News

On Wednesday the FCC issued a warning of sorts to all broadcasters hoping to take advantage of the recent FCC rule change that relaxes restrictions on the siting of FM translators rebroadcasting AM stations. That rule change was passed on February 23. Here's what the Media Bureau wants you to know.

(By Barry Cohen) Salespeople! You need to tell your clients that everything they love about the Internet (and social media), you have right in that little box with the speakers in it. You see, radio has always been a social medium. In fact, it was the original social medium.

(By Ronald Robinson) Maybe my 50 years in radio (30 on the air), and my skepticism, makes questionable my actual youthful exuberance for the potential of the medium. My brains might have been addled as well. Any reasonable individual who takes on the task to redirect the communicative aspects of radio is, practically, attempting to till a field of rocks with a broom.

This is a first for both Westwood One and the NCAA. The network announced it will broadcast the 2017 NCAA Men’s Final Four in Spanish, the Championship’s first-ever Spanish-language broadcast on any platform.

Jeffrey Smith, Gregory Buchwald, and Anne Smith have agreed to sell their ownership interests in Baraboo Broadcasting Corporation to Kelly Martinson. The BBC owns and operates station WRPQ(AM) and FM translator station W259BC, both of Baraboo, Wisconsin.

This announcement comes from United Stations Radio Networks. It's the official launch of a new Phantom Producer website which features a reimagined user interface called the Sequencer.

And the Media Ratings Council has not provided the information for several reasons, according to Bubba The Love Sponge's legal team. In his ratings tampering case, Bubba alleges that Nielsen's ratings are inaccurate, "and, therefore, any purported damages claimed by Nielsen in this matter cannot be properly attributed to the defendants."

On February 23 Emmis entered into an agreement to sell all the assets of Atlanta Magazine, Cincinnati Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and Orange Coast Magazine to Hour Media Group for $6.5 Million. That deal closed yesterday. Emmis has been trying to shed debt by selling off its non-broadcast assets.

Back in November, Entercom announced CFO Steve Fisher would be leaving the company February 28 (yesterday), which is when his contract expired. With Entercom in the middle of this huge merger with CBS Radio, Fisher will now be staying for a little longer. And here's what he'll be paid.

The radio industry is already facing increased competition on the platform it has owned for so many decades, but what happens when consumers are able to seamlessly talk to Amazon's Alexa in their cars, and easily get their music and entertainment, without touching anything.