Headlines

At the end of the year, Westwood One will be losing a big-name radio brand. Following the expiration of its distribution agreement with Westwood, CBS News Radio will team with Skyview Networks for distribution, inventory management, and sales. CBS News Radio delivers news, talk, information, and special events coverage to more than 1,000 affiliates, including 13 stations in the top 15 markets.

Entravision's radio segment saw a revenue decrease in the second quarter of $2.4 million. The company says the big drop was due to decreases in local and national advertising revenue, and a decrease in political advertising revenue. Local revenue was down 9% and national dropped 19%.

Meruelo Media has closed on the sale of KPWR-FM, Power 106 Los Angeles from Emmis Communications. The station has been programmed by Meruelo for the last month under an LMA. Meruelo paid Emmis $82.8 Million for the station. 

Bloomberg Radio has begun programming with the intent to purchase WNBP-AM and its translator at 106.1 FM in Newburyport, MA. The stations will be a 100% simulcast of Bloomberg Radio programming that airs on WRCA 1330 AM and 106.1 FM.

Radio's largest advertising category continues to struggle after years of very healthy growth. The annualized pace of U.S. car and light truck sales in July fell to 16.73 million vehicles. That's down from 17.8 million in 2016. Sales of large pickups was also off, by 4 percent. Large SUV's dropped 20 percent. In July, Ford was down 7.5%, Fiat Chrysler dropped 10 percent, Honda was off 1%, Nissan was down 3% Only Toyota was up, with a 4% gain.

(By Michael Botta) I often say to my salespeople, “Nobody woke up this morning wanting to buy an ad schedule, but they did wake up this morning with problems in their business.” And that’s true. Every business across this country has problems, every single one of them; but an ad schedule won’t fix those problems.

(By Steve Goldstein) Sometimes technological innovation takes away. Sometimes it gives. Digital has changed so much of media. The music business was famously rocked by theft and sharing on platforms like Napster. The movie industry filed suit against VCR makers, but later made billions with VHS tapes, DVDs, and streaming video.

It's not quite what the folks at NextRadio want from Apple but it's probably the next best thing. NextRadio has launched a free app for iPhone users, but this one will use data because it utilizes streaming as a way to allow listeners to tune into local radio. Until Apple decides to unlock the FM Chip in all of its phones, streaming will have to be the way of the world for iPhone users.

Radio's number one talk show host concluded his 29th year on the air Tuesday with an anniversary cake from his staff, classic clips from years past, and listeners who called in who've been with him from the very beginning. Limbaugh consistently tells his audience radio is all he ever wanted to do. He actually started his broadcast career in August of 1968, 50 years ago. His syndicated program is now heading into year 30.

United Stations Radio Networks, Inc., announced Tuesday the official introduction of a new prep service for radio stations called SPARK. At the core of the service is a daily feed of call-in comments from listeners intended to “spark” further audience engagement. SPARK is a complete prep service with a focus on listener audio that will spark audience engagement.