Alex Fife is This Week’s Guest on Harrison Podcast
The nearly century-long relationship between radio and the automobile has been a top of mind industry discussion since a number of car manufacturers ignited worldwide concern over their stated intentions to remove AM radios from the dashboards of new electric vehicles. Is this relegation of AM radio to obsolescence premature? Can FM radios and the expansion of this exclusion to gas powered vehicles be far behind? Alex Fife, VP Southeast operations for iHeartMedia‘s Total Traffic & Weather Network is this week’s guest on the award-winning PodcastOne series, “The Michael Harrison Interview.” Fife, a 25-year veteran of radio’s reporting of news, traffic and weather, joins Harrison in an extensive conversation about the timely issue. Listen to the podcast in its entirety here.
director Mark Garrison after he asked if President Joe Biden suffers from dementia. Garrison did ask Jean-Pierre that question and she responded, “Mark, I can’t even believe you’re asking me this question. That is an incredibly offensive question to ask.” Then, after presenting the president’s accomplishments, Jean-Pierre thanked Garrison and ended the call. The White House says WBT was given seven minutes as part of Jean-Pierre’s media schedule and that she ended the interview at that time. The White House also suggested that the station employed a bit of theater by adding a dial-tone sound effect to the end of the interview that its phones don’t make after a call ends. 
content, providing an accurate assessment of the audience’s attentiveness and engagement.” Some of the key findings include: 1) Despite lacking “sight, sound, and motion,” AM/FM radio programming was +13% more engaging than Mediaprobe’s norm for television in the U.S. For advertisers, this means the AM/FM radio context for their ads has greater engagement than the TV context; 2) Overall, AM/FM radio advertising’s Emotional Impact Score (EIS) outperformed TV advertising by +12%. These new findings validate the recently released Dentsu/Lumen study, which revealed audio ads outperform video for attention and brand recall; 3) AM/FM radio news was the most impactful genre, consistently measuring as a high-quality contextual environment for advertising (+14% greater than Mediaprobe TV News norms and +8% than total AM/FM radio); 4) Mediaprobe audio benchmarks reveal the sound contrast between AM/FM radio programming and the ads drives higher attention and brand recall. For example, ads with music and jingles perform very well in spoken word programming due to the contrast; and 5) Creative best practices: Use female voiceovers, jingles, and include five brand mentions. 
Before the bound copy arrived – at which point all work stopped – Arbitron would send “Advances.” Even those topline numbers ground things to a halt, and had some PDs doing cartwheels, others out on the ledge. ‘Seems quaint now.
The headlines haven’t been kind to journalism lately. That recent
Audacy Podcasts. The story notes that there are no staff reductions as a result of this. The goal of the change is to “streamline the brands for advertisers and to put a further emphasis on the Audacy brand.” The story also says that “Pineapple Street Studios, which primarily works with third-party partners such as HBO, Netflix and Spotify, will retain its branding as it moves under the Audacy Podcasts umbrella.” 
other platforms. Titled, Hendrie, and produced by Freestyle Digital Media and directed by Patrick Reynolds, the film features people like Hendrie’s one-time program director David Hall as well as comedians and Hollywood figures talking about the unique radio program Hendrie launched in 1990 in which he held kooky conversations with offbeat characters – all played by Hendrie himself – in real time. Hendrie tells KCAL-TV, “It was completely original… and it satirized something that I thought needed satirizing – talk radio.” 
1. Financial solvency laws. Consolidation is not the problem; it actually saved the radio industry. The problem is the 1986 rule change that dropped financial solvency requirements for station ownership. Prior to 1986, stations could not be purchased with debt. A potential owner had to prove that they could meet the expenses of a station through the duration of its license. Once the financial efficacy rule was dropped and stations could be purchased with debt, the industry was financially decimated. Prediction: Financial solvency laws will be re-instated.
writer Bob Cooney to middays. The question Tornoe asks is what about Mike Missanelli? “Rumors have been swirling in sports radio circles the past few days about the return of Missanelli, once the station’s biggest star, whose sudden exit from his afternoon show in 2022 after 15 years shocked listeners.” Tornoe says that Missanelli has been in contact with management but there’s nothing to report and Missanelli isn’t talking. PD Scott Masteller tells the paper, “Mike’s name has come up. He’s a great talent, and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. A lot of people are interested in the radio station right now. So, I’ll leave it at that.” The current PM drive show is “The Best Show Ever?” hosted by Tyrone Johnson, Ricky Bottalico and Jenn Scordo. 
