December 23, 2025 • 43 mins
In a major coordinated escalation, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and a coalition of leading radio groups have launched a high-stakes pressure campaign demanding that the FCC immediately abolish local ownership caps.
Branding the current regulations as "economic anchors" forged in the 1990s, the industry's latest filings argue that the Commission is willfully ignoring a market dominated by unregulated tech titans like Spotify and YouTube.
This isn't just a request for "modernization"—it is an ultimatum. Broadcasters are warning that if they aren’t granted the scale to compete for local ad dollars, the very survival of local journalism and community emergency services is at risk.
By framing the issue as a "one-way street" under the Telecommunications Act—which mandates the repeal of unnecessary rules—the industry is signaling that it is prepared to take this fight from the halls of the FCC to the federal courts to force a total overhaul of the media landscape.
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Branding the current regulations as "economic anchors" forged in the 1990s, the industry's latest filings argue that the Commission is willfully ignoring a market dominated by unregulated tech titans like Spotify and YouTube.
This isn't just a request for "modernization"—it is an ultimatum. Broadcasters are warning that if they aren’t granted the scale to compete for local ad dollars, the very survival of local journalism and community emergency services is at risk.
By framing the issue as a "one-way street" under the Telecommunications Act—which mandates the repeal of unnecessary rules—the industry is signaling that it is prepared to take this fight from the halls of the FCC to the federal courts to force a total overhaul of the media landscape.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-broadcasters-podcast--3684131/support.
Contact KOP for professional podcast production, imaging, and web design services at http://www.kingofpodcasts.com
Support KOP by subscribing to his YouTube channel and search for King Of Podcasts
Follow KOP on X and TikTok @kingofpodcasts (F Meta!)
Listen to KOP’s other programs, Podcasters Row… and the Wrestling is Real Wrestling Podcast and The Broadcasters Podcast.
Buy KOP a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/kingofpodcasts
Drop KOP a PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=3TAB983ZQPNVL
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Podcasting since two thousand and five. This is the King
of Podcasts Radio Network, kingo Podcasts dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tis the season of giving. Thus I give you another
bonus broadcast of the Broadcasters podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
The King of podcast Radio Network proadly presents to the
Broadcasters podcast. Here is the King of.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Podcasts Guy's count. This is episode four hundred and eighteen
of the Broadcasters podcast King of Podcasts. Here with you
bonus episode. Look, I'm here because you know, as always,
there's gonna be some things that will come up for
the year that I had the lecture time right now,
and with my schedule the way it's kind of working out,
I had time this week to go ahead and add
(00:46):
another episode because my plan, as I said last week,
was to bring you an interview, which I'm still going
to bring you. Rothy Gomez. He hosts the Twitch stream
called Dancitteria We Want. He's also done shows with the
Groove Boutique on syndicated radio, among other things. So fascinating
radio career for him. And I have Ralfi Gomez as
(01:10):
a guest here on the program and that interview you
will hear this coming Thursday, and it's normal time slot
here on the Broadcasters podcast, but the news that's coming
out this week, I couldn't help but put another show
in to the can because there are gonna be some
things that I do not want to go and wait
until next week that came up. So let's get in
(01:31):
a few of those things. It won't be a very
long program. We'll probably go about half an hour, but
I want to go through a few things, a little
bit of end of year stuff that I thought would
also go into things as well. But let's go into
this like right now, just for fun. I want to
go into the movies that I enjoyed this year. Now,
everybody's putting out their top ten songs, top ten music,
all this stuff, and you know, I can tell you
(01:52):
exactly what's on my Spotify when it comes to the
top ten songs that I enjoyed the most this year,
according to my Spotify. And if I haven't told you
already yet, the top ten songs on my list here
are Swedish Mafia and Wait So Long? Why Do I
Have to Dynamite by Tyler and whizz Kid is by
(02:14):
number nine. A Denbo song called Trollo by rocchi Aire
and Donati at number eight. Also Big edim FM, by
the Way, Move a Little Closer by Dubbs and Abby Flynn.
Tate McCrery sports Car comes in at number six. Jumped
by Black Pink is number five. No No Brook Boys
(02:34):
by Disco Lines to Tinasee at four, Hearing Your Arms
Beneath the Dawtony with Abby Flynn at three, number two
and number one, I said earlier Gabriella and Narali with
Katsai from by Katsi. So Gabrielle two Gnarly was number
one in my movie list. I want to get into
that real quick based on the movies that are out
(02:57):
then twenty twenty five. I don't want to give an exact, say,
top ten list, but I'll get into where I have
just looking at the top twenty five top grossing movies,
and I'll give you what ten movies that I would
absolutely say were my favorite is Your Rental Family would
go right into that list. I would go ahead and
put after that Nuremberg I'd put on that list. I
(03:23):
would put Cott Stealing with the movie with Austin Butler, Nuremberg.
That was Robbie Mallick and John Slattery, among other people. Bogonia,
Emma Stone, Jesse Plemans I would put at that list
as well. Baby Girl with Nicole Kimmen I would also
(03:43):
put on that list. I will say I enjoyed The
House Maide this weekend. I would almost put that in
the list, but I think maybe not yet. Black Bag
one of my favorites of the year. Nobody too, I
really enjoyed this year. And to go a little bit
higher up, I would say The Amateur would also be
(04:06):
on that list. I would put Chainsaw the Man the
movie in that list. I know, it's a very weird
list that I have. I would put The Accountant two
up there. I would put one Battle after another up there.
These are all movies that I saw this year. Then
I would include F one and Sinners. I don't know
(04:29):
if that makes ten, but that's the top movies that
I saw this year that I really enjoyed and one
on my way to go and watch. I would also
put Relay on that list as well, which was not
a movie that a lot of people talked about, but
I really did enjoy this year. It's just kind of
out there for people. Just wasn't that big of a
movie that everybody talked about. But that's okay. Honorable mentioned.
(04:53):
I would give to Alto Knights. I enjoyed that as well.
That's Joe Pescian, Robert de Niro. Obviously not a lot
of people talk about this movie, but I really did
enjoy it. If I had to pick movies on the
bottom part of the list, who I could give you
a couple, I would put Honey Don't in that mix
because it just didn't get right. It didn't go right
for me. Hurry Up Tomorrow is absolutely on that. It's
(05:17):
not the worst of the list. Oh my goodness, the
weekend he made money though, I'll give him that, and
I will put tron areas in that list as well.
Deserve it. It's just true. So let's move along into
the feature story. SEC Ownership caps and the National Association
(05:38):
of Broadcasters are putting their pressure campaign up against Congress
right now an SEC necessarily to eliminate or relax radio
ownership limits. So the were commiss that we're filed to
the SEC and the Quadrennial Media Ownership Review. We know
that we've been worrying about this and hearing about this
particular part of the SEC ownership rules that was going
(06:01):
to be considered in the quadronial review, and so the
idea is to eliminate or substantially relax further local radio
ownership limits because the decades old restrictions no longer serve
the public interest an immediate marketplace dominated by unregulated digital competitors. So, yes,
the Internet is hurting us. You need to help us.
Wa wha, we're crying in our PRAM. So the groups
(06:26):
and companies that have gotten into this mixed Beasley Media
Group arguing the SEC should repeal the local radio ownership
rule entirely, that the rules remain static for three decades
and eliminating the rule would allow broadcasters to develop the
account economies of scale needed to compete with large, unregulated
digital platforms and continue producing local programming and emergency services.
(06:50):
Then you have a coalition of broadcasters, Conniser Media, town Square, Bonneville, Midwest,
a couple of mid major companies also urging elimination of
the local ownership rule. So it'll modify in ways to
allow greater in market consolidation. And they say that current
ownership caps prevent stations from achieving this scale necessary to
(07:11):
compete for listeners against and advertise against digital audio platforms
and big tech companies like they haven't had their own
competition of their own cells. They're kind of going up
against themselves and not helping themselves and leveraging with quality
content or with quality talent to help support that content.
I mean, if you're diminishing the value of what you're
(07:34):
putting out on the air, why should the SEC give
you something for that? It doesn't make any sense. But
they've been using the same excuse of well, they're just
losing money hand over foot. Well, it doesn't mean that
they have to go and lose it all together. It's
because they've allowed themselves to lose consistently to streaming to
(07:56):
digital platforms, to the Internet. It's their fault. There're streaming platforms,
they're streaming services that they have right now to stream
their stations. I mean, the radio stations could have taken
advantage of the fact that they have now more of
a spectrum, more of expansive audience, that they can go
(08:20):
ahead and reach out to every one of these radio
stations that oh they're hurting because the FM dial okay this,
and that you have multiple pipelines of revenue that you
can make right now for those of these stations out here.
