Industry News

MIAMI — It’s had a bitter history in recent years with performers union SAG-AFTRA at its two FM radio stations in Los Angeles, with accusations that the company engaged in “a series of unfair labor practices” and by November 2019 had failed to comply in part with a settlement agreement.

Now, SAG-AFTRA has been outright decertified at “La Ley 107.9,” the Chicago-market FM owned by Spanish Broadcasting System.

SBS late Thursday (7/1) announced that employees at its WLEY-FM, which airs regional Mexican programming, voted to decertify and remove the union that had previously represented them in dealing with SBS.

That union is SAG-AFTRA, voted in nearly three years to represent “certain on-air talent and production employees” in Chicago.

Since that time, SBS and SAG-AFTRA had been negotiating the terms of an initial collective bargaining agreement. However, no agreement was ever reached.

Employees voted on the decertification question by mail over the past few weeks, and the results of the vote were officially confirmed on June 28 by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the government agency that conducted the vote.

Commenting on the vote, SBS General Counsel Richard Lara said, “We greatly respect the important decision made by our employees to move forward without a union to act as intermediary between them and the company in the resolution of personnel matters at our Chicago facilities. The company looks forward to working more directly with our employees to build an even stronger presence in Chicago.”

The vote comes some 2 1/2 years after SBS sought to resolve two complaints lobbed at SBS’s KLAX and KXOL in Los Angeles on behalf of SAG-AFTRA.

“For over three years, SBS has continuously violated labor laws,” SAG-AFTRA claimed in November 2019. SBS’s alleged violations were set forth in a consolidated complaint, available here.

In Dec. 20, 2017, SAG-AFRTA and SBS reached a settlement valued at roughly half a million dollars. All was fine until May 2019, when SAG-AFTRA called on Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) to extend “fair contracts” to its on-air talent in two key markets.

One was Los Angeles. The other? Chicago.

Earlier in the week, it was Little Rock.

Now, Central Florida is getting “a taste of the future” as eight Orlando TV stations have banded together to launch NEXTGEN TV in the home of Tomorrowland.

As of July 1, NEXTGEN TV enables TV stations to better personalize their broadcasts with information and interactive features, making the content more relevant and engaging for viewers.

The eight stations launching the digital TV broadcast technology are Fox Television owned-and-operated WRBW-65 and FOX affiliated WOFL-35; Cox Media Group’s ABC affiliated WFTV-9 and unaffiliated WRDQ-27; Graham Media Group’s CBS affiliated WKMG-6, Hearst Television’s NBC affiliated WESH-2; and The CW Network WKCF-18, and PBS Member station WUCF-24, owned by the University of Central Florida.

“Viewers in Orlando have a lot to be excited about, as NEXTGEN TV is going to change the way they experience live broadcast television, and it will only get better as more features are added down the road by their local stations,” said John Soapes, President/GM of WESH-TV. “NEXTGEN TV ensures the future of television, where content and the experience of watching culminates, leaving viewers informed, entertained, and inspired.”

Orlando, which is the nation’s 17th largest television market, joins Tampa, Tallahassee, and Pensacola, Fla., as locales where NEXTGEN TV service is already available.

— Adam Jacobson, in Boca Raton, Fla.

Orban Labs announced a change in how its PCn1600 audio processing software is sold.

“For several years, Modulation Index and StreamS had an exclusive license to sell PCn1600 processing; that exclusivity ended this week,” the company stated.

President David Day said in the announcement, “All Orban dealers worldwide can now add our PCn1600 to their Orban product portfolio. … It is our understanding that Modulation Index and StreamS will continue to support their existing PCn1600 users.”

[Read: KNMJ Simply Streams With StreamS]

Orban said the PCn1600 brought the company’s audio processing technology to audio streaming operating natively on Windows PC platforms and that Orban has used variants in its XPN-AM processor and in the Linux-based Ross RSAP.

Modulation Index is headed by Greg Ogonowski; StreamS is its line of streaming encoders and other audio products. It confirmed that “due to a failure to reach a mutually satisfying agreement with Orban Labs,” it will no longer sell the Orban Optimod 1600 PCn on an exclusive basis.

“The Orban Optimod 1600 PCn has been a big part of our product offerings and we will continue to work with clients who purchase the Optimod 1600 from us and are under a support contract,” Modulation Index said in a statement. “We will also expand our support for other audio processors that are available in software form, which we believe is the future of audio processing not just for streaming but for every broadcast venue.”

The post Orban Reorganizes PCn1600 Sales appeared first on Radio World.

As of Wednesday it was official: The newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and the radio/TV cross-ownership rules are off the U.S. federal rulebooks.

It was a formality; the Federal Communications Commission had already announced that the change was pending after the Supreme Court ruled in its favor in the case “Prometheus Radio Project vs. FCC” this spring.

[Read: FCC Wants More Input Before Finishing Rule Review]

But now a summary of the order has been published in the Federal Register and the FCC said the rules officially died on June 30.

The Television Joint Sales Agreement Attribution Rule also officially is eliminated; and the Local Television Ownership Rule and Local Radio Ownership Rule were reinstated, as were the eligible entity standard and certain other measures.

At the same time the commission announced deadline dates for fresh public comments about media ownership rules. Comments are due Aug. 2, and reply comments are due Aug. 30.

[Read: Further Relaxation of Ownership Rules Seems Unlikely]

As we reported earlier, acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants to update the record before the commission finalizes its 2018 Quadrennial Review proceeding. So the FCC is asking whether its media ownership rules remain “necessary in the public interest as the result of competition.”

For a full list of what the commission is asking, see the public notice. Filings should refer to MB Docket No. 18-349.

The post Cross-Ownership Rules Officially Are Dead appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC has quietly released a public notice confirming that its reinstated media ownership rules — legislation that the acting chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, voted against — are now effective.

The effective date? Yesterday.

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Starting tonight (7/1) at 10pm, a new entrant in the local news war that has been fiercely waging across Western New York for years will arrive.

It comes courtesy of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is launching local news operations at its owned-and-operated FOX affiliate serving Buffalo, Niagara Falls and the Canadian province of Ontario’s most populous areas.

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MIAMI — Did you know that 82% of advertisers are looking for “direct to consumer” strategies to grow in an increasingly competitive environment? This is one of the challenges Kantar mapped out in a Media Navigator study that it has just launched.

The research endeavor sees Kantar interview 672 professionals working for advertisers in 39 different countries to understand the main challenges and trends in their data management strategy.

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TORONTO — With the TSX closed on Thursday in observance of the Canada Day holiday, the start of the second half of 2021 led financial blog Simply Wall St. to take a closer look at Corus Entertainment.

Corus is one of Canada’s biggest media companies and owns 39 radio stations and 15 broadcast television stations. Its stock price has seen a healthy 52-week rebound, with its June 30 closing price its best since May 2019.

With a 1-year price target poised to put Corus at its best stock price since the start of 2018, is the share gain “well earned”?

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As part of RAB’s Business Accelerated initiative, Provoke Insights, a full-service market research firm, will be rejoining the radio industry sales advocacy organization for a live presentation offering insights on today’s consumer.

The event, “Meet the New Retail Shopper,” sees Carly Fink, President of Provoke Insights, share insights into today’s retail shopper. Fink will provide guidance for broadcasters helping their clients plan their back-to-school and holiday campaigns.

“While most COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, consumers are not going back to the standard shopping routines of 2019,” the RAB says. “As brands prepare for the upcoming back-to-school and holiday seasons, it is important they understand the new buying behaviors.”

The session will take place at 1pm Eastern/10am Pacific on Wednesday, July 28.

Registration for the presentation is free for RAB members. The presentation will also be available for on-demand viewing.

To register, click here.

Comscore has lured the former Sales and Client Relations head at Tunity to lead its commercial relationship with Publicis Groupe.

In doing so, Comscore is selecting an individual who brings more than 20 years of business media and sales success across local television stations, networks and advertising agencies.

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