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Another Big Week for QSRs At Spot Cable
There’s a logjam at the top of the latest Spot Ten Cable charts, although there’s a new leader by play count this week.
That said, Media Monitors’ latest snapshot shows just how important Quick-Service Restaurants are to Spot Cable.
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A Big Return For Two Big Spot Radio Users
The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report shows that the No. 1 fully paid user of AM and FM national advertising to reach consumers is a familiar brand that’s activating a new campaign.
The same could be said of the company that ranks No. 4, when discounting iHeartRadio-related advertisements.
As shown below, Progressive is a big leader at Spot Radio for the week ending September 18, with some 54,950 spot plays detected by Media Monitors.
The other big news is the activity from Lowe’s, thanks to some 33,207 spot plays.
Meanwhile, ZipRecruiter is just above Indeed, while Babbel, Swifter and AutoZone rev up their efforts.
A Radio Workflow System, Now Available Via Barter
G Audio Networks, a Gen Media Partners company, is now offering its radio station workflow system for barter to radio stations throughout the United States.
SPARC Media Hub is described as an all-in-one platform designed to assist station teams stay organized, communicate more effectively, and eliminate costly mistakes.
“Every day, SPARC Media Hub continues to develop its product to be the best workflow system available,” notes Rich O’Brien, Chief Development Officer for G Audio Networks. “Using customer feedback, researching the latest trends in media, and always thinking ‘what’s next?’ are just some of the pillars that make SPARC a leading-edge product in the industry. We’re very excited about bringing this superior product to radio stations.”
SPARC Media Hub co-founder Skyler Richard adds, “We’re beyond thrilled to work with Rich and everyone at G Audio Networks. [It] is the perfect partner to help us make life easier for so many radio and media people all over North America.”
Along with Creative, Promotions and Remote Workflow Systems, SPARC also has features such as Custom Prep Sheets, Built-In Texting, and Phone Screener in its product line.
Television Broadcasting Services Staunton, Virginia
WorldDAB Highlights Opportunities for DAB
Two topics led the conversations about DAB at IBC: metadata and small-scale DAB+ for local digital radio.
Given that it has three years since IBC was last held in-person, WorldDAB was primed to talk about new opportunities and new audiences that come with the DAB+ digital radio. WorldDAB’s Vice-President and Project Director of Digital Radio Netherlands Jacqueline Bierhorst opened the group’s show briefing by noting the uptake of DAB+ by European motorists. More than 90% on all new cars sold in Europe have a DAB+ receiver as standard equipment she noted.
Laurence Harrison from Radioplayer Worldwide dug deeper into the data Bierhorst cited, reviewing the “unbelievably compelling and consistent” findings from last year’s car-buyers survey showing that broadcast radio is the most valued in-car audio source. Harrison urged broadcasters and auto manufacturers to continue their collaborative efforts to improve the in-car DAB experience.
This need to ensure a top-notch user experience lead into the morning’s discussion of metadata.
Lindsay Cornell, Chair of the WorldDAB Technical Committee, discussed how broadcasters could best encode service and program information to enhance their services, along with how device manufacturers could best decode that information to improve the user experience.
Gereon Joachim from Xperi continued the metadata discussion and the role it plays in content discovery, especially for non-linear content from broadcasters. He also demonstrated how metadata works with the DTS AutoStage connected-car platform to boost branding and listener engagement.
[Read more of our coverage from IBC 2022]
The second half of the event focused on small-scale DAB+, which is increasing the options for delivery of local services via digital radio.
WorldDAB Vice-President and Project Director of Digital Radio Netherlands Jacqueline Bierhorst discusses DAB’s opportunities with IBC TV.Hanns Wolter, of DAB Italia and chair of WorldDAB’s Spectrum and Network Implementation Committee, noted that “small scale” does not mean free; however, the benefits of multiplexing can mean a lower cost of entry. He said that small-scale solutions are available for all operators and can provide extra flexibility and future-proofing.
Lukas Weiss from Digris discussed the company’s operations in Switzerland, where FM is due to be switched off in 2024. He noted that using new features enabled by DAB, such as incorporating display advertising, has been the key to the medium’s success.
