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Pikes Peak Radio, LLC enters into consent decree to resolve political file investigation

Mike Palmer is shown in the Arrakis booth at the NAB Show in 2019.

Michael Palmer, the founder of Arrakis Systems Inc., has died.

He passed away unexpectedly on Monday. He suffered congestive heart failure while preparing to go scuba diving with his wife Gloria in Hawaii. He was 69.

Arrakis has been a family business since its start.

Palmer, having grown up reading science fiction and physics texts for fun,  earned a bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in electronic engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He then taught electronics classes in San Francisco.

That’s where he met Gloria Vader, his student who became his wife. They married in 1974 and soon moved to Missouri, where Mike worked as VP and electronic engineer at Woodson Electronics, and where Gloria was hired as the chief engineer of KMSU, Southwest Missouri State’s 10 kW FM in Springfield.

“KMSU was in desperate need of new studio consoles, with a budget of only $7,500,” according to an obituary from the Palmer family. “Gloria told Mike that he could design and build a better console than anything that was on the market. So he did.”

Mike Palmer, standing, and Alan Farrington in KSMU’s Production studio in 1979.

His employer was struggling financially and closed its doors around that time.

To test the waters of the radio broadcast market, the Palmers decided that he would do an initial product design, build a mockup, print a brochure and mail it to 1,000 stations. “The response was astonishing. They received $30,000 in cash orders in the mail.”

The couple returned that money, telling their new clients that the product would be ready in six months. “The first Arrakis product, the 1,000 series radio console, was designed and built in the basement of their humble home. It was completed on time, and the first console installed at KMSU.”

Arrakis officially opened in 1977 and was named for a planet in the sci-fi novel “Dune.”

Melissa, Mike, Aaron, Gloria and Ben Palmer in 1984.

The Arrakis product line has since grown to including numerous console lines, digital automation systems and hardware.

The couple has three children, all of whom work at the company, as well as five grandchildren. While easing into retirement, Mike Palmer remained involved as the children took up responsibility for the various aspects of the business. Gloria Palmer also continued to be involved in product design, assembly and PCB work.

“Arrakis Systems was started as a family-owned and -operated business, has continued to be and will continue to be family-owned –operated,” the family wrote. “Mike’s children were raised in radio and have each been blessed to have worked with him for almost 20 years apiece — learning from him, developing groundbreaking software and hardware together, sharing a passion for radio, technology and the amazing people they feel privileged to serve in the radio broadcast industry.”

“His advice, experience, knowledge and creativity will be missed and remembered. However, it is his example, kindness, wisdom, loving heart and desire to serve and uplift everyone around him that will be missed the most.”

Funeral or memorial details have yet been announced.

The post Mike Palmer, the Founder of Arrakis, Dies at 69 appeared first on Radio World.

Salem Media Group’s podcast network on Thursday revealed that it will add former Trump Campaign Attorney Jenna Ellis to the lineup, starting January 13.

It seems that has some merit among investors as Salem’s stock was on the rise across Friday’s trading session.

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As the competition for consumer attention heats up with traditional, big-tent broadcasters continuing to launch their own streaming services — i.e. Peacock, Paramount+, and Discovery+ — one big question arises. How can local TV broadcast networks stay competitive with streaming apps of their own?

JW Player, the platform used to play videos by the likes of Fox, Univision and Vice, recently conducted a survey across their network of broadcasters to reveal opportunities for them to capitalize on the continuous growth in digital video.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAB; Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC); and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) have filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a FCC order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming.

In the petition, the organizations argue that the FCC adopted unnecessary and overly burdensome rules that impose on every broadcaster onerous requirements to make specified inquiries of, and conduct independent research on, all the entities with whom broadcasters currently or will in the future have lease agreements. The requirements would be particularly burdensome for smaller broadcasters, including stations owned by women and people of color and new entrants seeking to gain experience through leasing arrangements.

In the FCC order, broadcasters — which collectively have many thousands of contracts for the lease of time to air programming — would need to determine and announce whether the sponsor of programming is a foreign governmental entity or its agent. These determinations would be required even if the leased programming (such as an infomercial or local religious broadcast) poses no colorable risk of foreign sponsorship.

