WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC on Thursday, as anticipated, moved forward with the creation of two new innovation zones.
This, the Commission says, will allow for advanced wireless communications and network innovation research.
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“Throughout the second quarter, the resumption of advertising in key categories combined with the success of our content monetization strategies resulted in year-over-year revenue growth across all fifteen of our markets,” Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley noted ahead of her company’s Q2 2021 earnings call — scheduled opposite Saga Communications’ call on Thursday.
What drove Beasley’s financial success in the quarter? “Healthy double-digit revenue increases” were seen in its biggest markets.
Those markets include Boston, where Beasley owns such stations as Sports Talker WBZ-FM 98.5 — an important asset that also comes with big expenses. Beasley also enjoyed double-digit revenue gains in Detroit and in both Philadelphia and nearby Wilmington, Del., where WJBR is in a fresh battle with independently owned WSTW.
Net revenue surged to $59.6 million, from $30.4 million, as Beasley eeked out $200,000 in net income ($0.01), swinging from a net loss of $17.7 million (-$0.63) in the COVID-19 ravaged Q2 2020.
Station Operating Income of $11.1 million was seen, shifting from a Q2 2020 negative SOI finish of -$11 million.
According to Ms. Beasley, there’s more growth percolating today: Q3 is pacing up 30%, with July up 40%, August up 29% and September pacing at 23%.
And, assuming events continue to come back the company is hopeful to return to 2019 levels in the near-term. However, 2022 is more realistic, she believes.
Ms. Beasley also took care in highlighting the sports betting category during its earnings call. She said sports betting was the seventh largest category for the company in Q2. “Our second quarter sports betting revenue increased 340% year over year and represented over 5% of our total revenue,” she said. “This was driven by our Philadelphia, Detroit and New Jersey market clusters.”
Massachusetts and Florida are in the process of legalizing sport betting, she said.
— With reports from Radio Ink
“Overall we had an extremely strong second quarter,” Urban One President/CEO Alfred Liggins III said Thursday ahead of his company’s earnings call.
Not only was Adjusted EBITDA up 82.4% year-over-year, but the media company superserving Black consumers also surpassed its Q2 2019 pre-pandemic Adjusted EBITDA.
Net revenue increased to $107.59 million from $76 million. And, even with increased expenses as the economy reopened from the pandemic, consolidated net income surged to $17.87 million ($0.33 per diluted share) from $1.42 million ($0.03).
Adjusted EBITDA? That came in at $44.77 million, increasing from $24.54 million.
The biggest takeaway for Urban One? One year ago, COVID-19 ravaged its Radio One division, lowering revenue to just above what the company sees from its cable TV affiliate fees.
In Q2 2021, Radio roared back.
Within the Radio Advertising segment is Reach Media, Urban One’s national media arm. In Q2, segment revenue climbed to $9.4 million from $6.3 million.
Meanwhile, Urban One enjoyed net revenue improvements in all of its radio markets.
With minutes remaining in Thursday’s trading on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, UONE was up 5.4% to $7.08. UONEK, the company’s preferred shares, was up 14.7% to $5.70 on lighter than average trading volume.
It was an exceptionally busy day, again, for media companies on Wall Street. No less than eight fresh quarterly earnings reports were released, including the fiscal Q4 2021 report from Fox Corporation and a Q2 ’21 report from Roku.
MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson reviewed each of those companies’ fiscal report cards, and RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson offers an audio summary of what he said in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
The podcast also offers a synopsis of the Q2 reports released August 5 by Beasley Media Group and Urban One, and comments about the use of “audio” vs. “radio” from Saga Communications CEO Ed Christian made during his company’s Q2 earnings call for investors and analysts.
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: A Special Q2 Review” on Spreaker.
Seeking to update its political programming and recordkeeping rules, the Federal Communications Commission has opened a new notice of proposed rulemaking.
We shared the draft notice with you earlier and reported that the commission was planning to take this step; it now has done so.
This means the FCC will start taking public comments. Deadlines for those will be announced soon. The Media Bureau docket number for filing comments is 21-293.
Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has said the goal of the NPRM is to comply with statutory requirements and take into account modern campaign practices.
