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Petitioner requests the substitution of channel 21 for channel 12 at Albany, New York, in the Table of Allotments

Sinclair Broadcast Group has entered into multi-year renewals of the NBC affiliations and Fox affiliations in a total of 20 Sinclair markets.

Agreements with NBC include affiliates in San Antonio, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Providence-New Bedford, RI; Toledo, OH; Syracuse, NY; Tri-Cities, TN-VA; Johnstown-Altoona-State College, PA; Tallahassee, FL-Thomasville, GA; Traverse City-Cadillac, MI; Missoula, MT; Wheeling-Steubenville, OH; and Butte-Bozeman, MT.

Agreements with Fox include affiliates in Bakersfield, CA; Chattanooga, TN; Corpus Christi, TX; Fresno/Visalia, CA; Lincoln, NE; Macon, GA; Omaha, NE; Sioux City, IA; Tallahassee, FL; and Wheeling, WV/ Steubenville, OH.

The NBC affiliations were also renewed by Sinclair partners in four markets that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under a joint sales agreement or master service agreement: Cunningham Broadcasting Group, the licensee of KRNV, a station in Reno, NV; Deerfield Media, the licensee of WPMI in Mobile-Pensacola; Howard Stirk Holdings, the licensee of WEYI in Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, MI; and Roberts Media, the licensee of KMTR, KMCB and KTCW in Eugene, OR.

The Fox affiliations were also renewed by Sinclair partners in seven markets that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under a joint sales agreement or master service agreement: Cunningham Broadcasting Group, the licensee of KCVU, a station in Chico-Redding, CA, KBVU in Eureka, CA, WYDO in Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC, WPFO in Portland, ME and WEMT in Tri-Cities, TN-VA; New Age Media, the licensee of WOLF in Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, PA; and GoCom Media of Illinois, the licensee of WRSP in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur, IL.

The 30 renewed markets serve approximately 11 million households.

Will Bell, Sinclair’s VP/Head of Distribution and Network Relations, commented, “We are pleased to renew our agreements with NBC and Fox on terms that are fair to all parties in this evolving media landscape. We look forward to continuing to work with both NBC and Fox in providing the popular news, sports, and other entertainment programming that viewers highly value.”

DALLAS — A “local news innovation lab” is in the works for CBS Stations. And, it is ViacomCBS’s owned-and-operated CBS station serving North Texas that is taking the responsibility of housing it and building the “home of a curated team who will be empowered to experiment with next-generation storytelling.”

How does CBS define that?

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In mid-December, the leaders of Spanish Independent Broadcast Network opted to part ways with its low-power television station serving the Valley of the Sun.

Who’s the buyer? It’s the same entity that two years ago snagged a LPTV facility serving the Verde Valley, home to towns such as Jerome and Sedona, Ariz.

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A pair of licensees tied to North Carolina-based Curtis Media Group have agreed to spin a pair of AM radio stations, and one FM translator, to another media company operating in the state.

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While meetings take place between the United States, Russia and other organizations to discuss Russia’s aggressive posture along Ukraine’s borders, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says Russia is continuing a campaign to silence independent media and drive RFE/RL out of the country.

“In concert with the threat posed by the 100,000 soldiers Russia has deployed along Ukraine’s borders,” said RFE/RL President Jamie Fly in a press release, “Russia’s bullying actions against independent journalism have also intensified. RFE/RL will continue to provide the Russian people with the news and information they need to hold their government accountable.”

RFE/RL said that on Dec. 3, four current and former RFE/RL journalists were named foreign agents, and on Dec. 30, Russia named two more RFE/RL journalists along with others as individual media foreign agents. The organization said this designation makes the journalists subject to onerous and invasive financial reporting requirements and forces them to add lengthy, legally mandated labels of their “foreign agent” status to all electronic communications or posted content.

These additions bring the number of individuals named to the Justice Ministry’s media “foreign agent” list to 75, and another 36 media organizations are also labeled as foreign agents.

RFE/RL said, due to its refusal to submit to the labeling provisions, Russia’s communications regulator has issued another series of violation protocols against RFE/RL, the eighth since the beginning of last year. RFE/RL now faces a total of some 1 billion rubles (US$13.4 million) in fines, which it continues to fight in Russian court. It has also filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law.

The post Russia Continues Campaign to Silence Media, RFE/RL Says appeared first on Radio World.

With hours ticking on the current Congressional legislative session and the White House sticking with its selection of Gigi Sohn to serve as a Commissioner on the FCC, it appears more and more likely that the agency will have a 2-2 deadlock on all votes for the foreseeable future. Opposition to Sohn remains strong.

In contrast, the Biden Administration’s nominee to serve in a National Telecommunications and Information Administration post, once seen as equally controversial given his “net neutrality” stance, was confirmed Tuesday by the U.S. Senate.

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Among the broadcast media tech players eager to meet and greet radio and TV engineers and C-Suite leaders at the 2022 NAB Show, scheduled for late April, is GatesAir.

In late October 2021, GatesAir added audio processing to its Intraplex IP and Cloud Transport products. For those asked to sign off on a purchase order, cost savings is certainly a big selling point when it comes to auxiliary equipment. But, how does CEO Bruce Swail explain to the C-Suite executive who may not understand what this technology advancement brings to broadcast media means in layman’s terms?

He answers this and questions tied to the topics of supply chain concerns and broadcast media cybersecurity in the upcoming Winter 2022 RBR+TVBR Special Report, our all-new magazine that offers, for the first time, Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders.

This podcast interview with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson offers a sneak peek at what Swail has to say in the all-new Special Report.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Bruce Swail” on Spreaker.

Nineteen radio station licenses — located in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii — will expire on Feb. 1 unless the Federal Communications Commission hears from them.

The FCC has listed stations that were required to fill applications for license renewal by Oct. 1 of 2021 in those states. These 19 stations did not; the list includes full-power stations, low-power FMs and translators.

Each license will expire if no renewal application is received by Feb. 1.

Call sign Community of License Facility ID Licensee KANC Anchorage, AK 198674 Adventist Radio Alaska Corp. KAUG Anchorage, AK 165582 Anchorage School District K282AW Eagle River, AK 139588 MCC Radio LLC KGKR-LP Galena, AK 193373 Galena Seventh-day Adventist Church K296EL Glennallen, AK 73922 Greater Copper Valley Communications Inc. KOGB McGrath, AK 176402 Blessed Hope Baptist Mission K264AV Waimea, HI 152955 WP Media Lending LLC KSEP-LP Brookings, OR 135276 Anchor Network KGMW-LP Chiloquin, OR 192288 Klamath County School District KZZF-LP Klamath Falls, OR 135243 Jesus Radio Inc. KTOD-LP Lakeview, OR 135707 Hope for Today Broadcasting Inc. KLYC McMinnville, OR 6322 Promedia Partners LLC KEZX Medford, OR 23032 Opus Broadcasting Systems Inc. K290BD Omak, WA 148938 Divine Mercy Broadcasting KDXB-LP Seattle, WA 192777 KMIH.org Radio Booster Club K207DC Tonasket & Oroville, WA 49263 North Okanogan Christian Translator KYNR Toppenish, WA 24586 Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation KNLI-LP Waller, WA 197066 Northwest Leadership Foundation KWEW-LP Wenatchee, WA 135720 Wenatchee Youth Radio

 

The post These Stations Are at Risk of Losing Their Licenses appeared first on Radio World.

Vitec Imaging Solutions, part of U.K.-based The Vitec Group, will acquire U.S. mic maker Audix.

Audix makes mics for studio and live performance audio. “As part of the Vitec family, the Audix team and facility in Oregon will become Vitec Imaging Solutions’ Audio R&D Centre of Excellence, enabling the acceleration of in-house microphone product design, development and manufacturing across all Vitec audio brands,” Vitec announced, saying the acquisition should close soon.

“With the acquisition of Audix, Vitec’s audio capture strategy is now structured around three core brands that cover all growth segments of the $1 billion microphone market.” Those brands are Audix, Rycote and JOBY.

Audix will open its manufacturing facility to the rest of Vitec’s audio brands.

Vitec employs around 2,000 people in 11 countries; it is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The post Vitec Will Acquire Audix appeared first on Radio World.

The legal tug of war continues between the Federal Communications Commission and several broadcast organizations over the new rule about disclosing when programs are sponsored by foreign governments.

