Bernie Sanders Would Put ‘Immediate Moratorium’ On Media Mergers.

Story by Inside Radio

Bernie Sanders is not a fan of corporate mergers and acquisitions. As part of his 2020 agenda, the Presidential candidate says that his administration “would place aggressive checks on media M&A and increase antitrust enforcement of Silicon Valley in order to reform the media industry and better protect independent journalism,” according to a self-scribed proposal published Monday in the Columbia Journalism Review.

The bottom line, according to the publication: “The Sanders plan offers the most comprehensive picture to date on how far he would go to rein in Big Media and Big Tech. It would effectively neuter the tech, media and telecom industry from pursuing further consolidation and put a freeze on all substantive future M&A activity.”

For one, he writes, “We are not going to rubber stamp proposals like the new plan to merge CBS and Viacom into a $30 billion colossus.” As Inside Radio reported Aug. 13, after years of discussions, the two companies agreed to merge under the combined name of ViacomCBS Inc. The merger is designed to reunite the two entities that have operated separately for the past 13 years and includes well-known media brands such as Paramount Pictures, CBS, Showtime and MTV.

In addition, the Sanders plan would appoint federal officials “who more stringently enforce antitrust laws” to prevent Facebook and Google from doing financial harm to news organizations; put “an immediate moratorium” on major media mergers “until we can better understand the true effect these transactions have on our democracy”; and require media corporations “to disclose whether or not their corporate transactions and merger proposals will involve significant journalism layoffs.”

Further, Sanders says he would require media corporations to give employees “the opportunity to purchase media outlets through employee stock-ownership plans” before putting the company up for sale, he writes in the Columbia Review. And in a proposal that would impact the radio and television industries, he says he would “limit the number of stations that large broadcasting corporations can own in each market and nationwide.” As well, he proposes placing a tax on targeted advertising “to fund nonprofit civic-minded media,” part of a larger plan to “increase funding for programs that support public media.”

Report: AM/FM, Amazon Music Lead Smart Speaker Audience Share.

Story by Inside Radio

When consumers access music on their smart speakers, AM/FM is their first choice, followed by Amazon Music. This is certainly good news for radio broadcasters, since adoption of the platform isn’t slowing down. According to the Westwood One 2019 Audioscape report that utilizes data from Edison Research and Advertiser Perceptions, the number of Americans that own a smart speaker increased threefold from Q2 2017 to Q2 2019.

In second quarter 2019, Westwood One reports that AM/FM radio commandeered 18% of the share of listening on smart speakers; and Amazon Music held a 17% share, according to Edison Research. “This is a result of AM/FM radio stations developing voice-activated applications to enable listening on smart speakers and their aggressive promotion of Alexa and Google Home listening,” the report offers.

Following AM/FM and Amazon Music are Pandora (13%), other streaming audio (12%), owned music (12%), Spotify (9%), SiriusXM (9%), audiobooks (5%) and podcasts (3%).



Meanwhile, the number of those with at least one smart speaker in the home continues to spike, Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” notes. In Q2 2019, 30% of Americans reported owning a smart speaker, compared to 10% in Q2 2017. In just the last quarter, the percentage has grown 3%.

Meanwhile, marketers and agencies are immersing themselves in voice-activated advertising, according to WWO, which commissioned Advertiser Perceptions to ask more than 300 marketers and agencies for their perspective about advertising on smart speakers—in January 2018 and again in March 2019. In a little over a year, the number utilizing smart speaker opportunities doubled from 18% in January 2018 to 36% in March 2019. Among media agencies and brands who haven’t started using smart speaker applications, their likelihood to use these marketing initiatives within the next 6 months has also increased. This year, consideration and especially intention to become involved in voiced-activated opportunities have grown by double digits, by +26% and +69%, respectively.

"It’s Time To Fight Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism The Way We Fight Other Forms of Terrorism" - Commentary by NUL President Marc Morial

Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League

“The big thing is we need to change the way we in the United States are viewing these incidents with right-wing extremist terrorism. Stop dismissing this as crazy gunmen, or hate crimes, or that some person ‘just snapped.’ There is an ideology behind the attack. The attack needs to be called out as terrorism.” – Daryl Johnson, former Department of Homeland Security analyst

Just over a decade ago, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI produced a report entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

The report warned of the rise of radicalized right-wing groups and individuals and the threat of political violence.

But instead of heeding its warnings, Congress erupted in a frenzy of denial and defensiveness. The conclusions of the report were distorted and misreported. Instead of taking the threat seriously, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called for hearings to investigate DHS and the report.

Members took particular offense to the suggestion that divisive issues like abortion were being used as recruiting tools. Weeks after Congress shut down any response to the report, an anti-abortion extremist murdered physician George Tiller at his church.

In the years since outraged Congress members blocked any official response to the threat, right-wing extremists have been responsible for the vast majority of extremist-related murders in the United States. Right-wing extremists were responsible for every single extremist killing in the U.S. in 2018, “from Pittsburgh to Parkland,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The white supremacist massacre of 22 people in El Paso two weeks ago was the most deadly right-wing terrorist attack since 1995, when Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people in the Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. The suspect published a white nationalist manifesto on an internet message board just before the shooting. He told police he was targeting Mexicans, and drove 11 hours from his largely-white hometown near Dallas to majority-Latino El Paso.

He has not been charged with a hate crime.

And, while federal authorities are investigating the shooting as a domestic terrorism case, domestic terrorism is not codified as a law that can be prosecuted.

Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona has proposed such a law, saying, ““For too long we have allowed those who commit heinous acts of domestic terrorism to be charged with related crimes that don’t portray the full scope of their hateful actions.”

The Patriot Act, passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, gives the federal government multiple resources to combat international terrorism but little authority to investigate domestic terrorism.

Mary McCord, former acting assistant attorney general for national security, pointed out in a recent essay that the most common international terrorism charge is providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. “Charges of “material support” to a terrorist organization are not available to prevent domestic attacks” she wrote, “because the United States does not designate American groups as terrorist organizations.

“None of the 68 entries on the State Department’s list is a white-supremacist group.”

But the United States could designate foreign white supremacist groups as terrorist organizations.

“If the State Department put any of these groups on the list, the FBI could deploy undercover agents to chat with their members online, and would-be domestic terrorists in the United States would have to think twice about engaging with them.”

In addition to a federal domestic terrorism statute and the designation of foreign white supremacist groups as terrorist organizations, former Department of Homeland Security analyst Daryl Johnson, who authored the 2009 report, offered several recommendations in a recent interview:

* Collect statistics on domestic terrorism, and allow those statistics to drive resources for programs to combat it.
* Commit to long-term undercover investigations.
* Train state and local law enforcement about right-wing extremists groups.
* Make grants available for countering right-wing extremism.
* Educate the public on their role, how to report suspicious activity, reaching out to communities and organizations that can help identify people being radicalized, working with private industry to get them to do better and more internet and social media monitoring.

If the United States does not take steps to combat white supremacism and right-wing extremism, attacks like the one in El Paso will only become more commonplace. As the nation’s racial demographics continue to change, so will the racist backlash. It’s time to take domestic terrorism as seriously as we have taken foreign terrorism.

Colin Kaepernick Posts Powerful Message On Three-Year Anniversary Of His First Protest

Back in 2016, Colin Kaepernick sparked a national debate when he took a knee during the national anthem to bring attention to systemic oppression and police brutality against African Americans in the United States.

Following the protest, Kaepernick parted ways with the San Francisco 49ers and remains a free agent.

Yesterday, Colin posted this video to show that even after three years out of football, he’s still ready and can still play the game like he once could:
"Today marks the three year anniversary of the first time I protested systemic oppression. I continue to work and stand with the people in our fight for liberation, despite those who are trying to erase the movement! The movement has always lived with the people!"

Monthly Diary Ratings Are Finally Here. What Happens Next?

Story by Inside Radio
Written by Paul Henne

Despite ongoing client resistance over price, Nielsen has rolled out Continuous Diary Measurement to the first five of 46 diary markets set to receive the new service. But the list of initial clients who have agreed to pay the rate hike for monthly ratings is missing many of Nielsen’s biggest diary market clients. And the company has yet to say when it will implement the new system in markets currently measured twice a year.

On Tuesday, Nielsen released July 2019 currency ratings for Baton Rouge, Louisville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City and Puerto Rico. Based on a three-month sample, the survey period covers April 25-July 17. The remaining 41 market reports will be delivered by Aug. 23.

Nielsen identified iHeartMedia, Univision, Midwest Communications, Tyler Media, QueenB Radio, Southern Stone Communications and Bahakel Communications as clients that have signed up for the upgrade. Absent are big diary market clients including Entercom, Cumulus Media, Townsquare Media Group, Cox Media Group, Urban One, Saga Communications and others.

The long list of no-shows is likely due to client resistance over having to pay extra for the new service. As Inside Radio reported in April, multiple clients said they were broadsided by the price increase and that it wasn’t disclosed early enough in the process. Some insisted they wouldn’t upgrade to the enhanced service, choosing instead to stick with the existing cadence of quarterly or twice a year reports. “Everyone was trying to play chicken with Nielsen,” says one broadcaster, meaning some clients hoped that by refusing to pay for the enhancement, Nielsen would ultimately make the add-on available at no extra charge.

Another reason for the short list is some clients may be waiting to negotiate when their contract renewals come up.

Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw, who chairs the Nielsen Audio Advisory Council and helped rescue CDM from being stillborn after the rate increase uproar, is hopeful other companies will see the value of monthly ratings. "I believe it’s going to be beneficial for our stations and for the credibility of our industry,” he told Inside Radio. “If after the rollout, others see the value, maybe they will jump on board. In the meantime, Nielsen is committed to doing it in those markets and that’s great.”

Brian Kaminsky, President of Revenue and Data Operations at iHeartMedia, said Tuesday in a press release that monthly ratings enable radio to give advertisers “the most timely and relevant information possible and will have more stable and actionable insights for how audiences are engaging with our content.”

Clients and ratings watchers alike are able to view the 6+ monthly ratings data on sites like Inside Radio’s StationRatings.com. Nielsen says it will publicly report all stations who subscribe to at least four quarterly releases (winter, spring, summer and fall). That means clients that have not upgraded to the monthly reports will be able to view the top line monthly numbers – but not sell off them or access demographic and daypart data.

They will also have to compete with stations – and negotiate with ad agency buyers – that have more current ratings than they do, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.

The plan all along was to convert diary markets in three phases, based on market size. It’s unclear at this point whether CDM will ever make its way to the 84 mid-sized diary markets, which are currently measured twice a year in the spring and fall. The price hike in these markets is believed to be prohibitively higher than in 4-book markets.

In a December 2018 webinar, Nielsen senior VP of Product Leadership Bill Rose said the company was currently working on the timing for this group of markets, before it turned its attention to markets that get two quarterly reports per year, based on two-book averages. Last month the company said it had pressed pause on plans to introduce CDM in markets currently measured twice a year (spring and fall) while it continues to work with clients “to determine the best path forward to evolve radio measurement and establish attribution metrics in the small and mid-size markets.”

But with 46 markets making the transition, a total of 94 Nielsen Audio metros will have monthly reporting (48 PPM markets and 46 CDM markets) representing 80% of radio’s ad spend and population in Nielsen markets.

Year-round monthly ratings are seen as a way to make ratings currency more current in diary markets so advertisers can react more rapidly to market changes for more impactful schedules.

Brad Kelly, Managing Director, Nielsen Audio, called it a “transformative day” for the audio advertising industry. “There is no doubt that Continuous Diary Measurement is a big step forward for the audio industry,” Kelly said. “With CDM, very large advertisers that rely on Marketing Mix models will be able to use the most current data available to get a better read on how radio drives sales results -- the ultimate measure of ‘attribution’.”

Hall of Fame NFL Former Quarterback Sonny Jurgensen retires from the Washington Redskins Broadcast

Story by The Team 980am Washington DC

Kevin Sheehan gives his memories of Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen after he has decided to step away after spending over 40 years in the Washington Redskins radio booth.

Kevin reflects on Sonny’s Hall of Fame Football career and the golden era of the Redskins when Sonny was paired with fellow Redskins Hall of Famer Sam Huff and Frank Herzog in the radio booth. Plus, his continued career in the Redskins Radio booth up until last season, working with Chris Cooley, Doc Walker, and Larry Michael…

Thank you from the Obama Foundation on the 58th birthday of President Barack Obama

Hi Kirk,

Today is President Obama’s 58th birthday and to celebrate, I wanted to tell you the story behind this picture.

