It’s a Class A FM covering a rural portion of Arkansas, just south of the Ozarks resort town of Branson, Mo. Until now, it’s been a part of the “Here’s Help Network,” tied to stations offering the religious-themed programming to towns in Missouri.
That’s about to change thanks to the second-largest licensee of FM radio stations in the U.S.
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At the start of 2021, it became known that Iliana Communications had agreed to divest its stations in one Illinois town.
Now, Iliana has agreed to sell an AM, along with its FM translator, in another municipality in the Land of Lincoln.
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There’s a flurry of activity going on at both the FCC and on Capitol Hill that directly impacts broadcast media leaders. From a new bill that could force a New Jersey TV station to devote specific hours of the day to “local” programming to concerns that President Biden will not nominate a FCC Chair, there’s much to discuss.
Forecast 2022 participants will get to hear all about it during a session moderated by Frank Montero, the notable attorney at Fletcher Heald & Hildreth with a pulse on what’s happening Inside the Beltway.
In this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, Montero shares his thoughts on a notion once thought to be preposterous — a possible Republican FCC majority during a Democratic presidency.
He also tackles a question that perhaps no one wants to answer. Is a Democratic majority at the FCC doom for deregulation? “By and large, Democrats at the FCC have really not focused that much on broadcasting,” Montero says, noting that broadband, wireless, infrastructure and other topics have been their forte.
But, when Democrats do discuss broadcasting, they have perhaps unfairly put their collective lenses on consolidation, and whether or not it has harmed consumers.
At Forecast 2022, Montero will moderate a session that sees Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley take the stage as a panelist. Joining her: BIA Advisory Services Chief Economist Dr. Mark Fratrik.
This podcast offers a great preview of what’s to come on November 16 at Forecast 2022. Listen now, and then be sure to save your seat at Forecast 2022 in New York. It’s easy — just click here!
Listen to “Frank Montero, Fletcher Heald & Hildreth” on Spreaker.
One month ago, a seemingly final plan of action was put in place for RBR+TVBR as it reviewed the full agenda of 2021 NAB Show sessions, selecting which ones to cover for its readers. Among the topics on tap for today: New Perspectives for Local Radio Audience Measurement, Reception of All-digital AM Radio in Electric Vehicles and The TV Industry’s New Normal.
Alas, there would be no discussion of the “new normal” come October 12 — aside from the decision by several Cumulus Media air personalities to leave their respective jobs rather than be forced to vaccinate against COVID-19, the very reason the NAB scrapped their event with less than a month to go.
Yet, there are several radio industry professionals who have just wrapped up a two-day event full of discussions and insight on the future of radio, and of audio.
With an in-person and virtual option, Radiodays Europe concluded its postponed event five months after its originally scheduled date on Monday in Lisbon, Portugal.
Where will the top broadcast media industry leaders be this autumn? The only time this year you’ll get to see them — and perhaps the final time you’ll get to see soon-to-retire NAB head Gordon Smith — is at Forecast 2022 on November 16. Learn more, and register today, by visiting the official event website.
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Radio Maria, an international network of 77 Catholic radio stations, is now participating in DTS AutoStage.
Xperi says that given Radio Maria’s reach of roughly a half-billion listeners, this is its largest global radio integration to date.
[Related: “Cumulus Stations Support DTS AutoStage”]
DTS AutoStage is a hybrid radio platform that parent company Xperi Corp. is offering in 60 countries and hopes will be adopted by broadcasters and carmakers globally.
Hybrid radio systems combine over-the-air radio with IP delivered content. Xperi is working to make DTS AutoStage available widely in vehicles; it is available in the market so far in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
Radio Maria began as a parish radio station in 1983 in Milan, Italy. It now has 77 stations and is also heard on FM-world, a streaming and aggregation platform for radio stations run by 22HBG, which facilitated the integration of Radio Maria with DTS AutoStage.
[Related: “Xperi Has Big Ambitions for DTS AutoStage”]
The announcement was made by Joe D’Angelo, Xperi senior vice president, business development, broadcast, and Vittorio Viccardi, president of World Family of Radio Maria.
DTS AutoStage is based on a large database of broadcast metadata that Xperi highlights for its “large and stunning” artwork, artist and album information, personalization and other functionality.
The post Radio Maria Joins DTS AutoStage appeared first on Radio World.
In late September, the analytics and advertising division of AT&T that operates the Community digital advertising online platform released its annual “Relevance Report” findings.”
This year’s report focuses on the state of convergence and advanced TV, and there’s certainly something to glean for over-the-air broadcast television station operators from the findings.
AT&T ad tech company Xandr examined the data and automation that are bringing video into the future of advertising. Xandr spoke with 357 advertising decision-makers across five global regions — the U.S., the U.K., Australia, France and Germany — to get a holistic picture of the state of convergence.
The full report, available here, found that much of the world is experiencing a “golden age” of premium video content for viewers, it is also the height of complexity for advertisers.
Among the key findings from Xandr:
The first point is perhaps the most intriguing one. How is that helping broadcast television?
“In short, Data Driven Linear is a more precise approach to buying linear TV, without compromising scale,” a Xandr spokesperson tells Weekly Tech Roundup.
Literature shared by Xandr elaborates that “data-driven linear leverages advanced data and automation to further define and target audiences across national linear TV.”
Why? Traditional TV advertising, in its view, is broad. “From a marketing perspective, women 25-54 can be very different,” Xandr shares.
