Aggregator

.

.

Forum will explore the state of closed captioning availability for online video programming and discuss ways to enhance accessibility.

.

.

.

With Audacy Inc. shares just five cents higher than where they sat on January 4, the company’s Chairman and President/CEO has acted by acquiring nearly 120,000 shares of stock in the audio content and distribution company he leads.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

A digital low-power TV station licensed to Logan, Utah, is poised to leave the NBC Universal family.

An agreement, submitted Tuesday with the FCC, shows that its Telemundo O&O arm is agreeing to part ways with the facility. The buyer? A local governmental entity.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The last time Colorado Broadcasters Association President/CEO Justin Sasso attended an in-person broadcast conference was in February 2020. Travel back home to Denver was hectic, but with a cash reward for ample flexibility. Sasso’s next event wouldn’t be until one week ago, as he participated at Forecast 2022. Here’s what Sasso had to say about the February 16 gathering in New York, compared to his last non-virtual affair.

 

 

Look who attended Forecast 2022! Among those in New York are some of Broadcast TV’s Best Leaders, including (l-r) Pat LaPlatney, co-CEO of Gray Television; Brian Lawlor, president of local media for The E.W. Scripps Company; and Circle City Broadcasting owner DuJuan McCoy. To view more photos from Forecast 2022, click here!

 

By Justin Sasso

February 2020. Washington, D.C. I had a late-afternoon flight out of Reagan Washington National and was cajoled by a gate agent to give up my seat on an overbooked flight to Denver. Instead, I was to take a connecting flight through Houston. There would be a short layover, and I would be home an hour later than my original flight. The incentive was an $800 flight voucher to anywhere my heart desired.

Fifteen minutes later, I was paged back up to the gate agent’s desk, where I learned that my connecting flight from Houston to Denver was cancelled. My original flight home was long gone from the jet wing. However, the agent, wrapping up what seemed to be an intense call of airline agent jargon, slammed down his phone and informed me that one final option existed. It was a direct flight to Denver, leaving in 45 minutes. All I had to do was get from Reagan to Dulles International at 4:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. With the speed of an auctioneer, I negotiated an additional $300 flight voucher, cab fees and meal tickets, snapped them from the gate agent’s hand and bolted for the taxi stand.

Did I make it? That comes later, but first I want to tell you about my first broadcast conference since that hectic day in February of 2020: Forecast 2022, a lengthy twenty-one months later. Instead of slowly putting my big toe back into the pool of conferences, I went to the one nestled in mid-Manhattan, “The Big Apple,” “The City That Never Sleeps,” but does require proof of vaccination. Five weeks earlier, when [Fletcher Heald & Hildreth attorney] Frank Montero called me and asked me to participate in his panel, I had come to two conclusions. One, I was never going to fit in any of my suits again, as I had “gained the COVID-19,” and two, conferences were a thing of the past. The weight I could lose, but having witnessed the postponement of two NAB Shows made it seem that broadcasters might never gather in-person again.

This was my first invite to Forecast and I was excitedly anxious to attend. After all, this is the legendary gathering of industry giants, envisioning the future of our industry. In reality, it’s a manageable gathering of people who love our industry and want to keep it healthy and strong.

There were great takeaways during the back-to-back panels, featuring many of our industry’s best and brightest. Several panels made it clear that broadcasters need to continue embracing digital and use it for growth and outreach. Broadcasting and digital both provide platforms for unlimited creativity and when combined, the outcome can be advantageous for both the audience and the broadcaster.

First and foremost, as an advocate for broadcasters, I was delighted to hear the detailed blueprint laid out by FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. The Commissioner cherishes the service broadcasters provide to their communities. It was clear that broadcasters have a friend at the Commission and an ally for any battles ahead. During the panel I participated on, I was given the opportunity to share my experiences with the soon-to-be-confirmed Chair of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel. In short, I think she will be fair to broadcasters, providing us with the opportunity to make our case on almost every broadcast decision that comes before the commission.

