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New York Festivals Television & Film Awards has revealed the 2021 Storytellers Gala award-winners. World-class work created by global storytellers from 40+ countries was honored at the October 12 Storytellers Gala, a virtual event due to the cancellation of the 2021 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

2021 Grand Awards

“My Octopus Teacher” Documentary: Nature & Wildlife (Off the Fence B.V./Sea Change Project/Netflix)

This acclaimed effort was recognized for their Grand Award-winning documentary. The film takes the viewer to a spectacular undersea world few humans have ever seen, rich with unimaginable vistas, creatures, and characters. The 2021 Oscar-winning documentary showcases a fully immersive cinematic experience and redefines the relationship between human and wild animal.

“All Creatures Great And Small” Entertainment Program: Drama (Playground TV for Masterpiece PBS and Channel 5 in association with All3media International and Screen Yorkshire) earned the NYF Grand for their adaptation of the much-loved popular BBC series that ran through the 70s-90s. The new vision for the show preserves the rich spirit, tone, and values of Herriot’s iconic characters and stories and brings his sharply observed, entertaining tales of country life in the North of England to life for a wide modern audience.

“The Last Dance” News Program: Best Nonfiction Series (ESPN) The Grand Award winning 10-part documentary series from ESPN Films and Netflix explores the period in 1997 as Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were followed by a film crew as they began their quest to win a sixth NBA title. The result is the film “The Last Dance”, a remarkable portrait of an iconic player and a celebrated team –revealed more than two decades later.

For the fifth consecutive year, Al Jazeera English’s coverage of international issues and universal themes earned the network the prestigious title of Broadcaster of the Year. The network garnered medals for a diverse programming roster including Al Jazeera Investigations, Witness, 101 East, Al Jazeera Correspondent, Talk to Al Jazeera, Fault Lines, and Story to Follow.

“We are delighted to once again win the top accolade of Broadcaster of the Year from the New York Festivals,” said Giles Trendle, Managing Director of Al Jazeera English. “We consider it a great honour to have our work recognised and rewarded by such a distinguished jury of our industry peers. I attribute this win to all our wonderful and diverse teams at Al Jazeera English who, with professionalism, diligence and creativity, remain committed to reporting and telling the stories that matter.”

This is the 15th year consecutive year that The Edge Picture Company UK earned the prestigious title of Production Company of the Year. The Edge Picture Company’s corporate and brand-image films earned a robust number of medals for their visionary work for prestigious brands including Deloitte, PwC, Openreach, Standard Chartered, The Guardian Service, Havas Just and Ahmad Tea.

The 2021 New York Festivals Storytellers Gala celebrated Molly Solomon, Executive Producer & President of NBC Olympics Production and Executive Producer for the Golf Channel with the eleventh annual New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award. NBC Sports host Mike Tirico presented the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award to Solomon.

For 2021 NYF added 10 categories for social justice across all genres to honor storytellers using creativity to engage audiences on this critical topic. Entries earning Gold include “CBS Sports Presents:  8:46” (CBS Sports), “The Price of Poverty” (DW Deutsche Welle), “I Am Not A Commodity” (ANTENA 3), “A Most Beautiful Thing” (50 Eggs Films), and “The Psychiatrist of Aleppo” (CRTVE). Silver winners include “Momma Lonnae O’Neal Essay” (ESPN), “MLB Tonight: A Conversation” (MLB Network), “Insight: Stateless In India” (Mediacorp Pte Ltd), “The Time is Now” (The Edge Picture Company), and “Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning” (Kreativ Inc. for Lifetime),

Gold winning Documentaries in the winner’s circle this year include “Why We Hate” Discovery Channel), “Witness – St Louis Superman” (Al Jazeera), “Surviving Jeffery Epstein” (Bungalow Media + Entertainment and Break Thru Films, Inc For Lifetime), “Love on the Spectrum” (Northern Pictures Pty Ltd), “Beethoven’s Ninth: Symphony for the World” (DW Deutsche Welle), “The Real Right Stuff” (1895 Films/Disney+), “Into America’s Wild” (MacGillivray Freeman Films), “America´s Arctic – A Refuge imperiled” (Terra Mater Factual Studios GmbH), “The Meadow – Paradise lost?” (nautilusfilm GmbH), “Wild Africa in Pandemic Times” (Story Producciones/RTVE), “Wild Tokyo” (NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation Global Content Development Division), and “Mesa Para Todos “Mesa Para Todos/Table For All” (Globo Comunicações e Participações SA).