“Think differently, work locally,” was the message from Nick Piggott of Bristol Digital Radio, which operates the small-scale multiplex in the west of England, and Donald McTernan from Ujima Radio, one of the community stations broadcasting on the multiplex. “The fear, uncertainty and doubt around small-scale DAB was not real,” said Piggott. “We don’t call it ‘small-scale DAB’,” added McTernan. “It’s just ‘radio’ to us.”
Piggott said that using appropriate technology was critical: “We’ve built a minimum viable product — a saloon car, not a luxury vehicle.” Together they described how providing community stations access to DAB provides a digital transition for community and smaller radio, as well as a new funding source for them. “DAB can be done very cost-effectively without disrupting the existing ecosystem to make the most of the opportunity,” Piggott said.
Gerard Lokhoff, project manager of Dutch local DAB Allotment 76 and the EUregio Digitaal Foundation, brought further examples from the DAB+ 4 Brainport local multiplex in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The multiplex carries two public and seven commercial stations.
Lokhoff also announced the launch of LocalDAB.org, a new website to aid organizations looking to launch small-scale DAB transmissions. The site will include practical information gained from real-world experience creating local DAB ensembles.
The post WorldDAB Highlights Opportunities for DAB appeared first on Radio World.
Beware of the Empty Promises of ZoneCasting
Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.
Radio World readers have been following our coverage of the ongoing debate over geo-targeting, of which has grown more contentious in recent months. Below, Rick Kaplan, chief legal officer and executive vice president of legal and regulatory affairs for the National Association of Broadcasters, responds to auto industry analyst Roger Lanctot’s recent commentary.
In his commentary “Time for Auto Makers to Rescue Radio,” Roger Lanctot repeats misleading and misguided claims in his support for a proposed proprietary booster technology that would allow FM radio broadcasters to target programming to even smaller areas than they already serve. While Mr. Lanctot may have the best interests of broadcast radio at heart, the unfortunate truth is that there is a real danger that GeoBroadcast Solutions’ (GBS) “ZoneCasting” technology would significantly harm free and local radio and jeopardize its long-term viability, including in the car.
Mr. Lanctot cites successful “tests of localized traffic broadcasts with locally relevant advertising in multiple U.S. markets” as proof that the Federal Communications Commission should allow broadcasters to adopt ZoneCasting. Yet, even a cursory analysis reveals these tests are woefully incomplete and insufficient, raise serious concerns and do not support GBS’s claims of consumer benefits. If anything, they suggest that employing ZoneCasting will lead to consumer confusion, especially when listening while driving between “zones.”
Oddly, Mr. Lanctot fails to even acknowledge that one of the radio industry’s primary concerns with ZoneCasting is the likelihood it will cause significant interference to broadcast signals, driving away listeners in an incredibly competitive audio marketplace.
[Related: “Lobbying Around Geo-Targeting Continues“]
Our analysis of GBS’s tests – which were conducted under unrealistic and artificially favorable scenarios – found ZoneCasting would cause widespread, unavoidable interference to signals of stations using the technology that could last anywhere from seven to 20 seconds or more. It stretches the limits of believability that a listener would stay tuned to a station during such a lengthy disruption. Instead, they are likely to change the channel or even switch to a satellite or streaming service.
Mr. Lanctot also takes at face value GBS’s claims that it has debunked industry concerns raised about its ZoneCasting tests, despite the total lack of such evidence refuting these concerns. The fact is that GBS’s testing was skewed to put the technology’s best foot forward and cover up its blemishes rather than present real-world scenarios to demonstrate its efficacy. Even then, GBS’s testing revealed major flaws with ZoneCasting that should alarm any broadcaster considering the technology.
Beyond the significant risks of harmful interference and disruption to audience’s listening experience, ZoneCasting would have a negative effect on broadcasters’ advertising revenue. While broadcast radio’s unique appeal to advertisers is the ability to reach a wide audience in a local market, ZoneCasting would diminish that advantage by splintering listenership. ZoneCasting would depress advertising rates, as ad buyers leverage the availability of cheaper ads to demand lower rates from stations that choose not to deploy ZoneCasting and lead to a race to the bottom. Mr. Lanctot parrots GBS’s claims that ZoneCasting will benefit radio stations, seemingly without any recognition of these concerns or that the thousands of broadcasters who oppose GBS’s idea may know a thing or two about their own business.