Aside from the abundance of data points, developing technologies, and thoughtful panel discussion, Senator Gordon Smith’s Lifetime Leadership Award acceptance speech was a significant highlight for me. The Senator never misses an opportunity to share a timely story that gently blends into a meaningful lesson. Using an account of a trip he took to Sao Paulo, Smith expressed the joy he received from supporting an industry that always places its community before itself. His speech concluded with a heartfelt standing ovation.

Thank you Frank Montero and Deborah Parenti for the opportunity to attend Forecast 2022 and jump back into the conference waters with both feet. I can declare that this is a conference not to be missed and I sincerely hope to participate next year.

By the way, I made that flight out of Dulles, panting slightly as I took my seat, but with $1,100 tucked in my wallet and relieved that I was heading home. I felt a similar relief as the wheels of the airplane left LaGuardia’s runway. I was leaving with a head full of knowledge, a swarm of new ideas and the feeling that everything is going to be okay.

 

WATX-AM 1220 is hardly a legendary radio station. Serving New Haven, Conn., and its surrounding communities, the Class B with 1kw of daytime power was all but left for dead by Quinnipiac University in May 2019. Some 17 months later, a veteran New England radio programming figure stepped in and rescued WATX — a facility he worked at in 1967 under its original WDEE calls.

Today, Clark Smidt is selling spots, playing the hits of yesteryear and just launched a direct mail campaign to 7 “hot ZIPs” within the WATX listening area. Is it a hobby, or an incubator designed to demonstrate why a licensee should never give up, and avoid turning in the license of a forlorn AM property?

We get the answer in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Listen to “Clark Smidt and WATX” on Spreaker.

For a generation of local TV news viewers across the National Capital Region, Doug Hill was a household name — a trusted source of local weather reports and a friendly face to those tuned to WJLA-7, the ABC station once owned by the Allbritton family that’s been owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group since 2014.

Now, thousands of viewers, as well as media industry figures across Washington, are stopping to remember Hill, who has died.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Drive Time Metrics is celebrating the expansion of its patent portfolio with the issuance on November 9 of its fifth patent.

The company is now in possession of US Patent Number 11,171,792: METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MEDIA, ADVERTISING AND/OR IN VEHICLE CONTENT MONITORING — covering what consumers are listening to or viewing in their vehicles.

DTM’s patent family allows for data collection of the media (audio, video, etc.) actually being consumed in a vehicle for the duration of a trip, analyzed and reported on.

Today there are over 70 million “connected” vehicles in the U.S. (25% penetration), and this is anticipated to more than double by 2030. Almost all new vehicles now sold are “connected” with an embedded cellular modem. In 2021, 60.3% of licensed drivers in the US (total 229 million licensed drivers in U.S.) will drive a connected vehicle, expanding to 70.1% by 2025, according to eMarketer.

More audio is consumed in vehicles than any other listening location. The sheer scale of this data is of critical importance to the audio industry, especially for broadcasting which still represents the majority of in car listening. “The resulting large-scale census data, rather than small-scale audio panels or meters, represents the future of audio measurement,” stated Bob Maccini, one of DTM’s founders. “This is similar to what’s happening with video measurement moving to data from set top boxes and smart TVs.”

With the progression towards autonomous vehicles, measuring video in the vehicle, and time spent on other applications of any sort, becomes critical.

The DTM patent family allows for the collection and analysis of near real time data from a vehicle relating to data elements important to creating audio and video analytics. Some of these include; unique ID, time stamp, key on/off, channel, volume, location, etc. Whether a consumer is listening to AM/FM, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, Spotify, Pandora, iHeart or other streaming services, including video, anything going through the vehicles infotainment system can be measured, analyzed and reported. The applications for this cross channel data are numerous and include; audience measurement (AQH, Cume, TSL, etc.), ad impressions, ad verification (confirming ad play), ad attribution (consumer heard an ad and drove to advertisers store or went to website), ad/song/video engagement (tune in/tune out) as well as outcome based metrics. Macro content consumption trends can also be analyzed, e.g. Terrestrial audio listening share, peak listening time, shared audio channels, etc.

