RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast

In May 2023, Lee Harris joined the NewsNation cable news network, owned by Nexstar Media Group, as Director of Integrated Operations. For those in the New York Tri-State area, Harris' name and voice are very familiar, as he spent more than three decades as a news anchor at "1010 WINS." This makes him pretty knowledgeable about both the radio and TV industries, and it is this knowledge that has led him to take the role of moderator for the Executive Super Session, sponsored by ABC Audio, at Forecast 2025, presented by Radio Ink and the Radio + Television Business Report.

To learn more about what’s in store for Forecast attendees and about Harris’s first year at NewsNation, RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson welcomes Harris to the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Hurricane Milton was a devastating storm, and the impact to communities across Charlotte and Sarasota Counties in Florida, including Englewood, were hit particularly hard. Yet, Fiorini Media-owned radio stations WENG in Englewood and WCXS in Arcadia were on the air, providing emergency news updates and even taking a pause Sunday for coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' win against the New Orleans Saints.

In this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.fm, Market Manager and WENG morning host Kerri Black shares how the storm impacted the area, what the stations did to keep the lights on, and what her team did to ensure the safety of staff while providing vital information to the community.

Based in Memphis, Howard Robertson, CEO and Founder of Spotset Radio Network, is laser-focused on bringing political advertising to Black radio.

With the Power of Urban Radio Forum scheduled for October 9-11 in Washington, D.C., it’s a perfect time for stations targeting African American communities to step up their voter outreach efforts and increase their electoral ad dollars.

How they can do it is Robertson’s specialty, and he wonders if the Harris-Walz campaign is truly capitalizing on the ways Black-owned media can connect with consumers. To learn more, RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson welcomes Robertson to this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.fm.

For the last decade it has worked with such brands as Wix, Dollar Shave Club and 23 and Me. Over the last six months, Juice Media has grown, as it seeks to extend its reach into digital marketing, media measurement and attribution across growth channels.

To learn more about Juice Media and its efforts, in particular, in the linear media space, RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson welcomes its President, Mark Zamuner, to the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

WFMZ-69 since 1976 has served the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania with local news coverage and syndicated fare including Judge Judy. It's a rarity in the modern age, but the unaffiliated player remains important to an important segment of the Philadelphia DMA. That's why getting DirecTV streaming coverage, in addition to its long-running availability on the traditional DBS provider satellite lineup, is a big deal for station owner Maranatha Broadcasting.

To learn more about WFMZ-69 and how it continues to thrive and not get overlooked by national companies, station President/GM Barry Fisher, Past Chairman of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, joins RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson on this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Harker Bos Group earlier this year released the audio edition of its State of Spanish-Language Media 2024 report. Now, it has released its video division, and it is chock full of takeaways that are of value to all across the television industry.

To discuss the possible “whys” behind the data and the findings, we welcome Sean Bos, VP of Branding and Research at Harker Bos Group, to the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

For nearly 100 years, a Class A radio station with a 50kw signal which at night can be heard across multiple states and Canadian provinces has officially served listeners from Minneapolis. Now, ahead of its official October 2 centennial, Audacy is celebrating a century of service at WCCO-AM 830. To learn more about the continued importance of the AM radio station and the role it plays, Adam R Jacobson welcomes WCCO Brand Manager and Program Director Brad Lane to the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

He began his career in May 1995 as a Retail Merchandising Manager for Target in the Rio Grande Valley and would later manage all consumer bi-national and regional promotional and event marketing activities for Tecate, Dos Equis, Sol, Bohemia and Cerveza Carta Blanca. That led to positions across the Hispanic advertising and marketing industry on both the agency and client level, with positions at The Clorox Company and, most recently, at Procter & Gamble Co., where he served as Senior Brand Manager for North America in the Multicultural Media unit. Now, he’s joining HRN – Hispanic Media Networks – as Chief Cultural Officer.

To learn more about his shift to HRN, we’re pleased to welcome Lupe de Los Santos to the inFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.fm.

The dynamics related to this "blackout" and how privately held DirecTV views the future of the television business model seemingly appeared to be the focus of an "analyst call" hosted by the Chief Financial Officer for the direct broadcast satellite company. From the get-go, the session, which did not include an opportunity for journalists' query, saw Ray Carpenter offer a one-sided, biased viewpoint on one of the touchiest subjects impacting TV stations today: retransmission consent, and what constitutes fair compensation.

"Price gauging" and "a lack of flexibility" programmers "institute" on distributors were just some of the comments Carpenter lobbed at The Walt Disney Co., which saw its station go dark across DirecTV and U-Verse channel lineups on Sunday at 7pm Eastern. While there are always two players involved in a carriage fee negotiation process, MVPDs have consistently pointed fingers at broadcast TV station owners as the guilty party when the loss of TV stations — by law — must come in the absence of a fresh retransmission consent agreements.

On Tuesday morning, Carpenter and DirecTV took it up a notch, and the RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, is pleased to offer excerpts from the DirecTV analyst call — giving the broadcast media industry an opportunity to hear for themselves the DBS provider's view on retransmission consent.

There are few people in the radio industry who understand New York’s Capital District, the Hudson Valley and communities on the edge of the Berkshires and Adirondacks than Chuck Benfer. Since March 2023, he’s served as Chief Operating Officer of Pamal Broadcasting, after leading the company’s Albany-Schenectady-Troy stations for a year. He’s spent decades traveling up and down I-87 at radio stations across the region, working at competing stations to what today are his own.

Pamal's stations continue to excel, with tremendous ratings and revenue success for some heritage Adult Contemporary and Top 40 brands. How does the company founded by Siena College Class of 1966 member Jim Morrell do it? Find out in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.