They don't want to go ahead and promote let's do
something here with this station. It's streaming everywhere. Okay, there
are apps out there that support what is being done
(08:44):
here with radio. Okay, tune in Radio Garden. There are
plenty of radio apps out there. iHeartRadio Odyssey or radio
dot Com or other apps out there that have thousands
of radio stations. Why are those people not listen to
(09:06):
those radio stations because they all have ads within them,
and because of the ads they have there to go
and support, they're not doing anything to go ahead and
limit the amount of inventory of ad space. I mean,
you could do what YouTube does more often and say, okay,
you want to have some kind of ads up there
for people to listen to, so that because you'd listen
(09:28):
to your content, you don't offer a subscription model so
that people can listen to your station commercial free. But
then you also add the talent, and then you also,
you know, work harder on putting on more favorable playlists
out there for those that are streaming. I mean, really,
how often do radio stations consider the audience that is
(09:49):
streaming for their music to make them stand up among
the others. The whole point is is that there are
people that will still listen to radio. I mean, there's
people that listen that watch on TikTok or Twitch, and
there are people that are commenting all the time during songs.
So there's a space for that, and it doesn't mean
(10:11):
that radio doesn't have to go and do that anymore.
They can help to identify songs or identify artists that
people should listen to more, but they don't want to
do that. I mean, the thing is you could also
stream in the way of where they don't utilize Twitch
to go ahead and have maybe a web cam out
(10:32):
there and have people that are streaming. I mean, some
of these DJs are doing that somewhat themselves, but they're
really not doing much more. They're not necessarily having the
streams up so they can have people to listen to
their music because they're not doing that. The whole point
is that radio has not successfully learned how to multiplatform
(10:53):
and they don't want the multiplatform. They still want to
try to make people go and watch listen to their
AMFM signal and spend on that in particular, but they're
not doing anything to make radio would is still available
in every automobile as far as I know, every automobile
still has an infotamus system that has AM and FM.
(11:14):
And even if you lose AM, it's you know, it
still has FM out there. There are enough spots on
the dollar to go ahead and take those stations and
do something with but they don't do that. Plus, if
you have the ownership change so that let's say newspapers,
local magazines, alternative publications. Who knows what other media is
(11:36):
out there that's going to be evolved in this? Tell
me something. So if you have these newspapers are going
to be involved with this, and then let's just say
that these media companies decide to go ahead and bring
on different linear platforms. Okay, radio with the newspaper, will
you let the newspaper actually help to operate the radio station.
Will you let their people go ahead and work on
that radio station? Will that be possible? I mean, if
(11:59):
you have people that are on television and you want
to put them on the radio, I don't know, there's
something where are you going to let some of that
talent that you have on other platforms that you own,
will you incorporate into the radio station or you're just
gonna let the radio station operate like it normally does that.
Where's the compromise here in return for getting the right
(12:24):
to ask the SEC to repeal and eliminate the local
radio ownership rule, where is the compromise for stations to say, Okay,
if we do this, then we need to show that
we're going to invest more on the radio airways, because
we need to make sure that people if they're going
(12:46):
to watch the station or listen to the station on
a digital stream, they need to be actually investing in
the actual content and not just trying to go and
prop up their stations with more money coming from somewhere
else and allowing radio to be a loss leader. Does
that make sense? I don't hear any of these radio
(13:07):
companies saying that. More on the coalition. They say that
preserving localism and diversity now depends on allowing broadcasters to
expand their reach within local markets without regulatory relief, They warn,
radio continue to lose audience share and advertising revenue undermanding
his ability to invest in staffing, programming, and community service.
What's holding you back from putting the staffing together, well,
the programming and cocurity service. If you just have people
(13:31):
that are just engineers or producers, in there and you
bring people from let's just say city or county government
or advocacy organizations, whatever. There are plenty of people that
we're going to do public affairs programming for you. Now,
it might not generate a whole lot of buzz, but
like you have, I'm pretty sure enough resources in any
(13:53):
given local market to bring them to the radio station
and utilize them for public affairs, to use them for
programming will be good for the local public. Are they
doing that? Not anymore? Not as much, I don't think so.
JVC Media, which is owner of an operator of radio
stations down here in South Florida where I'm at Central
South Florida, they say that they support modernizing and meaningfully
(14:16):
relaxing and limits, arguing the current rules are outdated, economically restrictive,
and fundamentally misaligned with today is competitive media landscape. And
they said ownership flexibility would allow broadcasters to pull resources
three streams and emergency operations and if that's the more
local content rather than less so for the local smaller stations. Yeah,
AJVC Media they want to get something more to pull
(14:41):
from other media resources that they would own. That's kind
of like what I'm talking about. But I want all
these stations to do the same thing in return for
the local radio ownership rule to be relaxed or eliminated. Now,
the National Association to Broadcasters wants all the rules to
be abolished, that they should be abused, contending the rigid
(15:04):
ownership limits should be abandoned in favor of case by
case transaction review that the agency has already taken that
approach with wireless carriers and other media services. So the
docket remains open for reply comments from January sixteenth to
next year. SEC Chair Brendon Carr says he remains very
opvided on how the SEC will move forward. And that's
a lot so a lot of companies coming in and
(15:27):
making their point. These companies all here collectively, they're saying
that the key to reviving revenue and radio is deregulation
and it would in turn inspire advertiser investment then give
stations the ability to maintain the infrastructure to provide localmus
and information. And many the arguments are declining ad dollars
unless their numbers. According to a Barrell Associates survey, on average,
(15:55):
individual radio stations receive one percent less than one percent
of total local advertising share this year, and they say
that fighting to achieve a one percent share is not
a means the local radio survival. I'll think of this
form radio World. By the way, the companies are also
arguing that radio groups to own more stations in their
markets is essential for competing with big tech.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
The SEC reasited this quadrinual review of the radio ownership
caps in twenty eighteen and kept everything status quot But
then the SEC was still looking and viewing the radio
in market as a separate marketplace, and the NAB was
saying that the Internet was relevant competition to radio. But
(16:41):
now they're going to go to that at this point,
and by insisting the review order radio remains a unique marketplace,
the Commission ducked the competition analysis that section two of
two of the Telecommunications Act in the nineteen eighty six requires
quote if radio continues to be defined as a unique market,
the commit she could leave the ownership restrictions on radio
(17:02):
in place forever to make sure that no radio company
dominates the radio market, even as radio faded into obscurity.
Now the SEC says they can no longer distinguish that
the SEC cannot distinguish radio broadcasting from other platforms because
it is a reservice. And Edison Research says that sixty
(17:22):
six percent of Americans using streaming audio do on platforms
with paid subscriptions, so they're giving all their stats. And
the shift from traditional the digital ad spending is on
a meteoric rise. Digital media share of all local advertising
has gone from twenty six percent in twenty fifteen to
(17:46):
seventy percent in twenty twenty four. So one of the things,
for instance, is an example, if the SEC cannot get
an elimination of local radio ownership, they want to have
the current to be modified significantly. So in San Francisco,
for example, the caps should allow ownership of more than
twenty radio stations rather than be restricted to eight stations
(18:11):
currently permitted. Do you understand what this means. We're talking
about that eventually many of these radio stations will be
owned by no more than a couple of different operators
and that'll be it, with some local operations still available.
But some of these local stations they'll probably be picked up.
(18:31):
And the thing is, I don't understand why they want
to go and worry about this, because for some of
the radio stations, they want to go and buy Okay,
there's gonna be some merging between some companies for the
radio stations. I guess see we're Infinity or now Odyssey.
They will go in and sell their stations as somebody else.
I mean, can iHeart get into the mix? Are there
(18:52):
other media companies that want to get into the mix
and buy up willether it be more investment dollars from
iHeart or audits here these other radio companies to buy
up and buy more into intellectual properties of these other
radio stations. Like how many more stations do they want
that are Class A, Class B, Class E ten fifteen
(19:13):
hundred thousand watts? Like how many more stations are viable
for any of these companies that going to own and operate,
Which if they do take those stations over, they will
own and operate them at the bare minimum, and they'll
just hold on to them basically almost like it's ransom
because they're not going to do anything to help program
and improve these stations. Because remember, at the end of
(19:34):
the day, a lot of these radio companies are owned
by private equity, so they just want to hold on
to it. But they're not going necessarily do anything to
help improve the radio stations if you want to keep it,
so it'll be profiting something. But at the same time,
then they can also own and operate newspapers and other
digitant and traditional outlets and then just buy whatever they
(19:54):
want and just consolidate everything. So if a company wants
to go and buy ten twenty radio stations, basically take
the entire market of stations and the TV stations and
the newspapers and let one company own everything. I mean, well,
(20:15):
you have stations that will go silent. They'll just be
taken off the air because stations will be just consolidated
or some wilcast or whatever. I don't know. And the
ownership rules will that also count towards the non commercial stations?
