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2022 NAB Marconi Radio Award Winners Announced Awards honor overall excellence and performance in radio NEW YORK – The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) tonight presented the 2022 NAB Marconi Radio Awards during a dinner celebration held at the Javits Center at NAB Show New York. The ceremony, sponsored by Xperi, was hosted by media mogul Nick Cannon with entertainment from VERZUZ host DJ Scratch. Philadelphia station WMGK-FM won the Marconi Award for Classic Hits Station of the Year. Established in 1989 and named after inventor and Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, the NAB Marconi Radio Awards are given to radio stations and outstanding on-air personalities to recognize excellence in radio.     Here is the complete list of 2022 Marconi Award winners: Legendary Radio Station of the Year KTAR-FM, Phoenix, Ariz. Legendary Radio Station Manager Joel Oxley WTOP-FM, Washington, D.C. Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year Dan Patrick Premiere Radio Networks, Inc., Sherman Oaks, Calif. Major Market Personality of the Year Greg Hill WEEI-FM, Boston, Mass. Large Market Personality of the Year Chris O'Brien and Janeen Coyle WGRR-FM, Cincinnati, Ohio Medium Market Personality of the Year Mo & StyckMan WUSY-FM, Chattanooga, Tenn. Small Market Personality of the Year Kristin Monica KTXY-FM, Columbia, Mo. Major Market Station of the Year WSB-AM, Atlanta, Ga. Large Market Station of the Year WYCD-FM, Detroit, Mich. Medium Market Station of the Year WOWO-AM, Fort Wayne, Ind. Small Market Station of the Year WXFL-FM, Florence, Ala. AC Radio Station of the Year KSTP-FM, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. Best Radio Podcast of the Year "COLD Season 2" KSL-FM, Salt Lake City, Utah CHR Station of the Year KTXY-FM, Columbia, Mo. Classic Hits Station of the Year WMGK-FM, Philadelphia, Pa. College Station of the Year WRHU-FM, Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y. Country Station of the Year KSCS-FM, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas News/Talk Station of the Year KRMG-FM, Tulsa, Okla. Religious Station of the Year WFMV-AM, Columbia, S.C. Rock Station of the Year KCMQ-FM, Columbia, Mo. Spanish Language Station of the Year WZTU-FM, Miami, Fla. Sports Station of the Year WXYT-FM, Detroit, Mich. Urban Station of the Year WALR-FM, Atlanta, Ga.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 17, 2022 Contact: Alex Styer asyter@bellevuepr.com 215-893-4293 Other honorees include David Boardman, Lynn Deppen, Alan Frank, and the Lynett-Haggerty Family PHILADELPHIA – On Thursday, December 15 th, Marc Zumoff, Philadelphia’s beloved 76ers play-by-play announcer, and Kevin Negandhi, ESPN anchor and Philadelphia native, will be honored at the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters (PAB) Annual Gold Medal Dinner. The event will honor these two Philadelphia icons alongside Temple University’s dean of the Klein College of Media and Communications, David Boardman; The Lynett-Haggerty Family, owners of Times-Shamrock Communications; Lynn Deppen of Forever Media. The PAB Gold Medal Dinner will be held for the first time in downtown Philadelphia at the Ritz-Carlton. “We are honoring a very special group of broadcast professionals that greatly contribute to the success and prestige of our association,” said Joe Conti, President of the PAB. “I’d like to throw in a special shoutout to the Lew Klein College of Communications at Temple University, as three of their alumni are being honored at this event.” GOLD MEDAL: The Gold Medal is the PAB’s highest award of distinction. The recipient must be a native Pennsylvanian, been raised in Pennsylvania, and recognized through accomplishments in the arts, communication, education, entertainment, business, public service, science, sports, or philanthropy. Marc Zumoff, Philadelphia born and raised, is the current associate director of the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media at his very own, Temple University. Zumoff has a passion for sports media and is largely involved in the industry teaching play-by-play classes at Temple and authoring his own textbook as well, Total Sports Media: Production, Performance, and Career Development. Zumoff recently retired as play-by-play announcer and voice of the Philadelphia 76ers after a career spanning more than 39 seasons covering the team. He now gives back by donating his time and talents to Philadelphia Youth Basketball and co-chairing a yearly golf outing to raise money for Maccabi