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Alpha Buys 116 Stations From Digity. In a transaction that will nearly double its station count, Alpha Media has signed a deal to purchase 116 radio stations in 26 markets from Digity Media. The deal, announced Tuesday night, will take the total number of stations owned by Alpha to 251 in 54 markets. Digity mainly operates in small and medium markets and has a large Midwestern footprint that includes stations in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The West Palm Beach-headquartered company also operates in California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. It owns a smattering of stations in major markets, such as AC “K-Bay” KBAY (94.5) and hot AC “Mix 106.5” KEZR in the Bay Area and a large cluster that surrounds Chicago. Founded by veteran operator Dean Goodman, Digity has rapidly rolled up station assets. It bought NextMedia Group in 2013 and Three Eagles Communications in May 2014. A sale to Alpha or another group has long been rumored. “We are extremely pleased to be acquiring from exceptional operators and management who truly understand radio,” Alpha chairman Larry Wilson said in a statement. “Dean and his team have done a tremendous job with these stations. They will be a great addition to our live and local vision across the country.” Calling the two companies “a perfect match,” Goodman said that he and Wilson “have a shared vision for the radio renaissance in progress now. Radio is live, local media enhanced by digital delivery and community focused events. Our success is the result of an employee environment of collaboration, transparency and innovation.” George Reed of Media Services Group is the broker for Alpha Media. The deal is subject to approval from the FCC and the Department of Justice. On the Shopping List: See the full list of markets where Digity Media is selling stations to Alpha at InsideRadio.com.

Saga’s Net Rises 1.6% In Tight Market. To hear Saga Communications CEO Ed Christian tell it, a recent headline in The Wall Street Journal said it all. “U.S. Economy Picks Up But Stays In Its Rut,” the headline read. With the broadcasting business often seen as a mirror for the overall economy, Christian found the story especially apropos. “Saga was up thankfully but we are in a rut and it’s not because we are in an endangered industry,” Christian told investors and analysts yesterday during the company’s second-quarter results call. Reversing a slight downward trend from the first quarter, Saga’s net revenue increased 1.6% to $34.4 million. “There’s always a rush for new things,” Christian said. But just as well-established restaurants don’t close their doors when a new hip eatery opens up down the street, successful broadcasters also prevail—“if they are smart and remodel and operate on their core competencies and super serve their clientele,” Christian said. He pointed to several new initiatives that have been tested at the company’s Des Moines stations, which he said are helping to grow revenue. “In a tight market, this is what allows us to climb to the top of the rut and not fall into the abyss,” he said. They include hiring an expert in closing advertising deals. Since many sales crater when it’s time to seal the deal, Saga recruited an experienced broadcast sales exec whose sole function is to train and aid sellers in the closing process. The company also works with Cash By Creative, the radio business development service that enables sellers to bring customized spec spots to prospective clients. “It starts a conversation and it gets us a toehold,” Christian said. What’s Their Motivation—To ready Christian’s strategy for keeping his sellers selling, go to InsideRadio.com.

Saga’s Job 1—Booking More Recruitment Advertising. For Cumulus Media, Saga Communications and other radio companies, recruitment advertising has become a growing ad category as employers leverage radio’s penetration among the U.S. workforce to match job openings with qualified candidates. Saga, for one, has booked more than $500,000 in recruitment advertising this year—at its Des Moines radio stations alone. CEO Ed Christian says the company has trained sellers on how to present recruitment ad

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packages to HR directors at local businesses. Help Wanted sections of newspapers aren’t what they used to be, he says, and the Internet isn’t delivering sufficient lead generation for employers. “But radio gets the word out,” Christian said yesterday during the company’s earnings call. “There are 245 million people using radio and people who are looking for work are hearing about [jobs] on radio.” HR directors that control recruitment ad budgets are “very judicious” with their money, Christian said, and typically buy based on results rather than cost per ratings point. Christian says there’s “a lot of money” in recruitment advertising and that Saga has expanded the program from Des Moines to other markets.

