Industry News

The Terre Haute, Ind., market, which largely includes nearby Paris, Ill., is the home of a non-commercial group of religious stations presently operated by Word Power Inc.

On March 16, this group signed off on an agreement that would assign its two AMs, two FMs, two FM translators and one FM translator construction permit to a new licensee.

American Hope Communications is agreeing to acquire the following properties from Word Power Inc.:

• WPFR-FM 93.7 in Clinton, Ind., a Class A
• WPFR-AM 1480 in Terre Haute, a Class B with 5kw daytime from 3 towers and 1kw nighttime from 4 towers
• WKZI-AM 800 in Clinton, Ind., a 250-watt Class B from 1 tower
• WLHW-FM 91.5 in Clinton, Ind., a 6kw Class A
• W234CK at 94.7 MHz in Casey, Ill., W300DD at 107.9 MHz in Greenup, Ill., and CP W292FT in Terre Haute

The deal is valued at $179,000. A $35,800 escrow deposit has been made.

The buyer is led by Richard Wheeler, who is represented by Jeffrey Southmayd of Palm Coast, Fla. He’s the President of Countryside Broadcasting, which owns and operates WJLY-FM 88.3 in Ramsey, Ill. The deal suggests WJLY’s mission of serving South Central Illinois with the word of God could be widening to Terre Haute.

American Hope will assume Word Power’s lease agreement with Paul Ford for real estate used for a radio transmission tower, satellite dish receiver, and “appurtenant equipment.”

I have a better understanding of the DTS AutoStage hybrid radio platform after interviewing Joe D’Angelo, Xperi’s senior vice president radio, in a joint webcast about the company’s automotive technology initiatives. 

That webcast, “The Future of Radio in the Car,” is available on demand, and I hope you can watch it given the expanded role Xperi hopes to play in how radio is delivered and consumed around the world. 

DTS AutoStage, formerly called DTS Connected Radio, is intended to help stations compete in the dashboard with “pure play” services like Spotify and satellite. 

“DTS AutoStage is really a global connected car platform that enables broadcast radio to collaborate around delivering services to automakers in a direct response to the challenge posed by Big Tech in the car,” he told me.

“We’ve all seen how Big Tech is coming in, they’re taking over the dashboard, they’re taking over audio services. DTS AutoStage is a global response that puts broadcast radio in control of the platform to design new interactive services, to expand functionality, to engage their customers.” 

Further, he said, it is free, requiring no capital investment from broadcasters.

Consumers get enhanced content discovery, with “now playing,” live presets and a live guide, voice interaction and expanded visual imagery. D’Angelo calls it “a whole different user experience for broadcast radio.” The emphasis is on helping consumers discover local broadcasts carried by on-air signals.

Xperi’s recent merger with TiVo accelerated developments; TiVo knows about aggregating content with metadata, so it brought useful resources to a similar task involving music metadata.

The first mass market vehicle launch was in the Mercedes S-Class, a car with no fewer than five screens where occupants can consume radio and radio metadata.

Images at left show how DTS AutoStage and HD Radio display in a Daimler S-Class vehicle.

“Daimler was very interested in launching hybrid radio, where you take advantage of broadcast radio content and you enhance it with IP-delivered metadata, you enable interaction with radio stations and in some cases provide high-resolution images,” D’Angelo said.

“But they wanted a service that was available and consistent in all the countries where they sell the majority of their vehicles.” He said Xperi spent two years aggregating content from broadcasters, technology platforms and service providers, and now aggregates content from 47,000 stations in 48 countries, with an eventual goal of 75,000 stations and 68 countries.

Watch the webcast and let me know what you think. I’m at radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Xperi Has Big Ambitions for DTS AutoStage appeared first on Radio World.

By Joshua Dudley
Podcast Business Journal

CNN Audio has announced the upcoming podcast launch of Behind The Desk: The Story of Late Night.

The podcast will explore the history of late-night television from its beginnings to its present.

Hosted by CNN contributor and former New York Times media reporter Bill Carter, the podcast, produced by CNN Audio and Cream Productions, will release its first two episodes on April 22 on all podcast platforms, with subsequent episodes released every Thursday.

The trailer is available here.

“I’ve covered late-night TV for a long time, long enough to know it’s filled with fascinating personalities, big moments, big laughs, all kinds of conflicts, characters, craziness and compelling stories,” said Carter, author of the New York Times bestseller The Late Shift. “In our docuseries and our accompanying podcast, we’re going to take a deep dive into all of that–and have a lot of fun doing it.”

The series is a companion to the just-announced CNN Original Series, The Story of Late Night that will air on Sunday nights.

The FCC this summer will conduct an auction of some 136 vacant non-reserved band allotments in the FM broadcast service, adding a small group of stations to the cancelled Auction 106 that had been set for March 2020.

