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Fox News Executive Fired After Investigation into Business Conduct

BNM Staff
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Fox News has fired longtime executive John Finley after an investigation into a violation of his business conduct with the network.

“Fox News Media and John Finley have parted ways after an independent investigation concluded that he had violated certain standards of business conduct,” said a Fox News spokesperson. A report from The Washington Post alleges the investigation centered on “the use of his position to benefit someone over whom he had influence”.

Finley was the network’s Executive Vice President of Development. He had been with the network for nearly 25 years.

Before his role as Executive Vice President of Development, he oversaw the launch of several of the network’s mainstays, including Hannity, Outnumbered, and Gutfeld!, among others. He was elevated to his role in 2019 and had oversight of the FOX Nation streaming platform.

A report from Deadline claims Finley was the subject of a 2011 investigation of alleged misconduct, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Salem Media Group Sells Tampa AM/FM Combo

BNM Staff
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Salem Media Group has agreed to sell 910 WTWD-AM and its companion FM translator to Solmart Media.

The Spanish broadcaster currently owns two other stations, one in Sarasota and the other in the Jacksonville metropolitan area.

910 WTWD-AM broadcasted a religious format alongside 570 WTBN-AM in the Tampa Bay market. Additionally, the station can be heard on 102.1 FM, which features 125 watts of power and is licensed to Lakeland. That FM translator was also included in the sale to Solmart.

The sale price is $700,000.

After completion of the deal, Salem will still own several Tampa-area stations, including AM 860 The Answer, as well as 570 WTBN-AM, 760 WLCC-AM, and FM translator 104.3 which it purchased in February 2022.

This is the second time in recent weeks Salem Media Group has parted with a station. Late last month, the company sold 94.5 The Answer in Greenville, South Carolina for nearly $7 million. The sales come after the company reported a nearly 5% decrease in year-over-year revenue last month.

Chuck Todd Signs Off of Meet the Press

BNM Staff
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NBC’s Chuck Todd bid farewell as host of Meet the Press on Sunday. Todd was grateful to his production team and the viewing audience before handing the reins to NBC’s White House correspondent Kristen Welker. 

 “I am ready, Chuck, and I just want to say I am also so thankful and grateful to you for this moment for entrusting me with this monumental, important role. I take this responsibility so seriously. I’m ready because you have helped me get ready, Chuck.” 

Welker expressed that Todd is someone who dedicates time and effort to those close to him, and he has certainly devoted his support to me, for which I am endlessly thankful. 

“I think it bears repeating. You brought me to D.C.; you taught me just about everything I know about politics,” she said.

Todd inquired of Welker her intentions for contributing each Sunday.

“Well, I want to approach this as a reporter,” she said. “That’s who I am. That’s who I’ve always been. I’ve covered three administrations now, the Obama administration, the Trump administration, the Biden administration,” she said.  

Welker said she intends to give the viewers the information they need to be well-informed. 

“I want to be asking those tough questions, and I want to be making you proud, I want to be building on the legacy of this show,” she added. 

Welker moderated one of the presidential debates in 2020 and has served as a White House correspondent for the network since 2011. 

Jason Fitz is Going to Set Your Weekend Off Right

Peter Schwartz
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Jason Fitz is Going to Set Your Weekend Off Right

When Jason Fitz was let go by ESPN back in June, it was certainly a tough pill to swallow. But, as it turns out, Fitz landed on his feet very nicely with two unbelievable opportunities.

The first new gig he landed was a digital role at Yahoo Sports hosting on-demand shows across the platform, including a fantasy football show and NFL shows while also producing quick-hit video reactions to everything happening to college football.

And the second new opportunity is joining The Fellas with Anthony Gargarno Saturday mornings on Fox Sports Radio from 5am to 9am.

After a bump in the road, life is good for Fitz.

“I couldn’t be more excited honestly,” said Fitz. “The incredible part of it is I got to land at two places just are dream a come true – each of them.”

As soon as Fitz was let go by ESPN, Ryan Spoon from Yahoo Sports reached out to him. It was Spoon who helped bring Fitz to ESPN in the first place.

