Industry News

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — The creator of the podcast “Your Own Backyard” — Chris Lambert, who’s credited with renewing interest in murder of missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, may testify on August 30th in the case against her alleged killer Paul Flores.

Flores is accused of killing Smart and hiding her body. Flores’ defense team sent Lambert the subpoena because of his podcast interviews with witnesses before their client was arrested.

According to The Tribune when authorities arrested Paul Flores and his father in April, the Smart family thanked Lambert and credited him with breakthroughs in the investigation.
Paul Flores is charged with murdering Smart. His father is being charged as an accessory.

It’s alleged that Paul Flores, now 44, was the last person known to have seen the 19-year-old freshman alive after walking her back from a party toward campus in 1996.
The case is being heard in San Luis Obispo Superior Court

MediaCo Holding Co., led by CEO Rahsan-Rahsan Lindsay and formed as a partnership between Emmis Communications founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan and Standard General’s Soohyung Kim, has filed paperwork with the SEC indicating that it wishes to offer millions of dollars worth of shares in the open market to investors.

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The Walt Disney Co.’s stock price zoomed upward by 5.3% in early after-hours trading on Thursday, as the diversified entertainment and communications company that owns ABC and its ESPN arm delivered quarterly earnings that topped analysts’ estimates.

How did the Broadcasting division perform? Over-the-air TV performed better in the quarter.

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As of August 2, Adrienne Roark began serving as a President of CBS Stations, serving the East Coast following a tenure in Portland, Ore.

Now, two other veteran local television executives have earned the President/CBS Stations title at ViacomCBS.

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Meredith Corp. on Thursday (8/12) released its fiscal Q4 and full-year 2021 earnings results, which will be the last fourth-quarter fiscal health report from the company that includes its broadcast TV arm.

How did Meredith Local Media perform in the three-month period ending June 30? Net revenue rebounded from a COVID-19-influenced dip to break the $100 million mark as adjusted EBITDA and operating profit were each on the rise.

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It’s pronounced “E-VOCK-A,” and it is the next-generation television service under development in Boise, Idaho, that deserves a closer look. Why? It is built on ATSC 3.0 and IP-based.

With a Phoenix rollout in the works, ahead of additional markets, the individual behind Avoca, Edge Networks President/CEO Todd Achilles offers an exclusive update in this new InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Todd Achilles” on Spreaker.

The CEO and the CFO of Townsquare Media have confirmed that they will participate in a two-day virtual investor conference scheduled for August 18-19.

The “Local First” radio station owner and digital media solutions provider will appear on the second day of the online affair.

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iHeartMedia will get a new FM CP in Sacramento after bidding more than $6.1 million in a just-concluded auction held by the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC held Auction 109 for new FM and AM construction permits. Sixty-seven bidders won a total of 97 CPs. (Here’s the list of winning bids in PDF form.)

The commission said the auction raised about $12.3 million in bids.

Half of that total came from a single winning bid by iHeartMedia’s iHM Licenses LLC, which won the Class B FM CP on 107.9 MHz in Sacramento, Calif.

The second largest net winning bid was from Radio Brands for a permit in Sanger, Texas, at about $2.3 million for a Class C3 on 104.1.

No other CP went for more than $300,000, and most were far less than that.

The smallest winning bid was $750, from Mekaddesh Group Corp. for a Class A FM CP in San Isidro, Texas on 98.9.

The winners must pay their down payments by Aug. 26. At the end of the process, licenses will be issued for an eight-year term.

The post iHeart Snags a Sacramento FM CP in FCC Auction appeared first on Radio World.

Nielsen on Wednesday “proactively initiated” an accreditation hiatus process for its National TV ratings service.

Why? “While we remain confident in the integrity of our data and measurement, and fully support the audit process,” the nation’s dominant supplier of audience measurement and consumer data says, “we believe that moving to a hiatus allows us to concentrate our audit-related efforts on continuing to address panel concerns alongside the transformation of our National TV product and development of Nielsen ONE.”

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While not a publicly traded company, Univision Communications has long been transparent in sharing its quarterly earnings results with the public. On Thursday (8/12), the nation’s largest Hispanic-focused media organization did just that.

How did Univision do in Q2? The “Media Networks,” housing its visual media offerings including Univision’s television assets, enjoyed a revenue rebound that single-handedly swung the company from a net loss to net income.

And, despite a big year-over-year revenue jump, Univision Radio‘s net loss widened from the COVID-19 impacted Q2 2020. It is due to a sizable impairment loss.

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