Industry News

MINNEAPOLIS — A veteran local media executive widely known for his time at CBS-owned WCCO-4 has been selected for the role of VP/Brand Strategy and Development at CBS Stations.

Casey Kespohl will work under CBS News and Stations President and Co-Head Wendy McMahon in the newly created role. He’ll partner with the local management teams at the 27 ViacomCBS-owned television stations found across the U.S. and is charged with “helping to evolve and strengthen” CBS Stations’ branded content and marketing across broadcast, streaming and digital platforms.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

In May, RBR+TVBR reported on the $3.8 million sale of a valued commercially zoned chunk of land at 4002 W. Gandy Blvd., midway between downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg, by iHeartMedia.

With the land sale, a relocation of the company’s Tampa Bay market operations was put into motion. It is now known where stations including “933 FLZ” and “98Rock” will be headquartered come 2022.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The “country rock station of North Georgia,” a Class A FM at 104.3 MHz serving the auto racing haven of Dahlonega, has been spun.

Whether or not the format will be heard across 2022 and beyond will soon be up to the Augusta Radio Fellowship Institute. And, there’s a good chance some “Good News” will be coming soon to the station.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Ten college radio stations have been named recipients of the 2021 Spirit of College Radio Awards.

The program is from organizers of the annual World College Radio Day event.

“The Spirit of College Radio Awards are presented by the College Radio Foundation in recognition of truly outstanding and spirited efforts made by college radio stations on World College Radio Day, which happened on Oct. 1 this year,” they wrote in the announcement. “The theme for this year’s WCRD event was ‘In Tough Times, We Thrive.’”

“Stations are voted for by the team that organizes World College Radio Day, who seek to shine a spotlight on college radio stations that not only go above and beyond to celebrate the annual WCRD event but also embody the passion and mission of college radio.”

The announcement was made by Rob Quicke, founder of College Radio Day. The list includes seven stations in the United States along with stations in Costa Rica, Greece and the Philippines.

The recipients:

• Aggie Radio 92.3 KBLU LP Logan — Utah State University (USA)
• RADIO-E — Universidad de Costa Rica (Costa Rica)
• The Revolution, Rev 89 — Colorado State University- Pueblo (USA)
• UPFM — University of Patras Radio (Greece)
• UST Tiger Radio — University of Santo Tomas (Philippines)
• WKNC 88.1 HD-1/HD-2 — North Carolina State University (USA)
• WLMC Landmark College Radio — Landmark College (USA)
• WMSC 90.3 FM — Montclair State University (USA)
• WOLF Radio — University of West Georgia (USA)
• WWSU 106.9 FM — Wright State University (USA)

The post Winners Announced in Spirit of College Radio Awards appeared first on Radio World.

In November 2016, Univision Communications agreed to a transaction that was, at the time, considered a surprising one. The Hispanic media giant’s three radio stations in El Paso, Texas, were sold to an entity tied to one of Mexico’s biggest AM and FM operators.

Now, thanks to a stock purchase agreement finalized on November 30, the ownership of the radio trio hugging the Rio Grande is evolving.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

In January, Joe D’Angelo appeared on the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, to offer some key takeaways from CES 2021.

Today, the SVP of Broadcast at the parent of both DTS and HD Radio is here to offer a preview of sorts for CES 2022, which includes a January 6 invitation-only Radio Reception presented in part by Xperi.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Joe D’Angelo” on Spreaker.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The AWARN Alliance has elected the chair and vice chair of its AWARN Steering Committee for 2022.

John Taylor, Senior Vice President of LG Electronics North America, will serve another term as chairman. Jim DeChant, Vice President of Technology for News-Press & Gazette Broadcasting, will return as AWARN vice chair.

The AWARN Steering Committee serves as the governing body of the AWARN Alliance.

