Industry News

Ed Bukont provides some frank advice about working with AoIP in an IT world. Wheatstone, Jutel and Orban announce new offerings.

Buyer’s Guide lists visual radio resources from Comrex, MultiCam Systems, StudioCast, Broadcast Bionics and Broadcast Pix.

We check in on the realms of college and high school radio, and hear from the new head of radio at the European Broadcasting Commission.

And lots more! Read the issue.

The post Inside the May 12, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

Alphonso Inc., recently rebranded as LG Ads, has successfully won a patent dispute with the developer of a content recommendation engine and viewer tracking application designed for Smart TVs regarding the use of television audience data for targeting viewers on digital devices.

It concludes 5 1/2 years of litigation, including a December 2018 Federal District Court ruling in Alphonso’s favor.

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If you didn’t think anyone could make money podcasting, think again.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has just released its U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study, and it reveals that podcast advertising will grow as much in the next two years as it did in the past decade.

Do you want to learn how you can get in on some of that revenue? Join us in July for our virtual podcasting conference:
CLICK BELOW FOR MORE! How to Make Real Money Podcasting

 

Driven by a strong Q4 in 2020 (+37%), podcast ad revenues climbed to $842 million in 2020, up from $708 million in the year prior.

IAB projects podcasting will see $1 billion in ad revenue in 2021 and $2 billion in 2023.

Here are additional highlights from the IAB report:

• Dynamically-inserted ads, which enable ad placement at the point of listener download, increased share of revenue from 48% to 67% year over year.
• Announcer-read/pre-produced ads increased share from 27% to 35%.
• Host-read continues to represent over half of revenue by ad type.
• Brand advertising (45% of 2020 revenue) is approaching parity with direct response (51% of 2020 revenue).
• At 76%, mid-roll spot placements continued to account for three-fourths (76%) of revenues.
• Half of Podcast ads lasted longer than 30 seconds in length.
• News continued to be the top content genre for Podcast advertisers (22% market share).
• Direct-To-Consumer brands maintained the top advertiser category market share (19%), while Pharmaceuticals more than doubled in share Year-Over-Year (9%).

The largest African-American owned media company superserving Black consumers across the U.S. has released its first quarter earnings report. And, like many media companies, the first three months of 2021 weren’t so rosy.

That set, the seeds for a strong COVID-19 pandemic recovery have been planted, and the digital dollar tree — like that of its peers in the media industry — is blossoming.

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In the early 2000s, Adam Curry (along with software developer Dave Winer) invented podcasting.

Today, Curry — once-known for his stints on Z100 in New York and on MTV — is reinventing podcasting with a new open-source platform called Podcasting 2.0, a collection of open technologies designed to enhance the RSS podcasting ecosystem.

On July 14 at Streamline Publishing’s virtual How to Make Real Money Podcasting conference, Curry will participate in a keynote interview.

In addition to his new Podcasting 2.0 platform, Curry will reveal how his 14-year-old podcast, “No Agenda,” pulls in thousands of dollars per episode — enough money for himself and co-host John C. Dvorak to make a living.

Just last week, one listener to the No Agenda show donated $3,333.33 because he felt that’s how much value he was getting from the show.

Curry and Dvorak are generating the kind of money every podcaster would love to have, and they are doing it without a single advertiser, network, or appearance on Apple’s New & Noteworthy. In July, you’ll hear all the secrets to their success.

Curry and Dvorak have created more than just a podcast with No Agenda. It’s a dedicated tribe of followers who just can’t get enough of their favorite hosts, including listener-generated meet-ups and a No Agenda social media platform.

You’ll find out how he built it all on July 14 at our How to Make Real Money Podcasting virtual event.

REGISTER HERE BEFORE THE PRICES GOES UP! You CAN Make Money Podcasting From the comfort of your own home, office, or vehicle, you’ll find out how.

CHECK OUT OUR SPEAKERS HERE
THE AGENDA IS HERE

Live from North Carolina! Shown is co-host Billy Conway, on screen from the Tar Heel state, joining host Brian Perez via Comrex’s LiveShot.

The author is chief engineer of KWVE(FM).

KWVE(FM)/K-Wave in San Clemente, Calif., is a religious talk and teachings station. We produce original programming, and also feature syndicated talk shows about biblical teachings for our audience in Southern California. We also stream our programming online on our website as well as on our app.

As chief engineer, I manage all the technical elements for our studio, plus anything else that might come up.

“Pastor’s Perspective” is a live call-in show that we produce every weekday in the afternoon and syndicate to other stations. For the last 10 years, we’ve also been streaming live video of the show on YouTube.

Having a visual element has given us another outlet for the program to reach an audience that isn’t necessarily listening to the radio.

