Headlines

Radio's big merger is still on track to close later this year. That's according to Entercom CEO David Field, and despite the fact that it appears the CBS stations are "trending lower than the Entercom stations," according to one analyst on the Entercom earnings call Friday morning. Field was asked about that trend. He says he's visited every CBS market, in some cases more than once. He was asked if he noticed anything significant. Here's what he had to say.

Overall Entercom revenue was $125 million in the quarter, compared to $121.6 million in 2016. That number includes the new Charlotte stations Entercom picked up from Beasley late last year. Field said both local and national performed "comparable." The automotive category was flat. Entercom's top performing categories for the quarter were professional services, home improvement and cable/entertainment.

In a report sent to investors on Saturday, 24 hours after the Entercom earnings call, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote a report headlined: "ETM is unfortunately messy." She notes that the Entercom stock price has dropped 35% year-to-date and says the market "clearly has concerns" about the merger with CBS. She gives three reasons for those concerns.

There should be some new owners of a few soon-to-be former Entercom radio stations announced soon. Entercom CEO David Field says his divesture plan to move stations in order to meet ownership regulations to close the CBS deal is making "good progress."

Students from nine Missouri universities will converge on the campus of the Northwest Missouri State University campus, Monday, for 10 intense days of immersion in radio broadcasting. They will learn from 30 radio pros teaching in their areas of expertise. The MBA Radio Talent Institute is the first radio talent institute in the Midwest.

(By Randy Lane) Each time a wildly popular television show ends, there is a negative response in the US stock market. The stock market declined after the finales of Seinfeld, The Cosby Show, and Friends. Why is that?  

(By Bob McCurdy) Studies highlighting the critical role “reach” plays in ad campaigns continue to pour in. This is good news as radio is the number one reach medium in the U.S. Nielsen Catalina Solutions recently conducted an analysis of 500 Consumer Packaged Goods campaigns quantifying the contribution media and non-media factors have on ad campaign success. So what was the takeaway...

The NFL’s Houston Texans have signed a multi-year deal with Mega 101 FM, making it the new home for the team’s Spanish radio broadcasts on game days. The Texans are one of only seven NFL teams to broadcast in Spanish on the FM frequency

On Thursday, SummitMedia announced that shareholder and private investor Jon Kelly reached an agreement to purchase the controlling interest in the company held by Highpoint Holdings. And with Highpoint Holdings no longer in the picture, and Kelly and CEO Carl Parmer the two main players in the company, you can certainly expect to see them grow Summit, when stations that fit into their game plan become available.