The Phoenix-based production and broadcasting studio used by a popular host known for the latest news on everything digital — including technology, and security threats and scams — is for sale.
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Student-run noncommercial radio stations still must adhere to the FCC’s rules. The case of a college station in Montana reminds us of that afresh.
The Audio Division of the Media Bureau said it has reached a consent decree with Montana State University Northern, the licensee of KNMC(FM) in Havre, Mont., over compliance with FCC rules for filing for license renewal and maintaining an online public file.
The license renewal should have been filed by Dec. 1, 2020, but was not filed until four months later. The commission also said the station had failed to place any issues and programs lists in its online public file before this April.
In the consent decree, the school stipulates that it violated the rules and will pay a penalty of $500. It will also put in place a compliance plan that makes sure the violations don’t happen again.
If it seems like the station is getting off easier than others might, it’s because the commission has a policy about certain cases that involve first-time violations by student-run NCE radio stations. In such situations it may offer a consent decree with terms like those that KNMC agreed to.
KNMC was started by English and speech instructor W.E. “Bill” Lisenby in the early 1950s and came to the FM dial in 1978.
The post College Station Signs FCC Consent Decree appeared first on Radio World.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Legislation that two House Members who sit on the powerful Energy & Commerce Committee say would free up new airwaves for wireless broadband use by the public has been teed up in the lower body of Congress.
For the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology’s Chair, the legislation would “make as much spectrum as possible available for improved broadband service for consumers and to promote new, innovative uses of our airwaves.”
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In August, a coed, Catholic Benedictine boarding and day school for students grades 9-12 along Narragansett Bay surrendered its license for its 360-watt Class A FM, ending student-run programming that could be heard in nearby Bristol and in Fall River, Mass.
A change of heart came earlier this month, however, and the private school rescinded its request. Its license was restored. But, it has nothing to do with Portsmouth Abbey School wanting to keep operating the FM.
It’s just been sold to the regional NPR Member operation.
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On October 22, a 34-year relationship with Salem Media Group will conclude for the individual heading up national news and public affairs.
In more recent years, he has directed Salem’s Office of Government Relations.
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DAYTON, OHIO — Her career in the radio broadcasting industry started at “high-flyin’” WING-AM, at the time the Top 40 leader in the Gem City of Ohio. There, she rose to VP and Assistant General Manager following roles in promotion, marketing, and research.
In 1990, she became the first woman to manage a radio station in the Miami Valley, bringing WMMX-FM to life as “MIX 107.7.”
Now, Deborah Parenti, recently named President of the Radio, TV & Podcasting Division for Radio Ink, Podcast Business Journal and RBR+TVBR parent Streamline Publishing, is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for her positive contributions to Dayton radio.
The founding members of the Dayton Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame notified Parenti on Monday (9/27) of their intent to honor her with the award.
“Your achievements in the field of broadcasting have not gone unnoticed,” the group’s Jim Johnson, Sharon Howard and Retha Phillips said in their letter to Parenti. “The many recognitions that you continue to receive from the broadcast industry nationwide make it that much more deserved.”
The plan is for Parenti to be recognized at the next Hall of Fame event, which is yet to be scheduled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parenti said, “I am so proud to have been a part of the Dayton broadcast community and to continue to watch and listen to the dedicated professionals who carry on the tradition of excellence that is part of Dayton’s media heritage. This is an incredible honor and I am truly grateful to so many here with whom I have had the privilege to work with over the years.”
Parenti’s career includes several years at Great Trails Broadcasting, which transitioned the Top 40 format from WING to WGTZ, creating “Z93,” a Top 40 leader across the 1980s. She later joined Stoner Broadcasting, serving as General Sales Manager at Stoner’s WDJX-FM 99.7 in Louisville before returning to Dayton in 1990 as VP/General Manager of the former WWSN. Under her leadership, the station would become WMMX “Mix 107.7,” a station that today remains one of Dayton’s most listened to FM radio choices.
Later, Parenti would become VP/GM of American Radio Systems’ Dayton group, earning a
major profile in the February 1997 issue of Working Woman magazine for her role in
developing one of the first consolidated radio sales platforms, “Radio First!” In September
1997, Parenti would leave her hometown of Dayton for a position as VP/GM of Beasley
Broadcast Group’s country-formatted WXTU-FM in Philadelphia. From 1999-2010, Parenti was a board member of Vox Radio.
Today, Parenti is again based in the Dayton area and has served as EVP/Publisher of what was formerly known as Streamline Publishing’s audio division since joining the company founded by Chairman/CEO B. Eric Rhoads in January 2007. She assumed leadership of Radio + Television Business Report with its acquisition by Streamline Publishing in February 2013. The company launched Podcast Business Journal in the late 2010s.