Broadcasters would also need to conduct inquiries and investigations at the time any lease is initially entered into and repeat them every time that same lease (with the same, already-investigated party) is renewed. Stations also must memorialize those inquiries and investigations and maintain that documentation.

The new regulations authorized by the FCC’s order are imposed only upon broadcasters, even though the problem that the Commission purports to address — the failure to identify a foreign government entity that is the source of the programming — is almost entirely associated with satellite and cable channels and, above all, with social media and the Internet.

In a joint statement, the NAB, MMTC and NABOB said they are “deeply concerned with the FCC’s misguided attempt to develop uniform rules for disclosing foreign government-sponsored programming. The Commission’s decision to require broadcasters in all circumstances to investigate the source of leased programming exceeds its statutory authority, is arbitrary and capricious and violates the First Amendment. Broadcasters strongly oppose foreign interference in American elections, but the Commission’s order fails to even address this core objective. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”

“Transmission Talk Tuesday” Host Jeff Welton

Transmitter maker Nautel has released its August schedule of “Transmission Talk Tuesday” webinars.

For Aug. 17 Kirk Harnack will join TTT regular host Jeff Welton to talk about the various forms of MPX delivery and will feature practical examples of implementation in the field, including microMPX.

The Aug. 24 session gets into Raspberry Pi. Joining Welton will be Nautel’s Alex Hartman. He will present some of the designs he has done using Raspberry Pi and Arduino technology. Hartman explains, “Mini computers seem to be taking over the world. For well under $100 you can get a full blown computer on a tiny circuit board, with peripherals. You can do some great things with these devices.”

Ending the month, on Aug. 31, Welton will be joined by the NAB’s VP of Advanced Engineering David Layer along with Radioplayer Worldwide General Manager Lawrence Galkoff for a discussion centered on RDS. According to Welton they’ll discuss “how what you put on your RDS can make a big difference in the appearance on the dashboard — and going forward, it will make a significant impact on your stations’ ability to work with hybrid radio.”

The Transmission Talk Tuesday webinars start at noon (ET) and are free though they require preregistration. Sessions are posted for those who can’t make the live performance. Attendance can earn one-half of an SBE recertification point.

 

The post Nautel Releases August TTT Webinar Schedule appeared first on Radio World.

Several leading U.S. media organizations are bringing suit against the FCC for requiring disclosures of programming sponsored by foreign governments.

“The National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters today filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a Federal Communications Commission order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming,” they announced.

As we reported in April, the FCC unanimously enacted this new rule in April. When a broadcaster leases time, it now needs to ask the “lessee” if they or their programming are from a foreign governmental entity.

“If the answer is yes, a sponsorship identification will need to be placed on air and documented in the station’s public file,” Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel explained in April. “If the answer is no, a broadcaster will need to independently verify the lessee using the Foreign Agent Registration Act website from the Department of Justice and the FCC’s semi-annual foreign media outlet reports.”

The FCC believes that foreign governmental entities are increasingly purchasing time on domestic broadcast stations. “We know that foreign entities are purchasing time on broadcast stations in markets across the country, including Chinese government-sponsored programming and Russian government-sponsored programming right here in our nation’s capital,” Rosenworcel has said. She credited Rep. Anna Eshoo for pushing the FCC to take this action, which Rosenworcel said is “about national security and the preservation of our democratic values.”

But the three media organizations say they are “deeply concerned with the FCC’s misguided attempt to develop uniform rules for disclosing foreign government-sponsored programming.”

They said the decision to require broadcasters to investigate the source of leased programming “exceeds its statutory authority, is arbitrary and capricious and violates the First Amendment.”

They said broadcasters strongly oppose foreign interference in U.S. elections “but the commission’s order fails to even address this core objective. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”

NAB had already told the commission that the rule is overly burdensome because it requires every broadcaster to conduct research on all the entities with whom they have or want to have lease agreements.

The groups say the rule will particularly hit smaller broadcasters “including stations owned by women and people of color, and new entrants seeking to gain experience through leasing arrangements.” And they said these new determinations would be required even if the programming, “such as an infomercial or local religious broadcast, poses no colorable risk of foreign sponsorship.”

