Headlines

“Nashville’s #1 Sports Station” 104.5 The Zone/WGFX-FM will expand its local sports coverage to an all-local, all-day format, kicking off Monday, January 15. The station also announced that it has re-signed on-air personalities Chad Withrow, Jonathon Hutton, and Paul Kuharsky.

During his Q3 earnings call on Thursday, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan said advertising took a "pretty significant downturn" in the last six months of 2017. And, as digital and social continue to make significant advertising revenue gains, Smulyan predicted 2018 would be up only 1% for radio. He also said radio "could be flat or it could be down slightly. He was also asked about the CBS/Entercom merger.

Same-station revenue was down 4% for Emmis' 3rd quarter which includes September, October, and November of 2017. The markets in which Emmis operates were down 2%. CEO Jeff Smulyan said, "There was nothing great about our performance." He added these are challenging times in the broadcasting industry and pointed out what other companies were facing. No doubt he was referring to Cumulus in bankruptcy and iHeartMedia's $20 billion in debt.

(By Stuart Rosen) There has been some confusion in the industry following last month’s decision by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which affirmed Judge Stanton’s ruling that the BMI Consent Decree does not prohibit fractional licensing. BMI views the decision as a welcome, stabilizing event, and we genuinely believe the rest of the industry should as well. Allow us to explain why and hopefully alleviate any concerns.

Apple's CarPlay dashboard system was not friendly to radio. While the technology shows navigation, apps and even podcasts on the dashboard automobile, it does not integrate AM/FM radio. Drivers would need to switch out of the CarPlay interface over to the regular radio if they wanted to listen to their local station. Thanks to Gracenote, there's now an app for that.

Marketers see the future and it is on the automobile dashboard promoting a movie, telling drivers where the closest fast-food location is, or how to navigate to the nearest Starbucks. AKQA Media Managing Director Scott Symonds tells AdWeek, "Radio once held drivers hostage as the only form of in-car entertainment."

Responding to a question about generating other revenue streams, at the 2018 Citi Global TMT West Conference, Wednesday, SiriusXM CFO David Frear said part of the rational behind taking a 16% stake in Pandora was to tap into radio's free ad market. Frear said your revenue is defenitely on their radar screen.

As of December 31, 2017, 32.7 million people subscribe to SiriusXM. Net subscriber additions in 2017 were 1.39 million. The company also announced it has 27.5 million self-paying subscribers, which keeps the cost-per-customer down.

That's what the results of a new survey from NPR and Edison Research confirm, as devices like Amazon's Echo and Google's Home continue to grow in popularity. According to data from The Smart Audio Report, one-in-six Americans now own a smart speaker (16%), up 128% since January 2017.

WJTN-AM is located in Chautauqua County and has been serving the local upstate New York community since 1924. Now it will also be heard on the FM dial at 101.3 after Media One Group picked up a new FM translator.