Networking and relationships are so important in sports talk radio and lightning certainly struck twice in this case.

“He’s somebody I’ve known for years,” said Fitz. “He was one of the first people who reached out to me after the news broke from ESPN.” 

This past Saturday, Fitz began his new opportunity at Fox Sports Radio and, for him, it’s the perfect landing spot with the perfect partner in Gargano because they both, to steal a line from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, like to “bring it”. 

“We both bring, every single day, every ounce of energy we have,” said Fitz. “Saturday mornings is the perfect slot because I love covering college football and I love covering the NFL. When you are coming in on Saturday morning, you get the chance to set everybody’s weekend off right and talk about all of the biggest action across two days of football. That’s a dream come true. It couldn’t be any easier to do that type of show.”

The two new jobs for Fitz present a great 1-2 combination for his career. The Yahoo opportunity gives him the chance to really sink his teeth into college and pro football. But as that new job began, Fitz still wanted to be a part of sports talk radio.

So, when Fox Sports Radio called, he was all ears.

“I knew that radio was something that matters to me,” said Fitz. “The relationship that you get with sports talk radio is untouchable. You’re with people every day through every memory. The opportunity to stay in radio was something that absolutely was a key for me.”

Talking to a national audience is something that comes natural for Fitz who has lived all over the country. He grew up in Las Vegas and then moved to Nashville where his career in the music industry took off. Fitz was very successful in music and was the fiddle player for The Band Perry. Then it was off to Connecticut when he started working at ESPN.

For Fitz, working in radio was meant to be.

“I think that’s part of why I love radio,” said Fitz. “I know the passion that each of those different regions have. I know how to talk to each of those regions about what they love. Living all over the country gave me a little different perspective.” 

Working in the music industry can certainly be glamours but it can also put a strain on your life. His passion for sports led Fitz to the decision to leave the band and embark on a different career. He started out doing a podcast and that ultimately led him to sports talk radio and the opportunity to host a morning show on 102.5 FM The Game in Nashville.

There were two hurdles that Fitz had to overcome early in his sports career.

One challenge was going from creating content for a one-hour podcast to doing a three or four-hour radio show on a daily basis. 

The other challenge was not hearing the cheer of a crowd when the show was over, something that he was used to in music.

“For years of my life at the end of a concert, you know from the crowd reaction if they enjoyed it,” said Fitz. “It was staggering to me to finish radio and just sit there in front of a microphone and not have any reaction of any sort. It took a little while to get used to the fact that you have to find your own affirmation.” 

While Fitz has no regrets over leaving the music industry for sports, he continues to keep his toes in the water when it comes to making music. There are artists who have the ability cross over from one music genre to another but what Fitz would like to do is have his two worlds crossover.

The goal is to someone combine music with sports.

“I’ll never stop playing,” said Fitz. “I’ll never stop being a musician. It’s rare that I ever think about doing anything big with music anymore because I love what I do so much in the sports world. I think this fall I might do some sad songs for teams that are losing and have a little bit of fun musically. I want to find ways to bridge that.”

Whether it was his career in music or his current life in sports, the goal for Jason Fitz was always to make an impact with his audience. 

He doesn’t really have anymore boxes to check when it comes to his professional life. He just wants to continue doing what has made him successful.

“When you hear a song, you remember where you were,” said Fitz. “You remember everything about the girl you loved and all those things. I wanted to do that in music and frankly I was really lucky to get to be a part of that. When I switched over to sports, I wanted to do the same thing. For me, it’s never been about can I be famous and can I be rich? It’s always been about can I get in front of as many fans as possible so that I can share the energy that comes with a win the sorrow that comes with a loss with fans every single day.”

Whether it was his prior life with The Band Perry or his current life in sports, one thing is for certain about Jason Fitz. He’s far from DONE. 

If NFL Can’t End TV Dispute Sports Aren’t as Important as We Thought

Demetri Ravanos
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If NFL Can’t End TV Dispute Sports Aren’t as Important as We Thought

No one has to tell sports fans that rely on Charter for their TV service that the company and Disney are in a standoff. Some people have a very firm idea of which side bears most of the blame, but the majority just want ESPN back. Whether it is college games on Saturday or Monday Night Football, this is the worst possible time of year to be without that network.

