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As of September 29, 2021, the second-largest investor in Townsquare Media reported having a 6.39% stake in the “local first” owner of radio stations in small and medium-sized markets.
It has now revealed in a SEC filing that it has taken a bigger position in Townsquare.
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The advocacy and lobbying group acting on behalf of the nation’s small and independently-owned MVPDs has filed comments with the FCC that present the argument that broadcast television station owners’ fast-rising retransmission consent revenue needs to be tempered.
If not, consumers, and cable television service providers, will continue to be harmed.
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The Nebraska Broadcasters Association has joined the Society of Broadcast Engineers’ effort to bring new technical talent to the field of broadcasting through the SBE’s Technical Professional Training Program.
The SBE created the program at the beginning of 2021 in response to concerns about the ability to fill technical positions as current engineers age out of the workforce, as well as innovations in broadcasting technologies continue.
Launched in January, the NBA plans to cover the cost of TPTP enrollment for up to 12 enrollees, each accepted on a first-come, first-served basis for 2022. It has limited enrollment to one enrollee per dues-paying station employment unit.
[Related: SBE Launches New Training Program]
Jim Timm, president and executive director of the NBA, said many broadcast engineers are retiring faster than they can be replaced.
“Recognizing that many stations have a person or two on staff with some technical aptitude,” he said, “we feel the SBE’s TPT is an ideal way to help them expand their capabilities and potentially, groom some future engineers for NBA member stations.”
The Missouri Broadcasters Association launched a similar support program in 2021. Terry Beth Harper, director of member services for the MBA, agreed that finding replacements for those who have or are getting ready to retire can be difficult.
“Someone just starting out might find the right fit in the technical environment, and this program gives them a chance to explore that world a little deeper,” she said.
SBE President Andrea Cummis, CBT, CTO, added, “The SBE continues to increase its education efforts, which includes the TPT. The Nebraska Broadcasters Association and Missouri Broadcasters Association have actively embraced the program, which will hopefully serve as models for other state associations to follow.”
[Related: Cummis Set to Take the Lead at SBE]
There have been 33 participants since the launch of the TPTP. So far, the fixed number of participants budgeted for by the SBE has not been met.
The cost of the SBE TPTP is $475. This includes a one-year SBE membership with SBE MemberPlus, a copy of SBE CertPreview, a copy of the SBE Engineering Handbook, enrollment in the SBE Mentor Program, and the SBE CBT certification exam application fee to be taken later.
The post Neb. Association Support for SBE Training appeared first on Radio World.
A Mississippi AM station finds itself liable for a monetary forfeiture of $7,000 after allegedly operating the station without authority.
Magnolia State Broadcasting, licensee of station WMOX(AM) in Meridian, Miss., was required to renew its broadcast license on Feb. 3, 2020, which was four months before the station’s license was set to expire on June 1, 2020. No application was filed on time, the Media Bureau said, and the station’s license expired. On June 5, Magnolia sought reinstatement of the station’s license, which the bureau treated as a petition for reconsideration. The bureau granted the petition, reinstated the station’s license and had the application formally filed on Sept. 25, 2021.
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But the Media Bureau said that Magnolia did not request special temporary authority to operate the station following the expiration of the station’s license. And because the station continued operating after the license expired, the Media Bureau said Magnolia was in violation of FCC rules. The licensee also failed to comply with the Communications Act by broadcasting for more than one day with an expired license.
The commission’s forfeiture policy establishes a base forfeiture amount of $3,000 for failure to file a license renewal application on time. The guidelines also specify a base forfeiture amount of $10,000 for operation without authorization. However, the commission can adjust the base amount upward or downward as it sees fit.
In its review of the facts and circumstances — including that Magnolia failed to file its license renewal application on time, continued to operate the station after the license expired and never filed an STA to operate the station after its license expired — the bureau proposed a final amount of $7,000.
Despite the forfeiture, the bureau found that Magnolia’s violation of the rules and the act do not present serious violations. The bureau also found no evidence that the violations constitute a pattern of abuse.
As a result the bureau agreed to grant Magnolia’s application as soon as this forfeiture proceeding is resolved. Magnolia has 30 days to submit payment.
The post Unauthorized Broadcasting Nets Miss. Station $7,000 Fine appeared first on Radio World.
It’s a town due south of Dallas known as the home of the Munster Mansion. And, it is the city of license for an AM and FM translator that at present is control by a husband and wife.
