PG 1

800.275.2840

THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO

MORE NEWS»

insideradio.com

NEWS@INSIDERADIO.COM | 800.275.2840

MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

Inside Story: Through Radio, Brands Meet Fans Live. Inside an air-misted Subaru tent on a scorching July afternoon, music festivalgoers are lining up to enter a contest for a shot at winning a kayak or beach cruiser bike perched atop one of the shiny new Outback and Forrester vehicles parked nearby. Outfitted with cellphone charging stations, comfy day-glo couches and a crew of friendly Subaru product specialists, the showcase exhibit at XPoNential Music Festival—produced by adult alternative WXPN, Philadelphia (88.5) and held at New Jersey’s Camden waterfront near the Delaware River—is the biggest event the automaker does on the East Coast, one that will deliver a rich ROI of lead generation, product experiences, customer feedback, purchase consideration and general good vibes about the brand. It is, in a sense, a textbook example of an advertiser working with radio on an event to their mutual benefit. “For Subaru America it’s become our showcase event on the East Coast in terms of how to do an event and activate with your customers, to engage with them for future interaction and to get them to support the brand,” says Matt Ritter, director, Philly Zone, for Subaru of America. “We know this is where our customer is.” Subaru wasn’t alone. WXPN, the influential non-commercial station, has doubled the number of sponsors for its three-day mega-fest to 36 during the past four years. Most purchased a multi-tiered marketing campaign that included on-air, online and on-site components. Verizon, Nature Valley, Xfinity, Flying Fish Brewing Company, Whole Foods Markets and other clients made the most of the chance to engage with the 34,000 adventure-seeking, environmentally friendly folks on hand to catch 30 artists on three stages in two adjacent venues over three days at the site. Fully Engaged—Read how sponsors at XPoNential really won over the crowd, only at InsideRadio.com.

Subaru-WXPN Is Win-Win Come Fest-Time. For Subaru, the bottom line of being very involved in the XPoNential Music Festival—produced by adult alternative WXPN, Philadelphia—had to do with, frankly, the bottom line. Among other things, Subaru used the event to reward existing customers with surprise free ticket upgrades, and to solicit feedback for its product-planning department. “It’s a chance for us to engage with our customers, and bring some new ones to the brand,” Matt Ritter, director, Philly Zone, for Subaru of America, says. It’s also about reaching and building brand awareness for those who may not be that familiar with Subaru.” The Subaru tent at XPoNential was mobbed for three straight days. Many were either existing Subaru customers or people interested in becoming one. “We want to help drive that customer who is considering Subaru all the way down that purchase funnel to say, ‘I’m going to go buy one now,’ and we know that we can do that by being at this festival,” Ritter says. Subaru’s multiplatform campaign included on-air and online components, including spots during the live video stream from the festival. Digital components included social media amplification and uploading photos from the event to Subaru’s website and social channels. The 10-year tradition of involvement with the music fest was born out of the realization by Subaru of how close its customer base aligned with WXPN’s demographic and qualitative audience profile. “They have disposable income and they care about different causes deeply, as does Subaru,” Ritter says. “We looked at the XPN customer and ours and we said it’s the same person in many cases.” By the Monday after the event, Subaru had 847 leads for new customers. Dear Subaru—Read about the trust factor between the automaker and potential customers, created through the event, only at InsideRadio.com.

insideradio.com

PG 2 NEWS@INSIDERADIO.COM | 800.275.2840

MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015NEWS

Stations See Events As Brand Extensions. With three days of events planned for Georgia’s sprawling Lanier Islands resort, “The Fan” WCNN, Atlanta (680, 93.7) will give clients almost limitless ways to activate at its Labor Day weekend Tailgates and Touchdowns event. Golf, a 5K run and live music are all on the bill for the Dickey Broadcasting sports station’s kick-off for college football season. Zaxby’s, a fast casual restaurant chain and a title sponsor, will offer product tastings while official beer Bud Light will provide post-party refreshments for golfers and 30 former NCAA College Football players at the Sept. 3 Tailgate Golf Classic. Georgia’s Own Credit Union will have laptops ready to process car loan applications while Bud Light Beach will offer obstacle courses, games and giant TVs for the Sept. 4 beach-themed Tailgate Cove Party at the venue’s waterpark, headlined by country singer Frankie Ballard. Michelob Ultra will be the sponsoring beer for the fitter crowd members participating in the Sept. 5 Tailgate 5K run and walk. Scott McFarlane, WCNN assistant PD, marketing director & interactive media director, says the events complement the station’s brand, for which college football is a core element, and provides brand partners an opportunity to “touch and feel our P1 listeners.” WCNN has done events before at the 1,100-acre Lanier Islands but this marks the first time it has staged an event of this size spread out across the complex. “Clients are always looking for something extra, beyond just gross impressions from on-air,” McFarlane says. “These events allow us to extend our brand into more tangible forms, which in turn gives loyal listeners different ways to interact with our people and our partners. The key is to recognize that our listeners embrace hobbies and have interests beyond sports.”

