflected one more day of Christmas programming than in 2013. Some of the increases were dramatic, putting on ice, for now, the notion that the seasonal format has peaked. Holiday ratings for iHeartMedia AC “93.9 My FM” WLIT, Chicago were 24% higher than in 2013 (11.6-14.2). What’s more, the station nearly doubled its December share. WLIT wasn’t alone in posting double-digit, year-over-year holiday ratings gains: CBS Radio’s classic hits KLUV, Dallas (98.7) padded its share by 22% (7.2-8.8) while Entercom AC KOIT, San Francisco (96.5) grew 8.9-10.6, a 19% gain over 2013. From New York to Los Angeles, the tinsel shone brighter in 2014. Year-over year, New York’s “106.7 Lite FM” WLTW grew 13% (11.9-13.5) while L.A.’s KOST (103.5) jumped 17% (10.4-12.2) Both are iHeartMedia ACs. If there’s a plateau for the format, it’s miles above sea level: Jerry Lee’s AC “More FM’ WBEB, Philadelphia (101.1) posted a 15.1 share both years – beating the entire Christmas station pack so far.
In Atlanta, full-time Christmas beats part-time. After it took too long to bring back core listeners for its regular programming, Cox Media Group AC “B-98.5” WSB-FM, Atlanta offered a best-of-both-worlds part-time Christmas format during the past two holiday seasons. Filling the void, Salem contemporary Christian “The Fish” WFSH-FM (104.7) grabbed the holiday format by the horns in 2014, riding it to a first-place tie with CBS Radio urban “V-103” WVEE. “The Fish” hooked a 7.6 share in Nielsen’s new Holiday survey, up from a 5.4 in December. WFSH isn’t the only non-AC, all-Christmas station that hit the ratings pole position in 2014. CBS Radio’s classic hits KLUV Dallas (98.7) topped the market with an 8.8, its second year at No. 1 during the Holiday survey. KLUV eclipsed cluster mate’s KVIL’s final year in the Christmas format, before it segued from AC to hot AC. Christmas also captured the No. 3 position in Dallas, where Salem contemporary Christian KLTY (94.9) went 4.4-5.5. The format finished first and second in Philadelphia. With a 6.1, CBS Radio’s classic hits WOGL (98.1) was second only to AC “More FM” WBEB (101.1).
What’s hot – or not – in radio ad trends for 2015. The picture is clear: cable and other pay television services are expected to boost their radio spending in 2015. Borrell Associates forecasts the category will be up 10.3% this year for radio – an additional $4 million. “That is a bona fide hot category,” firm president Gordon Borrell said last week during an Inside Radio webinar. “They are in steep competition with Netflix and other services and they do find radio and digital as a very viable means of advertising.” Borrell also forecasts big box retailers to spend 2.9% more on radio in 2015, which if accurate will bring an additional $131 million to the industry’s bottom line. Health care is also projected to be up 4%. “The
[email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 drive toward video is really affecting this category with a lot of dollars being taken out of television and being moved into video – that’s a great opportunity for radio clusters that have video on their site,” Borrell said. The firm forecasts telecom (+2.5%), restaurants (+6.4%), grocery stores (+1.9%) and financial services (+4.9%) will also show growth this year. On the downside, the forecast predicts down categories for radio will include insurance (-0.9%), credit and mortgage services (-4.9%), travel (-1.1%), and furniture stores (-0.6%).
What about radio’s intake of auto advertising? Car manufacturers are increasingly pressuring their local dealers to spend more on digital advertising. Ford even requires half of all co-op dollars be allocated to digital. Even so, Borrell Associates forecasts the auto category will grow 5.2% for radio in 2015. “Auto dealers are bullish on radio and we see that buoying radio in the near term,” Gordon Borrell said. He pointed to a growing sentiment that radio may be the cheaper broadcast alternative when driving car buyers to the digital lead distribution channels that car companies have spent millions to build. “Advertisers need some level of mix and radio is inexpensive, it serves similar needs, and it drives digital traffic which is everybody’s goal,” Borrell said. Miss the webinar? We’ve posted the entire presentation at InsideRadio.com.
