Headlines

Envision Networks is getting the holiday spirit early and offering programming options to stations that want to beat the holiday rush and relax during the winter blitz. Here are some of the options available...

The Home Depot was radio's biggest advertiser for the 15th week in a row, according to Media Monitors, airing 56,559 commercials on radio stations across the country. GEICO (40,520) and Lowes (35,789) held their 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. Pepsi was 4th with 29,493, followed by AutoZone, up from 22nd, rounding out the top five with 28,088 spots.

The Washington Post’s Research, Experimentation and Development team has developed a technology called Rhapsocord, which inserts ads automatically into podcasts. According to the website Ad Exchanger, Rhapsocord automatically identifies pre-roll, midroll and post-roll spots, inserts ads and updates the files.

The New York Post is reporting that the five private equity owners of Univision are bracing for a 2019 revenue decline of 4 percent for the Spanish language broadcaster. The paper also says the five PE firms - Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG Capital, THL Partners and Haim Saban — may also be looking to generate cash by selling assets.

A few days after Bubba The Love Sponge settled his ratings tampering case with Nielsen, the syndicated morning host lost another affiliate. Bubba had been airing on 96 K-ROCK (WXRK) in Fort Myers for 10 years. He's off the station as of this week. K-ROCK is now playing music in the morning and will announce a new show next week.

Boss Life Construction, IJustGotHit.com, and Radio One Houston are teaming up to give members of the Houston community a chance to win a previously existing renovated home. The contest is open to previous homeowners in Houston who lost a home last year in Hurricane Harvey. 

(By Ronald Robinson) I have heard it argued that the staggering dearth of effective, never mind interesting or, gawd forbid, creative advertising being continuously foisted on advertisers and audiences might be cause for some kind of class-action suit. This is unlikely, because, well, guess who has the most expensive lawyers and the deepest war chests for just such a contingency.

Georgia State University has forged an agreement with 92.9 THE GAME (WZGC-FM) and News & Talk 1380 (WAOK-AM) in Atlanta for the broadcast of all Georgia State University Athletics football, and men’s and women’s basketball games. The partnership is effective at the start of the 2018-19 season.

That's something we may never know, unless we can get someone to leak that figure to us. We reached out to Bubba for a comment but he did not respond. Whatever that figure was, it was big enough to make Nielsen happy and avoid a full blown public trial, which would have put many of the details about its methodology on trial as well. And that's something the ratings firm has always tried to avoid.

(By Deborah Parenti) The list of roadblocks to achieving better retention rates includes everything from millennial mindset to “sexier” new media opportunities. Both are frequently cited as reasons for the dismal track record of keeping young potential super-sellers from bolting out the door. So, with a shrug, we move on to the next candidate, in a never-ending cycle.