Every year, on the President’s birthday, the White House interns would write him a card. These were young, civically minded leaders who came to Washington because they were inspired by his presidency, and they wanted to begin their own journey of making change. They’d sign personal messages to him, and every year, no matter what crisis called or how busy his schedule was, he took the time to meet with them, to thank them, and to leave them with a powerful message:

“The world is ready for your leadership.”

Even on a day meant to celebrate him, the President used it as an opportunity to celebrate young leaders and encourage them to contribute to making our world better.

That is President Obama. That is who he is as a leader. And that is the vision he has set forth for us at the Obama Foundation.

Kirk, I want to personally thank you for being a part of that vision and investing your support and time in our work and in our efforts to bring the Obama Presidential Center to life.

But I have one more ask of you.

Today, on President Obama’s birthday, instead of signing a card to him, I’d like you to honor his birthday the way he did—by celebrating and encouraging young leaders.

Later this fall, we will once again gather many of our program participants in Chicago for our annual Obama Foundation Summit, and we want to greet them with your words of encouragement. Take a moment now and express your support for these young leaders—hailing from as far as South Africa and as close as the South Side of Chicago—and we’ll share your words with them when they arrive.
LINK: https://obamacenter.typeform.com/to/usti43?utm_medium=xxxxx&utm_source=xxxxx&utm_content=xxxxx&utm_campaign=xxxxx&source=xxxxx&utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2019804_P44_BDay_Thank%20You%20Email

The world is ready for their leadership. And I know they’d love to hear your words of support.

David

David Simas
CEO, Obama Foundation

Donate to empower leaders and changemakers today:

LINK TO DONATE: https://www.obama.org/support-work-aug4em/?j=43621&sfmc_sub=1086290&l=77_HTML&u=3097304&mid=100016450&jb=771&utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2019804_P44_BDay_Thank%20You%20Email

Urban One Shows Positive Momentum In Second Quarter

Story by Inside Radio

Urban One reported a 5.5% increase in net revenue for second quarter 2019, at $121.6 million, with broadcast and digital operating income of $46.3 million, up 4.5% year over year. In addition, the media company offered investors a notable increase in radio advertising, +6.8%. The radio division is pacing up 8% for third quarter, “with robust demand for national business in our larger markets,” said Urban One CEO/President Alfred Liggins, ahead of the company’s second quarter investors call Thursday morning.

Also for the quarter ended June 30, Urban One’s operating income was $30.5 million, compared to $24.8 million for the same period in 2018. Net income took a sizeable hit, at $6.6 million or $0.15 per share—compared to net income of $23.6 million or $0.51 per share for the period last year. Adjusted EBITDA, a measure of cash flow, was $41.1 million for the three months, compared to $39.0 million for the period in 2018.

TV advertising at Urban One was up 9.4%, and digital was up 16.8%. Syndicated arm Reach Media benefited from its annual cruise event, with the Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage posting 12% year over year revenue growth. Overall event revenues were up 20.4%. Cable TV took a hit as the company invested in additional programing and marketing expenses related to the “DL Hughley Show’; while political advertising all but collapsed in the quarter company compared to Q2 2018, down 73.2%.

“Overall, I am happy with our progress this quarter, and believe we can carry this positive momentum into the second half of the year,” Liggins added.

Let's Celebrate National Girlfriends Day!

Today is #NationalGirlFriendsDay and TV One is celebrating with an all day marathon of #Girlfriends until 6pm EST.

Story by TV One

Now we know you’re going to be working hard today, so it maybe difficult for you to stop and watch the marathon all day, but we wanted to make sure you felt included.... so here’s how:

Send a pic of “you and your girls”, your best friends, to Ahmaya@KnechtelGroup.com between now and 6PM, along with the names of the people in the photo (and hopefully their social media handles, too ) so we can tag you!

We will be posting #NationalGirlFriendsDay Marathon pics across all of TV One’s social platforms and want to include YOU all day today to promote the marathon and celebrate the Day!!!

Post any other photos today as well and @TVOneTV along with the #NationalGirlFriendsDay hashtag and we will reshare those too!!!

Let’s have fun and celebrate our BFF’s!!!