Headlines

It's all about relationships with clients, and apparently more and more clients are not comfortable with the relationships they have with advertising agencies. One of radio's biggest strengths has been the ability to develop strong long-lasting relationships with clients. A new study by a company called Advertiser Perceptions found that 58% of respondents plan to review their agencies in the next year.

Here's an update on radio's largest advertising category. Autodata reports that U.S. light-vehicle sales improved 1.5% year over year to 8.65 million units in the first half of 2016. That's a record. Sales increased 2.5% to 1.5 million units in Jun 2016.

Home Depot, that is. According to the Media Monitors weekly spot chart, The Home Depot aired over 63,000 commercials on radio stations all across the country. GEICO held on to the number two spot with 40,621 spots. AutoZone moved up to third from 10th, airing 35,208 commercials. Rounding out the top five were Lowe's at number four with 31,136 and Burger King with 27,484.

High Plains Radio Network in Plainview, Texas, is expanding into a third state. After acquiring a three-FM station cluster in Mt. Home, Arkansas, Monte Spearman’s High Plains Radio Network is picking up another trio of FMs, this time in Altus, Oklahoma: KEYB-FM, KJOK-FM, and KKRE-FM from Altus FM Inc. The purchase price of $750,000 includes $600,000 for the assets and a $150,000 three-year consulting agreement.

According to The New York Times, Russian intelligence officers searched the office of Russia's most prominent independent radio station. Computer servers were also searched. They were looking for e-mails from Andrei Piontkovsky (pictured), who writes a blog for the station.

The Country Radio Broadcasters announced that Emmis Indianapolis Market Manager Charlie Morgan has been re-elected as President of the CRB board. R.J. Curtis returns as Vice President and Bev Brannigan as Secretary. The CRB is the organization responsible for organizing the very successful Country Radio Seminar every year in Nashville. CRS 2017 is set for Feb. 22-24 at the Omni Hotel.

In less than one week, registration will open for the 2017 Country Radio Seminar. The rate will be $429, which is the best price that will be offered and will only be available to a limited number of first-come, first-served registrants. The annual New Faces of Country Music Show will be included for the first limited number of full registrants. Last year, New Faces tickets were sold out the day they came available.

KTYM-AM in Los Angeles officially belongs to El Sembrador Ministries after it purchased the station for $5.875 million from Trans America Broadcasting.

That's according to SNL Kagan. The media research group said that was the lowest quarterly deal volume in 34 years for radio. The second quarter's largest radio deal was the $5.9 million sale of four FM stations in Florida’s Ft. Walton Beach market from Apex Media Corporation to Community Broadcasters. The last quarter without at least one radio transaction worth $10.0 million or more was the second quarter of 2010.

Each year, four women in the radio industry are selected for the MIW Radio Group Mentoring Program. Applicants must have five years of radio experience to even be considered. These four broadcasters are given the chance of a lifetime: to be mentored by some of the most successful women in radio. Today we feature an interview with Stephanie Sabota who is the general sales manager for Cox Media Group in Tampa.