Today there exists the technical ability to capture audio/video data from vehicles, as well as the infrastructure to collect and manage the data from millions of vehicles, in the USA and other major global markets.

— From news distribution services

WASHINGTON, D.C. — “It’s Thanksgiving week, and the FCC is heading into the holidays on a high note,” says acting Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

Come December 14, Rosenworcel hopes to hit a high note with a proposal intended to improve the clarity and accessibility of Emergency Alert System visual messages and tests, especially for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing or are otherwise unable to access the audio message.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Who Are Radio and Television’s IT and engineering leaders? It’s Your Decision

 

From Chief Technology Officers to Chief Information Officers, these broadcast media leaders are more essential than ever.

 

From cybersecurity to essential systems operations and tech innovations, these individuals are often overlooked for their triumphs and accomplishments. RBR+TVBR now recognizes these leaders for the first time, with input from you — industry leaders and peers who fully understand the leadership these tech-savvy executives bring to the entire organization. Please take a moment to select the first-ever honor roll saluting Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders. You may select from among our honorees, or offer your own nominee. This is a reader-generated ranked honor roll — the voting is in your hands. Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders will be honored for their achievements and overall contributions to the U.S. broadcast media business. Who’s made the list, and where they rank, will be revealed in RBR+TVBR’s Winter 2021/2022 Special Edition. It’s an all-new technology-focused report, distributed January 24, 2022. Make your nomination today for Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders! To make your nomination, please follow RBR+TVBR’s guidelines: 1. The persons you nominate must be presently active in the areas of broadcast radio or TV station IT, technology, or engineering serving the U.S. marketplace.
2. DON’T WAIT! You may make up to three nominations by our deadline of Friday, December 10, 2021, at 5pm Eastern Time Please fill out only one ballot. Duplicate ballots associated with the same individual will be disqualified.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Copyright Royalty Judges have made a cost of living adjustment to the royalty rate that non-NPR Member noncommercial radio stations “at certain colleges, universities, and other educational institutions” must pay for the use in 2022 of published nondramatic musical compositions in the SESAC repertory — pursuant to the statutory license under the Copyright Act for noncommercial broadcasting.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

For nearly seven years, she served as GM of WXIX-19, the FOX affiliate in Cincinnati owned by Gray Television. On December 1, she will return to Arizona, where she once headed KOLD-13 in Tucson under Raycom Media, to serve as the new GM of KPHO-5, the CBS affiliate, and “Arizona’s Family,” KTVK-3 in Phoenix once Gray closes on its acquisition of Meredith Corporation.

With Debbie Bush leaving “FOX 19,” a need for a replacement arose. Gray has now stated who will succeed Bush when she starts her new role in Arizona on or about December 1.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

IBC has announced its decision to cancel the in-person event for 2021.

In a statement, the show’s organizers said the move follows growing concerns about the Covid-19 situation in the Netherlands, which has deteriorated over the past week, along with feedback from the IBC exhibitor and visitor community.

“The IBC Partnership Board made the decision today in order to prevent exhibitors and visitors from travelling to the Netherlands,” added the statement.

The event will still take place digitally via IBC digital.

IBC 2021 was due to take place Dec. 3–6 in Amsterdam. However, earlier this month the Dutch government announced it was instigating a three-week partial lockdown, which is due to be revisited on Dec. 3.

However, the Dutch government reported 153,957 new cases of coronavirus were registered during the week from Nov. 17–23, a new record and a rise of 39 percent over last week.

A version of this article originally appeared on our sister website TVBEurope.

The post IBC Cancels In-Person Event appeared first on Radio World.

With the goal of reuniting injured service members with their families for the holidays, San Diego radio stations helped a local fundraising organization raise more than $1.4 million.

iHeartMedia San Diego station 760 KGB(AM) helped raise $1,455,471 (and counting) alongside sister station NewsRadio 600 KOGO(AM).

