Aggregator
Request of Mega Moo Radio Company for Waiver of Auction 109 Form 2100, Schedule 301 Filing Deadline
Actions
Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, Dominion Broadcasting, Inc., Station WLMB, Toledo, Ohio
Consent Decree, Langston University
Applications
What’s the Top InFOCUS Podcast Since Oct. 1?
The RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, continues to attract new listeners.
And, if you’ve never heard one of these audio reports hosted by Radio + Television Business Report Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson, now is your chance to tune in and catch up on what your peers have been listening to.
Since October 1, thousands of industry leaders have downloaded our podcasts. But, which one has attracted the most listeners?
Michael LeeIntroducing Michael Lee, LPTVBA Executive Director.
In this InFOCUS Podcast, Lee offers a comprehensive update on why his organization seeks passage of the “Local Journalism Sustainability Act” as low-power television stations attract buyers ranging from The E.W. Scripps Co. and Gray Television to entrepreneurs including LPTVBA founder Frank Copsidas and South Asian TV programming specialist Ravi Kapur.
It’s the most-listened-to podcast since it was first distributed October 28!
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Michael Lee, LPTV Broadcasters Assn.” on Spreaker.
On Heavy Trading, Audacy Shares Erase 2021 Growth
In mid-February 2021, Audacy Inc. shares were priced at $6.26 per share, swiftly rising from a $2.80 per share price seen in early January.
By mid-March, a slow and steady deceleration for the company’s NYSE-traded stock would commence. By November 1, AUD seemingly seemed content on staying in the mid-$3 range.
With Thursday’s Closing Bell on Wall Street, Audacy’s shares have now retreated to where they sat on January 4.
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Main Street USA: A Thriving Home For Radio and TV
NEW YORK — Across the third quarter of 2021, broadcast media executives touted their performance and what they bring to consumers and advertisers in conference call after conference call for analysts and investors to digest.
But, what about the broadcast companies that aren’t publicly traded — in particular the small to mid-sized players that continue to enjoy strong cash flow and boast low leverage levels? Forecast 2022 was the exclusive home for such a discussion, with The Cromwell Group‘s CEO joined by the owner of WISH-8 and WNDY-TV in Indianapolis, JVC Broadcasting‘s President/CEO, Lilly Broadcasting‘s CEO and noted broker and licensee Larry Patrick all participating.
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Late Filing Of Quarterly TV Issues/Programs Lists Yields Fines
A little lamb of a television station may be roaring like a lion, thanks to a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture handed to its owner by the Video Division of the FCC’s Media Bureau.
A similar NAL, one double in value, was also handed out to Eastern Florida State College.
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IBC On Shaky Ground Ahead of Show Opening
Following close examination of new COVID protocols from the Dutch government and consultation with key IBC stakeholders, IBC2021 recently declared that it is “firmly set” on delivering a safe and valuable event in Amsterdam from December 3-6.
That has not stopped the flow of technology companies, which include some of broadcast media’s bigger suppliers, from pulling out of the biggest event outside of the NAB Show for the global radio and telecommunications industries.
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EMF Keeps On Growing With Ohio FM Buy
Until now, it has been a Canton, Ohio-market Class A offering Christian Talk & Teaching programming as “The Light.”
Soon, the light will be extinguished, and is poised to be flooded with a little love, or some rarefied air.
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NAB Leadership Foundation Adds Three New Board Members
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Leadership Foundation elected Tony Coles of Black Information Network and iHeartMedia, Paul J. Curran Jr. of Cox Media Group (CMG) and Melody Smalls of Allen Media Group, Inc. to serve on its Board of Directors.
“We are excited to welcome three outstanding individuals to the NAB Leadership Board and are grateful for our Board’s guidance as we work to develop leaders, advance diversity and highlight the community service initiatives of our industry,” said Darrell Brown, chair of the NAB Leadership Foundation and president of Bonneville International/KSL Broadcast Group.
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“We want to thank the new members for their willingness to serve and look forward to their insights as we continue to expand our programs and prepare the next generation of industry leaders,” added Michelle Duke, president of the NAB Leadership Foundation.
Tony Coles, president of Black Information Network (BIN) and iHeartMedia’s division president of Metro Markets, has more than 35 years of experience in the radio industry. He joined iHeartMedia in 2004 and has held various on-air, programming and management positions across the country. Most recently, Coles served as the executive vice president of programming for the company’s West region. In his current role, he oversees profitability for 21 iHeartMedia markets.
Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post NAB Leadership Foundation Adds Three New Board Members appeared first on Radio World.
Are ‘No Hispanic Dictate’ Issues Still Impacting Hispanic TV?
NEW YORK — The “No Hispanic Dictate.” It still rears its ugly head, and for Jason Hall, EVP of Advertising Sales at Estrella Media, Hispanic Buying Power doesn’t equate to the 3%-4% of total advertising investments being placed on U.S. Hispanic media in 2021.
