Weekly Roundup – January 16th, 2024

"As far as Scott Masteller knew, his days of a full-time radio grind were over. It was 2022. He had decided to step back from his day-to-day role with Hearst’s WBAL in Baltimore.
His new plan was to work part-time with the station’s talent while also working with Harker Research in the consulting space. It was a chance to learn more and keep contributing to the business he loved without the same grueling hours commitment.
Then, an opportunity presented itself in the one market that infatuated Masteller. That is why, at the beginning of 2024, he is now back in the full-time, day-to-day radio grind with 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia.
“I had a number of conversations with [Beasley Media’s Philadelphia market manager] Joe Bell over the years,” Masteller told me. “He’s become a friend, and this is probably the only market in the country where I would consider doing something at this stage of things. My parents lived in Bucks County to the north of Philly, so I’ve been a Philly sports fan for a long time. I followed the media in this market. It’s always the one market I wanted to be a part of."

"As it morphs from a television company into a streaming company, ESPN is undergoing rapid transformation. But if the extraordinary events of the past week are any indication, the transformation of its corporate culture is just as seismic.
For decades, the biggest star at ESPN was ESPN. A long list of its best-known employees — like Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons and Dan Le Batard — clashed with executives, and the story always ended the same way: Those employees left, and ESPN kept right on rolling.
But last week Pat McAfee, the Indianapolis Colts punter turned new-media shock jock and ESPN star, directly criticized a powerful executive at the Disney-owned network by name, calling him a “rat.” Not only was Mr. McAfee not fired, he seemingly was not punished at all, shocking current and former ESPN executives and employees.
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But Mr. McAfee's Great Escape Has Shined A Light On His Unusual Arrangement With ESPN, Which Licenses But Does Not Own His Show. It also illustrates the bind that ESPN's executives are in by empowering Mr. McAfee when the company is transitioning from the cable era it dominated into the streaming and social media era it has so far entered with less success."

"RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Carolina Hurricanes announced a multi-year partnership with Fanatics on Thursday.
They are the place to purchase team gear but they will soon help the Canes open a sports betting operation with PNC Arena.
"We just felt that we have a great relationship with them," said Don Waddell, general manager of the Hurricanes. "We interviewed all the big boys including Fan Duel and DraftKings."
Sports betting on an app like Draft Kings or Fan Duel will be the first to roll out in the state versus in person at the PNC.
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"Gambling is not for everybody," Waddell noted Thursday at the intermission of the Canes versus Anaheim Ducks game. "But if you didn't think it was going on in North Carolina, you're living under a rock."

"It’s a familiar refrain: “Legacy media is dead” — unless you’re talking about radio.
Despite being one of the oldest media formats, dating back to the 1890s, radio has maintained relatively stable listenership over the past decade. Pay TV, while newer, has faced more significant declines.
“Terrestrial radio has stayed steady even as other mediums like satellite radio, podcasts and Apple CarPlay have come on board,” said Guggenheim media analyst Curry Baker.
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“Historically, radio personalities and stations have engaged with local audiences,” which tend be “sticky,” Baker said. “Cable networks never really did that.”
Radio has maintained the upper hand on many media formats partly because of its accessibility and relative lack of cost barriers. Most cars come already equipped with access to AM and FM radio at no additional cost, and according to Statista data from 2022, the majority of U.S. drivers choose to listen to terrestrial AM/FM radio over any other form of entertainment on the road.
But radio listenership has also been bolstered by the unique ability of stations to capture local audience loyalty. Listeners tune in to hear familiar voices, such as Elvis Duran on New York’s Z100 or Ryan Seacrest on Los Angeles’ KIIS-FM. Conservative commentators have also traditionally commanded large followings on their radio shows, such as Fox News’ Sean Hannity."

"VideoAmp isn’t feeling as amped up about its future as it was last year.
The startup may have established itself as one of the top alternative currency contenders in 2023, but the pressure to win market share is causing cracks in its shiny facade.
VideoAmp laid off 20% of its staff last week amid a reorg. Founder and CEO Ross McCray also stepped down, replaced (for now) by board member Peter Liguori.
This is VideoAmp’s second round of layoffs in less than five months. In September, the company cut its workforce by 10%.
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Alt currencies are already operating on a tough playing field.
Buyers continue to rely on Nielsen because it’s familiar, and there simply isn’t enough money left to circulate among all of Nielsen’s competitors, the former employee said. It also doesn’t help that Nielsen has delayed dropping its legacy ratings (average commercial minutes), which advertisers have used for decades.
The problem with VideoAmp in particular is that it has made most of its money from activation, both sources said.
Although VideoAmp has a demand-side platform and touts its origins in ad tech as a competitive advantage among currency providers, the TV industry at large considers the selling of both media activation and measurement to be a clear conflict of interest."

"Donald Trump may win more Black votes than any other Republican presidential candidate in history in the upcoming presidential election.
According to national and swing state polls reviewed by Bloomberg, the former president and GOP front runner has between 14 percent and 30 percent of the Black vote share as the country heads into an election year.
This is far beyond the 8 percent of the Black vote the Pew Research Center said the Republican won in the 2020 presidential election and more than any Republican candidate before him.
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Democratic President Joe Biden, on the other hand, attracted 92 percent of the Black vote in 2020, compared with just 8 percent for Trump, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center. The Black vote helped him win in swing states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, with Biden securing 88 percent of the Black vote in Georgia in 2020, for instance, but overall only winning the state by 11,779 votes, or 0.24 per cent.
But polls conducted in 2023 suggest the incumbent president is now losing support among Black voters.
Indeed, his favorability among Black voters in seven swing states slipped 7 percentage points from October to December 2023, to 61 percent, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll. Trump's favorability in the same period has remained steady at around 25 percent."