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Dakota Communications, Ltd. enters into consent decree to resolve political file investigation

Mike Erickson on how to pick a broadcast processor. John Bisset on preventive maintenance, counterfeit circuit breakers and acoustic wall treatments.

Ron Schacht on why his AM station’s FM translator might be a net minus. Also, Paul Shulins on the services being offered by his new company.

And product news from SurferNetwork, Tieline, PromoSuite and WideOrbit.

Read the issue.

The post Inside the July 21, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

State emergency communications committees pay attention.

The FCC’s the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has announced that July 5, 2022, is the one-year deadline for filing State EAS Plans via the ARS online filing system, and the deadline for compliance with both the State EAS Plan content rules (Section 11.21(a)(1)-(7)) and EAS designations (Section 11.18).

[Read: Emergency Alert Changes Pass FCC]

The agency adds, “The ARS is an online filing system adopted in 2018 to modernize State EAS Plan submissions, and provide uniformity across State EAS Plans, in terms of both format and terminology, while affording sufficient flexibility to accommodate each SECC’s unique needs.”

 

The post State EAS Plan Deadlines Announced appeared first on Radio World.

In a game-changer for broadcast radio in the digital space, iHeartMedia has unveiled an interactive feature from Amazon Alexa designed to allow listeners of an iHeart radio station’s audio stream to make song requests and dedications — bringing a new level of interactivity to what’s largely been “FM” for two generations.

Introducing voice-enabled air personality interactivity with Alexa.

It’s available as of today for Alexa users who listen to Country WCOS-FM 97.5 in Columbia, S.C.; and Top 40s KZZP-FM 104.7 in Phoenix, WXXL-FM in Orlando and KHKS-FM “Kiss FM” in Dallas. More stations will launch their capabilities soon, iHeartMedia says.

“Ever wish you could talk directly to your favorite radio DJs? Now you can!,” boasts the iHeart literature.

For a broadcast media company that pioneered voice-tracking and the importation of air talent across multiple markets, the very idea of communicating with a “live on the air DJ” is perhaps a chuckle-inducing notion.

That said, radio stations across all ownership groups over the last decade have rarely seen listeners phone in to request a song.

Thus, iHeartMedia deserves applause for using the smart speaker — the leading at-home device for audio content consumption — as a tool allowing listeners to better connect with the radio DJs and stations they hear on the company’s radio stations.

How does it work? “One can simply use their voice to seamlessly request songs and even dedicate them to family and friends,” iHeart explains. “Alexa will then send the request to the station, where radio DJs can queue them for on-air playback in front of millions of other listeners.”

Consider it the 2021 version of a once-normal activity seen for any popular music station, minus the telephone.

“We’re excited that for the first time our listeners will be able to talk to us directly through Alexa,” iHeartRadio Chief Product Officer Chris Williams said. “This is a direct line to allow our audience to talk back, to share their thoughts and help influence what you hear on the radio.”

Song requests and dedications “are just the beginning,” iHeart says, noting that iHeartRadio “is already experimenting with the latest Alexa updates to deliver even more interactive features in the future.” This includes Q&As with on-air personalities and show hosts, voice-driven polls, and contests.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

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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Clay Freinwald, left, and Kenny Gibson are shown on-site during a transmitter installation job at KQWS(FM) in Omak, Wash.

In September, Clay Freinwald will step down from his role as chair of the State Emergency Communications Committee in Washington state.

He has held that volunteer position longer than the Emergency Alert System has existed. Indeed, in 1996, when Freinwald was asked — by Entercom engineer John Price and the late Jimmy Hocutt of the state’s Emergency Management Division — to chair the SECC, the task at hand was to help write the state EAS plan, because the FCC was phasing out the Emergency Broadcasting System.

Several of the people who joined the committee at that time are still on it 25 years later, including current Vice Chair Ted Buehner.

[Read: Washington State EAS Is Evolving]

Freinwald continues to work part-time at Northwest Public Broadcasting as a telecommunications engineer, where he recently was involved with a transmitter installation at KQWS(FM) in Omak, Wash. He also provides site services for four American Tower sites around Seattle; he does contract work for KIRO(FM) and KING(FM); and he helps out at Bustos Media station KMIA(AM) in his hometown of Auburn, Wash.

He wants to spend more time on those activities as well as life at home; but said he’ll be available to work in other SECC roles if needed. “I would like to continue to deal with monitoring assignments, as this is part of our new plan,” he told Radio World.

Freinwald, who for a decade also chaired the EAS committee of the national Society of Broadcast Engineers, received Radio World’s “Excellence in Engineering” Award in 2007, and he was honored by the National Association of Broadcasters in 2018 with its Service to Broadcast Engineering Achievement Award. He’s also the rare engineer to receive a “Broadcaster of the Year” award from a state association; the Washington State Association of Broadcasters bestowed that honor in 1997.

New Plans in Place

In September the Washington SECC will roll out WA-PAWS, for Washington Public Alert and Warning Systems, incorporating updates as well as items required by the FCC for the EAS plan.

That’s timely, given that Congress and the commission are pressing states and their SECCs for a more organized and structured approach to alert management. But it seems Washington is one state that doesn’t need prompting.

Among the nation’s SECCs, the one in Washington has been among the most visible. When the commission asks for public input on an alerting issue, the Washington SECC usually is among those who reply. When the FCC began work on its Alert Reporting System, the state committee helped out with the beta testing.

Freinwald told me the group has historically tried to go beyond EAS by embracing all forms of public alert and warning. “Yes, Washington State’s program is different. We do what we feel should be done for the citizens here and are not limited by the FCC’s rules.”

He recalls being asked by the commission to send a copy of their state EAS plan, so he took a picture of its two large binders and asked if the commission really wanted copies of all of that information. (“We knew that one day we would want to change the title on the front of that binder.”)

[Read: Freinwald: Blue Alerts Offer No Tangible Improvements]

What might other states learn from the Washington experience?

“In many ways, our states are like ships passing in the night,” he said. “We all can, and should, be learning from each other. Washington has, perhaps, done a better job than some. Our goal to constantly improve is at the core of that.

“One of the biggest problems has been a lack of federal leadership and guidance,” he continued. “Some of this is based on the fear and/or respect for states’ rights, perhaps. The FCC recognizes this in that when states and territories submit their ‘plans,’ they get over 50 different approaches. The ARS will certainly help with this problem by providing some structure that has been lacking.”

But he noted that some states don’t even have a functioning SECC. “The fact that there is not a requirement to have one has not helped,” he said. “Clearly Congress was not happy with the situation in Hawaii, and this has started the ball rolling.”

He feels that the commission now is taking steps in the right direction that that it could do more. And he emphasizes that in Washington, EAS is a team effort.

“We work with a number of private and government entities. Communications is vital. We have email remailers for everyone in the state as well as one for the SECC members, and we do a lot of outreach and training.

“We have been blessed, and I am very proud of what we have been able to accomplish,” he said. “This is not to say that we are perfect; we are far from it, and have a lot of work to do going forward. There is always room for improvement.”

 

The post Freinwald to Resign Washington SECC’s Chair appeared first on Radio World.

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Issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in the amount of $3,000 to Redrock Broadcasting, Inc., for failure to timely file a license renewal application for KUTQ(FM), La Verkin, Utah

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