So much attention has gone to that dispute that others have flown under the radar. I have DirecTV. I couldn’t watch college football on CBS on Saturday or JJ Watt’s debut on The NFL Today on Sunday, because in Raleigh, our CBS affiliate is owned by Nexstar. All of that company’s local stations have been dark on AT&T-owned services since July.

Do you have Dish? Well, depending on the market you live in, you may have missed Sunday Night Football, Big Noon Saturday and more. That company is in a standoff with Hearst. That means Hearst stations in 37 markets cannot be seen by Dish subscribers.

It is interesting to see all of this happening during football season. The NFL is the most reliable property on television. In a lot of the country, college football is the second most reliable.

The pandemic changed the way so many people consumed their entertainment. Theaters are no longer a necessity for cinefiles. Almost no television show is consumed in real time. The only schedule that matters to the audience is their own. Things were already moving that way, but since 2020, the only things that people have felt the need to watch live were sports, election results, and the January 6 insurrection. 

Elections of national interest only happen every other year. Presidential elections only come around every four years. The insurrection was a once-in-a-lifetime event. I can understand why networks with major play-by-play rights thought they held all the cards in these negotiations.

Maybe Disney’s ask is unreasonable. I’m not invited behind the closed doors where negotiations between that company and Charter are taking place. Both sides are pushing their respective narratives and each one wonders aloud why the other doesn’t respect the hardworking public. The level of bullshit on each side is painfully transparent for the people that missed Texas vs. Alabama on Saturday and will miss the Bills and Jets on Monday.

If you work in the media business, you know the deal. The landscape changes all the time. There is no “business as usual” anymore. Everyone at the bottom is well-aware of that fact. For the people at the top though, this is a wake up call. Their jobs are rarely endangered by new technologies or consumption patterns. Now, they are dealing with a change that the networks may never have seen coming: television is such a volatile business that even the networks with the programming that remains appointment-viewing isn’t appealing to some cable companies.

Your web search doesn’t have to be very extensive to stumble onto evidence that suggests Charter would rather drop cable distribution and focus solely on internet service. They wouldn’t be the first TV provider to do so. Internet is a much more profitable utility in 2023.

It’s a reality that will send shockwaves through sports. ESPN and FOX won’t have billions to spend on live game rights anymore. The NBA is about to learn that the hard way. Leagues likely will see a drop in revenue. That may lead owners to seek to lower paychecks, which will almost certainly lead to work stoppages. 

Fans just want to see their favorite teams play without paying through the nose to do it. Unfortunately, those days are over. Leagues aren’t going to just shrug their shoulders and say “aw shucks, if ESPN or TNT can’t pay billions for our rights anymore, I guess that means we aren’t getting billions.” No, they’ll turn to the tech giants.

I was one of the many that scoffed at the idea of a pay-per-view Super Bowl when John Skipper suggested it in February. To be fair though, I don’t think any of us saw the day coming when traditional television would raise a middle finger to networks with live game rights and say they could live without sports.

Harry Hurley Has Embraced Digital Media at 95.5 WPG

BNM Staff
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Talk show host Harry Hurley possesses a genuinely distinct perspective within talk radio. Three decades ago, in a seemingly different era, Harry thrived as a hotel-casino executive under the leadership of former President Donald Trump.

Harry Hurley characterizes his former boss as someone who was relentlessly committed to achieving excellence, in stark contrast to the portrayal offered by the mainstream media. At a certain point, Harry Hurley reached a breaking point in his career and decided it was time for a change. Leveraging his business expertise, he crafted a proposal to present to general manager Dick Taylor and program director John Speeney. 

The presentation impressed them, so they spontaneously hired him on the spot. Harry’s enduring determination and strong work ethic, traits President Trump had recognized in him, have paved the way for his tremendous success in radio. After thirty-two years and countless radio broadcasts, Hurley has made a name for himself as one of the elite talk personalities in the business. 

