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BUFFALO, N.Y. — On March 24, a Cumulus Media Classic Rock station with a 33-year heritage and strong brand affinity across Western New York and much of Ontario’s most populous areas found itself in the center of a controversy that attracted binational attention.

One of its morning hosts, against his own better judgment, made comments about how his toaster settings corresponded to the skin tone of some African American female celebrities. Not only were the comments aired live, but they also appeared in a condensed version of the “Morning Bull” distributed as a podcast. That proved to be an even graver error. And, it has now cost WGRF-FM “97 Rock” its Program Director and its entire wake-up program.

As RBR+TVBR first shared via Twitter Wednesday evening (4/7), Cumulus Media issued a statement to Buffalo media confirming that, “Upon further consideration following the racist incident that occurred on The Morning Bull Show, we decided to terminate the whole morning show in addition to the Program Director.”

This results in the exit of Rich Gaenzler and the female component of the Morning Bull, Chris Klein, who is heard in an audio clip of the incident widely distributed on Twitter to be egging on Rob Lederman. He’s the longtime 97 Rock morning show voice whose presence dates back to Norton in the Morning, the predecessor to The Morning Bull. Lederman prefaced his comments by noting, “I may get into trouble for this.”

That proved to be an understatement, as his comments not only led to the dismissal of Gaenzler and Klein, but also PD John Hager.

Hager’s dismissal is particularly noteworthy. In 2018, he was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in recognition of his years of service at WGRF. After starting as a part-timer, Hager took the overnight shift in 1983 and later moved to afternoon drive. In January 1985, a format change to Adult Contemporary led to Hager’s exit. But, he’d find his way back in September 1988, relaunching 97 Rock after an infamous April Fools’ Day prank at the former WPHD “brought back” the rock ‘n’ roll brand as a joke Buffalo hoped wouldn’t be.

Now, Hager is on the sidelines, victim of a morning show segment gone wrong.

While Lederman was immediately terminated, Gaenzler and Klein were suspended following the March 24 broadcast, which gained national attention after Marcel Louis-Jacques shared an audio clip of what Lederman said via Twitter. Louis-Jacques is the Buffalo-based reporter for ESPN NFL Nation and covers the Buffalo Bills.

The next morning, WGRF offered music in-between station liners and IDs. By 10:30am, midday host J.P. was on the air. Afternoon host Carl Russo took over at 3pm.

As dawn broke in Buffalo on April 8, all vestiges of the Morning Bull were erased from the WGRF website. Continuous music continued between station liners and IDs, as has been the case since March 25. The 97 Rock Twitter feed has been scrubbed of any Morning Bull posts, while the Morning Bull’s Twitter feed still exists but hasn’t been updated since March 24. Meanwhile, 97 Rock’s Facebook page has also seen all mentions of the Morning Bull removed — except for a 90-second statement from Cumulus/Buffalo Market Manager Jim Riley that served as a formal apology for Lederman and the Morning Bull.

Lederman’s comments led such local advertisers as Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and West Herr Automotive Group to cancel their contracts with Cumulus/Buffalo, Nexstar-owned WIVB-4 reported Wednesday.

 

 

Nautel appointed Charles Sotto to the role of business development manager on its U.S. broadcast team.

“Sotto will work directly with Nautel’s regional sales managers serving key radio station accounts across the United States, and will be based in Cincinnati, Ohio,” the manufacturer announced.

[Read: Nautel Participates in India’s Digital Tests]

Sotto is former Southeast regional sales director for GatesAir. He also spent several years with Harris in the early 2000s as national accounts manager for broadcast systems and special markets.

He also has worked for Sony as a major account manager, involved in large-scale technical intricate including the launch of DirecTV in the U.S., Latin America and Japan.

The announcement was made by Wendell Lonergan, Nautel head of broadcast sales.

Send items for People News to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Nautel Adds Sotto in Business Development Role appeared first on Radio World.

