Industry News

Example of an HD Radio visual alert on a Harman receiver.

Xperi believes its HD Radio technology is an efficient methodology for wirelessly broadcasting alert messages in the United States. Now it has submitted a report to the FCC in support of that argument.

The report includes information about the performance of HD Radio digital emergency alerting during the recent nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System.

“Digital emergency alerts delivered through HD Radio broadcasting offer diversity, reliability and resiliency of public safety messages,” the company told the commission.

[Related: National EAS Test Showed Improvement, FCC Says]

Xperi said it evaluated the reception of test alerts via HD Radio broadcast, ATSC broadcast and Wireless Emergency Alerts cellular service.

“The HD Radio alert system performed as well as the other digital alert services and demonstrated significant market coverage and low-latency delivery,” Xperi wrote.

HD Radio coverage area and test site for KOIT(FM) 96.5 MHz, San Francisco.

It points out that broadcast radio is not subject to network congestion delays and outages imposed by natural disasters associated with cellular standards such as LTE and 5G.

“Furthermore, anecdotal observations indicate that wireless alert latencies can vary across cellular carriers. While HD Radio alerts may have latency in different markets, the message notification to devices is generally consistent within a geographic region. Therefore, it is presumed that HD Radio alerts may, in many cases, be detected before wireless alerts are detected.”

Though acknowledging that the test was not “exhaustive or comprehensive,” Xperi wrote: “The tests confirmed that the latency for alerts to reach an HD Radio receiver was comparable to the latency for WEA alerts. There generally was a 10 to 20 second difference between the receipt of the emergency alert on the HD Radio receiver and on a mobile device — with the HD Radio emergency alert arriving first in some instances and the WEA arriving first in others. In some cases, no WEA alert was received at locations where an alert was received on the HD Radio device.”

It concludes that HD Radio emergency alerts “provide needed redundancy and corroborate messages received from other sources.”

It plans more testing to include “a wider distribution of digital radio markets and a deeper evaluation of digital TV (ATSC and ATSC3.0) message delivery.”

Here’s the Xperi presentation as filed with the FCC, including detailed observation data.

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Xperi Files Data on HD Radio Alerting appeared first on Radio World.

In November 2012, Bruce James and his Vermont Broadcast Associates engaged in a transaction that saw the sale of a 100-watt FM serving a small town some 100km south of Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Just over nine years later, the FM is officially defunct. Rather than try to find a buyer, the owner surrendered the station’s license.

Without comment, the FCC on January 19 moved forward with the cancellation of the license of WQJQ-FM 100.1 in Barton, Vt.

The station, which is now “DWQJQ” in the FCC database to reflect the call letters’ deletion, was owned by Capital Broadcasting Associates.

Led by Michael Percy, Capital had been using the station to simulcast WGMT-FM 97.7 in Lyndon, Vt., covering the St. Johnsbury, Vt.-Berlin, N.H. regional area.

No reason is known for Percy’s decision to surrender the property. He paid $25,000 for WQJQ nearly a decade ago.

However, WGMT has partial coverage of the Barton area, which is fairly rural. It is serviced by Vermont Public Co. stations and by Adult Contemporary WMOO-FM in Newport, Vt., while a host of out-of-region stations can be heard, including those from Canada broadcasting mainly in Quebeçois French.

The decision to turn in WQJQ’s license is a rarity, as it is an FM station. In recent months, a host of companies have turned in their AM radio station licenses to the FCC, for various reasons.

Cumulus Media did so in 2020; Beasley Media Group also opted to do so with one South Florida AM. Saga Communications did so in fall 2021. Additionally, in September 2021 KPHP Radio — an entity tied to Donald B. Crawford and Crawford Broadcasting — voluntarily surrendered the KKPZ license to the FCC. The Commission, as such, immediately cancelled the license of KKPZ.

Meanwhile, in May 2021 Fort Myers Broadcasting Company surrendered to the Commission the licenses of WAXA-AM 1200 in Fort Myers, Fla. and WNPL-AM 1460 in Naples, Fla.

Given the focus on the FM translators and not the AMs, and the ability to feed FM translators from a digital multicast signal in HD Radio led Fort Myers Broadcasting Company to simply give up the WAXA and WNPL licensees.

But, in other cases, the programming heard on the deleted station disappeared altogether.

In Vermont, what was heard on WQJQ will continue on the originating station.

Audacy named JR Ammons as operations manager of KQRC(FM) “98.9 The Rock,” KRBZ(FM) “ALT 96.5,” WDAF(FM) “106.5 The Wolf” and KZPT(FM) “99.7 The Point” in Kansas City.

He’ll also be brand manager of 106.5 The Wolf and 99.7 The Point. He starts Feb. 1.

The announcement was made by Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Audacy Kansas City Roxanne Marati.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

It is a return to Audacy, the former Entercom, for Ammons. For 11 years he has been operations manager for three stations in Indianapolis that were owned by Entercom until their sale to Cumulus three years ago.

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Ammons Is Back With Audacy appeared first on Radio World.

He’s spent the last seven years as VP/GM of the internal digital agency of WEHCO Media.

Starting today (1/24), he’s the new VP of Digital Sales at Beasley Media Group.

