Headlines

National Public Radio may be the most successful organization at creating content for Podcasts. It certainly was one of the early leaders in Podcasting. However, the organization has decided it doesn't really want to promote its own Podcasts on the air. And, although no explanation as to why was given, that may be to avoid pushing listeners away from the radio. Here's what NPR's V.P. for News Programming and Operations Chris Turpin wrote in a note to the NPR staff about the Podcasts.

In our Friday story entitled "Is Radio Facing A PR Headache After CBS Announcement?", we referenced a chart from the Edison Research Infinite Dial study and indicated that online listening was trending down. That was incorrect. Here's a clarification to that story.

Late last week, employees at KCBS-AM in San Francisco voted in favor of joining SAG-AFTRA. Production assistants, writers, and newsroom assistants will join the union with an existing bargaining unit of editors at the all-news station.

Not right away anyway. And that had been one of the biggest concerns from the Radio industry, which may have even held up this product being released until now. The radio industry, of course, is a huge customer of Nielsen's and was not in favor of having Pandora alongside radio in the ratings with Pandora being so aggressive coming after radio's revenue.

That was another big question between the radio industry and Nielsen. And while there certainly wasn't a lot of money being made with ad insertion (and many online commercial breaks sounded downright awful with loads of PSA's and clunky transitions back to music) the industry was, at least, attempting to cover some of the high costs to stream. Here's how we understand this will work, with a little help explaining from our friends at The Research Director.

Both The New York Times and The Verge have the details about the settlement about mechanical licensing rights, which refer to a copyright holder’s control over the ability to reproduce a musical work. Spotify will pay over $20 million to music publishers to settle. The money will pay for royalties already owed but unpaid, and a $5 million penalty. In return, publishers will not file copyright infringement claims against Spotify

Before we allow the newspaper industry to control how strong radio is, how about this report to help pour a little positivity on their radio is dead narrative. And this data comes from outside the radio industry.

Whether you're concerned over what happens to Class A Clear Channel AM's or you have general concerns about the FCC's plan to revitalize the AM band, comments must be filed by Monday. If you have not filed and you intend to do so, GO HERE. The proceeding number is “13-249”.

The way the CBS announcement — to explore ways to get out of the radio business — is being reported, you would think CBS CEO Les Moonves came up with the idea the night before the CBS shareholder meeting. Everyone with a pulse inside the industry was aware this was a possibility.