USA. BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR: Receiving the 2022 Broadcaster of the Year honor is the venerable, Kevin Negandhi. Kevin Negandhi is another graduate of Temple’s Klein College and is now an ESPN anchor for the 6 P.M. SportsCenter show. Prior to his start at ESPN, he held the position of sports director at WWSB-TV in Sarasota, Florida. There he won three Associated Press awards for “Best Sports Cast,” and “Best Breaking Sports News”. In addition to being a guest-host on Get Up!, Negandhi has also hosted the Rose Parade on ABC from 2018-2020. Starting in 2015, Negandhi has hosted the Special Olympic World Games and USA Games on ESPN and ABC. Additionally, he hosted the first ever NBA Draft aired on ABC in 2020 and continues in that role. He is the first anchor of Indian-American descent to be on a national sports network in American television history. Negandhi joined ESPN in September 2006. He and his wife Monica have three children. JANET & LEW KLEIN “MAKING A DIFFERENCE” AWARD: The Janet & Lew Klein "Making a Difference" Award is given annually to either a person or an organization that has truly helped "Make a Difference" in the world.   This year’s recipient is David Boardman, Dean of the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. Boardman has held this position since 2013, coming from being Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of The Seattle Times, which won four Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership. Since then, he has done great work for Klein College and the broadcasting industry in general, and is responsible for naming his school for broadcast pioneer Lew Klein. Five years after Boardman’s start at Klein, the college was awarded the nation’s top Equity and Diversity Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. This year, Boardman was named “Administrator of the Year” nationally by that organization and the Scripps Howard Foundation. He is also the Founding Chair of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the non-profit owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and serves on the executive committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. PAB HALL OF FAME: The PAB 2022 Hall of Fame inductees will be Lynn Deppen, and Alan Frank. Lynn Deppen is the president and shareholder of Forever Media, Inc., and is responsible for all operations, business, and growth of Forever Media, with 62 radio stations located throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. In 1977, he graduated from the Electronic Institutes in Harrisburg with an associates degree and began to make his mark in the industry right away. Deppen is a pioneer in the broadcasting industry, building many new radio stations from scratch. Before his start at Forever Media Lynn worked at broadcasting companies like Taft Broadcasting in New York, and Plough Broadcasting in Florida. SPOTLIGHT AWARD: This year, a special PAB Spotlight award is being presented to the Lynett-Haggerty family of Times-Shamrock Communications, in honor of the their more than 100 years of continuous ownership and operation of independent media outlets. Times-Shamrock is a media company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania and owned by the Lynett and Haggerty families. In 1922, E.J. Lynett signed on one of Scranton’s very first radio stations and it is still operated by that same company 100 years later, WEJL. Times-Shamrock owns and operate several radio stations all throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania including WEJL “ESPN Radio”, WEZX “Rock 107” and WQFM “QFM”, in addition to stations in Baltimore, Maryland and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. About the PAB: The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters endeavors to promote collaboration between radio and television broadcast station owners, managers and staff across the Commonwealth. We assist our member stations in serving their communities, audiences and advertisers through FCC licensed free, over-the-air broadcast program operations.   ###

