At Radio Survivor we obsess about radio consolidation every day of the year, but this topic isn’t pervasive across mainstream popular culture. Because of that, I was excited to hear about a new film, Corporate FM, which delves into the “downfall of commercial FM.” The movie premieres tonight at 8:30pm at the Kansas City Film […]
Archive | Policy
Radio Continues to Grow in U.S. Based on FCC’s Quarterly Station Tally
The FCC just released its quarterly list of the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States. Based on their statistics through March 31, 2012, the number of licensed broadcast radio stations is still on the rise, continuing the trend that we saw in last quarter’s update. Based on this list, there are […]
Breaking the auto barrier: almost one in five Americans get Internet radio in cars
Edison Research/Arbitron’s anticipated study on online radio is out, and it suggests that a significant barrier on Internet radio listening may be broken soon. According to the survey, seventeen percent of mobile phone owners have streamed online radio in their automobiles by jacking a handheld into their car radio receiver device. That’s a fifty percent […]
Is the FCC proposing rules for non-commercial radio local marketing agreements like KUSF’s?
A local marketing agreement (LMA) is when a station owner permits another broadcaster to rent the station, taking over the programming and advertising for a fee. However, the station owner retains all rights and liabilities for the station, including the license. LMAs have often been used to let a large owner, like Clear Channel, operate […]
Internet radio usage way up, driven by smartphone rush
Edison Media reports a big surge in Internet radio listening. And mind you, it’s not just the boring old predictable annual uptick in Internet radio listening that we’ve all become accustomed to hearing about. This uptick is serious, Edison insists. The weekly usage of online terrestrial radio streams and Pandora “pure play” has jumped from […]
Sandra Fluke continues to speak out while syndicator suspends national ads on Limbaugh show
More than a week after Rush Limbaugh proffered a weak apology for his repeated misogynistic comments on-air about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, his show is left with virtually no national advertisers, but he remains mostly unrepentant. On Monday word broke that Limbaugh’s syndicator, Clear Channel-owned Premiere Radio Networks, is suspending all national advertising on […]
SiriusXM’s Karmazin pretty much admits it’s good to be a monopoly
Last Thursday, on the eve of the company’s tenth anniversary celebration with Bruce Springsteen, SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin appeared for a thirteen minute interview on Jim Cramer’s CNBC investment show Mad Money. There are two big questions on the mind of satellite radio watchers: will John Malone’s Liberty Media buy up more of SiriusXM, and […]
Clear Channel’s mystery comment to the FCC
On Tuesday a quartet of Clear Channel executives piled into the Federal Communications Commission building and buttonholed most of the agency’s top brass, including FCC Chair Julius Genachowski. Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman did most of the talking, it seems. Pittman “emphasized the ways in which the Internet and broadband technology offer Clear Channel the […]
Broadcast workers union to FCC: don’t relax radio-TV cross ownership limits
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has sent a twelve page missive to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency not to loosen its restrictions on how many radio and TV stations an entity may own in a market. AFTRA also wants the FCC to take a closer look at joint news agreements, […]
Conservative talk host Michael Berry offers to pay for hit-and-run damages
Last week I reported on conservative Houston talk radio host Michael Berry who was accused of committing a hit-and-run damaging a bouncer’s car while leaving a local gay bar. While he has not admitted any guilt in the matter, on Thursday Berry offered $2000 to the aggrieved bouncer, Tuderia Bennett, in order to cover damages. […]