Media Beat: August 06, 2020

By David Farrell

Dave Charles launches Covid ‘At Home Studio’ system with Glenn Prins

The broadcaster and the engineer, Charles and Prins have created an MRI Home Studio set-up that offers broadcasters a cost-effective, hi-fi option to keep on-air safe at home and deliver professional quality audio streams to keep on-air operations running smoothly and efficiently.

“What we’re offering is a studio in a box solution for radio stations that are doing terrestrial broadcasting, looking for a way to keep their staff safe and at home, and delivering it at an affordable price,” Charles explains.

“Most stations have a lot of the equipment. necessary What we're doing is showing them how to put it together and make it viable, so they can maintain Plan B, and Plan B is providing a way for radio stations to have all their broadcasts done from home studios with professional sound and tech support. We have a couple of engineers who will talk you through the set-up and are on call if and when needed,” he continues.

“Radio station may have two-thirds of the stuff needed to set up a home studio, but what they don't have is the clean feed audio that gives you that professional quality audio and we are offering that. It’s not the typical zoom audio that sounds compressed. And if they have a need for programming consultancy, we can certainly talk about that as well, but the bottom line is  we want to make sure they can get to where the shows and news reports can be done from home with the same audio quality and frills they have in the station studios, and all packaged in a very affordable way.”

The package all-in is priced at about C$8,000.

Call Glenn Prins at 705 717-3111 and get all the details you require on MRI Home Studios. - David Farrell

Stingray launches with six new US partners

Up to 10 free music channels are now available on Comcast Xfinity, Distro TV, Freecast’s Select TV, Channel Plus on LG, MX Player and XUMO, boosting the web service’s audience reach potential in the market by over 40 million. Stingray currently counts 400 million subscribers in 156 countries.

Separately, Stingray Group Inc. says revenue in its fiscal Q1 ended June 30 fell by 35 percent to $52.3M as the impact of the pandemic hit revenue from radio operations. However, management is optimistic that its global media business will be able to resume rapid growth as the impact of the pandemic fades and new services come out in Canada, the United States and further abroad. – Sources: Stingray & The Canadian Press

NordStar officially takes possession of Torstar

Now that the deal is closed and the company is going private, Torstar’s new owners are focusing on the future of the company.

Job one? Listening to their new employees.

“We will be going into the office and sitting down and listening and hearing perspectives on what we need to do. We will listen to everyone,” said Bitove in an interview Wednesday afternoon. Bitove said he and Rivett will meet with executives and editors in a series of small, socially distant get-togethers and will also be holding a digital town hall for all Torstar employees. – Josh Rubin, The Star

Crave makes TIFF list

Among the lineup of 50 titles participating in this year’s festival are four Crave-supported films: the Crave original documentaries Inconvenient Indian (from Michelle Latimer) and The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (from Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbott), as well as the feature films Falling (from Viggo Mortensen) and Beans (from Tracey Deer), which received funding through Bell Media’s The Harold Greenberg Fund. – Media release

Renowned hockey photographer Dave Sandford on life inside the NHL bubble

I received the same 47-page document that the players got. The rules and procedures are the same for everyone, players and staff. There’s a nice outdoor area right outside (Rogers Place, the Oilers home rink) we call The Yard. Tim Hortons has been giving us free coffee and doughnuts and sandwiches. There’s basketball, a golf simulator and a giant screen outside, so guys are out there watching games. In one restaurant on Friday – the night before the playoffs – there was NHL staff, players from opposing teams, coaches and GMs, referees and linesmen, all dining out under one roof. I said, this feels like the Twilight Zone. – Patrick Maloney, London Free Press

Embracing the challenge of remote broadcasts

The crews at AT&T SportsNet and Penguins Radio Network are working hard to call playoff hockey from home. – Michelle Crechiolo, Penguins team reporter

Now that hockey is back people are fighting over Don Cherry, again

With everything happening in the world are we really still arguing whether Don Cherry should still be on the air? There is nothing sad about an adult male being held to account for their words. Hell hath no fury like a white man who feels other white men are being marginalized. – Jody Brimacombe, Fresh Daily

After 100 Podcasts, New Orleans’ Pelican JJ Redick widens his range

In recent years, the NBA star has added another dimension to his public persona by hosting his own podcast. He has interviewed athletes and chefs, authors and bankers, politicians and actors. For a self-described introvert, Redick thinks of it as an exercise in personal development — and as a way for him to connect with an even broader audience.

“It’s given me a medium to express myself,” he said.

Now, Redick hopes to expand his platform. – Scott Cacciola, The New York Times

McClatchy newspaper chain now owned by a New Jersey hedge fund

Chatham Asset Management has a growing presence in the news industry. In 2016, it took a majority stake in Postmedia, one of Canada’s largest newspaper companies. Since that deal went through, 1,600 Postmedia employees have been laid off, and more than 30 of its publications have been shut down. Chatham is also the principal owner of American Media Inc., the parent company of The National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids. – Marc Tracy, The New York Times (subscription)

RAIN News: Podcast summit excerpt

The Insider Interviews podcast, created and hosted by marketing strategist and journalist E.B. Moss has posted a new episode featuring a live chat with RAIN president Brad Hill, and an excerpt of the recently produced RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit. (See/hear the YouTube version below.)

All episodes of the Insider Interviews podcast, plus subscription links, can be found here – RAIN News

Contemporary music SuperStudy 2 webinar

Coleman Insights’ test list is generated by compiling the most consumed songs from the past year by streaming, sales and radio airplay as measured by MRC Data/BDSradio. The company tested these songs with 1,000 people ages 12-54 across the US and Canada utilizing Coleman Insights’ FACT360 Strategic Music Test platform. Due to the cancellation of this year’s Worldwide Radio Summit, the findings were released via webinar.  The research findings start getting interesting at the 16-minute mark.

RIP

Edmonton’s hockey and media communities’ paid tribute to longtime local broadcaster Tim Dancy on Monday after news of his death emerged. The former play-by-play commentator for the Edmonton Oilers later spent time in that same role for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He went on to work for other media companies like Shaw and 630 CHED. – Phil Heidenreich, Global News

- Peter Rakobowchuk, a journalist with Canada’s national news agency whose high energy delivery was instantly recognizable to decades of listeners, has died.

More widely known by his radio moniker Peter Ray — a supervisor early on told him it sounded smoother — the irrepressible Rakobowchuk had been undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer. He was 71.

–Pete Hamill, journalist and author who captured the spirit of New York, dies at 85