[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]
Despite his eye-rolling assertion that “the radio broadcast industry is almost completely bereft of leadership or advocacy when it comes to technological advances,” Mr. Lanctot can rest assured NAB and the entire radio industry is focused on spurring innovation, developing new tools for radio listenership and ensuring broadcasters have the regulatory freedom to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. It is clear, though, that ZoneCasting is simply not a viable and worthwhile technology that would help us achieve the best future for radio. If GBS’s proposed system was actually a good idea, broadcasters would have pursued it themselves years ago, or endorsed ZoneCasting when GBS first brought it to industry more than a decade ago.
NAB, state broadcast associations, NPR and radio companies of all sizes and markets have expressed serious, well-founded concerns with ZoneCasting. If they are truly interested in a bright future for radio, the FCC and radio stakeholders should reject the false promises of this technology and work with broadcasters on finding real solutions that help us best serve our tens of millions of listeners.
[Related: “ZoneCasting Developer Disputes NAB Claims“]
The post Beware of the Empty Promises of ZoneCasting appeared first on Radio World.
In the Matter of Online Political Files of Red Apple Media, Inc., Licensee of Commercial Radio Station(s)
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Sold In Jackson Hole: A LPTV Property to a Spanish TV Entity
In the resort town of Jackson, Wyoming, a low-power TV station is being sold.
The buyer is an intriguing one, and suggests Spanish-language television is coming to the community.
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After City of License Shift Win, A Threshold Sale Comes
In late July, Threshold Communications partners Jim Bryan and Ron Wulff finally gained the FCC’s approval after more than five years to relocate a new FM radio station from a small town 50 miles east of Portland, Ore., to a tower in Washington where it will serve the Centralia-Chehalis, Wash., region.
With that battle, which commenced in 2019, over, Bryan and Wulff are engineering the sale of what is presently licensed as KVNW-FM.
You’ll never guess who the buyer is.
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A Kansas FM Translator Trades Hands
Sharon Springs, Kan., is a small town due east of the Colorado state line along historic U.S. Highway 40. Serving this tiny agricultural community is a 180-watt FM translator on the noncommercial band.
Soon, it will be in the hands of a growing religious broadcasting entity.
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Iliad Plan Makes Idaho Broadcaster Employee-Owned
In one of the fastest growing markets in the U.S., the owner of such strong radio brands as “101.9 The Bull,” “Wild 101,” “My 102.7,” and “BOB FM” has enjoyed formidable ratings and revenue success against such national publicly traded companies as Townsquare Media and Cumulus Media in addition to the Kalmenson family’s Lotus Communications.
Now, this locally owned and operated radio group based in Boise is putting ownership into the hands of its 46 employees.
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Local News Source Consumer Trust Depends On Every On-Air Face
If just one journalist from a local news source is not trusted, audiences are overwhelmingly less likely to use the source overall.
That is one of several takeaways from a just-released research project from Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA), conducted with research firm Magid.
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Rochester Property Owner Gets “The Pirate Letter”
The FCC has sent another letter notifying a property owner about apparent pirate radio activity.
This time the notice went to Ann Marie Torres, the owner of a property in Rochester, N.Y.
The New York office of the Enforcement Bureau said its agents used direction-finding equipment to trace radio signals on 87.7 MHz coming from the address in August.
As with other recent notification letters, this one informs the property owner: “Under section 511(a) of the Act, persons or entities found to willfully and knowingly suffer (i.e., permit) a third party to engage in so-called ‘pirate radio’ broadcasting on their property can face significant financial penalties,” and that there could be financial penalties as high as $2.1 million.
[“FCC Warns More Property Owners of Alleged Pirate Broadcasts”]
The post Rochester Property Owner Gets “The Pirate Letter” appeared first on Radio World.
Shelley Returns to Bayou State With Manship Pick
From March 2007 through April 2016, he served as News Director of the NBC affiliate serving New Orleans, managing all aspects of a 56-member news department. He then ventured to a small market in the Hoosier State, serving as News Director for a dual ABC/NBC affiliate.
Now, this veteran TV news director is heading back to the Bayou State, taking a role at a Manship Family-owned property.
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The Right Way To Handle a PR Crisis … Even When It’s On-Air
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