Industry News

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

Earlier this month a news cycle was filled with stories of the U.S. appearance of the “murder hornet,” a superbug that seemed like yet another stress in an already tense period. Public media’s murder hornet may have arrived as well.

For nonprofit radio and television, revenue comes via underwriting. Underwriting is already pressed by COVID-19. So, when a murder hornet of a case — one that seems altogether different and dangerous — shakes up underwriting, community media must take notice.

A recent complaint to the FCC involving underwriting thus should be a particular concern, and a reminder that caution as well as courage is a must.

Community Broadcaster: #GivingTuesday and Radio

Current reports WUNC, based at the University of North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C., was the target of a filing in Washington. The FCC complaint alleges the station broke commission rules on underwriting language for spots by Duke Energy. According to Jim Warren, the complainant, the underwriter’s tagline is not value neutral, and generally promotional in nature. Warren cites FCC rules in claiming the announcements are misleading.

As FCC complaints go, this is fairly standard stuff. Where this story gets interesting is what’s not in the complaint.

It turns out Warren is a frequent public opponent of the underwriter, blaming the business for Hurricane Florence, among other alleged misdeeds. Although one certainly must accept at face value worries in the complaint about underwriting integrity, it may also be fair to wonder if this focus on a particular underwriter is selective.

UNC President Connie Walker told Current the spots follow FCC rules. At stake are thousands of dollars in fines the station would absorb during a pandemic, when few stations are in a good position to do so.

Here is where caution and courage come into play.

Language and underwriting have been on the FCC’s radar over the last 12 months. Most famously, the University of Arkansas admitted mistakes in underwriting copy, but several stations have been penalized for announcements that veered into commercial territory. Every community radio station should exercise care when crafting underwriting scripts. Calls to action, qualitative phrases and other prohibited terms are well established. There are also many items that are completely permissible. No station should be careless when airing underwriting spots. That urgency is only heightened if your station has an instance where someone has a disagreement with an underwriter and wants to take it to a higher power, namely the FCC.

Within community radio, differences over underwriting are not new. As a former program director, I fielded calls about bars, nonprofits and various for-profit businesses listeners took issue with. I expect most stations do not have to try hard to find listeners who disagree with any number of businesses. Many of us simply stay the course, knowing we are serving our audiences with the news, information and music they appreciate. if your station chooses to ride out pushback against your underwriting or editorial choices, you’ll find wisdom, compassion and commitment to media access are your best repellent.

Pew Research remarks we live in polarized times. Amid social distancing, community radio stations will be asked to be conveners of diverse listeners, their employers and many others. Our ability to unite everyone hinges on trust in following the rules and providing the best programming we can.

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Digital Alert Systems is now offering a Software Assurance Plan for its line of emergency alert system devices. This plan will allow customers to ensure they are in compliance with current requirements via automatic notifications when new software is available.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The Software Assurance Plan is available to all customers running Version 4.0 software. With the plan, customers can immediately update to Version 4.1, with strengthened EAS/CAP security and compliance management, as well as new features in line with FCC compliance requirements. Future software releases will be automatically provided at no extra charge, including Version 4.2, which is expected to be available upon the release of Software Assurance Plan.

Additionally, Software Assurance Plan members will be able to receive discounts on repairs and additional software license keys. If a member’s current hardware is no longer supported, Digital Alert Systems says it will replace the hardware at a discount.

Info: www.digitalalertsystems.com

 

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With an eye on a reopening economy, iHeartMedia rolled out a suite of programmatic offerings for advertisers that it dubs the SmartAudio COVID Recovery Program.

 SmartAudio is the company’s programmatic platform. The announcement of offerings targeting a recovering consumer economy was made by President of Revenue and Data Operations Brian Kaminsky.

[Read: Grace Broadcast Is Selling Self-Care Audio Clips]

The suite includes the “SmartAudio COVID Community Recovery Index,” which incorporates location-based marketing. “With different communities recovering at different times and at different paces, it’s important for brands to be able to adjust their messaging based on whether their community is still under a stay-at-home order, beginning to reopen local businesses or have already established their new way of conducting business post COVID-19,” iHeart stated in the announcement.