With Data Driven Linear opportunities, a marketer can gain access to targeted audiences, “optimized plans across high-indexing networks and dayparts on the largest national TV networks to deliver on KPIs,” drive efficiencies with streamlined RFPs and negotiation, and “advanced measurement.”
BELLEVUE, WASH. — A “real-time platform” for measuring the business and brand impact of cross-platform television advertising has agreed to purchase a real-time television ad measurement company that specializes in products for D2C and direct response TV advertisers.
The deal, which sees the acquisition of DRMetrix by iSpot.tv, widens iSpot’s measurement of emerging formats for addressable advertising.
And, the iSpot.tv says, it enhances its ability to track rotating calls-to-actions, including website URLs, SMS and toll-free numbers.
“This capability — coupled with iSpot’s ability to track distinct creatives at scale and correlate ad exposures to conversion events such as digital actions and in-store traffic — gives brands of all sizes the expanded ability to measure the business impact of complex and dynamic ad buys across platforms,” iSpot notes.
Sean Muller, founder and CEO of iSpot, elaborates, “DRMetrix has developed unique and real-time measurement capabilities around creative versioning and dynamic advertising that will become increasingly important as the TV ad market evolves.”
DRMetrix’s AdSphere developed a measurement system for monitoring all TV ad formats and executions including those delivered via digital program insertion (DPI) ad breaks. The DPI measurement capabilities allow precise identification of ad creatives that are sold by the cable networks as “cover-ups,” which MVPDs inconsistently overlay with their own inventories.
This inventory, which includes addressable and local advertising, creates a continuous blind spot for networks, agencies and brands. The cover-ups are a favorite means for DTC and DR advertisers to invest in and test television, as they often come at a heavy discount. But both the buy and sell side struggle to accurately quantify the performance and value of this inventory because, until the combination of DRMetrix and iSpot, they could not be measured precisely at scale.
“We developed a unique system for accurately measuring one of the most dynamic and difficult portions of TV advertising, and we amassed a client base that represents a growing and important part of the TV ecosystem,” says Joseph Gray, founder/CEO of DRMetrix. “In iSpot, we’ve found a home for our innovations to thrive and a vehicle to accelerate our shared goals of making all TV ad measurement more transparent, more actionable and easier.”
DRMetrix serves 120 brands, networks and agencies, growing iSpot’s customer footprint to more than 450 annual brand subscriptions representing 50%+ of brands in the Ad Age 100 and 95% of TV networks in North America. This is iSpot’s second acquisition of a real-time ad measurement company, as it acquired Ace Metrix in January 2021 to combine business and brand impact using Ace’s comprehensive qualitative approach to measurement and scoring of creative performance.
— Reporting by Melissa Hourigan
NEW YORK — Audio analytics company Veritonic has a new VP of Marketing.
The company has selected a 10-year Triton Digital veteran for the role, as she exits the company just months after its acquisition by iHeartMedia from The E.W. Scripps Co.
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Broadcast audio processing company Orban has brought to market its new OPTIMOD XPN-Enterprise ecosystem. The company describes the product as an “an easy-to-use, customizable Linux-based processing platform for multiple broadcast stations or streaming services, with centralized control.”
It provides Orban’s proprietary OptiCloud processing for up to 8 FM and 8 HD/DAB+/Streaming processing channels in a 1 RU package, using an enterprise-class SoftGear server and the appropriate OPTIMOD XPN-Enterprise Nodes, Orban notes.
The XPN-Enterprise server that’s now shipping provides 16 processing channels via AoIP and supports AES-67/SMPTE-2110 protocols.
Also shipping now: the XPN-Enterprise AES3 Input/Output Node.
Additional nodes to extend the available outputs and functionalities, e.g., DMPX, Kantar and Nielsen watermarking and Orban uMPX, will be released in the near future.
The XPN-Enterprise system has been extensively field-tested and approved by national broadcasters, Orban President David Day said.
Content to be OptiCloud processed is brought to one location, utilizing any of the most common methods of audio transport – AES3, AES-67, SMPTE-2110-30, Dante or Livewire+, and creates the necessary outputs (FM Composite, DMPX, uMPX, and DAB+HD) using the appropriate Orban XPN-Enterprise Nodes for distribution to each transmitter site.
Processed channels destined for streaming are also handled by the XPN-Enterprise server, which sends those outputs to the appropriate streaming devices.
Each signal coming into the OPTIMOD XPN-Enterprise server can be individually processed, with Orban’s OptiCloud providing precision tailoring of each station’s broadcast or stream to meet the requirements of the audience and delivery method. OptiCloud factory presets give users a quick start for each format; Orban’s exclusive “Less-More” controls simplify “dialing in” the desired sound by combining multiple OptiCloud processing parameters with a handful of controls.
Further simplifying the processing path, Orban offers “Last Mile” products including XPN-
Enterprise input and output nodes and low bandwidth (<500 kbps for FM & HD-1, HD-2 & HD-3) equipment for “virtually any requirement,” Day says.
He comments, “We make it possible to manage our processing remotely and feed that signal to a site on lines as slow as 500 kbps, and many nodes are ‘Power over Ethernet’ (PoE) capable, further simplifying installation.”
For more information, visit https://www.orban.com.
Today, digital media and technology have permeated businesses at every level. Yet, they continue to create fundamentally new challenges in the crisis and risk management field.
Perhaps Edelman’s just released 2021 Connected Crisis Study can help. It sheds new light on how significant this shift has become, and how far companies still have to go, to adapt.
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