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Through this Public Notice, we invite comment from all stakeholders on whether any updates are needed to the rules the Commission initially adopted as it implemented the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA)

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Orban Labs said three more of its on-air processors have received certification from Nielsen for the integrated PPM encoding option.

“The company’s Optimod-FM 5500i, 5700i and 8600Si processors have received Nielsen certification and are now available with onboard PPM encoding,” the company said.

[Read: Orban Ships XPN-AMs With Nielsen PPM Encoders]

“These three products join Orban’s XPN-AM, which was the industry’s first processor to receive Nielsen certification and has been shipping with internal PPM encoding since last fall.”

PPM encoding is an option on the three FM processors.

Orban President David Day said in the announcement, “We’re pleased to report that this encoding is now taking place via Orban processors at stations in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, as well as other significant U.S. markets nationwide.”

[Related: How the XPN-AM processor came to have PPM built in]

 

The post Three Orban FM Processors Get PPM Certification appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. financial markets finished Wednesday’s trading session on a mixed note, with the Dow Industrials rising 16.02 to 33,426.26 and the Nasdaq dipping 9.54 points to 13,688.84.

Companies such as The E.W. Scripps Co. were in the green, with a $20.16 finish, as Nexstar continued its impressive growth with a $145.71 conclusion to the day’s trading.

In contrast, TEGNA was down 30 cents to $19.90 after a fresh five-year high.

Also down: several radio broadcasting companies. Saga Communications shares are at $21.25, dipping 55 cents. Audacy, formerly Entercom, shed 17 cents to finish at $5.07.

In late January 2021, the President of CBS Television Stations and the stations’ SVP of News were suspended while parent ViacomCBS investigated an increasing number of allegations against them for gender and racial misconduct.

It appears the claims, first reported by Meg James for the Los Angeles Times, are meritorious enough to lead ViacomCBS to severe its ties with the pair.

In a statement shared by CBS News, the company confirmed that Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os, and news division leader David Friend will not return to their positions and will be exiting the company.

“On an interim basis, Bryon Rubin will continue to run the stations group while Kim Godwin will continue her oversight of Stations’ news operations until new leadership is in place,” ViacomCBS explained.

The announcement comes as an external investigation into CBS Television Stations management, conducted by Keisha-Ann Gray at Proskauer Rose, is still in progress, ViacomCBS says.

James’ reporting first brought to light stories that Dunn and Friend allegedly bullied female managers and blocked efforts to hire and retain African American journalists. In particular, James focused on KYW-3 and WPSG-TV in Philadelphia. Dunn ran the stations from 2002-2004, before a five-year run as the head of WCBS-2 in New York. At KYW-3, 45% of the station’s on-air reporters and anchors are Black, indigenous or other people of color.

The immediate response to her article, which followed a separate report questioning the $55 million purchase of WLNY-55 in Nassau-Suffolk and how Dunn received a membership at an exclusive golf club owned by the station’s seller as part of the transaction, was explosive. National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) representatives reportedly met with members of the ViacomCBS C-Suite that James identified as CBS Entertainment CEO George Cheeks and ViacomCBS EVP Marva Smalls, who leads all D&I initiatives at the company.

According to the Times, NABJ leaders demanded that Dunn be dismissed, along with Friend. Friend had been in his role as SVP/News since June 2010 and was also WCBS’s News Director — a role he’s held since 2006.

The NABJ took issue with the hiring practices at WCBS-2, which “only recently” hired a full-time Black male reporter after five years without one. The NABJ also takes WCBS-2 to task for having one full-time Black female reporter and one Black news producer in New York, a market where more racial diversity in the newsroom would reflect the total viewership.

The departure of Dunn concludes a tenure that included a November 2019 honor at the Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts Awards. That award recognizes women and men who’ve had a profound and lasting effect on the broadcast TV industry. He was also selected by RBR+TVBR readers as one of Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders in 2020.

It has operated an AM and two FMs in the Augusta-Waterville, Maine, market since 2007.

Now, it is converting this long-standing LMA into outright ownership.

