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NAB Show Premiere, a special online event, will convene top brands in media and entertainment and offer exclusive educational content on NAB Amplify, April 12-23. Program highlights include new product launches, award presentations and networking opportunities.

NAB Show will take place in person October 9-13, 2021 in Las Vegas.

“NAB Show Premiere is strategically timed to bring the media and entertainment community together in April when we would normally be gathering in Las Vegas,” NAB EVP of Conventions and Business Operations Chris Brown said. “The content is indicative of our commitment to connecting the NAB Show community year-round and provides a critical touch point for companies to roll out new products.”

Sony, Panasonic and Grass Valley are among the featured companies scheduled to announce new products and provide demonstrations beginning April 19.

Featured content includes an executive perspective on the state of streaming, a look back at one year of broadcasting amidst a pandemic, tech deep dives on HD Radio and edge computing, and curated networking opportunities. Additionally, the editors behind Zack Snyder’s Justice League will lead a panel discussion on their creative process.

Post | Production World Online, produced in partnership with Future Media Conferences, is also taking place in April, 10–14. The program, currently in its 18th year, aims to deliver best-in-class training for creative professionals and will complement NAB Show Premiere with live, interactive sessions.

The NAB will present the TV Chairman’s Award and the Crystal Radio Awards during NAB Show Premiere.

Participants must have or create an NAB Amplify account to access NAB Show Premiere.

Still not convinced that the leadership team at TEGNA Inc. is delivering the best results for all of its shareholders?

You may want to take note of the increase in the company’s quarterly dividend its Board of Directors just approved.

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The final days of the first quarter of 2021 are upon us. For auto dealer associations, that means the push is on to attract potential customers.

It’s a welcome sign, as it marks the first time in nearly a year under the pandemic that multiple automotive brands are actively using Spot TV.

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He served from 2016-2018 as Sr. VP of Content and Programming for Fusion, an English-language MVPD-distributed network owned and operated by Univision Communications.

Now, he’s being called on by The E.W. Scripps Co. to lead its Washington Bureau’s national investigation team as Deputy Bureau Chief.

Taking the newly created role is Keith Summa. According to Scripps, he’ll “chart the editorial strategy and creative vision for the bureau’s investigative journalism while leading its talented team of reporters, producers and photojournalists.”

Summa also will be responsible for helping to direct the bureau’s strategic planning and operations. He reports to Bureau Chief Ellen Weiss.

The bureau produces documentary-style investigative stories in support of Scripps’ 61 local TV stations and its Scripps Networks, including Newsy. It also produces original, investigative serialized podcasts.

“Scripps is a company uniquely committed to journalistic excellence and the Scripps Washington Bureau is a center of that excellence,” said Summa, who led the CBS News Investigative Unit before joining Fusion. “So I’m eager to work with the bureau’s extremely talented team of journalists and producers, as well as the leadership of the Local Media and Scripps Networks divisions, to extend the bureau’s high-impact reporting across the company and across new and emerging television platforms.”

Before joining CBS News, Summa spent 15 years as a producer and writer for ABC News and Peter Jennings Productions.

The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report is out, and it shows a top job-seeker website is tops with respect to the number of spots played at radio stations tracked by the iHeartMedia-owned service for the week ending March 29.

That’s Indeed, which beats out Progressive for the No. 1 slot.

Other activity of note includes continued action from Babbel, GEICO, ZipRecruiter and Allstate, while iHeart busily promotes itself across its own radio stations.

From Ellensburg to Walla Walla, Washington, and down to Pendleton, Oregon, Hispanavisión has established itself over three decades as a home for Spanish-language television content in an area that’s long attracted first-generation immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

Today, EstrellaTV is a “marquee” network within the Hispanavisión operation, which earlier this month struck a local TV measurement services agreement with Nielsen. While that agreement covers two full-power TV stations, Hispanavisión is now expanding with the purchase of low-power facility.

The seller? It’s HC2 Holdings.

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Travel between the city of Sarasota, in the heart of Florida’s Suncoast region, south to Venice, and you’ll find a rarity — a noncommercial radio station that in the 3pm hour today doubled up on classic Diana Ross tunes. It’s home base is a Class D AM with a pair of translators.