At issue is the FCC’s order, adopted last April, requiring that U.S. radio and TV stations disclose when foreign governments lease air time. All four commissioners voted yes, saying the change would ensure that audiences are aware when a foreign government or its representatives use the airwaves to persuade the public.

The National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters earlier had asked a federal appeals court to put a stay on the order pending judicial review. The FCC opposed their request.

[Related: FCC Denies NAB Stay Petition on Foreign-Sponsorship ID Rules]

Now NAB, MMTC and NABOB have filed a reply brief, reiterating their arguments that the FCC doesn’t have authority for this requirement under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, that it would be an undue burden and that broadcasters face imminent, irreparable harm unless the court pauses the FCC action.

They criticize the regulation for its “extraordinary reach and sheer pointlessness” and call it a “content-based compulsion of speech.” They repeated their arguments that a broadcaster would have to conduct an investigation of “every programming lease, even commercial and local programming (since virtually every lessee will deny, virtually always truthfully, that it or another person in the production or distribution chain is a foreign governmental entity, thus triggering the duty to investigate).” And they say the whole rule is in place to solve a “phantom harm never known to occur.”

Read the brief.

The post Broadcasters Again Push Back on Foreign Government ID appeared first on Radio World.

HONOLULU — SummitMedia LLC, owner of stations formerly part of the Cox Media Group family, has promoted its Local Sales Manager to the role of market President.

The elevation in duties comes amid widespread local media coverage of several high-profile layoffs across the Birmingham, Ala.-based company’s five radio stations serving O’ahu, higher elevations of Maui, and all of the Hawaiian Islands via Spectrum MVPD services.

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NEW YORK — One is a 10-year-old independent ad sales company connecting audio publishers, brands, and audiences. The other is a full-service network audio company offering sales, marketing, and affiliate products to some 4,000 affiliates that is a division of Gen Media Partners.

As of today, the two entities have forged an ad sales partnership.

With AdLarge and GMP’s G Networks combining sales networks, “a new dynamic and impressive ad sales powerhouse in network audio” has been created, the companies boast.

They also note that, in addition to continuing to represent top-tier content producers, AdLarge will oversee the management, sales, and fulfillment of the network audio ad sales inventory for both companies. G Networks will continue to offer and affiliate their programming and services through their existing affiliations team to radio stations across the U.S.

Warren Friedland, President of G Networks, comments. “AdLarge has a reputation for delivering innovative campaigns to help brands reach their media goals. AdLarge’s ad sales efforts coupled with our own extremely targeted networks will lead to a better return on investment for advertisers, brands, and agencies.”

Gary Schonfeld, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of AdLarge, adds, “This unique partnership will enhance our already robust ad sales networks, as well as generate greater critical mass and increased coverage of major markets. This is a win-win for the advertisers and the network audio community. The partnership with G Networks will greatly benefit the audio campaigns of our advertisers and agency partners.”

He was widely known in the advertising industry for his five years as Chief Marketing Officer of Sprint, now a part of T-Mobile. From today, he’ll be getting new recognition as the first CMO of Streaming at Univision Communications.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAB, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) late yesterday (1/10) filed a reply brief with the D.C. Federal Appeals Court in response to the FCC’s opposition to the group’s stay request of an FCC order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming pending judicial review.

What do the groups have to say now on the matter?

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TORONTO — It’s been a not-so-dissimilar family battle to the storyline of acclaimed HBO comedy-drama Succession, which centers on a highly dysfunctional dynasty at one of the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerates.

On Monday (1/10), the future of Rogers Communications entered a new chapter, as the company now under the control of founder Ted Rogers’ son, Edward, selected its new President/CEO.

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Lawo has announced the end of production of its DALLIS modular I/O system and related cards and components.

“Lawo AG presented the DALLIS platform to the public for the first time in 2002,” the company wrote in an email to customers.

“Since then, the DALLIS interface was Lawo’s highly respected primary I/O system due to its flexibility, modularity and quality. Over the years, DALLIS frames interfaced to Lawo audio products via three different backbone technologies, ATM, MADI and Ravenna, and has supported almost 90 different I/O card options.”

With the introduction of the A_UHD Core Phase 2 architecture in late 2020, DALLIS approached the end of its life as an I/O device.

“For existing mc2, Radio and Routing installations that utilize DALLIS, there is a last-time buy window until June 30, 2022,” the company continued.

