Round Four of October PPMs Released
The fourth of four rounds of ratings information from Nielsen Audio’s October 2023 PPM survey has been released for 12 markets including Austin, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Nashville, Providence, Norfolk, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Greensboro, Memphis, and Hartford. The survey period covers September 14 through October 11. Today, TALKERS magazine managing editor Mike Kinosian presents his Ratings Takeaways from this group of markets. In Austin, Waterloo Media’s news/talk KLBJ-AM adds 1.3 shares (weekly, 6+ AQH share) to finish with a 4.7 share that lifts it from the #10 rank to #5. In Milwaukee, iHeartMedia’s news/talk WISN adds one-tenth for a 9.7 share finish that’s good enough to lift it to the #1 rank, as Good Karma Brands’ news/talk WTMJ sheds two-tenths for a 9.6 share and the #2 rank. In West Palm Beach, Hubbard Broadcasting’s news/talk WFTL rises half a share to a 2.3 share and jumps to the #9 rank, as iHeartMedia’s talk WZZR loses one-tenth to finish with a 1.8 share good for the #13 rank and sister news/talk WJNO is up one-tenth to a 1.2 share and is ranked #14 for the fourth consecutive month. Read Mike Kinosian’s complete Ratings Takeaways from this group of markets here.
announce that I will be back on the air with my new show called ‘What’s On Tap?’ This hourlong show is set to air on most weeknights at 6: 00 pm barring conflicts with Bucks & Brewers games, featuring culture and creativity in Wisconsin and around the world.” The show launched last night and featured content from Maxx’s recent trip to England in which she interviewed Sue Harvey of The Beatles landmark Strawberry Field in Liverpool as well as an audio tour of the Beatles-themed Airbnb in Green Bay. Maxx most recently co-hosted the station’s late morning show with host Steve Scaffidi.
WRHU-FM, Hempstead, New York chief engineer Andy Gladding played a role in organizing the November 8 event when eight university and high school owned-and-operated stations broadcasting in the 88.1-88.9 segment of the FM band in the number one media market in the country join together to celebrate their love of college radio. Starting at 12:00 noon ET, “The Big 88” will become New York and New Jersey’s largest college radio station, covering an FM broadcast footprint of over 120 miles. In a story written for TALKERS magazine, Gladding says that despite the rash of American colleges selling their radio properties, the New York market has a vibrant college radio community. He says college radio stations have a special value. “I have spent 20 years working as a student volunteer and administrator at WRHU, ‘Radio Hofstra University,’ and have seen first-hand how college radio contributes to the growth and success of students looking to pursue a career in radio, television and digital media. Students and community volunteers who participate at college radio stations find themselves engaged in a diverse community of voices, opinions and music. While their approach and interests may be different, their practice at the college radio station unites them with one unified goal: to serve the listening audience by creating imaginative and alternative audio programming using the university’s FM transmission facility as their channel to the world. 
award-winning and barrier-breaking broadcast professional who has built her brand and ‘America Tonight’ show to be trusted and respected. Kate’s been a dependable weeknight talk host for 15 years. Her affiliates know her as a super-serving talent who goes the extra mile for them. Listeners know ‘America Tonight with Kate Delaney’ as an entertaining show to stay ‘in the know.’” Delaney adds, “I look forward to expanding and growing the show with the talented professionals at TMN. I’m passionate about talk radio and its ability to bring people together to inform, entertain and surprise listeners.” Stations interested in the program can reach out to 
Detroit’s News/Talk Radio Station.” The station features local host Justin Barclay in morning drive with Premiere Networks syndicated shows including “The Glenn Beck Program,” “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” “The Sean Hannity Show,” “The Jesse Kelly Show,” Key Networks’ “The Bill O’Reilly Show” and Red Apple Media’s “The Other Side of Midnight with Frank Morano.” The station is promoting itself with a heavy media schedule on iHeartMedia’s adult contemporary WNIC-FM, Detroit voiced by Sean Hannity. Adell Media CEO Kevin Adell says, “910 AM Superstation is living up to its name. The audience growth we’ve seen since launching our conservative news/talk lineup in September has been exponential, and we’re looking forward to reaching even more listeners on 104.3 HD2.” 
