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On Tuesday Saga Communications reported a net revenue increase of 4.7% to $32.9 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2018. On a same-station basis for the 12 months ended December 31, 2018, net revenue increased 1.1% to $116.5 million.

On a busy earnings day, Salem was the final company to report Tuesday with same station net broadcast revenue increasing 1.9% to $50.3 million from $49.3 million in Q4 of 2017. Digital revenue increased 4% to $11.5 million from $11.1 million.

That's the opinion of former Housing and Urban Development Director Henry Cisneros, who was a keynote speaker at the Radio Ink Hispanic Conference in Miami, Tuesday. Cisneros asked Hispanic Broadcasters to use their voice to make sure their audience understands how President Trump is singling them out.

Another positive quarterly report from a public radio company. Townsquare CEO Bill Wilson says he's feeling pretty good about how the company's performing. With more of a focus on local, a highly lucrative digital division, and strong political ad revenue, Townsquare had an excellent fourth quarter in 2018 and it appears 2019 is looking strong as well.

Senior Vice President of Digital Content at Westwood One, Tim Sabean, is out with a new blog detailing how important creative is to driving sales. And as Sabean correctly points out, "the relationship between the listener and the host is intimate, and ads reach a captive, engaged listener." Sabean then explains how podcast hosts can make the strongest impact.

It's a five-part blog series that sheds light on how radio can survive and thrive in a connected world. The first blog is “Alexa, Are My Station’s Smart Speaker Promos Working?”

Are marketers and advertisers still gun-shy about placing a media buy with a regional Mexican station, given the "sexiness" of reggaetón and "trap" artists and the global pop stars more universally known by CMOs and brand managers? Not in California.

(By Rick Fink) The first murder suspect was TV. Then it was Walkmans, iPods, satellite radio, streaming, and even social media and Spotify and Pandora. All were supposedly poised to kill off radio. But radio is still here and not going anywhere.

As the company winds down its bankruptcy proceeding, it has been filing monthly operating reports with the court. The latest report shows $326 million in revenue for December 2018. That's down from $343.7 million in November and $349.4 million in October.

(By Ed Ryan) Lee's column about AM being dead woke up quite a few of our readers late last week. Comments flooded our website through the weekend, and, while I did have to delete a few due vulgarity, most of them made excellent points. I thought it would be a good idea to get Lee on tape to respond to some of them The interview HERE is about 10 minutes long.