“Broadcasters would also need to conduct inquiries and investigations at the time any lease is initially entered into and repeat them every time that same lease (with the same, already-investigated party) is renewed. Stations also must memorialize those inquiries and investigations and maintain that documentation,” they argue.

And, they added, these regulations affect only broadcasters, even though failure to identify a foreign government source of programming “is almost entirely associated with satellite and cable channels and, above all, with social media and the internet.”

[Read the petition from NAB, MMTC and NABOB.]

The post NAB and Others Sue FCC Over Foreign ID appeared first on Radio World.

Among the big gainers on the NYSE in Friday’s trading is Audacy Inc., the audio content and distribution company formerly known as Entercom. As of 12:48pm Eastern, AUD was trading at $3.40, up 13.3% after sequential dips came following the result of a lackluster Q2 2021 earnings report.

While that’s good for shareholders, a high-profile departure from the company’s executive leadership team is generating greater industry chatter.

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ORLANDO — With a tag line straight out of Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard‘s much-repeated presentations of late, the 2021 ANA Masters of Marketing conference is moving forward with a four-day affair at its favored locale of choice — the Rosen Shingle Creek.

The event, which immediately precedes the NAB Show and co-located Radio Show in Las Vegas, has one key differentiator with respect to attendance.

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Broadcast associations around the country are showing their support for legislation designed to boost broadcast ownership by women and people of color.

Broadcast associations from all 50 states along with the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, sent a joint letter asking Congress to support and pass two new diversity tax certificate programs. The legislation is designed to provide a tax incentive to individuals who sell their majority interest in TV and radio broadcast stations to people of color and women. Two pieces of legislation — Expanding Broadcast Opportunities Act of 2021 (H.R. 4871) and the Broadcast Varied Ownership Incentives for Community Expanded Service Act known as Broadcast VOICES Act (S. 2456) — would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to reinstate a diversity tax certificate program.

Similar legislation was in existence from 1978 to 1995 called the Minority Tax Certificate program. During that time, TV and radio broadcast station ownership by people of color increased by more than 550%. Today, however, there exists a dearth of diverse ownership in the broadcast industry due primarily to lack of access to capital, the groups said in their letter. Today, women make up less than 7% of broadcast radio ownership while people of color make up less than 3%.

“Our strength [as broadcasters] is in our ability to cover diverse community experiences and tell stories from an authentic perspective,” the undersigned wrote in their letter. “The tax certificate program will help us build a local media landscape that reflects our communities on the air, both in the control booth and boardroom.”

GettyImages/wildpixel

The associations also noted that the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act of 2021 and the Broadcast VOICES Act will help to build a pipeline for a new generation of broadcast station owners — one that is inclusive of women, people of color and other underrepresented individuals. “We therefore urge Congress to act swiftly and pass H.R. 4871 and S. 2456 to make sure that all voices are accurately represented in the broadcasting industry,” the associations said.

The legislation also has support from the National Association of Broadcasters. Earlier this month the NAB released a statement expressing its commitment to market-based initiatives that expand radio and TV station ownership opportunities for women and people of color, calling a tax incentive program a “proven solution that significantly diversified the ranks for broadcast owners over its nearly two decades of existence.”

The support comes after the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council called on the FCC in early August to adopt seven new initiatives designed to better advance diversity within the media industry. The MMTC called the 1978–1995 tax certificate policy “by far the most effective vehicle for advancing minority broadcast ownership.”

 

The post Broadcast Associations Call on Congress to Reinstate Tax Credit appeared first on Radio World.

It’s a key position that involves the retransmission consent agreement reached with DBS providers DirecTV and DISH, and with every MVPD across the U.S.

And, Sinclair Broadcast Group — presently gearing up for a war with DISH — has given it to a Senior Corporate Counsel in that role for six years.

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It owns and operates the “River Radio Network,” comprised of a Weirton, W. Va.-based AM/FM combo and an FM translator.

Now, its owner has signed off on an asset purchase agreement giving it three FMs, and an AM with an FM translator, in the nearby Wheeling market.