Survey shows teens migrating to audio streaming. While AM/FM radio remains the dominant form of audio entertainment among all Americans, new research finds teens spend eleven minutes more per day with pureplay streaming audio services than with broadcast radio and the online streams of AM/FM stations. The finding is from Share of Ear, a twice-yearly tracking study from Edison Research first released in May 2014 and updated with new data collected in fall 2014. The survey is intended to show how Americans divide their audio time among AM/FM radio, streaming audio, owned music, podcasts, satellite radio, cable radio channels and other sources. Edison reports Americans aged 13-17 spend 64 minutes a day with streaming audio, compared to 53 minutes with broadcast radio and its online streams. The new finding marks the first time Edison has publicly released Share of Ear results for teens, a demo under-served by radio that’s grown up surrounded by digital entertainment. For the May 2014 study, Edison released data for the 13+, 18-24, 18-49 and 25-54 demos, all of which showed longer TSL for radio than any other audio source. “While AM/FM radio listening leads by a significant margin among all other age groups, much of teens’ listening time has shifted to pureplay internet audio services like Pandora and Spotify and others,” Edison president Larry Rosin said in a statement. “This could be a lens into the future of audio usage.” The nationally representative study included 2,021 respondents aged 13+ who completed a 24-hour diary of their audio listening on an assigned day. Diaries were completed online (November 4-15) and by mail using a paper diary (October 14-20) in both English and Spanish.
40% by 2014? By some measure Townsquare hits its target. For the past several years Townsquare Media has put managers and sales reps on a mission to generate 40% of company revenue from digital and other off-air revenue by the end of 2014. While overall the company fell short by roughly 10%, a deeper look shows it actually surpassed the goal among stations that it owned when that target was first circled. Townsquare tells investors preliminary data shows 42% of company revenue last year came from non-spot revenue in those markets. While digital gets a lot of the focus, live events have been ramping quickly. Townsquare held about 500 live events last year, a ten-fold increase over 2010. That’s nearly two events per station, per year, of which only 17% were music-focused. “We think there’s a lot of room to increase that over time,” EVP Alex Berkett said yesterday at the Noble Financial Group conference in Port St. Luice, FL. He said they’ll focus on growing attendance beyond the roughly 700,000 people who attended a Townsquare event last year. The company will also look at things such as raising ticket prices, selling more sponsorships and boosting concession sales. “You’ll see more of our growth in the live event segment come from better attendance and better monetization rather than growing the amount of events,” Berkett predicted. That doesn’t mean new events are off-limits. In June the company will hold the inaugural Loudwire Music Festival in Grand Junction, CO.
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Townsquare Media delivers upbeat Q4 report. The news for Townsquare Media is good: its pro forma revenue increased 9% during the final three months of the year. But the company also delivered what is the latest upbeat message about how the business environment looked at the end of 2014 and early weeks of 2015. Radio One and Emmis Communications have also said in recent weeks they’ve seen the pace quicken. Even more noteworthy, the start of the year is typically the slowest time for ad sales. Townsquare Media’s preliminary data shows its 2014 pro forma revenue increased 8% to $385 million. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Steven Price says it was a “solid year” in the company’s local market segment, despite “weakness” at a handful of recently-acquired stations as well as at clusters in the Northeast. Even so, he tells investors local billings still managed to increase by low-single digits last year. The news was welcome on Wall Street where Townsquare Media’s stock rose 3% during Tuesday trading.
This EAS fine isn’t a test – it’s a real warning to radio and TV. What was entitled the “No Surrender” trailer for the movie “Olympus Has Fallen” perhaps should have instead been called “no mercy.” That’s what the FCC is showing broadcasters that aired the spot, which included emergency alert tones. The agency has rejected a request by ESPN and Viacom for airing the commercial dozens of times. The FCC says the misuse of EAS tones created a “cry wolf” scenario which risks “desensitizing” the public to the impact of the tones during a real world emergency. “Our action here sends a strong signal that use of the EAS tones for non-emergency purposes presents a danger to public safety which we will not tolerate,” Enforcement Bureau chief Travis LeBlanc says. The order upholds a proposed $1.12 million fine against Viacom, which aired the movie commercial on its cable networks, and a $280,000 fine against ESPN. The agency proposed a separate $530,000 fine against NBCUniversal last March, and rather than fight for a reduction it opted to simply write a check. The TV commercial used real emergency alert audio as a sound bed while the visual flashed “this is not a test” and “this is not a drill” across the screen. The FCC has long prohibited the transmission of actual or simulated EAS tones in circumstances other than a real alert or an authorized test. ESPN and Viacom had argued that the EAS rules don’t apply to what they called “non-deceptive movie trailers” and that they were merely an “intermediary” and not the one that actually used the EAS tones. But the FCC rejected an attempt to shift the blame to Horizon Media, which produced the spot and bought the air time. It wasn’t until the Society of Broadcast Engineers issued its warning about the ads that broadcasters began pulling them off after several days on the air.