FCC released a Public Notice the week before last announcing that regulatory fees must be submitted by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on September 28.   On Friday, the FCC released a Report and Order in its annual rulemaking proceeding to determine the regulatory fees that its regulatees will pay for FY2022.  The fee schedule adopted in this Report and Order establishes the final amounts that broadcasters will be required to pay later in the month of September.  Broadcasters secured a reduction in the fee increases that the FCC originally proposed, from approximately 13% to 7-8%, and the issuance of a Notice of Inquiry by which the FCC will take comments on proposals to change to its regulatory fee setting process going forward. The FCC’s original proposal released in June of this year was to increase broadcasters’ fees for FY2022 by approximately 13 percent over the fees paid in FY2021.  The FCC attributed the large percent increase in year over year fees to the fact that broadcasters had received an 8.8% reduction in the fees proposed for FY2021, with the result that they did not experience any increase in fees in FY2021 over the fees paid in FY2020. As you may recall, the fee increase that had been proposed for broadcasters last year was due to the fact that the FCC initially assessed broadcasters for a proportionate share of the special $33 million Congressional earmark for broadband data mapping under the DATA Act, despite the fact that broadcasters do not provide broadband services.  Broadcasters successfully lobbied the FCC to remove the broadband data mapping assessment for broadcasters, which resulted in the 8.8% fee reduction experienced last year. This year, broadcasters argued that they should not be assessed costs related to the FCC’s continued regulation of broadband, since they still do not provide those services.  However, the FCC concluded that broadband regulation, in the absence of an earmark from Congress for broadband data mapping, should be treated as general overhead of the agency, the same as building security guards or rent, for which all regulatees must pay a proportionate share. However, the FCC did recognize that the solution devised last year to protect broadcasters from the DATA Act assessment enabled it to correct another unfairness in its regulatory fee setting process, a process that has for years overcharged broadcasters for agency work related to the Universal Service Fund.  In 2017, the FCC reclassified 38 employees that work on Universal Service Fund matters in a way that the FCC acknowledged at the time was unfair to broadcasters, but for which it unable to come up with a fix at the time.  Applying 2021’s DATA Act “fix” to its traditional treatment of Universal Service Fund employees resulted in a reduction in the FY2022 fees proposed for broadcasters – one that should serve to help right-size broadcasters’ fees in future years as well. Finally, the FCC reiterated its belief that its hands are tied by the statute that requires it to collect regulatory fees, so that it is unable to take into account factors such as the importance of the public service broadcasters provide, the fact that broadcasters provide a free over-the-air service and cannot pass regulatory fee costs on to subscribers as their many competitors do, or broadcasters’ ability/inability to pay the regulatory fees assessed.  Nevertheless, the FCC initiated a Notice of Inquiry into its fee methodology, which will allow broadcasters to continue to voice their concerns about the regulatory fee process to the FCC.  The regulatory fee process this year caught the attention of many on Capitol Hill, whose support will be needed for any fundamental changes to the statutory regulatory fee regime. A chart showing the fees as originally proposed by the FCC in June and ultimately adopted by the FCC is provided below: FY 2022 RADIO STATION REGULATORY FEES Proposed/Adopted Population Served AM Class A AM Class B AM Class C AM Class D FM Classes A, B1 & C3 FM Classes B, C, C0, C1 & C2 <=25,000 $1,105/$1,050 $795/$755 $690/$655 $760/$720 $1,210/$1,145 $1,380/$1,310 25,001 – 75,000 $1,660/$1,575 $1,195/$1,135 $1,035/$985 $1,140/$1,080 $1,815/$1,720 $2,070/$1,965 75,001 – 150,000 $2,485/$2,365 $1,790/$1,700 $1,555/$1,475 $1,710/$1,620 $2,725/$2,575 $3,105/$2,950 150,001 – 500,000 $3,735/$3,550 $2,685/$2,550 $2,330/$2,215 $2,570/$2,435 $4,090/$3,870 $4,665/$4,430 500,001 – 1,200,000 $5,590/$5,315 $4,025/$3,820 $3,490/$3,315 $3,845/$3,645 $6,125/$5,795 $6,985/$6,630 1,200,001 – 3,000,000 $8,400/$7,980 $6,040/$5,740 $5,245/$$4,980 $5,775/$5,470 $9,195/$8,700 $10,490/$9,955 3,000,001 – 6,000,000 $12,585/$11,960 $9,055/$8,600 $7,860/$7,460 $8,655/$8,200 $13,780/$13,040 $15,720/$14,920 >6,000,000 $18,885/$17,945 $13,585/$12,905 $11,790/$11,195 $12,990/$12,305 $20,680/$19,570 $23,585/$22,390

