Industry News

Since 2018 he’s been the Senior Director of Finance at Hearst Television.

Now, he will serve as Hearst’s VP of Distribution.

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Colorado Springs is known as the home of the Garden of the Gods.

Now, Christopher Gould is gaining the top leadership role for two Salem Media Group stations in the market devoted to the word of God, along with its Conservative Talk sibling.

Gould, who serves as Salem’s SVP of National Program Development/Ministry Relations, will be relocating to the Colorado market, where he will continue in his current role while adding day-to-day General Manager duties for Worship Music-focused KBIQ-FM 102.7, Christian Talk & Teaching KGFT-FM 100.7 and (KBIQ-FM), 100.7 (KGFT-FM), and conservative News/Talk KZNT-AM 1460 “The Answer,” simulcast on K266CK at 101.1 MHz.

He will also oversee the Colorado Springs division of Salem Surround.

“I am confident under Chris’ strong leadership we will see these stations grow in both influence and financial performance and that our service and support of our National Ministry partnerships will continue to thrive,” says Salem Broadcast Media President Dave Santrella.

Gould has been with Salem for nearly two decades, initially running Salem’s cluster of stations in Tampa before being promoted to VP of National Program Development in 2011. In 2018 Gould was promoted to SVP.

At Eastern Michigan University (EMU) in Ypsilanti, Mich., the Department of Athletics is relentlessly committed to providing great experiences for both fans and student-athletes while building champions in the classroom, in the community, and in competition.

When the university upgraded its football venue with a massive new scoreboard in 2019, it purchased four Z‑HD5000 HDTV cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) to enhance fan engagement while meeting the challenge of shooting high-quality video on the stadium’s distinctive playing surface.

The centerpiece of the technology refresh at the 30,200-seat Rynearson Stadium is a new 53-foot high by 29-foot wide Daktronics LED video display screen. The second-largest video board in the NCAA Division I Mid-American Conference (MAC), the new scoreboard is more than three times larger than the venue’s previous, resolution-limited screen. The display overhaul was accompanied by control room and camera upgrades as EMU Athletics began producing in-venue football programming for the first time.

“With the old video board, we just took an analog signal from the broadcast feed, and cut in occasional footage from older cameras,” said Greg Steiner, Associate Athletic Director, Media Relations at EMU. “We needed to enhance the in-venue experience, as when fans come into the stadium and watch our video board, their expectations have been set by what they see on television. We strive to provide unique on-site opportunities that fans can’t get at home, while also delivering what they already expect to see from TV.”

Supplied by systems integrator AVI-SPL, three of the Hitachi cameras are deployed in fixed positions on tripods. The fourth Z-HD5000 is equipped with a Teradek wireless transmitter, enabling the camera operator to go into the stands and roam the venue.

Steiner notes that the Hitachi cameras do an exceptional job capturing games in EMU’s unusual football environment. “We’re one of only three FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) schools that don’t play on a green field, and the only grey field at the Division I level,” he explained. “Getting a good picture against it can be tough with other cameras. Grey can get washed out really fast if you don’t have high-quality cameras and the ability to dial in directly to the true colors. The Z-HD5000s handle it very well.”

The newly-acquired cameras are EMU’s second Z-HD5000 purchase, joining four units acquired in 2013 – and still going strong – that are dedicated to the university’s 8,000-seat Convocation Center. In addition to driving in-venue video board shows for the EMU Eagles’ basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics events in that arena, the earlier cameras have been used on more than 185 live broadcast productions for the ESPN+ streaming service as well as university events such as graduations.

Together, the new and earlier Hitachi cameras also provide valuable, hands-on video production experience for students in the school’s Communication, Media & Theater Arts (CMTA) department, as well as students enrolled in other programs but interested in sports production. “We have higher-end equipment in Athletics than they may use in their own courses,” said Steiner. “Working on our productions lets them earn internship credit while getting experience on broadcast-class equipment that they may eventually use professionally, and they get to put on their resume that they worked on productions for ESPN+. That helps them get work for the major networks once they graduate.”

EMU has been very satisfied with the visual quality provided by the Z-HD5000 cameras, as well as their durability in students’ hands. “You know what you’re going to get every time you turn them on – great clarity, accurate color reproduction, and the ability to dial them in from the control room exactly as you need,” praised Steiner. “To know that they are forgiving enough with students is also a big selling point. Some of our college counterparts use more prosumer-level equipment and it breaks down much faster, so their turnover of gear is much faster than ours.”

Beyond the technical benefits of the cameras, Steiner lauds the possibilities they have enabled for the school and its students. “I cannot say enough great things about the opportunity that working with Hitachi cameras has presented us as a university and as an athletic department,” he said. “Putting these cameras in students’ hands lets us deliver an opportunity for their personal development while creating a program that lets us showcase our student-athletes to our fans. Hitachi Kokusai has been a great partner throughout the process to deliver exactly what we needed in terms of video.”

— Brian Galante

A powerful advocate who “is deeply committed to resolving issues that disproportionately impact” African-American and multicultural communities across the U.S. — including access to broadband, AI and civil rights, and media diversity — has been selected to serve as VP of Policy at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC).

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Enhancements to Telestream‘s CaptionMaker authoring software and the Vantage Media Processing Platform have been brought to market.

They provide “all the production tools” required by major broadcast networks and content distributors who have standardized on the Interoperable Master Format file-based delivery format.

In particular, CaptionMaker and Vantage Timed Text Flip now support IMSC 1.1, the latest
version of the SMPTE standard for subtitling and captioning.

IMSC is of particular importance in the preparation of IMF packages, and Telestream says no other technology vendor offers workflow automation combined with the caption and subtitle processing capabilities offered in Vantage and CaptionMaker.

“Using CaptionMaker, users can author, edit, encode and repurpose video captions and subtitles,” it says.

Then, using Vantage, they can include these media files in automated workflows for file transformation as needed when creating primary and supplemental IMF packages.

“With CaptionMaker, users create video captions and subtitles for television, web and mobile delivery,” Telestream notes. “CaptionMaker simplifies the process of complying with government regulations, enabling greater access to broadcast content for television, online and mobile viewers. The latest release supports IMSC 1.1 and contains several other enhancements including improved caption and subtitle rendering that makes them crisper and easier to read.”

Also, Vantage Timed Text Flip provides full support for IMSC, including version 1.1. IMSC is
required for IMF packages. Users that need to deliver video content to TV or Internet can
use Vantage and Timed Text Flip to transcode captions and subtitles with their media within
a single, automated workflow. This type of automation can help a variety of organizations
meet government mandates in a file-based workflow.

In addition, Vantage IMF Producer automates the creation of IMF packages from Adobe
Premiere Pro. Using a Vantage panel within Adobe Premiere Pro provides direct access
and significant workflow efficiencies for editors. IMF Producer automates the creation of all
files required in an IMF package from a single output render of an Adobe Premiere Pro
timeline. As well as generating the primary package, editors can create additional
sequences, which become supplemental IMF packages that contain different versions of
audio, subtitles, edit points, Dolby Vision HDR metadata and more.

“As a file-based delivery format, IMF is gaining widespread support from the media industry, so the decision to focus our efforts on developing IMF production tools was straightforward,” says Scott Matics, Senior Director of Product Management at Telestream. “However, these are not just any old IMF productions tools – they reflect Telestream’s outstanding expertise in this area and a great depth of customer feedback.”

One day after announcing it has scored a new affiliation agreement with NBC, the TV station owner formerly known as Gannett has inked a multi-year renewal agreement with Nielsen.

The nation’s dominant audience measurement company has scored a fresh deal with TEGNA, owner of 64 TV stations in 51 markets.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nielsen will provide local television ratings service for 34 TEGNA local markets with all existing services renewed for these markets and/or extended including Nielsen Arianna, NLTV, Digital in TV Ratings (DTVR), Grabix, Rhiza and Nielsen Scarborough.

Nielsen’s Local TV measurement includes traditional cable, satellite and over-the-air (OTA) viewers, as well as viewers who access linear streams of broadcast content through virtual providers.

“The combination of Nielsen’s Local TV panels plus return path data empowers TEGNA’s customers to activate and measure local media buys with confidence,” Nielsen says.

Nielsen reports viewing across devices and provides direct persons measurement, inclusive of incremental out-of-home (OOH) audiences in select markets via Nielsen’s proprietary Portable People Meter (PPM).

“TEGNA is a leader in the local broadcast industry,” said Catherine Herkovic, EVP and Managing Director of Nielsen Local. “We are delighted to provide continued support to 34 TEGNA markets with measurement services. As part of our client commitment, we will work alongside TEGNA to ensure that each local station has the tools they need to deliver on their business objectives with access to valuable local audiences.”

Beasley Media Group will turn 60 in December 2021 and it has begun the commemoration.

It said it will celebrate throughout the year with a variety of on-air and online activities including archival photos that tell its story on social media channels; top-of-the-hour IDs; artist congratulatory messages; Community of Caring Initiatives in its local communities; and celebratory events in each market on the anniversary.

It also created a commemorative anniversary logo.

[Read Radio World’s 2015 profile of George Beasley.]

“On Dec. 2, 1961, a young high school principal named George Beasley launched WPYB(AM) in Benson, North Carolina with the vision of providing a voice for the voiceless in the local community,” it wrote in a press release.

“Today, Beasley Media Group is a multiplatform media company providing advertising and digital marketing solutions across the United States with 64 radio properties located in 15 large and medium markets across the country. Beasley also offer capabilities in audio technology, esports, podcasting, ecommerce, and events. Featured on the NASDAQ, BBGI is ranked among the publicly traded media companies in America.”

Beasley Media Group Chief Executive Officer Caroline Beasley announced the initiative.

The post Beasley Highlights Its Upcoming 60th appeared first on Radio World.

Until recently, Liberty Mutual Insurance was a fan of spot cable, using regional efforts to help build its brand. Its “LiMu Emu” spots aimed to attract Millennial and Gen Z consumers, and gain awareness in an ultra-competitive category.

Now, it has turned not only to radio, but to Spot TV.

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While it’s certainly exciting that a big user of Spot Cable has now appeared at Spot Radio, heating up the auto insurance category, the presence of a popular language-learning online platform in the top three advertisers by play count is perhaps the biggest takeaway of the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report.

For the week ending Jan. 3, 2021, Babbel ranks third by play count, behind Bank of America and State Farm.

It is thanks to 55,701 spot plays.

Meanwhile, Liberty Mutual Insurance is present with just shy of 37,500 spots — dwarfed by leader State Farm but ahead of GEICO.

The gecko, Progressive and Allstate are not present in the latest report.

SANTA CLARITA, CALIF. — Travel to the northwest of the greater Los Angeles area, via Interstate 15 or Pearblossom Highway, and you’ll officially reach the “High Desert” — home to dusty, and growing, communities including Victorville, Apple Valley and Hesperia.

This region, the Victor Valley, is officially ensconced within the vast Los Angeles DMA. But, “local” TV is hardly local, and it’s been decades since a broadcast signal covered the region. Newspapers are largely focused on San Bernardino, to the south or Southern California’s more populous communities.

One radio group decided to tackle the local news void, both on-air and online.

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