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The saga of Roger Wahl, a convicted felon who has been ordered to appear at a March 8 virtual initial status conference as part of a FCC Hearing Designation Order, has apparently entered a surprising new chapter.

As Wahl could see the license cancellation and call letter deletion of his 630-watt FM radio station atop Mt. Hunsrick, serving Somerset County, Pa., it now appears that a long-lost equity holder in the FM has emerged — or so the person alleges.

FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Hinckley Halprin late Monday (2/14) released an Order revealing that the Presiding Judge in the HDO received an e-mail from a woman named Julie Barth.

Barth claims to have an ownership interest in WQZS-FM 93.3, licensed to Meyersdale, Pa.

What does this mean for Halprin, Wahl, and the entire HDO?

First, the Presiding Judge is treating Barth’s email as a petition to intervene, pursuant to section 1.223(c) of the Commission’s rules. And, Barth’s email is being placed into the record of the proceedings.

What is Barth’s “primary aim?” As Halprin explains, it is to inform the Presiding Judge of her alleged ownership interest in WQZS, with the ultimate goal of receiving proportional compensation if the station is sold. She outlines the circumstances of how she came to acquire the alleged interest, along with other details regarding her financial stake in the station.

Barth’s knowledge of this proceeding is limited to what has been reported in local media, and this led to her sending an e-mail to the Commission.

If Barth indeed has attributable interest in WQZS, a whole other series of problems could erupt for Wahl, who has indicated to the FCC that he is the individual owner of the FM. And, as the FCC sees it, Wahl as 100% equity interest holder still stands to see his license revoked due to his felony conviction and related misdemeanor convictions, which have been well reported by RBR.com and media in Western Pennsylvania.

Importantly, Barth did not offer information that Halprin says will assist the Presiding Judge in the HDO. Furthermore, it is not the role of the Presiding Judge to validate Barth’s claim. “That is a matter for private litigation,” Halprin reasons.

Barth’s allegations may, however, provide the basis for enlarging the issues to be considered in this proceeding, pursuant to section 1.229 of the Commission’s rules, if further investigation indicates that Wahl has misrepresented the ownership status of WQZS to the Commission.

How could Julie Barth suddenly emerge, as if this were a soap opera script being played out in real life?

RBR+TVBR has learned that she is the widow of Andreas G. “Andy” Barth, who passed away on January 22, 2012.

Andy Barth was a partner in the now-defunct Target Broadcasting, in which Barth and Wahl each shared equity interest in WQZS.

Did Andy Barth’s interest pass on to his widow? Alternatively, did Wahl simply absorb it? Was their legal documentation confirming Andy Barth’s equity interest in WQZS, or was it a handshake partnership?

These questions won’t be addressed by the Presiding Judge at the FCC, which will retain its focus on the fact that Wahl is a convicted felon — one would could next see a misrepresentation case surface at the Commission while private litigation ramps up.

Meanwhile, RBR+TVBR has confirmed from a local source that Wahl on Tuesday (2/15) returned to hosting the WQZS morning show. It was his first appearance since Tuesday, January 11, one day before back surgery — a matter that led to the cancellation of the ALJ’s pre-hearing conference. Wahl was heard interviewing two guests about an upcoming local event.

Click Here for More from the RBR+TVBR Archives

Ray Quinn, area president of iHeartMedia’s Alabama area, will retire on March 22.

“Quinn has been with iHeartMedia for 14 years and has worked in the broadcasting industry for over 50 years,” the company said in its announcement.

“He has held leadership positions at several stations throughout his extensive career, including vice president/market manager for KOSI(FM), KALC(FM) and KQMT(FM) in Denver; WMYX(FM), WXSS(FM) and WSSP(AM) in Milwaukee.; WOLX(FM), WMMM(FM) and WBZU(FM) in Madison, Wis.; and many more.”

Among the prior broadcast groups for which he has worked are Entercom, Opus Media Group, American Media and Capitol Broadcasting.

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It noted that the governor of Kentucky had recognized Quinn as a Kentucky Colonel for participating in numerous charitable projects. He was awarded the March of Dimes “Order of the Battered Boot” for walkathon fundraising efforts over the years. Quinn was recruited by the U.S. State Department in 1992 to provide pro bono consulting work to the first companies to be awarded commercial radio and TV licenses in Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

Division President Shosh Abromovich described Quinn as “a unicorn of a leader with his passion, enthusiasm and constant innovative thinking.”

The Alabama area of iHeartMedia includes the Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Gadsden and Tuscaloosa markets.