“Lawo’s service team will continue to support all DALLIS installations based on the final software release for each of the various products using DALLIS.” It noted that “due to increasing complexity in supply chain,” its support team will only be able to service DALLIS with components still in stock. “Supplies of replacement components will be limited to stock on hand. Limited numbers of products for replacement might also be available until end of stock.”

DALLIS stood for “Digital And Line Level Interface System.”

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Lawo Ends Production of Its DALLIS Platform appeared first on Radio World.

Adams Radio Group has named Nick Brino as vice president and general manager of its stations in Tallahassee, Fla.

Brino is former market manager for Forever Media in Havre de Grace, Md. He also has worked for Cumulus and Salem Media, the latter as a general sales manager — in New York for WMCA(AM) and WNYM(AM), and in Washington for WAVA(AM/FM).

Brino replaces Jason Lamp, who is pursuing station ownership opportunities. The Tallahassee cluster comprises WXTY(FM), WWOF(FM), WQTL(FM) and WHTF(FM).

Ron Stone is CEO of Adams Radio Group.

Send People News announcements, particularly involving technology and senior management roles, to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Brino Joins Adams Radio in Tallahassee appeared first on Radio World.

Josh Reiss has begun his term as the new president of the Audio Engineering Society.

He succeeds Jonathan Wyner, who said Reiss “brings a deep knowledge of audio technology coupled with an appetite for innovation.”

“The field of audio engineering is changing fast,” Reiss wrote in his president’s message. “Machine learning is introducing changes to almost every facet of our lives, the music industry continues to undergo rapid innovation and professionals continually require training in new technologies and workflows.

“The AES understands and embraces this need to adapt. Handled well, these changes can bring new and better audio, as well as a more inclusive and diverse field, encouraging talent, creativity and innovation from all walks of life. However, to say that we have challenges would be an understatement.”

The society has posted the text of his president’s message.

Reiss is a professor with the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Over 15 years of involvement with the society, Reiss has been vice-chair of its Publications Policy Committee, co-chair of the Technical Committee on High-Resolution Audio, and a former governor of the society.

In 2007 he was general chair of the 31st AES Conference, “New Directions in High Resolution Audio,” and in 2009 he was general secretary of the 35th AES International Conference, “Audio for Games.” He served on the organizational team for several AES International Conventions, including the role of chair of the 128th. He also has won several AES honors.

He has published more than 150 scientific papers, authored the book Working with the Web Audio API and co-authored the books Intelligent Music Production and Audio Effects: Theory, Implementation and Application.

“As coordinator of the EASAIER project, he led an international consortium working to improve access to sound archives in museums, libraries and cultural heritage institutions,” AES wrote. “He is co-founder of the start-up company LandR, providing intelligent tools for audio production, and Tonz, providing neural network-based audio effects. Another start-up based on his team’s research, Nemisindo, has recently launched an online service for procedural sound design and the Nemisindo Action Pack of fully procedural audio plugins for sound effect creation in Epic Game’s Unreal Engine.”

The post Josh Reiss Begins Term as AES President appeared first on Radio World.

LOS ANGELES — It’s considered to be a leader in facility management software for the broadcast and media industries, thanks in large part to MediaPulse, which provides scheduling, automation, asset management, billing and cost recovery for broadcasters, media services companies and transmission facilities.

As of today, it is now owned by a San Francisco-based software-focused private equity firm.

Banneker Partners on December 30 moved ahead with its acquisition of Xytech.

Speaking of the transaction, Banneker CEO Richard Gallagher said, “When I created Xytech, my primary goal was to bring facility management into the next generation to help media facilities — both large and small — be more efficient and productive. For more than three decades, this has been Xytech’s focus, and we are proud of what we have accomplished.”

Gallagher cited Banneker’s investment focus on software products aimed at specific verticals and its willingness “to invest to scale operational delivery, product innovation and sales and marketing.”

He added, “It is the perfect partner for Xytech’s next stage of growth.”

Banneker Partners’ Kenneth Frank commented, “We see this as a strategic investment to accelerate Xytech’s ability to enhance their solution offering and operational delivery capabilities in this key market segment. We look forward to working alongside Richard and the rest of the management team to strengthen the company’s customer penetration and market reach.”

Xytech says its customers can expect “a seamless transition.”

— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau