He’s the President of Miller Communications, located in Chaplin, S.C.
And, he has just signed off on an agreement that will see the transfer of an FM translator serving Orangeburg, S.C.
The buyer is full of Glory.
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After 15 years as chief executive and 23 years with the organization, a Boston public media leader has decided to exit at the end of 2022.
What does this mean for GBH?
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NAB has told the FCC that it opposes a proposal from the U.S. Forest Service to assess an annual programmatic fee on communication uses to cover the Forest Service’s costs of administering its communications use program.
“NAB believes the Forest Service’s current proposal is unlawful, inequitable, and undermines the public interest,” the association told the FCC in comments filed this week. “Citing the ‘need for wireless connectivity for teleworking, tele-education, telehealth, and telemedicine,’ and the need for the Forest Service to ‘do its part by ensuring it has the necessary staff and expertise to administer its communications use program,’ the Proposed Rule seeks to collect an additional ‘annual programmatic administrative fee of $1,400 per communications use authorization for wireless uses such as television and radio broadcasting, cellular telephone, and microwave’ to cover the costs of administering the Forest Service’s communications use program.”
U.S. Forest Service communications use sites as shown in the agency’s GIS tool.In its filing, NAB said the proposed fee would increase the total fee liability for existing broadcast uses serving smaller communities by nearly eight-fold in some cases, threatening their economic viability and potentially resulting in the loss of essential broadcast services in rural and remote areas.
“While NAB agrees that providing increased broadband access to rural communities is an important objective, the Proposed Rule undermines television viewers’ access to critical news and information in the process by drastically increasing the total fees broadcasters serving rural populations pay for communications use authorizations,” the association said. “Over-the-air broadcast television and radio are important sources of news and information to Americans, particularly for households with limited income in rural and tribal areas.”
NAB noted that while some “full-power” broadcasters successfully serve large populations from communications sites on Forest Service lands, such as Mt. Wilson near Los Angeles and Sandia Crest near Albuquerque, other lower-power (but still primary) broadcast stations, often family-run or non-profit, are licensed to serve small communities from Forest Service communication sites.
The association said that the fee could hamper broadcasters in meeting their public service commitments.
“Regardless of power level, all primary broadcast stations have federally-mandated coverage, program, and record-keeping requirements, making service of small communities much more economically challenging,” it said.
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NAB added that its public obligations negate the idea that broadcasters could pass these increased costs on to consumers.
“Given that broadcasters are still dealing with the adverse economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, such a substantial unplanned increase in fee liability will force broadcasters to make difficult decisions regarding whether it makes economic sense to maintain these operations, potentially resulting in the loss of essential broadcast services in rural and remote areas. Such an outcome would contravene federal policy to make broadcast television and radio services available throughout the nation.”
NAB suggested that the Forest Service consider alternative fee structures that would base the administrative fee on existing rules and policies tied to the highest value use, market size, and related factors to minimize the risk of disenfranchising persons located in rural areas.
“If the Forest Service nevertheless chooses to move forward with its proposal to assess the fee on existing authorizations, at a minimum it should allow for a phase-in period of five years or longer to minimize the potential harmful impacts on existing authorizations and the communities they serve,” NAB said.
Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post NAB Opposes Forest Service Proposal to Add Comms Fee for Rural Coverage appeared first on Radio World.
Investors are excited, with shares rising by more than 21% in Wednesday morning’s trading on the NYSE.
Audacy Corp. swung to net income, from a net loss seen in both Q4 2020 and Q4 2019, as net revenue climbed year-over-year to give the company a particularly rosy fourth quarter of 2021.
That said, Audacy’s return to 2019’s revenue performance hasn’t come yet, putting it a step behind its prime competitor in the audio content creation and distribution business.
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Ashruf El-Dinary will receive the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award for 2022.
The television recipient will be Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations for Capitol Broadcasting Co.’s television stations.
El-Dinary is senior vice president of digital platforms at Xperi Corp. He oversees the company’s HD Radio systems engineering teams, manages certification and quality control processes, and represents HD Radio technology standards in discussions with the International Telecommunications Union and international regulatory bodies.
He currently leads the efforts for new broadcast applications, upgrades to emergency alerting, and deployment of digital radio solutions internationally.
“El-Dinary has over 20 years of experience in developing HD Radio technology and holds a number of patents for innovative digital radio solutions,” NAB wrote.
