For Washington, D.C., area residents, a trip to the beach may involve a drive east on U.S. 50 and an excursion to the beaches of Delaware. Among the towns popular with those in the National Capital Region is Rehoboth Beach.
It is here that a 41-year old FM that is presently “The Talk of Delmarva” is being spun. And, the seller is a “resort” … sort of.
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IBC says its convention in Amsterdam four weeks from now is a “go” and that attendees will not be required to wear masks once they’re inside.
“Following the update on COVID protocols from the Dutch government on Nov. 2, IBC is pleased to announce that its December event can go ahead in a safe and comfortable way,” it said in an announcement.
“As of Nov. 6, the public will be required to wear face masks in public areas where no COVID entry pass is used, including supermarkets, shops, libraries, theme parks and train stations. IBC Show will be exempt from these measures because it is organized within a perimeter where everyone must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test before entering the premises.”
So IBC2021 attendees will not be required to wear a face mask once they have entered the RAI and are inside the IBC Show bubble.
“Additionally …. bars and restaurants will operate between 6 a.m. and 12 a.m. Guests will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test, the same evidence needed to access the IBC Show. There will also be no change in entry requirements for international travelers, which means the show will remain accessible for almost 100% of IBC’s usual audience.”
A resource guide on its website explains the documentation necessary for international travelers.
Chief Executive Michael Crimp said the latest announcement from the government “will not impact the IBC Show visitor experience but, rest assured, we will be delivering the gold standard in live event safety.”
Related: IBC exhibition protocols.
The post The IBC Show Is “Full Steam Ahead” appeared first on Radio World.
On October 13, RBR+TVBR first reported on the conclusion of Entravision Communications’ licensing agreement with Univision Communications, with Univision opting not to renew the pact at year’s end. As such, Univision will take over the operations of the UniMás and Univision stations serving Orlando, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
On Friday, it became known that audience measurement services in those three markets will be delivered to Univision exclusively by a company that continues to fuel its desire to compete head-on with Nielsen in the U.S. broadcast TV marketplace.
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On Thursday, no less than eight broadcast media companies released their third quarter 2021 results. The day concluded with concurrent conference calls for analysts and investors from Entravision Communications, and from Salem Media Group.
With Friday’s trading underway, Salem shares were up. And, investors were pleased as the company known for its conservative Talk radio stations and its Christian-themed print and audio media content surpassed analysts’ estimates with its Q3 fiscal report card.
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According to analysts polled by Zacks Equity Research, The E.W. Scripps Co. — a much bigger operation today than a year ago thanks to its merger with Ion Media — was expected to post earnings per share of $0.12 in Q3. That would have reflected an 84.2% year-over-year decline, impacted by fewer political ad dollars.
How did Scripps do?
Much better than those prognostications, thank you. But, it is hardly because of the company’s Local Media unit.
For exclusive perspectives, projections, and visions for the broadcast industry directly from The E.W. Scripps Co. President/CEO Brian Lawlor (pictured, top left), there’s only one place to be on November 16. That’s Forecast 2022, located at the Harvard Club in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Lawlor is appearing in an Executive Super Session, sponsored by Skyview Networks. It’s your chance to see him in person, alongside the industry’s biggest leaders.
Don’t hesitate: REGISTER NOW!!
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It’s perhaps the ugliest retransmission consent impasse seen in recent months. On Friday, TEGNA took things up a notch by going to the FCC by submitting a cross-complaint against Dish for what it says is “its failure to comply” with the Commission’s “Good Faith” rules.
TEGNA also assails Dish for making “material misrepresentations” about its retransmission consent negotiations to the Commission, and to the public.
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From our People News page: At MARC Radio, Jerry Butler has been promoted to market manager for its Gainesville/Ocala operation.
He had joined the company last year to lead its local sales effort. MARC has eight stations in northern Florida. The announcement was made by Dave Cobb, executive vice president.
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Before MARC, Butler was vice president of sales at Music Master and was on the faculty at the University of Florida.