Alpha Media arrives in Bay Area. One of radio’s fastest-growing group owners has arrived in the Bay Area. Alpha Media has beat out a half dozen other bidders to strike a deal to buy Coast Radio Group’s three far East Bay adult contemporary stations, including KKIQ, Livermore (101.7); KKDV, Walnut Creek (92.1); and KUIC, Vacaville (95.3). Financial terms weren’t immediately released. “I’m excited about the stations,” Alpha chairman Larry Wilson says. “They will fit nicely into our live and local game plan and concentration in California.” The deal will bring the company’s total portfolio to 89 stations. “Alpha Media is the ideal group to continue Coast Radio’s legacy of serving our local communities,” says Coast Radio CEO John Levitt. “My brother Jim and I have been partners for 40 years in radio station ownership and could not be happier to have found such a great home for our stations and employees.” Alpha Media will begin operating the stations under a local marketing agreement on February 1.
Britain’s Radio Caroline invades U.S. market. Half a century after launching as a pirate station blasting rebellious rock to the U.K. from an offshore ship, Radio Caroline is now targeting U.S. listeners. The British station yesterday launched free apps that enable U.S fans to listen to the history-making British radio station synched to their own time zone. The apps for iOS and Android remove the time difference and enable American fans to listen from morning drive, or the “breakfast” show as they say across the pond, into the evening in either Eastern or Pacific time. It’s believed to be the first time a British radio station has synched its output for the East Coast and the West Coast of America with its flagship morning show, hosted by Tony Paul from 7-9am, originating in Los Angeles.
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AT&T partnership with college nets new full-service FM. Who would have thought three hundred feet of metal standing on the campus of Eastern Oklahoma State College would do so much good. But a partnership between the school and AT&T Wireless has become the proverbial win-win between old and new technology, not to mention helping the radio industry attract a new generation of broadcasters. It began when AT&T Wireless wanted to install a new tower near the college campus to bring 4G LTE coverage to Wilburton, OK. At the same time Eastern was on the hunt for a tower site for its construction permit KWLB (93.1). It didn’t take a matchmaker – both quickly realized their interests overlapped. “The partnership enabled AT&T to construct a 350- foot tower on Eastern’s campus,” college president Stephen Smith says. Their deal also includes a long-term agreement to put KWLB on the cell phone company’s tower. When KWLB signs on, the Class C3 FM will carry a full-service hot AC format and be branded “Mix 93.1 Mountaineer Radio,” according to general manager Doug Sims. The college has been broadcasting the format online since 2010. With a mass communications program at the college, the station will act as a real-world classroom to teach the next generation of broadcasters. “Our students will be well-prepared to transfer to university programs or enter the workforce,” professor Kristen Turner says. One early lesson will be about promotions. AT&T and Eastern are making a big event of the lighting up of the new tower with a “Flip the Switch” bash at the college later this month.
Radio tech firm Belar Electronics names new executive team. Belar Electronics Laboratory, the maker of modulation equipment used by radio and TV stations to monitor their broadcast signals, has promoted Mark Grant to chief executive. Grant, who most recently was a design engineer, succeeds Arno Meyer who founded the company in 1964. Belar also promotes 35-year staffer Erich Meyer to chief operating officer. The company has consolidated its facilities in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester, PA. Belar says change is also coming to its portfolio as it begins rolling out new software-defined test and monitoring applications that add internet connectivity to the tracking of analog and digital broadcast radio signals. Capital improvement budgets remain tight at many radio groups and the challenge for Belar and others remains showing how their products are worth the investment. Grant says a piece of equipment like a modulation monitor helps stations troubleshoot performance issues in the signal chain and make sure investments in new equipment, such as audio processors and exciters, are maximizing sound quality.
