Headlines

Lazer Broadcasting and the San Francisco Giants have extended the radio partnership through the 2022 season on its newly launched Unanimo Deportes KSFN-AM which serves the San Francisco Bay Area.

Former Orlando talker Jim Philips is out with a commentary in The Orlando Sentinel. He paints a grim picture for local radio. The former host of The Philips Phile says radio isn’t the same, and we’re worse off for it. He also advises college kids interested in radio to seek another profession.

On Wednesday morning, Spotify announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire The Ringer, which was founded by Bill Simmons in 2016. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. This adds to Spotify's podcasting play and gives it a lot of strength in the sports vertical.

Rush Limbaugh, who announced Monday he has advanced lung cancer, received the Medal of Freedom award at President Trump's State-of The-Union address Tuesday night. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

On the WBSM New Bedford website Barry Richard writes that decades ago he got a call from Rush when he was first putting together his show. "He had nothing to offer and was willing to barter." As a result of what Rush started, Richard writes, " Talk radio as we now know it was born and AM radio was saved from obscurity." READ IT

The pro forma revenue totaled $1.9 billion in the quarter and $7.3 billion for the year (up 8%). SiriusXM completed its purchase of Pandora in February 2019 and when the company factors in that purchase, they report revenue of $2.1 billion in Q4 and $7.8 billion for the year.

On the SiriusXM earnings call, Tuesday, CFO David Frear reported that 17 million automobiles were sold in 2019, down from 17.2 million in 2018. He also said the SiriusXM penetration rate in those vehicles was 72% in 2019.

On the Pandora side, advertising revenue came in at a record $1.2 billion for SiriusXM in 2019. That's an increase of 10%. Here are all the Pandora numbers...

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By now everyone has heard that the most successful talk show host in the history of radio announced on the air Monday that he's been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. What's next for Rush Limbaugh?