ASIA

Journalists killed and harassed as Taliban pursues media workers

Afghan journalist Sayed Marouf (pictured) was killed just over a week ago during the Taliban’s continued crackdown on media workers.Radio stations have been taken over or closed and newsrooms have been visited by Taliban strongmen in attempts to intimidate journalists to leave the profession or report Taliban propaganda.There are reports of journalist arrests in many provinces, including the (intentionally unnamed) journalist pictured.On Facebook journalists have told of being beaten and set alight during the Taliban crackdown.The Salam Watandar radio network was searched in the hunt for radio journalists in the first weeks of the Taliban takeover, as shown in security pictured published on facebook. […]

ASIA

Afghan journalists flee to Iran for safety after beatings, threats

More than 20 journalists working for the media in Afghanistan’s Ghor province have fled to Iran as the Taliban seeks out radio, tv and newspaper journalists to intimidate, beat or kill them.Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty reports that large numbers of journalists have been smuggled to Iran following the Taliban’s growing threats against media. The fate of many other media workers who have remained in Afghanistan remains unknown.According to a report on Radio Farda with pictorial evidence from AFP, Taqi Daryabi and Nematullah Naqdi, two journalists for the daily Al-Inta’a, were detained and severely beaten while covering a women’s protest against the Taliban in Kabul. After their release, the reporters alleged they had been flogged and displayed their wounds. […]

ASIA

Radio: Still Very Much in The Music Game

Content from BPRBPR’s All Audio mapping studies conducted in various markets across the globe in recent months reveal that music plays a significant role in why listeners return to radio from other forms of audio, particularly music streaming services.This may seem extraordinary to some however the reality is that listeners can become just as disenchanted with music streams and their own playlists as they might with music on a radio station.While the principal reasons listeners leave radio for other audio are generally music related, a significant proportion of listeners return to radio for a music related reason.Statistics from seven markets reveal that amongst those radio listeners using other forms of audio, on average; around 40% leave radio for a music related reason.  When returning to radio around 24% report a music related reason behind their motivation.  Figures for individual markets, demographics and format styles can vary quite a lot however the pattern remains the same.Radio is certainly distinguished most relative to other audio by personality, localism and news/information but music still plays a pivotal role on music radio stations.People prefer to be entertained rather than entertaining themselves and in this respect listeners often mention that they prefer the “mix” of music offered by radio.  Managing your own music choices via other music platforms can be fun but after a while it can also be like wrapping your own Christmas presents.As a result of these findings it is clear that music radio stations offering the optimal selection of music (mix) to their target audience has never been more critical. There is great opportunity in getting it right and a world of pain in getting it wrong.  Strategically focused music testing is now likely more important than it ever was in the past!By Wayne Clouten, BPR […]

US

Alt 105.3 San Francisco Is Briefly Resurrected

After flipping on Friday afternoon to Variety Hits “105.3 Dave-FM“, the former format returned to KITS San Francisco this morning. Technical issues took the “Dave-FM” format off for about 12 hours starting on Saturday evening. The issues began taking place around 8:40pm pacific time as KITS ran hours straight of nothing but commercials after what […] […]

US

Palm Beaches Surf Is Out Following Sale

Following the closing of its $1.1 million acquisition of 960 WSVU/101.7 W269DS North Palm Beach FL, Jean Altidor’s United Group Elite Agency Investments has flipped the station to Haitian Creole language programming as “Radio Elite International“. The flip marks the end of Vic Canales Media Group’s Classic Rock “The Surf” on those frequencies and the […] […]