Industry News

New NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt, appearing at The Media Institute’s Communications Forum, laid out four areas of policy that the association considers priorities — “where policymakers must focus to ensure broadcasters can compete and thrive in the current media environment.”

He said Congress should act to rein in what he called “the gatekeeping ability of the Big Tech giants who are stifling the economics of local news.” NAB supports passage of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which he said would allow stations to jointly negotiate the terms and conditions for their local content when it is accessed through the large tech platforms. “There is simply too much at stake if we don’t confront Big Tech’s online dominance.”

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Second, he said, lawmakers and regulators must modernize media ownership laws to reflect the realities of the marketplace. “A report released last Congress by Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell noted that Google and Facebook control an estimated 77 percent of locally-focused digital advertising. Yet broadcasters still operate under a set of rules that pretend they only compete with one another,” he said.

LeGeyt said Congress and the FCC “must take a fresh look at whether these decades-old regulations are helping or impeding broadcast competition and media diversity.”

Third, he urged the FCC to reorient how it thinks about broadcast policy more broadly.

“It is imperative that the FCC recognize that the broadcast industry’s ability to function in the public interest is fundamentally premised on its economic viability,” he said. “This means the commission must consider whether each existing and new regulation will help or impede broadcasters’ ability to thrive in a media environment dominated by other platforms. It means embracing the tremendous consumer benefits of ATSC 3.0 and adopting policies that enable its growth. And it means the FCC working hand-in-hand with broadcasters, to help us attract leading talent from all backgrounds to ensure our stations better reflect the diversity of the communities we serve … But if broadcast regulatory reforms remain bogged down in all that could go wrong instead of all that could go right, we will not succeed.

And he urged support for the Local Radio Freedom Act, opposing a performance fee on local radio stations that he said would be “financially devastating” to broadcasters and hurt their listeners.

The post LeGeyt: We Must Confront Big Tech’s Online Dominance appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC on Tuesday (2/15) has moved forward with the adoption of rules that the agency says will “unlock” broadband competition for those living and working in apartments, public housing, office buildings, and other multi-tenant buildings.

It’s a move that could end favored-nation status for MVPDs who have exclusivity in such locales, bringing a major change in the dynamic of residential HOAs, office building management and apartment complex owners.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC and National Telecommunications and Information Administration have kicked off a new initiative designed to improve U.S. government coordination on spectrum management.

The Spectrum Coordination Initiative will involve actions by both agencies to strengthen the processes for decision making and information sharing and to work cooperatively to resolve spectrum policy issues.

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Who knew that a $24 accessory available through Amazon.com or Walmart could add so much diversity to the small screen?

A just-released Horowitz Research study finds that, as cable TV “cord-cutters” look for ways to stay connected to live and local programming, multicultural audiences are embracing over-the-air (OTA) antennas.

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For eight years, she’s held the role of VP/Political and Governmental Sales at Urban One. Now, Laura Clark is getting a promotion.

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Every day we get pitched stories about FAST Channels, AVOD and connected TV and, in nearly every instance, we reply with the same statement — how is this important to the broadcast television industry and how can they benefit?

That’s just one of several questions RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson asks Blair Harrison, CEO of OTT linear streaming platform Frequency, in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast.

Learn why FAST channels aren’t a threat to broadcast TV and, perhaps, additive, and why “streaming duplicates” may bring an important boost to your organization in this podcast!

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Blair Harrison” on Spreaker.

They were once radio stations owned by the late Ralph Carlson’s Holiday Broadcasting.

Now, an AM, an FM and an FM translator serving Moab, Utah, are being sold. The buyer is led by William Craig Knott.

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Engineering classes hosted by the Alabama Broadcasters Association will kick off again later this year.

The association will host the 2022 ABA Engineering Academy classes at intervals throughout the year, starting with radio engineering classes March 7–11 and Sept. 12–16. Another double set of classes will cover television engineering issues during April 4–8 and Oct. 3–7.

The classes, which run five days for each session, are open to anyone, not just ABA members, said Larry Wilkins, director of engineering services for ABA, who is a past recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award.

“Before we had to stop in-person classes [due to the pandemic], we had students from across the country, even Alaska,” he said.

Classes will be held in person at the ABA Training Center in Birmingham, Ala.

Day one of the radio engineering classes covers basic electronics. “It is important that someone who works in any type of engineering understand the basics,” he said. The class covers electricity, Ohm’s law, the components used in circuits and the various formulas used in broadcast operations.

Day two covers analog and digital audio basics, including digital audio workstations and processors. The class also covers microphone selection and proper placement. New this year is the introduction of loudness units full scale (LUFS).

“Since we have seen that several engineers are also involved in mixing live audio or recording, we spend some time on audio mixer setup and operation,” Wilkins said. The course includes time in the training center’s digital recording studio with a 32-channel mixing console and digital audio workstation.

