It’s known for nationally distributed digital multicast television networks such as the popular MeTV and siblings DECADES, Start TV, Heroes & Icons and MOVIES!
Now, the family of Weigel Broadcasting‘s national broadcast networks is set to expand.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Oral arguments are set for April 12 in the broadcast industry’s lawsuit against the FCC, seeking to overturn the commission’s order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming.
On Friday the National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters filed a reply brief with the federal appeals court. They are the organizations that brought this suit against the FCC.
They say the court should set aside the action because it violates not one but three crucial standards: the Communications Act, the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.
Among their arguments, the broadcasters say that the FCC order tells stations to engage in “reasonable diligence” to determine the true source of the programming aired on its station, which mandates independent investigation of government websites.
“But the broadcaster’s statutory duty is far narrower,” they said. “Congress required only that each broadcaster ‘shall exercise reasonable diligence to obtain from its employees, and from other persons with whom it deals directly’ information necessary to disclose to the public the person who paid for the programming.” The plaintiffs emphasized the underlined phrase, concluding: “The commission cannot ignore the restrictions Congress has placed upon a broadcaster’s duty of diligence.”
They also criticized “the regulation’s extraordinary reach and sheer pointlessness” and said mandatory investigation “redresses a phantom harm never known to occur: namely, a foreign governmental entity registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or a U.S.-based foreign media outlet registered under Section 722 of the Communications Act who leased broadcast time without disclosure.”
And they say the rule imposes substantial burdens on thousands of broadcasters to address the phantom harm. It said the FCC’s limited evidence — which in any event concerns no “harms” that the order redresses — can’t justify requiring every commercial broadcast station in the country to conduct independent investigations for every existing and future lease.
[Read the reply brief.]
The rule was approved 4–0 by the commissioners last year. Now, when a broadcaster leases time, they need to ask the “lessee” if they or their programming are from a foreign governmental entity.
“If the answer is yes, a sponsorship identification will need to be placed on air and documented in the station’s public file,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote at the time.
“If the answer is no, a broadcaster will need to independently verify the lessee using the Foreign Agent Registration Act website from the Department of Justice and the FCC’s semi-annual foreign media outlet reports.”
The FCC believes that foreign governmental entities are increasingly purchasing time on domestic broadcast stations.
Rosenworcel said last year, “We know that foreign entities are purchasing time on broadcast stations in markets across the country, including Chinese government-sponsored programming and Russian government-sponsored programming right here in our nation’s capital.”
The post Broadcasters Reiterate Opposition to Disclosure Rule appeared first on Radio World.
We’re starting to hear from companies about their exhibit plans for the NAB Show in April.
RCS — which will be located in the new West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center — says it has expanded remote features throughout its product line, focusing on the user experience and automating everyday tasks.
Zetta automation has a revamped Zetta2GO Voice Tracker with Zetta tools like volume points, trim in and trim out. The platform now has multiple Zetta themes, performance improvements for scalability, Virtual Events (identifying multiple assets within a single long-form file) and redesigned Hot Keys.
New Zetta2GO features include expanded drag and drop, keyboard navigation with Windows shortcut functionality, and F1 dynamic help.
[Read more stories about the 2022 NAB Show.]
RCS Cloud will be another focus of the RCS booth. The company calls it a true disaster recovery cloud solution, written for and on Amazon Web Services, following best practices and securities. “RCS Cloud disaster recovery can not only back up your audio, logs, metadata, and SQL backups, securely with Zetta’s built in Site Replication service, but we’ve also incorporated business friendly workflows.”
New GSelector 5.0 got a subtle thematic facelift, the company said, with the addition of new themes, scalable icons and a user-customized Song/Link Window, allowing users to organize and hide or display metadata based on multiple layouts.
“Programmers can already view and schedule their time granularity by hours and minutes, but now, with GSelector’s Flex Clocks, users can build their clocks and grids down to the minute or a single clock up to 24 hours a day, allowing for endless programming opportunities to save time and efficiently.”
Selector2GO allows users to add or edit elements, adjust clocks, schedule and massage logs, and analyze their spins.