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

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A provider of media workflow software presently run by CEO Susie Hedrick is welcoming a SVP of Technology to the company.

He’ll oversee the production development team, platform operations, security and IT.

Now at vCreative is Drew Cain. He most recently held senior engineering roles and oversaw mission critical cloud infrastructure projects at Simpli.fi, helping to design, code and deploy products designed to optimize workflow. There, Cain also aided in the development and manufacture of omnichannel programmatic advertising products across various multimedia categories.

“vCreative is on a tremendous growth trajectory, adding new services and more value for our customers at a rapid pace,” Hedrick said. “Drew is a proven technology leader who has demonstrated how important the overlap of technology and business enablement can be. It’s his blend of digital experience, vision, innovation, and trusted leadership that made him the perfect candidate for the role.”

Cain added that he’s thrilled to join vCreative during an “exciting period of growth and change in the industry.” He adds, “As advertising spend continues to transition from linear to digital, we will work together to accelerate the delivery of new products, features, and integrations with a focus on enabling the ongoing future success of our customers. vCreative has a fantastic reputation as a trusted partner to the media industry and I look forward to being part of such an incredible team.”

An ANGA GOM “Restart” has been confirmed.

On May 10, some 300 confirmed exhibitors and high-level conference speakers will gather in Köln, Germany, as “Europe’s leading Exhibition and Conference for Broadband, Television & Online” is moving forward with a delayed 2022 in-person gathering.

The three-day affair looks to be one of the world’s biggest post-pandemic events for the visual entertainment and media industry. Due to various stand enlargements, the total space of the European and North American exhibitors is already at the level of the last ANGA COM show held in 2019.

The gross exhibition space for the first 300 exhibitors is already more than 20,000 sqm.

“We receive growing optimism of our exhibitors every day,” says Dr. Peter Charissé, Managing Director of ANGA COM. “The broadband and media industry is facing a new and splendid level of investment. In Germany, for example, with its more than 40 million households, network operators and a steadily growing number of international investors have announced to invest many billions in new fiber infrastructures. All leading fiber operators will be prominently represented in the conference program. ANGA COM will be the first major industry meeting with early summer conditions. With 15-meter high exhibition halls, a huge foyer and the popular open air plaza with food trucks, our location has never been more attractive.”

The complete conference program of ANGA COM 2022 will be published in March. Conference topics include OTT, AppTV, Video Streaming, Fixed Mobile Convergence, Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, Smart City and Smart Home and the political, legal and regulatory issues of the broadband and media industry.

— With reports from correspondents in Kaiserslautern, Germany

Registration for conference and exhibition visitors is now possible online at www.angacom.de. 

A schematic for an Oscilloscope “Circuit Octopus”

You probably have a junk box of components, but can you identify all of them? And do you know whether they all work?

I came across a neat video prepared by amateur radio operator W2AEW, a 10-minute tutorial on checking components. The video gives an example of performing simple component testing using a curve tracer or “Circuit Octopus” and an oscilloscope.

It describes the Octopus, then delves into how to check resistors, diodes, transistors and even capacitors. When feeding an oscilloscope with the test fixture, you can identify open or shorted components. Here’s the link for the video: https://youtu.be/Gwo3pEH7hUE.

There are hundreds of schematics for building your own Octopus. Stephen M. Powell’s design, shown above, is one of the simplest.

Old law, new take
Over the years consultant Frank Hertel has contributed many useful ideas for readers of this column. Frank’s brother, Johnny, likes to delve a little deeper into electronics.

He writes that he recently came across a list of electricity definitions. Most were familiar, but three jumped out at him:

The first is 1 Ohm, which was defined as the resistance of a column of mercury (at the temperature of melting ice) of a uniform cross section of 1 square millimeter and a length of 106.30 centimeters.

One Volt is the electromotive force that produces a current of 1 Ampere when steadily applied to a conductor with the resistance of 1 Ohm.

One Ampere is the unit of current strength. It is the current which, when passed through a solution of nitrate of silver in water (in accordance with certain specifications), deposits silver at the rate of 0.00118 of a gram per second. The flow of electrical current is measured in Amperes or Amps, using an Ammeter.

Kind of relates Ohm’s Law in a new way, doesn’t it?

You need a shrink
A number of years ago, 3M developed a product called Cold Shrink as a weather seal for cabling. Broadcast engineer and frequent contributor Dan Slentz called this line of cable joints and terminations to my attention and wondered why he hadn’t heard of it before now.

3M Cold Shrink pre-stretched tubes effectively seal coax connectors from weather.