The NPRM would revise the definition of “legally qualified candidate for public office.” If ultimately passed, this would update the list of activities that can be considered in determining whether an individual running as a write-in has made a “substantial showing” of their candidacy. It would add the use of social media and the creation of a campaign website to the list.
The NPRM also would also revise the FCC’s political recordkeeping rules to conform with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 to include any request for the purchase of advertising time that “communicates a message relating to any political matter of national importance” (i.e., issue ads) and specify the records that must be maintained. The commission said the current rule language does not reflect the federal law on this question.
In addition to radio and TV stations, the changes would apply to cable system operators, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service providers and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service licensees.
The commission noted that it had not has done a formal review to update the political programming and recordkeeping rules in 30 years.
The post FCC Proposes Change in “Substantial Showing” appeared first on Radio World.
Radio World has gathered tips and best practices for U.S. radio stations ahead of the upcoming national EAS test.
As you probably know by now, FEMA will conduct its test of the national Emergency Alert System on Wednesday Aug. 11, 2021. It will be fed at 2:20 p.m. EDT via the Primary Entry Point (PEP) Network. (FEMA will also be testing Wireless Emergency Alerts.)
This particular EAS test will not be available on the IPAWS network, because two years ago FEMA did one that bypassed internet connectivity and found some issues on the EAS side. Now it wants to document the effectiveness of the improvements since then.
Here’s what the experts have told us:
-Start by reviewing the FCC Emergency Test Reporting System website, the one it uses each time FEMA conducts national EAS tests. The page includes key information including guidelines for filling out the three required test reporting forms.
-By now you should have filled out Form One. Make yourself a note to file Form Two immediately after the Aug. 11 test (but no later than the next day, Aug. 12) and also to file Form Three by Sept. 27. “I always recommend tackling these ETRS forms early in the allotted time windows,” says Aaron Read, IT/engineering director for The Public’s Radio in Rhode Island. Don’t wait until the last few hours or days, he said; in case of a problem on the FCC end, you’ll have time to call or email the help desk.
-All of our sources agree that you should make sure that your EAS equipment has the most current software version. Check with your manufacturer if you aren’t confident.
-Larry Wilkins of the Alabama Broadcasters Association and chair of the Alabama SECC said engineers should check their equipment for the following items:
(Larry’s ABA Engineering Academy also has posted a detailed video specifically to help stations prepare for this national test.)
-Manufacturer Digital Alert Systems released a preparation document to help users of its gear. It also noted, “The NPT is an occasion to perform essential checks on fundamental items, such as checking that the EAS equipment is operating, backup power is functional, the radio monitors are tuned and monitoring the appropriate sources from the state EAS plan, and the equipment’s software is updated.”
It too reminds stations to make sure their devices are synced to the correct time and time zone.
-Manufacturer Sage Alerting Systems reminded stations to check their logs to make sure they are receiving weekly tests from their monitor assignments, and that they have been originating weekly tests and relaying Monthly Tests as required by their license type.
“Make sure your ENDEC has a filter to receive and relay the NPT,” Sage wrote. “The easiest way to check this is to access your ENDEC with a web browser. From the main page, click the Tools button on the left column, then click the ‘Verify Req’ button. If you see ‘Your ENDEC will meet the FCC requirements for the National Periodic Test’ on the last line, your ENDEC is ready.”
-Another reader with experience in EAS recommends that you should monitor the Primary Entry Point even if none of your assignments are the PEP. “Obviously you still need to monitor your LP stations as assigned, but adding the PEP as an additional source is good practice. This does wonders to improve audio quality, which has been the most frequent complaint during previous tests.”
-Not specific to this test but about EAS in general, Aaron Read said, “EAS is a good place to not be cheap. Spend a little more and get the good encoder/decoders, like a Sage or DASDEC, that you can easily access and update remotely over the web. Get the good tuners like the Crown RFBA1 or the Inovonics InoMINI AM/FM/WX receivers,” he said.
“I know it’s an unfunded government mandate and that its usefulness in real terms is highly questionable for many stations across the country; so the instinct is to spend as little money on it as possible. But EAS is one of those things where the less you spend up front, the more you waste in time down the road, and the reverse is also true. And as we all know, time equals money.”