Hurley firmly believes that talk radio will take on an unprecedentedly pivotal role in informing the nation about the impending 2024 presidential election. He highlights the 1992 U.S. election, which saw Bill Clinton emerge victorious, as a glaring illustration of what transpires when one side isn’t fairly represented.

According to him, a substantial article in The New York Times criticized the lackluster George Bush economy, which propelled the Democratic president to victory. Fast forward two years, with talk radio surging in popularity and Rush Limbaugh captivating millions of daily listeners, and the Republican party achieved a historic win by seizing control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in four decades. These events marked a watershed moment in how politics were reported and perceived.

Sixteen years ago, Harry Hurley established The Hurley in the Morning Charity Foundation because he believed that he was responsible for giving back to the community as a broadcaster. He will host his annual charity dinner on September 29 at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. Brian Kilmeade will join Harry Hurley in raising substantial money for charities at the event.

One of the causes that Harry Hurley is most passionate about raising funds for is the Broadcasters Foundation of America, which exclusively supports radio and television broadcasters in acute need. The Hurley in the Morning Charity Foundation has raised millions of dollars for numerous worthy causes.

In this interview with Barrett News Media, Harry Hurley discusses his path to talk radio, his experience working as an executive for President Trump, what role talk radio will play in covering the 2024 presidential election, how he prepares for a national talk show as opposed to a local one, and why Townsquare Media is leading the way when it comes to digital media. 

Ryan Hedrick: How long have you been at WPG Talk Radio 95.5? 

Harry Hurley: I have been very blessed to be at one radio station my entire career. I started on July 1st, 1992, and I am still signing on Monday through Friday at the same station I started with 32 years ago.  

RH: Do you ever listen to old tapes of yourself to see how much you’ve evolved and where you came from? 

HH: Not as much as I should, but I just listened to a tape of an interview I did with President Trump from about 15 years ago. I heard how much, over 15 years, I have evolved. Your voice becomes a little bit deeper as you get older, and you sound different. With experience, you get better at what you do.  

RH: What has changed with Atlantic City since you started your show there? What makes the city unique?  

HH: Atlantic City has evolved a lot. If you went back 35 years, you’re thinking about a town that is just casino-centric. We came out of the disaster of the Democratic National Convention of 1964, which basically wrecked Atlantic City because the city didn’t manage such a national event well.  

What was gratifying was becoming almost a monopoly in the East of casino gaming because only Las Vegas and Atlantic City had casinos. So, it gave a great advantage. We had a monopoly; we were recession-proof. Part of that, though, is a two-edged sword because you can get comfortable. I think we could’ve done a lot more in the first 20 years than we did.  

So, you think of Atlantic City as a beach, boardwalk, Atlantic Ocean, and casinos, but we’re very diverse. We have a technology aspect: the aviation technical center (William J. Hughes Technical Center). The other thing that people don’t know about Atlantic City is that more people come to Atlantic City every year than the Magic Kingdom.

We are a small city in one respect but a major destination resort in the other. The city feels small, but it’s also big. We have a lot going on. We also have a lot of universities and medical centers that do great work. We are very fortunate to be where we are.  

RH: Your path to talk radio stardom was different; tell us how you decided to switch your career from casino executive to talk show host. 

HH: I’m proud of that; I’ve had two careers. I was the senior hotel executive for President Trump at one of his Atlantic City casinos, I always take great pride in that, because I loved my career, and I was a younger husband and a young father at the time. At the time, I decided that I loved my job, I was good at it, I loved taking care of customers, loved the action, loved the decision-making, loved the authority that President Trump gave me.

The only problem was that I was going to end up being a bad husband and a bad father, and that was not acceptable. So, I told my wife, ‘I’ve got this idea; I think I could be good at it.’  

There were only two local shows at the time in the market, and I had appeared on both when I was a candidate for local office in my hometown, and I fell in love with talk radio. I loved it and before I fell in love with it. I decided I would go make a pitch to WFPG (World’s Famous Playground); now WPG (World’s Playground), same station, slight modification in the call letters.

