Headlines

The shift to the Internet continues in a big way, both for consumers and advertisers. Advertising Firm Magna Global buys advertising for big brands such Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The company announced Wednesday that it will spend at least $250 million between October 2016 and December 2017 on Google Preferred, which offers premium advertising space on YouTube. Magna says that money will come from budgets originally planned for TV. More details HERE at The Wall Street Journal.

Syndicated host and financial expert Dave Ramsey will keynote the 2016 Radio Show this September. Ramsey’s address will include a conversation with country music star John Rich (of Big & Rich) and will be held Wednesday, September 21 at the Omni Hotel. The Radio Show, produced by the RAB and NAB, is being held September 21-23 in Nashville.

The Current is reporting that the board of directors of non-com KUSP in Santa Cruz, California, is recommending a sale of the station’s license. According to the report, KUSP’s entire staff of about five full-time employees will be laid off this week, and on Sunday the station will change formats to an automated Triple A format. The station website says KUSP needed to raise $300,000 to stay afloat but only came up with about $100,000.

Entercom Upstate, which launched 96.3 The Block last October, is expanding its coverage to Spartanburg and can now also be heard on 104.5 FM. The Block features Steve Harvey in the Morning and a Hip Hop/R&B format. The station also features a late-night radio show promoting local artists.

The new five-hour Classic Hip-Hop show is called Explicitly Old School with Sir-Mix-a-Lot and it will be hosted by rapper, songwriter, and producer Sir-Mix-a-Lot. The songs and artists will come from the ‘90s to the early 2000s, with features and celebrity interviews.

Alpha Media's WNGY Peoria's Lucky The DJ ran 102 miles in 102 hours to generate awareness for child abuse. On Day 4 of his run the station received an email from the White House thanking them for their efforts.

CBS does not plan to lose any synergies it created by having some of its TV stations and radio stations located in the same building when the company spins off radio. COO Joe Ianniello (pictured) told investors that the company will make sure the new lease's cover both entities. "There's obviously a lot of stations that have call letters with our call letters on them, and so we'll preserve that. We're trying to add to both the profitability of the TV and radio stations, not make one go up and the other go down."

CFO Rich Bressler says iHeartMedia's core radio business was up and the company continues to outperform the entire radio industry. A big part of the increase had to do with political advertising revenue. In Q1 this year, iHeartMedia wrote $11.5 million in political advertising business. One year ago, that number was only $2.6 million and the $11.5 million represents a 40% increase over 2012, the last Presidential election cycle.

Radio was a bit of a drag on the local broadcasting division at CBS in what was otherwise a very successful quarter for the company. We never get much color from the company about radio, what we did get from the financials was a short mention that revenue decreased 2%.

Adam Wiener is the new Executive VP/GM for CBS Local Digital Media. Ezra Kucharz is leaving that position on May 6. Wiener joined CBS Local Digital Media in 2010. He served as Senior VP of Content, Community and Operations. He'll be responsible for overseeing the digital operations of CBS’s 29 television stations and 117 radio stations.