Industry News

Using a “three-pronged valuation approach,” MoffettNathanson sliced the target price of The Walt Disney Co.’s share price by ten percent.

On a tough day for Wall Street, the decision couldn’t have come at a worse time for DIS, which fell by 5.1% in average trading on Monday.

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The owner of the TV One and Cleo cable TV networks, and the Radio One and Reach Media audio content creation and distribution arms, now has the freedom to engage in some significant stock buybacks — should it elect to do so over the next two years.

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said it has suspended its operations in Russia.

It said it took this step after local tax authorities initiated bankruptcy proceedings against RFE/RL’s Russian entity last week and police intensified pressure on its journalists.

“These Kremlin attacks on RFE/RL’s ability to operate in Russia are the culmination of a years-long pressure campaign against RFE/RL, which has maintained a physical presence in Russia since 1991 when it established its Moscow bureau at the invitation of then-President Boris Yeltsin,” the organization wrote in a press release this weekend.

“Also on March 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that could subject any journalist who deviates from the Kremlin’s talking points on the Ukraine war to a 15-year prison sentence. Because RFE/RL journalists continue to tell the truth about Russia’s catastrophic invasion of its neighbor, the company plans to report about these developments from outside of Russia.”

CNN International, ABC News, Bloomberg News, and the BBC have also said they will no longer originate reports from within Russia due to concerns over the new law, according to a report from The New York Times. Deutsche Welle, the German international broadcaster, closed its Russian news bureau in early February after Russia revoked its reporters’ credentials.

RFE/RL President & CEO Jamie Fly said in the announcement, “Following years of threats, intimidation and harassment of our journalists, the Kremlin, desperate to prevent Russian citizens from knowing the truth about its illegal war in Ukraine, is now branding honest journalists as traitors to the Russian state. We will continue to expand our reporting for Russian audiences and will use every platform possible to reach them at a time when they need our journalism more than ever.”

It said that in the past week, nine of RFE/RL’s Russian language websites were blocked after RFE/RL refused to comply with the government’s demands to delete information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It said Russia also has blocked a number of Russian-language websites from abroad, including Latvia-based Meduza, BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America, not to mention Twitter and Facebook.

The post RFE/RL Suspends Physical Operations in Russia appeared first on Radio World.

Ralph Oakley will be making perhaps one final appearance in his role as head of a broadcast television company now part of the Gray Television family.

The now-retired President/CEO of Quincy Media, Inc., ranked in 2021 as one of Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders by RBR+TVBR readers, will be joined by Byron Allen; the now-retired EVP of Media Relations at the NAB; and two radio industry executives as a Leadership Award honoree at the 2022 Broadcasters Foundation of America breakfast.

The event, which is traditionally held during the NAB Show in Las Vegas, makes it return after a three-year absence on Wednesday, April 27 — bright and early at 7am Pacific.

Among the other honorees — now-retired NAB EVP/Media Relations Dennis Wharton; Katz Radio Group‘s President, Christine Travaglini; and Pierre Bouvard, the Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media and former longtime Arbitron EVP.

The five honorees include those previously announced in 2021, prior to the cancellation of the 2021 NAB Show.

The Broadcasters Foundation is the only charity devoted exclusively to providing financial aid to broadcasters in acute need from critical illness, accident, or serious misfortune, and the breakfast held during the NAB Show is complimentary to all in broadcasting.

During the Breakfast, the Broadcasters Foundation will also present the Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award. It is bestowed on an individual whose work in broadcasting exemplifies innovation, community service, advocacy, and entrepreneurship.

Who’s the recipient? Gordon Smith, the now-former NAB head and ex-U.S. Senator from Oregon, who is now a special advisor to the association.

While the Breakfast is complimentary to all in broadcasting, pre-registration is required.

To register or to reserve a page in the Program Guide, broadcasters can visit www.broadcastersfoundation.org/leadershipbreakfast.

Sponsors for the 2022 event include AccuRadio, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), National Association of Media Brokers (NAMB), Nielsen, Premiere Networks, Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), USTrust and vCreative.