Tuesday September 20 th, 2022 10-11:30AM EEO Rules & Regulations Webinar with David Oxenford Must Pre-register - PAB Membership Required Join us on September 20 when David Oxenford of the Washington DC law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer will review all of the FCC’s obligations and discuss how you can meet those obligations and stay out of trouble with the FCC. The FCC has continued to enforce its EEO rules even while considering changes to its policies.  A station’s compliance is reviewed both in connection with its license renewal and through periodic random audits.   Stations still need to engage in wide dissemination of information about job openings and engage in specified outreach activities designed to educate their communities about broadcast employment and to train employees for advancement in their broadcast careers, even if they have no job openings.   To register, please click here After you register and your PAB membership is confirmed, you will receive the Zoom webinar link.   The webinar will be recorded and the link will be available for all of those who registered after the webinar.

*All seats are now filled* P1 Learning will host a 7-week training program designed to build the confidence and know-how of your new sales employees (two-year experience or less). Here are five reasons that we think you should register one of your sellers. 1-on-1 Training – P1 Learning’s trainers have been in the industry for 30+ years and have trained hundreds of up-and-coming sales professionals... with many of them getting their first sales during the P1 Plus program. Access To 40+ Online Videos – The online training is state-of-the-art as P1 Learning is constantly revising content to ensure the program is up to date with today’s events. Real World Assignments – Forget the busy work as the program includes real-world sales assignments such as building a prospect list and crafting qualified questions for a customer needs assessment. This way, once your sellers have completed the program, they can hit the ground running with usable information. Mobile Friendly – With many employees working remotely these days having access to training content from a phone, tablet or laptop is essential. Satisfies Prong 3 EEO Requirement It’s FREE! – The PAB has taken care of the bill. All you need to do is register! The next P1 Plus session begins on Monday, September 19, 2022 and is FREE to all PAB members. Space is limited so please register today. To learn more or to reserve a spot for one of your sellers, visit p1learning.com/p1-plus-sign-up

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced the launch of the 2022 Election Toolkit. The online resource provides local television and radio broadcasters with ideas and information to cover the 2022 local, state and federal elections. The 2022 Election Toolkit provides assets to help broadcasters serve their communities in the lead-up to Election Day on November 8. The toolkit includes information on identifying false statements online, suggested tactics for hosting debates, voter registration resources and guides for finding local polling places. Broadcast-ready public service announcements encouraging voter participation are also available in both English and Spanish through the toolkit. “Local broadcasters are a trusted and reliable source of news and information, which takes on heightened importance in combatting disinformation as Americans exercise their right to vote,” said NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “The toolkit will equip radio and television stations in helping voters make informed decisions at the polls - an essential component in ensuring the vitality of our democracy.” NAB is encouraging broadcasters to share examples of debate offerings, civic news coverage and voter education public service efforts by emailing advocacy@nab.org.

The first high school Radio/TV Broadcast Summer Camp sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters (PAB) took place July 11-15 by Point Park University.  It was a full week of hands-on experience in the world of broadcasting. Throughout the week high school students created and recorded in the TV and podcast studios at Point Park University and made direct connections with radio and TV professionals from the area. They also heard from professionals in various departments including sales, creative services, and engineering. Highlights of the week included a tour of WTAE’s 60,000-square-foot Hearst facility with the guidance of VP General Manager and PAB board member Chuck Wolfertz.  Forever Media VP of Sales and PAB board member Mike Sherry met with students and explained the intricacies of Nielsen markets. Students also heard from VP/General Manager of WTAJ-TV in Altoona and PAB board member Phil Dubrow, who offered background on sales and promotions in broadcast. Read more about the event here.

Free July 11 online seminar will feature Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute What strategies and information can help empower newsrooms for covering the conversation over gun laws at the local, state and national levels? On July 11 at 12 p.m. EDT, Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute will cover key topics including: Increasing your gun literacy: in order to have credibility with the audience, journalists have to know the difference between gauges, calibers, semi-automatic versus automatic weapons and what gun laws currently apply. Explaining what the Second Amendment does and does not do: The courts have consistently said law-abiding people in America may have weapons to protect their homes but the Constitution does not mean everybody can have any gun they want. We will look at what the Supreme Court says about gun rights. Telling you why assault weapons are such a focus for anti-gun group: Most murders do not involve AR-15 style weapons but high-profile mass killings often do. Why? What is the history of assault weapon bans and what evidence is there that they reduce crime? Explaining "Red Flag” laws: Could they help reduce gun crimes? FREE REGISTRATION, courtesy of Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters and the Indiana Broadcasters Association. TO REGISTER: Text the word SEMINAR to 55433 Fill out your information, and we will follow up with details about the July 11 seminar.

Attention General Managers and News Directors: Midterm Essentials is a free, one-day intensive training session for broadcast journalists who want to more meaningfully cover key issues facing citizens in the 2022 midterm elections. Event is July 28 in Philadelphia. Deadline to register is June 30. Register here Learning Outcomes Describe five key issues surrounding the midterm elections and communicate what’s at stake for voters Analyze the veracity and impact of candidates’ talking points and policy proposals Develop skills to detect political disinformation Overview Convene with fellow journalists and experts at WCAU-TV / ​​NBC 10 Philadelphia. Deepen your knowledge about immigration, the economy, health care, climate change and disinformation. Register to attend for free by June 30, 2022.The goal of this one-day, in-person, fast-moving, expert-led and practical training is simple: We want to help local broadcast journalists ask more informed questions and demand more solid answers about five complex issues facing America in the 2022 midterm election cycle. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., our experts will teach journalists the essential insights they have to know to effectively cover immigration, inflation and the economy, health care and drug costs, climate change and disinformation. Our teaching team includes a top expert on health care who testifies before Congress, a Pulitzer Prize-winning immigration reporter and a climate expert from Climate Central. These won’t be stale lectures but instead will be tailored to journalists seeking context and clarity on behalf of their communities. More than ever, this training is vital for busy, resource-strapped journalists who might otherwise settle for campaign talking points, allow candidates to talk in rhetorical circles or amplify common falsehoods online. The workshop’s tuition is covered by a grant to Poynter and MediaWise from the Google News Initiative. The funder has no influence over the content of the seminar, the faculty or even the choices of where to teach the workshops. The non-partisan workshop is produced by Poynter’s senior faculty Al Tompkins who has five decades of journalism experience and is a key instructor for Poynter’s digital literacy program.

