Radio+Television Business Report

On the evening of Thursday, Feb. 18, Ed Stolz was placed in jail. U.S. Marshals arrested him, as he was a fugitive, unwilling to surrender control of his three FM radio stations to a court-appointed receiver in lieu of unpaid music royalty payments.

Stolz was released from jail one day later. Since then, U.S. District Court of the Central District of California’s Eastern Division, which is presided by Judge Jesus Bernal, continues to hear from the receiver, Larry Patrick, about Stolz’s interference.

Stolz, meanwhile, has filed an appeal of Bernal’s ruling in yet another attempt to thwart the loss of his FMs.

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United States recorded music revenues grew 9.2% in 2020 to $12.2 billion at estimated retail value.

It marks the fifth consecutive year of growth for the industry, as paid subscription services continued to be the primary driver of revenue increases, and reached a record number of subscriptions.

Streaming music’s share of total revenues grew to 83%.

Covid-19 affected the industry significantly through tour cancellations, retail store closures, and other disruptions.

Revenues from recorded music measured at wholesale value grew 8.9% to $8.0 billion.

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Of the major publicly traded audio media companies operating in the U.S., Entercom Communications, iHeartMedia and Beasley Media Group have each reported their fourth quarter earnings. Saga Communications will offer its results on March 12.

Where is Townsquare Media? The results, which are expected to be positive, are still forthcoming and due the week of March 15.

While the company’s top executives will be participating in upcoming investor conferences, a top Wall Street blog believes the company’s shares are nearly half of their intrinsic value estimates.

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Entercom Communications has unveiled a new programming leadership structure for its central programming team.   “This enhanced leadership team will supplement our premium content offering throughout our portfolio and ensure we have the premier collection of personalities engaging deeply with our audiences nationwide,” said Entercom Communications Chief Programming Officer Pat Paxton. “It will also allow us to best integrate the innovation of new products and content so we are continuously growing the impact and reach of our offering and super serving our 170 million listeners each month.”   Paxton will continue to lead Entercom’s programming department and will focus day-to-day on the management of its portfolio of market-leading brands. He will also continue to oversee Entercom’s brand research and marketing efforts.   Jeff Sottolano, Entercom’s EVP of Programming, will continue to manage Entercom’s industry leading collection of sports, all-news and news/talk brands. He will also be charged with growing Entercom’s content insights and analytics capabilities and overseeing its network and syndicated content development.   The big news: Dave Richards joins Entercom’s central programming leadership team as SVP of Programming, segueing from the role of SVP of Programming of Rocker KISW-FM in Seattle. Richards has been there for last 19 years and has developed programs like “The Men’s Room” and concepts like KISW’s annual “Live Day.”   In his new role, Richards will be responsible for original content ideation, talent development and coaching. He will spearhead Entercom’s efforts to support its expanding business portfolio, which includes Radio.com, Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios, through the generation of cross-platform content.   Michael Martin will continue to serve as SVP of Programming and Music Initiatives and oversee Entercom’s relationships with artists, management and record labels and lead its efforts to collaborate with the artist community on event, digital and social opportunities.   Entercom has also created an executive committee, with members who will collaborate to develop and oversee programming strategy across the company: Pat Paxton; Jeff Sottolano; Michael Martin; Dave Richards; Pam Russo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, RADIO.COM; Bill Smee, Vice President of News; Matt Volk, Vice President of Sports; Nikki Nite, Vice President of Programming and Brand Manager, Entercom Austin; and Reggie Rouse, Urban Format Captain, Entercom, and Brand Manager, Entercom Atlanta.

 

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Entercom Head Touts DEI Task Force Work, and Urban League Plan Adam Jacobson Entercom Communications  President/CEO David Field has taken time out to take pride in the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. As he noted in an internal memo, the audio media company “has been hard at work this summer” developing action plans — and with “a big assist” from employees who provided input. Entercom Adds UWG Head To Its Board of Directors RBR-TVBR She currently serves as the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of UWG, a multicultural advertising and marketing agency. Now, she’s also a member of Entercom’s Board of Directors, expanding it to 11 directors.

It is exiting the digital audio business, as it is spinning Triton to iHeartMedia following the divestment of its radio properties, “with fantastic returns.”

It boasts “a powerful new national network business” thanks to its blockbuster merger with Ion Media.

This is the new path The E.W. Scripps Co. is speedily traveling forward on, and Scripps President/CEO Adam Symson says the transformation of the company makes it “exceptionally positioned for the growth of television.”

With that, Scripps released its Q4 and year-end 2020 results. How did Scripps do?

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Aside from former FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, there may be few people outside of Kansas familiar with the town of Ulysses. It’s to the northwest of Liberal, southwest of Garden City, and a 300-mile drive from construction-cluttered Denver International Airport.

Here, a group of eight radio stations are heading to a new licensee.

Why? The current operator defaulted on payments owed to the entity getting the octet.

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Gray Television‘s Board of Directors has unanimously voted to expand the board by one seat.

To fill that extra chair, the board has elected the SVP/General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for Georgia Power as an independent director.

That would be Sterling A. Spainhour Jr.

Like all Directors, Spainhour’s term will run through the next Gray Annual Meeting.

Spainhour’s resume includes roles at Southern Company, and was a partner at Jones Day for more than 20 years.

He’s also served as senior counsel for CNN.

 

The numbers don’t lie.

The final three months of 2020 were punishing for iHeartMedia, which enters March 2021 with the need for a new EVP of Programming for its highly important Los Angeles radio cluster and a long-term plan to replace The Rush Limbaugh Show.

How exactly was Q4 for the company led by Bob Pittman and Rich Bressler? 

Net income was down 95% year-over-year as adjusted EBITDA declined by 13%.

Despite the rather dour Q4 results, Pittman struck a positive tone on the company’s quarterly earnings call held following the Closing Bell on Wall Street Thursday.

With the Q4 and 2020 financial results for iHeartMedia released following the Closing Bell on Thursday, the company says it is implementing a new operational structure that will now have its financials reported in two separate segments – digital audio and multiplatform, which includes all radio stations. CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY.

 

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With the Q4 and 2020 financial results for iHeartMedia released following the Closing Bell on Thursday, the company says it is implementing a new operational structure that will now have its financials reported in two separate segments – digital audio and multiplatform, which includes all radio stations.

The final three months of 2020 were punishing for iHeartMedia. How exactly was Q4 for the company led by Bob Pittman and Rich Bressler? Net income was down 95% year-over-year as adjusted EBITDA declined by 13%. Despite the rather dour Q4 results, Pittman struck a positive tone on the company’s quarterly earnings call held following the Closing Bell on Wall Street Thursday. FOR THE FULL STORY CLICK HERE!

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Gray Television isn’t the only broadcast TV company to greatly benefit from boffo political advertising revenue in the final three months of 2020.

The owner of such stations as NBC affiliate WDIV-4 in Detroit and CBS affiliate WKMG-6 in Orlando enjoyed a big revenue increase in Q4 for its television broadcasting division.

The reason: A big political revenue gain.

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Until his June 2020 departure from HC2 Holdings Inc., Phillip Falcone was widely known across the broadcast media industry as a flashy big spender on low-power broadcast TV stations.

Then came accusations that Falcone defaulted on loans. His assets were frozen for failure to compensate his legal representatives. This followed by a 2019 court order that saw HC2 withhold some of Falcone’s salary in lieu of some $2.69 million in unpaid taxes to the City of New York.

All of that negative activity is firmly now in the past, as Falcone has reemerged as the head of a new entity that’s agreed to purchase two low-power TV stations in Los Angeles.

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In the state of Maine, cable TV subscribers were in a rather unique situation when it came to not only the channels they wanted — but also the individual shows they desired.

It was part of an a la carte package designed by the state government as part of an effort to seemingly benefit consumers, allowing them to enjoy channels through an “unbundle” by MVPDs.

A district court tossed the law. Now, a federal appeals court has upheld that ruling.

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LAKE WALES, FLA. — One of the top providers of media workflow software products to broadcast media companies across the U.S. has signed up Alpha Media as a client.

As such, the Portland, Ore.-based owner of radio stations will extend its vCreative vPPO service while adding the vTrade service across all of its properties.

vTrade was developed by Central Florida-based vCreative to provide media companies with the ability to easily track, manage, audit and report on trade inventory, eliminating the risk of financial loss due to wasted or expired trade.

A recently released feature in vTrade helps manage the creation and sales tracking for on-air auctions, coupons and/or vouchers.

“After using vPPO for nearly three years and knowing how it has improved our workflow, I was excited to see vTrade had been added to the family,” said Stephanie Ross, Regional Business Manager at Alpha Media. “The team at vCreative also added an entirely new component to vTrade that will make managing our auctions even better than before. From entering consignments, tracking sales, and printing vouchers with unique IDs, we can now easily and efficiently manage this complex area of our business.”