I created this nice presentation, and I came without an appointment, and much to my delight, the general manager Dick Taylor, and the Program Director, John Speeney, who I always remembered to remember after all these years, two great guys, and who became great friends, and much to my absolute delight and amazement, they hired me on the spot and away we went on July 1st, 1992.  

I decided I’m the new guy and better come out big. No governor had ever appeared on any local Atlantic City talk show, and Governor Jim Florio agreed to come on with me. I knew him from work that I did with him on the Ventnor City Board of Education. He wound up staying for the entire first program I did.  

RH: What kind of boss was President Trump to work for?  

HH: This is the beautiful thing about this. I get to say what’s true instead of this garbage that we hear all the time. He was a great employer; obviously, he expected excellence. He didn’t demand that we were there seven days a week; we put it on ourselves. It was early in an industry where it had never existed before in our marketplace, and we wanted to be great. We wanted to be four diamonds, four-star, five diamonds, five-star if we could. Doing that required a significant commitment.

As executives, we were always there. It was basically seven days a week. President Trump, the time I was with him, which was about two and a half years before I left for my talk show, was a great employer. Everything that you hear about him is not true. He was incredibly generous, an incredibly good boss, extremely tough, but I didn’t mind that. He was reasonably tough, he wanted excellence, and he settled for nothing less. My time with him was exceptional.  

RH: How do you push back against the suppression of news and fake stories in the mainstream media, and how do you earn the trust of your listeners? 

Harry Hurley: I inundate my audience with the truth. I am relentless about pounding facts, I have opinions and let my audience know when I am giving my opinions. But when I am giving a fact, for example, Hunter Biden has been under investigation for over five and a half years, and nothing happens, and they were racing to get President Trump into four courtrooms around the country, and they’re breathlessly wanting to start these things in a few months, it’s obvious.

Anyone willing to embrace the truth knows we have a two-tier justice system. It’s an absolute disgrace, and they know President Trump is going to defeat them, so they are coming at him with everything they have. (The media) always have a scam, whether Russian collusion or a big lie. Everything they accuse President Trump of — look at President Biden — twenty or more fake names where there are no bricks and mortars. It’s just a money-shuffling operation. So, I just pound the facts.  

RH: The company that owns WPG is Townsquare Media. They focus heavily on and carry out dynamic digital strategies. How do you balance your radio show and produce the digital content they want?    

HH: I talk about the digital content when I’m on the air. When I am writing for digital, I reference what we’re doing on the air. It’s not competing; it’s perfectly in concert. Townsquare Media has revolutionized the digital platform in our business. We are new talk media.

Digital is not only here to stay but also incredibly powerful. It’s an amazing way for those that want additional content. We utilize our app very well so that people who want to go back can check out our published podcasts. We podcast everything so that nobody has to miss anything. It wasn’t that long ago that if you missed it, you missed it.

We love digital, but we don’t reveal our station analytics as a company. Our footprint is unreal. We own our market, and I couldn’t be prouder to be an employee of Townsquare Media. I love our focus on both broadcasting and digital. Being an on-air personality is something I love, along with the spoken word format. I was a very young reporter for the Press of Atlantic City a very long time ago. I was one of the youngest reporters in the country with a byline, so I always loved to write. We write multiple pieces of digital content every day of the week.  

RH: You also do regular fill-in work for Fox News Radio. How does your preparation routine change when you fill in on national shows? 

Harry Hurley: It’s not that much different because I open every day by doing a national hour, so I am very well versed on the national issues, and then we talk about the local issues as well. Townsquare Media is very big on being closely aligned with our community.

I know where I am at the time. If I am guest hosting The Brian Kilmeade Show, The Guy Benson Show, or Fox Across America with Jimmy Failla, I just couldn’t be more grateful to Brian, Guy, and Jimmy. Their producers are unbelievable and have treated me with incredible respect.  

RH: Is audience engagement different during one of the national shows than your local show? Do you get more phone calls? More social media interaction?  

