Industry News

According to Nielsen, the return to the classroom had an effect on monthly TV and streaming viewing.

The Gauge, Nielsen’s snapshot of viewing trends, showed a leveling of viewership after three months of steady growth.

The August data reveals that streaming maintained a 28% share of total TV viewing, compared with broadcast TV (24%) and cable (38%).

Children 6-17 years old viewed about 7.5% less than the previous month.

Nielsen said that drop was offset a bit by a 0.5% increase in overall TV viewing. The slight uptick was attributed to adults tuning in to broadcast programming such as the Olympics.

By Rob Dumke and Adam R Jacobson

“Broadcasting locally but driving national results,” Davis Broadcasting Inc. has stood out in the markets in which it operates radio stations in for its commitment to localism.

Now, its President and CEO has personally written to those in favor of a resolution that would prevent the levying of any new performance royalty payments on Radio.

While the biggest piece of legislation on Capitol Hill designed to do this is largely dead, recording industry advocacy group musicFIRST on Monday will seek to resuscitate it.

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ATLANTA — Gray Television’s dedicated investigative team is readying the launch of a new weekly program featuring “watchdog reports” about government corruption, consumer alerts and health care issues.

The show takes the name of the investigate team and will premiere during this week across all of the broadcast media company’s stations.

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By Rob Dumke

The importance of fact-based broadcast radio and television journalism at a time when misinformation is running rampant on social media is a key mission for local news organizations across the U.S.

It’s also integral to the NAB, which has unveiled a new ad campaign giving a boost to local  stations in particular.

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On its surface, a follow-up report to the U.S. Latino Podcast Listener Report, released in July by Edison Research, offers rather encouraging findings on the percentage of U.S. Hispanics who’ve listened to a podcast.

Now, Edison believes the growth opportunity is even stronger.

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By Rob Dumke

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation is the latest organization to institute a “COVID Change” for an upcoming in-person gathering.

The 46th Annual Gracie Awards will now be a virtual affair.

The online event is scheduled for October 5.

This year’s awards coincide with AWM’s 70th anniversary. Since its inception in 1951, AWM has been committed to inspiring, educating, celebrating accomplishments and expanding networks of women across all segments of media.

The event will be hosted by actress and comedian Lauren Ash and feature performances by Jewel and Gospel and R&B performing artist Cece Winans.

The AllWomenInMedia page on Facebook will serve as the principal viewing point for the now-virtual affair.

By Rob Dumke

A new study, authored by Ph.D. Economist Hal Singer and Ted Tatos, has examined whether large technology companies should start contributing to the agency’s $9 billion a year program that supports efforts to bridge the digital divide.

It comes following a May 2021 suggestion by one FCC Commissioner that Big Tech should start paying its fair share toward the Universal Service Fund.

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Nielsen says people who only listen to podcasts every week or two are an increasingly important part of the growth of podcasting.

“Today, almost half (49%) of U.S. podcast listeners are light users who are presumably new to the medium: people who listen anywhere from one to three times a month,” the company says in highlighting results of its latest Podcasting Today report.

“That’s a notable contrast to a typical podcast listener five or 10 years ago when most listening came from people who were more likely to listen to each and every episode from their favorite titles — episodes that are oftentimes released once a week.”

Nielsen says this finding “highlights two important storylines.”

It says consumer interest in “new, engaging content” from all forms of media continues to grow, and that podcast content “has proven to be an attractive option” during the pandemic.

It also says the pandemic “paused the growth of heavy podcast listeners,” because of changes in lifestyles and schedules. “Yet while the percentage of heavy listeners declined slightly last year, we’re now seeing it increase, rising from 25% earlier this year to just under 30% as of May.”

[Read: Podcast Listeners By the Numbers]

Nielsen believes the pandemic has not had a negative impact on overall podcast engagement.

“While listener growth  flattened somewhat during the second half of last year, it has ramped up notably in 2021, largely due to an increase in at-home listening, which is attributable to light listeners checking out the medium. The rise in at-home listening is also somewhat counter to historical podcast engagement, and again, speaks to the transformation of industry to a broader audience.”

The company asserts that brands and agencies need to be tracking engagement with podcasting and putting the platform to use.

The post Podcasting Gets Boost From Casual Listeners appeared first on Radio World.

The NAB Show may have been cancelled, but industry manufacturers still have an opportunity to highlight their new products this season.

The Best in Market Awards offer a platform for the many products and solutions in the marketplace that could not be seen at major trade shows this year. The program will serve in place of the “Best of Show” Awards that would have run at the convention.

The program is open to all manufacturers of professional radio, TV and AV products and solutions, regardless of exhibitor status at major events.

The Best in Market awards will be judged and presented by Future brands Radio World, TV Technology, TVBEurope, Next, Mix, Broadcasting & Cable and Sound & Video Contractor.

These awards are intended to honor and help companies promote outstanding products launching in 2021.

The deadline for nominations also has been extended to Oct. 7. 

The post The Awards Are Still On appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page: FM station WAWE in the Chicago market is using a GeoBroadcast Solutions MaxxCasting System.

The station, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., is owned by Educational Media Foundation and is part of its Air1 Radio Network. GBS said management wanted to improve WAWE’s signal quality and audience.

The equipment for this synchronized-node booster system was purchased through Doug Tharp at SCMS, U.S. distributor of GatesAir/PR&E systems.

“The recently deployed enhancement improves the reach into the lower west side of Chicago in an area quite problematic for its broadcast signal troubles at the convergence of the city’s three major expressways,” GBS said in its announcement.

“The signal improvement … was strategically implemented through a four-node network using the MaxxCasting system. The coverage now reaches the University of Chicago, Rush Medical Center and the historic Pilsen community.”

It quoted EMF Senior Broadcast Engineer Shane Toven saying the station had been coverage-challenged, especially “between the Loop and O’Hare.” He said GBS designed the system for the Chicago market and that EMF worked with GBS to launch a similar one in Boston at WKVB, including HD Radio subcarriers.

“After licensing that system, GBS helped us finish up the WAWE nodes to significantly improve our coverage in the Chicago market and reach deeper into the community,” Toven said.

GBS also said that with these MaxxCasting nodes in place, the same infrastructure could be used to diplex similarly located stations that want to improve coverage. Its Director of Infrastructure Deployment Vern Egli was quoted: “The convergence at the expressway interchange notoriously has had poor reception, due to the concentration of broadcast signals emanating from Chicago’s large towers and the amount of daily automotive traffic.”

MaxxCasting uses nodes to reduce interference between main and booster FM transmissions. It deploys a cluster of high-power, directionalized and synchronized node sites.

The post EMF Deploys MaxxCasting in Chicago appeared first on Radio World.