Will those dials be well that part of the dial
(20:36):
above ninety two FM, Will that be considered commercial? And
then those will all be for sale too. We don't know.
But if these ownership caps are allowed to happen, I mean,
it just breaks open that there will be no local operators.
I mean, it's completely against what they're saying, but these
(20:58):
companies don't care. I want the sec out to go
and do it, but they're gonna do it anyway. Probably,
I could say no, I can say please stop, but
the National Association to Broadcasters an extremely powerful lobby, and
you know the regulation is gonna happen anyway. So if
they want to continue to have all these companies just
buy everything up on the linear side, then just things
(21:21):
go ahead and continue to fall apart. iHeart Radio is
obviously seeing that they're not looking into the radio model
as a revenue stream. They're just kind of holding onto
it while they are monetizing and profiting off of podcasts.
Now they have to deal with Netflix. They have some
of their broadcasting over on Netflix. And what is iHeartRadio doing.
They're gonna start supporting full length video podcasts beginning in
(21:43):
twenty twenty six, so they're gonna plan to add full
length video podcast distribution to iHeart Radio, and podcasts will
be able to distribute full length video versions of the
shows onto the app and web versions of iHeart Radio
among traditional audio episodes. What audio what Spotify has already
(22:03):
been doing. I don't know if iTunes have gotten there
or Apple podcasts gotten there, I don't know. But the
expansion is being built around three core principles creative integrity, monetization,
autonomy and control over hosting and creators will determine how
their constant a personal platform, whether the audio only, video
or both, over retaining ownership of their work. Bob Pittman,
(22:27):
the IR chairman and CEO, says a video podcasting is
now emerging as a completely separate and incremental formed audio
and the same way podcasting. Of all, this is a
new layer on top of broadcast radio. Video is becoming
an additional layer for creators. Well they decided to go
go this route, I don't know if it's gonna make
much of a difference. But then again, I am also
(22:49):
not that privative video podcasts. Look, I know that people
want to create some kind of visual to their podcasting,
and I could have done that too with all my programming.
But for what I'm doing a monologue on most of
my shows, and if I have guests, that's all on
(23:09):
a zoom call or just like your Google meet or
whatever it is. For me, does it really matter to
putting out up on video? Like, I'm not gonna go
through the trouble of adding you know, lower thirds and
a little bit of sweeps, a little bit of video
magic on here to make it look nice and clean. No,
I mean it doesn't matter to me because you still
(23:30):
know that. On YouTube they talk about the fact that
thirty percent of all podcasts are actually being seen. Most
people are still passively watching podcasts, but they're listening to
it more So, if every good podcast out there continues
to remember that, people are gonna be listening to you,
and they don't necessarily have to go ahead and watch
the TV to go ahead and listen to you, They're
gonna listen anyway because podcasting is still audio first. Audio
(23:55):
is still priority, and if you don't do it that way,
you're doing television. Let's just make that clear. But I
see so many different podcasts with a video element, a
video component. That's fine, but like, give me some reason
why you want to go ahead and have yourself on
camera so you can show the same studio that you
(24:17):
have a nice looking setup and you do it and
everybody gets to see the same one over and over,
or because if you have a guest on, you want
to have that guest be seen and that might interest
people to watch. But you're not showing any extra information,
you're not showing any b roll, You're not doing anything
where you're giving us other things to watch on the screen.
(24:37):
If it's just back and forth, it's one thing, you know.
So it's television. I mean, we have talk shows out there,
we have people that are doing those kind of shows.
But even if people are doing monologues, which some people
don't want to, you know, if they're doing podcasting, they
might not even think about doing a monologue or maybe
(24:58):
not have an extra co host, and they'll still do
a show. And I'm like, Okay, well you want to
do that, that's fine. But I never thought about it myself.
I just consider, you know what, I want to just
keep doing this like I do. And some twelve years
later after starting off this podcast project is King of Podcasts.
I haven't worried about video. Once in a while to
put something up, but really not really. I'll support the
(25:21):
video component and put out subtitles that I think are important.
So if you're listening to the show and you can't
necessarily listen to it right then and there, but you
want to read the subtitles, I'll give you that, like
I'll give you something besides what you're normally watching. And
I think that's a good thing that makes it a
little more beneficial for people. But I know that you know,
(25:43):
there's a YouTube audience that we'll catch my content and
they want to get into it because that's where they
normally catch all their podcasts. Like the one thing is
with YouTube, it's a great place to find podcasts and
listen to them, and if you want to listen to
them as a podcast, or you want to want to
listen to it more or watch them, it's good. But
because YouTube is such a great platform bridge for distribution,
(26:05):
that's why videos become important plus a social media component,
Like I understand if you want to go and put
out video as clips to draw people to the actual audio,
that sounds like a good thing. There's not a lot
that I see and in a podcast that tells me
that it needs to be on television or they need
(26:26):
to have a video component. But hey, listen, if you
have the willingness to go and get a new camera
and you know you want to put it out there
and make it look nice, that means you can't get
rid of the studdards and stammers. Your editing is gonna
be a little bit tougher to go and do, and
the amount of time the render is much longer. That's
the part I can't stand. And that's why I don't
like doing video because it takes more time to produce audio.
(26:50):
I can get this done in less than an hour
and do everything I need to do when I finish
a recording, and so I can record as much as
I want. I get this every day, And it would
be easy when you just like crank out a podcast,
crank out one, crank out one, crank out one done.
But I do want a video of more time. And
(27:10):
trust me, I have a client right now that I
do for video, and don't get me wrong, descript is
a great platform out there. But then if you want
to do all the other elements you want to put
with it, I mean that's the part where like, okay,
I could do all the video stuff more, it could
be are more than capable of doing that, but it
takes too long. Like if you wanted to be high quality,
(27:32):
you wanted to be four K or a high HD
at ten ep whatever to do all that and make
it thirty to sixty minutes we're talking, you know, up
to like an hour sometimes of rendering the video to
get it where you wanted to be with all those
changes the elements. I don't want to make time for that,
and the thing is, you know how much of a
(27:54):
powerful computer you need with enough RAM or bandwidth out
there to be able to go ahead and generate it quickly.
It's not that easy. But that's the part I don't
worry about. I want to get keep doing all all
that work. It's just too much. Now an interesting story
from the area of CBS News. I have not talked
about this at all, but I think this week is
(28:16):
a pretty good week about it because of what happened
a lot the decision to go in and let the
editor of The Free Press, a popular website, Barry Weiss.
He's been on TJoe Rogan, she's been on different other
shows and has been out there's a political component for
a long time. She was picked to go and become
(28:39):
editor in chief at CBS News. And so there have
been changes being made, changes to the evening news to
sixty minutes and all together, just making changes and putting
out programming that's trying to also be for the Internet,
to put out streaming content that's going to get a
lot of buzz, and put some news brogging out on
the linear to try to do something more with it. Now,
(29:02):
to go ahead and take someone that is done a
pretty good job on a website that is for the Internet,
you know, for political content and for news content. That's
one thing. But to take on the behemoth of a
CBS News with such a long heralded history and to
let someone that is from the Internet go into the
(29:22):
linear platform to change, you know, that's a real shake up.