Cumulus Tests Rdio Live, Gives It An “A.” The barrier between live broadcast radio and customizable streams will become a bit more porous in mid-August when Cumulus Media launches Rdio Live for all of its stations. The new feature, part of a partnership between the broadcaster and the on-demand streaming service, will give Cumulus stations the same functionality and experience that pure digital services offer, such as album art, track info and the ability for listeners to thumb-up, thumb-down and share tracks. Calling it “a unique user proposition,” Cumulus CFO J.P. Hannan provided an update on the new product during the company’s second-quarter results call last week. When a listener tuned to a station’s live broadcast stream hears a song they like, they can add it to a playlist or “listen to a stream like that artist or listen to their album and then pop right back into the radio station to listen to the morning show,” Hannan said. Cumulus stations could use it as a gateway to deeper user experiences of their own, such as exclusive stations and on-demand content, like that day’s “Top 10 at 10” feature, which would live on the station’s dedicated page. Currently being tested in a couple of markets, Rdio Live, said Hannan, would “combine the over-the-air broadcast streams mixed all the way along the spectrum to the very lean-in on-demand audio listenership in one place.” Cumulus said it plans a heavy on-air promo push of Rdio in the third and fourth quarters. Rdio CEO Anthony Bay has high hopes for the new offering. “There’s all sorts of thing you can do,” Bay said in April at the RAIN Summit West. “Done properly, we think broadcast stations can be one of the top things people listen to when they’re using apps.”

For Radio, Web Pureplays, A Big Ad Crossover. Broadcast radio and Web pureplays apparently share a lot of advertisers. Three of the top 10 pureplay audio advertisers tracked by ad tech company Xappmedia are in fact among broadcast radio’s top 10 advertisers during the first half of 2015, according to Media Monitors. Six of online radio’s top 10 fall among radio’s top 25. Fast food, home improvement and auto parts, all big radio categories, were among online radio’s most prominent advertisers, accounting for seven of the top 10 brands that advertise most frequently on pureplay webcasters. Xappmedia’s recent quarterly report shows Taco Bell, a big broadcast radio buyer, is the heaviest advertiser on online radio, with the highest number of total ads heard and most ad frequency on the five pureplay webcasters tracked in the survey. Taco Bell commanded 6% of total spots and concentrated on two audio publishers, the report says. Broadcast radio’s second largest advertiser in the first half of 2015, GEICO insurance, was also no. 2 with online radio, with 5.6% of ads on three publishers. NAPA Autoparts, another big broadcast radio user, ranked third, with 5.2% of ads heard on four publishers. The Home Depot (radio’s largest advertiser) was fourth (4.1% on four publishers) and AutoZone ranked fifth (3.9% on two publishers). AutoZone was radio’s sixth largest advertiser in the first half of 2015. Buffalo Wild Wings, Burger King, Capitol One, Sam Adams and Lowes rounded out the top 10. With the exception of Sam Adams, each placed among the top 75 broadcast radio users in the first half. Napa, The Home Depot, Sam Adams and Burger King commanded the most exposure across platforms, as they were the only brands to advertise on four of the five measured publishers. In Q1 2015, by comparison, only two advertisers, NAPA and GEICO, advertised on four platforms. Of the top 10 brands, eight advertised on three publishers, suggesting that more advertisers are looking to extend their exposure across Internet radio providers.

In Online Radio, Pre-Ad Music Time Increases. A recent report by ad tech company Xappmedia, chronicling 2015 advertisers, also details how long Internet users listen before they’re served up their first advertisement—a length of time that appears to be increasing. The “time to first ad” metric is new for many in the radio business, as broadcast radio ads run in real time and listeners encounter spots based on when they tune in. With online radio, however, the first ads are delivered based on how long the user has been listening as pureplay webcasters strive to balance delivering an ad too soon into a session with making sure the spot runs before that consumer ends their session. In Q2 2015, the average time to first ad was 14 minutes and 17 seconds (14:17), up

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4% from 13:41 in the first quarter. One publisher waited almost 22 minutes before delivering the first ad, while another ran a spot after only 10 minutes of listening.

