Industry News

The NAB Show is set for October in Las Vegas.

Wade Witmer is deputy director of the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, or IPAWS, Program Management Office in FEMA National Continuity Programs. This is one in a series of interviews with exhibitors ahead of the show.

Radio World: What is your news or message for NAB Show attendees?

Wade Witmer: Our message is “IPAWS Loves Broadcast Resilience.”

With the modernization of the National Public Warning System — NPWS Primary Entry Point or “PEP” stations — the opening of our new 24/7 Technical Support Services Facility and our advocacy to the Federal Communications Commission for the recent changes to EAS, FEMA wishes to show the continued viability of EAS and our support for broadcasters.

We invite NAB Show attendees to the FEMA exhibit, where they can talk with our experts on EAS usage and all things alerting.

The 2021 IPAWS National Test, conducted Aug. 11, delivered the EAS portion of the test via the broadcast “daisy chain.” We want to hear attendees’ experiences receiving and forwarding the test to their audiences.

RW: What are the most important trends or changes in alerting?

Witmer: First, we’re watching the development of advanced alerting capabilities in ATSC 3.0.

Also, IPAWS-OPEN, FEMA’s central alert message aggregator, has been moved from brick-and-mortar servers to a cloud provider. This gives us the flexibility and resilience to survive connectivity issues and localized data-center issues.

The IPAWS PMO has updated the training materials and documentation it offers Alerting Authorities, which are agencies of state, local, tribal and territorial governments authorized to send public alerts through IPAWS.

Further, the FCC has affirmed the important role of State Emergency Communications Committees in planning for public alerting. The IPAWS PMO looks forward to coordinating with SECCs to fine-tune and improve their plans.

Finally, FEMA is coordinating with the FCC about Persistent EAS Alerts as called for in the National Defense Authorization Act. FEMA notes that these types of emergency alerts “should persist on EAS until the alert time has expired or is cancelled by the alert originator.”

RW: How has the pandemic affected the organization’s work?

Witmer: Our staff has maintained contact with Alerting Authorities, Alert Origination Software Providers and regulatory agencies by email, teleconferencing and telephone. If anything, because of the critical demands of emergency events at this time, our communications have improved.

FEMA teams continue to travel to NPWS stations to supervise facilities construction, testing and maintenance.

RW: Anything else we should know?

Witmer: The National Weather Service is not posting their weather alerts and warnings to the IPAWS EAS Feed. Broadcasters need to know that the only source for NWS alerts for EAS participants is via NOAA Weather Radio or another custom source.

For more information on IPAWS, check out our website at www.fema.gov/ipaws or email IPAWS@fema.dhs.gov.

The post “IPAWS Loves Broadcast Resilience” appeared first on Radio World.

Several big-name TV exhibitors announced in the past several days that they won’t exhibit at the NAB Show in October. The pandemic continues to play havoc with major industry trade shows 18 months after it swept across the United States.

Canon issued a statement Friday afternoon: “Due to the ongoing health and safety concerns presented by the COVID-19 Delta variant, Canon has made a carefully considered decision to withdraw from this year’s NAB and InfoComm Shows. The communities that NAB and InfoComm represent are something that we will greatly miss this year, but the health and safety of our team members, customers, and potential show guests is our number one priority.”

Ross Video on Friday morning issued an announcement, “As time has passed since the revised dates for 2021 were announced, it has become increasingly apparent that the challenges posed by the fluctuating public health situation in Nevada (and elsewhere around the world), travel restrictions into the USA, logistics and general uncertainty among exhibitors and potential attendees are, regrettably, too great to enable Ross to participate.” Ross is based in Canada.

Also on Friday, the website of Sports Video Group reported that Panasonic had withdrawn from the NAB Show.

And earlier in the week, Sony Electronics said it would not exhibit at either the NAB Show or InfoComm, though it planned a press conference at the NAB Show prior to its opening. Sony quoted Theresa Alesso, president of the Pro Division of Sony Electronics, saying, “While these events are an important forum to reach our customers and introduce new products, this is a choice we made to ensure we’re putting our employees’ and our partners’ health and well-being first.”

