Headlines

The mothership at the CBS Corporation is planning to take its radio division public by the end of the month. The announcement was made by the company in a preliminary prospectus filed with the SEC on Wednesday. Back in March, CEO Les Moonves announced the company was exploring all alternatives, including a sale, a spinoff, or even a swap of the radio division. The company has been in a quiet period lately and it appears that spinoff will happen sooner rather than later.

(By John Garziglia) On July 4, PBS-affiliated television stations nationwide purported to show live fireworks from the Mall in Washington, DC, without directly informing viewers that they were instead showing “a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do” (PBS twitter posting @July4thPBS - 9:28 PM - 4 Jul 2016). This is possibly a violation of Section 73.1208 of the FCC’s rules. Here's what radio managers need to know...

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.