Headlines

Radio executives had very high hopes that political advertising was going to give the industry a big revenue bump in 2016. That didn't happen and digital is the reason why. Radio's share of political revenue in 2016 was 6.3 percent of the total amount spent, according to the latest data released from Borrell & Associates. That's a 23% decline from the 2012 election cycle.

Tuesday morning, BMI filed an action in Federal Rate Court looking to set interim fees for radio stations represented by the Radio Music License Committee. The RMLC represents over 10,000 radio stations. BMI says the RMLC made an unacceptable offer and that's the reason for the court filing. The RMLC did not respond to our request for comment.

FRIGO was born in 2000 when a Swedish inventor decided that men’s underwear was, in general, pretty terrible. And last week FRIGO was radio's number two advertiser (up from 44th) according to the latest chart from Media Monitors.

In addition to national ESPN programming, the Broadcast Company of the Americas San Diego sports station will now carry seven hours of business programming.

Cumulus Kansas City started 2017 off with a slew of changes on the air at KMJK-FM and KCMO-AM/FM. KMJK-FM will now run “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” and over at KCMO-AM, longtime Kansas City talk personality Greg Knapp returns to host Mornings.

JVC Broadcasting is in partnership with the long-running Long Island radio show Memories in Melody. Jack Ellsworth's Memories in Melody has been on the air for over 68 years and is now hosted by Jack's grandson, Matt Taylor. The format of the show is Ballads, Blues and Big Bands. It was dropped by Connoisseur last week. Starting January 8, the show will air on 103.9 FM Sunday mornings from 7 to 9 a.m.

Sportsradio 1310 AM and 96.7 FM The Ticket held a live charity radiothon on December 28 and raised a massive $478,000 for the Austin Street Centre. It was the 16th Annual Whataburger Norm-a-thon and the stations broadcast from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. from Starpower in Dallas.

In Wenatchee, WA, they think of the kids at Christmas. And  Country 104.7 (KKRV) remembered them big-time. Thanks to their listeners, the station purchased $10,000 worth of presents for children at the Women’s Resource Center, having received Christmas lists from 36 children. Every wish was granted and several local businesses assisted by purchasing items for those empty stockings. 

In an effort to work on its crippling debt, Cumulus has completed a discounted prepayment of a portion of its $1.8 billion senior secured term loan facility due in December 2020. The Company purchased $28.7 million of its senior secured term loan for $20.0 million, a discount of 30%.

CES begins this week and getting an early jump on the major Vegas event, Buzz Knight spoke to the President and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association Gary Shapiro. The CTA is the trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies and produces CES.