Headlines

An 8-foot fiberglass shark hangs from a crane near iHeartMedia's WDVE building. The Pittsburgh rock station is showing its support for the Pittsburgh Penguins who are in the Stanley Cup finals. The shark, hanging from its neck, includes a sign that reads: "Let’s Go Pens, Kill The Sharks.”

It's a four-year extension to air the university’s football games on FOX Sports 910 in Richmond. The agreement will also bring the university’s football and men’s basketball coverage to 96.1 The Planet, Richmond’s Classic Rock station, marking the first time the games will simulcast on FM broadcast radio.

In its spring "Local Advertising Forecast" update for 2016 BIA/Kelsey is forecasting consistent growth in local ad revenue over the next four years, which the company says will hit a total of $172.2 billion by 2020. Growth will be driven by big increases in mobile and social advertising, strong political advertising and an improving economy. So how does radio stack up against the other media? Let's find out.

Last night in New York, the RAB crowned the 2016 Radio Mercury Awards winners. This year’s $50,000 Best of Show award was given to Fitzgerald + CO for their Long Story Short Campaign for Quikrete. Chief judge, Chris Smith from The Richards Group said, "Long Story Short took home Best of Show because it expressed Quikrete’s mission so creatively and succinctly. The execution mirrored the product benefit perfectly, and made it far and away the most entertaining and effective campaign we heard."

NAB's Joint Board Chairman Dave Lougee and President and CEO Gordon Smith will break ground on the NAB's future home in Washington D.C. on Monday, June 20 at 12:45p.m. The new 10-story building, at the corner of South Capitol and M Streets, is expected to be completed in fall 2018. It will have a curved facade facing M Street, a rooftop terrace with a view of the Capitol, and a 100-seat theater.

On Thursday, the staff at Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul, Minn., voted to join SAG-AFTRA, with 39 voting yes for SAG-AFTRA representation, 17 voting no and 18 challenges. The result means staff will join the union. The new bargaining unit will cover the employees who create content for MPR News, American Radio Works, and the newly formed Investigative Unit. The election allows them to move forward to negotiate a first contract.

Veteran Arkansas broadcaster Bobby Caldwell adds a trio of stations to his Russellville, Arkansas group. Caldwell is purchasing KARV-AM & FM and KYEL-FM from Kermit and Diane Womack of Springdale, Arkansas. The sale price is $800K.

For the answer to that question, we reached out to broadcast attorney John Garziglia for more analysis. Garziglia has blogged about this issue before for Radio Ink (HERE). Does Garziglia believe this is the final chapter of the war? Let's find out.

This ruling will be of big interest to broadcasters, especially those running music stations. ABS Entertainment argued that pre-1972 songs were protected under state law and could not be broadcast on the radio without permission. In 2015, ABS filed a copyright case against CBS (and others) for pre-1972 recordings for artists such as Al Green. CBS lawyers responded by saying it did not publicly perform any of ABS's pre-1972 recordings and this week a judge agreed with CBS Radio. Here are the details...

Thanks to broadcast attorney David Oxenford for simplifying this one for us. In his latest blog, Oxenford points out that the FCC is asking for comments on its proposed new fees, and the proposed fees go up significantly for broadcasters. The fees are meant to recoup the costs of the FCC’s regulation of the industries that it oversees.