Also elected to serve on the Steering Committee are:

• Tim Bischoff, Chief Technology Officer, Kentucky Educational Television, representing Public Television
• Michael Mougey, Chief Revenue Officer and President of Broadcast, Baron Weather, representing Tech Partners
• Peter Sockett, Director of Engineering and Operations, WRAL and Capitol Broadcasting Company in Raleigh, representing Smaller Broadcasters (self-defined)

Bischoff and Sockett were re-elected to another term.

Other members of the Steering Committee are:

• Joe Di Scipio, SVP, FCC Legal & Business Affairs and Assistant General Counsel, FOX Corporation
• John Lawson, Executive Director, AWARN Alliance
• Anne Schelle, Managing Director, and Sterling Davis, consultant, Pearl TV
• Yoshi Tsurimaki, Producer, Business Development, T-NET Japan
• So Vang, Sinclair Broadcast Group/ONE Media 3.0, VP Emerging Technologies
• Kelly Williams, VP, Engineering and Technology Policy, NAB
• Madeleine Noland, President, ATSC (ex-officio)
• Luke Fay, ATSC TG3 Chair and Senior Manager, Technical Standards, Sony Electronics (ex-officio).

“2022 is shaping up as a year when things start coming together for AWARN,” said AWARN Executive Director John Lawson. “With over 60 markets on the air with ATSC 3.0 and Sinclair launching the first advanced alerting app in Washington, DC, we expect to see further progress toward development of advanced alerting and continuing emergency messaging with NEXTGEN TV.”

Lawson added that AWARN will continue to focus on the institutional and human side for the development of what it calls “next generation emergency messaging,” or NGEM.

At the end of January, AWARN and partner organizations will co-host a roundtable discussion at KEYT-3 in Santa Barbara, Calif., with TV station GMs, news directors, local emergency managers and other alert originators from across Southern California.

KEYT is owned by News-Press & Gazette Co.

“The goal of the Santa Barbara Roundtable is to explore the creation of NGEM, which is really a voluntary, interoperable ‘network of networks.’ We plan for this to be the first of several regional roundtables across the county in the coming year,” Lawson said.

“As many people are not attending CES, NAGRA is scheduling virtual meetings to share their news.”

That’s the somber news from the portable audio recorder company based in Switzerland, as the rapid increase in cases of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has increased the threat of lower attendance to the upcoming event.

The choice of a virtual session or an in-person meeting may become standard for all CES 2022 attendees, as the Las Vegas mega-conference’s chances of even being held at all are now in question.

For NAGRA, interested CES attendees that wish to go with a virtual meeting can use this link: Book NAGRA meeting (Virtual, Zoom)

For those attending CES, one can book a meeting with NAGRA at its meeting suite by using this link: Book NAGRA meeting at CES meeting suite

The highlights of NAGRA’s showcase at CES 2022 include:

• The Future of Home Network Security: With extensive and proven experience across cybersecurity, IoT and pay-TV, NAGRA combined multiple innovations across Kudelski Group segments to introduce NAGRA Scout, the industry’s only consumer- and broadband service operator-friendly intelligent home network security solution.

• Game Over for Gaming Pirates: With the shift to online streaming platforms and pre-release short-form content, the gaming industry is being threatened by content pirates. As a partner to some of the world’s largest media providers, NAGRA’s trusted, proven and comprehensive anti-piracy approach, solutions and services can address the emerging gaming piracy threat.

• Empowering Video Operators to Drive Value with New Audiences: Video service providers are looking for innovative, easy and proven ways offer targeted content and advanced features and functions that meets consumers’ growing expectations. With an increasing need for aggregated solutions that migrate their services from pay-TV offering to digital entertainment hub, NAGRA is working with several customers worldwide to help them realize new opportunities, attract new audiences and deliver value-added propositions.  In the U.S., NAGRA is delivering a turn-key solution for regional providers that delivers all the features and benefits of a Tier-1 service – without the hefty price tag and with the option to incorporate hyper-local content. Recent examples include NAGRA’s work with Jackson Energy Authority, 1Tennessee and IPVconnect.