RCS also highlights Aquira, its CRM, sales and traffic solution; RCS News, a centralized location for reporters to monitor RSS news feeds and email accounts, customize alerts for breaking news, define sub-categories and create and edit rundowns or audio; and Revma, a content delivery network infrastructure.
RCS Booth: W5222
The post NAB Show: RCS Powers Up Its Remote Features appeared first on Radio World.
Software company WinMedia named Florin Velea-Grumezea as its new sales manager.
“Florin’s expertise in broadcast has enabled him to acquire knowledge of all broadcast products, from studio to transmitter,” the company stated.
WinMedia said it is managing an increasing number of turnkey projects that require knowledge of IP audio and NDI for video. Velea-Grumezea is also expected to help the company grow its business in countries in Eastern Europe.
The announcement was made by CEO Stéphane Tesoriere, who said that Velea-Grumezea “will continue the prospecting work that we launched three years ago and which is proving to be a real success with many customers who have trusted us with the modernization of their radio from audio-only to visual.”
See more recent People News coverage.
The post Velea-Grumezea Joins WinMedia appeared first on Radio World.
G&L has joined RadioDNS.
“We want to help bringing the right radio content to each listener on the device of their choice,” said co-founder and Managing Director Alexander Leschinsky in the announcement, citing the company’s experience in hybrid radio metadata and IP distribution.
RadioDNS promotes the growth of hybrid radio globally through its open-source standards. The organization will hold its annual general assembly later this month.
[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]
G&L Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and has offices in Berlin and Munich, as well as Pleasanton, Calif., in the United States. It offers solutions for processing and delivery of media content, and says its customers include providers of CDN services, vendors of players and encoders, and service providers for monitoring and controlling IT systems.
“G&L is a trusted partner to the German public service broadcasters, who represent a large amount of radio listening in Germany, the most populous country, and will be providing RadioDNS services for them,” according to the announcement.
Another recent new member is Hubbard Radio. The RadioDNS website has a list of members, which include familiar major media names like the BBC, NPR and the European Broadcasting Union.
The post G&L Joins RadioDNS appeared first on Radio World.
It positions itself as “a voice for the TV viewer” yet is one of the biggest pro-cable TV service provider lobbying groups Inside the Beltway. The American Television Alliance (ATVA) has made noise for its finger-pointing and one-sided blame for every recent retransmission consent dispute, citing broadcast TV owners for causing the problem despite the need for a MVPD and broadcaster to agree on a fair deal.
Now, it is sharing its thoughts with the FCC on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking crafter to consider changes in the ATSC 3.0 licensing regime — a matter that comes following a NAB request.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
The FCC has issued a ruling in a dispute over a construction permit to move a FM translator in the city’s historic Beacon Hill area.
The WGBH Education Foundation, licensee of non-commercial WGBH(FM) in Boston, in June of 2020, filed a modification application to move the existing WGBH translator (W242AA) to a new site immediately adjacent to its licensed site in the city. WGBH also proposed a non-adjacent channel change from Channel 242 to Channel 247, and explained the swap would eliminate contour overlap with first-adjacent channel full-service WSRS(FM), licensed to Worcester, Mass.
It was the request to move the WGBH FM translator channel that would begin a domino effect and bring on a flurry of FCC filings by several other radio groups.
To start the FCC’s Media Bureau granted the WGBH modification request on June 24, 2020. The next day Beanpot License Corp., which owns WXRV(FM) at 92.5 MHz in Andover Mass., filed a request with the FCC to modify the facilities of its FM translator station Channel W243DC in Needham, Mass., to take advantage of the vacated WGBH channel on Chanel 242.
Then WJFD-FM Inc., licensee of full-service WJFD(FM) in New Bedford, Mass., in July 2020, filed a petition for reconsideration of the WGBH translator modification CP on the basis it would cause predicted interference to WJFD at 97.3 MHz.
[See Our Business and Law Page]
WGBH subsequently submitted a cancellation letter a month later to the Media Bureau stating it intended to stay put in its existing location and continue operating its translator on Chanel 242. Beanpot then objected to WGBH’s cancellation letter.
Beanpot in its argument supporting its objection to the of the WGBH translator modification cancellation cited several previous bureau decisions to support its claim that “once the FCC grants a translator modification application, the applicant must carry out the approved channel change and has at best an implied STA to continue operating on its original frequency while it constructs the new facility,” according to the Beanpot filing.