Minny Station Presses Go On News Site. In a home-run of a different sort, a Minneapolis modern rock station, “Go 96.3” KTWN-FM, is acquiring BringMeTheNews.com, which distributes local digital news to radio stations across Minnesota. Go 96.3 is owned by the Pohlad Companies, which also owns Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins. In BringMetTheNews.com, the Pohlad Companies and its radio station get access to original local and regional news content that appeals to its Minnesota customer base, without having to build a news operation from the ground up. (Go 96.3 also airs Twins baseball games.) Pohlad also boasts car dealerships, a Hollywood production company and real estate, among other assets. BringMeTheNews.com, launched in 2009, provides third-party curated news to 28 radio stations across Minnesota, covering about 80% of the state. Most of its affiliates are music stations, including rock, country and even a religious broadcaster, and they lack news departments, but are eager to add original, local content to their websites and broadcasts. In addition to its online news content, BringMeTheNews.com produces short audio segments, such as sports reports, local news updates and business briefings. Some are voiced by recognizable local media hosts, such as Eric Perkins, sports anchor for Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE-TV, who voices a morning drive sports show for the site. Presently, Go 96.3 is not an affiliate, but in past format incarnations, the station was a partner. BringMeTheNews.com founder and CEO Rick Kupchella says he always thought Go 96.3 could be a natural partner because they were both local, independent media properties. “Being a singular property in a single market is a tricky thing to scale,” Kupchella tells Inside Radio. “You either grow into other markets, go national, or you build other media opportunities on top of your media properties.” Good Batterymates—Read how Go 96.3 and BringMeTheNews can work well together, at InsideRadio.com.

Digital Local News Site Could Be This Year’s Model. BringMeTheNews.com founder Rick Kupchella may be selling his news service to the Pohlad Company’s “Go 96.3” KTWN-FM, but he is hardly getting out of the digital news business. After launching BringMeTheNews.com as a regional Minnesota digital news service and signing radio stations as affiliates, he is actively working to export the model to other areas. Kupchella says radio stations can benefit from his company’s digital content and built-in audience, which includes a robust social media network, as well as its localized content. “We can bring in a digital product that is really quite strong,” he says, noting the site receives about 1.3 million unique users per month. While he declined to give specifics, Kupchella says he is actively talking to radio station owners in other parts of the country. Last year, he met with radio broadcasters at the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show to promote his product. The model has worked well in Minnesota, he says, with 28 affiliated stations delivering a cumulative audience of about 800,000 listeners. Other stations and clusters could benefit as well. “An operation like this lets them drive a robust digital platform that is centered in news and is highly social,” he says. Kupchella is also starting a national news service focused on health care, PresentNation Media. He says he is using the funds from the BringMeTheNews.com sale to help fund the new venture.

Online Radio’s Migration To Mobile Slows. Online radio’s rapid growth continued in June but the migration of listening from desktops to mobile devices appears to have leveled off—at least for now. After steadily increasing since January—often by a full percentage point or more—listening taking place on mobile devices hit 75.7% of all streaming audio measured by Triton Digital in June, basically flat from 75.8% in May. The January through April trend was 72.4%-72.7%-73.7%-74.4%. Still, total online radio listening in the U.S. across all devices took another leap forward in June. Average Active Sessions shot up 40.7% to 4,198,667 during the Monday-Friday, 6am-8pm daypart, compared to one year earlier. The increase was steeper during the Monday-Sunday 6am-midnight daypart, up 45.5% to 3,547,002 Average Active Sessions. Perhaps showing some erosion from the debut of Apple Music on June 30, listening to Pandora slipped 2.6% to 2.304 million Average Active Sessions during the weekday daypart. Yet Spotify, considered to be Apple’s main rival, grew 1.3% to 933,919 Average Active Sessions. Apple Music isn’t measured in Triton’s publicly released Webcast Metrics report. iHeartRadio remained the top broadcast radio webcaster, up 3% to 366,779 sessions. Among cities, St. Louis showed the largest listening gain with a 16.8% increase in Average Active Sessions, followed by Miami, New York, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul,

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Detroit and Los Angeles. The AC format showed the largest listening gains with a 10% increase, followed by modern AC, country, classic rock and CHR. View Triton Digital’s June Webcast Metrics report HERE.