Now, WSRQ is set to expand its coverage area.

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In a move that could present more questions than answers, Estrella Media has added a full-power TV station serving the entire San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose TV market to the EstrellaTV coverage map.

The station? A HC2-owned facility that has been home to the company’s very own Spanish-language television network, Azteca América. 

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON TWITTER!

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Head’s up, broadcast TV station owners: Comscore has scored an exclusive agreement with a full-service advertising agency.

This means Comscore currency will be the lone source of audience consumption data used by this ad shop across 20 markets. And, it includes Comscore’s advanced automotive audiences overlay in the South and Southwest.

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The use of broadcast TV signals to help educators has been one of the touted benefits of the ATSC 3.0 standard that is voluntarily being introduced to consumers in a growing list of U.S. markets.

Now, a next-generation TV service using Boise, Idaho, as its launch point has developed an umbrella of content and delivery channels expressly designed to augment classroom learning.

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In 1976, former industry trade publication Radio and Records offered its readers a lengthy column from a man who had gained attention for his success as the Sales Manager of Album-Oriented Rock station WMMS-FM in Cleveland.

He had joined WMMS in 1972, and began selling Rock radio in 1969 at another Cleveland radio station. Today, he’s looking back on a career that he believes has come full circle, as he’s been associated with an independent owner of a unique radio station serving Southwest Florida’s adult populace.

Walt Tiburski is retiring.

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As RBR+TVBR has reported across the first quarter of 2021, HC2 Holdings is trimming its TV assets while very much continuing its ownership of key TV stations as an entity led by COO Les Levi and chief executive Wayne Barr Jr.

It is now known that HC2’s commitment to “streamlining” a portfolio created under former CEO Philip Falcone and “enhancing” its capital structure includes the shedding of HC2’s insurance segment.

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With a whole new C-Suite led by CEO Wade Davis, Univision Communications is on a reinvigorated path to growth, as demonstrated by the company’s March 24 get-to-know-you “pre-Upfront” presentation for marketers and advertisers.

The 30-minute virtual affair was the first from Univision since Davis replaced Vince Sadusky, and a major leadership shift that saw the arrival of Donna Speciale, Pierluigi Gazzolo and Luis Silberwasser.

But, before all can progress forward with new momentum, Univision must take one last look at its performance under its former leadership.

This will come on Wednesday (3/31), when Univision Communications will conduct a conference call to discuss its Q4 and full-year 2020 fiscal results. The call is scheduled for 11am, with a detailed report including the results offered on Univision’s corporate website earlier in the day.

While Univision is not publicly traded, the company has regularly offered its quarterly earnings reports to the public.

For over 30 years, Ascential-owned WARC has been serving marketers as a data analytics company that has also taken a key role in examining domestic ad expenditures by medium on an annual basis.

WARC’s 2021 U.S. ad spend projections have been released. And, “even in a build-back year,” WARC says, “ad spend in the U.S.” is projected to be pretty significant.

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As part of iHeartMedia‘s efforts to grow its BIN: Black Information Network audio offering superserving African American consumers, the nation’s biggest owner of radio stations in December agreed to purchase two Dallas-markets AMs and their corresponding FM translators from Mortenson Broadcasting Co.

Days later, iHeart struck a deal with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting to buy an AM in Houston, which was pinpointed for use as that market’s BIN home.

Then, as 2020 came to a close, iHeartMedia filed paperwork with the FCC seeking to reclaim a Class C1 FM licensed to a town in Minnesota serving the Grand Forks, N. Dakota, market.

The deals, while involving the No. 1 radio company in the U.S., were rather ordinary in their structure. Only, an unexpected occurrence transpired prior to closing that required a closer FCC examination: a major British radio broadcasting company’s chief funding source took a big chunk of publicly traded stock, giving an individual through a Bahamian entity 8.8% attributable interest in iHeartMedia.

This led the Audio Division of the FCC’s Media Bureau to review the three transactions, culminating in the issuance late Friday (3/26) of a Memorandum Opinion and Order from division Chief Al Shuldiner.