Where are these FMs?

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In 2010, radio industry veteran Lee Abrams, co-founder and CEO of V-Satcast (described as “a hybrid broadcast/broadband OTT multicast streaming platform with original highly differentiated branded programming channel”) penned the following RBR + TVBR Intelligence Brief.

In this Classic RBR+TVBR Media Information Bureau column, Abrams discusses how selling a new idea internally is often harder than the execution itself.

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A new bill introduced in the U.S. Senate is designed to boost minority participation in the telecommunications industry.

The NATE: Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association commends the introduction of the IMPACT Act, or the Improving Minority Participation and Careers in Telecommunications Act. The bill was introduced by Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.); Tim Scott (R-S.C.); and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, in late March.

The act is designed to help address the telecommunications industry’s workforce by establishing a federal grant to promote the development of telecommunications education and job-training programs at minority institutions.

[Read: NATE Welcomes Telecom Workforce Bill]

The bill proposes to award $100 million in grants to certain institutions of higher learning to educate and train students to participate in the telecom workforce.

The entities that are principally eligible for grants under the legislation will be historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), tribal colleges and universities (TCU) and minority-serving institutions. The legislation dictates that these schools would be required to partner with members of the industry or an organization with experience providing workforce training to the telecom industry. The goal is to develop programs to ensure that students have the skills needed for the workforce.

“We are particularly excited that this is a bipartisan proposal that appropriately recognizes the critical importance of promoting educational and employment opportunities in the telecommunications field, which is so essential to the nation’s economy, competitiveness, security and vital communications capabilities,” said Todd Schlekeway, NATE president and CEO. “This legislation, if passed, can play a major role in developing a pipeline of future workers that is an integral part of NATE’s workforce development strategic plan.”

When the announcement was made, Sen. Wicker said that the bill aims to create a trained workforce to fill the thousands of vacant jobs that are needed to deploy broadband networks. Unfortunately, demand outstrips qualified candidates. “[W]e do not have a trained workforce to fill [these jobs],” Wicker said.  “HBCUs and TCUs can help fill these jobs by providing career-specific opportunities for students. The IMPACT Act would support these institutions in developing telecommunications-related career building programs that will help bridge the digital divide.”

The IMPACT Act would:

• Create the Telecommunications Workforce Training Grant Program, which the NTIA would use to award $100 million in grants to HBCUs/TCUs/minority-serving institutions to develop telecommunications job-training programs that would educate and train students to participate in the telecommunications workforce;
• Require schools to apply for grants in order to partner with industry (or an organization with experience providing workforce training to the telecommunications industry) to develop these programs, to ensure students have the skills they need for the workforce;
• Allow schools to use the grants to hire and train faculty, design and develop the curriculum, pay for costs associated with instruction, fund internships and apprenticeships, and recruit and support students;
• Require schools to include a plan to increase female participation in the program;
• Require that NTIA award at least 30% of the grant funds to HBCUs and another 30% to TCUs to ensure equitable distribution of funds; and
• Require reporting to ensure schools use funds as required, that they are training students appropriately, and that students are securing employment in the telecommunications industry.

 

The post Bill Aims to Boost Minority Involvement in Telecom Space appeared first on Radio World.

Photo: Getty Images Nigel Killeen

A long-awaited decision from the U.S. Supreme Court says the FCC acted properly when it moved to eliminate some radio and TV ownership rules. The court’s unanimous decision released today is a victory for the FCC and a defeat for groups that worry further consolidation will decrease ownership opportunities for women and minorities.

The FCC released new media ownership rules in 2017 to abolish the newspaper/broadcast and radio/TV cross ownership rules, and relax several local TV ownership regulations. The FCC concluded the three rules were no longer necessary to promote competition, localism, or viewpoint diversity and would not harm minority or female ownership.

[Read: Supremes to Hear Broadcast Dereg Case]

Prometheus Radio Project and several other public interest groups petitioned for the courts to intervene arguing the FCC’s decision to repeal or modify the three rules was arbitrary or capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and rested on flawed data.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia agreed with Prometheus and vacated the FCC’s 2017 order. Today’s Supreme Court ruling reverses the judgment of the Third Circuit.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the unanimous 9–0 opinion of the court citing the Communications Act of 1934 and the broad authority it grants the FCC to regulate broadcast media in the public interest. The FCC is directed to review its media ownership rules every four years and repeal or modify rules that no longer serve the public interest.

The Supreme Court found: “The APA’s arbitrary-and-capricious standard requires that agency action be reasonable and reasonably explained. Judicial review under that standard is deferential, and a court may not substitute its own policy judgment for that of the agency. A court simply ensures that the agency has acted within a zone of reasonableness and, in particular, has reasonably considered the relevant issues and reasonably explained the decision.”