The annual Give-a-Thon supports the Warrior Foundation Freedom Station, which first joined forces with KGO in 2004. Back then KGO asked its listeners to donate shaving razors for holiday gift bags being distributed to soldiers recovering at Naval Medical Center San Diego. Since then, it has grown into an annual fundraiser supported by local radio and TV stations. In addition to flying service members home for the holidays, the organization helps sailors and soldiers as they face the challenges of recovery, rehabilitation and transition from military service to civilian life.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

The amount the stations were able to help raise this year is a testament to the power of San Diego radio and its listeners, as well as the reach of Armstrong & Getty, the station’s morning show personalities, said Melissa Forrest, president and market manager for iHeart San Diego.

The support the foundation provides is a gift that troops will remember, said Sandy Lehmkuhler, CEO and founder of the Warrior Foundation Freedom Station. Lehmkuhler founded the organization after volunteering at the naval hospital where she saw how injured troops often lacked many basic items.

“By shining a spotlight on our warriors, and their brave struggles with the visible and invisible wounds of war, [these San Diego stations] rallied the support of thousands of people to fly our heroes home for the holidays,” she said. “It’s a gift our troops will remember forever.”

Submit news about your event to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post San Diego AMs Help Raise $1.4 Million for Troops appeared first on Radio World.

With the number of high-profile companies withdrawing from in-person expo booth experiences at IBC2021 in Amsterdam, set for December 3-6, Digital Nirvana had confirmed that it is staying the course and will move ahead with a display highlighting its broadcast captioning and metadata generation products.

At IBC2021, Digital Nirvana was to be present at Stand 7.A08. There, the company planned to show off its Trance cloud-based transcription, captioning, and translation workflow; highlight the newest updates to MetadataIQ, its SaaS-based metadata-generation platform; and MonitorIQ, an AI-driven compliance logging and monitoring tool.

Now, Digital Nirvana will be using alternative methods for sharing news on its products.

MonitorIQ 8.0 is the newest version of Digital Nirvana’s AI-driven compliance logging and monitoring tool, which integrates with its Media Services Portal. MonitorIQ allows operators to record, store, monitor, analyze, and repurpose content. “Users can view live or recorded content across hundreds of channels from desktop and mobile devices in any remote location worldwide for instant recall of proof of performance, compliance, or ad placement,” Digital Nirvana says.

Natively recording content from any point in the video delivery chain, from distribution (SDI) to consumption (OTT and STB), MonitorIQ enables broadcasters to collect and use knowledge about their broadcast content to meet a wide range of regulatory and compliance requirements.

NEW YORK — With vendors saying no to Amsterdam in two weeks, others are saying yes to the Big Apple, as TE1 and TE2 DSP engines and remote production products from Solid State Logic (SSL) will be among the wares on display at the Sports Video Group (SVG) Summit.

The event is scheduled for December 12-13 and will be held at the New York Hilton. And, SSL’s presence there coincides with its decision to rejoin the Sports Video Group, an industry organization supporting the sports broadcast community since 2006.

Nigel Beaumont, Managing Director of Solid State Logic, commented, “SSL thought it was the right time to return to SVG, both in terms of our new product and technology offerings and in light of the very encouraging state of the sports broadcast industry at large. We look forward to seeing everyone in New York.”

Unlike other locales, the City of New York strictly enforces COVID-19 vaccination in nearly all large indoor areas, from Midtown Manhattan pubs to the Harvard Club, site of last week’s highly successful Forecast conference staged by Radio + Television Business Report and Radio Ink.

During the SVG Summit, SSL will be showcasing its AoIP based broadcast production solutions, including new System T V3.1 software, which introduces pay-as-you-go DSP licensing via new TE1 and TE2 Tempest Engines.

This, SSL says, allows broadcasters to flexibly scale processing capabilities according to broadcast production requirements. In addition to the new Tempest Engines, attendees will get the opportunity to learn how System T users “are taking advantage of ahead-of-the-curve decentralized production capabilities, large-scale remote production solutions and multi-operator workflows, all the way to easily managing ‘at home’ requirements.”

To find out more or book a consultation at SVG Summit, please visit the SSL Events Page. To learn more about SSL’s broadcast solutions, including its new DSP Tempest Engines, please visit the company’s broadcast audio page.