Parenti is also a Board Member of the Alliance for Women in Media. She completed NABEF’s
Broadcast Leadership Training Program in 2001. She also sits on the College Broadcasters Inc. advisory committee.
On June 3, RBR+TVBR first shared the news that Sinclair Broadcast Group had opted to sell its lone radio broadcasting stations — a pair of AM spoken-word stations, a heritage Hot Adult Contemporary FM, and an FM that simulcasts one of those big AM properties.
The transaction closed on Sept. 28, shifting ownership to a family-run broadcasting company with both Spanish- and English-language stations primarily across the Western U.S.
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Neutrik USA said Charlotte, N.C., will now be its centralized hub for the Americas.
It also is changing its name to reflect what it called a dramatic expansion. It will be called Neutrik Americas.
“The goal of this organizational shift is to provide centralized operation for the Americas, with the benefit of consolidated sales and support for the entire region,” it stated in the announcement, adding that it expects to be able to offer greater responsiveness for customers.
“As part of this expansion, Neutrik Americas now offers multilingual sales and support services.” It will offer
English, Spanish, Portuguese and French language support from its Charlotte headquarters.
The announcement was made by Peter Milbery, president of Neutrik Americas, who noted that the company moved to Charlotte in at a location near the Charlotte Douglas International Airport “to accommodate the logistics of this expanded territory.”
Neutrik Americas remains a subsidiary of Neutrik AG and member of the Neutrik Group.
The post Neutrik USA Is Now Neutrik Americas appeared first on Radio World.
He’s an investor, entrepreneur, cryptocurrency expert and host of the “Market Disruptors” podcast/YouTube series.
As of October 2, he’ll be adding Premiere Networks syndicated talk show host to his curriculum vitae.
Introducing “The Mark Moss Show,” hosted by Mark Moss.
It’s designed to be a three-hour weekend program, for a Saturday or Sunday slot at any time between 6am and Midnight.
“The Mark Moss Show” will also be available as a podcast on iHeartRadio, Premiere says.
Moss’s content is designed to assist listeners in comprehending Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies.
“We’re witnessing the most important technological revolution right now – it’s the greatest ‘asymmetric opportunity’ of our lifetime,” Moss said. “But to take advantage of this
opportunity, you need to have asymmetric information and you need to know what most others do not. That’s what I’m excited to share with listeners each and every week.”
Julie Talbott, Premiere Networks’ President, notes, “Mark is uniquely qualified to inform and educate audiences on how to make smart investments, grow their money, understand the financial markets and prepare for the future. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk.
“The Mark Moss Show” replay podcast is distributed by the iHeartPodcast Network and will be available on demand following the broadcast as three one-hour shows on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Learn how to find wahoo and kingfish using SiriusXM.
Meet SBE’s next president Andrea Cummis, the society’s first female president.
Find out why Xperi is interested in the Internet of Things.
And read about recent automation and traffic products from companies like Arrakis, ENCO, Smarts, BE, AEQ, Music1, NewsBoss, NextKast, WideOrbit and others.
The post Inside the Sept. 29, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.
The Texas Association of Broadcasters is supporting a lawsuit that challenges a prohibition against using drones in newsgathering in that state.
The lawsuit, filed last November, is by a Texas news photographer. It challenges the constitutionality of Chapter 423 of the Texas Government Code, which “broadly prohibits the use of drones by journalists in public airspace, yet arbitrarily exempts other members of the public from those proscriptions,” the brief argues.
TAB said the law is a “speaker-based regulation” that discriminates against the press and violates the U.S. Constitution by harming the free flow of newsworthy information to the public.
TAB said it was joined in filing the amicus brief by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 44 additional entities, including multiple station groups, the National Association of Broadcasters and other industry advocates.
“The brief outlines the public benefit of the technology when used for newsgathering, its similarity to other technologies such as news helicopters, and how the restrictions in state law constrain the devices’ use in newsgathering while permitting other, non-journalist speakers to deploy the devices at will.”
TAB said action in the case is expected this fall or winter.
The post Texas Broadcasters Speak Up Against Drone Restriction appeared first on Radio World.
A number of organizations that support EEO in broadcasting would like the FCC to consider nine proposals to help improve compliance and enforcement.
Their proposals are in a filing that was coordinated by the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.
The FCC has open a further notice of proposed rulemaking in which it is taking comments about the collection of data to understand broadcast EEO trends by race and gender.
It wants fresh comments about the required collection of data on FCC Form 395-B, the broadcast station Annual Employment Report.