• The Cost of Piracy is Adding Up! The pandemic has accelerated the shift to streaming services – and in parallel has also increased the risk of piracy.  Whilst some in the industry believe complying with content owner requirements is sufficient, the evidence suggests that having a clear anti-piracy strategy ahead of releasing content in a multi-channel distribution model is a smart approach.  NAGRA’s recent publication “Piracy has no Boundaries: Protecting Revenue in the Era of PVOD” focusses specifically on how this affects the PVOD market and our showcased solutions offer a range of pragmatic solutions to fit all requirements.

• Leadership, Vision and Insights: André Kudelski, Chairman & CEO of the Kudelski Group, will be sharing his expertise on the media technologies that will impact the future of the entertainment industry at this year’s Variety Entertainment Summit at CES.  The panel discussion, “Planting the First Flag – The Future of Entertainment Exploration and Innovation” will take place January 6 at the Aria at 3:55 p.m. PT.

The nation’s dominant audience measurement and consumer data analytics firm has said it will reveal “a major step” toward its single cross-platform measurement product by showcasing its newest offering — “deduplicate ad measurement.”

It gets its debut under the Nielsen ONE Alpha banner at CES 2022 in Las Vegas.

Alpha is the first iteration of Nielsen ONE, a company spokesperson says. It will continue to evolve with new feature additions, enhancements, and model improvements leading up to the launch of Nielsen ONE in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Joining in the launch are The Walt Disney Company and MAGNA, in addition to “several agencies, advertisers and publishers” as Nielsen ONE Alpha participants from both the buy and sell sides of the industry.

“There’s a critical need for the evolution of measurement to truly reflect audiences and engagement, and Disney is uniquely positioned to help define and develop that roadmap,” said Julie DeTraglia, Head of Research, Insights and Analytics, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.

Nielsen ONE Alpha will be specific to ad campaigns, unveiling what the company claims is “the first cross-platform measurement system of its kind that offers both comparability and audience deduplication across all screens (linear TV, connected TV, computer and mobile).”

Nielsen continues, “Media buyers and sellers will for the first time have the most holistic view of their ads across consumer delivery systems and platforms in a harmonized and holistic manner—crucial as the linear and digital landscapes continue to rapidly converge. The deduplicated ad measurement metrics account for age and gender information.”

Nielsen COO Karthik Rao added, “All our hard work this past year has positioned us to take this significant step in fundamentally changing the game and providing the industry with what it wants, needs and deserves. We are on track to deliver our single cross-platform measurement solution in the fourth quarter of 2022, as planned and in a manner that will support the $100 billion video advertising ecosystem. The Alpha launch serves as a clear proof point in our ability to deliver and we are working closely with a diverse group of clients on this important step. In fact, Nielsen ONE will bring together all the intelligence we have to date in order to help clients capitalize on consumers’ rapidly shifting media habits.”

Tightrope Media Systems, developers of the Cablecast Community Media broadcast automation, playout and content publishing platform, has hired a “PEG” media executive as the new Vice President of its Cablecast business unit.

In this newly created position, Dana Healy will oversee Cablecast sales and operations. She will also work closely with the marketing team to connect with all Cablecast customers on an ongoing basis. Healy will start the new role on January 3, 2022.

“As a user of Cablecast products for many years, I can see how passionate they are about their customers and the market,” she said. “I’m excited to be joining a company that truly believes in going above and beyond for their users, and proud to serve the PEG community alongside colleagues so dedicated to preserving community media. I look forward to chatting with customers about PEG strategies at upcoming trade shows and industry events.”

Cablecast Community Media President Steve Israelsky commented, “Dana’s skills and experience make her a perfect fit for this key leadership role. Having worked within community media organizations for over two decades, she has unique insights into their needs and the challenges they face in the evolving media landscape. We are constantly striving to improve our engagement with our customers and the PEG market at large, and we’re thrilled to have Dana join our team to help us achieve these goals.”

— Brian Galante