Media Beat: December 09, 2021

By David Farrell

Five market NUMERIS Overview: PPM Ratings - Dec 2021

While the Covid numbers are backsliding, let’s look for some good news in the latest PPM radio ratings released today. The new release completes the thirteen-week period covering August 30 to November 28. Once again, all listening for this period occurred during the pandemic, sometimes yielding unusual results.

Link here to look at the five PPM market overviews – David Bray & Partners

 TVO’s groovy spotlight on Canadian vinyl collectors

Twenty-five years ago, filmmaker Alan Zweig launched his documentary career with Vinyl - a portrait of compulsive record collectors, including himself, and his own mixed feelings about collecting. Zweig argued with collectors who said they collected "for the music." In Records, he does it again but there's no ambivalence this time. It's a celebration of records and music, however it comes to you. – Thanks to Frank Davies for bringing this to my attention.

Ontario’s journalists have failed to hold Doug Ford accountable

Say what you will about Ontario Premier Doug Ford, but he’s a guy who can play to an audience. Whenever goofy, folks-laden bullshit crosses his melon, he knows there’s a group of people happy to hear it and repeat it to as broad of an audience as possible: the media covering his press conferences.

The journalists covering Ontario’s government haven’t been doing their jobs well. For all their posturing as the holders-to-account of the Ontario government, and Ford in particular, it’s a group of people very willing to run ridiculous lines. And this has a real effect on the public. – Robert Hiltz, Passage (via Warren Cosford)

When a politician is able to get out their exact message, particularly when it’s nonsense, the media is bending to their whims.

Buffalo launches new Triple-A station targeting Southern Ontario

Buffalo Toronto Public Media has launched a new music service, WBFO The Bridge, with a Triple-A format on WBFO 88.7 HD2 and streaming through the WBFO The Bridge app, the website, smart speakers, and TuneIn. 

“We have great radio stations in Buffalo and Toronto but we were missing a non-commercial Triple-A station,” said Tom Calderone, President & CEO of Buffalo Toronto Public Media. “I knew the talented staff here would be able to get this idea off the ground quickly, and they have! We’re now playing the top 1,132 of the best New Wave-Post Modern-Classic-Old School-Indie-Alternative songs of all time. Basically, it’s college radio for adults.” 

The new Triple-A playlist includes music from Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, Mumford & Sons, The Cure, Nirvana, Panic! At the Disco, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Radiohead, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And in the coming months, the station promises to add music from local bands in Western New York and Southern Ontario, launch new programming, add live music, and create music storytelling formats through video, podcasting, and artist collaborations. – Press release

Cdn. companies pay almost $500,000 on average to ransomware attackers

Canadian companies hit by ransomware attacks pay almost half a million dollars on average to perpetrators, according to the results of a new survey.

The survey conducted by Angus Reid for cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks in September but released Wednesday revealed the average ransom paid by Canadian companies was $458,247, while the average ransom demanded was $449,868.

Nine percent of respondents said they paid even more… – The Canadian Press

NY FM sells for US$9M

Univision Radio is selling WQBU-FM in Garden City, New York to Family Stations for $9 million. In 2003, When the call letters were WLIR, Univision purchased the station from John Caracciolo for $60 million. – Radio Ink

First look: Inside The New York Times' audio app

The New York Times on Tuesday will open up its new audio app to beta testers ahead of a public launch next year.

Why it matters: The Times has built an audio empire, acquiring audio companies and investing heavily in new podcasts. But they're mostly distributed on apps like Apple and Spotify, limiting the ways The Times can experiment with new audio features for journalism. – Sara Fischer, Axios

Beverley Hills mansion for rent at US62K a month

Designed in a manner clearly intended to smack visitors across the face with a conspicuous wealth that would surely impress Marie Antoinette, the house screams and shouts with lavish embellishments. Large enough to host a small cotillion, the cavernous double-height foyer sports a florid wrought-iron staircase, while formal living and dining rooms both showcase intricate mouldings. There’s also a mahogany-panelled library, a glass-roofed conservatory, and a massive family room that flows out to the pool. The eat-in kitchen is decked out with gilt-trimmed carved wood cabinetry, and the sunny breakfast room is hung with glitzy champagne-coloured silk curtains festooned with hundreds of tiny tassels. A wine cellar and a mirrored gym tucked down in the basement complete the interiors.

There’s a gated driveway at the front, while the backyard incorporates a swimming pool and spa encircled by a glass safety fence… – Mark David, Dirt

The weak case against Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Maxwell is on trial, but the case has always been about more than her. In seeking to put the disgraced British heiress behind bars for a possible 80 years, prosecutors are aiming to redress serial failures by the justice system to punish the crimes of her partner: the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Which is why it’s shocking—and tragic—that the prosecution’s case against Maxwell appears far weaker than many people expected. The list of prosecutorial missteps is long. – Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair