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If the FCC is to help the broadcast industry survive and flourish, Commissioner Ajit Pai may be the man to make it happen. Hear his thoughts on the state of the FCC at the Hispanic Radio Conference!

New Cumulus CEO Mary Berner is shaking up how programming decisions are made at the company. She says she is giving PDs more control over the day-to-day programming of their stations, "which has not been the case in the past." The new structure will be built under Mike McVay and includes new hires with resumes from companies like Nielsen, iHeartMedia, CBS Radio, and Cipolla Analytics.

Many states on the east coast are digging out of one of the biggest snowstorms in recorded history. It's clean-up time in New York, Washington DC and many other cities after the weekend in which snow was coming down at 2-3 inches per hour. Through it all, radio stations up and down the dial were doing what they do in times of extreme weather...serving their community.

Borrell & Associates has released its second industry paper on Local Advertising Insights. In it Borrell predicts that local advertising will experience a growth spurt of 16.4%, from $113 Billion in 2015 to $132 Billion this year. $5.5 Billion of that increase will come from state and local elections and $17 Billion will be from growth in digital spending. So what's the deal with radio?

CES is about to begin in Las Vegas and Greater Media's Buzz Knight is there to cover the show for Radio Ink. Buzz recently interviewed Consumer Technology Association CEO Gary Shapiro who said Nine automakers and more than 115 automotive tech companies will be exhibiting across 200,000 square feet of space this year, that's a 25 percent increase over last year. As for in-vehicle communications, they’re making cars safer and drivers more connected. Exhibitors at CES 2016 will unveil a complete, immersive infotainment experience for the car, with advancements in active window displays, access notifications, navigation systems, and a whole lot more. Here's Buzz's interview with Shapiro.

The suit was filed this week by David Lowery (pictured) of alternative rock band Cracker. He says Spotify "knowingly, willingly, and unlawfully reproduces and distributes copyrighted" music without a license to do so." CNN Money reports Spotify says it plans to pay "every penny" it owes to songwriters and publishers, but "unfortunately, especially in the United States, the data necessary to confirm the appropriate rightsholders is often missing, wrong, or incomplete. When rightsholders are not immediately clear, we set aside the royalties we owe until we are able to confirm their identities."

This is a pretty big deal here due to the confrontational relationships Pandora has had with the world's leading performance Rights Organizations, especially BMI. And as a result of this deal, Pandora is dropping its appeal of the recent BMI rate court decision. ASCAP and BMI have a combined catalogue of over 20 million musical works.

The long-awaited rates from the three-person Copyright Royalty Board finally arrived late Wednesday night. In 2016, commercial webcasters will pay 22 cents per performance for any subscription services (such as Pandora One which is $5.00 per month). That's down from 25 cents per spin. Commercial non-subscription services will pay 17 cents per performance. That's up from 14 cents for Pandora and down from 25 cents for radio.

More from the recent court filing by Bubba The Love Sponge (Todd Clem) who's asked a judge to throw out the million dollar lawsuit he's been slapped with from Nielsen for ratings tampering. Part of Clem's reasoning for asking the judge to dismiss the suit have to do with whether or not Clem, as a contractor of Beasley, even has to follow the rules other hosts have to follow when they are paid employees of a station.