That form is intended to gather workforce composition data from broadcasters every year; but it has not been collected for two decades. The process was suspended in 2001 because of a legal ruling, and resumption was delayed in 2004 over issues involving confidentiality of the employment data. Those issues remain unresolved.
The EEO supporters told the FCC that resumption of data collection “would serve invaluable public purposes” but that this is not the only element that needs to be considered.
They asked the FCC to consider:
The 38 organizations participating in the filing include the NAACP, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the National Action Network, the Hispanic Federation and the National Bar Association.
The groups made particular note of a proposal to have the Enforcement Bureau examine whether a licensee, having been found to have violated the broad outreach elements of the EEO rule, may also have violated its core nondiscrimination obligation.
“It is hornbook law that EEO statistics should be considered as part of a tribunal’s consideration of whether a respondent company engaged in discrimination,” they wrote.
“As the commission has long held, excessive use of word-of-mouth recruitment by members of a station’s homogeneous staff is inherently discriminatory and could be disqualifying. If such a case arises, one piece of evidence that should be available to the Enforcement Bureau staff is data on the racial and gender composition of those whose ‘mouths’ are doing the ‘word of mouth’ recruitment.
“Broadcasting must not become the only industry in the country that is immune from the obligation to produce data that is useful to a finder of fact in determining whether an employer may have engaged in a discriminatory scheme.”
The post EEO Supporters Lay Out Their Wish List appeared first on Radio World.
Broadcast engineer Dan Slentz writes that when he was a teen working at WJER(AM/FM), the chief engineer had a speaker in each room wired with multiple 70-volt audio lines to a rotating switch and volume control. “You could listen to the AM station, FM station or any of the three production rooms,” he said.
Being 70 V, the audio quality wasn’t especially great, but when you were working after hours and you went into a room, you could monitor Air or what was going on. Dan says every station he has ever worked at had audio monitoring in the bathrooms. Even at CBS station WLVQ, “QFM” in Columbus, where the bathroom was in a public area down the hall, all occupants of the ninth floor of Nationwide Tower 2 could listen to QFM or Z-rock FM.
Dan recently visited the Monoprice website, www.monoprice.com. He loves it for its really good cables with lifetime warranty, and he says you can find other cool items on the site, like the old MCM Electronics used to have.
One such item was this 40-watt, wall-mount amplifier with a touchscreen, Bluetooth, auxiliary inputs and USB and microSD slots. The amp even has an infrared remote control. And it provides an FM receiver and stereo output.
Touchscreen controlsDan notes that of course, this is made offshore. But all this comes in a compact footprint and costs only $120.
The top image shows the USB and microSD slots on the underside of the module, and the wiring connections are shown below.
Connectors on the Monoprice unit.If it’s time to retire your old 70-volt speaker wiring or you’re thinking of adding a speaker monitor system, this module might be the solution. Consider mounting it in the breakroom, reception area or in your bathrooms. Use Monoprice product #36375. (As of mid-September the unit was listed as out of stock at the Monoprice website, with a November ETA.)
Sound ScrewIf you’re planning new studio construction next year, you may want to discuss with your architect or acoustic consultant the newly released acoustic Sound Screw, developed in Sweden.
Imagine a screw, the “head” of which is separated from the threaded body with a coiled spring. It’s an inexpensive method of reducing vibration from joists into the drywall, as the spring dampens the vibration transfer.
Although it is only available in Sweden at the moment, Akoustos AB is approaching companies outside Sweden to license its technology.The company says that in lab tests, a 9 dB reduction of sound transfer was measured. This calculates to about half the perceived sound transferred using traditional drywall screws to hold sheet rock panels.
Check out www.akoustos.se.
Keep fans quietIn an age when nearly everything seems to be in short supply, you may be tempted to substitute a fan in a piece of equipment. All fine and good, but contract engineer Stephanie Donnell has a caution if you’re installing a DC “brushless” fan in this situation. It could result in an EMC noise issue due to the current pulses generated by the driver circuit that operates the field coils of the fan motor.
EMC, electromagnetic compatibility, refers to the interaction of equipment with its electromagnetic environment and other devices. These electromagnetic fields could result in something that sounds like spark plug noise. You can correct this by adding a simple R/C filter on the fan’s “+” voltage lead.
Another tip involving muffin fans is to use models rated for 220 VAC but run them at 110. This is helpful in a situation where you need to improve ambient cooling around any equipment but where you don’t want a fan that produces a miniature hurricane or the noise associated with high-speed operation. Stephanie has used 220 V fans over the years to help cool everything from a very old computer to a Larcan-TTC TV translator.
