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The Copyright Royalty Judges have made it officially official. The rates webcasters must pay to air songs on the Internet are now set through 2020 and have been officially filed. As you already know, the rate for commercial subscription services in 2016 is $0.0022 per performance. The rate for commercial nonsubscription services in 2016 is $0.0017 per performance. The 2017-2020 rates will be adjusted to reflect the increases or decreases, if any, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. If you would like to read the entire ruling, GO HERE. It's 222 pages long.

The new NAB conference is called the "Digital Futures Exchange" and it will be will be held April 17 at the show in Vegas. The NAB says this conference will showcase "emerging trends and best practices for broadcasters to leverage successful digital content strategies and drive new revenue." The conference will feature presentations by analysts such as Pew, BIA/Kelsey, and the Local Media Association.

710 ESPN, a Bonneville Seattle station, and MLB's Seattle Mariners have agreed to a multi-year contract extension and the station will continue as the home of Mariners baseball. The Mariners have been broadcasting on 710 ESPN since the station’s transition to an all-sports format in 2009. KIRO-AM was also the team’s flagship station from 1985 – 2002.

In our ongoing effort to troll the country and find radio stations doing unique, out-of-the-box radio so we can share those ideas with you, we tripped upon what Cayuga Radio Group General Manager Chet Osadchey is doing in Ithaca, New York.

As we reported yesterday, iHeart got into a bit of a battle with bondholders over its debt. Specifically, some of the lenders say iHeart violated covenants by transferring 100K shares of stock to a subsidiary called Broader Media. On Wednesday, the State District Court in Bexar County, Texas, issued iHeart a 14-day restraining order rescinding the notices of default issued by a several iHeart lenders. The court has the option to extend the temporary order another 14 days. As a condition to obtaining the temporary restraining order, iHeart agreed not to dispose of any additional shares until a hearing is held.

Even with only $425K in political revenue in Q4 of 2015, compared to $850K in 2014, Salem was able to increase broadcast revenue over 5%. When you back out political, as every public company loves to do, the increase was over 6%.

Despite still having issues with how Facebook algorithms push consumers to Salem's numerous websites, Salem reported an increase in digital revenue in Q4. The company took in $12.2 million in digital revenue, up 3.8% over 2014.

According to eMarketer digital advertising spending will grow 12.4% in 2017 to $77.37 billion, while traditional TV advertising climbs 2% to $72.01 billion. This year, digital is estimated to hit $68.82 billion, with TV hitting $70.60 billion. TV will take 36.8% of the total U.S. advertising pie with digital at 35.8%, print at 13.9% and radio at 7.4%. Now, let's take a closer look at the digital numbers.

The heart and center of Hispanic radio is heading to Fort Lauderdale as the industry’s most forward-thinking companies, researchers, and programmers attend the Hispanic Radio Conference March 22-23. Record numbers of Hispanic radio broadcast companies will be there,

Thanks to Cumulus Springfield Market Manager Craig Swimm for sharing the successful details about his team's 2016 CMN Radiothon at WMAS. The fundraiser broke an all time record by raising $343,377.