The PAB is excited to offer the P1 Plus Program which is a 7-week virtual program that will aid your new hires training schedule with training videos and online meetings that will take them from “ rookie to ready” before Labor Day. New hire onboarding can be stressful, if you don’t have a solid training plan in place it can be even worse. Let P1 Learning help you elevate that stress and get your sellers on the street in a matter of weeks. Allow our team of trained professionals to assist your sales team with less than 2 years’ experience to gain real-world training and mentorship to start their career in sales the right way! Our trainers have worked with over 600 sales associates from small to large market media, so we know what it takes to take your team from rookie to ready in less than 7 weeks! Perks of the program include: 1-on-1 Training with Industry Professionals 40+ Online Video Courses, Tests & Materials Real-World Prospecting | Closing the Sale Assignments Mobile-Friendly Platform | Learn from your office or home Satisfies Prong 3 EEO Requirement FREE for PAB members! Classes start Monday, July 11, 2022 and is FREE to all PAB members. Space is limited so please register today. To learn more or to reserve a spot for one of your sellers, visit p1learning.com/p1-plus-sign-up

The Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters has committed $41,000 toward scholarships and on-campus events at Point Park University. The scholarships prioritize first-year students with demonstrated financial need in the Rowland School of Business and the School of Communication who have an interest in radio or TV broadcast media. Sixteen students will receive $2,000 each – eight for the Fall 2021 semester and eight more for Fall 2022. Fall 2021 PAB Scholarship Recipients Congratulations to the 2021 PAB scholarship winners: Jonah Sommers, Pittsburgh, Pa., broadcast production and media management Natalie Matvya, Turtle Creek, Pa., sports, arts and entertainment management Erin Yudt, Sharpsville, Pa., journalism Michael Jeniskis, Canonsburg, Pa., public relations and advertising Aniya Uqdah, Philadelphia, Pa., marketing and sales Grace Lorince, Mount Pleasant, Pa., broadcast production and media management De'Ante Johnson, Turtle Creek, Pa., sports, arts and entertainment management Addison Diehl, Greensburg, Pa., journalism Fall 2022 PAB Scholarship Information Applications for the Fall 2022 semester must be received by May 1. PAB Scholarship Criteria Preference is given to incoming first-year students, but open to deserving returning students. GPA of 3.0 preferred (or lower with proven broadcast media experience and/or substantial school/community involvement). Must be a Pennsylvania resident and able to demonstrate financial need. Submit your PAB Scholarship application Future of Broadcasting Day and Broadcast Media Summer Camp In addition to the scholarships, the PAB will take part in a Future of Broadcasting Day during the Fall 2021 semester, which will include a panel event for high school and college students, guest speakers in classrooms and a PAB scholarship recognition event. Plus, $9,000 will go toward a Broadcast Media summer camp for high school students in 2022. About PAB The PAB represents around 368 radio and 38 TV stations in Pennsylvania – all broadcast media is free, over the air and licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. Owners and operators include ABC, Audacy, CBS, Fox, Forever Media, iHeart Media, NBC and PBS, as well as individually owned stations. In each broadcast station, the people in front of the camera and microphones, as well as those behind the scenes, work with a commitment to serve their community.

Entercom changes its name to Audacy It reflects expansion into podcasts and sports betting for the company that runs WIP and KYW. By Erin Arvedlund STAFF WRITER By Erin Arvedlund STAFF WRITER Aiming to become a bigger player in podcasts and sports betting, Philadelphia-based radio giant Entercom Communications Corp. (NYSE: ETM) on Tuesday changed its brand name to Audacy. The No. 2 radio station owner in the country has over the last several years spent tens of millions of dollars buying podcasting companies and originating audio series, CEO David Field said. “Our name no longer fits,” Field said in an interview. “Entercom reflected radio only. We’ve outgrown it. It’s broader than that, and it also didn’t fit our aspirations.” Audacy is now a multi-platform audio content and entertainment organization with radio broadcasting, podcasting, digital marketing, live entertainment, music, sports and news. With its acquisitions, the company is now America’s No. 3 podcaster behind NPR and iHeart, he said. The name change is effective immediately. “We have transformed into a fundamentally different and dramatically enhanced organization and so it is time to embrace a new name and brand identity,” Field said. The public company operates some of Philadelphia’s most wellknown radio