Industry News

There’s a new President for Katz Digital Video, the division within national ad sales operation Katz Media Group.

It’s an individual who first began his career in media sales in 1984, as a radio and television specialist working for President Reagan’s reelection campaign.

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SAVANNAH, GA. — Nexstar Media Group has selected a company leader with more than 25 years of broadcast management and sales experience to serve as the new VP/GM of “The CW 33” in Dallas — KDAF-TV.

Taking the position is Marc Hefner, the four-year VP/GM of the NBC affiliate serving Georgia’s Coastal Empire, WSAV-3.

Before that, Hefner spent a decade as VP/GM of The CW Network affiliate serving Jacksonville, Fla., and Brunswick, Ga., WCWJ-TV.

Earlier in his career Hefner worked in sales positions at television stations in Kansas City and Nashville, respectively.

Traci Wilkinson, Nexstar’s broadcasting division SVP/Regional Manager,

“Marc’s familiarity with Nexstar and our broadcasting group will be a real advantage for him as he assumes his new role in Dallas, the country’s fifth largest market,” Wilkinson said. “Over the course of his career, he has consistently demonstrated the ability to significantly grow revenue and profitability by increasing existing advertising market share, identifying non-traditional accretive revenue streams, and developing a variety of innovative cross-platform marketing strategies and sponsorship opportunities. At both WCWJ-TV and
again at WSAV-TV, Marc grew ratings, revenue, and market share, and deepened the station’s relationship with the greater community.”

The growth at WSAV since 2017 is noteworthy, as Savannah is an extremely competitive media market. Here, Gray Television’s WTOC-11 has long dominant the television ratings. In recent years, the CBS affiliate’s competition has strengthened, with Dale Julin and the news team at The E.W. Scripps Co.’s WJCL-22 making significant ratings improvements alongside WSAV. Also in the mix: WTGS-28, the FOX affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Commenting on his promotion and move to Dallas, Hefner said, “I am genuinely pleased to begin this new role and grateful to Nexstar for giving me the opportunity to manage its broadcasting and digital operations in Dallas. KDAF-TV and its related digital and social media channels are an integral part of the Dallas community and I am looking forward to expanding our audience on-air and on-line and to providing our advertisers with solutions specifically tailored to fit their unique needs. I can’t wait to get started.”

In Savannah, Hefner serves as Treasurer for United Way of the Coast Empire and is a member of the organization’s executive committee.

MIAMI — For more than a decade prior to Wade Davis becoming CEO of Univision Communications, the Univision News arm of the company accomplished a lot with what some insiders lamented was a permanent skeleton crew.

Now under new leadership, those who’ve had something to say about getting more talent in the newsroom have had their wishes come true: Univision is on a hiring spree.

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The top two executives at the helm of the nation’s No. 1 audio content creation and distribution company have distributed an internal memo to all employees that describes in detail how all will “never ‘return to the office’ as well all knew it.”

Instead, iHeartMedia is returning to a “New Work Environment,” CEO Bob Pittman and COO/CFO Rich Bressler said.

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Five years ago, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based radio personality was generating headlines for his avid use of Snapchat, integrating that activity with the on-air content tied to a Top 40 radio station where he served as the morning co-host.

Today, he’s in the late Rush Limbaugh‘s old noon-3pm time slot on a co-owned News/Talk station serving Florida’s First Coast. And, he’s in the news for his decision to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing live on the air, instead of providing proof of vaccination to his employer.

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International Sales Team said it signed an agreement to sell 2wcom broadcast products in the United States.

Founded earlier this year, International Sales Team offers what it calls “sales teams as a service,” or STaaS. It is based in Australia but services any country.

It quoted Werner Drews, managing director of 2wcom, saying, “International Sales Team represents a cost-effective way for us to get our range of professional broadcast products to a market that is complicated and difficult for us to address from our offices in Germany.”

The announcement was made by Charlie Day, partner manager for International Sales Team.

2wcom makes hardware and software audio broadcast equipment including the recently introduced 4audio series.

IST launched in March from Australia, targeting OEMs to help them with their sales. It describes itself as a “worldwide network of highly experienced broadcast and media industry sales professionals for hire and deployment.”

Director Darren Frearson said in the earlier launch announcement, “We’re all familiar with the concept and implementation of SaaS, PaaS [Platform as a Service] and IaaS [Infrastructure as a Service] as beneficial outgrowths of ever-advancing technology. … STaaS offers broadcast and media manufacturers a cost-effective and culturally appropriate means of expanding globally.”

He said at the time that IST was actively recruiting to expand its network, particularly in North America.

The post 2wcom Signs With International Sales Team appeared first on Radio World.

GeoBroadcast Solutions said Bonneville International is deploying its SFN technology in San Francisco.

