Industry News

A new era in leadership at Jacksonville’s most-watched television station will take place next month.

Graham Media Group has named the next Vice President and General Manager of unaffiliated WJXT, branded as “News4Jax,” and The CW Network affiliate serving Jacksonville, WCWJ-TV.

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New York Festivals Radio Awards announced the 2021 Storytellers Gala award-winners.  World-class audio work created by global storytellers from 30+ countries was honored at the October 12 Storytellers Gala virtual event.

The 2021 Radio Awards Grand Jury panel honored riveting podcasts and audiobooks, dramas, documentaries, breaking news coverage, entertainment and music specials created by masterful audio storytellers from around the globe.

The BBC was honored with the 2021 Broadcaster of the Year Award. Award-winning entries captivated listeners with exceptional storytelling in News, Podcasts, and Dramas. Exceptional entries honored with the NYF Radio Awards Gold trophy include: “I’m Not A Monster” and “Where Is George Gibney?”.

TBI Media UK earned the title of Production Company of the Year. Known for award-winning programs and live events created for TV, Radio, online, and brands, the London based company earned multiple Gold trophies for their work for high profile clients including the BBC.

2021 Grand Awards

I’m Not A Monster – from BBC Panorama & FRONTLINE PBS – News Programs: Best Nonfiction Series (BBC) The 10-part series explores journalist Josh Baker’s four-year odyssey to uncover the complex truth about an American family’s journey from Indiana to the Islamic State’s caliphate and back again to the US.

The Hobbit, By J.R.R. Tolkien, Read by Andy Serkis – Audio Books: Best Narration – Solo (HarperCollins Publishers) The new Hobbit recording was inspired by an extraordinary charity effort that raised over £300k for Coronavirus charities. This led to actor Andy Serkis narrating this newest recording of The Hobbit. Serkis, who voiced “Gollum” in the film recorded this magical performance of the classic text with affinity for the Tolkien world.

Weightless – Podcasts: Drama Podcast (DMC Studio Argentina) The podcast tells the story of a character who has reached a critical moment in his life and deceives himself by telling a story that abounds with emotions, memories, and sensations. Weightless uses sound elements and song samples from different periods of the character’s life to illustrate his epic journey.

For 2021 new categories were unveiled across all genres to shine the spotlight on Social Justice. Trophy winning entries include Gold – “Birds Eye View” (StoryProjects), Silver – “Racism within” (SBS Australia), and Bronze – “Say Their Name” (DCP Entertainment), and “Bioneers Radio Series” (Bioneers Radio Series).

Compelling podcasts in a variety of categories captivated listeners. Gold winning work includes “Alligator Candy”, “The Lost Kids”, and “The Followers: House of Prayer”(USG Audio),“Dead Memory Clinic” (Welcome to Earth), “Driving the Green Book” (Alvin Hall & Macmillan Podcasts), “The Secrets in Us” (Loftus Media), “Earth Eclipsed” (The Lunar Company), “Nut Jobs: Cracking California’s Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist” (Audible), “Dérives (Out of Control)” (Radio-Canada/CBC), “The Debrief with Major Garrett” (CBS News Radio), “The Battersea Poltergeist” (Bafflegab Productions), and “The Unthinkable” (Radio New Zealand).  For the complete list of 2021 Radio winners, visit: HERE.

Documentaries masterfully captured reality and gave voice to diverse points of view. Entries earning Gold include: “Nations United” (TBI Media),” Bob Dylan: Verbatim” (Zinc Media), “The FRONTLINE Dispatch presents: The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden” (FRONTLINE PBS), “Kangaroo Cuddles” (ABC Radio National), “Stuff The British Stole” (ABC Radio Australia), and “The Grief of a Nation” (RTÉ Radio 1).

Powerhouse entertainment entries recognized with Gold include “There Used To Be A Me” (Spiteful Puppet Entertainment & AUK Studios), “Stripey tales/ Randiga sagor” (Sveriges Radio), and “Musicals: The Greatest Show” and “Laura Whitmore” (TBI Media). “Q with Tom Power” (CBC) was honored with a Gold trophy in Craft: Best Interview.

Audio Books transported listeners, Gold winning entries from HarperCollins Publishers include “Girl A, By Abigail Dean, Read by Holliday Grainger” and “Imaginary Fred, By Oliver Jeffers, Read by Ciaran Hinds”.  Penguin Random House entries achieving Gold: “A Life on Our Planet” and “Beatrix Potter – The Complete Tales”.  Additional Gold entries in the spotlight: “Modigast i Världen i Barnradion” (Swedish Radio) and “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin” (Almost Tangible).

Breaking News, features, and investigative reporting captured events as they unfolded on the world stage.  Gold winning entries include “Where Is George Gibney?” (BBC), “The Great Post Office Trial” (Whistledown), and Silver trophy winner, “How fracking could threaten Australia’s Paris target” (Australian Broadcasting Corp. Sydney).

Gold winning entries in Sound include “La foresta dei violini / The violins forest” (RSI SRG SSR and Faïdos Sonore) and “Islands with Chris Watson & Luke Clancy” (RTÉ Radio 1). “The Ballad of the Stolwijk Rescue” (RTE Lyric FM) was honored with a Silver trophy in Craft: Best Original Music.

New York Festivals Radio Awards Grand Jury honored content creators across all platforms and in all genres and awarded in total of 3 Grand Awards, 48 NYF Gold Radio trophies, 46 Silver and 49 Bronze.

This year is the eleventh year of NYF’s strategic partnership with NAB Show.

For a complete list of the New York Festivals 2021 Storytellers Gala Radio Awards winners, please visit  HERE.

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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