Entercom Puts Rhythmic Spin On Alternative In Miami. In its first format change since closing on the purchase of Lincoln Financial Media, Entercom split its Miami sports simulcast to fill the market’s alternative void. WAXY-FM, the former partner of “The Ticket 790” WAXY, flipped to “104.3 The Shark” at 11am Friday, targeting adults 18-49. Alternative has been absent from the Miami dial for years as operators have struggled with current rock-based formats in a market that is 49% Hispanic and 24% black. That required a different approach, Doug Abernethy, VP/market manager, Entercom South Florida, told Inside Radio. “It’s a little more rhythmic and poppy than most because that’s the South Florida lifestyle,” he says. In addition to current hits, The Shark weaves rhythmic gold from Stereo MCs and Sublime in with grunge and alt classics. With no Miami station dedicated to the genre since the old “Zeta 4,” many of alternative’s biggest recent crossover hits were never played in the market, which hasn’t had any current based rock station. Entercom is well versed in alternative with successful modern rockers in Seattle (“The End” KNDD), Kansas City (“The Buzz” KRBZ ) and Portland (KRNK). Despite adding an FM simulcast in 2012, Abernethy says most listening for “The Ticket” was still occurring on AM, making the flip an easy call. “You have an AM station that owns the brand in sports, an FM frequency that’s doing nothing to help it, and a gaping hole for a format that’s complementary to the other stations that you have,” he says. Former “The Buzz” WPBZ, West Palm Beach PD John O’Connell will program the new station, which launched with 5,000 commercial-free songs in a row.

Trump Tries Reaching Out To Hispanic Media. Recognizing that he’s not making many friends within the Latino population in his bid for the White House, candidate Donald Trump is approaching powerful Hispanic media organizations in hopes of changing the conversation. Meanwhile, the Donald remains a lightning rod for Spanish-language talk radio. Advocacy group National Hispanic Media Coalition says it was “quietly” contacted last week by the Trump Organization’s head of strategic development, proposing a peace-making meeting. Politico quotes coalition CEO Alex Nogales regarding three calls the advocacy group has received from the Trump camp—first, one threatening to sue, a second attempting to change what Trump had said about Mexicans and “the third time was ‘Let’s get together to talk so we can solve our differences.’” Trump’s olive branch has everything to do with the national conversation regarding how he’s perceived on Spanish-language radio stations. Laura Vazquez, Senior Immigration Legislative Analyst with Hispanic advocacy group the National Council of La Raza, told Politico that Trump stories are big business in Spanish-language media: “Radio is huge. The radio shows are all having a lot of commentary in a huge way our community gets.” Vazquez added, “In the radio shows where there’s more back and forth and with call-ins, there would be anger and outrage about [Trump’s immigration] proposal, but also a sense that this can’t be serious. It’s so outrageous, how could this be taken seriously.” So far, Trump has refused requests to appear on Latin-leaning radio stations. Influential Univision

insideradio.com

PG 3 NEWS@INSIDERADIO.COM | 800.275.2840

MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015NEWS

on-air host Jorge Ramos said that his team was in “constant contact” with Trump’s camp, and told they would not get an interview. For the past month, “Ramos said it’s been radio silence,” Politico reports. Politico concludes, “Trump may be realizing that in both politics and business, his war with Hispanic media may not be sustainable if he wants to be a serious candidate.”

Auto Buys—and Loans—At Peak Points. Auto dealers keep setting sales records. Now the automotive industry, radio’s top advertising category, has contributed to a new record: $1 trillion in outstanding auto loans. Although the overall indebtedness of U.S. borrowers remains lower than before the recession, low gas prices, a growing number of jobs and an aging automotive fleet have led more Americans to buy new vehicles. Auto lending has climbed steadily during the past four years, helping sales of U.S. autos and light trucks completely recover their losses from the recession. In May, consumers purchased vehicles at an annual pace of 17.6 million, the highest since June 2005. Americans have racked up more than $1 trillion in both auto-loan debt and student-loan debt, which surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in 2013. Declines in home-loan and credit card balances have kept the overall indebtedness of U.S. borrowers lower than before the recession. Around $119 billion in auto loans were originated in the second quarter of this year, a 10-year high, according to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Meanwhile, at least one analyst thinks sales may have finally peaked. Bruce Kamich writes in the Real Money column at thestreet.com that while light-duty truck sales are up 12.9% this year over 2014, car sales are actually down 1.9%. He believes the stock price of General Motors points to an industry that “has run out of gas.” The stock prices of both GM and Ford peaked in March.