A five-node single-frequency MaxxCasting network is scheduled to be completed in March, serving FMs KOIT (96.5 MHz), KMVQ (99.7 MHz) and KBLX (102.9 MHz).

Each station will share antenna infrastructure through a multiplex system. GBS said the improved signal should also increase penetration with Nielsen PPM Portable People Meters.

“The three stations were acquired by Bonneville from Entercom in 2018,” the supplier noted in a project summary.

“A particular challenge to all stations in the region is the terrain of the East Bay hills. By implementing a MaxxCasting SFN system, the technology provides a solid, interference-free signal, sound, and HD Radio in the East Bay for all three Bonneville stations. Bonneville will use the MaxxCasting system to simulcast the main signal for the three stations to provide greater coverage in the East Bay.”

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

Partners working on the project include GatesAir, supplier of Flexiva transmitters; Goldman Engineering Management for the project architecture; Jampro Antennas; SCMS for equipment sales and staging; Covington & Burling, LLP and partner Gerard J. Waldron for legal advice; Rich Redmond, managing partner at Strativa Advisors; and Gary Krantz, CEO of Krantz Media Group.

GBS says its MaxxCasting SFN system expands the coverage area of a FM signal and allows for potential geographic targeting and fencing of text advertising and messaging, though the latter applications are not currently authorized by the commission. The synchronized transmitter infrastructure uses cellular network design broadcast, and SFN software tools that incorporate high-resolution terrain data, analysis of vehicular traffic and other parameters.

Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Bonneville to Deploy GBS SFN in San Francisco appeared first on Radio World.

On Monday (10/21), popular Westwood One-syndicated talk host Dan Bongino, whose radio program also appears on FOX Nation, took to the airwaves and challenged WWO owner Cumulus Media‘s COVID-19 vaccination mandate. Although Bongino is vaccinated, he took a stand in solidarity of now-former colleagues who lost their jobs for sticking to their personal choice of remaining unvaccinated.

Then came an on-air declaration from a Jacksonville talk host that, rather than show proof of vaccination as a condition of employment, he and his producer would instead do a “weekly COVID-19 test” option live on his show.

What’s a radio or TV station owner to do to keep employees safe from COVID-19 and its Delta variant while balancing the need to have HR send out termination notices to unvaccinated employees? This encore InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, may provide some valuable insight and guidance on what path a media company should take.

In this episode, originally distributed on July 29, Hall Estill labor and employment partner Keith Wilkes offers his take on workplace issues that could come to fruition as the vaccinated and unvaccinated congregate in one building. This includes enforcing anti-bullying policies.

“I would encourage station management and all employers to reinforce, or reintroduce, those workplace COVID safety policies and precautions that were implemented across the board last year and to seriously consider amending those policies to account for vaccinated and unvaccinated employees,” says Wilkes, who is based in Tulsa. “That’s not singling out the unvaccinated, without justification. It is in the interest in the health and welfare of all of those who are in the workplace and those frequenting businesses.”

When deciding what steps to take, “employees should also monitor and keep monitoring their local and regional communities,” Wilkes says.

Wilkes offers more in this 15-minute encore podcast, which includes references to the now-deceased talk show host Phil Valentine. It is accessible through our embedded player by clicking below.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Keith Wilkes, Employment Attorney” on Spreaker.

TORONTO — One of North America’s biggest communications companies on Thursday released its third quarter financial results.

How did Rogers perform? Quarterly earnings were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. But, its revenue fell short of Zacks’ expectations by a slim 1.04%.

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Two of the nation’s largest audio media content and distribution companies have set the days on which they will release their Q3 fiscal report cards.

For iHeartMedia, it will come on a busy day that also sees Saga Communications, Gray Television and TEGNA holding earnings call. For Audacy, their earnings call will come on the second Tuesday of November.

iHeart will issue financial results for the quarter ending September 30 on Thursday, Nov. 4. The company’s CEO, Bob Pittman, and COO/CFO Rich Bressler will host a conference call at 4:30pm Eastern to review the results. A business outlook will also be provided.

For the former Entercom, the company led by CEO David Field will report its 2021 third quarter financial results before the market opens on Tuesday, November 9. The company will host a conference call at 10am Eastern to review the results and “recent progress against its strategic initiatives,” Audacy notes.

Audacy stock in recent weeks has been sputtering, and is at $3.52 in early after-hours trading on Thursday (10/21). It’s year-to-date low of $2.96 came on August 19, and since then Audacy’s high has been $3.92, achieved in early October. By comparison, AUD topped the $5 mark in late April and surpassed $6.25 per share in February.

For iHeart, shares have enjoyed a year-long growth spurt, reaching $27.93 in late June. On Thursday, IHRT closed at $22.10. IHRT is up from $13.28 at the start of 2021.