Harry Hurley: I don’t want for phone calls on my local show. You never want for phone calls on Fox News talk. They have it set up beautifully. Brian [Kilmeade] is on 9-12, Jimmy [Failla] is on 12-3, and Guy [Benson] is on from 3-6. It’s just perfect what John Sylvester (Vice President of Fox News Media), Maria Donovan (Director of Talk Programming, On-Demand Programming), and all their teams have done.

I love working for all of them. Any time they call me to fill in, I make sure I give it all the energy I can because they deserve it.

Michael Irvin Settles Marriott Lawsuit, Returns to NFL Network

BSM Staff
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Nearly seven months after being sent home from the Super Bowl, Hall of Famer Michael Irvin returned to NFL Network on Sunday.

Irvin had been suspended by the network following misconduct accusations stemming from a brief encounter he had with a woman at a Phoenix hotel in February. Irvin filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit in the matter. It was settled paving the way for Irvin to take a seat at the NFL Network desk on Sunday for NFL GameDay Morning.

Irvin was introduced by host Rich Eisen alongside Steve Mariucci and Kurt Warner.

“Good to be back,” Irvin said.

With Nielsen, Are You Better Off Than You Were 10 Years Ago?

Dr. Ed Cohen
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With Nielsen, Are You Better Off Than You Were 10 Years Ago?

Before we dive into the radio ratings and look at Nielsen, for a moment, let’s go back 43 years to the 1980 presidential campaign. 

The date was October 28th and then-President Jimmy Carter and Republican nominee Ronald Reagan were engaged in their final debate before the election. 

After the back-and-forth questions and answers, each candidate was given time for final comments. Reagan asked a question of the American people that resounded and helped him to his victory the next week. It was a simple question: “It might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?”.

My purpose in raising that quote is to ask a modified version of Reagan’s question. In September 2013, Nielsen closed on the acquisition of Arbitron. After 64 years in business, whether as the American Research Bureau or the more familiar Arbitron brand, the company ceased to exist and became part of Nielsen. 

Here we are ten years later and to paraphrase Reagan, those of us who use and pay for the company’s services should ask the question: “Are we better off than we were ten years ago?”  I’ll offer some thoughts and it’s a question you may want to ponder as well.

Certainly, the radio industry has changed quite a bit in the last ten years. While streaming and podcasting was around ten years ago and SiriusXM was already over ten years old, the biggest streaming competition at the time was Pandora as Spotify had just reached the US in mid-2011. Competition for ears and eyes, while increasing, was nowhere near today’s level. The first Netflix-produced program, House of Cards, debuted in 2013. While high-speed internet penetration was over 70 percent in 2013, it’s over 90 percent today.

In 2013, Arbitron had 48 PPM markets and measured a total of 274 markets in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Today, Nielsen measures the 48 PPM markets and a total of 246 metros in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, which is probably more a reflection on the state of the industry rather than Nielsen cutting back on measured markets. No markets have chosen to go PPM since the initial 48 were started long ago. 

Let’s review the smaller markets. The diary service is well…still the diary service. One big change over the last ten years was the move to continuous diary measurement reporting in the larger diary markets, alias the “book of the month club”. Two book averaging in the smallest markets was already in place in 2013. The other big change has been in the sampling. While Arbitron started measuring cell phone-only households in the diary service in 2009, Nielsen has had to move to an address-based sample frame complete with design weights to adjust for the change in the way households can be reached.

Recently, Nielsen announced that they are working on an online diary, 16 years after Arbitron’s initial attempt to bring an online component to the system. They also announced that you can now do a virtual diary review, something that has been requested for probably the last twenty to thirty years, negating the need to visit beautiful Columbia, Maryland to review what people did (or did not) enter in their diaries. 

On the PPM side, progress has been slow as well. The form of the meter underwent a change to a wearable, something akin to a Fitbit, and is being rolled out to the entire panel. While this ends all the jokes about the meter’s similarity to a 1980s-era pager, it probably hasn’t made a serious impact on the quality of measurement. 

In the meantime, the quest for full accreditation from the Media Rating Council continues. As of this writing, 30 PPM markets are accredited with 18 still in limbo, including some top ten markets such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington. 

