Industry News

Sinclair Broadcast Group has entered into multi-year renewals of the NBC affiliations and Fox affiliations in a total of 20 Sinclair markets.

Agreements with NBC include affiliates in San Antonio, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Providence-New Bedford, RI; Toledo, OH; Syracuse, NY; Tri-Cities, TN-VA; Johnstown-Altoona-State College, PA; Tallahassee, FL-Thomasville, GA; Traverse City-Cadillac, MI; Missoula, MT; Wheeling-Steubenville, OH; and Butte-Bozeman, MT.

Agreements with Fox include affiliates in Bakersfield, CA; Chattanooga, TN; Corpus Christi, TX; Fresno/Visalia, CA; Lincoln, NE; Macon, GA; Omaha, NE; Sioux City, IA; Tallahassee, FL; and Wheeling, WV/ Steubenville, OH.

The NBC affiliations were also renewed by Sinclair partners in four markets that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under a joint sales agreement or master service agreement: Cunningham Broadcasting Group, the licensee of KRNV, a station in Reno, NV; Deerfield Media, the licensee of WPMI in Mobile-Pensacola; Howard Stirk Holdings, the licensee of WEYI in Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, MI; and Roberts Media, the licensee of KMTR, KMCB and KTCW in Eugene, OR.

The Fox affiliations were also renewed by Sinclair partners in seven markets that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under a joint sales agreement or master service agreement: Cunningham Broadcasting Group, the licensee of KCVU, a station in Chico-Redding, CA, KBVU in Eureka, CA, WYDO in Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC, WPFO in Portland, ME and WEMT in Tri-Cities, TN-VA; New Age Media, the licensee of WOLF in Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, PA; and GoCom Media of Illinois, the licensee of WRSP in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur, IL.

The 30 renewed markets serve approximately 11 million households.

Will Bell, Sinclair’s VP/Head of Distribution and Network Relations, commented, “We are pleased to renew our agreements with NBC and Fox on terms that are fair to all parties in this evolving media landscape. We look forward to continuing to work with both NBC and Fox in providing the popular news, sports, and other entertainment programming that viewers highly value.”

DALLAS — A “local news innovation lab” is in the works for CBS Stations. And, it is ViacomCBS’s owned-and-operated CBS station serving North Texas that is taking the responsibility of housing it and building the “home of a curated team who will be empowered to experiment with next-generation storytelling.”

How does CBS define that?

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In mid-December, the leaders of Spanish Independent Broadcast Network opted to part ways with its low-power television station serving the Valley of the Sun.

Who’s the buyer? It’s the same entity that two years ago snagged a LPTV facility serving the Verde Valley, home to towns such as Jerome and Sedona, Ariz.

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A pair of licensees tied to North Carolina-based Curtis Media Group have agreed to spin a pair of AM radio stations, and one FM translator, to another media company operating in the state.

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While meetings take place between the United States, Russia and other organizations to discuss Russia’s aggressive posture along Ukraine’s borders, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says Russia is continuing a campaign to silence independent media and drive RFE/RL out of the country.

“In concert with the threat posed by the 100,000 soldiers Russia has deployed along Ukraine’s borders,” said RFE/RL President Jamie Fly in a press release, “Russia’s bullying actions against independent journalism have also intensified. RFE/RL will continue to provide the Russian people with the news and information they need to hold their government accountable.”

RFE/RL said that on Dec. 3, four current and former RFE/RL journalists were named foreign agents, and on Dec. 30, Russia named two more RFE/RL journalists along with others as individual media foreign agents. The organization said this designation makes the journalists subject to onerous and invasive financial reporting requirements and forces them to add lengthy, legally mandated labels of their “foreign agent” status to all electronic communications or posted content.

These additions bring the number of individuals named to the Justice Ministry’s media “foreign agent” list to 75, and another 36 media organizations are also labeled as foreign agents.

RFE/RL said, due to its refusal to submit to the labeling provisions, Russia’s communications regulator has issued another series of violation protocols against RFE/RL, the eighth since the beginning of last year. RFE/RL now faces a total of some 1 billion rubles (US$13.4 million) in fines, which it continues to fight in Russian court. It has also filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law.

The post Russia Continues Campaign to Silence Media, RFE/RL Says appeared first on Radio World.

With hours ticking on the current Congressional legislative session and the White House sticking with its selection of Gigi Sohn to serve as a Commissioner on the FCC, it appears more and more likely that the agency will have a 2-2 deadlock on all votes for the foreseeable future. Opposition to Sohn remains strong.

In contrast, the Biden Administration’s nominee to serve in a National Telecommunications and Information Administration post, once seen as equally controversial given his “net neutrality” stance, was confirmed Tuesday by the U.S. Senate.