But it's also like there's trying to make changes to
a traditional platform that doesn't work. So there is an
analysis from the rap that came up about this, and
it's all centering around a sixty minutes investigation that was
(29:44):
supposed to run this past Sunday after football on CBS,
but was replaced last minute for Monday Mornings dot m
editorial call. The editor in chief of CBS Newsbury Weiss,
talked about having trust, both our trust for each other
(30:06):
and our trust with the public, and on sixty minutes,
Barry Weiss, as editor in chief, abruptly pulled a veteran
correspondence report on the brutal and tortuous conditions Venezuela mirgrants
endured after they were sent and deported to a notorious
(30:26):
El Salvador prison, a supermax prison, and Sharon Alfonsi was
the reporter on that, and Barry Weiss told her staff
that I held a sixty minute story because it was
not ready and that the piece did not advance the
ball beyond what other outlets were reported.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
We needed to be able to get the principles on
the record and on camera, and then our viewers come
first on the listing schedule or anything else. That's my
north star, and I hope it's yours too. No one
said anything after that, but then the word was according
to the rap, once told them everyone newsroom in New
York noticed the silence of the executives. After Barry spoke,
(31:05):
Weisse turned to Wendy Fisher, seeing your, vice president of
Editorial for VS News and Stations, continue the editorial call
focus on the news to day without addressing a decision
as up into the newsroom. So they're saying that there
are certain ulterra your motives that Barry Wises had to
pull the story weighing the marriage of a sixty minutes
(31:27):
investigative story and then decided to go ahead and pull
it because of who might not like the story. Now,
according to the rap here they say, even if Barry
Weiss had a legitimate journalistic concerns. An insider says she
articulated behind the scenes mishandled them by allowing the piece
to be widely promoted for days before abruptly pulling it
Sunday evening with a little explanation beyond the segmenting, additional reporting,
(31:49):
and vague plans to air in the future broadcast Now
I'll Fonsi, the reporter suggested Wis made a political decision
to hold their story and that the second was screened
five times. It cleared by both CBS attorneys and seniors
and practices. Now she's been known along a bunch of
circles when it comes to talking on you know, for
(32:11):
herself before joining CBS News, being on Real Time with
Bill maher working in the New York Times as an
opinion writer and editor. But one of the things that
also is making CBS News a little bit apprehensive is
but the fact of having the go and pull stories
out of sixty minutes because of the suit that President
(32:32):
Trump put against sixty minutes, to which sixty million dollars
was worded to the President by Paramountain Sky Dance as
a result of it, whatever that reason was, and however,
people willing to feel about it again. I'm not talking
politics on this program. I'm just saying what's the actual
fact on here? And Barry Wis has not spoken to
(32:55):
the public since this happened. So one of the SEC commissioners,
and Gomez, a Democrat, made a point that against the
backdrop of increased government pressure, reports the CBS news interfere
with the editorial judgment of sixty minutes are deeply alarming
and striking the heart of press freedom, and that the
public has the right to question how CBS will ensure
the independence and integrity of his journalism going forward, that
(33:17):
the network will prove its viewers with a clear accounting
of how this decision was made and demonstrate how it
will safeguard the Inpenansul his newsroom. Well, the thing is
with Barry Weiss, Okay, if you're going to go ahead
and you know, make changes to a story, then where
were you being involved with it?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I think that's the part I think we will understand
is that traditional media moves very slow. If we're talking
about a story about the deported immigrants being held under
bad conditions and of Venezuela in prison, that story has
been going on for most of the year, so of
course investigative story. They probably could have run this a
(33:55):
couple of months ago, so to run it here, it
took some time for this to all happened, and Barry
Weiss might be under that whole impression of where she
was in journalism where you could pull a story just before.
But like doesn't understand that CBS News they have to
go through the network to go and promote sixty Minutes
(34:16):
because it is heavily promoted throughout the week and especially
during football. So if they can't deliver on the story
for whatever reason and for people to go in and
tune into that, especially with sixty Minutes being such a
popular program still one of the top what five top
ten shows in network television because of the overrun of
the NFL, so a lot of eyeballs on that program.
(34:40):
They can't just promise something on during football and just
not show it. So they're right about that. Sixty Minutes
being a news magazine doesn't have that problem normally to
go and have particular interviews that they can't just run through. So,
I mean, the one thing is why pull the story
(35:01):
if there's pressure. What I would prefer Barry Weiss to
do in that situation is you run the story anyway,
and if there's something that comes back to it that
causes the surf in the White House, for example, you retract,
or you disclaim it, or you correct the record on television.
(35:23):
What is so hard about that? Why are we pressured
for the fact that, Okay, you want to put the
story out there. You prepared the story, your legal team
has gone through it, standards of practice have gone through it.
Run the story. You take the risk. Okay, there might
be some reporting that might be a little bit that
that might cause some stirring up, but no matter what.
(35:47):
This is where you disclaim okay, when there are stories
that go out there and there's a gross okay for
this is the BBC and the News magazine had over
there and on various stories they report over there, and
a whistleblower from the BBC spoke with a Telegraph in
(36:08):
the UK and told them, hey, look there's gross, mister
Porney going on by the BBC, a government owned entity
which is paid for by taxpayers in Britain. Yeah, they're
doing some nefarious things over there with their programming, with
their content on news. So you know, to have to
(36:34):
go and go for so long with what they did.
You know, again, it was deceptive editing they did on that,
which is the same they said with the Kamlina Harris view.
There was deceptive editing. That's the part everybody was competing about.
So you know, there's that, and that happens a lot
of news, But I don't know if that was going
to be done on this particular story of the deportations.
(36:56):
I don't know, but I think people would have been
more interested in watching the story and if there's some
blowback to it, then letters to the editor. There is corrections,
you correct the record. Journalist can get something wrong, or
they can do something where it causes blowback and they
have to respond to it. But to be afraid of
(37:20):
a potential lawsuit, well that's on the network itself. They
are gonna do something that's going to cause a lawsuit,
I mean libel and slander. You know, statutes still hold
in this country. So if you're doing something that you
know is gonna go ahead and probably tip the scale
on something that being libeleis or slanders against somebody public, yeah,
(37:41):
then lawsuits can be filed. But I don't know what
the story was going to do. I don't know it
was going to be libelists or slanders about this at all.
But if there's going some incorrect reporting, okay, then you
corrected after that. But the story's done. Your team is
confident and they trust that the content is good. So
put it out there. Because this just made things look worse,
(38:05):
That's what it was. And apparently what made it even
worse is that, according to Hall to Reporter, this episode,
this particular segment still ran in Canada. CBS pulled the segment,
but the original version of the news magazine apparently aired
in Canada. A source of Canada confirmed it that as
(38:26):
early Monday evening, the full original sixty minutes episode, which
include the segment entitled Inside Seacot, was available on globals
TV streaming platform, which carries some of CBS's programming. And
Globe was a big TV network in Canada. And there's
(38:48):
the thing about media being too slow in the traditional media.
So by Barry Weiss when she asked the episode be adjusted,
the network already released in the week's lineup for the
news magazine and everything came too late. And whatever they
had at Global they ran right. So whoever is responsible
(39:14):
for transmitting the episode to Global the Canadian TV partner
did not make the request of change, so they still
ran it. So the segment is still now widely available
on platforms like x and YouTube from viewers posting segments
of the videos of the segment, though copyright complains from
CBS could temper that enthusiasm, so it still got out
there anyway. So Barry Wise made a big screw up.
(39:38):
Who knows if it was a matter of how long
it takes for their team to ask for the change
we made, but who was going back to Barry Whites
and saying, Verry, we can't make that change. The wheels
in motion, we can't retract all this in time. It's
not going to happen. We have too many places they're
going to be worried about this, So you have to
(39:59):
have more time, I'm in front before you make this
kind of change. And shouldn't it happened the week of
should it happened maybe the week before or even a
week before that. So big screw up all around and
Barry Weiss, I don't know how long she's going to
be around at that out outfit right there, but that
she's not making good, good decisions overall, not working for
(40:20):
her follow a news story here from Hollywood a new
big labor deal coming up and the Writers Guild. So
there's sag After, Writers Guild and Directors Guild all looking
in together for longer multi year deals. Sag After already
looking to go and start off twenty twenty six contract
(40:43):
and negotiations with studios as streamers, and according to Deadline
dot Com, the AMPTP being led now by Greg Hessinger,
is parring to offer the Actors' Union, the Director's Guild
of America and the Writers Guild massive injection of cash
to get their respective health plan and tip top shape,
(41:04):
and studious streamers want gills to agree to their shift
contract links from three years to five years, but nothing's
been putting in writing officially and sack After Zadi and
schedules sit down with AMPTP until early February. But insiders
(41:27):
know that one of the three guilds has a six
month reserve and the AMPTP has pretty much lined up
studios and streamers to go and put this out there
or put a figure to be put on the table.
So they want to offer one hundred and ten million
dollars to sack After and the Digital the Director's Guild
(41:48):
of America to get their respective Catillac plans in the black,
the best healthcare plans they have available.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Now.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Plans are currently running huge demhicis on the month by
month going to a weld Verse studio and streamer source
and that they're all hemorrhaging money on the healthcare plans
that they have to go and support for the actors
or directors or whatever. So they got that coming up
as well. Five year contracts they also want to put
together as well, and you know, make the pot thicker
(42:20):
and much more generous for healthcare for the actors, directors
and the like for talent. So that's pretty good stuff.
