Media Beat: January 04, 2019

By David Farrell

Stingray Radio launches national evening show with Katie & Ed

90.3 AMP Radio Calgary morning duo Katie & Ed host a national evening show across seven Stingray CHR and Hot AC stations, starting Jan. 7.

The Night Show with Katie & Ed will be heard beyond Calgary on:

• 99.1 HITS-FM/St. John’s, NL

• 101.9 THE GIANT/Sydney

• HOT 105.5/Charlottetown

• HOT 89.9/Ottawa

• HOT 93.5/Sudbury

• Z95.3/Vancouver

Stingray takes a new route to US expansion

The Montreal-based music media and tech company has terminated its US$120M bid to take over rival Music Choice and instead has struck a carriage distribution deal with Altice USA.

“While we continue to see benefits in a combination of Music Choice with Stingray, we are extremely confident in our strategic direction and are excited by the significant opportunities before us,” said Eric Boyko, co-founder and CEO of Stingray. “…(through) Altice USA’s Optimum and Suddenlink subscribers, Stingray has signaled its commitment to winning the U.S. market (and) we believe Stingray is well-positioned to continue as the supplier of choice in the United States for curated B2B and direct-to-consumer services.”

Why radio remains a vital force in the 21st century

Before budget cuts killed CBC Radio drama, I came, through plays and poetry, to understand the urgent human need for storytelling, and the transcending power of the perfect sentence.

Radio kills distance. It shrinks time into manageable components.

At its core is connection. It puts us in touch with one another. It is personal, it is immediate, it is intimate.

It is there to comfort when we hurt or tease, and distract when we relax. It is there when we need to know.

It is family. It is the community meeting place in the towns and villages of Newfoundland, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the North. It is the newcomer's great companion in the unforgiving city. – Michael Enright, CBC Radio

What readers should know about journalism

As public editor, I have reached out to readers in past to ask you to tell us what you want to know about the Star’s journalism and how it is created. Now, it’s our journalists time to answer a question I have put to them on your behalf. Following are some of our journalist’s responses to this question:

What do you wish Star readers knew about your job and how you do it? – Kathy English, Toronto Star

Radio voice Nat Lauzon is in a battle against her ears

The host of Feel Good Weekends on The Beat 92.5 in Montreal, Lauzon suffers from vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss. But a hearing aid and some research are helping her fight back. – Steve Faguy, Montreal Gazette

Indian technology is flocking to Canada

As immigrant techies shun the US, its neighbour has rolled out the red carpet. Canada is gambling that by the time America wakes up to the cost of discouraging immigrants its tech sector will have secured some of the best talent. Fact: Toronto added more tech jobs in 2017 than the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington, DC, combined. – The Economist

RAIN News predictions for 2019

News Editor Anna Washenko and RAIN president Brad Hill offer a few points of outlook for 2019.

CES 2019: What to expect

More than 180,000 industry insiders are expected to swarm Las Vegas for CES, the annual mega-conference dedicated to consumer tech that runs Jan. 8 through 11.  Brian Tong apprises us on what to expect this year.

Radio’s inconvenient truth

Radio's addicted to the 25-54-year-old demographic, states longtime radio consultant and prolific blogger Fred Jacobs.

In ayear-end recap of 2018 posting, Jacobs writes it's an age-old excuse – “That's what advertisers want” – has become a mantra that virtually every broadcast radio programmer faces. Bonuses are based on this target audience, research has become focused on this 30-year age span, and wins and losses are measured by where stations rank on its yardstick. The upshot of this is that a younger generational audience has found its own music on streaming platforms and this spells imminent trouble in broadcaster boardrooms. – Media Confidential via Sowny.net