Responding to the Sony news, NAB Senior VP of Communications Ann Marie Cumming told AV Network on Tuesday that Sony is a valued partner and NAB respected its decision. “Recognizing that NAB Show is an economic engine for our industry, we are committed to delivering a productive in-person experience and have taken important steps to prioritize the safety of our community, including requiring proof of vaccination,” Cumming said Tuesday, estimating that there were some 600 exhibiting companies planning to show.

There was no immediate comment from NAB on the subsequent departures.

The post Several TV Exhibitors Withdraw From NAB Show appeared first on Radio World.

TEGNA’s two television stations serving the Constitution State have a new morning news content director, as of Monday.

He’ll be responsible for overseeing The FOX61 Morning News, which airs weekdays from 4am to 11am on one of those two UHF properties serving most of Connecticut.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The prevalence of cord cutting and the decline in cable network viewership complicate carriage agreements between cable network companies and traditional multichannel operators.

According to Kagan estimates, top cable networks lost about $179.5 million in affiliate fees since 2013 from cable carriage disputes that resulted in blackouts that were eventually resolved.

Cable network owners risk affiliate revenue loss in hopes of producing a more favorable deal with traditional multichannel operators.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The Bank of America Securities 2021 Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference will be held on Monday (9/13).

Among those participating at the event: the CEO and the COO/CFO of the nation’s largest audio content creation and distribution company.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

By Rob Dumke

AKRON, OHIO — Travel 20 minutes to the northeast of this Ohio city, and you’ll reach Kent State University.

It’s the home of a Class B FM that offers “Public Radio News for Northeast Ohio,” primarily to Akron and Canton and also to the Cleveland market due north of campus.

That programming isn’t likely to change anytime soon. But, the ownership could be, following the initiation of a “public service operating agreement” at the end of the month.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

It’s remarkable and unsettling to think that 20 years have passed since that day.

Like most of us over the age of 35 or so, I know exactly where I was on 9/11. Shortly before 9 a.m., I was settling in for a day’s work in my Radio World office overlooking Columbia Pike in northern Virginia.

My colleague Terry Scutt called in from her desk near my office door, telling me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.

I immediately pictured a small single-engine aircraft, though my mind also turned to the B-25 bomber that had struck the Empire State Building in 1945. In that tragedy, which took 14 lives, the ESB itself, though seriously damaged, withstood the crash. I knew that story because I was born in Manhattan and have always held a special feeling for the city.

Vaguely uneasy, I tried to envision what the World Trade Center would look like after a plane had struck it.

Of course I went online to see if I could learn more about what had happened, but the internet was locked up.

Now people were talking in the hallway, saying unbelievable things. That this maybe wasn’t an accident but an attack. Though my memory is fuzzy about the sequence, at some point someone turned on a television, and I no longer had to try to imagine what a skyscraper looked like after being hit by an aircraft.

Unbelievably, within 17 minutes, a second plane struck, and then we knew for sure that these were no accidents. Like the rest of the country, I and my co-workers felt a rising sense of fear along with our horror.

[Related: A Timeline of 9/11]

What we didn’t know in the office was that, even as we tried to absorb these two stomach-wrenching developments, Flight 77, coming from the west, was making a looping maneuver almost directly above our own heads — not once but twice. More murderers were pointing another plane at another target.

Radio World’s office sat 4.7 miles from the home of the American military. The road outside my window pointed directly at the Pentagon, and the jet was now flying directly parallel to that road.

Shortly after it passed over our heads a second time, it struck.

What follows in my memory is even more blurred. Sirens began to scream on Columbia Pike as emergency vehicles rushed to the northeast. Some of us went to the roof and could see smoke rising from the crash site. Office mates were crying and trying to call their spouses and children. Rumors flew in our hallways of yet more planes taken, more terrorists in the air, a threat to the White House. Someone said a bomb had gone off at the State Department.