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Fig. 1: Pyle PCT40 12-Plug Pro Audio Cable Tester

We recently mentioned do-it-yourself cable testers.

Greg Muir of Wolfram Engineering says that if you need a cable tester with a variety of connector interfaces but don’t have “DIY time,” the Pyle PCT40 12-Plug Pro Audio Cable Tester might be a possibility.

While the Pyle website gives a sticker shock price of $96, the tester is commonly available in the $40 price range from many sources online.

The upside is that it accommodates a plethora of connectors for those who may encounter a variety of cables in the field, such as a contract engineer.

Greg has found the tester handy when providing services for venues both in and outside of the radio business.

Operation is simple; just plug both ends of your cable into the mating connectors on the box and rotate the switch through the ranges. Normal cables will illuminate both correlating LEDs on the panel for each switch position.

In the case of cables where a “twist” may be encountered, such as LAN cables, then whichever indicator lights will indicate the twist connections.

Phreak Out

Our recent references to Radio Shack prompted some nostalgia for San Diego engineer Marc Mann.

His first job while in high school in the 1970s was at Radio Shack. He has great memories, learning about new ICs while restocking the pegboards with the latest offerings.

One quiet evening Marc was the only person in the store when some teenagers came in for parts. While paying for them, one of the teens asked if Marc knew what they would be using the components for. Of course he had no idea.

So the customer reached in his pocket and pulled out a small Bakelite box with several pushbuttons. He said, “Want to see something cool?” and he asked for the telephone on the counter.

He took the handset and held the little box to the microphone and began pushing buttons that produced various tones; then he handed the handset to Marc and said “Listen.”

A few moments later, Marc found himself listening to a man with an Australian accent giving the weather report for Sydney, Australia! Marc started to panic, fearing a huge phone bill would ensue and that he would be fired.

The customer assured Marc there would be no charges; he was using what was known as a Phone Phreaking Box, built with Radio Shack parts.

Marc has still kept his Radio Shack Wall Clock, Fig. 2, which he won in a sales contest.

Fig. 2: A reminder of times past.

The clock still sports the little metal badge that promises to replace any tubes that were to fail:

How many readers remember and took advantage of this guarantee?

But where’s the pinball lever?

Speaking of tubes, check out the tube tester in Fig. 4. It is on display at the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) in Alameda.

Fig. 4: An important piece of test equipment in the 1950s and 60s, displayed at the California Historical Radio Society.

There are some great memories housed in their 115-year-old former telephone building. It’s a unique West Coast museum, devoted to all things radio.

Visit https://californiahistoricalradio.com/about/.

An AE IOU

As an alternative to The Shack, Marc has been buying parts from Ali Express for about three years.

He initially found its service to be very good, with shipments arriving in 30 to 45 days or less. But in this past year of COVID, it has been more miss than hit, with four out of five orders not showing up.

Basic tracking shows packages leaving U.S. Customs but then they disappear into the ether. Marc writes that, should you continue to order from Ali Express, be aware that if an order doesn’t arrive in 90 days you can easily lodge a “not received” dispute. AE will do an investigation.

Marc has always been reimbursed quickly for any charges incurred. So at this point you should be able to order with confidence. You just have to be patient.

No Fry’s With That

Marc wraps up his buying experiences by suggesting a moment of silence for the demise of Fry’s Electronics.

If you had a Fry’s close by, you know it was a Nerd’s Paradise. Where else could you find just about anything electronic, and on display so you could turn the knobs of oscilloscopes and meters before buying them?

Ironically, six of the massive Fry’s stores originally were purchased from Incredible Universe, another electronics giant that closed in 1996. And who owned Incredible Universe? Tandy Corp. — which at the time was the parent company of RadioShack.

Oops!

By the way, our previous column originally included a sentence that started, “A couple of hours later, he wired the ATX supply wires to the Model plug…”

As most readers probably realized, the word “Model” should have read “Molex,” as we stated correctly in a caption.