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Among the broadcast media tech players eager to meet and greet radio and TV engineers and C-Suite leaders at the 2022 NAB Show, scheduled for late April, is GatesAir.

In late October 2021, GatesAir added audio processing to its Intraplex IP and Cloud Transport products. For those asked to sign off on a purchase order, cost savings is certainly a big selling point when it comes to auxiliary equipment. But, how does CEO Bruce Swail explain to the C-Suite executive who may not understand what this technology advancement brings to broadcast media means in layman’s terms?

He answers this and questions tied to the topics of supply chain concerns and broadcast media cybersecurity in the upcoming Winter 2022 RBR+TVBR Special Report, our all-new magazine that offers, for the first time, Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders.

This podcast interview with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson offers a sneak peek at what Swail has to say in the all-new Special Report.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Bruce Swail” on Spreaker.

Nineteen radio station licenses — located in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii — will expire on Feb. 1 unless the Federal Communications Commission hears from them.

The FCC has listed stations that were required to fill applications for license renewal by Oct. 1 of 2021 in those states. These 19 stations did not; the list includes full-power stations, low-power FMs and translators.

Each license will expire if no renewal application is received by Feb. 1.

Call sign Community of License Facility ID Licensee KANC Anchorage, AK 198674 Adventist Radio Alaska Corp. KAUG Anchorage, AK 165582 Anchorage School District K282AW Eagle River, AK 139588 MCC Radio LLC KGKR-LP Galena, AK 193373 Galena Seventh-day Adventist Church K296EL Glennallen, AK 73922 Greater Copper Valley Communications Inc. KOGB McGrath, AK 176402 Blessed Hope Baptist Mission K264AV Waimea, HI 152955 WP Media Lending LLC KSEP-LP Brookings, OR 135276 Anchor Network KGMW-LP Chiloquin, OR 192288 Klamath County School District KZZF-LP Klamath Falls, OR 135243 Jesus Radio Inc. KTOD-LP Lakeview, OR 135707 Hope for Today Broadcasting Inc. KLYC McMinnville, OR 6322 Promedia Partners LLC KEZX Medford, OR 23032 Opus Broadcasting Systems Inc. K290BD Omak, WA 148938 Divine Mercy Broadcasting KDXB-LP Seattle, WA 192777 KMIH.org Radio Booster Club K207DC Tonasket & Oroville, WA 49263 North Okanogan Christian Translator KYNR Toppenish, WA 24586 Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation KNLI-LP Waller, WA 197066 Northwest Leadership Foundation KWEW-LP Wenatchee, WA 135720 Wenatchee Youth Radio

 

The post These Stations Are at Risk of Losing Their Licenses appeared first on Radio World.

Vitec Imaging Solutions, part of U.K.-based The Vitec Group, will acquire U.S. mic maker Audix.

Audix makes mics for studio and live performance audio. “As part of the Vitec family, the Audix team and facility in Oregon will become Vitec Imaging Solutions’ Audio R&D Centre of Excellence, enabling the acceleration of in-house microphone product design, development and manufacturing across all Vitec audio brands,” Vitec announced, saying the acquisition should close soon.

“With the acquisition of Audix, Vitec’s audio capture strategy is now structured around three core brands that cover all growth segments of the $1 billion microphone market.” Those brands are Audix, Rycote and JOBY.

Audix will open its manufacturing facility to the rest of Vitec’s audio brands.

Vitec employs around 2,000 people in 11 countries; it is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The post Vitec Will Acquire Audix appeared first on Radio World.

The legal tug of war continues between the Federal Communications Commission and several broadcast organizations over the new rule about disclosing when programs are sponsored by foreign governments.

At issue is the FCC’s order, adopted last April, requiring that U.S. radio and TV stations disclose when foreign governments lease air time. All four commissioners voted yes, saying the change would ensure that audiences are aware when a foreign government or its representatives use the airwaves to persuade the public.

The National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters earlier had asked a federal appeals court to put a stay on the order pending judicial review. The FCC opposed their request.

[Related: FCC Denies NAB Stay Petition on Foreign-Sponsorship ID Rules]

Now NAB, MMTC and NABOB have filed a reply brief, reiterating their arguments that the FCC doesn’t have authority for this requirement under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, that it would be an undue burden and that broadcasters face imminent, irreparable harm unless the court pauses the FCC action.

They criticize the regulation for its “extraordinary reach and sheer pointlessness” and call it a “content-based compulsion of speech.” They repeated their arguments that a broadcaster would have to conduct an investigation of “every programming lease, even commercial and local programming (since virtually every lessee will deny, virtually always truthfully, that it or another person in the production or distribution chain is a foreign governmental entity, thus triggering the duty to investigate).” And they say the whole rule is in place to solve a “phantom harm never known to occur.”

Read the brief.

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