College radio is a special place on the FM dial. Listeners know it as the channel at the low end of the band where student and volunteer DJs have free reign to play music not usually heard from commercial operators. College students recognize it as a place where they can hone their broadcasting skills and put their passion and talents to work to prepare for a career in the industry. Hiring managers recognize it as a proving ground that provides quality pre-professional development and a destination to seek out qualified candidates to fill entry level media industry roles.
with Scott Hastings and Tyler Polumbus for the 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm “P.H.D.” show. The 24-year Denver sports radio pro was let go from Bonneville’s KKFN-FM “104.3 The Fan” in September. KSE Radio SVP/GM Dave Fleck comments, “We are excited to add Darren to our new and improved midday P.H.D. show. He is a respected member of the community whose work ethic and passion for broadcasting will help take our radio stations to new heights. Having DMac as part of ‘Altitude Sports Radio’ allows us to reconfigure our daily lineup while adding a great voice to the station.” 
anchored by Newsweek senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer. Newsweek says the program’s goal is to “navigate the converging realms of politics, law, and culture while deliberating on the evolution of American conservatism. Hammer, with his background as a constitutional lawyer, intends to present commentary accompanied by interactions with contemporary conservative thought leaders.” Newsweek director of radio and podcasting Jesse Edwards adds, “Josh Hammer is going to be the next big voice in conservative talk radio, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring his powerful message to the airwaves of Seattle, and beyond.”
retiring after he promised to do that if the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies. After the D-backs made the World Series, Stern hosted Russo on his show and got him to agree to wear a Diamondbacks-themed bikini and hold a sign saying, “I am a liar and a dope.” Now it seems Russo is reneging on the deal. Stern, who told his audience he’s done with it, shared a text from a listener who suggested Stern refer to Russo as Chris “Mad Fraud” Russo. 
ECHO box technology. He says, “GCN’s Adam Miller explains that their ECHO Files can easily be synced with most radio automation systems for easy delay broadcast with no new hardware needed and about fifteen minutes setup time! There is no need to have staff do daily chores like pulling files manually from an FTP or website. Those days are done! For live affiliates GCN has their ECHO Box that comes pre-programmed for the shows the affiliate carries. The ECHO Box can also do delay broadcast. They are sending these out with priority to stations that take the largest number of live hours, but eventually all live affiliates will receive them as dozens more of the very small ECHO Boxes will be coming in early November.” Affiliates with questions can call Adam Miller at 612-695-5982. 
team of award-winning journalists brings a fresh perspective to mornings while delivering a perfect mix of news, sports, and entertainment.” Also, station traffic and weather anchor Renee Vitale becomes co-host of “First Thing with Mike Parsons” from 5:00 am to 6:00 am. The station is pairing Detroit Lions great Lomas Brown with WJR’s Sean Baligian for the 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm “Sportswrap with Lomas Brown and Sean Baligian” program. Cumulus Media regional VP and market manager Steve Finateri comments, “‘JR Morning with Guy, Lloyd and Jamie’ plus ‘SportsWrap with Lomas Brown and Sean Baligian’ as bookends to our current big-name local daily shows on WJR has given ‘The Great Voice of The Great Lakes’ more prime time firepower than at any time in the past 20 years!”
digital revenue growth of 9.1% year-over-year, with digital revenue representing 18.6% of total third quarter revenue. Our continued strong digital revenue growth has moved us to within a few basis points of reaching the bottom end of our goal of digital revenue accounting for 20% to 30% of total revenue, and we remain laser focused on this initiative as a means to diversify our revenue in a cash flow positive manner. Our dedicated sales teams continue to leverage the tremendous audience reach and engagement of our local multi-platform content to attract new advertisers, resulting in a 22% increase in new local business revenue growth for the third quarter. Additionally, the actions we have taken to reduce our cost structure resulted in third quarter operating and corporate expenses decreases of 2.7% and 12.5%, respectively. In summary, we believe our third quarter financial performance demonstrates that our digital transformation and revenue diversification strategies continue to gain momentum and our initiatives focused on lowering operating expenses and reducing debt are positioning Beasley to generate increased and more diversified cash flows in future periods. Looking ahead, as has always been the case for non-election years, we expect fourth quarter revenues to be somewhat impacted by the absence of cyclical political advertising. While we plan to offset some of this expected softness through continued growth in digital and new business, we are hopeful that the overall advertising environment will improve in the fourth quarter and continue to closely monitor the economy.”