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The Federal Communications Commission again weighed in on a tricky and confusing situation — is it within the rules for a commercial translator to be exempt from paying commercial renewal fees if the licensee of the translator is a nonprofit?

The commission has weighed in on this issue several times in the last few weeks. In the current case, the issue was again brought to light by Triangle Access Broadcasting which objected to the renewal application being filed by Educational Media Foundation (EMF). Specifically, Triangle objected the renewal of EMF’s translator W293CM in Graysville, Ala.

[Read: FCC Rejects Call to Let Two Licenses Expire Over Nonprofit Kerfuffle]

Triangle alleged that since the EMF translator is airing commercial advertisements — which are not permitted under the FCC Rules for noncommercial educational stations (NCEs) — it hasn’t duly paid the required application and regulator fees for the translator. Triangle said since the translator is licensed to retransmit the commercial station WERC(FM), owned by IHM LLC, then EMF should not be extended the exemptions that are offered to NCEs. In short, the translator is a commercial translator, Triangle said. As a result, the Media Bureau should press EMF to pay the required commercial broadcasting fees upon its renewal or that its license should be allowed to expire.

EMF responded to say that the Triangle argument was moot. EMF said that not only is it exempt from paying regulatory fees because it is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit but asked where was this argument when it filed previous applications?

The chief of the Audio Division of the Media Bureau responded by reminding both parties that it has the authority to renew applications for those stations that serve the public interest, for those stations which have not committed any serious violations to the Communications Act of 1934 and for those stations that do not exhibit a serious pattern of abuse. The bureau also pointed the licensees to Section 8 of the act and Section 1.11 of the FCC rules that cover the process of assessing and collecting application fees as well as the exemptions that exist for some of those fees.

In this case, as in others of recent weeks, the bureau first looked to whether the primary station is NCE or commercial. In this case, Triangle is correct: the EMF translator is rebroadcasting a commercial station owned by a commercial entity. If the facts ended there, the translator would not be entitled to claim the NCE exemption.

However — and here is the crucial part — Section 1.11 of the rules also provides a separate exemption based on the nonprofit status of the licensee rather than the station. “That exemption is available to those licensees who have established their nonprofit status under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code,” wrote Albert Shuldiner, chief of the Audio Division, in its order. And the bureau confirmed that EMF is recognized as a nonprofit under IRS code. “Because nonprofit entities are exempt from regulatory fees, we conclude that EMF is not required to pay regulatory fees for the translator,” the bureau said.

As a result, the bureau agreed to renew the license for W293CM and denied the objection filed by Triangle.

 

The post Deciphering When a Commercial Station Must Pay Noncommercial Fees appeared first on Radio World.

“His career was filled with accomplishments,” begins a three-minute report that encapsulates as best as possible the life and professional career of Ted Koplar.

Koplar, whose family helped make KPLR-11 in St. Louis one of the nation’s most-viewed independent television stations, died April 4.

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Byron Allen has enjoyed considerable growth with his Entertainment Studios film studio and his recently formed Allen Media Group, which presently owns 14 broadcast TV stations. He also purchased well-regarded African American lifestyle and entertainment brand The Grio, in 2016.

With more growth very much part of Allen’s plans, his Allen Media Group arm is partnering with one of the nation’s biggest wireless services companies in hosting a Black-owned Media Summit for a yet-to-be determined day in May — right in the heart of Upfront time.

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Radio imaging company Benztown has introduced a venture called Radio Merch Shop that it says can help stations promote their brands and make money or fundraise.

The service creates and operates customized “pop-up” stores where listeners can buy station-branded products online. Offerings include face masks, T-shirts, hoodies and coffee mugs.

Benztown says that for each product sold, a station earns $5 or more.

“Radio Merch Shop builds a customized, branded online merch shop and landing page for each participating station and handles order fulfillment and inventory from start to finish,” it states.

Stations provide their logo or artwork and promote their shop on-air, on the station website and via social media.

 

The post Benztown Offers Radio Merch Shop appeared first on Radio World.

