Headlines

Late Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks announced a multi-year extension with Bonneville Seattle. 710 ESPN Seattle and KIRO Radio 97.3 FM will continue to broadcast all Seahawks games. The partnership also includes special programming, community service projects, and exclusive Web content. The stations have been carrying the games since 1976.

Radio Ink loves to brag about radio stations doing great things around the holidays. Are you helping the community with a toy drive? Is your team hosting a radiothon? Are you collecting food for the local food bank? We want the details and the pictures and we promise you we will show the world how awesome you are. Send everything you have to [email protected].

Beasley Media Group has announced that MAGIC 98.3 and 1450 WCTC, along with Magyar Bank, partnered to present the 2nd Annual Magic of Christmas Toy Drive. The event took place on Tuesday, December 19 at the Children’s Hospital at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

88Nine Radio Milwaukee partnered with the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee for their annual Noche de Ninos toy drive, leading up to the holidays. This partnership includes collection bins at the studio/coffee shop, in addition to other collection bins at a local restaurant chain called Bel Air Cantina.

Scripps Radio Tucson -- 94.9 MIXfm, 106.3 The Groove, 104.1 KQTH, and 104.9 & 1490 AM ESPN Tucson -- held its annual Stuff the Bus event for the Salvation Army on December 15. The donation of new, unwrapped toys made it possible for over 4,000 children 12 and under in lower-income families to receive Christmas gifts.

That's a no-no, of course, and that's exactly what the FCC says happened when it conducted an inspection of WDJS-AM in Mount Olive, North Carolina. An FCC agent was unable to complete a full inspection "because there was no staff or managerial presence at the station’s main studio and nobody answered the phone."

So much for those who think advertisers are moving away from digital due to fraud and poor results. The Interactive Advertising Bureau announced on Wednesday that digital advertising revenues in the United States for the first half of 2017 surged to an all-time high of $40.1 billion.

Just in case your eyes are still rolling into the back of your head from our story on Wednesday regarding BMI, the consent decree, DOJ, the RMLC, etc. etc., broadcast attorney David Oxenford takes a swing at simplifying the issue in his latest blog. After detailing the entire story, Oxenford says this is certain to be an issue going forward.

On Tuesday, Radio Ink Editor-in-Chief Ed Ryan hosted a special webinar on voice technology with Veritone’s Senior Product Manager Michael Kennedy and Apps Engineering Manager Steve Shaffer. Just in case you were too busy on Tuesday, here's a link to the webinar. Feel free to listen anytime.

Advertisers will continue to deduct advertising expenses from their taxes as a result of tax reform legislation passed by Congress this week. Both broadcasters and advertisers were worried that expense would be dropped and were fighting to keep it alive. Here's what NAB CEO Gordon Smith said about the legislation...