Entertainment entries captivated viewers and earned Gold including: “Das Boot” (Bavaria Fiction/Sky Studios), “Dear Santa” (UM Studios), “Freud” (Satel Film/Bavaria Fiction), “MasterChef Australia” (Banijay Rights), “Barefoot Contessa: Cook Like A Pro” (Pacific Television), “That Animal Rescue Show” (CBS Studios), “100 Días Para Enamorarnos” (Telemundo), “Des” (New Pictures/ITV, UK), and “Bäckström” and “Caliphate” (Banijay Rights).

Entries earning Gold in Special Events include “The 2020 Innovators Awards: Wall Street Journal Magazine” (WSJ. Magazine), “One World: Together at Home “(Global Citizen), and “Space Launch Live: America Returns to Space” (Discovery Channel).

Broadcast Journalism from around the globe showcased breaking news and headline topics emerging from the world stage. Gold winning work includes “The Search for Assad Executioners” (Al Jazeera Media Network), “101 East – India’s Child Sex Highway” (Al Jazeera English), and “From China With Love: An Adoption Story” (Voice Of America). Silver trophy winners include “NBC Nightly News: Kids Edition” (NBC News) with anchor Lester Holt, and “Beirut Blast” (Al Jazeera English).

Sports content scored Gold. ESPN’s inclusive coverage and in-depth sports reporting earned Gold including: “Backstory: The Decision”, “Lance”, “The All-American Cuban Comet”, “First Take: George Floyd and Police Brutality Protest Show”, and “D. Wade: Life Unexpected”.  Additional Gold winners in the spotlight include “Kick Off! Explains” (DW Sports), “Stories of Women in Sports: 2020 Animated Vignette Series” (CBS Sports Network), and “MLB Network Presents: Junior” (MLB Network).

Compelling Promos enticed viewers. Gold Medalists include: “Monday Night Football Open” (ESPN), “Agatha Christie Compilation” (BBC Studios), “Dinda – The Voice of Barcelona Bekasi” (beIN SPORTS Asia), “Astro Citra August Monthly Highlight” (Measat Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd), “Love and Destiny” (Shanghai Xia Yi Culture Communication CO. Ltd.), and “What’s your story? // Was ist deine Geschichte?” (Luxlotusliner GmbH).

Corporate and Brand Image Films showcased the mission and vision of prominent brands. Networks and production companies honored with Gold trophies include: The Edge Picture Company, Seed Audio-Visual Communication, CBS Sports, UM Studios, KWP and Zoom Film TV, Indigo View Productions, and Sledgehammer Studio.

New York Festivals TV & Film Awards Grand Jury recognized global content creators across all platforms and in all genres and awarded in total 3 Grand Awards, 126 Gold World Medals, 136 Silver and 124 Bronze.

This year is the eleventh year of NYF’s strategic partnership with NAB Show, the ultimate marketplace for people passionate about media, entertainment, and technology.

Entries to each of the competitions are judged around the world by panels of peers in their respective industries. For more information, go to www.newyorkfestivals.com.

KINGSTON, N.Y. — For two generations of public radio listeners, the call letters WAMC have meant NPR, and a host of local and national spoken word content that makes it one of the biggest Members in the U.S. today.