Day three covers AM and FM transmitters and antennas, including directional AM arrays and HD Radio. The classes touch on basic transmitter site maintenance, as well as legal requirements.

Day four looks at station operation including installation of EAS systems, background on FCC rules and regulations, required paperwork and technical management as well as good engineering practices. Day five is reserved for those looking to take the SBE certification exam.

“We are aware that attending a class for four or five days will not create a ‘chief engineer’ but our goal is to cover as much of the technical operation [as possible] so that someone that is looking at getting into broadcast engineering can work under a seasoned engineer more comfortably,” Wilkins said. “Also, there may those at a station that would like to learn more about the technical side of the operation and [this] can help with basic issues that come up after attending the class.”

Over the years, he said, the association has seen a number of seasoned engineers attend classes, both as a refresher and as an opportunity to learn about new technology.

The ABA also started a monthly engineering webinar covering various technical subjects that parallel the engineering classes. Those attending the classes can receive credit when recertifying with SBE.

Registration for classes can be found at the ABA website. The association also offers a series of continuing educational classes on a variety of technical areas such as audio production, network protocols and data rates, among other topics. In addition, the association offers seminars throughout the year with special presenters, both in person and on the association’s YouTube channel, found at abaengineeringacademy.

The post New ABA Engineering Classes on Tap appeared first on Radio World.

A battle against the FCC that sees the NAB; Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC); and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) join hands in a united fight to stop the Commission’s order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming has yielded a freshly submitted reply brief — one that reiterates its belief that the new rules are overreaching and burdensome.

Another reply brief was filed on Friday by the three groups with U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The organizations have waged a legal challenge of the FCC’s order requiring disclosures for programming tied financially to a foreign government. The matter is pending judicial review, and oral arguments in the case are scheduled for April 12.

In the brief, the organizations refute the FCC’s claims that the rule is lawful and argue that the rule violates with the Communications Act, the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.

On April 22, 2021, the FCC adopted what the three broadcast media advocacy groups call “unnecessary and overly burdensome rules that impose on every broadcaster onerous requirements to make specified inquiries of, and conduct independent research on, all the entities with whom broadcasters currently or will in the future have lease agreements.”

As the FCC sees it, the rules will “eliminate any potential ambiguity to the viewer or listener regarding the source of programming provided from foreign governmental entities.”

Specifically, the new FCC rule states that by having stations identify its sources of programming, “we seek to address an important issue of public concern while going no further than necessary, thus balancing considerations of the First Amendment with the need for consumers to be sufficiently informed as to the origin of material broadcast on stations licensed on their behalf in the public interest.”

The Commission rule goes on to say by refining the rule it is ensuring that the public is fully informed on the source of programming consumed. It notes, “We find it is critical that the American public be aware when a foreign government has sponsored, paid for, or, in the case of political programs or programs involving the discussion of a controversial issue, furnished the programming for free as an inducement to air the material, particularly given what seems to be an increase in the dissemination of programming in the United States by foreign governments and their representatives.”

In August 2021, the NAB, NABOB and the MMTC moved ahead and filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging the Order.

In the latest objection brief from the three organizations, NAB, NABOB and MMTC say the rule is “pointless” and addresses a “phantom harm” that is highly unlikely to occur since foreign agents, under threat of criminal penalties, must disclose their three foreign principal in all programming and supply copies of that programming to the Department of Justice.

The Order requires broadcasters to conduct investigations of every programming lease, even infomercials and local programming. The groups say it is “arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.”

The target of the R&O? It is most likely the Sputnik radio service, which airs on an FM translator serving the Washington, D.C., market and in select hours on a Kansas City radio station; W288BS is owned by prominent communications attorney John Garziglia, through his licensee Reston Translator LLC.

The Order also likely targets URadio, a Chinese-language service said to be funded by the People’s Republic of China that uses XETRA-AM 690 in Tijuana, Baja California to serve audiences in Southern California.

— Reporting by Ed Ryan and Adam R Jacobson

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s News Reporter Academy, an interactive workshop for college students interested in pursuing a career in news reporting, is back.

The Academy will hold its next virtual session on March 30 from Noon-3pm ET.

Now in its second year, the News Reporter Academy, hosted by Sinclair’s corporate news operation, gives university-level students an opportunity to learn about working in a newsroom and interact with Sinclair’s news teams.

In the three-hour interactive session, students will learn the basics of news reporting and investigative storytelling, managing a social media presence, how to look and sound their best on-camera and how to package a resume and reel.

“After the success of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Producer Academy, a workshop for students interested in pursuing a career in digital or broadcast news producing, which is now in its fifth year, the company developed a seminar for students focused on news reporting,” Baltimore-based Sinclair says.

The virtual workshop is open exclusively to undergraduate and graduate college students. Registration is limited to 150 students and an .edu email address is required.

Students must register in advance by March 25: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsc-6tqjkqGNWwZIRFQ47sVkHkrp8_GeZm