“There’s a lot of brands that still don’t get,” added Isabel Rafferty, CEO at Canela Media.
Both Hispanic market leaders participated in a prerecorded virtual panel presented Thursday as part of the Hispanic TV Summit produced by Joe Schramm for the Virtual Fall TV 2021 event.
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NEXTGEN TV Gets A Holiday Marketing Boost
NEW YORK — Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Pearl TV — the business organization led by Anne Schelle representing U.S. broadcast television companies — has shared the first images of an upcoming NEXTGEN TV holiday brand marketing campaign.
For Pearl TV, the effort is designed to “deepen consumer awareness and engagement.”
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Adthos Vaxx Campaign Uses Synthetic Voices
Adthos Creative Studio has released a free radio campaign that encourages Covid-19 vaccine uptake. The campaign uses synthetic voices created with AI technology.
Assets are available for free download and use. Promos cover 6,500 cities in 40 countries and in 70 languages and dialects. The company said that for the United States it includes 1,000 cities and communities.
https://www.radioworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Adthos-New-Orleans-30-sec.mp3An example of the 30-second Covid-19 vaccination PSA produced by Adthos using AI-generated voices.An example of the 30-second Covid-19 vaccination PSA produced by Adthos using AI-generated voices.
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The company said it wanted to do good while highlighting its ability to create targeted messaging quickly and easily for multiple locations. “We also see this as a positive use for AI technology that benefits humanity”
Adthos states this is “the largest audio ad campaign in history.” It bases that statement on involving the work of 13,000 creatives and “supported on its release by stations with a total of more than 250 million weekly listeners.”
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Stations using the campaign must disclose the use of synthetic voices to their audiences; the company posted examples of the required disclosure.
Adthos Creative Studio is a product that is intended to be used to create audio advertising using text-to-speech and synthetic voice technology.
“Using Creative Studio, broadcasters and advertisers are not only able to create, produce and playout their ads in record time, they also have access to a suite of pre-produced adverts covering various kinds of businesses or services which can be quickly and easily customized to their needs,” the company states.
Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post Adthos Vaxx Campaign Uses Synthetic Voices appeared first on Radio World.
Five ‘Shocking’ Cyber Crime Statistics Radio/TV Need To Know
NEW YORK — Speaking at Forecast 2022 on Tuesday, Scott Schober of Cybersecurity Ventures and President/CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems soberly shared with attendees of the daylong conference that they will never stay ahead of the hackers. But, there are several things one can do to keep hackers at bay.
Building on that theme, cybersecurity company Surfshark has new facts that sound new alarms when it comes to online security. They start with e-mail address protection.
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C-Band Relocation Payments Begin
The entity responsible for paying out claims to incumbent earth station operators affected by the C-band shakeup in the United States says it has started cutting checks.
The C-band Relocation Payment Clearinghouse (RPC) is paying claims filed directly by operators for costs related to reconfigure facilities in order to free up spectrum in the C-band.
The RPC says it is evaluating additional claims for reimbursement or lump-sum payments. It will continue to send payments as it approves applications and is urging potential claimants to come forward with their claims.
Approximately 1,500 earth station operators, some holding multiple licenses, already chose the lump-sum option, according to data from the FCC earlier this year, including many broadcasters. But licensees that did not accept that option are expected to work with their satellite providers or to directly recoup justifiable filter, dish and labor expenses from the RCP.
[“C-Band Migration Underway for Dish Users”]
Incumbent earth station operators, space station operators and other eligible fixed-service licensees transitioning out of the band are generally eligible for certain relocation cost reimbursements or other payments.
Some entities potentially eligible still have not filed claims, according to a press release from RPC, or have not registered with the RPC. “Once those entities have set up their profiles and filed claims, the RPC will evaluate their applications and make payments to those whose claims have been approved,” it stated in the release.
“We are making great progress in collecting claimant profiles, approving claims, and making payments to qualified entities that are relocating on the C-band,” said Frank Banda, RPC program manager. “We encourage all entities that might be eligible for reimbursement or lump-sum payments to register and file their claims as soon as possible. The sooner they file their claims, the sooner they can receive reimbursement or lump-sum payments.”
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Incumbent earth stations can seek reimbursement for the modification and reconfiguration of earth station dishes or possible relocation, if necessary to prevent interference from new 5G users, according to those familiar with the process.
Approximately 20,000 registered earth stations in the contiguous United States, according to the FCC, are classified as incumbent earth stations for purposes of the C-band transition.
To submit claims for reimbursement or lump-sum payments, claimants can log into their RPC Coupa profile and follow the instructions. The RPC website provides guidance.
The band repack process has several phases with hard deadlines involved, according to the FCC. Phase 1 involves earth stations in the lower 100 MHz of the band (3.7–3.8 GHz) in 46 Partial Economic Areas to be repacked by Dec. 5. Those are largely in urban areas and include most, if not all, major radio markets, according to the FCC. All remaining earth stations will need to be transitioned in Phase 2 of the repack by December 2023.
