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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Media Bureau has opened what is formally called MB Docket No. 21-293.

It deals with “Revisions to Political Programming and Record-Keeping Rules,” and it is certainly a topic of interest for every broadcast media C-Suite executive.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes to update the Commission’s political programming and recordkeeping rules for broadcast licensees, cable television system operators, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service providers, and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) licensees.

“The proposed updates would conform our rules with statutory amendments, increase transparency, and reflect modern campaign practices,” the FCC says.

The NPRM proposes two specific actions.

First, the Commission proposes to revise the definition of “legally qualified candidate for public office” in the Commission’s political programming rules to add the use of social media and creation of a campaign website to the existing list of activities that may be considered in determining whether an individual running as a write-in candidate has made a “substantial showing” of his or her candidacy.

Second, the FCC proposes to revise the Commission’s political recordkeeping rules to conform with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) to include any request for the purchase of advertising time that “communicates a message relating to any political matter of national importance” (i.e., issue ads) and specify the records that must be maintained.

A Comment Date and Reply Comment Date are forthcoming, as they will respectively reflect 30 days and 45 days from the date the NPRM is published in the Federal Register.

On March 6, Audacy stock topped the $6 mark, repeating a feat achieved in early February. All seemed bright for the company formerly known as Entercom, as its stock price had been stuck in the $1.50 range until the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election for months.

Since that early March finish, Audacy shares are down 41% in value. The latest dip comes on reports that its Top 40, or Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR), stations, on Thursday saw a culling of its air personality roster.

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It’s Virginia’s home for public media, headquartered at 23 Sesame Street in Richmond. It rebranded in August 2019 from Community Idea Stations.

Now, VPM is gaining attention again, but for the wrong reason. It’s received a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for not making a required public file upload to the Commission’s “OPIF” in a timely manner.

It was also admonished by the Commission.

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The acquisition of three broadcast towers in Norfolk from Com-Ent LLC has closed.

This puts the structures in the hands of an entity that owns or operates more than 1,000 structures across the U.S.

CTI Towers, headed by Tony Peduto, is the buyer, and it will now own tower structures used in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia by Max Media, Hindlin Broadcasting, and Sinclair Communications (not to be confused with Sinclair Broadcast Group).

Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co. served as the broker in this transaction. He notes that the towers are “income producing,” and such structures remain in high demand. “I fully expect values to go even higher as 5G services come online,” he notes.

For the second consecutive year, the Radio+Television Business Report is teaming up with Media Staffing Network for an exclusive Sales Compensation Study.

Friday, July 23 is now the final day one can participate by taking the survey.

We know that sales teams have endured many challenges over the past year. What is perhaps the biggest visible change at broadcast TV that Laurie Kahn, CEO for Media Staffing Network, has seen?

Kahn shares her insights, along with why it’s so important for those in TV sales to participate in this study, in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

TO TAKE THE SURVEY NOW, PLEASE CLICK HERE!

 

 

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Laurie Kahn, Media Staffing Network” on Spreaker.

The author of this commentary is chair of the Digital Radio Mondiale consortium.

Thank you to David Fernandez Quijada of the EBU for giving a bird’s eye view (“EBU Finds That Radio Is in the Air”) of live radio and its strong place in people’s lives, or — more precisely — only the billion or so lives concentrated primarily in the high-density developed countries of Europe, examined in detail with Eurocentric magnifying glasses.

What definitely caught the eye of DRM Consortium members was the figure of 90% of terrestrial broadcasts using analog FM (at least in the 56 EBU member countries surveyed, accounting for less than the population of India, though the report’s data source is not referenced in the article). This is astounding, and represents an enormous opportunity for DRM, where three digital broadcasts can be made from the same FM transmitter. This provides for significant energy savings with minimal additional investment while using only half the analog FM bandwidth and while one single FM transmitter can carry multiple DRM transmissions e.g., 18 audio and six data channels.

[Read: Digital Radio Mondiale in Focus in India]

It is surprising how strong analog FM still is, when so much has been said and done to promote digital broadcasting, mainly DAB/DAB+, in the EBU space where it is hailed as the standard of choice. Only about one-tenth of radio services available are digital, and the bulk of these are in the U.K.; this must be considered a bit disappointing after so many European countries have adopted DAB over the past 30 years.

The author, rightly, sees menacing clouds for FM and a downright dark future for analog networks in longwave and medium-wave, where U.K. alone is still operating 69 services.

As the author knows, by lumping together analog AM with FM and digital radio (Read:DAB+), whose growth was from ground zero upwards but remains in that 10% niche space, he is inevitably comparing apples and oranges.

Summer is not like winter and FM and DAB+ are not like AM. Around 900 DAB+ transmitters provide public radio programs to around 5 million people in small- to medium-sized countries like Norway. Thirty-five medium-wave transmitters offer broadcasts and services to about 800 million people in India. One of the North African countries surveyed is currently in the process of getting a huge project of shortwave and medium-wave installations off the ground to cover its widely dispersed population.

Big countries cannot simply switch to FM or other short-range, local digital solutions and achieve total country coverage, unless their budgets and patience reserves are bottomless. China and India are not part of the EBU survey but worth mentioning for their huge investment in digital AM (DRM in shortwave and medium-wave). Alone, China and India account for over a quarter of the world’s population and cannot be dismissed simply because they aren’t in Europe. This fact might be more relevant than Mongolia’s unique attachment to longwave broadcasting!

When considering shortwave, relegated to a footnote in the article, it might be useful to mention that the vast majority of shortwave transmitters being currently shipped or on order are DRM-capable, as there is renewed interest in digital SW post-COVID. As to the cost of local digital compared to large coverage with DRM, it would be useful to research cost per square kilometer rather than cost per listener. Shortwave can compete per listener, too, if only transmitting at lower power into a city. And while the author correctly identifies religious program as content, he fails to mention all the international news services (e.g. BBC World Service, Radio New Zealand, KDDI, KBS, Voice of America, Radio Romania International), current affairs, music, cultural and educational broadcasts to populations with few other sources of information or connectivity, presumably because they aren’t relevant to European audiences.

DRM has been embraced as a viable digital alternative to shortwave, not just in the center of Europe where FM and the internet are almost universally available, not in the current context of the pandemic, where 20% of the world’s poorest children could not go to school, and not that of 20 years ago when DAB/DAB+ announced it was the standard of the future.

Taking a holistic and nuanced look at radio and supporting its transition from analog to digital using best suited platform is what we expect of neutral EBU, its talent and resources.

Such a look should stress that radio remains a vibrant and successful platform, reaching well beyond line of sight and, with a digital transformation, providing a valuable service also to those unable to access the internet. This new radio platform is providing interference-free reception, tuning by brand and not frequency, energy and spectral efficiencies with opportunities for many more channels and data, the driving forces and universal benefits supported by the DRM consortium.

Radio World invites industry-oriented commentaries and responses. Send to Radio World.

 

The post EBU Puts Radio Finger in the Air? appeared first on Radio World.

ViacomCBS has completed its leadership transition from Peter Dunn, who led the CBS O&Os until losing his job amid claims gender and racial misconduct, and news division leader David Friend, who was also tied to similar allegations.

As of August 2, there will be a new President of CBS Stations. She will report to President and Co-Head of CBS News and Stations Wendy McMahon.

Who is it? Look no further than the FOX affiliate serving Portland, Ore., which are being sold to Gray Television by Meredith Local Media.

That hasn’t stopped Meredith from naming Roark’s replacement, even as a change in ownership looms.

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One of Angry Audio’s new StudioHub+ breakout boxes.

Angry Audio is adding to its StudioHub line of studio interconnects with four rackmounted XLR breakout boxes.

Each one rack unit high, 19-inch-wide powder-coated steel box features XLR connectors on the front panel and RJ45 connectors and DB-25 D-subs on the rear.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

Angry Audio explains the configuration choice, “RJ45 connectors in the StudioHub+ format accommodate mono and stereo analog and digital audio signals. DB25 connectors are in the popular AES59 standard (Tascam format). Plus, we even give you RJ45 connectors in the new AES72 standard.”

The four versions offer front-panel complements of 16 female XLR connectors (XLR_16F); 16 male XLR connectors (XLR_16M); eight female and eight male XLR connectors (XLR_8FM) (pictured); and two groups of four female and four male XLR connectors (XLR_4FM).

Contacts are gold-plated. Price: $295.

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Info: https://angryaudio.com

 

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It began service in September 1987 with home shopping programming. Its history includes ownership by Paxson Broadcasting, which had hoped to use the property as a flagship for what is today ION Network. It was also earmarked as a New York DMA home for Azteca América some 20 years ago, but the plan collapsed.

Now, this facility using digital Channel 21 is being acquired by the company whose digital multicast network aired on the station from Jan. 4, 2012 until fall 2015: Weigel Broadcasting.

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“America is getting out on the open road and time spent in vehicles continues to climb.” That’s Brad Kelly, managing director, Nielsen Audio, commenting on the results of a survey done by the company.

“More road trips, commuting to work, visits to family and friends and trips to stores means more listening to broadcast radio and an opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on America’s increasing consumer confidence as we emerge from the pandemic.”

The company just conducted a webinar about the results of its sixth Audio Consumer Sentiment survey, conducted in late June. It included discussion of its latest data about overall radio listening trends.

[Read: Nielsen Has Good News in May Numbers]

“Consumers 18 and older now show high optimism as the COVID crisis abates,” it found. “The survey looked at three segments reflecting attitudes about the pandemic: People who are ‘Ready To Go,’ those who ‘Proceed With Caution,’ and consumers who ‘Wait And See’ when it comes to resuming normal activities.”

During the peak of the lockdown, U.S. consumers were roughly equally divided among those three groups. In June of this year, the Ready To Go segment “reached a new high of 90%, of American consumers, reflecting rising optimism,” Nielsen Audio said.

It found most people starting to resume more normal activities, that towns are “emerging from the crisis,” stores working to get back to normal activities and more people saying it was safer than a month ago. “The study showed that 26% of consumers are spending more than an hour in their vehicles in June 2021 compared with 14% in April 2020. Heavy radio listeners are far more likely to spend more than an hour in their vehicle (40%) compared with total consumers (26%).”

Below are more highlights as provided by Nielsen in a summary of its webinar:

Vaccines — Two thirds of consumers have gotten the vaccine or plan to. Uncertainty with regard to vaccines in June is now half (13%) of what it was in March (26%) 2021. “Among those who have gotten the vaccine or plan to get it, 73% expect to resume MOST normal activities and 72% say they expect to resume ALL normal activities.”

Economic Outlook — With fewer restrictions and the rollout of vaccines, half (48%) of consumers anticipate an improved economy in the months ahead, which is two thirds greater than the 29% who say it will remain unchanged and twice as many as those who expect it to get worse (23%). “Consumer expectation about the economy often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, which bodes well for the recovery,” Nielsen said.

Employment — Two thirds of employed (67%) people now work outside the home vs. four in ten (39%) in April of last year. “This is a leading indicator of audience growth, since consumers spend more time with radio when they travel in vehicles to get to work.”

Public Transportation — “Each of our segments (Ready to Go, Proceed with Caution and Wait and See) say that their use of public transportation has decreased much more so than those who say it’s increased due to COVID-19. More than a third of the most conservative group (Wait and See) say their use of public transit has decreased compared with 6% who say it’s increased since the pandemic. Even among the most optimistic Ready to Go group, 25% say they use public transit less compared with only 5% who say it has increased. Since people still need to get places, decreased use of public transportation means more time in vehicles.”

Schooling — In October 2020, when Nielsen first asked about how children attend classes, there were more children attending virtual-only classes than those who attended in-person. “In June 2021, that pattern reversed itself. Now 38% of kids attend in-person classes compared with 14% who go to virtual only classes.” Also, in October 2020, nearly as many kids were getting to school on a bus as those who were getting rides from a family member or in a carpool. This changed significantly in June 2021, with twice as many kids driven to school (65%) versus those who took the bus (32%). “With more kids attending class in person and more getting to school in vehicles, there are more opportunities to listen to radio on the way to school. Nearly nine in ten consumers that the radio is sometimes or always on during the drive to school.”

Local Shopping — Nielsen asked consumers how they get the things they purchase. “In a good sign for retail, in June 2021, 82% say they shopped in-store which is a ten point gain since March 2020. However, online shopping has become a bigger factor in consumer’s lives than it was prior to the pandemic, with 77% ordering online and getting goods shipped to their home compared with 70% before the pandemic.” While stores are open, it said, the convenience of hybrid shopping remains with 32% buying at a local store and having it delivered, 38% picking up items in-store and 36% doing curbside pickup.

Top weekly activities — The study looked at the top 10 activities consumers engaged in during the past week in June and compared it to April 2020. “There were big gains in activities that were restricted a year ago such as shopping for groceries at the store (84% in June 21 vs. 70% in April 20), getting together with friends and family (59% in June 21 vs. 18% in April 20), dining out (43% in June 21 vs. 2% in April 20), shopping for clothes (30% in June 21 vs. 6% in April 20), going to coffee shops (25% in June 21 vs. 7% in April 20) and planning vacations (15% in June 21 vs. 3% in April 20). Plus, there was a 10 point jump in driving in vehicles (77% in June 21 vs. 67% in April 20) as people have returned to the road.”

Listening to AM/FM Radio — Radio reached 122.1 million consumers in PPM markets during an average week in May 2021, which was an 8% Year-over-Year increase vs. May 2020. “Radio’s average quarter-hour (AQH) audience peaked at 7.8 million people in PPM markets in May 2021 which was a 20%  year-over-year gain vs. May 2020.”

 

 

The post Nielsen Cites Improving Consumer Sentiment appeared first on Radio World.

The individual who will direct the marketing strategies for each of the business units within FOX Entertainment, including the FOX broadcast TV network and free AVOD platform Tubi has been selected.

It’s the man who presently serves as EVP of Marketing for FOX Entertainment.

As such, it’s a promotion for Darren Schillace.

His duties extend to projects from Bento Box, FOX Alternative Entertainment and Blockchain Creative Labs.

But, Schillace’s responsibilities for FOX and Tubi are perhaps the greater focal point of his task list. They include on-air and off-air promotion, brand and program advertising, national media and promotions, digital marketing, strategic partnerships, music, social media, affiliate marketing and production.

He will continue to oversee FOX Entertainment’s strategy for its program development, Newfront and Upfront presentations.

With his expanded purview, Schillace’s direct reports will now include Natalie Bastian, who, as Head of Marketing for Tubi, was recently promoted to Senior Vice President.

The FOX Marketing team will continue to report to Schillace.

Under Schillace’s marketing campaigns, Call Me Kat, starring Mayim Bialik and featuring Leslie Jordan and Swoosie Kurtz in supporting roles, emerged as the pandemic-impacted seasons top new sitcom.

Before joining FOX in 2017, Schillace oversaw all marketing strategies for ABC’s primetime, late-night and daytime programming, spanning on-air promotion, off-network creative, digital marketing, social media, paid media, strategic partnerships and events.

From 2010 to 2012, he was VP of Consumer Marketing for OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Before that, Schillace posted his first stint with ABC, where he was VP of Marketing Strategy.

The Pennsylvania State University graduate joined ABC in 2003 from Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, where he handled marketing strategy for EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando. Schillace, who started his career working in production and design at Random House, also worked at a number of advertising agencies, including Ogilvy & Mather and TBWA Chiat/Day.

The affiliate boards of directors of ABC, CBS, FOX Television and NBC will once again meet during NAB Show, scheduled as an in-person event from October 9-13 in Las Vegas.

It’s another sign that the “premier event for broadcasters and the broader media, entertainment and technology industries” isn’t concerned about the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus or increases in positive virus cases tied to personal decisions not to vaccinate.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON LINKEDIN!

 

The 2021 NAB Shows marks the 12th year the ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliate boards have met in conjunction with the event.

“The challenging, changing times and events we have all experienced in recent memory have reinforced the critical importance of broadcasting, particularly accurate, trusted, relevant local journalism – and the vital need to not only preserve it, but to see that it thrives now and in the future,” said Mike Meara, President of NPG Broadcasting and chair of the ABC Television Affiliates Association. “NAB Show – with industry leaders and representatives all back live and in-person, and the latest, emerging technology on display – provides the ideal platform to explore how to ensure that happens. The ABC Affiliates look forward to seeing and meeting with one another, with our network partners, and with other broadcasters in Las Vegas in October.”

The CBS Affiliate Board Chair is Patrick McCreery, President of Meredith Local Media Group, which could be finalizing the sale of its television stations by the time the NAB Show commences.

McCreery said, “Broadcasters are excited about the future and are poised to capitalize on the opportunities that lie ahead for our industry. That is why NAB Show is the right venue for the CBS Affiliate Board meeting — it is where industry leaders, innovators and influencers come together to not only reflect on the current state of our businesses but to discuss and lead the charge into the future. The last two years have shown us that local broadcasters and the trusted journalism we provide are essential to our communities, and no other event provides us with the tools, insights and networking to help us reinforce our commitment to serving our audiences.”

Patricia McRae, president of KHQ Inc. and Cowles Montana Media, chairs the FOX Television Affiliate Board of Governors.

Emily Barr, President/CEO of Graham Media Group, is the NBC Affiliate Board of Directors chair.

As previously announced, signature NAB events including the Sales and Management Television Exchange (SMTE), October 8-9, and the Radio Show, will co-locate with NAB Show in Las Vegas for the first time.

With the promise of a large, demographically diverse audience, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad — the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics — are forecast to bring in record-high advertising revenue.

In fact, Kantar believes the ad dollars will be more than 20% higher than the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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There will be no blackouts of Spongebob, CBS2 News or BET fare for subscribers of Charter Communications’ Spectrum MVPD services across the U.S. — including New York and Los Angeles.

The continued carriage of ViacomCBS’ portfolio of broadcast, entertainment, news and sports networks on Charter Communications’ Spectrum systems is now assured.

The freshly signed deal between Charter and ViacomCBS, announced Thursday morning, also includes licensing ViacomCBS’s Paramount+, Pluto TV, BET+ and Noggin for future distribution to Spectrum customers.

“We are pleased to have reached a new deal to deliver ViacomCBS’ expansive portfolio of popular brands and premium programming for Spectrum audiences to enjoy, plus greater choice in how they consume our content,” said Ray Hopkins, President of U.S. Network Distribution at ViacomCBS. “Charter is a valued partner, and we look forward to deepening our long-standing relationship.”

Added Tom Montemagno, EVP of Programming Acquisition for Charter, “These comprehensive agreements with ViacomCBS recognize the fast-changing pace of the subscription video business and provide us the flexibilities to adapt for the benefit of our customers while also furthering our strategic interests in the advanced advertising realm and aggregated video store concept with the addition of the streaming apps.”

ViacomCBS and Charter also will expand their existing collaboration around addressable media and advanced advertising.