We’ve found that a large portion of our audience is enthusiastic about viewing our programming on YouTube. There’s a dedicated group of people who will consistently converse with members of our team in the live chat, which gives the show a semi-interactive element we wouldn’t have otherwise.

Video has helped us find a different audience that isn’t in our local coverage area. People who used to live here and moved away, as well as nonlocal people who heard about it from a friend can enjoy the program from afar.

One of our hosts recently moved from California to North Carolina. We wanted to keep him on the show and maintain the video aspect, even though he now lives across the country.

We purchased a Comrex LiveShot system, set up the rackmount unit in our studio and sent him the portable unit, and he’s been using it to connect with us nearly every day for the last several months.

We chose LiveShot because we’ve been using Comrex for years on the audio end of things. Our Comrex Access codecs have been solid compared to other solutions we’ve tried, and the company has a great reputation in the industry.

[Read about more resources for visual radio applications.]

We had demoed LiveShot a while ago for a different project and felt like it was a solid product, so we thought it would be the right solution for us.

Installing LiveShot was more complicated than the installations of Comrex audio-only products I’ve done, but the Comrex tech support team was helpful in assisting me with the entire configuration process. The support team was willing to collaborate with me directly and log into our box on both ends. They helped me adjust the settings so that we could get the lowest delay with the highest video quality.

Our host is using LiveShot over regular home internet. He initially tried to use a Wi-Fi extender to a cable; we found that caused delay (and frustration) to build up. But since he ran a cable straight between his LiveShot unit and his router, the connection has been solid. The feed is great — it looks as good as it would if he were here in the studio.

I would recommend LiveShot. Occasionally, we’ve had to fall back to Skype or Zoom, and both the audio and video quality were significantly worse. With LiveShot and the same exact camera, same lighting, and same set design, no one would know that our host wasn’t in the studio. The quality is amazing, and we’re pretty happy with it.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation. 

For information on the above product, contact Chris Crump at Comrex in Massachusetts at 1-978-784-1776 or visit www.comrex.com.

The post User Report: K-Wave Broadens Audience With Video appeared first on Radio World.

Dear Editor:

I’m an American freelance journalist in Florida writing a book, partly about the CIA’s use of radio as a propaganda tool.

Lionel Martin, far right, is seen in a 1975 photo of Fidel Castro. Barbara Walters is at left.

In 1954, the CIA broadcast propaganda messages on Radio Liberación over Guatemala. Then in 1968, Radio Liberación, the “Cuban underground radio station,” announced that their 150 kW transmitter (three times the size of any single radio station in the U.S.) was being readied for a propaganda offensive against the United States, allegedly to be headed by an American, identified by Radio Liberación as Lionel Martin.

Testimony given before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) on March 7, 1967 indicated that Cuba’s new radio potency could blank out the 47 U.S. radio stations in proximity to the East and Gulf coasts.

In 2012, writing on Radio World’s website, Philip Galasso wrote “Cuba Has Long Been a Radio Presence.” In it, Galasso recalls listening to 640, Radio Liberación, the former CMQ. But his memories only go back to the mid-1960s.

I would like to know if the CIA repeated their successful 1954 campaign to broadcasts over Cuba in April 1961 during the Bay of Pigs invasion, or perhaps even as recently as 1968. Does anyone out there have any information about this? If so, please contact Bill Streifer at bill.streifer@gmail.com. Thanks!

The post Looking for Info About Radio Liberación appeared first on Radio World.

“The equity markets have transitioned from looking to buy COVID winners in early to mid-2020 to seeking re-opening plays post the announcement of new successful vaccines last November to this current amorphous period of aimless drift,” notes MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson. “In our world, the question is what should media and internet investors do now?”

Should they keep last year’s streaming trade on? What about that short-lived (and memorable) rotation into media stocks? Now that they’ve worked so well, are the moves in Facebook and Google over?

He offers his thoughts in an investor note distributed Tuesday.

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Urban One is the next media company to present its first quarter earnings report. And, it hosts a conference call Wednesday at 10am Eastern to share its performance with analysts and shareholders.

RBR+TVBR will have full coverage of the company’s financial results in the afternoon headlines e-mail.

The company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2020 earnings were nothing short of spectacular. Net revenue in Q4 rose to $113.5 million, from $105.85 million a year earlier. At the same time, operating expenses on a consolidated basis fell to $79 million, from $93.79 million. This was driven by lower programming and technical expenses and lower selling, general and administrative expenses.

This resulted in an operating income gain in Q4 2020, jumping to $34.53 million from $12.06 million.

General indices declined on Tuesday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped by 1.4% to 34,269.16 and the Nasdaq slipped by just 0.09%, to 13,389.43.

How did radio and TV industry stocks fare? Action was mixed.

Aside from Saga’s big surge, Townsquare Media and iHeartMedia were softer. In contrast, Nexstar Media Group grew again.