C-band refers to frequencies in the 3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz range. The spectrum has been used extensively by radio and television broadcasters for satellite C-Band downlinks, but those services are being repacked to the upper portion (4.0–4.2 GHz) of the band. The FCC mandated the spectrum shift as part of its effort to move toward the national expansion of 5G. It is making available 280 MHz of C-band spectrum (3.7–3.8 GHz), including a 20 MHz guard band, for flexible use throughout the contiguous United States.
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The post C-Band Relocation Payments Begin appeared first on Radio World.
Measurement Innovation, Elevated by Abcarian
NEW YORK — Among the many activities occurring this week, aside from Forecast 2022, that involve the broadcast television industry was the first-ever “Measurement Innovation Forum,” hosted by NBCU.
The owner of NBC and Telemundo enjoyed representation from every corner of the industry. Following the Forum, former Nielsen thought leader Kelly Abcarian, today NBCUniversal’s EVP/Measurement & Impact for Advertising & Partnerships, shared an update on the Measurement RFP process with each measurement partner.
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In Australia, DAB+ and RadioApp Extend Radio’s Reach
DAB+ is on the air in Australia’s five major metro markets plus several other cities. Commercial Radio Australia Chief Executive Officer Joan Warner has said, “DAB+ audiences have grown as a result of broadcasters enhancing their digital radio formats and car manufacturers continuing to add DAB+ radios to their vehicle ranges.” An estimated 2.8 million DAB+ receivers have been sold to date.
This is an excerpt from our interview with her in the ebook “Trends in Digital Radio 2021.”
RW: Many broadcasters ask whether they should invest in an over-the-air digital format when there’s so many other distribution channels.
Warner: They need to be a bit more strategic. We know that no mobile network can carry all of radio listening traffic live and local. If everybody tried to do all of their radio listening over a mobile network, the network would crash. We’d break the internet.
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And I’m talking about live radio. Podcasting has yet to be proven to be the river of gold we think it will be. I mean, podcast listening is increasing in Australia and in the U.S., but it’s still a relatively small part of audio listening. And we need to work out how we monetize it.
But even telcos will say, “Yes, we don’t want all radio listening on our mobile network, because there’d be no room for anything else.” So, broadcasters have to step back and take a strategic look and say, “All right, where do we want to be?”
And our answer is, we want to be everywhere. We want to be, as broadcasters, accessible on every single platform we can be. That will be AM and FM in the medium term.
It could be the case in the future that people go, well, “Fifty percent of listening is on streaming, 40 percent is via DAB, so maybe it’s time to think about an AM and FM turnoff.” But that’s not on the radar at the moment. Not until we’ve got digital out into the regions.
So don’t pick a winner. You can’t afford to.
One of our broadcasters who had the same doubts about digital 10 years ago said, “We’re looking at this as defensive spending as well. If we don’t do it, someone else will jump in and grab that spectrum and offer a product that we could be offering.”
Now it’s, “Okay, how can we be more offensive with our DAB+? What are the benefits?” Incremental audience, extra revenue. We’ve got new stations — and we’re able to put all of these stations, including AM and FM, onto our industry RadioApp. Now we’ve got 400 available on one app, where normally we have only 11 commercial stations in a city in Australia.
RW: It sounds like your app is an important part of this conversation.
Warner: It’s important. I mean, listening on the internet still is at fairly low levels everywhere. Our research shows us, on average, about 15 percent of all listeners will listen to radio online, either via an app or on their PC, whatever they’re using.
But they are not only solely listening online, they’re listening sometimes to broadcast in the car or at home. There’s a common misperception, people will look at that 15 percent and go, “Oh, okay, 15 percent of all listening is done online.” No. It’s that 15 percent of listeners will listen at some stage online, but that’s not exclusive listening. Sometimes they’re also listening on their car radio or on a DAB radio at home.
The app has provided us an introduction into organizations like Google and Amazon to get all of Australian radio working properly on their speakers, first time, every time.
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Prior to us having RadioApp, the accuracy on smart speakers when asking for an Australian radio station on Amazon was 23 percent. The accuracy on Google was 40 percent. As [speakers] became more popular, people got them out of the box and said, “Oh, please play Hit Radio Sydney for me,” and what they were coming up with was New York or Los Angeles, or nothing.
That’s a missed opportunity for radio to be back where it may not have been for a while, back in the bedroom or the living area.
So we saw it as a strategic play. It was easy to say to Google and Amazon, “You only need to deal with one organization here.” Now because of RadioApp, on those speakers we’ve got 400 stations including every AM and FM and DAB station in Australia, commercial plus the ABC plus SBS and all of their DAB stations. Four hundred radio stations. And there are 3,865 ways to ask for them — by saying the frequency, by saying the name of the station, by saying the name of the station and the town.
Find our Q&A with Joan Warner in the ebook “Trends in Digital Radio 2021.”
The post In Australia, DAB+ and RadioApp Extend Radio’s Reach appeared first on Radio World.