The sample size remains too small based on how much listening takes place in each market.  At one point, Nielsen announced a ten percent sample increase and then reneged on that pledge, going for eight percent instead, claiming a “business decision”. The client software for the services remains essentially the same as in 2013. It took around five years before the Arbitron logo was updated in the PPM Analysis Tool. Tapscan has been updated from time to time as well as PD Advantage, but I don’t think any observer would suggest that the changes have been major.

Today, we still don’t have a good measure of demographic usage of streaming audio, whether for streamers or for the streams of radio stations. Triton still has the only system around, although Nielsen did try to enter the business around 2016-17. Their system could create demographics, but the industry rejected it, and yet Nielsen holds a patent for digital audio (US patent 10,699,286). I know because my name is on it with three other people.

Speaking of people, how many people has Nielsen let go over the past decade? As I’m writing this, Nielsen has begun another RIF that has changed the career path of a few more of my friends. Gosh, private equity cutting the number of employees…can you imagine? 

Have there been PPM positives over the past decade? Let’s give Nielsen credit for the MCEM monitor that lets you know how well your encoding is working in real-time. Also, most PDs swear by the Control Panel Reports that come out ahead of each “monthly” and let you see your results at a more granular level.

Finally, there is the cost of the service. Yes, most everything was less expensive ten years ago, but as you review what you pay for the Nielsen service today compared to a decade ago, are you getting value for your money? If you feel the services you buy are worth the investment, congratulations! If not, ask yourself Reagan’s question, consider your answer, and ask what else you can do.

Let’s meet again next week.

A note: I hope you’ll be at the BNM Summit in Nashville this week. I’ll be attending and hope to meet many of you there.

Browns Radio Voice Jim Donovan Takes Medical Leave From Team

BSM Staff
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Browns Radio Voice Jim Donovan Takes Medical Leave From Team

The Cleveland Browns will be without their usual radio play-by-play voice in Jim Donovan for the foreseeable future. Donovan revealed at the end of Sunday’s Week 1 broadcast that he will not be on the call for any upcoming games.

Donovan announced back in May to WKYC viewers that he had suffered a relapse with leukemia. He explained he had been undergoing chemo treatments for the last year and a half.

On Sunday following the Browns’ season-opening win over the Bengals, Donovan told listeners they will be hearing someone else call games while he continues to battle the disease.

“I am going to have to step away to continue treatment of this relapse of leukemia that I’ve had, and I’ll be away for a while,” Donovan said.

Jim said fans would be in great hands while he’s away. Chris Rose will be taking over play-by-play duties in the interim, with Nathan Zegura and Je’Rod Cherry continuing in their normal broadcast roles.

Donovan has been the voice of the Browns since 1999. Sunday marked his 25th season behind the microphone. He has been working at WKYC since 1985.

“I promise I’ll be a listener, and I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Donovan said.

Stephen A. Smith Blasts Mina Kimes Critics

BSM Staff
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Last week, ESPN and NFL analyst Mina Kimes announced an agreement on a new multi-year contract to keep Kimes at the network. The contract is believed to be worth $1.7 million.

Stephen A. Smith on his Stephen A. Smith Show podcast Friday defended the network’s decision to pay Kimes and extend her contract.

A caller, Yuli in Brooklyn, told Stephen A. that he had seen a video circulating online attacking ESPN and Kimes for the contract. Smith had a pretty simple response to those who take issue with the move.

“F–k them, OK?” he said. “You can’t be fazed by them. You know what haters really are? People that are upset they’re not you or they’re not in your position.”

Stephen A., who is among the highest-paid personalities at ESPN, said people shouldn’t be mad that they’re paying Kimes reportedly $1.7 million. He feels that cost is justified.

“Mina Kimes is worthy. I’m telling you as a colleague. She is worthy of $1.7 million,” he said.

Smith went on to say that Kimes’ intellect and talent are what makes her worth the money she’s making.

“She is a brilliant mind. She’s very smart, she very dedicated, she’s very knowledgeable,” he said. “And I think she makes great television.”

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