I like the proactiveness of this. That's a good thing
right there all together, So I enjoy that. That's a
show man. I thought I was gonna go a little
bit shorter than that, but we went through a lot
and I still have another show to gun put out
(42:43):
for this week, so that's gonna be fun. And one
last story to bring up here before we wrap things up.
Charlotin and the God signs in their five year, two
hundred million dollar extension with iHeartMedia. He's now around after
Netflix as a green to stream the Breakfast Club Morning Show,
which runs the syndicated to this radio stations all across
(43:05):
the country. Charlomagne and God twenty million dollars a year
for his show. I don't know. I guess it's all
that working out with that Andrew Schultz is. We're going
out well for him, I guess. Anyway, come back and
enjoy my interview with Rol Figilmez here on the Broadcast podcast.
Remember the content is king, and the control of your
content is in your hands.
Podcasting since two thousand and five. This is the King
of Podcasts Radio Network, kingo Podcasts dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tis the season of giving. Thus I give you another
bonus broadcast of the Broadcasters podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
The King of podcast Radio Network proadly presents to the
Broadcasters podcast. Here is the King of.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Podcasts Guy's count. This is episode four hundred and eighteen
of the Broadcasters podcast King of Podcasts. Here with you
bonus episode. Look, I'm here because you know, as always,
there's gonna be some things that will come up for
the year that I had the lecture time right now,
and with my schedule the way it's kind of working out,
I had time this week to go ahead and add
(00:46):
another episode because my plan, as I said last week,
was to bring you an interview, which I'm still going
to bring you. Rothy Gomez. He hosts the Twitch stream
called Dancitteria We Want. He's also done shows with the
Groove Boutique on syndicated radio, among other things. So fascinating
radio career for him. And I have Ralfi Gomez as
(01:10):
a guest here on the program and that interview you
will hear this coming Thursday, and it's normal time slot
here on the Broadcasters podcast, but the news that's coming
out this week, I couldn't help but put another show
in to the can because there are gonna be some
things that I do not want to go and wait
until next week that came up. So let's get in
(01:31):
a few of those things. It won't be a very
long program. We'll probably go about half an hour, but
I want to go through a few things, a little
bit of end of year stuff that I thought would
also go into things as well. But let's go into
this like right now, just for fun. I want to
go into the movies that I enjoyed this year. Now,
everybody's putting out their top ten songs, top ten music,
all this stuff, and you know, I can tell you
(01:52):
exactly what's on my Spotify when it comes to the
top ten songs that I enjoyed the most this year,
according to my Spotify. And if I haven't told you
already yet, the top ten songs on my list here
are Swedish Mafia and Wait So Long? Why Do I
Have to Dynamite by Tyler and whizz Kid is by
(02:14):
number nine. A Denbo song called Trollo by rocchi Aire
and Donati at number eight. Also Big edim FM, by
the Way, Move a Little Closer by Dubbs and Abby Flynn.
Tate McCrery sports Car comes in at number six. Jumped
by Black Pink is number five. No No Brook Boys
(02:34):
by Disco Lines to Tinasee at four, Hearing Your Arms
Beneath the Dawtony with Abby Flynn at three, number two
and number one, I said earlier Gabriella and Narali with
Katsai from by Katsi. So Gabrielle two Gnarly was number
one in my movie list. I want to get into
that real quick based on the movies that are out
(02:57):
then twenty twenty five. I don't want to give an exact, say,
top ten list, but I'll get into where I have
just looking at the top twenty five top grossing movies,
and I'll give you what ten movies that I would
absolutely say were my favorite is Your Rental Family would
go right into that list. I would go ahead and
put after that Nuremberg I'd put on that list. I
(03:23):
would put Cott Stealing with the movie with Austin Butler, Nuremberg.
That was Robbie Mallick and John Slattery, among other people. Bogonia,
Emma Stone, Jesse Plemans I would put at that list
as well. Baby Girl with Nicole Kimmen I would also
(03:43):
put on that list. I will say I enjoyed The
House Maide this weekend. I would almost put that in
the list, but I think maybe not yet. Black Bag
one of my favorites of the year. Nobody too, I
really enjoyed this year. And to go a little bit
higher up, I would say The Amateur would also be
(04:06):
on that list. I would put Chainsaw the Man the
movie in that list. I know, it's a very weird
list that I have. I would put The Accountant two
up there. I would put one Battle after another up there.
These are all movies that I saw this year. Then
I would include F one and Sinners. I don't know
(04:29):
if that makes ten, but that's the top movies that
I saw this year that I really enjoyed and one
on my way to go and watch. I would also
put Relay on that list as well, which was not
a movie that a lot of people talked about, but
I really did enjoy this year. It's just kind of
out there for people. Just wasn't that big of a
movie that everybody talked about. But that's okay. Honorable mentioned.
(04:53):
I would give to Alto Knights. I enjoyed that as well.
That's Joe Pescian, Robert de Niro. Obviously not a lot
of people talk about this movie, but I really did
enjoy it. If I had to pick movies on the
bottom part of the list, who I could give you
a couple, I would put Honey Don't in that mix
because it just didn't get right. It didn't go right
for me. Hurry Up Tomorrow is absolutely on that. It's
(05:17):
not the worst of the list. Oh my goodness, the
weekend he made money though, I'll give him that, and
I will put tron areas in that list as well.
Deserve it. It's just true. So let's move along into
the feature story. SEC Ownership caps and the National Association
(05:38):
of Broadcasters are putting their pressure campaign up against Congress
right now an SEC necessarily to eliminate or relax radio
ownership limits. So the were commiss that we're filed to
the SEC and the Quadrennial Media Ownership Review. We know
that we've been worrying about this and hearing about this
particular part of the SEC ownership rules that was going
(06:01):
to be considered in the quadronial review, and so the
idea is to eliminate or substantially relax further local radio
ownership limits because the decades old restrictions no longer serve
the public interest an immediate marketplace dominated by unregulated digital competitors. So, yes,
the Internet is hurting us. You need to help us.
Wa wha, we're crying in our PRAM. So the groups
(06:26):
and companies that have gotten into this mixed Beasley Media
Group arguing the SEC should repeal the local radio ownership
rule entirely, that the rules remain static for three decades
and eliminating the rule would allow broadcasters to develop the
account economies of scale needed to compete with large, unregulated
digital platforms and continue producing local programming and emergency services.
(06:50):
Then you have a coalition of broadcasters, Conniser Media, town Square, Bonneville, Midwest,
a couple of mid major companies also urging elimination of
the local ownership rule. So it'll modify in ways to
allow greater in market consolidation. And they say that current
ownership caps prevent stations from achieving this scale necessary to
(07:11):
compete for listeners against and advertise against digital audio platforms
and big tech companies like they haven't had their own
competition of their own cells. They're kind of going up
against themselves and not helping themselves and leveraging with quality
content or with quality talent to help support that content.
I mean, if you're diminishing the value of what you're
(07:34):
putting out on the air, why should the SEC give
you something for that? It doesn't make any sense. But
they've been using the same excuse of well, they're just
losing money hand over foot. Well, it doesn't mean that
they have to go and lose it all together. It's
because they've allowed themselves to lose consistently to streaming to
(07:56):
digital platforms, to the Internet. It's their fault. There're streaming platforms,
they're streaming services that they have right now to stream
their stations. I mean, the radio stations could have taken
advantage of the fact that they have now more of
a spectrum, more of expansive audience, that they can go
(08:20):
ahead and reach out to every one of these radio
stations that oh they're hurting because the FM dial okay this,
and that you have multiple pipelines of revenue that you
can make right now for those of these stations out here.
They don't want to go ahead and promote let's do
something here with this station. It's streaming everywhere. Okay, there
are apps out there that support what is being done
(08:44):
here with radio. Okay, tune in Radio Garden. There are
plenty of radio apps out there. iHeartRadio Odyssey or radio
dot Com or other apps out there that have thousands
of radio stations. Why are those people not listen to
(09:06):
those radio stations because they all have ads within them,
and because of the ads they have there to go
and support, they're not doing anything to go ahead and
limit the amount of inventory of ad space. I mean,
you could do what YouTube does more often and say, okay,
you want to have some kind of ads up there
for people to listen to, so that because you'd listen
(09:28):
to your content, you don't offer a subscription model so
that people can listen to your station commercial free. But
then you also add the talent, and then you also,
you know, work harder on putting on more favorable playlists
out there for those that are streaming. I mean, really,
how often do radio stations consider the audience that is
(09:49):
streaming for their music to make them stand up among
the others. The whole point is is that there are
people that will still listen to radio. I mean, there's
people that listen that watch on TikTok or Twitch, and
there are people that are commenting all the time during songs.
So there's a space for that, and it doesn't mean
(10:11):
that radio doesn't have to go and do that anymore.
They can help to identify songs or identify artists that
people should listen to more, but they don't want to
do that. I mean, the thing is you could also
stream in the way of where they don't utilize Twitch
to go ahead and have maybe a web cam out
(10:32):
there and have people that are streaming. I mean, some
of these DJs are doing that somewhat themselves, but they're
really not doing much more. They're not necessarily having the
streams up so they can have people to listen to
their music because they're not doing that. The whole point
is that radio has not successfully learned how to multiplatform
(10:53):
and they don't want the multiplatform. They still want to
try to make people go and watch listen to their
AMFM signal and spend on that in particular, but they're
not doing anything to make radio would is still available
in every automobile as far as I know, every automobile
still has an infotamus system that has AM and FM.
(11:14):
And even if you lose AM, it's you know, it
still has FM out there. There are enough spots on
the dollar to go ahead and take those stations and
do something with but they don't do that. Plus, if
you have the ownership change so that let's say newspapers,
local magazines, alternative publications. Who knows what other media is
(11:36):
out there that's going to be evolved in this? Tell
me something. So if you have these newspapers are going
to be involved with this, and then let's just say
that these media companies decide to go ahead and bring
on different linear platforms. Okay, radio with the newspaper, will
you let the newspaper actually help to operate the radio station.
Will you let their people go ahead and work on
that radio station? Will that be possible? I mean, if
(11:59):
you have people that are on television and you want
to put them on the radio, I don't know, there's
something where are you going to let some of that
talent that you have on other platforms that you own,
will you incorporate into the radio station or you're just
gonna let the radio station operate like it normally does that.
Where's the compromise here in return for getting the right
(12:24):
to ask the SEC to repeal and eliminate the local
radio ownership rule, where is the compromise for stations to say, Okay,
if we do this, then we need to show that
we're going to invest more on the radio airways, because
we need to make sure that people if they're going
(12:46):
to watch the station or listen to the station on
a digital stream, they need to be actually investing in
the actual content and not just trying to go and
prop up their stations with more money coming from somewhere
else and allowing radio to be a loss leader. Does
that make sense? I don't hear any of these radio
(13:07):
companies saying that. More on the coalition. They say that
preserving localism and diversity now depends on allowing broadcasters to
expand their reach within local markets without regulatory relief, They warn,
radio continue to lose audience share and advertising revenue undermanding
his ability to invest in staffing, programming, and community service.
What's holding you back from putting the staffing together, well,
the programming and cocurity service. If you just have people
(13:31):
that are just engineers or producers, in there and you
bring people from let's just say city or county government
or advocacy organizations, whatever. There are plenty of people that
we're going to do public affairs programming for you. Now,
it might not generate a whole lot of buzz, but
like you have, I'm pretty sure enough resources in any
(13:53):
given local market to bring them to the radio station
and utilize them for public affairs, to use them for
programming will be good for the local public. Are they
doing that? Not anymore? Not as much, I don't think so.
JVC Media, which is owner of an operator of radio
stations down here in South Florida where I'm at Central
South Florida, they say that they support modernizing and meaningfully
(14:16):
relaxing and limits, arguing the current rules are outdated, economically restrictive,
and fundamentally misaligned with today is competitive media landscape. And
they said ownership flexibility would allow broadcasters to pull resources
three streams and emergency operations and if that's the more
local content rather than less so for the local smaller stations. Yeah,
AJVC Media they want to get something more to pull
(14:41):
from other media resources that they would own. That's kind
of like what I'm talking about. But I want all
these stations to do the same thing in return for
the local radio ownership rule to be relaxed or eliminated. Now,
the National Association to Broadcasters wants all the rules to
be abolished, that they should be abused, contending the rigid
(15:04):
ownership limits should be abandoned in favor of case by
case transaction review that the agency has already taken that
approach with wireless carriers and other media services. So the
docket remains open for reply comments from January sixteenth to
next year. SEC Chair Brendon Carr says he remains very
opvided on how the SEC will move forward. And that's
a lot so a lot of companies coming in and
(15:27):
making their point. These companies all here collectively, they're saying
that the key to reviving revenue and radio is deregulation
and it would in turn inspire advertiser investment then give
stations the ability to maintain the infrastructure to provide localmus
and information. And many the arguments are declining ad dollars
unless their numbers. According to a Barrell Associates survey, on average,
(15:55):
individual radio stations receive one percent less than one percent
of total local advertising share this year, and they say
that fighting to achieve a one percent share is not
a means the local radio survival. I'll think of this
form radio World. By the way, the companies are also
arguing that radio groups to own more stations in their
markets is essential for competing with big tech.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Now.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
The SEC reasited this quadrinual review of the radio ownership
caps in twenty eighteen and kept everything status quot But
then the SEC was still looking and viewing the radio
in market as a separate marketplace, and the NAB was
saying that the Internet was relevant competition to radio. But
(16:41):
now they're going to go to that at this point,
and by insisting the review order radio remains a unique marketplace,
the Commission ducked the competition analysis that section two of
two of the Telecommunications Act in the nineteen eighty six requires
quote if radio continues to be defined as a unique market,
the commit she could leave the ownership restrictions on radio
(17:02):
in place forever to make sure that no radio company
dominates the radio market, even as radio faded into obscurity.
Now the SEC says they can no longer distinguish that
the SEC cannot distinguish radio broadcasting from other platforms because
it is a reservice. And Edison Research says that sixty
(17:22):
six percent of Americans using streaming audio do on platforms
with paid subscriptions, so they're giving all their stats. And
the shift from traditional the digital ad spending is on
a meteoric rise. Digital media share of all local advertising
has gone from twenty six percent in twenty fifteen to
(17:46):
seventy percent in twenty twenty four. So one of the things,
for instance, is an example, if the SEC cannot get
an elimination of local radio ownership, they want to have
the current to be modified significantly. So in San Francisco,
for example, the caps should allow ownership of more than
twenty radio stations rather than be restricted to eight stations
(18:11):
currently permitted. Do you understand what this means. We're talking
about that eventually many of these radio stations will be
owned by no more than a couple of different operators
and that'll be it, with some local operations still available.
But some of these local stations they'll probably be picked up.
(18:31):
And the thing is, I don't understand why they want
to go and worry about this, because for some of
the radio stations, they want to go and buy Okay,
there's gonna be some merging between some companies for the
radio stations. I guess see we're Infinity or now Odyssey.
They will go in and sell their stations as somebody else.
I mean, can iHeart get into the mix? Are there
(18:52):
other media companies that want to get into the mix
and buy up willether it be more investment dollars from
iHeart or audits here these other radio companies to buy
up and buy more into intellectual properties of these other
radio stations. Like how many more stations do they want
that are Class A, Class B, Class E ten fifteen
(19:13):
hundred thousand watts? Like how many more stations are viable
for any of these companies that going to own and operate,
Which if they do take those stations over, they will
own and operate them at the bare minimum, and they'll
just hold on to them basically almost like it's ransom
because they're not going to do anything to help program
and improve these stations. Because remember, at the end of
(19:34):
the day, a lot of these radio companies are owned
by private equity, so they just want to hold on
to it. But they're not going necessarily do anything to
help improve the radio stations if you want to keep it,
so it'll be profiting something. But at the same time,
then they can also own and operate newspapers and other
digitant and traditional outlets and then just buy whatever they
(19:54):
want and just consolidate everything. So if a company wants
to go and buy ten twenty radio stations, basically take
the entire market of stations and the TV stations and
the newspapers and let one company own everything. I mean, well,
(20:15):
you have stations that will go silent. They'll just be
taken off the air because stations will be just consolidated
or some wilcast or whatever. I don't know. And the
ownership rules will that also count towards the non commercial stations?
Will those dials be well that part of the dial
(20:36):
above ninety two FM, Will that be considered commercial? And
then those will all be for sale too. We don't know.
But if these ownership caps are allowed to happen, I mean,
it just breaks open that there will be no local operators.