Inside Radio News Ticker... Big retail remains on radio... Could ad spending from big retail chains be the leading indicator for national radio spending? January is typically a quiet time for the category but the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten for largest-volume advertisers last week shows six of the 10 are retailers. That includes stores like Macy’s, Walmart and JC Penney that have typically pulled back after Christmas. On stations it tracks, Media Monitors says it was Geico that remained at the top again last week, airing 43,900 ads on radio ...Online ads face deep privacy concerns... A growing unease about how personal data is being collected and shared is having a carryover to marketers. Pew Research finds nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans want the government to do more to regulate how personal data is used by advertisers. Their survey of 607 adults aged 18 and older found even more concern about how marketers are tracking their children’s online behavior. President Obama included several proposals intended to increase privacy and security online during last night’s State of the Union address... EMF to launch ‘K-love’ subscription video service… K-Love, the national contemporary Christian radio network operated by Educational Media Foundation, is launching a multi-platform video channel. The subscription-based channel is the result of a partnership between EMF and TAPP TV, which has built online video channels for fans of Sarah Palin and Herman Cain. According to The Tennessean, the K-Love video service will cost $9.95 per month and is expected to launch in March… People Moves... A Midwest successor story: a former St. Louis intern rises to program director. And a Los Angeles general manager cross the street. Read the latest People Moves HERE.
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GSM - CHICAGO qual VP, NETWORK PROGRAMMING — DALLAS, TX The most respected and imitated Reach Media is seeking an experienced VP, Classic Rock station in the Network Programming to oversee their network country has a rare opening for radio programs. Ideal candidate will have a General Sales Manager. minimum 5 years management experience in Candidates should have at least radio programming at a network, group or large 4 years of experience in leading market. Candidate must have quantifiable success in Urban Radio veteran team of quality sales programming; developing and managing major talent and possess executives. This position requires excellent leadership, communication and problem solving skills. a depth of knowledge in new Candidate will oversee programming and technical operations of a business development and large operation encompassing multiple locations: remote broadcasts; new digital sales applications. talent and staff; growing ratings and developing new shows. To apply, visit: www.wdrv.com/jobops.php If your abilities match our requirements, please submit resume, salary requirements or history and recent references via email to: [email protected] Reach Media, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
WDRV-FM is an KRNB AFTERNOON DRIVE PERSONALITY Equal Opportunity Employer. Are you a multi-dimensional, superstar media personality? Do you “live” and “breathe” the “Smooth R&B” 25-54 lifestyle? Can you DIGITAL SOLUTIONS SALES - captivate listeners on-air, on social media and in-person? Have ANY U.S. LOCATION you mastered PPM and appointment listening? Do you seek every Triton Digital’s Publisher opportunity to engage listeners where they live, work and play? If so, Development Team is Service Broadcasting may have a rare career opportunity for you. responsible for building Triton’s audio publisher network through Our new KRNB Afternoon Drive Personality must know how to the direct-sale and licensing connect emotionally with listeners to positively impact ratings and of Triton’s AMP Platform and relationships. This is a position for an “entertainer,” not a jock. Triton’s Audio Platform. Success in this digital solutions role will Send your mp3, resume, references and require proven talent in sales, a social media links to SBG HR Manager knowledge & passion for digital Debbie Henry at [email protected] media, as well as the ability to manage through a complex sales No phone calls, please. E.O.E. process. Strong communication & presentation skills are essential as HOT 97 - NEW YORK well as an entrepreneurial desire HOT 97 is looking for our next Mid-Day On Air and online to help prospective and current superstar! HOT 97 cultivates stars and creates icons! Are you clients grow their business with compelling, intriguing, and to the point with ALL your brilliant cross Triton solutions. E.O.E. platform content daily? Do you truly understand PPM and live for great teases? If you have never met a competitor you didn’t want to hammer, and hammer hard... LET’S GO!
Send your #1 market worthy killer package, including your top tier hip hop artist relationships to. Please send a link to your package only, no MP3 files or CD’s. Make your case to us; we make stars, If the description above depicts not steal them! you, send resume to: [email protected] For the full job description visit: CLICK HERE, and look for job 003283 tritondigital.com/about-us/ All resumes should be sent to: [email protected] careers Emmis Communications-NY is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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