Pending FCC approval, their shares in the stations will be transferred to a single individual.
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Colleen Harper is stepping down from her role as the executive director of the Audio Engineering Society in March. Harper, a Certified Association Executive (CAE), has led the AES headquarters staff for the past three years, having started with the organization in January 2019.
During her time at the AES, Harper has worked with the Society’s volunteer leadership, members and industry partners to shepherd the organization through a period of radical transition due to the global pandemic.
“I care deeply about the AES, and I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” said Harper. “The past three years have been a tremendously rewarding experience and some of the most challenging and enjoyable years I could have imagined. My decision to step down has been a difficult one, but I leave knowing that I have accomplished the goals established when I joined the AES. As I leave to pursue a new challenge, I am genuinely sad to leave the Society, its dedicated staff and leadership, and the wonderful community that has accepted me as one of its own.”
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“The AES has been privileged to have Colleen’s experience and unique skill set to rely upon during trying times,” said Josh Reiss, AES President. “Not only is the AES in the best financial position it’s been in for years, despite a global pandemic, but Colleen has also helped usher in forward-looking operational plans, procedures and practices that will further solidify the Society’s role as the world’s leading professional audio technological organization. On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Board of Governors and the Society’s membership, we offer Colleen our sincere gratitude and wish her well as her career takes her in new directions.”
The AES Board of Directors will form a search committee to work with an outside search firm in the selection of Harper’s permanent replacement. Bill Foster, a veteran of AES leadership who served as Interim Executive Director during the search that led to the hiring of Harper, has agreed to serve again in that role following Harper’s departure in early March.
“Bill has proven his ability to see the Society through this type of transition,” said Reiss. “The Board of Directors has every confidence that he will once again provide the interim leadership needed. Colleen has set a high standard of performance that will be a perfect template to guide our search for her replacement.”
The post AES Executive Director Colleen Harper Steps Down appeared first on Radio World.
Bauer Media Audio and Grupo Media Capital announced a definitive agreement for Bauer to acquire Media Capital Rádios.
This acquisition, which involves four of the 10 most-listened-to stations in Portugal, marks the entry of Bauer Media Audio into the Portuguese market, expanding its audio business to nine countries.
“I’m confident that under Bauer Media’s ownership, these stations will continue to thrive, be very successful and grow,” stated Mário Ferreira, chair of Grupo Media Capital, in a release announcing the deal. “… I would like to thank our talented teams for their commitment and contribution to Media Capital Rádios.”
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“We are very much looking forward to working closely with the talented team at Media Capital Rádios,” stated Bauer Media Group COO Paul Keenan. “We are committed to continuing to offer trusted news and great music and entertainment to Portuguese audiences, while bringing investment and innovation which will benefit listeners and advertisers alike.”
The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, encompasses the audience-leading Rádio Comercial; M80, the third most-listened-to station nationwide and the No. 2 station in the Greater Lisbon area, behind Rádio Comercial; youth-oriented Cidade FM; and two niche stations, Smooth FM and Vodafone FM. Bauer is also acquiring MCR’s extensive digital portfolio of 30 digital radio stations and more than 60 podcasts.
In the latest Marktest Bareme Rádio survey, MCR stations recorded a 38.7% audience share and a 54% weekly reach. Rádio Comercial logged a cumulative audience of 20.1% — the highest value ever recorded in the survey.
This announcement follows the 2021 acquisitions by Bauer Media Audio in Slovakia, Ireland and Finland.
The post Bauer Media Expands to Portugal appeared first on Radio World.
A global public awareness campaign hopes to convince the world’s nations to implement the Common Alerting Protocol.
Already in use in most of the developed world, CAP is an international standard for alerting systems that ensures the delivery of accurate, detailed and consistent alerts across all media in emergency situations.
As outlined in an online document “Call to Action on Emergency Alerting,” the campaign’s goal is “to ensure that by 2025 all countries have the capability for effective, authoritative emergency alerting that leverages the CAP suitable for all media and all hazards.”
According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, a single CAP emergency message “can trigger a variety of public warning systems, increasing the likelihood that people receive the alert by one or more communication pathways.”
Heavy hitters
Support for this push is being provided by some big names in the international community. Endorsements have come from the likes of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Telecommunication Union, the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and Google.
AccuWeather and the World Meteorological Organization are onboard, as are the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the World Broadcasting Unions.
[Related: Campaign Aims for Global Use of CAP]
“Broadcasters play an essential role in communicating the key facts of an emergency, mindful that everyone in harm’s way must understand what is happening and what actions to take,” said Michael McEwen, head of the WBU Secretariat.
“This is why broadcasters embrace the CAP standard. … CAP makes public alerting faster, easier, less error-prone and more understandable. CAP helps a broadcaster be certain that an alert is authentic and authoritative, and to cross-check alerts from diverse sources. CAP alerts can also be compiled on a map to show how different aspects of the emergency are evolving.”
Proven in action
The effectiveness of CAP system was demonstrated in April 2021 when the La Soufrière volcano erupted explosively on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. Thanks to widespread and timely CAP alerts across all media, residents in the “red zone” were told to evacuate to safer areas.
The result: According to the Associated Press, “There were no immediate reports of casualties or injuries.”
Dionne John, general manager of National Broadcasting Corp. SVG, said, “The CAP alert system was very effective during and after the eruptions. It proved to be particularly useful in alerting persons who were heading back to the red zone, whether to clean their homes or otherwise, whether it was safe to do so because of lahars and other elements. The media in turn was able to disseminate this information in a timely manner. I am positive that this may have contributed significantly to no lives being lost.”
CAP also helps keep residents informed of emergency events such as forest fires, flooding and severe storms in Canada’s remote and rugged Far North.
“Standardized delivery of unattended alerts makes communities safer while making radio more relevant as a reliable last-mile delivery mechanism, especially when there are breakdowns with online media and smart phone outages,” said “Radio Rob” Hopkins, a radio engineer in Canada’s Yukon territory.
His company, OpenBroadcaster, manufactures open-source CAP broadcast appliances for the Indigenous community radio sector. “Although most agencies don’t know, authorized issuers of emergency messages have the ability to notify residents in Indigenous dialects,” Hopkins said.
Filling the gaps
For people in the developed world, widespread adoption of CAP is a fact of life. In the United States, for example, the federal CAP system “is an aggregation of more than 1,600 city, county and state level feeds across the country,” said Eliot Christian, CEO of Alert-Hub.org CIC, an NGO committed to taking CAP global.
In fact, “Seventy percent of the world’s population lives in a country that already has a national-level CAP system. Another 15%, based on population, live in countries that are actively working on deploying CAP right now.”
It is the remaining 15% — in some of the world’s poorest countries — who lack access to CAP systems. Those are the governments the 2025 CAP awareness campaign is trying to sway. “These are the countries that are most affected by disasters because they don’t have a lot of built-in resilience,” Christian told Radio World. “For instance, their people could lose their entire livelihoods in a single hurricane.
“So yes, it is the most vulnerable countries that are unfortunately the ones that have the least developed alerting systems,” he continued. “And yet it’s so easy to create a CAP alerting system, which is why the agencies supporting this campaign agreed that it was time to issue a Call to Action and to set a deadline, to raise awareness and try to cover that remaining 15%.”
To learn more about CAP and how to deploy it in your region, visit alert-hub.org.
Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post Campaign Aims for Global CAP Adoption appeared first on Radio World.
Podcast Business Journal
Who knew signing the most successful podcaster in the world would become such a headache? In addition to reporting quarterly earnings on Wednesday that includes a weaker Q1 2022 forecast and the revelation that it will no longer offer annual guidance, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had to field questions about the growing discontent from content creators over the Rogan show.
Ek told investors he’s trying “trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users. Of course, this is a very complicated issue. But I’m really proud of the steps that we took following the concerns raised by the medical and scientific communities.”
A handful of artists pulled their music from Spotify after objecting to guests Rogan has had on that are not lock-step in line with the COVID-19 vaccine. They believe Rogan is spreading misinformation about the vaccine.
Ek said the company does not “change our policies based on one creator nor do we change it based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else. While Joe has a massive audience… he also has to abide by those policies.
Rogan has apologized for causing this headache for Spotify and said he will strive for more balance.
Spotify’s stock dropped by nearly 17% to $159.70 on Thursday, but was up slightly in immediate after-hours trading.
As RBR+TVBR first reported Wednesday, Spotify in Q4 2021 had 406 million monthly active users, up 18% from a year earlier. Paying subscribers rose 16% to 180 million.
Revenue from subscriptions jumped 22% to $2.6 billion. Advertising revenue increased 40%. Advertising revenue has jumped from 10% of Spotify’s overall revenue to 15%.
Spotify now has 3.6 million podcasts available on its service, up from 3.2 million in the previous quarter.
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