Featured

It was the lowest quarterly radio deal volume since 2012 according to the folks at Kagan. The top radio deal of the quarter was the $10.0 million sale of non-commercial KUHA-FM in Houston followed by another non-commercial transaction, the $8.0 million sale of FM stations KPLI, KPLU, KPLI and KVIX as well as seven translators and one translator construction permit in Seattle from Pacific Lutheran University to University of Washington.

One of radio's iconic brands suffered another body blow Thursday. Cumulus has laid off most of the news staff at KGO and additional layoffs were made at KFOG. Cumulus has decided to take KGO in an entirely new direction, away from news. Rich Walcoff has been at KGO for nearly 32 years. He tells Radio Ink, "I Don't know the exact number but there is no more KGO news department as we knew it. KFOG also dumped a bunch of on air talent. Sad day for Bay Area radio and much fine talent."

Perhaps not, according to a letter attorney David Oxenford has written to the FCC. Apparently Pandora isn't really sure it wants to own KXMZ in South Elder, South Dakota, a station it purchased from Jeff Warshaw's Connoisseur Media for $600K. The main reason Pandora wanted to own the station was to skirt around the ASCAP fees by saying it should be charged the same fees as radio stations -- not a pure-play streaming company -- now that it was a broadcaster. That did not work out. The Oxenford letter says Pandora is "reevaluating its broadcast strategy."

We could be in the early stages of big Clear Channel AM stations battling with smaller mom and pop AM stations that are looking to serve their local communities when the sun goes down. It's an issue the NAB does not take a position on because there are many stations on both sides of this issue.

The two biggest problems with radio advertising have always been too many ads and too many bad ads. Now, one of radio's biggest cheerleaders -- on the agency side -- is trying to solve problem number two. Horizon CEO Bill Koenigsberg has always been a fan of radio and now he's forming a new audio creative and production division called Wordsworth & Booth.

It's been rumored for what seems like years and Tuesday CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves officially confirmed that the company is planning to sell the CBS Radio division. Moonves said the company will explore all alternatives including a sale, a spinoff or even a swap. The goal is to “unlock value for our shareholders.” Here's the statement sent out from CBS Radio headquarters about the plan to move the radio stations...

Nicky Sparrow is a past member of Radio Ink’s Future African American Leaders in Radio list. She was recently promoted by iHeartMedia to Jacksonville market presi­dent. We asked Sparrow to share the details on how she advanced her career and made it to the top.

Carl Gardner is the General Manager for Bonneville's KIRO in Seattle. KIRO is one of the many AM radio stations that will be dramatically affected by the FCC's plan to allow other AM stations, on the same frequency, to maintain power at night. But, as Gardner points out, this plan is a big mistake for several reasons and his listeners will be affected in a big way.

The drop in revenue was blamed on "market declines," and national ad revenue (see next story). When you back out political for Q4, the decrease was 4.9% or $3.4 million. Total revenue for Univision's radio segment in Q4 dropped at total of 12.2% to $72.1 million compared to $82.1 million in 2014. Non-advertising revenue in the radio segment (which is primarily other contractual revenue) decreased 48.6% to $3.7 million from $7.2 million. Univision owns 67 radio stations, including stations in 16 of the top 25 U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico. Total revenue -- including TV, network, digital, and radio -- was up 1.1% to $736 million.

MediaPost summarizes a lot of the recent news about how crucial radio will be in the 2016 election. In a blog that points out iHeart's recent hire of Capitol Hill veteran Brendon DelToro, MediaLife's prediction that up to 15% of the spending will go to radio and radio's penetration rate among the undecided voters, MediaPost details how critical radio will be in deciding the next president.