Mary DelGrande, SVP of Sales at vCreative, said, “We are thrilled to be continuing and expanding upon our partnership with Alpha Media. vCreative’s main objective is to continue to innovate and evolve. The adoption of vTrade and Alpha’s  renewed commitment to vPPO is proof that we are succeeding.”

CAMARILLO, CALIF. — Salem Media Group, the media company known for its Christian-themed and conservative Talk radio stations, has selected when it will issue its fourth quarter and full-year 2020 financial results.

The announcement came amidst a sell-off of Salem shares on Wall Street.

Salem executives will host a conference call to discuss its results at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific on Thursday, March 4 — one hour after it formally releases the numbers to the public.

It’s unusual timing, as Salem regularly selects 2pm Pacific, after the Closing Bell in New York has run, for its earnings call.

What will Salem executives have to share on the call? Analysts could be curious if the heir to Rush Limbaugh‘s legions of fans is one of Salem’s own talk hosts. Or, they could be hyperfocused on advertising trends against difficult year-over-year comparisons.

Whatever is on the minds of Salem’s investors, it isn’t clear. SALM was off sharply on Thursday (2/25), falling 14% to $2.7437 as of 2:42pm Eastern.

The dip ends a nice rally for Salem stock, which sat at $1.03 as recently as Dec. 21, 2020.

But, it must be said that Wednesday’s closing price of $3.19 marked the highest finish for SALM seen since September 2018.

 

How is 2021 shaping up for transactions, now that Kagan has analyzed 2020’s dealmaking? Are deals still in a COVID-19 fueled frozen state?

Those are just some of the questions Greg Guy, the managing partner for media brokerage Patrick Communications, answers in this latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM.

 

 Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Greg Guy” on Spreaker.

Heading into last night’s ViacomCBS’ Streaming Investor Day, MoffettNathanson‘s clients had two basic questions:

• What could the company say to possibly surprise us?
• How can we justify the move in Viacom’s stock price this year?

“At least now we have some clarity around the first question,” Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson and Analyst Robert Fishman noted Thursday, following a three-hour affair that offered a detailed look at the soon-to-relaunch Paramount+ OTT platform, formerly CBS AllAccess.

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One of the nation’s largest radio stations owners, one with a big stake in podcasting, has just lured a SHOWTIME Networks marketing pro to take on the newly created position of Head of Marketing for Podcasts.

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Joining Entercom Communications, owner of Cadence13 and Pineapple Street and the Radio.com streaming audio platform to promote podcasts is Brian Swarth.

He was previously SVP of Digital Media & Marketing at SHOWTIME Networks, where he directed all aspects of digital and social marketing including acquisition and CRM strategy, influencer marketing, interactive creative and production, multi-platform content development, marketing and advertising technology, digital marketing analytics and emerging platforms.

Once he settles in to his new role at Entercom, Swarth will lead and oversee all marketing and public relations for Entercom’s podcast division.

He reports directly to Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer at Cadence13.

Before joining SHOWTIME, Swarth was VP/Managing Director of Client Strategy, Media and Entertainment at Zemoga. Before that, he was Sr. Director of Strategy and Business Operations/Content Distribution at MTV Networks, where he steered expansion of MTVN and BETN content distribution and enabled the successful launch of the multiplatform premium movie service EPIX.

NBCUniversal‘s U.S. household addressable footprint is set to expand by nearly 40%, to 45 million households.

To accomplish this, it has agreed to a newly formed advanced advertising pact with one of the nation’s largest cable TV service providers.

Importantly, NBCUniversal says the deal makes its advanced advertising offering one of the largest offered in the market by a television publisher.

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SAVANNAH, GA. — Thanks in part to its ownership of the dominant CBS affiliate serving Georgia’s Coastal Empire, WTOC-11, and keeping a watchful eye on expenses, Gray Television enjoyed a 138% year-over-year net income rise as total revenue jumped 37% to $792 million.

Next year’s finish is poised to be even bigger, as Gray awaits approval of its $925 million acquisition of Quincy Media Inc.

While there are many positive takeaways from the earnings results, the bigger news from Gray is that for the first time in 13 years, a quarterly dividend is coming to shareholders.

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With 99 watts of power from atop the famed Sutro Tower, this FM translator emits enough of a signal to cover all of the city of San Francisco, lower Marin County and East Bay communities including Richmond and Berkeley, Calif.

Now, its use as an outlet targeting Asians has been solidified thanks to a newly consummated transaction.

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