Over the years, what is now “WAMC Northeast Public Radio” grew with the addition of stations including WAMK-FM, in Kingston, and WOSR-FM in Middletown, serving the Catskills and Mid-Hudson Valley; and WCAN-AM in Canajoharie, serving Little Falls, Amsterdam and Gloversville. Today, the WAMC network is comprised of 11 FMs and 16 FM translators stretching from Northern Westchester County to the Canadian border, as well as WAMC-AM in Albany, N.Y.

Now, WAMC is bolstering its coverage in Northern Dutchess and Columbia Counties, while adding Litchfield County, Conn., to its Constitution State coverage.

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A company focused on cloud-based workflow management and media distribution options for the advertising and entertainment industries — connecting media buyers to local, national, and cable TV broadcasters and to radio broadcasters — has entered into a partnership with independent Connected TV advertising and measurement platform Innovid.

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Comrex is teasing a new product launch that it will announce Monday at an SBE chapter meeting that will also be conducted as an online webinar.

The company said the Zoom meeting webinar will be held in conjunction with the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 15 and the Next Best Thing Media Tour.

Comrex added that people in the New York area are welcome to join in person for the New York SBE Chapter 15 Annual Picnic and NBT tour from 4 7 p.m. at New York Elks Lodge #1 in Lynbrook, N.Y.

 

The post Comrex, NBT and SBE15 Plan Monday Event appeared first on Radio World.

Audacy has confirmed that it plans to offer, subject to market conditions and other factors, $45 million in aggregate principal amount of subsidiary Audacy Capital Corp.’s 6.500% senior secured second-lien notes due 2027.

They are “Additional Notes,” and it’s a $45 million ad-on offering for the audio content creation and distribution company that is once again struggling to gain investors on Wall Street.

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In April 2021, RBR+TVBR exclusively reported on a plan of action that would see Entravision Communications exit Central Florida, starting with the sale of WNUE-FM 98.1 in Deltona for $4 million.

That deal was completed in July, with the FM now a part of The Joy FM Contemporary Christian non-commercial network. It was tied to an arrangement that would see Univision Communications take full control of Entravision’s TV twins in the Orlando DMA.

That shift has now come to fruition, along with an announcement that a similar transfer of control of TV properties in nearby Tampa, and in the Washington, D.C., market.

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Henry “Hank” Mahler

Influential media engineer Hank Mahler has died.

Among his contributions to the broadcast industry, he was part of the team at the CBS Technology Center in Connecticut that designed and built the CBS Laboratories Audimax and CBS VoluMax, two audio processors that became widely used in radio and TV.

His passing, on Oct. 5 at the age of 84, has been noted by his colleague Bob Seidel, the former CBS vice president of engineering and advanced technology as well as former president of SMPTE.

Seidel distributed an obituary and appreciation, describing Henry Mahler as an icon.

According to Seidel, Mahler also helped develop the first audio loudness meter for measuring human perception of loudness. And he said many of the audio curves specified by the International Telecommunications Union approximate the original CBS Loudness Meter design from the early 1960s.

“Hank also received a patent for developing an audio meter capable of indicating 60 dB of audio range while the typical VU meter displays approximately a third of that range. Hank also worked on the CBS 360 Record / Player, which was a stereo self-contained solid state audio recorder.”

Mahler went on to be involved in numerous important TV, video and cinema technologies, including developing the famous TV color bars used for calibrating analog color systems. Our sister publication TV Tech has a writeup about his work.

Seidel also provided a personal memory:

“Many a vendor dreaded having their equipment evaluated in the CBS Engineering Lab, because Hank would inevitably uncover issues that required them to ‘go back to the drawing board.’ However, in the end, when the equipment passed Hank’s muster and received the CBS Engineering Lab ‘Good Engineering Seal of Approval,’ it was a world-class product and was recognized by the industry as being top of the line in its category.

“If you wanted to stay on Hank’s good side, you would never interfere with his coffee breaks, which he would announce VERY loudly in his deep baritone voice, ‘COFFEE.’ The lunch time volleyball games at the CBS Laboratories in Stamford, Conn., turned Hank into a jovial, but fierce competitor. There were many CBS Lab colleagues that fell prey to Hank’s practical jokes, and they reciprocated by sending him a fake termination ‘pink slip.’ His office was plastered, not with his technological accomplishment, but with family photos, indicating what was important in his life,” Seidel wrote.