The back and forth between the parties continued with WGBH writing in its reply to the FCC “it has chosen not to change channels because information provided by WJFD has demonstrated to WGBH that it would not be practical for [the translator] to be built out on Channel 247.”
However, Beanpot continued to press the FCC to force WGBH to complete work on its new translator within the terms of its construction permit. “Beanpot disputes the validity of the predicted interference showing submitted by the WJFD application,” the broadcaster wrote.
Beanpot, which bills its WXRV(FM) as “Boston’s Independent Radio,” further argued that WGBH failed to formally serve the broadcaster with its CP cancellation letter in a timely fashion.
WGBH in Nov. 2020 attempted to resurrect its FM translator CP and move to the new site but to remain on the existing Channel 242 and at a lower power (3 watts ERP). In its second modification application, WGBH insisted its proposed transmitter facilities would not cause any prohibited contour overlap with the licensed Beanpot translator.
The NPR affiliate stated: “[The] proposed WGBH translator facilities would comply with respect to the first adjacent channel facility authorized in the Beanpot Modification Application because the area of existing overlap between the proposed WGBH Translator and the proposed Beanpot Translator would not increase as compared to the existing overlap between the licensed WGBH Translator and the proposed Beanpot Translator (in fact, would slightly decrease).”
Beanpot within a day filed an informal objection to WGBH’s second modification application.
Albert Shuldiner, chief of the FCC’s Audio Division, in a letter last week rejected Beanpot’s objections to WGBH’s cancellation letter and WGHB’s second modification application. The finding granted WGBH’s second modification application and appears to give the green light to WGBH to complete its FM translator move to the new facility site and remain on Channel 242.
It’s not clear from the FCC filings whether Beanpot License Corp. will proceed with its proposed modification request to switch FM translator channels.
Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post FCC Rules in Dispute Over Boston Translator Move appeared first on Radio World.
He’s the founder and Portfolio Manager of a Chicago-area investment house focused on “micro-cap value equities.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, its portfolio “is constructed through [a] in-depth, fundamental research process focused on the potential risk and return of each investment.”
Among the companies that part of his portfolio: Saga Communications.
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Chuck Kelly has retired.
“Since the summer of 1973, all I’ve wanted to do was be involved with radio,” he wrote on LinkedIn. Forty-eight years later, he can say he met his goal.
Having worked early in his career as a jock, PD, news director and chief engineer for stations in Colorado and Illinois, Kelly moved into technology sales in 1980 by going to work for 3M, where he was sales manager of International Tapetronics for eight years.
From 1988 to 2006 he was with Broadcast Electronics, a face of the company to the international market as its director of international sales. He then went to Nautel and worked there for 13 years as director of sales and later regional sales manager for the Asia/Pacific region.
In 2019 he rejoined Broadcast Electronics, which was under the new ownership of Elenos Group, as vice president of market development. His last day was Friday.
Kelly also is a longtime member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and was its president for two terms.
“Thank you to the folks who worked beside me and had endless patience with my mistakes as well as my enthusiasm,” Kelly wrote on LinkedIn. Thank you to the customers, business partners and friends from more than 120 countries in every corner of the world, I can never forget you.”
“While I won’t be working 8 to 5 anymore, I have several consulting gigs lined up to stay busy, and will hopefully continue my association with SBE Chapter 25 here in Indianapolis, as well as with the Holy Spirit at Geist 9:30 a.m. choir,” he wrote. “And I plan to fire up W9MDO on HF and DMR from time to time. I hope to catch you down the log.”
[Read Chuck Kelly’s 2018 commentary “Radio Matters, Here’s Why”]
The post Chuck Kelly Retires appeared first on Radio World.
On September 23, 2019, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) on Monday (9/23) released an open letter to marketing and advertising leaders imploring them to develop and executive campaigns that reflect today’s U.S. populace and consumer.
With NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl LVI, several commercials appear to have answered the need for greater diversity in the creative. Among the standouts — spots for Google Pixel 6 and the NFL itself.
We are pleased to share once again the ANA’s letter in its entirety:
Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)
Please show your support by using the Ko-Fi link at the bottom of the page. Thank you for supporting REC's efforts!