The mission of the Broadcasters Foundation of America is to improve the quality of life and maintain the personal dignity of men and women in the radio and television broadcast profession who find themselves in acute need. The Foundation reaches out across the country to identify and provide an anonymous safety net in cases of critical illness, advanced age, death of a spouse, accident, and other serious misfortune. The Broadcasters Foundation of America is a 501(c)3 Public Charity and has been rated 100 from Charity Navigator for solid financial health and received full credit for its program to expense ratio.

As RBR+TVBR first reported in December 2021, Craig Karmazin-led Good Karma Brands agreed to pay $15 million to The Walt Disney Company for WEPN-AM 1050 in New York, KSPN-AM 710 in Los Angeles and two-year LMA partner WMVP-AM 1000 in Chicago. Additionally, it is acquiring Disney’s LMA agreement with Emmis Communications that has allowed WEPN to simulcast on 98.7 MHz in New York.

Now, GKB has revealed who will lead the New York and L.A. stations under new ownership.

Sam Pines, Senior Vice President of GKB, will be ESPN Los Angeles’ Market Manager.

Former ESPN Audio Senior Director of Sales Vinny DiMarco has joined GKB and will serve as ESPN New York Market Manager.

“I couldn’t be more excited to have both Sam and Vinny in their respective roles,” said Craig Karmazin (pictured, top left), the founder and CEO of Milwaukee-based Good Karma Brands. “Sam has distinguished himself as a leader both inside and outside the company, and will bring creativity and take a relationship-focused and marketing savvy approach to ESPN Los Angeles. Vinny’s background at ESPN New York and his relationships within New York City and throughout both Good Karma and ESPN make him a well-liked and respected leader who will keep teammates, advertising partners and our fans at the forefront of all that we do and achieve.”

Pines joined Good Karma Brands in 2000. Since 2006, he has led ESPN Cleveland as a Market Manager and Sales Manager.

“I’m excited to be part of the team at ESPN 710,” Pines said. “It’s rare that an opportunity comes along where we can invest our resources in a place that has such a well-established foundation of great local sports talk, significant play by play rights, including the 18-time champion Lakers, the Super Bowl Champion Rams, LAFC and the Angels, and the power and reach of ESPN’s digital assets. I’m looking forward to bringing a marketing-first approach to working with advertisers to such a great city and sports community.”

At ESPN, DiMarco managed multi-market, multi-platform sales across ESPN radio affiliates, and oversaw emerging categories, including sports betting and crypto-currency. He started his ESPN career at ESPN New York as GSM.

“After working closely with GKB for so many years, inside Disney/ESPN, I’m thrilled to join the team and return to my roots in the local NY market,” DiMarco said. “98.7 ESPN and 1050 ESPN’s collection of assets is second to none. Our on-air talent is among the best in the business, and they resonate with every NY sports fan. Add to that our play-by-play partnerships with the Jets, Knicks, Rangers and Islanders and you have some of the most compelling content in all of Sports. For our advertising partners, our multi-channel offerings, including ESPN Digital media, provide impactful marketing opportunities with best-in-class service and execution. I’m very excited for the future of ESPN New York and our partners.”

Dear Editor:

I am “shocked, shocked” to hear that BBC is using shortwave to get news and information into Ukraine and Russia. After abandoning shortwave as outdated and not necessary, one only has to look at the current conflict in Eastern Europe to see the value of shortwave.

We’ve all embraced the modern technologies as they come on line — but they’re fragile. Between the damage to the public internet infrastructure in the Ukraine, to Russia pulling the “plug” on citizens’ ability to access news networks outside of Russia, to the BBC trying to get people to use VPN (seriously?), it’s the antiquated, outdated shortwave that gets the message through.

[Check Out More Letters at Radio World’s Reader’s Forum Section]

There is a lesson to be learned here: Old tech is reliable, cost effective and gets the message through when nothing else does. The same can be said of AM here in the USA.