-And R. V. Zeigler, director of engineering for the Nebraska Rural Radio Association and chairman of the Nebraska SECC, offered us this series of tips:
If you need more information, contact your State Emergency Communication Committee (SECC), EAS Committee or State Broadcasters Association. You can also send an email to the Federal Communications Commission EAS Test Reporting System desk to ETRS@fcc.gov.
FEMA also has a public-facing FAQ page about the test.
The post Are You Ready for the Aug. 11 National EAS Test? appeared first on Radio World.
How much better was the second quarter of 2021 for Saga Communications than the same period of 2020?
For starters, there was no $3.76 million impairment charge. Second, net operating revenue rose by 66.3% in Q2 2021. According to CFO Sam Bush, Digital now accounts for 6% of the radio industry pure-play’s total revenue.
The rebound in revenue overshadowed an increase in expenses, allowing Saga to swing from a net loss to healthy income in Q2.
For the three-month period ending June 30, Saga saw net income of $3.25 million ($0.54 per share), swinging from a Q2 2020 net loss of $4.9 million (-$0.82).
Station Operating Income (SOI), a popular non-GAAP measure, surged to $8.38 million, compared to -$181,000 in Q2 2020.
With “a great deal of cash liquidity” one of Saga’s biggest strength, CEO Ed Christian hunkered down across the pandemic. As the economy reopened across its markets, the situation began to improve by leaps and bounds, leading Saga on June 21 to reinstate its quarterly dividend.
That liquidity, along with a stunning low leverage ratio of x0.51, make Saga unique among its peers — for good reason.
SGA was trading at $21.80, up 44 cents, on low volume as of 11:40am Thursday (8/5).
The NAB has responded to actions taken in both houses of Congress over the last two weeks that seek to bring the Minority Tax Certificate Program back to fruition — a move that African American media industry leadership has called for, in addition to several leading Hispanic market figures.
Is it a rallying cry from Gordon Smith? The Senate bill isn’t attracting co-sponsors, while the House bill introduced a week later lacks Member magnetism, too.
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It’s a step that many have been asking Nielsen about for years.
Starting next month, the nation’s dominant source of audience measurement and data analytics for broadcast media stations will begin placing a limited number of Portable People Meter (PPM) “Wearables” in a subset of its roughly 60,000 active panelists.
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In September, Nielsen will begin placing 3,000 new Portable People Meter Wearables in its pool of active PPM panelists.
“PPM Wearables feature an updated design that is smaller and more aligned with current wearable technology trends,” the research company said in the announcement.
Pendant model“The new PPM Wearable comes in a variety of ways to wear including wristbands, clips and pendants, which are more appealing among demographics that typically have lower compliance. In addition, a new companion app will help improve communication, encourage participation and enable data transmission when the device is outside the home.”
It said the companion app will allow it to add features and adapt to technology trends more seamlessly.
The designs were first introduced in 2019 at the NAB Show. This week’s announcement was made by Mainak Mazumdar, Nielsen’s chief research and data officer.
The new PPMs are seen by Nielsen as providing “foundational support” for its work toward Nielsen One, a platform that it hopes someday will deliver “a single, deduplicated metric for media consumption” across TV, digital and audio, which includes radio.
Clip-on modelThere are about 60,000 active PPM panelists, so the first batch will be used by a subset of that population. The company said it will share top line findings in the second quarter of next year for the subset phase, and a full rollout of PPM Wearables in new panel households is planned for the second half of 2022.
“PPM Wearables have been through a series of rigorous tests and the system has performed very well in each phase,” it stated. “These tests included lab, focus group and dual-carry testing that measure how the wearables detect codes versus the current PPM among the same panelists.”
Portable People Meters are used by Nielsen in measuring audiences for audio, including radio, as well as local and national TV. First developed by Nielsen predecessor Arbitron, PPMs are carried by people in the Nielsen panels in larger markets to measure exposure to media.
[Related: “Nielsen Releases PPM Software Encoder for FMs”]
The post Meet Nielsen’s New PPM “Wearables” appeared first on Radio World.
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