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As many radio industry executives struggle with ways to combat local digital’s nonstop suction of dollars from AM and FM radio stations, Cox Media Group has opted to link up with Amazon Advertising as part of a Local Solutions plan to bring advertisers a 360-degree consumer touchpoint option.

Thanks to a strategic initiative announced Wednesday (7/21), Cox Media Group Local Solutions advertisers will be able to reach local audiences with Amazon Advertising digital offerings.

Simply stated, CMG Local Solutions advertisers can now programmatically buy display and OTT ads through the Amazon DSP and analyze their campaign performance with “full-funnel measurement” products offered by Amazon Advertising.

The goal: expanding local advertisers’ reach and increasing sales.

“This is an exciting new opportunity for CMG Local Solutions and our advertising partners,” said Joe Weir, a SVP of Digital at CMG. “Amazon Advertising’s digital offerings, combined with CMG Local Solutions’ unmatched product expertise, high performing products and platforms and CMG’s long-standing heritage, enables us to help local businesses achieve their marketing goals more effectively.”

— RBR+TVBR Wire Services

He was the face behind HC2 Holdings until the middle of 2020. Today, he’s amassing a collection of low-power broadcast TV stations through his recently formed Sovryn Holdings.

Now, Philip Falcone is acquiring another LPTV property. It’s located in the Valley of the Sun.

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For three weeks, Suddenlink customers in the Greenville-New Bern, N.C., area have been unable to tune to the market’s ABC affiliate.

The reason? A retransmission consent agreement expired June 30, and there’s no new deal in place. The station’s owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, now says there likely won’t be one — period.

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Digital Alert Systems, a provider of emergency communications products for video services providers, has released an important update of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) digital certificates used to authenticate messaging from the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

The company has released updated IPAWS Certificate Authority (CA) credentials for the DASDEC and One-Net series of Emergency Alert System/Common Alerting Protocol (EAS/CAP) encoder/decoders.

They replace a certificate in the current certification chain that will expire on August 21.

All U.S. DASDEC and One-Net users are advised to replace the soon-to-expire certificate to ensure the required message authentication continues to operate properly. Digital Alert Systems reminds all EAS participants the FCC requires them to “configure their systems to reject all CAP-formatted EAS messages that include an invalid digital signature.”

Digital certificates, called CAs, are used by FEMA to create a chain of trust between an EAS device and the IPAWS servers. The DASDEC and One-Net EAS/CAP devices use these special digital certificates to validate the authenticity of IPAWS-sourced CAP alerts. These certificates are designed to expire on a specific date and time, requiring the issuing authority to publish new certificates as replacements.

All DASDEC and One-Net customers using the IPAWS system must have the latest certificates in place so only messages authenticated through IPAWS are processed. IPAWS users who do not update their equipment before Aug. 21 could see this error message: “Event Log: Digital Signature VERIFICATION ERROR: Signer UNTRUSTED! Check for correct CAP decoder CA file.” Alternatively, the device might simply ignore valid IPAWS alerts.

The new field service bulletin and CA file are now available from the Digital Alert Systems website. DASDEC and One-Net customers should go to the website, download the field service bulletin for instructions, and link to the new CA file.

A Florida radio station has received a notice of violation from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau for alleged spurious emissions on frequencies beyond the FM band.

The FCC said agents from its Miami office inspected WQTL(FM) in Tallahassee, which is owned by Adams Radio of Tallahassee.

The rules state that any emission on a frequency removed from a station’s carrier by more than 600 kHz must be attenuated at least 43 + 10 Log10 (Power, in watts) dB below the level of the unmodulated carrier, or 80 dB, whichever is the lesser attenuation.

[Read: FCC Nixes $1,500 Liability Against FM Translator]

The FCC noted that WQTL’s effective radiated power is 2250 Watts, so emissions on a frequency removed from carrier by more than 600 kHz must be attenuated by at least 76.52 dB.

The agents found that WQTL’s fundamental frequency, 106.1 MHz, had a signal level of –24.35 dBm. The Enforcement Bureau’s agents said they conducted measurements on spurious emissions from WQTL’s transmitter on two frequencies. Emissions on 121.249 MHz had a signal level of –54.89 dBm, and emissions on 136.41 MHz had a level of –75.50 dBm.

“The spurious emissions identified … have signal levels in excess of the limit for such emissions determined pursuant to Section 73.317(d) of the commission’s rules,” the bureau wrote.

The commission did not say what prompted this inspection. It has asked the station for additional information concerning the finding and any remedial actions taken. It has 20 days to reply.

The post FCC Taps Florida Station on the Shoulder appeared first on Radio World.

VCY America has been in the news of late because of its pending acquisition of three FMs once controlled, and still licensed to, Royce International Broadcasting. 

As VCY waits for a Federal District Judge in California to finally give ownership of the trio formerly operated by Ed Stolz, it is moving forward with the purchase of a Class A FM serving Iowa’s largest market.

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Total Traffic and Weather Network (TTWN) has forged an expanded newswire content partnership with the owner and operator of 14 religious non-commercial stations across Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Under the agreement, TTWN will provide news, sports, show-prep and audio content via its 24/7 News Source wire service to The JOY FM’s radio stations.

The 24/7 News Source provides its affiliate partners with market-customized text and audio news, weather, sports, and entertainment updates, including format-specific content and show-prep, plus the ability to instantly click-n-share stories via social media.

TTWN affiliate partners include more than 200 Christian Radio affiliates.

“It’s an exciting time for The JOY FM as we continue to expand our coverage across much of the Southeast, including Georgia, Florida and Alabama,” says Jerry Williams, Operations Director with The JOY FM. “Our partnership with Total Traffic & Weather Network has been an important part of our programming for many years and we wanted to continue to equip our news team with the timely and accurate content that 24/7 News Source Pro provides. We look forward to many more years of partnership with TTWN.”

TTWN is owned by iHeartMedia.

Conventional wisdom, in the words of MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson, calls for “a massive reacceleration in subscriber growth starting in Q4,” flowing into 2022 with some 28 million new Netflix subscribers.

But, what if that conventional wisdom is wrong, Nathanson asks.

He’s not alone. Shares tumbled at the start of Wednesday’s trading session on the Nasdaq, and were off 4% as of 11:15am Eastern. With more OTT competition and a big slowdown in subscriber growth, is churn a concern — making Sirius XM a sounder investment than the “House of Cards” streaming video pioneer?

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NBCUniversal and Sky, Comcast’s twin visual media and entertainment arms, have launched a global consultancy and research arm.

And, in a sign of the times, it is centered around culture.

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It was a busy Tuesday on Capitol Hill for Members of the lower body of Congress, as the House of Representatives passed five communications and technology bills.

Among the legislation approved: the MEDIA Diversity Act of 2021 (H.R. 1754). House Members also passed a non-binding resolution reaffirming Congress’s commitment to media diversity that sees them pledge to work with the private sector on solutions eliminating barriers to media diversity.

It’s now up to the Senate, and its Republican members, to get a Senate version of H.R. 1754 passed and readied for President Biden to sign.

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