All of those “high tech” solutions, whether they are cellphones or the public internet, are prone to failure when you really need them the most. Let’s not abandon the tried and true “outdated” modes.

Comment on this or any topic. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post BBC Shortwave to Ukraine? Yes, of Course. appeared first on Radio World.

Broadcasters are pushing back hard on the Federal Communications Commission’s potential restoration of the mandate that broadcasters file data on the diversity of their workforces and that the data be available to the public, including by blaming Big Tech for some of broadcasting’s diversity recruiting problems.

The annual collection of Form 395-B data on workforce composition (race and gender) has been in limbo for two decades. The filing of the form was suspended in 2001 following an appeals court decision vacating part of the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) requirements. Even though the FCC in 2004 revised the regulations on filing the form, broadcasters still did not have to file it due to unresolved issues about data confidentiality, issues the FCC is trying to resolve under Chair Jessica Rosenworcel.

In a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) issued last July, the FCC said it wanted to “refresh” the record on Form 395-B data collection and related ”legal, logistical and technical issues” of potentially lifting the suspension.

But according to an ex parte filing at the FCC, executives from the National Association of Broadcasters, accompanied by 40 broadcasters — general managers, owners and others — from large and small companies and markets met with staffers for all the commissioners to push back on reinstating the form.

[Related: “FCC Could Recommence Race and Gender Reporting for Broadcaster”]

The broadcasters said they are all for improving diversity, but said restoring the form “would do nothing to help achieve this aim, and in fact, could distract the FCC and industry from more effective actions.”

They suggested one of those actions would be for the FCC to “boost interest” in TV and radio jobs given that broadcasters already were doing “everything in their power to attract and retain diverse talent” against a Big Tech industry draining the workforce.

“Several broadcasters described the hurdles they face in trying to attract a diverse pool of qualified job candidates, or for that matter, any pool of qualified applicants,” the broadcasters told the FCC. “In their recent experience, many job applicants — regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender — are more interested in working for one of the Big Tech companies or some other outlet they perceive as more relevant or cutting-edge, and that typically can afford to pay higher salaries.”

The NAB has also argued to the FCC that the form would pressure broadcasters to give preferential treatment to candidates of a particular gender or race.

Taking quite a different view of the issue was the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), which had its own meeting last week with FCC officials.

[See Our Business and Law Page]

MMTC took issue with some of the broadcaster pushback, saying that while “career-building opportunities that extol the benefits of broadcast employment are useful, they are not a substitute for enforcement of the EEO Rule.”

While the broadcasters told the FCC that they “already do everything in their power to attract and retain diverse talent,” the MMTC didn’t see it that way. “[N]o amount of career enthusiasm can overcome the ill-will of an employer who chooses not to recruit or equally employ people of color or women,” the group said.

As to the suggestion the form would force broadcasters into unfair hiring practices, the MMTC said: “The reporting of EEO data — whether anonymously or publicly — does not ’pressure‘ licensees to hire preferentially on the basis of race or gender.”

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Broadcasters Blame Big Tech for Diversity Deficits appeared first on Radio World.

Salem Media Group will hold its annual stockholders meeting at its principal executive offices, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, on the first Wednesday in May.

The announcement comes on a day when the company’s shares were dipping from a three-year high on Wall Street.

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Its brand has been battered and bruised from a fictional HBO Max series that saw the death of “Mr. Big.” Layoffs came, and sales plummeted.

It hasn’t been great of late for Peloton. Now, a spot cable effort is being used to revive the home cycling athletic brand.

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He’s been associated with a Hearst Communications heritage Rock n’ Roll radio station serving “Charm City” for eight years and has a resume that includes roles at Saga Communications and a top-level role at former WMXJ/Miami and WQSR/Baltimore owner Sconnix Broadcasting. 

Now, this veteran radio industry figure who once served as OM of WIP/Philadelphia and Station Manager of WBZ-AM in Boston has decided to say “Good Morning Baltimore” to his staff one final time come March 31.

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