School Ad Money Rings A Bell For Radio. August marks the start of the back-to-school (BTS) shopping season, and radio always readies for an infusion of ad dollars. While it’s too soon to know which retailers will be among radio’s largest spenders this year, discount retailers such as Target, Walmart and Old Navy are top of mind with shoppers considering pre-fall purchases. Of parents considering their next purchase, 62% said they’d shop at Walmart, while 53% cited Target and 39% picked Old Navy, according to YouGov BrandIndex’s, which surveyed parents on purchase consideration and perceived value. Last year, Walmart, Macy’s and JCPenney were the top three retailers among the top 20 advertisers using radio between August 1 and September 15. Back to school shopping is a crucial time for retailers; this year, spending is expected to reach $24.9 billion, as parents shell out for school supplies, clothing and electronics, according to the National Retail Foundation’s Back-to-School Spending Survey. And BTS shoppers seem to prefer brick and mortar stores. According to a survey by Opinion Research Corporation for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), 83% of BTS purchases will involve physical stores, including 7% of purchases that will be made online and picked up in-store. The average family with children in grades K-12 plans to spend $630.36 on electronics, apparel and other school needs, down from $669.28 last year, according to the survey. BTS shoppers are planning to buy a variety of products, including school supplies (76%), apparel and shoes (75%), electronics—including computers, phones, accessories and wearables (53%), backpacks and bags (45%) and eyeglasses (22%).

Car Sales Jump 5% in July. July was another strong month for radio’s largest adverting category. U.S. sales of cars and light trucks jumped 5.3% last month to 1.51 million. That boosted year-to-date sales past the 10 million mark, up 4.5% through the first seven months of the year. The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of car sales for July was a whopping 17.55 million. Automotive News says that’s the second-highest monthly SAAR in a decade. Once again, sales of pickups and SUVs led the way, up 11%, while car sales slipped 1.8%. Kelley Blue Book reported that the average transaction in July was $33,453—up $856 or 2.6% from a year ago.

Analyst Decries Cable’s “Desperate” Ad Stuffing. Too many commercials may be one complaint about radio from some listeners but a new report from Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger says stations have nothing on a few big cable networks that are jamming more ads in just to keep their revenues from falling too far. AMC Networks, according to Juenger, made room for 10% more ads in the second quarter; Viacom was up 7% and A&E was up 5%. The culprit is shrinking viewership, which means lower rates, which means some TV networks have to insert more advertising in just to get back to where they once belonged. This isn’t the first time Juenger has noted the clutter. The pattern represents a far cry from radio, where audiences have remained steady in a world of video fragmentation and the advertising uncertainty of multiplatform viewing options. Commenting on the report, Pierre Bouvard, Cumulus VP of marketing, quipped, “TV is in a cliff drop and radio is stable.” Juenger wrote, “The continued ad stuffing is an obvious and unsustainable (some would say “desperate”) action by the networks to prop up ad revenue in the face of declining audiences. Not only can this not be sustained going forward, it further contributes to the audience declines, making [video-on-demand] that much more preferable for viewers made numb by the absurd amount of ads, as well as decreasing the efficacy of the advertising that is still seen.”

‘Fresh’ Drive-time Starts for New York’s WWFS. New York’s “Fresh 102.7” WWFS is getting a fresh coat of paint in both drive-times. Carson and Cane have debuted as new morning hosts while Trey and Ghia have taken over afternoon drive on the CBS Radio hot AC. Karen Carson moves into mornings from middays. Before WWFS she did three years in morning drive at crosstown iHeartMedia AC WLTW. Cane Peterson moves up from weekends and has worked in the market at WXRK and “Z100” WHTZ. Trey Morgan joins WWFS in afternoons after spending time on the air in Los Angeles and at WHTZ. Ghia began her career in New York and spent time in Alaska and Philadelphia before returning to New York for on-air work at Cumulus Media hot AC WPLJ (95.5). “With an increasing appetite for contemporary music, and the proliferation of places to hear it, what’s between the songs is now more important than ever,” program director Jim Ryan said in a statement. “We’ve raised the bar at Fresh to better serve our audience and advertisers with these new shows.”

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