Headlines

(By Bob McCurdy) I met with the owner of three car dealerships last week to recap the past month’s sales results and determine how we might continue to refine his on-air schedule and modify his creative. As it should be with all our clients, this an ongoing process.

Since Mary Berner took over as Cumulus Media CEO nearly two years ago, one of the company's main goals has been to improve the ratings. After all, Cumulus owns quite a few of radio's most recognizable brands, including WPLJ and WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago, KGO in San Francisco, and WMAL in Washington, DC.

(By Georgia Beasley) Today, I’d like to take a different approach. Instead of speaking to GMs and the generations that preceded me, today I’d like to speak to my fellow Millennials. While it may sometimes feel like we are limited in what we can do, we have a responsibility to move the radio industry forward.

(by Curt Craft) AM radio is in dire need of a boost. Yes, it is still the home for political talk, news, and sports. But not every AM station in every market, big or small, can have those formats. So what are those other AM stations broadcasting?

(By Ronald Robinson) I am obliged to accept the possibility that I simply may not have the faculties to process some forms of information. There is the assertion from so many in the population that dinosaurs wore saddles! That qualifies as a prime example of material that, if I were to seriously consider it for more than a few moments, I would certainly be reducing my brain to mush.

That's what Bressler reported on iHeart's Q2 earnings call. iHeartMedia revenue was up 1.9% to $884.4 million compared to $867.9 million in Q2 of 2016. The increase was due to higher national revenue, more programmatic buying and an increase in trade and barter. Local revenue was down. Bressler said Q3 is pacing down 1.6% at this moment in time.

The app that allows listeners to tune in to all of iHeart's radio stations, curated stations, and podcasts for free now has over 100 million registered users and 1.5 billion downloads and upgrades. Seventy-five percent of all listening to iHeartRadio is now done on mobile. So what about iHeartRadio's two new paid subscription services?

Saga Communications net revenue from radio in Q2 was $30.3 million compared to $30.9 million in 2016. CEO Ed Christian said he did telegraph that Q2 would be choppy but it's still painful to report a down quarter. "The good news is there is good news."

Fresh off the sale of its remaining TV stations and the purchase of 8 radio stations in Charleston, Hilton Head and Beaufort, SC, Saga is getting ready to announce even more radio station buys. CEO Ed Christian says he's been spending a lot of his time looking for stations.

In addition to the investment (the amount was not disclosed), Entercom says it will provide DGital with "significant annual marketing and promotional support" across its radio platform, which at the moment includes 126 radio stations in 28 markets. DGital Media was launched in May of 2015 by former DialGlobal/Westwood One co-CEO's Spencer Brown and David Landau. There will be no management changes at DGital.