When it was released, I recall that each Cold Shrink tube was pretty expensive, much more costly than other forms of connector weather-sealing. Apparently as the product has evolved, its cost has gotten more reasonable.

So what is Cold Shrink tubing? It’s an expanded tubular rubber sleeve, and 3M found a way to stretch the diameter of the tubing so it will fit over an RF connector.

[Check Out More of Workbench Here]

The sleeve is kept in its expanded state with a wound plastic core. After the sleeve is positioned over the connector to be weatherproofed, you unwind the plastic core. As the plastic core is removed, the expanded rubber begins to shrink, forming a constant radial pressure seal around the connector and cable.

An image from the 3M website shows installation of Cold Shrink for an underground cable run.

Originally designed for the power industry, Cold Shrink tubes are ideal for outside RF connections in the broadcast industry. Plus, in addition to protecting connectors, Cold Shrink tubes conform to the water seal requirements of ANSI C119.1.

See the video Dan found at the website of Thorne & Derrick International at www.powerandcables.com/cold-shrink-tubes/.

3M itself has a useful info page that we’ve linked at https://tinyurl.com/rw-coldshrink.

Can you imagine trying to use a torch to heat shrink a standard weatherproofing boot up on a tower? Keep this product in mind for your next tower cable run.

John Bisset, CPBE, has 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.

Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

The post Use an Octopus to Check Components appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission published a document in the Federal Register of February 4, 2022, concerning a petition for rulemaking filed by Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC, licensee of KTVQ(TV), channel 10, Billings, Montana, requesting the substitution of channel 20 for channel 10 in the Table of Allotments. The document contained the incorrect call sign of the licensee. The document also contained an incorrect licensee name.

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The Media Bureau enters into a Consent Decree with Azteca Media, LLC

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The Media Bureau enters into a Consent Decree with Wayland Baptist College

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With shares at their lowest value in a decade, discarding the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, investors may be intensely awaiting the latest fiscal report card for Nielsen Holdings plc.

When will the nation’s dominant audience measurement and consumer data analysis house share the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2021 results?

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He has had a “unique” path to success. Now, 2022 NAB Show attendees will get to hear all about it, as Byron Allen has agreed to appear in a flame-free “fireside chat” scheduled for Wednesday, April 27 at the Las Vegas event — the NAB’s first since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allen will be interviewed by retired NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith, who now serves as a special adviser to the organization.

The discussion is on the calendar for a 9:15am Pacific start.

Allen is the President/CEO of Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios, and has emerged as a media mogul, with broadcast TV stations just one component of his empire.

It is Smith’s goal to have Allen engage in a two-sided conversation in which both the former U.S. Senator and the TV industry star “discuss the steps in their professional careers that helped them achieve success.”

The chat will serve as the centerpiece of the NAB Show Executive Leadership Series session. Allen and Smith also plan to address their respective roles as advocates and leaders in the broadcast industry and the “enduring value” of local television in an ever-changing marketplace.

Allen Media Group owns 27 television stations in 21 markets, and could grow exponentially in the coming months and years.

Allen also partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2019 to acquire 21 Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) — a story often overlooked by national media.

Meanwhile, Allen’s Entertainment Studios, which predates the owned-station operation, produces and distributes syndicated program and sells advertising for 67 broadcast and cable television programs.

THE GORDON SMITH SHOW As previously reported, the retired U.S. Senator and former NAB head will receive NAB’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, at the 2022 NAB Show.

It’s known for nationally distributed digital multicast television networks such as the popular MeTV and siblings DECADES, Start TV, Heroes & Icons and MOVIES!

Now, the family of Weigel Broadcasting‘s national broadcast networks is set to expand.

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The E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse (Photo by Paulo JC Nogueira. Used under a Creative Commons license.)

Oral arguments are set for April 12 in the broadcast industry’s lawsuit against the FCC, seeking to overturn the commission’s order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming.

On Friday the National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters filed a reply brief with the federal appeals court. They are the organizations that brought this suit against the FCC.

They say the court should set aside the action because it violates not one but three crucial standards: the Communications Act, the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Among their arguments, the broadcasters say that the FCC order tells stations to engage in “reasonable diligence” to determine the true source of the programming aired on its station, which mandates independent investigation of government websites.

“But the broadcaster’s statutory duty is far narrower,” they said. “Congress required only that each broadcaster ‘shall exercise reasonable diligence to obtain from its employees, and from other persons with whom it deals directly’ information necessary to disclose to the public the person who paid for the programming.” The plaintiffs emphasized the underlined phrase, concluding: “The commission cannot ignore the restrictions Congress has placed upon a broadcaster’s duty of diligence.”