John Bisset is in his 31st year writing the Workbench column. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and holds CPBE certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Like Marc Mann, you probably can remember a time when someone asked you, “Want to see something cool?” Mail tips and stories to johnpbisset@gmail.com.

 

The post This Cable Tester Can Save You Time appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World’s ebook for March 2021 is a look at brand-new or recently introduced products for the radio broadcast or audio industry professional.

From products for the virtualized air chain to new microphones, on-air lights and codecs, here are approximately 50 products to learn about.

Spring Product Preview Ebook

The post Spring Product Preview: A New Ebook appeared first on Radio World.

As of April 26, the Federal Communications Commission can start hitting pirate radio operators with beefy new fines.

The Federal Register has now published rules that the FCC recently adopted at the direction of Congress in the “Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (PIRATE) Act.” The rules take effect April 26.

[Read “It’s Official: PIRATE Act Signed Into Law”]

The act, signed by President Trump early last year, gives the FCC authority to levy fines of up to $100,000 per violation and $2 million in total.

It also aimed to streamline the enforcement process; requires the FCC to conduct mandatory enforcement sweeps in cities with the highest concentration of pirate radio use; and seeks to ensure more coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement.

The law also mandated the creation of a publicly accessible online database that lists U.S. stations as well as all entities that have received notice that they are operating a broadcast station without authority.

But whether the commission will be able to carry out all of these goals anytime soon is a question.

In January, as we’ve reported, the head of enforcement at the FCC told Congress that efforts to implement the act against illegal stations have been hampered by the pandemic as well as a lack of funding.

Rosemary C. Harold, chief of the Enforcement Bureau, submitted the commission’s first annual report to Congress about its pirate radio work.

Harold said the mandatory telework policy that took effect due to COVID-19 was an obstacle. And, she continued, as of January the commission had received no funding to implement the act a year after it became law.

“The Congressional Budget Office and the commission both estimated that it would cost $11 million for the commission to implement the act,” she said then.

“And yet, the PIRATE Act itself contained no appropriation or other funding source to cover its implementation costs. And because the commission’s FY 2021 budget ceiling level was established by the Office of Management and Budget on December 3, 2019, before Congress adopted the PIRATE Act, the commission did not have an opportunity to incorporate costs related to the implementation of the PIRATE Act during the president’s fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget process.”

As to “sweeps” that the FCC is supposed to do at least once a year in the five markets where pirate radio is worst, she said the commission began studying this but the bureau’s ability to conduct the sweeps “will remain subject to obtaining new funding through the appropriations process” as well as the end of the pandemic. For the same reasons, the public database doesn’t exist a year after it was supposed to be in place.

By the way, the federal government in these new rules defines pirate radio broadcasting as “the transmission of communications on spectrum frequencies between 535 and 1705 kilohertz, inclusive, or 87.7 and 108 megahertz, inclusive, without a license issued by the commission, but does not include unlicensed operations in compliance with part 15 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations.” Part 15 allows certain unlicensed operations at very low power levels.

The post FCC Can Use New Pirate Radio Fines Starting April 26 appeared first on Radio World.

The Commission has before it a petition for rulemaking (Petition) filed by KUTV Licensee, LLC, (Licensee), licensee of KMYU, channel 9, St. George, Utah (KMYU or Station), requesting the substitution of channel 21 for channel 9 at St. George in the DTV Table of Allotments. Licensee states that the proposed channel change from channel 9 to channel 21 would result a substantial increase in signal receivability for KMYU's core viewers and enable viewers to receive the Station's signal with a significantly smaller antenna. Licensee maintains that KMYU, as a VHF channel station, has had a long history of dealing with severe reception problems exacerbated by the analog to digital conversion. The proposed migration of KMYU from channel 9 to channel 21, Licensee contends, will result in the delivery of enhanced signal levels to a large percentage of the Station's population without any predicted loss of coverage. Further, Licensee maintains that the change will result in an predicted increase of more than 8,000 persons in the Station's overall population. Licensee concludes by saying that the public interest would be best served by promptly granting its Petition with the specifications set forth in therein so that St. George-area viewers may benefit from substantially improved over-the- air broadcast television service as soon as possible.