Send People News announcements to radioworld@futurenet.com. We are particularly interested in announcements about engineers and executive leadership.
The post Butler Is Promoted at MARC Radio appeared first on Radio World.
It’s hardly a surprise. The third quarter of 2020 brought broadcast media an incredible amount of political advertising, boosting revenue to unprecedented heights across the broadcast TV landscape.
One year later, with fewer political ad dollars, losses are expected. But, how big the loss is has emerged as the key investor question. At Graham Media Group, the decrease was in the mid-single-digits.
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The author is senior development engineer for Wheatstone Corp.
There’s nothing like a little audio performance testing to cap off a hectic week at the station, especially if you don’t have to haul out the heavy (read “expensive”) equipment to do it.
There are two main things I like to test: the flatness of the frequency response and the distortion added by equipment in the air chain. For this, you’ll need clean test signals and a way to measure those signals after they’ve passed through the air chain.
Measuring Distortion
Obtaining clean test signals is fairly easy. Most audio editing systems have the ability to synthesize low-distortion sine waves and then save them to a file.
I generate and analyze test tones using some software tools written by Sebastian Dunst, available from http://softsolutions.sedutec.de. Note that a license is required to use these tools in a “commercial” environment.
I use the SoftSolutions Multisine audio generator to synthesize single or multiple sine waves of any length or audio level, stereo or mono, and store them as a linear WAV file.
Fig. 1 (Left): Two sine waves at 1 and 2 kHz, equal amplitude. Fig. 2 (Right): Undistorted spectrum of two sine wave signal.Fig. 1 is the waveform that has resulted from adding a pair of sine waves at 1 kHz and 2 kHz, both at equal amplitude, to create a test signal. Then, with the SoftSolutions AudioAnalyzer software, I can analyze audio saved as a WAV file and display the distortion parameters I’m interested in.
Fig. 2 is the spectral analysis of the waveform from the above example. This would be what we’d see if we had a perfect air chain.
[Read the Complete Oct. 20, 2021 Issue of Radio World Engineering Extra]
If these two pure sine waves are fed through an air chain with no distortion (which isn’t possible, yet — all circuits add distortion), the analyzer would show only the original two signals. As the spectrum analysis shows, the rest of the audio spectrum would be clean — no other signals would appear above the bottom of the display.
But if there were distortion, what would it look like? It might appear similar to Fig. 3, showing many other signals in addition to the first two we started out with. The example is of a severe distortion problem — this air chain would sound horrible on the air!
Fig. 3 (Left): Severely distorted spectrum of two sine wave signal. Fig. 4 (Right): Waveform of 11 sine wave signal.Frequency Response
The same tools we just used to measure the distortion within the air chain can also be used to measure frequency response.
This time we’ll use the same software tools to generate a test signal that has many sine waves. By then sending this complex signal through the air chain and then looking at it on the analyzer, we’ll be able to see if the sine waves (at different frequencies) are coming back at equal levels.
Fig. 4 is the waveform of a test signal made up of sine waves at 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240 and 20480 Hz. In a perfect air chain, the analyzer would show all of the signals at their original and equal levels after passing through the air chain.
Fig. 5 (Left): Spectrum of undistorted 11 sine wave signal. Fig. 6 (Right): 11 sine wave spectrum through an air chain with some problems.Fig. 5 shows that all of the signals are present and that they all reach the same audio level. This represents “flat” (good) frequency response.
What would the analysis look like if there were a loss of low frequencies due to, for instance, dried out electrolytic capacitors in some part of an analog signal path?
It might look like the next display, shown in Fig. 6. Note how the signals at lower frequencies are quite a bit lower compared to the mid and high frequencies. This station would have a “weak” bottom end, no matter what they tried to do with the audio processing.
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There are many tools available, both hardware and software, that can be used to quantify the quality of the station’s air chain. Remember that it is not important which tools are used but rather that they are used to check occasionally to see if the station’s air chain is healthy.
