Radio+Television Business Report

On Monday (10/21), popular Westwood One-syndicated talk host Dan Bongino, whose radio program also appears on FOX Nation, took to the airwaves and challenged WWO owner Cumulus Media‘s COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Although Bongino is vaccinated, he took a stand in solidarity of now-former colleagues who lost their jobs for sticking to their personal choice of remaining unvaccinated.

Then came an on-air declaration from a Jacksonville talk host that, rather than show proof of vaccination as a condition of employment, he and his producer would instead do a “weekly COVID-19 test” option live on his show.

What’s a radio or TV station owner to do to keep employees safe from COVID-19 and its Delta variant while balancing the need to have HR send out termination notices to unvaccinated employees? This encore InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, may provide some valuable insight and guidance on what path a media company should take.

In this episode, originally distributed on July 29, Hall Estill labor and employment partner Keith Wilkes offers his take on workplace issues that could come to fruition as the vaccinated and unvaccinated congregate in one building. This includes enforcing anti-bullying policies.

“I would encourage station management and all employers to reinforce, or reintroduce, those workplace COVID safety policies and precautions that were implemented across the board last year and to seriously consider amending those policies to account for vaccinated and unvaccinated employees,” says Wilkes, who is based in Tulsa. “That’s not singling out the unvaccinated, without justification. It is in the interest in the health and welfare of all of those who are in the workplace and those frequenting businesses.”

When deciding what steps to take, “employees should also monitor and keep monitoring their local and regional communities,” Wilkes says.

Wilkes offers more in this 15-minute encore podcast, which includes references to the now-deceased talk show host Phil Valentine. It is accessible through our embedded player by clicking below.

 

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Keith Wilkes, Employment Attorney” on Spreaker.

TORONTO — One of North America’s biggest communications companies on Thursday released its third quarter financial results.

How did Rogers perform? Quarterly earnings were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. But, its revenue fell short of Zacks’ expectations by a slim 1.04%.

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Two of the nation’s largest audio media content and distribution companies have set the days on which they will release their Q3 fiscal report cards.

For iHeartMedia, it will come on a busy day that also sees Saga Communications, Gray Television and TEGNA holding earnings call. For Audacy, their earnings call will come on the second Tuesday of November.

iHeart will issue financial results for the quarter ending September 30 on Thursday, Nov. 4. The company’s CEO, Bob Pittman, and COO/CFO Rich Bressler will host a conference call at 4:30pm Eastern to review the results. A business outlook will also be provided.

For the former Entercom, the company led by CEO David Field will report its 2021 third quarter financial results before the market opens on Tuesday, November 9. The company will host a conference call at 10am Eastern to review the results and “recent progress against its strategic initiatives,” Audacy notes.

Audacy stock in recent weeks has been sputtering, and is at $3.52 in early after-hours trading on Thursday (10/21). It’s year-to-date low of $2.96 came on August 19, and since then Audacy’s high has been $3.92, achieved in early October. By comparison, AUD topped the $5 mark in late April and surpassed $6.25 per share in February.

For iHeart, shares have enjoyed a year-long growth spurt, reaching $27.93 in late June. On Thursday, IHRT closed at $22.10. IHRT is up from $13.28 at the start of 2021.

Has COVID-19, and now the delta variant, crippled broadcast transaction values forever?  It’s a tough question asked to top media brokers by RBR+TVBR in our Fall 2021 Special Report.

For some, station valuations for radio were sliding before the coronavirus cratered the marketplace. For others, there’s green on the horizon for both radio and TV broadcasters. Will the green — specifically, greenbacks — come in 2022?

A Forecast 2022 panel session featuring Guggenheim Securities Senior Advisor Drew Marcus could offer some clarity on the subject. Marcus will moderate a panel of investment specialists who are poised to take a hard look at 2021 and what lies ahead in 2022 and beyond for broadcast investments. It’s a “fact-based, tire kicking” session you won’t want to miss.

What did some of the nation’s leading media brokers have to say?

“A better story needs to be told about radio,” said Lou McDermott of Kalil & Co. “The only story I can tell is what I’m seeing transactionally, and that is radio groups that are successful and recovering from the pandemic are continuing to annualize growth. They are looking at properties that make sense for them. Offers are being made. And we’re positive.
We see signs of life. We have activity, and that activity is growing.”

