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(By Bob McCurdy) I've always found that the best way to make a sales point is to have someone else make it for you. Supporting information or an endorsement that comes from independent, well-informed sources is typically more readily accepted as fact. So what do the following respected media/marketing executives have in common?

(By Jeff McHugh) Question: If your show is on the air from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m., what time does your morning show start? Answer: Your show starts whenever your listener tunes in.

Chris Leonard is President of The Hawaii Association of Broadcasters. He also owns radio stations in Hawaii and was part of an NAB panel Thursday about the role broadcasters play in times of emergency. Leonard was just waking up when the alert that Hawaii was about to be hit by an incoming ballistic missile came in on his phone. Minutes later Leonard was in his car headed to his station when he heard his station air the chilling alert that "this is not a drill."

Houston was hit hard in 2017. Hurricane Harvey, and the flooding that followed, wreaked havoc on that city. CMG has three stations in Houston, and they remained on the air the entire time, providing vital information to listeners. And that's because CMG Houston Market Manager Mark Krieschen has a detailed plan that his team practices every year.

​As last year’s horrific disasters, from hurricanes to earthquakes, demonstrated all too acutely, the importance of radio in providing lifesaving information and communications cannot be denied or compromised. Is your station ready?

As part of its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Cumulus has asked for court approval to dump several contracts in Chicago, including those with the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls and the Merlin stations it has been LMAing since 2014, WKQX-FM and WLUP-FM.

According to Cumulus, the company operating the stations formerly owned by Randy Michaels, WLUP-FM and WKQX-FM in Chicago, have lost $8.4 Million since 2014. Cumulus says the stations, net of LMA fees, lost $1.5 million in 2014, $800,000 in 2015, $1.1 million in 2016 and $5.1 million in 2017. The LMA fee Cumulus was paying to Merlin was $600,000 per month.

In a perfect world there would be one simple, credible measurement system where all audio listening, whether over-the-air, on a device, via third-party apps or podcasts, could be neatly packaged for an advertiser to see exactly how many listeners a radio station has. The reality is that technology does not exist, and who knows if it ever will. On Thursday, the MRC released new standards it's hoping will lead to more credibility on the digital measurement side.

Triton Digital, and many broadcast companies, are very happy with the new MRC standards for audio measurement that were released Thursday (Nielsen tells Radio Ink they will not be commenting). Here's what Triton CEO Neal Schore had to say about the new standards, along with several broadcasters.

That's according to a new blog from BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik, who says those 755 stations had a total value of over $3.3 billion. The number of radio stations sold increased by 179 and the total value of those stations increased by over $2.8 billion.