“He previously worked at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory developing scientific instrumentation in support of space research programs and launched solutions on several satellites. He also taught signal processing courses at JHU’s Whiting School of Engineering.”
Other recent recipients of the radio award include Dave Hershberger, Jeff Welton of Nautel and Gary Cavell of Cavell-Mertz. A full list appears at bottom.
[Read El-Dinary’s commentary “HD Radio’s History of Innovation and Future of Growth”]
Peter Sockett is responsible for leading and steering the technology needs of CBC and preparing for the coming trends affecting broadcasting, NAB wrote, saying he has been instrumental in a total rebuild of CBC’s HD technical plant, the launch of the first non-linear HD newsroom, development of workflows for IP-ENG, implementation of Mobile DTV and Mobile EAS, creation of the first 4K-HDR documentary produced at a local TV station, the launch of the first commercial, simulcast TV station using the ATSC 3.0 standard, and the launch of local sports channel WNGT.
He also sits on the board of directors for the Advanced Television Systems Committee and is the chair of the ATSC 3.0 Advanced Emergency Alerting Implementation Team. He has earned three Emmy Awards, Broadcasting & Cable’s Technical Leadership Award and an Edward R. Murrow award. He is a co-inventor of a patent for geolocation.
The NAB Engineering Achievement Awards will be given during the NAB Show in Las Vegas in April.
HONOR ROLLRecipients of the NAB Engineering Achievement Award are listed here. Beginning in 1991, radio and TV winners were named; radio winners are shown.
1960 T.A.M. Craven
1961 Raymond F. Guy
1962 Ralph N. Harmon
1963 Dr. George R. Town
1964 John H. DeWitt Jr.
1965 Edward W. Allen Jr.
1966 Carl J. Meyers
1967 Robert M. Morris
1968 Howard A. Chinn
1969 Jarrett L. Hathaway
1970 Philip Whitney
1971 Benjamin Wolfe
1972 John M. Sherman
1973 A. James Ebel
1974 Joseph B. Epperson
1975 John D. Silva
1976 Dr. Frank G. Kear
1977 Daniel H. Smith
1978 John A. Moseley
1979 Robert W. Flanders
1980 James D. Parker
1981 Wallace E. Johnson
1982 Julius Barnathan
1983 Joseph Flaherty
1984 Otis S. Freeman
1985 Carl E. Smith
1986 Dr. George Brown
1987 Renville H. McMann
1988 Jules Cohen
1989 William Connolly
1990 Hilmer Swanson
1991 George Marti
1992 Edward Edison & Robert L. Hammett
1993 Robert M. Silliman
1994 Charles T. Morgan
1995 Robert Orban
1996 Ogden Prestholdt
1997 George Jacobs
1998 John Battison
1999 Geoffrey Mendenhall
2000 Michael Dorrough
2001 Arno Meyer
2002 Paul Schafer
2003 John W. Reiser
2004 E. Glynn Walden
2005 Milford Smith
2006 Benjamin Dawson & Ronald Rackley
2007 Louis A. King
2008 Thomas B. Silliman
2009 Jack Sellmeyer
2010 Steve Church
2011 L. Robert du Treil
2012 Paul Brenner
2013 Frank Foti
2014 Jeff Littlejohn
2015 Thomas F. King
2016 Andy Laird
2017 John Kean
2018 Tom Jones
2019 Garrison Cavell
2020 Jeff Welton
2021 David Hershberger
2022 Ashruf El-Dinary
The post El-Dinary to Receive NAB Engineering Award appeared first on Radio World.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications is accepting nominations for its 2022 class of inductees to the Radio Hall of Fame. The nominating committee will accept suggestions for nominees through Mar. 31, 2022.
“We desire the input and suggestions of both industry members and longtime radio listeners, both who have front row seats to radio programs hosted by very deserving air personalities the 2022 Nominating Committee members should give consideration to,” stated Kraig T. Kitchin, chair of the Radio Hall of Fame.
[Related: “Radio Hall of Fame Announces 2021 Inductees”]
Suggestions for Radio Hall of Fame nominees can be made in the following categories:
To submit a name for consideration, visit https://www.radiohalloffame.com/nominate.
Inductees will be honored at the annual Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony, with plans to be held live in Chicago on Thursday, October 27, 2022.
The Radio Hall of Fame was founded by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. The Museum of Broadcast Communications took over operations of the Hall in 1991.