I mean, it's completely against what they're saying, but these
(20:58):
companies don't care. I want the sec out to go
and do it, but they're gonna do it anyway. Probably,
I could say no, I can say please stop, but
the National Association to Broadcasters an extremely powerful lobby, and
you know the regulation is gonna happen anyway. So if
they want to continue to have all these companies just
buy everything up on the linear side, then just things
(21:21):
go ahead and continue to fall apart. iHeart Radio is
obviously seeing that they're not looking into the radio model
as a revenue stream. They're just kind of holding onto
it while they are monetizing and profiting off of podcasts.
Now they have to deal with Netflix. They have some
of their broadcasting over on Netflix. And what is iHeartRadio doing.
They're gonna start supporting full length video podcasts beginning in
(21:43):
twenty twenty six, so they're gonna plan to add full
length video podcast distribution to iHeart Radio, and podcasts will
be able to distribute full length video versions of the
shows onto the app and web versions of iHeart Radio
among traditional audio episodes. What audio what Spotify has already
(22:03):
been doing. I don't know if iTunes have gotten there
or Apple podcasts gotten there, I don't know. But the
expansion is being built around three core principles creative integrity, monetization,
autonomy and control over hosting and creators will determine how
their constant a personal platform, whether the audio only, video
or both, over retaining ownership of their work. Bob Pittman,
(22:27):
the IR chairman and CEO, says a video podcasting is
now emerging as a completely separate and incremental formed audio
and the same way podcasting. Of all, this is a
new layer on top of broadcast radio. Video is becoming
an additional layer for creators. Well they decided to go
go this route, I don't know if it's gonna make
much of a difference. But then again, I am also
(22:49):
not that privative video podcasts. Look, I know that people
want to create some kind of visual to their podcasting,
and I could have done that too with all my programming.
But for what I'm doing a monologue on most of
my shows, and if I have guests, that's all on
(23:09):
a zoom call or just like your Google meet or
whatever it is. For me, does it really matter to
putting out up on video? Like, I'm not gonna go
through the trouble of adding you know, lower thirds and
a little bit of sweeps, a little bit of video
magic on here to make it look nice and clean. No,
I mean it doesn't matter to me because you still
(23:30):
know that. On YouTube they talk about the fact that
thirty percent of all podcasts are actually being seen. Most
people are still passively watching podcasts, but they're listening to
it more So, if every good podcast out there continues
to remember that, people are gonna be listening to you,
and they don't necessarily have to go ahead and watch
the TV to go ahead and listen to you, They're
gonna listen anyway because podcasting is still audio first. Audio
(23:55):
is still priority, and if you don't do it that way,
you're doing television. Let's just make that clear. But I
see so many different podcasts with a video element, a
video component. That's fine, but like, give me some reason
why you want to go ahead and have yourself on
camera so you can show the same studio that you
(24:17):
have a nice looking setup and you do it and
everybody gets to see the same one over and over,
or because if you have a guest on, you want
to have that guest be seen and that might interest
people to watch. But you're not showing any extra information,
you're not showing any b roll, You're not doing anything
where you're giving us other things to watch on the screen.
(24:37):
If it's just back and forth, it's one thing, you know.
So it's television. I mean, we have talk shows out there,
we have people that are doing those kind of shows.
But even if people are doing monologues, which some people
don't want to, you know, if they're doing podcasting, they
might not even think about doing a monologue or maybe
(24:58):
not have an extra co host, and they'll still do
a show. And I'm like, Okay, well you want to
do that, that's fine. But I never thought about it myself.
I just consider, you know what, I want to just
keep doing this like I do. And some twelve years
later after starting off this podcast project is King of Podcasts.
I haven't worried about video. Once in a while to
put something up, but really not really. I'll support the
(25:21):
video component and put out subtitles that I think are important.
So if you're listening to the show and you can't
necessarily listen to it right then and there, but you
want to read the subtitles, I'll give you that, like
I'll give you something besides what you're normally watching. And
I think that's a good thing that makes it a
little more beneficial for people. But I know that you know,
(25:43):
there's a YouTube audience that we'll catch my content and
they want to get into it because that's where they
normally catch all their podcasts. Like the one thing is
with YouTube, it's a great place to find podcasts and
listen to them, and if you want to listen to
them as a podcast, or you want to want to
listen to it more or watch them, it's good. But
because YouTube is such a great platform bridge for distribution,
(26:05):
that's why videos become important plus a social media component,
Like I understand if you want to go and put
out video as clips to draw people to the actual audio,
that sounds like a good thing. There's not a lot
that I see and in a podcast that tells me
that it needs to be on television or they need
(26:26):
to have a video component. But hey, listen, if you
have the willingness to go and get a new camera
and you know you want to put it out there
and make it look nice, that means you can't get
rid of the studdards and stammers. Your editing is gonna
be a little bit tougher to go and do, and
the amount of time the render is much longer. That's
the part I can't stand. And that's why I don't
like doing video because it takes more time to produce audio.
(26:50):
I can get this done in less than an hour
and do everything I need to do when I finish
a recording, and so I can record as much as
I want. I get this every day, And it would
be easy when you just like crank out a podcast,
crank out one, crank out one, crank out one done.
But I do want a video of more time. And
(27:10):
trust me, I have a client right now that I
do for video, and don't get me wrong, descript is
a great platform out there. But then if you want
to do all the other elements you want to put
with it, I mean that's the part where like, okay,
I could do all the video stuff more, it could
be are more than capable of doing that, but it
takes too long. Like if you wanted to be high quality,
(27:32):
you wanted to be four K or a high HD
at ten ep whatever to do all that and make
it thirty to sixty minutes we're talking, you know, up
to like an hour sometimes of rendering the video to
get it where you wanted to be with all those
changes the elements. I don't want to make time for that,
and the thing is, you know how much of a
(27:54):
powerful computer you need with enough RAM or bandwidth out
there to be able to go ahead and generate it quickly.
It's not that easy. But that's the part I don't
worry about. I want to get keep doing all all
that work. It's just too much. Now an interesting story
from the area of CBS News. I have not talked
about this at all, but I think this week is
(28:16):
a pretty good week about it because of what happened
a lot the decision to go in and let the
editor of The Free Press, a popular website, Barry Weiss.
He's been on TJoe Rogan, she's been on different other
shows and has been out there's a political component for
a long time. She was picked to go and become
(28:39):
editor in chief at CBS News. And so there have
been changes being made, changes to the evening news to
sixty minutes and all together, just making changes and putting
out programming that's trying to also be for the Internet,
to put out streaming content that's going to get a
lot of buzz, and put some news brogging out on
the linear to try to do something more with it. Now,
(29:02):
to go ahead and take someone that is done a
pretty good job on a website that is for the Internet,
you know, for political content and for news content. That's
one thing. But to take on the behemoth of a
CBS News with such a long heralded history and to
let someone that is from the Internet go into the
(29:22):
linear platform to change, you know, that's a real shake up.
But it's also like there's trying to make changes to
a traditional platform that doesn't work. So there is an
analysis from the rap that came up about this, and
it's all centering around a sixty minutes investigation that was
(29:44):
supposed to run this past Sunday after football on CBS,
but was replaced last minute for Monday Mornings dot m
editorial call. The editor in chief of CBS Newsbury Weiss,
talked about having trust, both our trust for each other
(30:06):
and our trust with the public, and on sixty minutes,
Barry Weiss, as editor in chief, abruptly pulled a veteran
correspondence report on the brutal and tortuous conditions Venezuela mirgrants
endured after they were sent and deported to a notorious
(30:26):
El Salvador prison, a supermax prison, and Sharon Alfonsi was
the reporter on that, and Barry Weiss told her staff
that I held a sixty minute story because it was
not ready and that the piece did not advance the
ball beyond what other outlets were reported.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
We needed to be able to get the principles on
the record and on camera, and then our viewers come
first on the listing schedule or anything else. That's my
north star, and I hope it's yours too. No one
said anything after that, but then the word was according
to the rap, once told them everyone newsroom in New
York noticed the silence of the executives. After Barry spoke,
(31:05):
Weisse turned to Wendy Fisher, seeing your, vice president of
Editorial for VS News and Stations, continue the editorial call
focus on the news to day without addressing a decision
as up into the newsroom. So they're saying that there
are certain ulterra your motives that Barry Wises had to
pull the story weighing the marriage of a sixty minutes
(31:27):
investigative story and then decided to go ahead and pull
it because of who might not like the story. Now,
according to the rap here they say, even if Barry
Weiss had a legitimate journalistic concerns. An insider says she
articulated behind the scenes mishandled them by allowing the piece
to be widely promoted for days before abruptly pulling it
Sunday evening with a little explanation beyond the segmenting, additional reporting,
(31:49):
and vague plans to air in the future broadcast Now
I'll Fonsi, the reporter suggested Wis made a political decision
to hold their story and that the second was screened
five times. It cleared by both CBS attorneys and seniors
and practices. Now she's been known along a bunch of
circles when it comes to talking on you know, for
(32:11):
herself before joining CBS News, being on Real Time with
Bill maher working in the New York Times as an
opinion writer and editor. But one of the things that
also is making CBS News a little bit apprehensive is
but the fact of having the go and pull stories
out of sixty minutes because of the suit that President
(32:32):
Trump put against sixty minutes, to which sixty million dollars
was worded to the President by Paramountain Sky Dance as
a result of it, whatever that reason was, and however,
people willing to feel about it again. I'm not talking
politics on this program. I'm just saying what's the actual
fact on here? And Barry Wis has not spoken to
(32:55):
the public since this happened. So one of the SEC commissioners,
and Gomez, a Democrat, made a point that against the
backdrop of increased government pressure, reports the CBS news interfere
with the editorial judgment of sixty minutes are deeply alarming
and striking the heart of press freedom, and that the
public has the right to question how CBS will ensure
the independence and integrity of his journalism going forward, that
(33:17):
the network will prove its viewers with a clear accounting
of how this decision was made and demonstrate how it
will safeguard the Inpenansul his newsroom. Well, the thing is
with Barry Weiss, Okay, if you're going to go ahead
and you know, make changes to a story, then where
were you being involved with it?