noted that it lost about 96,000 self-pay subscribers during the quarter and states that its current total subscribers stands at 34 million. SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz says, “We are very excited to unveil SiriusXM’s next-generation platform on November 8th, a key component of our long-term vision for the company’s consumer offerings. Our content portfolio continues to differentiate us in the audio marketplace with exclusive access to live sports, talk, music and one-of-a-kind content.”
programming includes Premiere Networks’ “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” and “The Jesse Kelly Show,” as well as programming from Westwood One. iHeartMedia SVP of programming Jason Carr says, “We’re excited to bring ‘The Patriot’ to Vero Beach with local talk and news from ‘The Brian Mudd Show’ and some of the biggest names in national talk radio. ‘The Patriot’ will super-serve the growing Vero Beach community, with the most up-to-date news, weather and sports updates, including sources like FOX News and the Florida News Network.”
Spoken Word Audio Report 2023. According to data from the study, 48% of those in the U.S. age 13+ listen to some type of spoken-word audio daily, and audio consumers in the U.S. age 13+ spend 31% of their daily audio time with spoken word. They say this edition of the study focuses on listening locations and explores spoken-word audio consumption at home, at work, in-car, and other locations. 
stories of our nation’s heroes, the families who serve by their side, and how Fisher House plays a role in their journey. Fisher House Foundation provides a home away from home for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. Fisher Houses provide temporary free lodging so families can be close to their loved ones during medical care. The inspiring and patriotic radio show features an exclusive interview with Jessica Lynch who recounts her harrowing experience as a prisoner of war during the early days of the 2003 invasion of Iraq during Operation Enduring Freedom. She reveals details of her treatment during her captivity, her rescue, the ensuing years of medical treatment and the special role Fisher House played (and continues to play) in her recovery. 
“AUDA.” Audacy says, “The NYSE’s determination has no impact on Audacy’s business strategy or operations. Audacy continues to focus on growing and enhancing its capabilities as a leading, multi-platform audio content and entertainment company, and continues to engage in discussions with its lenders to deleverage its balance sheet and improve its capital structure to position Audacy for long-term growth.”
advertising. In 2016 and 2017, direct response represented the vast majority of podcast advertising. From 2018 to 2021, the proportion of podcast ad spend was equally split between brand and direct response.” The post says there are four major implications of the shift to podcast brand advertising: 1) Targeting will become much broader: Wide campaign reach will become the priority with a goal of “being known before you’re needed”; 2) Creative will shift to become more entertaining and emotion based: The objective will be to stir passions and create positive feelings and associations with ads that people find interesting and enjoyable; 3) Brand safety and suitability measurement will become more crucial: Firms like Barometer will become powerful resources to help marketers find the right context for their campaigns with nuanced data; and 4) Measurement will focus on how well campaigns build memories to ensure brands are “easy to mind and easy to find”: Key performance indicators are brand awareness, brand consideration, and brand preference. 
to 8:00 am show will be simulcast on the company’s KTOK-AM, Oklahoma City and KAKC-AM, Tulsa. iHeartMedia Nashville market president Dan Endom says, “We are thrilled to welcome Michael, a true broadcasting legend, to iHeartMedia Nashville. Michael’s extensive knowledge of the airwaves coupled with his innate ability to connect with audiences will elevate our programming to new heights.” DelGiorno served with Cumulus Media’s crosstown WWTN-FM, Nashville from 2007 through March of this year. He also previously hosted shows on KFAQ and KRMG in Tulsa.
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a net loss of $19.8 million. Cumulus reports in segments, and for the Q3 period total broadcast radio revenue was $146 million, down 17.4% from a year ago. Spot revenue was down 15.2% while network revenue declined 22.8% from Q3 of 2022. Cumulus’ digital segment reports revenue of $37.2 million, an increase of 6.6%, year-over-year. Cumulus CEO Mary G. Berner states, “Third quarter revenue and Adjusted EBITDA finished in line with expectations with results reflecting the continued dichotomy between local 
and national business lines. Despite the challenging environment, we maximized performance by