“Hank’s most endearing qualities were his humble nature, engaging smile and willingness to use his vast engineering knowledge to educate his fellow engineers. He will be missed by his immediate family and by his CBS Family who had the privilege of working with him for over 60 years.”

Danbury Memorial and Cremation also has posted an obituary.

 

The post Hank Mahler Dies, Was Innovator for CBS Technology Center appeared first on Radio World.

Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA’s SVP and Chief Economist, noted Wednesday with the release of its U.S. Local Advertising forecast for 2022 that a rise in local radio advertising will be seen in 2022. Yet, the biggest headline from the report is that, for the first time, digital will surpass direct mail as the No. 1 dollar-getter from advertisers big and small come next year.

Could deregulation for broadcast media further help Radio, and over-the-air TV too? It’s a topic Fratrik will delve into at a Forecast 2022 session on November 16 in New York.

The appearance by Fratrik at Forecast 2022, presented by Radio Ink and Radio + Television Business Report, could see the longtime ad dollar prognosticator elaborate on data released October 13 that illustrate a local radio ad forecast of $12.7 billion in 2022. But, how much of that is digital? What’s the trend? And, is over-the-air dollars a challenge for over-the-air audio?

Then there is broadcast TV, which has been cushioned by strong political advertising and retransmission consent fees.

“Radio isn’t faring as well as local broadcast TV, and it doesn’t get the same bump as TV in political years,” Fratrik said. “But it is getting close to its pre-pandemic levels as people continue to return to work commutes and traveling by car.”

And, here’s something to note: BIA forecasts local radio and local television in 2022 will each see the same dollar intake for their respective digital platforms.

While that’s intriguing, OTA cash remains the driver for broadcast media. And, many ownership groups believe, further deregulation will help them better compete against that new No. 1 ad dollar magnet in 2022 — digital.

Will the FCC act, even as it awaits President Biden’s nomination for the agency’s Chairman nearly nine months after taking office? Could Congress step in, if the Commission doesn’t?

Fratrik could offer some interesting commentary, alongside Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley and moderator Frank Montero, of Fletcher Heald & Hildreth.

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GatesAir has added native Livewire+ IP audio networking to its Intraplex Ascent cloud transport platform.

This means Intraplex Ascent can ingest and output multiple audio channels directly via IP without the need for conversion equipment, which the company said adds scale and efficiency for radio broadcasters that manage many digital audio channels between studios.

Future support is planned for WheatNet-IP.

Intraplex Ascent started shipping last year. The manufacturer describes it as a next-generation audio over IP platform built to transport broadcast and media content at scale, “leveraging common off-the-shelf hardware to reduce the costs of multichannel contribution and distribution between many locations.”

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It quoted VP of Engineering Keyur Parikh saying, “GatesAir has successfully deployed Ascent with a national radio broadcaster that is sending 32 audio channels between two major studio locations. They are directly connecting to the Livewire studios, providing encoding and reliable transport across public IP networks.”

The system’s Dynamic Stream Splicing software supports transport across redundant networks, and GatesAir says it optimizes stream integrity by protecting against jitter, packet losses and network failures. DSS software also supports duplication of SRT streams with video and audio over separate network paths, “leveraging a single stream-splicing buffer for hitless protection against errors and failures.”

“Intraplex Ascent is built to work natively with IP protocol, and IP-based transport is becoming ubiquitous within studio and STL connections,” said Parikh in the announcement. “Whether sending content over cable, DSL, fiber or microwave, everything converges to IP, and Ascent’s software-based solution then provides the engine for moving large volumes of media content for ATSC 1.0/3.0 television and FM radio networks. We are bringing the scalability of the cloud to move content between multiple sites at the same time.”

 

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BIA Advisory Services forecasts that for the first time mobile advertising spending will surpass direct mail as the top media advertising platform in 2022. As revealed in BIA’s U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2022, the overall local U.S. advertising market is expected to reach $161.5 billion – a 10.1 percent YoY growth – buoyed by overall strong economic tailwinds coming out of 2021. The forecast says that traditional media revenue will account for $84.6 billion and digital media will be close behind at $76.8. BIA also anticipates $7.5 billion of the sum will come from political advertising during a strong election season. “For a long time, we’ve been talking about direct mail as the king of the share of wallet in local ad spending,” said Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA Advisory Services. “This coming year, for the first time, we pass the crown over to mobile, as its momentum drives it to be the biggest overall piece of the spending wallet – and we expect that to continue in the foreseeable future.” BIA puts mobile spending at 21 percent of the 2022 forecast and direct mail at 20.7 percent, but the gap between the two will continue to widen. Overall, digital ad spending will reach $76.8 billion, with Google and Facebook controlling over half of the spending. Google takes the lion’s share at $26.8 billion, compared with Facebook’s $14.3 billion. Ducey points to four reasons mobile has become the number one advertising medium: (1) COVID’s impact on consumer’s increased time spent with mobile and other digital media making digital the place to find and target consumers; (2) digital’s overall momentum in winning more revenue share of media time from traditional media; (3) the rise of virtual consumer channels like delivery, curbside pickup and e-commerce in top categories like retail, restaurants, CPG where physical channels like retail store visits decline; and (4) greater consumer acceptance and use of virtual and e-commerce channels. Traditional Media Mark Fratrik, senior vice president and chief economist at BIA, says, that the firm’s U.S. Local Advertising forecast also sees a rise in local radio advertising revenue in 2022 and is expected to generate $12.7 billion split between over-the-air ($11.0 billion) and digital ($1.7 billion). By 2026 radio digital revenues are expected to reach $2.4 billion, while OTA goes up and down with the even political years and ends at $11.7 in 2026. “Radio isn’t faring as well as local broadcast TV, and it doesn’t get the same bump as TV in political years,” said Fratrik. “But it is getting close to its pre-pandemic levels as people continue to return to work commutes and traveling by car.” “I like to refer to our data on local television as our ‘piano key graphs,’ because during even political years it is very apparent that the advertising revenue will rise and then dip the following year.” As reported in late September, BIA forecasts local television in 2022 will rise to $19.3 billion in OTA advertising, and $1.7 billion in digital; a sign of a strong $21 billion industry that delivers its audience for political campaigners. U.S. Local Ad Forecast Report BIA’s U.S. Local Advertising Forecast Report provides a nationwide overview of U.S. spending. BIA updates it throughout the year to reflect current economic situations and to adjust ad spend across top media and business verticals. The forecast covers all media, offering a comprehensive and authoritative view of all “local” advertising spent by national and regional companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. The forecast can be purchased here. Clients can log into BIA ADVantage to view the full forecast report and view their local advertising market forecast by media and verticals.

Get an orange vest. Give the pickup truck a tuneup. And go top off your genset … For readers who live in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is coming!

Also: Business is booming at Technical Service Group. … Larry Langford is troubleshooting distortion on a client’s FM translator. … Tula has a nifty combo mic/recorder. … And the FCC is listening to the debate over allowing companies to own more stations in one market.

All that plus early Black sportscasters, the power of radio local news and letters from our readers.

Read it here.

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Radio and TV broadcasters in the state of Georgia are gathering to celebrate the engineers in their midst.

The Georgia Association of Broadcasters will honor three engineers at this year’s GABCON, the largest gathering of radio and TV broadcasters in the state, set to be held Oct. 22–23 in Atlanta.

This year the association will honor Carl “CJ” Jackson with Salem Media Group; retiree Robert LaFore, formerly with Audacy Atlanta; and will posthumously award iHeartMedia executive and EME Communications owner Clyde Scott with the 2021 Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Engineering Award.

The award will be presented at the 2021 convention, an in-person event that will also offer educational sessions, an exhibit hall and will honor broadcasters across the state as part of the 2021 GABBY Awards for broadcasting excellence.

 

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Manufacturer Broadcast Partners named Roland Schaller to a post where he’ll work to expand the company’s international sales.

“After spending the first half of his career in internet and telecommunications in technical and marketing roles, he moved to broadcasting in the field of satellite and terrestrial broadcast hardware and software, in presales and sales roles,” the company stated.

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The announcement was made by CEO Robert-Jan van der Hoeven. Broadcast Partners is based in the Netherlands. Schaller will split time between France and Germany.

“Roland is at ease in the business culture of most of Europe, combining a rigorous approach to the sales process in dealing with his customers and business partners,” Broadcast Partners wrote.

The company’s offerings include the SmartRadio “radio as a service” cloud-based system.

Send announcements for People News to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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For 34 years, he’s been a television executive serving the Joplin, Mo., and Pittsburg, Kan., television market.

Now, this Kansas Association of Broadcasting Hall of Famer is preparing to transition into retirement. And, his successor has been selected by Morgan Murphy Media.

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He represented Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District from 2013 to 2021.

Now, he’s the latest person to launch an audio-on-demand offering. Thank Salem Podcast Network for the opportunity.

The Doug Collins Podcast debuts on October 25.

“I am excited to be hosting a podcast that will give conservatives the tools they need to go out into the marketplace of ideas and stand up for what we believe in,” said Collins. “Our country desperately needs to hear how a little idea that started with our Founding Fathers — the pursuit of happiness. This podcast will explore all topics ranging from politics to life advice and will blend them together for a well-rounded discussion that people can listen to and use to get the most out of life.”

Collins ran for U.S. Senate in 2020, finishing in third place behind Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock, the eventual victor. He has served as a legal counsel for former President Donald Trump following his departure from Congress in January.

“For years, I was so impressed with Doug Collins as a Congressman,” says Phil Boyce, SVP of Spoken Word at Salem. “When we had the opportunity to bring him over to the Salem Podcast Network, we moved fast. He will be a great addition to our lineup, and will help us save the country we all love.”

Orban announced the Optimod XPN-Enterprise ecosystem.

The company describes it as a customizable, Linux-based processing platform with capabilities for centralized contexts, particularly broadcast groups that run multiple stations or clusters and/or streaming services.

“It provides Orban’s proprietary OptiCloud processing for up to eight FM and eight HD/DAB+/Streaming processing channels in a 1 RU package and supports AES-67/SMPTE-2110 protocols using an enterprise-class SoftGear server and the appropriate Optimod XPN-Enterprise Nodes,” the company stated.

The XPN-Enterprise server is shipping, as is the XPN-Enterprise AES3 Input/Output Node. Orban said nodes to extend the available outputs and functionalities are coming including DMPX, Kantar and Nielsen watermarking and Orban uMPX.

“Broadcasters worldwide are realizing the benefits of moving operations to centralized — and ideally, virtualized — environments. Many of these customers have high-density needs, with many signals that need to be managed,” it quoted Orban President David Day in the announcement.

Content to be OptiCloud processed is brought to one location using AES3, AES-67, SMPTE-2110-30, Dante or Livewire+, and creates the necessary outputs (FM composite, DMPX, uMPX and DAB+HD) using the appropriate Orban XPN-Enterprise Nodes for distribution to each transmitter site, the company said.

The server also handles processed channels for streaming, sending those outputs to the appropriate streaming devices.

“Each signal coming into the Optimod XPN-Enterprise server can be individually processed, with Orban’s OptiCloud providing precision tailoring of each station’s broadcast or stream to meet the requirements of the audience and delivery method,” it continued.

Features include factory presets for various formats, and “Less-More” controls to simplify “dialing in” a desired sound by combining multiple processing parameters.

Day also highlighted the company’s “Last Mile” solutions including XPN-Enterprise input and output nodes and low-bandwidth solutions.

“This ‘Last Mile’ service is especially important for stations whose transmitter sites may be in locations with less-than-ideal internet access. We make it possible to manage our processing remotely and feed that signal to a site on lines as slow as 500 kbps, with high-quality results. And many nodes are ‘Power over Ethernet’ (PoE) capable, further simplifying installation.”

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SAN FRANCISCO — Data connectivity platform LiveRamp has added streaming inventory forecasting and data collaboration capabilities into its TV platform.

With these additions, LiveRamp TV becomes an end-to-end platform enabling media sellers and advertisers to collaborate, activate, and quantify media campaigns in a coordinated way across all TV inventory: linear, streaming, and digital video.

And, the launch came with the support from two of broadcast television’s biggest players.

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Pierre Bouvard once again has combed through fresh data from Nielsen and put together a series of positive bullet points about trends in radio, intended to of help to radio salespeople and managers.

Bouvard is chief insights manager of Cumulus Media and Westwood One, which makes him one of the industry’s prominent pitch persons.

Looking at Google data, he said that through September and into October, COVID search volumes have sharply fallen, an indication that pandemic concerns have eased.

American travel miles also are up, which means people are spending more time in their cars.

Further, Bouvard says that marketers and ad agencies continue to “dramatically underestimate the number of Americans that are commuting to work each day.”

And he cites Nielsen data showing AM/FM radio listening recovery continuing in September with Portable People Meter listening up +4% over the prior year.

Below is the latest chart from his post showing month-to-month changes in Average Quarter Hour audience in PPM markets.

[Read the blog post: “Nielsen AM/FM Radio Audiences Grow as COVID Concerns Drop and Vehicular Traffic Surges”]

 

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Add the Constitution State to the list of locales where local TV viewers who own television sets capable of receiving NEXTGEN TV-powered signals can enjoy watching them.

The next-generation digital television signals, which offer improved sound and picture quality for consumers along with new revenue opportunities for broadcast media, make their debut on Tuesday in Hartford.

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Getty Images Zhihong Zhuo

Jessica Rosenworcel is talking up 6G.

“If you think I’m too early on this one, think again. Much like in the early days of 5G, the scrum for 6G is already intensifying,” she said.

Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, spoke Tuesday to the wireless industry’s Americas Spectrum Management Conference. She devoted a good part of her online remarks to the topic “Paving the Way for 6G and Beyond.”

She cited plans or developments that look ahead to 6G in South Korea, Finland, Japan and China.

While no one knows exactly what 6G will entail, she said, “Let’s learn from what came before. Let’s acknowledge here and now that it is time to start thinking seriously about how we can better position ourselves for success with 6G.”

She called for a “6G Solarium” modeled on a recent bipartisan government initiative called “Project Solarium” that resulted in 80 recommendations on how to overhaul the nation’s approach to cybersecurity.

“What we need now is new thinking, broader consensus and more early focus than we had for 5G,” Rosenworcel said. “We need a process for prioritizing and executing on spectrum objectives and for developing strategies to align the ends, way  and means for 6G.” She wants to see a similar effort that brings together government, business, the non-profit sector “and the rest of civil society and the public to chart a new course.”

Rosenworcel said that to help, the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council could be charged with “looking beyond 5G and conceptualizing 6G — to help set the stage for our leadership. By refocusing the TAC in this way, the FCC will be able to stay on top of new developments and ensure that the nation can turn the latest scientific research into viable communications technologies that will help power our future.”

Not to skip over 5G, in the first half of her remarks Rosenworcel discussed steps that she said would “reinvigorate the momentum toward 5G.”

She highlighted FCC efforts to provide more spectrum — including the granting of 5,600 licenses in the C-band — as well as her goals of expanding the reach of fiber facilities, diversifying technology that goes into 5G networks, building security and resiliency in supply chains, and participating more substantially in global technology standards-setting.

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