With Tim Ohalek and Cindy Taylor the driving forces of River Radio Network, parent company Ohio Midland Newsgroup is growing beyond WEIR-AM & WCDK-FM in Weirton by agreeing to acquire the following properties from Forever Media:

• WLIE-AM 1290, licensed to Bellaire, Ohio, on the left bank of the Ohio River. It is a 1kw Class D with 30 watts at night and associated with FM translator W261DH at 100.1 MHz in Wheeling. It airs a Classic Country format as “Willie,” a homage to Willie Nelson.
• WBGI-FM 100.5, also licensed to Bellaire. It is a Class B 48kw facility branded as “Biggie 100.5,” airing a contemporary Country format.
• WUKL-FM 105.5, in Bethlehem, W. Va. It is a Class B1 13.5kw facility known as “Kool 105.5.” It is an Adult Hits station with a playlist ranging from Haddaway to England Dan and John Ford Coley.
• WRQY-FM 96.5, in Moundsville, W. Va. The Class A is a Classic Rocker, branded as “Rocky 96.5.”

Ohio Midland Newsgroup, a subsidiary of Cody Barack-led Morning Star Media, is paying $885,000 for the properties, with Lynn Deppen signing off on the agreement for Forever Media. A $50,000 escrow deposit has been made to Forever by Ohio Midland.

In return, Ohio Midland is spinning silent FM translator W235BX at 93.9 MHz in Colliers, W.Va. to Forever Media for a token price of $10.

The translator will be used to rebroadcast what WOHI-AM 1490, licensed to East Liverpool, Ohio.

Forever Media is owned by Kirby Confer and Donald Alt.

Do you know a broadcast engineer in Georgia who does outstanding work?

The Georgia Association of Broadcasters is accepting nominations for its 2021 Angelo Ditty – Frank McLemore Engineering Award.

Here at Radio World we wish that more state associations had award programs specifically for engineers and technical people and we appreciate those that do. GAB has been doing so since 2013.

It will present the awards on Oct. 23 during its annual GABBY Award ceremony.

Nominees must have 20 or more years in broadcast engineering, with the majority of that time in Georgia. They must exhibit professionalism among their colleagues and a willingness to help other engineers in support of the industry.

Nominations are due Sept. 20. Email yours to mailto:gchapman@gab.org.

The idea for this award came about when the state of Georgia revised its Emergency Alert System plan in 2012; the association worked closely with the state and received important support from four engineers, so decided to honor them.

It was then named the Angelo Ditty Engineering Award after the association’s longtime ABIP inspector. GAB added the name of another ABIP inspector, Frank McLemore, after his death.

Below is the list of past recipients.

2013

Dick Boekeloo

Robert Butler

Daniel L. Davis

Frank McLemore

 

2014

Marty Foglia

Michael Lawing

 

2015

David Williams

Jeff Brock

 

2016

LaVaughn Thompson

Randy Mullinax

Perley Eppley

 

2017

Bill Williams

Stu Graham

Knox Carreker

 

2018

John York

Dick Byrd

Vic Lester

 

2019

James Gay

Tom Giglio

Bob Helbush

 

2020

Phil Baker

Jim Gantner

Charlie Harrell

 

The post Nominate a Georgia Broadcast Engineer appeared first on Radio World.

Given what MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson calls The Walt Disney Co.‘s “relatively flat share price performance” through the first 8 1/2 months of 2021, his Wall Street financial house believes there is “ongoing tension” in the market between those that look at the drivers of Disney’s Earnings Per Share and those that look at the drivers of Disney’s valuation multiple.

What is the main driver right now? Theme parks are driving the U.S., not Disney+. The latter is fueled by international growth.

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The Media Ratings Council late Thursday responded with stern words to a formal request from Nielsen to enter an MRC accreditation hiatus period for its National Television measurement service.

First, a decision on Nielsen’s request has not yet been made by the MRC. Second, the MRC notes the National TV measurement service is challenged by “deep-rooted, ongoing performance issues.”

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The author is chief engineer of The Joy FM.

Playing the best in Christian Contemporary Music, listener-supported The Joy FM has been serving Florida, Georgia and Alabama for over 30 years. As part of the Radio Training Network family of stations, The Joy FM also supports multiple sister stations including WAFJ(FM) in Augusta, S.C., as well as KWND(FM) and KWFC(FM) in Springfield, Mo.