Others terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Fig. 1: The dimmer circuit schematic showing the filtering capacitors.

Rob Atkinson, K5UJ, is an engineer out of Saint Charles, Ill., and one of the many readers who enjoy the DIY projects we feature from time to time in Workbench.

Fig. 1, a spectral picture at 0.00% illumination.

He writes in to say that he admires Frank Hertel’s ingenuity in home-brewing the LED dimmer circuit that we told you about in the May 26 issue. However, as a ham Rob is concerned about the RFI that variable square waves cause and that there was no mention of RFI mitigation measures in Frank’s submission.

Rob points out that any kind of control circuit based on square waves can be a terrible spectrum polluter, especially if the leads to the device being controlled are long and unshielded. His concern is that these ideas often end up on the internet, where they are repurposed by unsuspecting shortwave or medium-wave hobbyists.

Frank Hertel responded: “Since hams sometimes work with receiving weak signals” — which, by the way, Frank does when measuring distant AM and FM signals — “I can relate to Mr. Atkinson’s concerns.”

Frank says Rob is right. See Fig. 1, the dimmer schematic. The 555 Timer IC does produce a fairly square wave output, so filtering is important. However, the 6.8K resistor that is in a series with the 555’s output to the MPF102 MOSFET’s gate is bypassed to ground with a 1 MFD (nonpolarized) capacitor and does a pretty good job of turning the square wave into a semi-sine wave (non-symmetrical shaping).

Fig. 3 (left), ’scope showing 0.00% illumination. Fig. 4 (right), output at 20% illumination. Note the non-symmetrical sine wave, shaped by the filter caps.

Finally, an additional damping filter capacitor, the 100 MFD capacitor at the D718 emitter to ground that connects to the LED light fixture, does a bit more filtering.

Frank realizes that he could have fabricated a more sophisticated output filter network, but he found that any emissions from the dimmer circuit were consistent with the emissions of commercial dimmers and commercial dimmable LED lamps, so that is where he decided to leave it, as you see in the schematic.

Fig. 5 (left), ’scope measurement at 70% illumination. Fig. 6 (right), spectrum at 100% illumination.

In these scope photos and spectrum analyzer shots, the probe is connected across the 555 output/LED fixture at different LED intensities.

The Enemy of LEDs
San Francisco contract and project engineer Bill Ruck was interested in Frank’s dimmer circuit interesting, but even more so in the super-flexible silicone wire used. At Amazon.com, type “B07K9R9LBV” in the search field to find this 22-awg silicone electrical wire. Frank used 22 gauge but other gauges are available.

Here’s the super-flexible silicone wire that Frank Hertel used.

Bill inquired because most of the “zip” red/black cables that he has seen are relatively stiff. He points out that most LED fixtures have a built-in regulated current switching supply. If the fixture just had a current limiting resistor, it would dim gradually.

Bill related a personal experience in which he replaced his circular kitchen “dome” fixture with LEDs. It turns out the two round “Circline” fluorescent bulbs are no longer manufactured by GE, so Bill bought a “2600 Lumen 30W Super Bright Cool White LED” from MJPA (Item #31327 OP at mjpa.com) with the appropriate power supply. He then used the fixture can to build a LED-based lamp.

The lamp worked great for about six months, then failed. This time, he spaced the LED assembly below the ceiling with an extension box. This, too, failed in time. The repair saw Bill adding heat sinks around the LEDs.

The moral to the story? Heat is the enemy of long-life LEDs! Next time, Bill will rebuild the fixture and put the heat sinks on the outside of the can to better dissipate the heat.

John Bisset, CPBE, has 50 years in the broadcasting industry including 31 years 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. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

 

The post Workbench: Capacitors Damp Square Wave Output appeared first on Radio World.

Issued an Admonishment to VPM Media Corporation for public file violations for Station WHTJ, Charlottesville, VA

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