The post Radio Hall of Fame Seeks Nominations appeared first on Radio World.
In addition to releasing its Q4 2021 earnings report, Sinclair Broadcast Group on Wednesday offered investors some good news with respect to its quarterly dividend — it’s bigger.
The news came as the company named a C-Suite revenue leader its COO while it cheers on a new leader at its ABC affiliate in the Nation’s Capital.
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On Wednesday (2/23), iHeartMedia Chairman/CEO Bob Pittman was scheduled to be on stage in Music City USA as the Country Radio Seminar kicks off day one, in-person, in Nashville.
He began the day bright and early, with a 7:30am Central start time for the company’s Q4 2021 earnings call, which began minutes after the release of the iHeart fiscal health report.
How did iHeart do? “We’re delighted to report another strong quarter,” Pittman said.
He wasn’t exaggerating.
Total revenue for iHeartMedia in the final three months of 2021 increased by 3.5% from the same period of 2019, coming in at $1.062 billion, rising from $1.026 billion. It grew 14% compared to Q4 2020.
The revenue beat the consensus revenue estimate of $1.04 billion.
What drove this? Digital.
In short, Digital is on fire, and COO/CFO Rich Bressler shared details about the “consistently and stability” of iHeart’s assets during the quarter.
Sequential revenue improvement against 2019 was also noted by Bressler, with Q4 2021’s achievement truly noteworthy. Why? The biggest driver of revenue for iHeartMedia, its Multiplatform Group, was down 14.4% compared to 2019. Audio & Media Services Group revenue dipped by 2% when compared to two years ago in the non-pandemic impacted quarter.
Podcasting revenue was up 130% year-over-year, Bressler noted.
How is iHeartMedia’s net debt faring? It sat at $5.387 billion as 2021 came to a close.
Meanwhile, Q1 2022 revenue is expected to be up by 17%-19% year over year, Bressler said.
Shares of iHeartMedia stock were priced at $20 ahead of the Opening Bell on Wednesday.
iHeartMedia Q4: By The Numbers
Universal Audio has introduced its first microphones, the start of a string of offerings that will roll out this year.
Many of the mics build on the technologies and expertise acquired by UA when it purchased the Bock Audio brand in 2020 followed by the technology acquisition of Townsend Labs Inc. in 2021. “We’re excited to bring UA’s audio expertise to microphones, and to bring something new to the table,” said Bill Putnam, CEO/founder of Universal Audio. “With Bock, Sphere, and the new Standard Series mics, there’s a UA mic within reach of every serious creator.”
Handmade in Santa Cruz, the new flagship UA Bock mics, due to arrive in autumn 2022, will be a trio of premium tube- and FET-based models designed by David Bock. The large-diaphragm UA Bock mics will include the UA Bock 187 ($1,249) FET condenser mic and the UA Bock 167 ($2,999) and UA Bock 251 ($5,999) tube-condenser mics.
“The UA Bock mics are the best-sounding and most beautiful mics I’ve had the pleasure of designing over my long career,” said Bock. “These mics are going to have discriminating singers, producers, and audio engineers smiling from ear-to-ear.”
Coming in at a more widely accessible price point is the Standard Series of microphones, kicking off with the Standard SD-1 dynamic mic. Intended for vocal, broadcast and streaming applications, the $299 mic is now shipping. Coming this summer will be the Standard SP-1 pencil mic for stereo recording of instruments and live performances, running $399 a pair.
With the technology acquisition of Townsend Labs Inc., UA is aligning the company’s proprietary Sphere Modeling Microphone technology with its own UAD audio plug-in platform, with the aid of modeling guru Chris Townsend. The Sphere L22 Modeling Microphone, offering 34 classic mic models, remains shipping at $1,499.
UA Standard Series and UA Bock microphones include presets for use with UA Apollo audio interfaces.
The post Universal Audio Unveils First Microphones appeared first on Radio World.
With Nexstar Media Group‘s Tuesday release of its Q4 and full-year 2021 financial results, a particular palette was compiled for what could be an exposition of deceptively disappointing fiscal reports. Yes, year-over-year topline numbers for broadcast television’s biggest players are down. But, very tough comps due to record political revenue in the final months of 2020 are at play.
Ex-political, Nexstar did well. But, how did Sinclair Broadcast Group fare in Q4?
The key word is “soft.” An October 2021 “Cyber Event” played a major role in the company’s performance.
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