Dick Foreman, President of media brokerage and consultancy RAFAMEDIA, like McDermott, believes the television dealmaking landscape is full of buyers. The problem, like in the automotive industry, is simple. “There is no inventory,” Foreman says. “That’s it.
Period. And the prices being paid for television are eight to nine times trailing cash
flow. But you can’t find anything.”

Media broker Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co. sees the TV transactions landscape in a slightly different manner. “The traditional TV deal is dead,” he lamented when interviewed for RBR+TVBR’s Fall 2021 Special Report. “It’s just all about fill-ins. Everything is consolidated. If your livelihood is about being a TV station broker, you’re on thin ice.”

Secure your seat today at Forecast 2022, November 16 at the Harvard Club in New York. Space is limited. Don’t hesitate. CLICK HERE TO RSVP TODAY

She has experience at the now-defunct Regent Communications, and joined Townsquare Media with that company’s acquisition of Regent more than a decade ago. Starting in Flint, Mich., this sales executive shifted to New Jersey and then returned to Flint in December 2013 after a year working for iHeartMedia in Chicago.

Now, after nearly eight years in her second stint at Townsquare, Zoe Burdine-Fly is flying off to Alpha Media.

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The year 2020 was a year like no other. A pandemic of global proportions will be written into the history books. So will actions tied to a summer of activism brought on by social unrest and renewed questioning of the “status quo.”

A call to action came to fruition as never before seen. And, CMOs and Brand Managers are paying attention as consumers watch and listen to how brands are reacting. Creative directors and media buyers are shifting greater focus and budget to better reach a more diverse audience. Yet, Hispanic advertising executives continue to lament that even with Census 2020 data in their hands, the ad spend versus the population remains out of whack.

What can your media company do? Ensuring someone sits in on an exclusive Forecast 2022 session devoted to the new American mainstream and how marketing and advertising must reach all consumers is a session definitely worth attending.

At Forecast 2022, Deborah Wahl, Global Chief Marketing Officer at General Motors, sits down with American Urban Radio Networks CEO Chesley Maddox-Dorsey for an exclusive conversation on GM’s commitment to increased minority media expenditures along with her thoughts on how broadcast media fits into GM’s marketing strategy.

They will be joined by Doug Ray, Chief Product Officer, Global Media at dentsu Americas, who has been instrumental in the creation and launch of Project Booker, an initiative focused on African American-developed and -owned content that is being distributed on African American-owned radio and is leading the way in how the global media agency community is doing business with African American-owned media.

REGISTER NOW!

Take advantage of Early Bird Registration while it is still available. To secure your seat in New York, simply click here.

He joined Nielsen in July 2016 as its VP of Finance, working his way up to SVP and Corporate Controller and Principal Accounting Officer in December 2019.

Effective November 12, this C-Suite executive will no longer be a member of the Nielsen family.

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As traditional cable and satellite providers struggle to retain customers in the highly competitive and increasingly fragmented streaming media ecosystem, Black audiences, largely known as loyal cable and satellite television customers, are increasingly opting to cut the cord.

That’s the key takeaway from a new Horowitz study, released Wednesday.

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Virtual meetings will remain a major part of how we work for months, or perhaps years.

And, as longtime public relations professional and “Zoom” expert Rosemary Ravinal sees it, this will provide new opportunities for those who acquire the skills necessary to deliver world-class online presentations.

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With the final fate of his former FM radio stations still in limbo, as the FCC has not said yes to a transfer of control of the properties to VCY America from court-appointed receiver Larry Patrick, the most infamous licensee in the American West has moved forward with a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

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A broadcast company that says it is on the cutting edge of technology and the next generation of content delivery throughout the U.S. has just taken a big leap forward by selecting Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to power its next-generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast internet network — the potentially profit-generating benefit linked to what powers NEXTGEN TV.

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Audacy has acquired “an exclusive, perpetual license” to WideOrbit’s digital audio streaming technology and the related assets and operations of WO Streaming — a cloud-based distribution and monetization platform for live and on-demand audio streams.

The acquisition, recently hinted at by Audacy, Inc. thanks to an SEC fiing, gives the company formerly known as Entercom control of the WideOrbit digital audio tech business.

President/CEO David Field says it “perfectly complements” Audacy’s organic investments to make the company’s digital platform a top choice for listeners, clients and partners.

