Industry News

Giving the industry only a day or so of notice, the FCC’s Media Bureau announced that its Consolidated Database System (CDBS) online filing system, used by broadcasters for decades, will no longer accept filings effective at 5 p.m. Eastern today, Jan. 12.

The agency announced new and apparently transitional procedures for types of filings that are currently submitted in CDBS, ones that cannot yet be entered in the newer LMS system.

The move is necessary due to what the FCC calls “pressing technical issues that prevent effective use of CDBS going forward and to facilitate the ongoing transition of all filings to the Licensing and Management System.” It did point out that the majority of types of broadcast filings had already migrated off of CDBS.

The new procedures are apparently transitional, but the Media Bureau emphasized that it expects this to be “a permanent sunset of the use of CDBS for Media Bureau filing.” [Read the announcement.]

So for now, effective with today’s sunset of CDBS filings, broadcasters will need to submit those FCC forms not currently accepted in LMS as an attachment in an email in PDF format, according to the announcement, and the FCC staff will have to enter them manually into its system.

The Media Bureau listed the following filings that will be required to be submitted by email to mailto:audiofilings@fcc.gov:

• AM Application for Construction Permit for Commercial Broadcast Station on Form 301
• AM Application for Construction Permit for Reserved Channel Noncommercial Educational Broadcast Station on Form 340
• AM Applications for Broadcast Station License on Form 302
• Special Temporary Authority (STA) Engineering Requests and Extension of Engineering STA Requests for all audio service stations
• Silent STA / Notification of Suspension/ Resumption of Operations / Extension of Silent STA Requests for all audio service stations
• Change in official mailing address
• AM Digital Notification on Form 335-AM
• All-Digital AM Notification on Form 335-AM
• FM Digital Notification on Form 335-FM
• Amendments to pending applications previously submitted in CDBS
• Pleadings (Petitions to Deny, Informal Objections, Oppositions, Replies, Supplements, Petitions for Reconsideration and Applications for Review) concerning applications submitted through CDBS or using the email procedures outlined in the Public Notice

Note that other filing types that had already transitioned to LMS, including FM and FM NCE applications for CPs, must continue to be submitted using LMS.

Media Bureau staff will be entering all pertinent information from the above types of emailed filings into CDBS, the FCC said. “Since this will be a manual process, it may take 1–2 business days to receive a confirmation of your filing.”

The FCC noted that informal filings, such as requests for Special Temporary Authority or Silent Station Notifications, submitted by letter may still be submitted in PDF or Word format.

The majority of applications and submissions have already transitioned from CDBS to LMS. The FCC launched its e-filing LMS forms system for TV licensees in late 2014. The transition for radio broadcasters began in May 2019 with radio station renewal applications.

The FCC says the public will continue to have access to CDBS for public searches and CDBS data files.

Additional information about the LMS system and which filings are supported by LMS can be found at the Media Bureau’s LMS Help Center.

One leading consultant, Gary Cavell of Cavell Mertz & Associates, told Radio World, “Based upon what the Public Notice outlined, the interim procedure for non-LMS filings should be relatively painless. My only long term concern is having continued access to some of the historical data and filing attachments that were a part of CDBS, but I understand that the FCC is aware of the need.”

The post FCC Ends Broadcaster Filings in CDBS appeared first on Radio World.

Since 1996 it has offered radio stations products and services it believes can lead to better sales, improved ratings and reduced expenses for 100% barter.

Now, Sun & Fun Media is having a little fun itself, as it officially celebrates 25 years of operations.

The Orlando-based network radio was founded by CEO Rob Koblasz. Today Sun & Fun serves more than 1,400 stations across the U.S.

For those unfamiliar with Sun & Fun Media, the company has established itself as a radio industry supplier of products and services needed by radio stations for barter — including vacations, incentives, gift cards, vehicle wraps, branded station merchandise, bill pay for NTR events, television and billboard advertising for stations, research, consultants, transmitters and other equipment, and even software.

The company has even paid electric bills on barter, Koblasz says.

His company has even worked with large radio groups to cover costs for corporate managerial meetings and office holiday parties.

Among those saluting Sun & Fun on its 25 years is SummitMedia/Omaha President Rick Parrish, who calls it “a terrific company to work with to find incentives for your sales team or vacations and trips for on-air giveaways.”

In March 1980, Viacom purchased its second broadcast TV station, a CBS affiliate serving the Capital District of New York. By October 1981, it swapped network affiliations with one of the world’s first color TV stations, with WAST-13 becoming WNYT. 

The NBC affiliate serving Albany-Schenectady-Troy has been the market’s NBC affiliate ever since, and a Hubbard Broadcasting property since a June 1996 asset swap that gave WTOG-44 in Tampa-St. Petersburg to Viacom in exchange of WNYT and WHEC-10 in Rochester, N.Y.

Today, WNYT serves New York’s capital region with a digital VHF signal. Hubbard wants it to move to a more powerful digital UHF signal, while keeping its PSIP. Before such a decision is made at the FCC, it is seeking public comment on the request.