If the air chain isn’t up to snuff, it doesn’t matter what audio processor, transmitter, STL or exciter the station has, because the on-air sound can never be better than that of the weakest link.
The post Audio Performance Testing on the Cheap appeared first on Radio World.
The Federal Communications Commission agreed to renew the license of an Alabama FM translator station — but only on the contingency that it enter into a consent decree and agree to make a $13,000 penalty payment.
After getting the green light to begin operating FM translator W299BX at the same site as its primary station WARB(AM) in Dothan, Ala., back in 2015, Alabama Media LLC had both stations go quiet for nearly 10 months in 2015 and 2016. Then in September 2016, the translator began operation from a recently constructed tower located nearby, with WARB following suit a few days later. Two months after that, Alabama Media moved three of its four full-power stations to this new so-called Dothan Tower.
[Read: Florida Licensee Faces $3,000 Forfeiture After Late Filing Penalty]
And while the broadcaster filed modification applications to relocate its full-power stations, it inadvertently failed to file a modification application for the translator.
A complaint was filed by broadcaster WOOF Inc. soon after, saying that Alabama Media did not have approval to operate the translator at that site. WOOF operates 99.7 WOOF(FM) and 560 WOOF(AM), both in Dothan, Ala. Two days later, Alabama Media filed a modification application and requested special temporary authority (STA) to operate at the new site.
The Media Bureau responded (note that the decision took nearly 2.5 years, into March 2017) and granted both the modification application and STA. The bureau also found that Alabama Media was liable for a monetary forfeiture of $18,000 for several violations: unauthorized operation, originating programming without authorization, failing to notify the FCC of its intent to discontinue operations for 10 or more days, failing to obtain approval to discontinue operations for more than 30 days and failing to file proper forms needed when relocating a translator. The bureau gave Alabama Media 30 days to pay the full amount or submit a written statement seeking reduction.
In April 2019 Alabama Media responded and asked the bureau to reduce the forfeiture, saying it could not afford to pay that amount since the company has operated at a net loss for the past four years. As a smaller broadcaster, Alabama Media said, it does not have access to lines of credit or other readily available funds. And besides, the broadcaster said, a reduced forfeiture is all the admonishment it needs to deter any future misconduct.
But the Media Bureau was not persuaded. “[T]he mere fact that a business is operating at a loss does not by itself mean that it cannot afford to pay a forfeiture,” the bureau said in its order. The bureau ruled that financial hardship in this case is not enough to approve a reduction of the $18,000.
But something did sway the bureau to decrease the forfeiture: Alabama Media’s track record as a rule-following licensee. “[W]e find that a reduction from the forfeiture amount proposed in the [notice] is appropriate given that Alabama Media does not have a history of prior offenses.”
As a result, the bureau entered into a consent decree with Alabama Media in which the broadcaster admitted to the charges laid out by the bureau and agreed to make a $13,000 civil penalty payment. The bureau also denied the earlier objection raised by WOOF since the licensee did not show how Alabama Media’s continued operation of the translator would be against public interest.
The post Consent Decree (Plus Good Behavior) Results in Reduced Forfeiture appeared first on Radio World.
The third quarter 2021 results from the largest audio content creator and distributor in the U.S., iHeartMedia, were released shortly before the company’s two top leaders, Bob Pittman and Rich Bressler, played host to analysts and investors in a conference call scheduled for 4:30pm Eastern.
How did the company do? As the answer was shared, investors snapped up iHeart shares in immediate after-hour trading on Thursday.
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In 2021, Entravision Communications fully transitioned from a Hispanic-centric U.S.-focused media company to a global digital advertising player with its decision to take full ownership in Cisneros Interactive. This followed Entravision’s acquisition of Singapore-based Media Donuts.
Now, Entravision has invested in Africa, with its acquisition of a South African digital ad solutions company.
The news came just as Entravision distributed its third-quarter earnings results.
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