They also criticized “the regulation’s extraordinary reach and sheer pointlessness” and said mandatory investigation “redresses a phantom harm never known to occur: namely, a foreign governmental entity registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or a U.S.-based foreign media outlet registered under Section 722 of the Communications Act who leased broadcast time without disclosure.”

And they say the rule imposes substantial burdens on thousands of broadcasters to address the phantom harm. It said the FCC’s limited evidence — which in any event concerns no “harms” that the order redresses — can’t justify requiring every commercial broadcast station in the country to conduct independent investigations for every existing and future lease.

[Read the reply brief.]

The rule was approved 4–0 by the commissioners last year. Now, when a broadcaster leases time, they need 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,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote at the time.

“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.

Rosenworcel said last year, “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.”

The post Broadcasters Reiterate Opposition to Disclosure Rule appeared first on Radio World.

We’re starting to hear from companies about their exhibit plans for the NAB Show in April.

RCS — which will be located in the new West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center — says it has expanded remote features throughout its product line, focusing on the user experience and automating everyday tasks.

Zetta automation has a revamped Zetta2GO Voice Tracker with Zetta tools like volume points, trim in and trim out. The platform now has multiple Zetta themes, performance improvements for scalability, Virtual Events (identifying multiple assets within a single long-form file) and redesigned Hot Keys.

New Zetta2GO features include expanded drag and drop, keyboard navigation with Windows shortcut functionality, and F1 dynamic help.

[Read more stories about the 2022 NAB Show.]

RCS Cloud will be another focus of the RCS booth. The company calls it a true disaster recovery cloud solution, written for and on Amazon Web Services, following best practices and securities. “RCS Cloud disaster recovery can not only back up your audio, logs, metadata, and SQL backups, securely with Zetta’s built in Site Replication service, but we’ve also incorporated business friendly workflows.”

New GSelector 5.0 got a subtle thematic facelift, the company said, with the addition of new themes, scalable icons and a user-customized Song/Link Window, allowing users to organize and hide or display metadata based on multiple layouts.

“Programmers can already view and schedule their time granularity by hours and minutes, but now, with GSelector’s Flex Clocks, users can build their clocks and grids down to the minute or a single clock up to 24 hours a day, allowing for endless programming opportunities to save time and efficiently.”

Selector2GO allows users to add or edit elements, adjust clocks, schedule and massage logs, and analyze their spins.

RCS also highlights Aquira, its CRM, sales and traffic solution; RCS News, a centralized location for reporters to monitor RSS news feeds and email accounts, customize alerts for breaking news, define sub-categories and create and edit rundowns or audio; and Revma, a content delivery network infrastructure.

RCS Booth: W5222

The post NAB Show: RCS Powers Up Its Remote Features appeared first on Radio World.

Software company WinMedia named Florin Velea-Grumezea as its new sales manager.

“Florin’s expertise in broadcast has enabled him to acquire knowledge of all broadcast products, from studio to transmitter,” the company stated.

WinMedia said it is managing an increasing number of turnkey projects that require knowledge of IP audio and NDI for video. Velea-Grumezea is also expected to help the company grow its business in countries in Eastern Europe.

The announcement was made by CEO Stéphane Tesoriere, who said that Velea-Grumezea “will continue the prospecting work that we launched three years ago and which is proving to be a real success with many customers who have trusted us with the modernization of their radio from audio-only to visual.”

See more recent People News coverage.

The post Velea-Grumezea Joins WinMedia appeared first on Radio World.

Alexander Leschinsky

G&L has joined RadioDNS.

“We want to help bringing the right radio content to each listener on the device of their choice,” said co-founder and Managing Director Alexander Leschinsky in the announcement, citing the company’s experience in hybrid radio metadata and IP distribution.

RadioDNS promotes the growth of hybrid radio globally through its open-source standards. The organization will hold its annual general assembly later this month.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

G&L Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and has offices in Berlin and Munich, as well as Pleasanton, Calif., in the United States. It offers solutions for processing and delivery of media content, and says its customers include providers of CDN services, vendors of players and encoders, and service providers for monitoring and controlling IT systems.

“G&L is a trusted partner to the German public service broadcasters, who represent a large amount of radio listening in Germany, the most populous country, and will be providing RadioDNS services for them,” according to the announcement.

Another recent new member is Hubbard Radio. The RadioDNS website has a list of members, which include familiar major media names like the BBC, NPR and the European Broadcasting Union.

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