Pat Eastburn joins the audio content and distribution company from WEHCO’s Flypaper Digital Marketing.

He reports to Beasley Media Group Chief Digital Officer Todd Handy and focus on leveraging his experience across the entire digital sales team. Eastburn will also have a focus on new products, services and key verticals.

“Pat was the consensus choice as the top candidate for this role given his extensive background in leading digital agency sales teams and disrupting traditional media channels,” Handy said.

Eastburn expressed excitement in joining a company that is “so well-respected.” He commented, “I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the entire team. I believe that digital marketing has significant potential as an industry relative to current and future opportunity. Combine that opportunity with top level talent and the sky is the limit.”

From 1989-2007, Eastburn held various sales and training positions for BellAtlantic, which became Verizon. From there, he spent nearly six years as a RVP of Sales for YP Holdings, a division of AT&T Advertising Solutions.

In a move designed to strengthen the position of an affiliate of The CW Network against the ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates in Indianapolis, DuJuan McCoy-owned Circle City Broadcasting has moved forward with the relaunch of an 11pm newscast at one of his two properties — a sign that WISH-8‘s local news presence seeks to be unrivaled.

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A radio industry veteran who spent the last 11 years in Indianapolis has been named Operations Manager of “98.9 The Rock,” “ALT 96.5,” “106.5 The Wolf” and “99.7 The Point” in Kansas City.

He’ll assume his new duties on February 1 while also taking the role of Brand Manager for two of those Audacy Inc. audio brands.

Taking the OM role for KQRC-FM, KRBZ-FM, WDAF-FM & KZPT-FM in Kansas City is JR Ammons.

The role will see Ammons gain oversight of the stations the content strategy, talent, operations and branding. It’s a return to a company formerly known as Entercom for Ammons, as Audacy/Kansas City SVP/Market Manager Roxanne Marati welcomed him to her group of radio stations. “His extensive background operating multiple stations will position him for success, and we look forward to working alongside him in this next chapter of his career,” Marati said.

Ammons has spent the last three decades in Radio, and has been associated with WZPL-FM, WNTR-FM and WXNT-AM in Indianapolis for the last eleven, exiting as OM. Before that Ammons was associated with Lincoln Financial Media, and its former ownership of WSTR-FM “Star 94” in Atlanta, where he was Program Director. He’s also programmed WAPE-FM in Jacksonville and KMXV-FM in Kansas City.

“I’m so thankful for the 11 years I’ve spent in Indianapolis; we’ve had so much fun, made so many lifelong friends and had so much success,” said Ammons, who began his run at the stations under Entercom ownership and stayed with the properties through their 2019 transition to Cumulus Media ownership. “The opportunity to come back to Audacy and work with Roxanne was simply too good to pass up. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the team she’s building in Kansas City.”

 

The company co-founded by CEO Daniel Barreto has widened its nearly five-year partnership with Hearst Television, giving the broadcast TV station owner’s “FAST” live channel content another distribution point.

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There are two dominant users of spot cable, according to the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report.

One is an auto insurance specialist getting lots of attention for their quirky, retro-feel campaign. The other is an auto insurance specialist known for its gecko.

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A fresh look at the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report for the week ending January 23 shows that a job-search site that’s grown in prominence over the last several years truly appreciates the power of Radio.

Gone are the days of Monster, it seems. Indeed is the job-seeker portal of choice in 2022, and last week saw the brand account for some 72,000+ spot plays on the AM and FM radio stations Media Monitors tracks.

That’s a substantial lead over the No. 2 paid user of spot radio last week: auto insurance giant Progressive.

Who else is using radio? Babbel has become a steady brand at AM and FM, as has Lowe’s, which takes advantage of a soft marketing period from The Home Depot.

In the latest issue of Radio World we give you a chance to get to know FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington.

He’s been serving for a little more than a year since being nominated by President Trump, and is starting to take a higher profile in our industry, with speaking appearances to broadcast organizations.

In Washington, a town full of political culture warriors, Simington seems the opposite — going out of his way to compliment Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who is in the opposite party; praising his colleagues for bipartisanship; condemning the violence at the U.S. Capitol last year in one of his first actions as a commissioner; and remarking on his “appreciation for the traditions of vigorous, peaceful engagement that have characterized the nation’s 230 years of constitutional governance.”

I can’t say whether he’ll be a commissioner who always votes along party lines; should we ever get a fifth commissioner again we’ll see how FCC bipartisanship holds up on more contentious issues than the commission has taken up lately.

But I’m grateful for the way he approaches the job. Maybe his particular appreciation of his role comes from the fact that he is a native of Canada who has since become a U.S. citizen. Sometimes people who come to our country from elsewhere have a better grasp of its aspirational values than we do.

The decisions taken by our regulators play a crucial role in our jobs, our careers and the health of our employers. Radio World has sought over the years to air the views of regulators who have shown particular interest or understanding of radio issues, including leaders like Jim Quello, Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai, Geoffrey Starks and Michael O’Rielly. We’ve also had an open invitation to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and hope she’ll oblige us.

You can access the digital edition here.

The post A Chat With a Commissioner appeared first on Radio World.