Audacy will operate WO Streaming under the name “AmperWave.”

Importantly, the entire WO Streaming team, led by John Morris, SVP of Streaming, has joined Audacy.

While terms of the transaction were not disclosed, the WO Streaming deal is directly tied to Audacy’s October 13 statement that it planned to offer $45 million in aggregate principal amount of subsidiary Audacy Capital Corp.’s 6.500% senior secured second-lien notes due 2027.

The “Additional Notes” served as what’s called on Wall Street an “ad-on offering,” and it was done expressly for Audacy to complete “a small digital acquisition” for approximately $40 million.

That would be the price tag of this WideOrbit deal.

In addition to its radio and digital audio products, WideOrbit is highly active in the broadcast and cable television space, in addition to programmatic TV buying. Led by CEO and founder Eric Mathewson, WideOrbit is now poised to focused solely on visual media.

As announced in May, Gray Television has agreed to acquire Meredith Local Media. One month later, after an unsolicited counteroffer emerged, Gray sweetened its deal, agreeing to pay $2.825 billion in cash.

Now, in order for Gray to satisfy terms that call for Meredith Corporation shareholders to receive $16.99 per share in cash and 1-for-1 equity share in post-close Meredith, it is amending and restating its senior credit facility while concurrently seeking an additional incremental term loan valued at $1.5 billion.

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An AM/FM combo, along with an FM translator, serving a small Ohio municipality is being spun.

That could explain the buzzards flying around the building, if you will.

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“After a lighter-than-normal content slate in Q1 and Q2 due to COVID-related production delays in 2020, we are seeing the positive effects of a stronger slate in the second half of the year.”

That’s the collective assessment of Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings, CFO Spence Neumann, COO and Chief Product Officer Greg Peters, VP of Investor Relatons/Corporate Development Spencer Wang, as the OTT giant released its third-quarter earnings report following Tuesday’s Closing Bell on Wall Street.

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What is the role social communities play in influencing purchase decisions?

WARC, in partnership with TikTok and Publicis Groupe, came together for a just-released study that helps answer that question. Their work outlines what they say is “the huge potential for brands to engage with audiences and increase unplanned purchases by narrowing the funnel between product discovery and purchase.”

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Starting Monday (10/25), a pair of ABC affiliates in the Lone Star State owned by The E.W. Scripps Company will have a new VP/GM.

It’s an individual whose most recent TV industry role was as President/GM of the NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo affiliate serving Denver.

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Ed Woloszyn, the General Manager of dual CBS/Fox affiliate KEYC-12 in Mankato, Minn., recently died following a brief cancer fight.

Now, Gray Television has chosen the individual who will take over the station’s leadership role. It’s a woman who has been News Director for a former Quincy Media, Inc., property in Rochester, Minn.

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America’s Public Television Stations is cheering the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Chair for recommending $565 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for Fiscal Year 2024.

This chairman’s mark, courtesy of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), will likely serve as the basis for negotiations with the House of Representatives on the final appropriations bills. The U.S. House of Representatives has already approved the same $565 million for CPB in the two-year advance funding for FY 2024.

In addition, the draft Senate bill providing appropriations for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies also includes $30 million for Ready To Learn and $20 million for public broadcasting interconnection.

“This is an important day for public television,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations. “We lost $100 million in purchasing power over 10 years of flat federal funding, and this chairman’s mark would restore much of that loss — and with it our ability to provide the educational services, the public safety communications, the civic literacy and the beloved programming which millions of Americans need and value.”

Butler adds that APTS is also appreciative of the $20 million in FY 2022 for the annual station interconnection account, and for $30 million allocated for Ready To Learn, a competitive grant program at the Department of Education that supports the creation and distribution of educational media content to millions of children across America.

In mid-March, the septuagenarian owner of a Class A radio station serving a rural portion of Western Pennsylvania returned to the airwaves after a short absence. His return was controversial: on November 16, 2020 this individual was placed on a three-year “restricted probation” for a series of criminal sexual acts at a sentencing hearing that most believed would save him from a FCC license revocation hearing.

Seven months later, the Chief of the Commission’s Media Bureau has spoken up. Roger Wahl is on notice that he could loose control of WQZS-FM in Meyersdale, Pa., as a Hearing Designation Order has been sent to his attention.

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