For spring break this year, Sarah and I revisited Sandals Grand Bahamian all-inclusive resort – NOT inexpensive, and very worth it. We’ve already booked same-week-next-year, and we think we know who we’ll see there then.
and WEPN-AM), but Karmazin said the move had nothing to do with his company not renewing its lease on WEPN-FM (which ends later this summer) but that it’s a company decision. TALKERS noticed that news/talk WTMJ, Milwaukee did not appear in Nielsen’s January PPM survey and reached out to GKB for an explanation, but the company did not reply to our request. Karmazin told Best, “It’s outdated to use one form of media to measure a show, especially one that doesn’t reflect the entire listening audience and viewing audience across all the different ways we distribute our media now.” 
dramatically understate AM/FM radio’s shares; 2) AM/FM radio represents the dominant ad-supported audio platform with a 68% overall share and a massive 86% in-car share; 3) In a typical day in America, 95% of Americans never listen to ad-supported Spotify. 94% never listen to ad-supported Pandora; 4) Podcasts’ audience soars. At a 20% share of ad-supported audio, podcasts now represent one out of every five minutes of U.S. ad-supported audio; 5) Among registered voters, AM/FM radio leads in ad-supported audience share (68%) followed by podcasts (21%); 6) After a pandemic lull, the proportion of AM/FM radio listening occurring in-car roars back; and 7) Powered by podcasts, spoken word is on a tear: 40% of all time with ad-supported audio goes to spoken word, up from 27% pre-pandemic. 
last night (3/11). The event was also exclusively video streamed on iHeartRadio’s YouTube channel and broadcast across iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide and on the iHeartRadio app. Winners were named in 32 categories, including Podcast of the Year, which went to “New Heights.” Entertainer Lilly Singh presented the award to co-hosts Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce, who accepted the honor via video. 
Sell a local advertiser a promotion – a contest which awards a major prize from the advertiser’s inventory – to the winner who creates the best commercial for the advertiser.
Original ideas are golden and rare. Here are five ideas worth stealing because of their novelty, success and oh-wow factor!
Williams, who has been highlighting the GameChangers honorees throughout February, hosted the ceremony. The 2024 recipients were nominated by audience members, selected by a panel of previous honorees and vetted by KYW Newsradio editorial staff. Audacy Philadelphia SVP and market manager David Yadgaroff says, “We are delighted to honor the exceptional individuals who are driving positive change and making a profound impact within communities of color across Philadelphia. This yearly program highlights their unwavering dedication to making lasting contributions to this community, and we’re proud to leverage our platform to shine a light on their great work.” 
It’s not your imagination. The world has gone daffy. The USA is all-but boots-on-the-ground in rough neighborhoods around the world. Weather is getting even wackier. The next gun nut could open fire, at any moment, anywhere. 2024 campaign? It’s a long way to November. And even in this rebounding economy, supermarket prices still hit-home… if you can get there.
-2) at the Sheraton Times Square hotel in New York City. Harrison’s address titled, “The Next 10 Years of Media and Popular Culture is…?,” is scheduled to take place between 11:00 am and 12:00 noon on Saturday (3/2). Harrison states, “I have always believed that the future of broadcasting, for better or worse, brews on the campuses of America and this observation is truer now than ever before. I am very excited to bring an array of provocative and pertinent observations, predictions and possibilities, born of my perspective as a future-minded immigrant from the 20th century to such a vital and dynamic group of young communicators.” 