A trio of products produced and distributed by Orban Labs have received Portable People Meter (PPM) encoding certification by Nielsen.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON FACEBOOK!

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How to U.S. consumers currently feel about the COVID-19 recovery where they live?

Nielsen posed that question to a group of respondents, and it has the answer — along with a host of other data tied to one’s activity tied to health, schooling, employment, and transportation across the now 13-month old pandemic.

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The Hispanic television industry’s Upfront parade was once a “thing,” with lavash presentations and plenty of pomp in between five-star entertainment from the top Latin music acts of the day and open bars galore.

Then came the “total market” mantra, eliminating some unique Upfront events in Midtown Manhattan. This followed the demise of some networks, including Nuvo TV and MTV Tr3s, and COVID-19’s shift of in-person events to virtual affairs.

With early to mid-May still the Upfront window for the TV industry, an upstart Hispanic media company will offer two marketer and advertiser presentations. One is entirely focused on digital opportunities — setting this company apart from its peers.

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In February 1998, Chuck Cotton took on the role of President/GM of what was then AMFM Inc.’ Oahu-based Hawaiian radio stations.

He stayed through the company’s evolution to iHeartMedia, and was the leader of the company’s Honolulu station group in November 2020, when its top-rated Hawaiian Pop station found two of its morning show members in hot water for insensitive remarks made live on the air during a Thanksgiving fundraiser for the needy.

Cotton is now gone from KDDN-FM “Island 98.5” and iHeart’s other Hawaii radio brands. Succeeding him is a new Market President, who takes the role April 9.

Succeeding Cotton is Scott Hogle, who rises from SVP/Sales for the cluster, comprised of the aforementioned “Island 98.5,” heritage Adult Contemporary KSSK-AM & FM, Alternative KUCD-FM, News/Talk KHVH-AM, FOX Sports Radio affiliate KIKI-AM, Rhythmic Top 40 KUCD-FM “93.9 The Beat” and FM Translator “Pop! 99.1,” which is heavy on K-Pop and Asian pop music. He’ll work closely with the programming, business, and sales teams and oversee all of the station’s on‐air and digital programming as well as create new revenue opportunities. Hogle reports to iHeartMedia Markets Group Division President Tony Coles.

“Scott has been an integral part of our success in Honolulu for over 23 years,” Coles said. “His natural gift to connect and lead, his deep roots in the community, and relationships with our clients will enable Scott to build upon the incredible track record of our stations.”

Hogle, like Cotton, has been associated with the stations since 1998, just prior to AMFM Inc.’s sale to Clear Channel for $15.9 billion, consummated in October 1999. The stations entered the iHeart family via an April 1997 purchase of Patterson Broadcasting’s entire group of AM and FMs by Capstar Broadcasting Partners under Steve Hicks.

Hogle began his career in sales at WXRI-FM in Norfolk, which is today WNOH-FM.

Hogle is also the author of “PERSUADE, The 7 Empowering Laws of the SalesMaker,” and is a motivational teacher on the subjects of sales and leadership, both domestically and internationally.

“It’s a great honor to lead the A‐Team for iHeartMedia in Honolulu,” Hogle said. “Nothing is more rewarding than living in paradise and leading for a company like iHeart that embraces our local culture, community, and customers. It’s empowering for us as a team to work for the leader in the media marketplace and love what you do at the same time.”

Hogle is also heavily involved in his community, and is an Executive Board Member for Youth with a Mission. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors for the Salvation Army of Honolulu.

The iHeart statement noting Hogle’s promotion did not address Cotton’s departure after 23 years. Under Hogle’s leadership, KDDN came under fire for comments made during a charity radiothon by morning hosts “Slick Vic” Harris and “KreyZ” Oshiro, in response to a local musician’s tale of homelessness and hunger.

The situation was addressed internally, Cotton said in a statement released at the time; the hosts were fired from the “Island 98.5 Wake Up Crew.” Cotton apologized to the local Hawaiian music artist, Paula Fuga, in person.

— Additional reporting by Amber Hunt, on Maui