With more than two dozen transmitter sites in five states, audio-over-IP solutions are essential components of our multilocation infrastructure. Barix’s Instreamer and Exstreamer product lines are our “go to” codecs for a variety of critical use cases.

 

Backhauling EAS

Sister station LF Radio offers positive alternative, pop and hip-hop music, while our Joy Worship station supplements worship during the week. Joy FM supplies Joy Worship and LF Radio as HD2 and HD3 to six cities from our Sarasota, Fla., headquarters.

Of course, EAS must match between all of the subchannels at each site, so the same EAS that’s on HD1 must also be on HD2 and HD3. We run all of our HD importers for Joy Worship and LF Radio virtually in Sarasota, so we use Barix Instreamer 100s and Exstreamer 100s to backhaul the EAS from each location back to Florida.

At each of those six transmitter sites, a Barix Instreamer takes in the EAS from the HD1 and analog channel as well as GPIO from ControlByWeb, which provides Ethernet IO for remote relay control. The combination of Barix and ControlByWeb is ideal, as both are reliable and robust. Barix sends the EAS and GPIO to our Florida office, where we use Axia Pathfinder to do the logic switching between sources to provide the HD importers with either the music feed or EAS feed.

We also use Barix for another HD Radio use case. WAFJ in Augusta offers its own worship channel, The Song. We use Barix codecs to bring The Song down to our importers in Sarasota, so WAFJ listeners get The Song as HD2 (instead of Joy Worship) and LF Radio as HD3.

Secondary STL

We also use Barix codecs for our backup STL at most of our sites. We have nine independent stations in Florida alone, each with its own traffic breaks, liners, IDs and other elements that make them local. Each station is created and mixed in Sarasota, where a 1RU system encodes 14 Livewire feeds to AAC+ streams that are sent to an external server.

A Barix Exstreamer at each transmitter site pulls the stream, which then goes through level converters. The backup STL stream is always on, rather than on-demand, and a Broadcast Tools Audio Sentinel automatically switches transmission to the Barix-decoded stream if the main audio path fails.

All of our sites have at least two internet connections, if not more, with separate ISPs for fault tolerance if one of our internet providers has an outage. Our backup STL workflow has worked very well, as the Barix devices are so reliable and easy to work with.

 

Preferred Choice

I use Barix codecs for other applications, from confidence monitoring for PPM to simply distributing audio from my office throughout our extensive facility. Whenever I have a new need to get audio from Point A to Point B via an IP network, I’ll grab a Barix box. They’re robust, they’re cost-effective, and they can pretty much do whatever you need on the first try.

Info: Contact Barix at 1-866-815-0866 or www.barix.com. For international queries contact Reto Brader in Switzerland at +41-43-433-22-11.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

 

The post User Report: Barix Powers Critical Infrastructure for The Joy FM appeared first on Radio World.

New Media Broadcasters, Inc. enters into consent decree to resolve political file investigation

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — The creator of the podcast “Your Own Backyard” — Chris Lambert, who’s credited with renewing interest in murder of missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, may testify on August 30th in the case against her alleged killer Paul Flores.

Flores is accused of killing Smart and hiding her body. Flores’ defense team sent Lambert the subpoena because of his podcast interviews with witnesses before their client was arrested.

According to The Tribune when authorities arrested Paul Flores and his father in April, the Smart family thanked Lambert and credited him with breakthroughs in the investigation.
Paul Flores is charged with murdering Smart. His father is being charged as an accessory.

It’s alleged that Paul Flores, now 44, was the last person known to have seen the 19-year-old freshman alive after walking her back from a party toward campus in 1996.
The case is being heard in San Luis Obispo Superior Court

MediaCo Holding Co., led by CEO Rahsan-Rahsan Lindsay and formed as a partnership between Emmis Communications founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan and Standard General’s Soohyung Kim, has filed paperwork with the SEC indicating that it wishes to offer millions of dollars worth of shares in the open market to investors.

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The Walt Disney Co.’s stock price zoomed upward by 5.3% in early after-hours trading on Thursday, as the diversified entertainment and communications company that owns ABC and its ESPN arm delivered quarterly earnings that topped analysts’ estimates.

How did the Broadcasting division perform? Over-the-air TV performed better in the quarter.

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