Competitive Info—Out-Of-Home Continues Outsized Growth. Out-of-home advertising revenues rose 3.8% to $2.25 billion in the second quarter of 2015, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. That’s the 21st consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in OOH ad dollars. For the first six months of the year, total OOH expenditures increased 4.2% to $3.84 billion. The Wall Street Journal notes that out-of-home advertising still represents a fraction of major marketers’ ad dollars. In July, out-of-home accounted for just 4.5% of total ad market dollars, according to Standard Media Index. Second-quarter growth in outdoor ad spending came from a number of categories: services and amusements (up 10.1%), retail (5.4%), government, politics and organizations (2.2%), financial (1.3%) and communications (7.9%).The top spenders included McDonalds, Apple, Metro PCS, Warner Bros Pictures, Geico, Verizon, Chase, AT&T, Citi and 20th Century Fox Pictures. Radio-SESAC Royalty Deal Excludes Web Services. In settling years-old litigation with SESAC last month, the Radio Music Licensing Committee was able to secure a royalty structure similar in some ways to what it has with BMI and ASCAP, the two other major performance rights organizations, with one important distinction—the SESAC-RMLC agreement excludes custom online radio services from qualifying for the same rates as terrestrial broadcasters. The radio industry settlement with SESAC excludes on-demand subscription services and custom radio, such as Pandora and iHeartRadio, from using the RMLC license for their services. It stipulates “that other music users that are not primarily radio operators cannot get coverage for these other non-broadcast businesses simply by buying a radio station,” broadcast attorney David Oxenford says, in an apparent reference to Pandora, which is believed to have purchased “Hits 102.7” KXMZ, Rapid City, SD in an effort to qualify for lower royalties. Because the RMLC never had a deal with SESAC in the past, it will essentially be starting from scratch when it begins voluntary negotiations with the performance rights organization in the spring. SEASAC sees custom radio as a separate arbitration altogether, meaning that services such as Pandora or even pureplay-like services offered by broadcasters would be part of separate rate negotiations, sources say. Pandora has so far been unable to qualify for the RMLC-negotiated broadcast radio rate with either BMI or ASCAP. After Pandora closed on the purchase of KXMZ in June, it contacted RMLC, requesting the lower rate, a source says. But the RMLC told the pureplay it could join the RMLC solely for representation for KXMZ—and nothing more. That has left it up to the courts to interpret if owning a single radio station qualifies Pandora’s pureplay business for the lower royalty rates afforded to terrestrial broadcasters.

FCC To Take Filing Systems Offline For Updates. A raft of FCC databases will be unavailable for nearly a week heading into Labor Day as the agency performs IT upgrades. Most resources normally accessible through the agency’s website, including

insideradio.com

PG 4 NEWS@INSIDERADIO.COM | 800.275.2840

MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015NEWS

access to all electronic filing systems and electronic dockets, will be offline from 6 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, September 2 until around 8 am EDT on Tuesday, September 8. The Commission says it will extend the filing deadlines for all regulatory and enforcement filings that are due during this time to Wednesday, September 9. Exceptions include NORS filings and those with statutory filing deadlines. Unaffected by the updates are the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), the Consumer Help Center (CHC), and the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), which will remain available. The Commission says its website will remain online but with reduced content and limited search capabilities. Commission offices remain open and under normal operations, including the headquarters filing window and mail room. Read the official notice HERE.

Cumulus Gets Its Oregon Ducks In a Row. Cumulus Media has re-inked as the exclusive radio partner for University of Oregon sports, spread across a trio of stations in the Eugene/Springfield market. The broadcaster’s new multi-year agreement with the school, and its multimedia rights partner IMG, provides rights to air games and features on one AM and two FM outlets in the market. Stations in question are: “The Voice of the Ducks” 590 KUGN-AM, “Sportsradio 95.3” KUJZ-FM and classic rock “96.1 Z Rocks” KZEL-FM. KUGN’s history with Oregon Athletics dates back to 1958. The school left the station for a while, retuning in 1995. Al Scott, market operations manager for Cumulus Eugene, noted in a release that University of Oregon Sports broadcasts are a tradition at Cumulus Eugene: “The Oregon Duck games are as exciting for all of us here in the building as they are for our listeners,” he says. The deal calls for Jerry Allen to continue as the “Voice of the Ducks,” which he has been on KUGN since 1995. Added Craig Pintens, senior associate athletic director for the University of Oregon, “The storied history between Oregon Athletics and KUGN has been strong since KUGN regained the rights in 1995. When you think of Oregon Athletics being broadcast on radio in this community, Duck fans think of KUGN and Jerry Allen.”

Industry’s Future On Radio Show Agenda. Less than six weeks from today, radio broadcasters will gather in Atlanta for the NAB/RAB Radio Show, which runs from Wednesday, Sept. 30 to Friday, Oct. 2 at the Marriott Marquis. Pillsbury’s “Financing the Future of Radio” session, known in prior years as the leadership breakfast, will kick of the conference Wednesday at 8:30 am. The opening is meant to inspire investment bankers, analysts, broadcast attorneys and radio company CEOs to discuss how the industry is raising capital to finance acquisitions and operations. Later Wednesday, “Unlocking Programmatic’s Potential” will delve into the automated buying and selling of advertising through online marketplaces and the proprietary intelligence, insights and data that power them. Voltair will be in the spotlight at Thursday’s technology sessions, with a presentation from The Telos Alliance, which manufactures the infamous audio processor, immediately (if not ironically) followed by Nielsen’s session on updates to its PPM encoding technology and details on its new encoding monitor, which will be available in 2016. Both sessions will be held in the conference center theatre to accommodate what is expected to be a large crowd. The NAB says the Marriott is sold out on Tuesday Sept. 29, and the nearby Hilton Atlanta is close to sold out on Sept. 30. Rooms are available at the Hyatt Regency. Last year’s Radio Show drew around 2,100 attendees to Indianapolis. Helpful planning hint: Atlanta is not known as America’s most cab-friendly town. A quick search on the Internet shows a cab ride from the Atlanta airport to the Marriott Marquis (about 11 miles) will cost an estimated $32.50 by cab, or $12-$16 using UberX.

Wake-up Calls Put ‘Bert Show’ in National Spotlight. “The Bert Show” garnered national media attention last week after the syndicated morning show dispatched a five-piece jazz band to wake up a 10-year-old Atlanta girl for school. The bit was part of a promotion that encouraged parents to call the show to help them wake up their kids for school in unique ways. “Mom says she’s been having a tough time getting you up, she’s tried everything and this was a last resort,” said host Bert Weiss after the surprise. “We thought this would be a fun way to help.” The show – based at Cumulus Media CHR Q100” WWWQ, Atlanta – surprised another girl with a theater cast singing “Circle of Life” from “The Lion King” while using her pet guinea pig, Oreo, as Simba. The surprise wake-ups received extensive coverage, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, Huffington Post Parenting, Fox and Friends and Inside Edition.

— Get more news, people moves and insider extras @ www.insideradio.com. —

insideradio.com

PG 5 NEWS@INSIDERADIO.COM | 800.275.2840

MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015CLASSIFIEDS

INSIDE RADIO, Copyright 2015. www.insideradio.com. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, or retransmitted in any form. This publication cannot be distributed beyond the physical address of the named subscriber. Address: P.O. Box 567925, Atlanta, GA 31156. Subscribe to INSIDE RADIO monthly subscription $39.95 recurring payment. For information, visit www.insideradio.com. To advertise, call 1-800-248-4242 x711. Email: ads@insideradio.com.

MORE OPPORTUNITIES @ INSIDERADIO.COM >>

qual PROGRAM DIRECTOR/MORNING SHOW HOST

Southeast Radio Station seeks a PD/OM who can be part of the morning show each weekday.

Candidates must have a winning attitude, work professionally with a proven sales staff, understand social media to maximize stations

brand, and have knowledge of NexGen operating system. Five year’s experience in small to

medium markets required.

aSalary based on experienceaPlus talent fee for remote broadcastsaInsurance, vacation, sick time

aApartment, Internet & Cable provided

Send demo and other information to:

Job OpportunityC/O CDX

421 East Iris Drive, Suite 201Nashville, TN 37204

Equal Opportunity Employer

VICE PRESIDENT/GENERAL MANAGER SCRIPPS TULSA

We have a rare opening for a VP/GM for our 5-station Tulsa radio cluster. Great staff and stations in a very competitive market.

We also operate a co-owned TV station, so there are lots of opportunities to do

big things together! Looking for a people-oriented, culture-building, strategic leader

who loves to win.

EOE. Referrals or letters of interest held in confidence.

Drop me an e-mail: steve.wexler@scripps.com

www.scripps.com

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

StateNets, a well-established regional radio rep firm, is seeking a full time new business development Account Executive to cover

portions of the southeastern United States. This position requires travel with the opportunity to work from a home office. We are looking for a

self-motivated individual with a strong desire to succeed and build long-term relationships.

Sales experience is required and a broadcast media sales background is a plus.

Send Resume to Dave Martin: davemartin@statenets.comNo phone calls, please. E.O.E.

PLACE YOUR AD

HERE

Email For Info and Place Your Ad:Ads@insideradio.com