Stephanie also saw Steve Tuzeneu’s recent tip about discouraging bees from nesting in satellite feed-horns. She adds that WD-40 brand spray lubricant works great for dealing with bees. We may not always have a can of flying insect spray, but who doesn’t have a can of WD-40 handy?
John Bisset, CPBE, has spent over 50 years in the broadcasting industry, and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.
The post Workbench: Amp Up Your Bathroom Visits appeared first on Radio World.
This is one in a series of occasional articles about how to get the most out of popular radio broadcast products.
David Bialik consults to StreamGuys.
How the content might look on a mobile device.When I was working for radio.com, producers for the news and sport stations all wanted a rewind feature on the mobile app.
These producers were hearing from listeners who enjoy the rewind functionality of live video platforms like TiVo and video on-demand platforms like Netflix, and they wanted similar functionality for their radio stations.
With rewind controls, a user can play the content they missed or replay content for clarity. Dr. Who would be perplexed with this timey-whimey issue.
StreamGuys kept this user experience in mind when they developed SGrewind. This service allows the listeners to use a “scrubbing feature” within the audio app.
The scrubbing can be configured to go back to the previous segment or to go back in timed increments.
If you are streaming a sport, you are giving the audience their own “instant replay.” Listeners of a talk show may want to re-listen to the last person who spoke. How many times have you listened to the news and want to hear a story again for clarification?
My favorite use is to “rewind” and hear the weather or traffic again.
Not to worry, you do not have to get Mr. Peabody and the Wayback machine. SGrewind is relatively easy to set up.
You do not need to be using StreamGuys as your live streaming CDN (though I am sure they would not mind if you already a customer). You can send them the same encoded source as your live stream.
StreamGuys will provide you a graphical user interface to configure how SGrewind will work and what your audience will be able to do.
They will then do their SGrewind magic, encoding the stream and sending it out.
The SGRewind Management Module is web-based.They will work with your development team (if you have one) to enable the rewind feature on your player or they can provide a turnkey, rewind-capable player for your website.
Yes, I have simplified the process here, but SGrewind can add a nice feature for your streaming audience to use and make your streams look unique to potential advertisers. And isn’t that what it is all about?
Suggest a product to be featured in our “How to Get the Most Out of” series. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
Related:
“Five Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do in Zetta”
“How to Get the Most Out of Your Remote Control”
The post How to Get the Most Out of SGrewind appeared first on Radio World.
Radio station owner Saga Communications has declared a quarterly cash dividend payable on October 22 to shareholders of record on October 8.
The aggregate amount of the payment to be made in connection with the quarterly dividend will be approximately $960,000, as the quarterly cash dividend’s value has been pegged at $0.16 per share.
The quarterly cash dividend will be funded by cash on Saga’s balance sheet. Including this dividend, Saga will have paid over $73 million in dividends to shareholders since the first special dividend was paid in 2012.
Saga currently intends to pay regular quarterly cash dividends in the future as declared by the Board of Directors. “Consistent with returning value to our shareholders, the Board of Directors may also consider declaring special cash dividends, stock dividends, and stock buybacks in the future,” Saga says.
Saga owns or operates 79 FM and 35 AM radio stations.
Since joining ABC in 2015, she has managed such projects as “The Little Mermaid Live!,” “The Disney Family Singalong” franchises, “JEOPARDY! The Greatest of All Time,” “Shark Tank,” and the revival of game show “The $100,000 Pyramid.”
That track record has led Walt Disney Television to name this individual to the role of SVP/Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment at ABC Entertainment and Walt Disney Television Unscripted.
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Kenya’s Radio Africa Group has taken a liking to Lawo equipment, recently choosing it for Kiss100 FM broadcast station and its Classic105 streaming station.
The Nairobi-based radio and TV broadcaster installed a Rɘlay PC-based virtual mixer at Kiss100 FM. After that proved successful, the company says, it turned back to Lawo to upgrade Classic105.
[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]
That led to the selection of a Lawo’s crystalClear “glass” touchscreen mixer. Included in that package are the VisTool virtual radio studio builder software and a Compact Engine, a 1RU mixing engine with AoIP audio interfaces and DSP audio processing. According to a release it was the first installation in East Africa of such equipment.
Lawo distributor and systems integrator BYCE Broadcast provided the equipment and services.
Radio Africa Group Technical Manager Philip Keter said, “We are happy with Lawo virtual consoles … We have had Kiss100 FM using Lawo Rɘlay mixing for more than one year now, and we have not experienced any downtime.”
Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.
He added, “We are even more excited about crystalClear; the presenters love its robustness, flexibility, and agility. It is not only easy to operate but actually helps enhance creativity!”
The post CrystalClear in Kenya appeared first on Radio World.
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