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The goal is to make it an annual event, hosted by Veritonic, a company focused on technology offering brands, publishers, and agencies with the data they need “to optimize their omni-channel audio investments across podcasts, streaming audio, broadcast radio, audiobooks, and video.”

And, it is scheduled for Tuesday, March 1 in New York.

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A Saas platform that was created in 2015 in Portland, Ore., with the intent of helping marketers understand the value of each customer touchpoint across radio, TV, podcasts, streaming services, digital and other advertising channels has been acquired by a Canadian “convergence intelligence platform” for small and mid-size businesses founded in Vancouver, B.C.

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Sinclair Broadcast Group has entered into multi-year renewals of the NBC affiliations and Fox affiliations in a total of 20 Sinclair markets.

Agreements with NBC include affiliates in San Antonio, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Providence-New Bedford, RI; Toledo, OH; Syracuse, NY; Tri-Cities, TN-VA; Johnstown-Altoona-State College, PA; Tallahassee, FL-Thomasville, GA; Traverse City-Cadillac, MI; Missoula, MT; Wheeling-Steubenville, OH; and Butte-Bozeman, MT.

Agreements with Fox include affiliates in Bakersfield, CA; Chattanooga, TN; Corpus Christi, TX; Fresno/Visalia, CA; Lincoln, NE; Macon, GA; Omaha, NE; Sioux City, IA; Tallahassee, FL; and Wheeling, WV/ Steubenville, OH.

The NBC affiliations were also renewed by Sinclair partners in four markets that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under a joint sales agreement or master service agreement: Cunningham Broadcasting Group, the licensee of KRNV, a station in Reno, NV; Deerfield Media, the licensee of WPMI in Mobile-Pensacola; Howard Stirk Holdings, the licensee of WEYI in Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, MI; and Roberts Media, the licensee of KMTR, KMCB and KTCW in Eugene, OR.

The Fox affiliations were also renewed by Sinclair partners in seven markets that Sinclair provides sales and other services to under a joint sales agreement or master service agreement: Cunningham Broadcasting Group, the licensee of KCVU, a station in Chico-Redding, CA, KBVU in Eureka, CA, WYDO in Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC, WPFO in Portland, ME and WEMT in Tri-Cities, TN-VA; New Age Media, the licensee of WOLF in Wilkes-Barre-Scranton, PA; and GoCom Media of Illinois, the licensee of WRSP in Champaign & Springfield-Decatur, IL.

The 30 renewed markets serve approximately 11 million households.

Will Bell, Sinclair’s VP/Head of Distribution and Network Relations, commented, “We are pleased to renew our agreements with NBC and Fox on terms that are fair to all parties in this evolving media landscape. We look forward to continuing to work with both NBC and Fox in providing the popular news, sports, and other entertainment programming that viewers highly value.”

DALLAS — A “local news innovation lab” is in the works for CBS Stations. And, it is ViacomCBS’s owned-and-operated CBS station serving North Texas that is taking the responsibility of housing it and building the “home of a curated team who will be empowered to experiment with next-generation storytelling.”

How does CBS define that?

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In mid-December, the leaders of Spanish Independent Broadcast Network opted to part ways with its low-power television station serving the Valley of the Sun.

Who’s the buyer? It’s the same entity that two years ago snagged a LPTV facility serving the Verde Valley, home to towns such as Jerome and Sedona, Ariz.

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A pair of licensees tied to North Carolina-based Curtis Media Group have agreed to spin a pair of AM radio stations, and one FM translator, to another media company operating in the state.

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While meetings take place between the United States, Russia and other organizations to discuss Russia’s aggressive posture along Ukraine’s borders, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says Russia is continuing a campaign to silence independent media and drive RFE/RL out of the country.

“In concert with the threat posed by the 100,000 soldiers Russia has deployed along Ukraine’s borders,” said RFE/RL President Jamie Fly in a press release, “Russia’s bullying actions against independent journalism have also intensified. RFE/RL will continue to provide the Russian people with the news and information they need to hold their government accountable.”

RFE/RL said that on Dec. 3, four current and former RFE/RL journalists were named foreign agents, and on Dec. 30, Russia named two more RFE/RL journalists along with others as individual media foreign agents. The organization said this designation makes the journalists subject to onerous and invasive financial reporting requirements and forces them to add lengthy, legally mandated labels of their “foreign agent” status to all electronic communications or posted content.

These additions bring the number of individuals named to the Justice Ministry’s media “foreign agent” list to 75, and another 36 media organizations are also labeled as foreign agents.

RFE/RL said, due to its refusal to submit to the labeling provisions, Russia’s communications regulator has issued another series of violation protocols against RFE/RL, the eighth since the beginning of last year. RFE/RL now faces a total of some 1 billion rubles (US$13.4 million) in fines, which it continues to fight in Russian court. It has also filed suit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the law.

The post Russia Continues Campaign to Silence Media, RFE/RL Says appeared first on Radio World.