stations, including WIP and KYW. Its portfolio includes CBS Radio, RADIO.com, Cadence 13 and Pineapple Street Studios for podcasts. Boasting 170 million monthly listeners, Audacy has struggled to retain investor interest. Three years ago, the stock traded at roughly $10 a share; on Tuesday, the price closed at $5.07. Skeptics pointed out that the name change had little impact on share prices because “much of this transition was already priced into the market,” said Subodha Kumar, a Temple University professor of marketing. “The shift to platforms for audio is happening at other media companies, as well; they all have to embrace the change,” Kumar said. The company’s debt load still lingers as a concern, he added. “This news doesn’t take away all the problems. It’s part of a bigger change in audio, which is advertising dollars shifting over to social media. I expect that trend will continue over the next five to 10 years.” The pandemic took a toll: Revenues for the latest fourth quarter totaled $319.5 million, down 23% compared with the same period a year earlier. For 2020, total revenues totaled $1.1 billion, versus $1.5 billion in 2019. Advertising totaled $705 million versus $1.1 billion in 2019. The company’s events business almost completely dropped off, down 98% from a year earlier due to COVID-19. Digital revenues were the major bright spot, totaling $58.8 million for the quarter, a 23% climb yearover-year, and up for the year, as well, to $189 million from $146 million a year earlier, propelled by strong audience growth in streaming and podcasting. For the year, however, Audacy posted a loss — 13 cents a share in 2020 — versus a profit of $1 a share in 2019. Other bright spots: Audacy this month took advantage of low interest rates and refinanced $540 million worth of debt at a maturity of eight years at 6.75%. Total corporate debt equals about $1.6 billion net of cash, Field said. Field also said he is positioning the company with new partnerships — including an exclusive podcast with singer, actress, and influencer Demi Lovato — and audio partnerships with HBO, Netflix, Nike and others. The parent company acquired Podcorn, a selfserve platform for podcast sponsorships and QL Gaming Group for sports betting data. Another deal includes a six-year partnership with FanDuel to give listeners gambling odds, insight, and promotion and to coproduce content. Financially, the changes won’t have an immediate impact, said Field. Along with most other advertising-driven firms, the company’s fortunes were hurt by the pandemic. But there are “green shoots” in the ad market, Field said. “Our national business has improved significantly from the bottom of the pandemic. We think we’ll be getting back to normal very quickly.” In Philadelphia, “our local business is behind. One data point: On the last earnings call, 42% of our local advertisers were not advertising in December 2020. Our radio business is very much a get-peoplegoing-somewhere business,” such as live events and concerts. “A lot of them are in hibernation. In our markets in Southern California, however, we’re seeing theme park ads for the first time.” The company on Tuesday also announced that it will offer Pineapple Street Studio’s original docuseries: award-winning documentarian Nina Gilden Seavey’s MyFugitive,with all episodes available Wednesday on the app, and Stay Away from Matthew Magill, from reporter and Pineapple Street producer Eric Mennel, launching April 13. Audacy also formed a partnership with Bet-MGM, the online sportsbook, added The Rich Eisen Show, and an NFL Mock Draft podcast hosted by Locked On and Audacy draft experts and personalities. Audacy produces content including American sports icon and analyst Boomer Esiason and radio personality and Emmy-award winner Big Tigger. Sports wagers are among the nation’s fastestgrowing industries. “We have said sports-betting revenues would be up 50% in 2021 at around $30 million,” versus last year. Field said he sees that figure growing to $100 million over “the next few years.” Former Entercom executive Marc Rayfield said of the corporate brand change to Audacy: “I would have done the same thing. Audio is growing, but radio is not.” “It makes sense, the company still owns massive brands now being distributed in ways they weren’t before,” he said. “For instance, with the diminishing success of AM radio meant that KYW had to move to FM radio. That has a longer shelf life,” said Rayfield, who left to work as managing director at Darco Capital, a privately run investment firm owned by student housing developer David Adelman. Rayfield manages and oversees Darco’s investments. “How does it help their bottom line? It’s unclear at this moment,” Rayfield said. “What they’re trying to do is become multi-platform distribution network, and not be seen as just a linear group of radio stations.” The company’s ticker symbol will change from ETM to AUD effective April 9. earvedlund@inquirer.com 215-854-2808 erinarvedlund