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (33:35):
I think that's the part I think we will understand
is that traditional media moves very slow. If we're talking
about a story about the deported immigrants being held under
bad conditions and of Venezuela in prison, that story has
been going on for most of the year, so of
course investigative story. They probably could have run this a
(33:55):
couple of months ago, so to run it here, it
took some time for this to all happened, and Barry
Weiss might be under that whole impression of where she
was in journalism where you could pull a story just before.
But like doesn't understand that CBS News they have to
go through the network to go and promote sixty Minutes
(34:16):
because it is heavily promoted throughout the week and especially
during football. So if they can't deliver on the story
for whatever reason and for people to go in and
tune into that, especially with sixty Minutes being such a
popular program still one of the top what five top
ten shows in network television because of the overrun of
the NFL, so a lot of eyeballs on that program.
(34:40):
They can't just promise something on during football and just
not show it. So they're right about that. Sixty Minutes
being a news magazine doesn't have that problem normally to
go and have particular interviews that they can't just run through. So,
I mean, the one thing is why pull the story
(35:01):
if there's pressure. What I would prefer Barry Weiss to
do in that situation is you run the story anyway,
and if there's something that comes back to it that
causes the surf in the White House, for example, you retract,
or you disclaim it, or you correct the record on television.
(35:23):
What is so hard about that? Why are we pressured
for the fact that, Okay, you want to put the
story out there. You prepared the story, your legal team
has gone through it, standards of practice have gone through it.
Run the story. You take the risk. Okay, there might
be some reporting that might be a little bit that
that might cause some stirring up, but no matter what.
(35:47):
This is where you disclaim okay, when there are stories
that go out there and there's a gross okay for
this is the BBC and the News magazine had over
there and on various stories they report over there, and
a whistleblower from the BBC spoke with a Telegraph in
(36:08):
the UK and told them, hey, look there's gross, mister
Porney going on by the BBC, a government owned entity
which is paid for by taxpayers in Britain. Yeah, they're
doing some nefarious things over there with their programming, with
their content on news. So you know, to have to
(36:34):
go and go for so long with what they did.
You know, again, it was deceptive editing they did on that,
which is the same they said with the Kamlina Harris view.
There was deceptive editing. That's the part everybody was competing about.
So you know, there's that, and that happens a lot
of news, But I don't know if that was going
to be done on this particular story of the deportations.
(36:56):
I don't know, but I think people would have been
more interested in watching the story and if there's some
blowback to it, then letters to the editor. There is corrections,
you correct the record. Journalist can get something wrong, or
they can do something where it causes blowback and they
have to respond to it. But to be afraid of
(37:20):
a potential lawsuit, well that's on the network itself. They
are gonna do something that's going to cause a lawsuit,
I mean libel and slander. You know, statutes still hold
in this country. So if you're doing something that you
know is gonna go ahead and probably tip the scale
on something that being libeleis or slanders against somebody public, yeah,
(37:41):
then lawsuits can be filed. But I don't know what
the story was going to do. I don't know it
was going to be libelists or slanders about this at all.
But if there's going some incorrect reporting, okay, then you
corrected after that. But the story's done. Your team is
confident and they trust that the content is good. So
put it out there. Because this just made things look worse,
(38:05):
That's what it was. And apparently what made it even
worse is that, according to Hall to Reporter, this episode,
this particular segment still ran in Canada. CBS pulled the segment,
but the original version of the news magazine apparently aired
in Canada. A source of Canada confirmed it that as
(38:26):
early Monday evening, the full original sixty minutes episode, which
include the segment entitled Inside Seacot, was available on globals
TV streaming platform, which carries some of CBS's programming. And
Globe was a big TV network in Canada. And there's
(38:48):
the thing about media being too slow in the traditional media.
So by Barry Weiss when she asked the episode be adjusted,
the network already released in the week's lineup for the
news magazine and everything came too late. And whatever they
had at Global they ran right. So whoever is responsible
(39:14):
for transmitting the episode to Global the Canadian TV partner
did not make the request of change, so they still
ran it. So the segment is still now widely available
on platforms like x and YouTube from viewers posting segments
of the videos of the segment, though copyright complains from
CBS could temper that enthusiasm, so it still got out
there anyway. So Barry Wise made a big screw up.
(39:38):
Who knows if it was a matter of how long
it takes for their team to ask for the change
we made, but who was going back to Barry Whites
and saying, Verry, we can't make that change. The wheels
in motion, we can't retract all this in time. It's
not going to happen. We have too many places they're
going to be worried about this, So you have to
(39:59):
have more time, I'm in front before you make this
kind of change. And shouldn't it happened the week of
should it happened maybe the week before or even a
week before that. So big screw up all around and
Barry Weiss, I don't know how long she's going to
be around at that out outfit right there, but that
she's not making good, good decisions overall, not working for
(40:20):
her follow a news story here from Hollywood a new
big labor deal coming up and the Writers Guild. So
there's sag After, Writers Guild and Directors Guild all looking
in together for longer multi year deals. Sag After already
looking to go and start off twenty twenty six contract
(40:43):
and negotiations with studios as streamers, and according to Deadline
dot Com, the AMPTP being led now by Greg Hessinger,
is parring to offer the Actors' Union, the Director's Guild
of America and the Writers Guild massive injection of cash
to get their respective health plan and tip top shape,
(41:04):
and studious streamers want gills to agree to their shift
contract links from three years to five years, but nothing's
been putting in writing officially and sack After Zadi and
schedules sit down with AMPTP until early February. But insiders
(41:27):
know that one of the three guilds has a six
month reserve and the AMPTP has pretty much lined up
studios and streamers to go and put this out there
or put a figure to be put on the table.
So they want to offer one hundred and ten million
dollars to sack After and the Digital the Director's Guild
(41:48):
of America to get their respective Catillac plans in the black,
the best healthcare plans they have available.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Now.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Plans are currently running huge demhicis on the month by
month going to a weld Verse studio and streamer source
and that they're all hemorrhaging money on the healthcare plans
that they have to go and support for the actors
or directors or whatever. So they got that coming up
as well. Five year contracts they also want to put
together as well, and you know, make the pot thicker
(42:20):
and much more generous for healthcare for the actors, directors
and the like for talent. So that's pretty good stuff.
I like the proactiveness of this. That's a good thing
right there all together, So I enjoy that. That's a
show man. I thought I was gonna go a little
bit shorter than that, but we went through a lot
and I still have another show to gun put out
(42:43):
for this week, so that's gonna be fun. And one
last story to bring up here before we wrap things up.
Charlotin and the God signs in their five year, two
hundred million dollar extension with iHeartMedia. He's now around after
Netflix as a green to stream the Breakfast Club Morning Show,
which runs the syndicated to this radio stations all across
(43:05):
the country. Charlomagne and God twenty million dollars a year
for his show. I don't know. I guess it's all
that working out with that Andrew Schultz is. We're going
out well for him, I guess. Anyway, come back and
enjoy my interview with Rol Figilmez here on the Broadcast podcast.
Remember the content is king, and the control of your
content is in your hands.
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