The Supreme Court agrees that the FCC concluded correctly after examining data that repealing the two cross-ownership rules and modifying the Local Television Ownership Rule would “deliver on the commission’s promise to adopt broadcast ownership rules that reflect the present, not the past.”

The FCC order “was reasonable and reasonably explained,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Kavanaugh’s written opinion concluded: “In light of the sparse record on minority and female ownership and the FCC’s findings with respect to competition, localism, and viewpoint diversity, we cannot say that the agency’s decision to repeal or modify the ownership rules fell outside the zone of reasonableness for purposes of the APA.”

The Supreme Court in its ruling noted the Third Circuit has repeatedly rejected the FCC’s efforts to modify its ownership rules for the last 17 years.

“As a result, those three ownership rules exist in substantially the same form today as they did in 2002,” the SCOTUS opinion stated.

The FCC contends that rapidly evolving technology and dawning of new media outlets — particularly cable and internet — has rapidly transformed how Americans obtain news and consume media, rendering some rules obsolete. The FCC contends that permitting efficient combinations among radio, TV and newspaper outlets would actually benefit consumers.

 

The post Supreme Court Rules on Media Ownership Question appeared first on Radio World.

FOX News Media has extended Bret Baier’s current multi-year deal and remain an anchor and executive editor of Special Report, the 6pm ET weekday program on FOX News Channel. Baier, who signed a new multi-year deal in 2019, will also continue as the network’s chief political anchor.

“I am thrilled to continue working with FOX News Channel for the next five years,” he said. “It has been my home away from home for almost a quarter century. Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace, and the Murdoch’s have been terrific leaders and bosses. I look forward to working closely with my incredibly talented team to cover the Important stories of our time in the fair and honest way our viewers expect.”

Baier first joined the network in 1998 as its inaugural reporter in the Atlanta bureau.  Throughout the 2020 cycle, Baier co-anchored the network’s special coverage of the presidential debates as well as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He also co-moderated a series of presidential election town halls with then-candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Amy Klobuchar as well as former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Donald Trump.

Prior to his anchor role, Baier served as FNC’s chief White House correspondent in 2006 and as national security correspondent covering military and national security affairs from the Pentagon. Before joining the network, Baier worked for WRAL-5 in Raleigh.

The first day of the second quarter of 2021 started out on a highly positive note for radio and TV stocks. Only one of the companies RBR+TVBR regularly tracks was down.

That’s more sour news for that lone decliner: ViacomCBS.

The company’s shares continued to decline on Thursday (4/1), dipping 46 cents to $44.64.

Also down, cable and OTT peer Discovery Inc., which lost $0.15 to $43.31.

Otherwise, it was a fine start to Q1 for radio and TV. Townsquare Media is now at $11.01, up $0.28, while Nexstar Media Group is now at $142.70, thanks to a $2.27-per share climb.

MESA, ARIZ. — The Arizona Diamondbacks are in San Diego to face the Padres in their first Major League Baseball regular season match-up of the season.

D-Backs fans won’t be watching the game on FOX Sports Arizona. That’s because it has been rebranded, along with every other FOX Sports RSN, as part of a long-planned reboot under new owner Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Sinclair Broadcast Group and Bally’s Corporation late Wednesday moved forward with the official renaming of its regional sports networks (RSNs) as Bally Sports.

It ushers in a new era for the former FOX RSNs, and is part of an enterprise-wide, long-term strategic partnership between Sinclair and Bally’s announced in November.

“Through our alliance with Bally’s and others, the RSNs will create innovative experiences for sports fans when rooting for their favorite local sports teams,” Sinclair Broadcast Group President/CEO Chris Ripley said. “The rebrand is the ideal first step as we further our efforts to thoroughly change the paradigm of the in-home sports experience, elevating how audiences view and interact with live sports content. We can’t wait to roll out even more game-changing options for fans everywhere in the future.”

In conjunction with the partnership, Bally’s acquired naming rights for all Sinclair RSNs, previously branded with the FOX name. An official Bally Sports app is expected to be released shortly.

The Sinclair-owned and operated RSN portfolio now includes 19 network brands:

• Bally Sports Arizona
• Bally Sports Detroit
• Bally Sports Florida
• Bally Sports Great Lakes
• Bally Sports Kansas City
• Bally Sports Indiana
• Bally Sports Midwest
• Bally Sports New Orleans
• Bally Sports North
• Bally Sports Ohio
• Bally Sports Oklahoma
• Bally Sports San Diego
• Bally Sports SoCal
• Bally Sports South
• Bally Sports Southeast
• Bally Sports Southwest
• Bally Sports Sun
• Bally Sports West
• Bally Sports Wisconsin