All this while, images on the TV showed the two towers burning, with people visible in the upper floors, waving, pleading for help. We knew there had to be hundreds if not thousands of people in there. The news anchors were talking in hushed, frightened voices.

Without mercy, the hammer blows continued.

A tower, astonishingly, collapsed in front of our eyes.

A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

A second tower crumbled.

And all under that bright-blue, cloudless sky. Forever, the blue sky of late summer in Virginia will remind me of that day.

The attacks involved the broadcasting industry not just because it was news but because WTC was home to significant television and radio infrastructure.

That infrastructure was lost and stations were knocked off the air. But human beings tended those transmission plants. Bob Pattison, Don DiFranco, Steve Jacobson, Bill Steckman, Rod Coppola and Isaias Rivera were among the almost 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

Shock. Fury. Numbness.

How does one speak about the unspeakable? I feel nausea coming back even as I dig up these memories.

What lesson is to be learned?

To never forget? Certainly. To honor those who died, and to revere those who rush toward such disasters, rather than away from them, to help? Yes. To cherish our lives every day, to try to remember in these divisive times that some values bind Americans together, and that we should be kinder to one another? To work against hate and fanaticism and those who would attack our home and our values?

Of course.

But the feeling is so empty. The loss was so pointless. Americans seem angrier with one another than ever.

And the years move on.

Wherever you find yourself tomorrow morning, please join me and Radio World in remembering those who died; those who lived and saw their lives shattered; and those who answered the call for help.

Paul McLane is editor in chief of Radio World.

The post Memories of 9/11 Haunt Me Still appeared first on Radio World.

Neal Scarbrough is joining American Public Media business news franchise, Marketplace. He comes over from FOX Sports where he was VP and Executive Editor.

“We are excited for Neal to come on board as Marketplace’s new Vice President and General Manager. He has an extensive background in media, broadcast journalism and a strong track record when it comes to innovation, program development and building audiences,” said Dave Kansas, President of American Public Media. “In addition, Neal is a proven culture leader, with a deep devotion to diversity and inclusion. We are excited to have him joining the APM leadership team and look forward to adding his gifts and talents to all that we do at Marketplace and APM.”

“What we thought we knew about our economy changes every day, and Marketplace has established a gold standard using interviews and storytelling to make real sense of it to real people,” said Scarbrough. “It’s a big win for me to be able to work with such a dynamic collection of talent, producers and editors.”

Scarbrough will oversee a team of broadcast and digital journalists, editors and producers across radio and on demand in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, London and Shanghai.

Hearst Television has promoted Eric Meyrowitz (left), SVP Sales, and Ashley Gold (right), VP Sales, to Executive Vice Presidents and group heads of the company. In their new roles, Gold and Meyrowitz will share oversight of Hearst Television’s 33 television stations and two radio stations along with Michael J. Hayes, EVP.

“For the last five years, Ashley and Eric have been a fantastic team leading our sales organization to new heights,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. “I am truly excited that both will join Mike Hayes in providing outstanding leadership and assistance to our local operators. Our ability to have such accomplished executives, who have successfully served in both station sales management and general management, seamlessly step into these important roles speaks to the outstanding depth of talent in our company.”

The promotions come on the heels of Frank Biancuzzo, a longtime Hearst Televison EVP, being

This week marks the 20th Anniversary of ‘The Sean Hannity Show’ in syndication. The Premiere Networks syndicated talker is heard on more than 650 stations.

“But for this audience, I would not be where I am today,” shared Hannity. “I am humbled and grateful for the men and women who give me this microphone every day, and to the greatest country in the world, that allowed me the opportunity to pursue this dream. Thank you.”

“Sean is one of the most talented personalities in all of talk radio, and we couldn’t be happier to mark this special milestone with him,” said Julie Talbott, President of Premiere Networks. “His passion for talk radio and dedication to his audience continue to drive growth and success for our station and advertising partners.”

Along with being a member of the Radio Hall of Fame, Hannity has been honored with two Marconi awards.