So the index “dynamically optimizes a brand’s creative to deliver the right message at the right time to the right community by using location-based mobility data to gauge the number of people out of home for recreation, shopping or headed to work.”

The new programmatic offerings also include “SmartAudio Brand Loyalists,” which targets a business’ customers who listen to broadcast radio, and “SmartAudio Unlimited.” The latter lets brands take the audience data used to create SmartAudio broadcast radio campaigns and apply it to marketing efforts on mobile, the internet and smart speakers via iHeartRadio. You can read the announcement here.

 

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Four of the most prominent radio groups in the United States say more research is necessary before the FCC can seriously consider allowing zoned FM broadcasting.

Their filing comes as something of a reality check after several other organizations have expressed general support for the idea. The four groups are worried about a zoned system causing confusion among FM listeners as well as the risk of “self-interference,” which would harm FM’s standing with consumers. GBS has been vocal about the potential benefits to FM broadcasters.

The companies — iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Entercom and Beasley — wrote, “Technologies that are not yet widely proven which could cause interference to the primary signal, as well as confusion among radio listeners as the primary signal is handed off to a localized signal, should not prematurely be adopted as a default standard without more real-world experience gathered with experimental authorizations.”

[Read: Let’s Investigate Geo-Targeting, NAB Tells FCC]

They commented on the petition from GeoBroadcast Solutions, which wants the FCC to allow FM boosters to insert programming different from that carried by the booster’s primary station. This would allow GBS to deploy its ZoneCasting product and let FM broadcasters send unique ads and program content to very localized listeners.

“While this, or similar technologies to provide for zoned broadcasting by FM booster facilities, may ultimately prove valuable,” the groups wrote, the FCC first needs to develop a record of the feasibility of the technology based on further experimental authorizations.

“Automatically authorizing such an unproven technology … is particularly premature given the proponent’s acknowledgment that listeners will experience some degree of ‘self-interference,’ as the booster signal is handed off from the primary programming to the zone programming,” they wrote.

They acknowledged that GBS referenced several studies of its ZoneCasting technology but said there has only been one “real-world” experimental test of the current iteration. “That is a slim basis for the commission to proceed with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to change the booster rule to allow automatic use of a barely-tested technology system with known downsides.”

They said that by moving to an NPRM as GBS has requested, the FCC would essentially endorse ZoneCasting “without the need for implementers to report back to the commission on the benefits, problems and/or weaknesses of the system.”

[Read: Stations Groups Push for Translators to Originate Content]

They said third parties should be able to “formulate legitimate comments based on either direct experience with the technology, or grounded in widespread experimentation in varied locations.”

Among their concerns is that the technology might generate confusion as listeners cross transition zones, particularly when driving through alternate programming zones while listening to FM radio in their vehicles. In that case, “Independent parties will need to study whether the end result could be to drive listeners to leave the medium, which could harm all broadcasters seeking to serve listeners via over-the-air FM transmission.”

They asked the FCC to allow more experimental authorizations and reporting, as it has done for other technologies like Single Sideband Suppressed Carrier Modulation, all-digital on AM, Modulation Dependent Carrier Level controls and HD Radio. “The commission also typically conditions continuance of the experimental authority on the lack of objectionable interference.”

The groups concluded by saying that zoned broadcasting “may ultimately be a promising technology” and that with a real-world record, the commission could consider rule changes.

 

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LONDON — The United Kingdom’s Absolute Radio is adding to its line-up of “decades” stations with Absolute Radio 40s, a pop-up service to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Absolute 40s marks the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

The station, which will be entirely dedicated to the 1940s, will broadcast for one day on Friday May 8 and will play an uplifting mix of songs from artists including Billie Holliday, The Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland, Glenn Miller and Bing Crosby.

UPLIFTING MIX

Absolute Radio 40s will also include special news bulletins charting events as they unfolded on the day in 1945. Presenters from the main Absolute Radio service such as Dave Berry, Jason Manford, Leona Graham and Claire Sturgess will also be featured on the special station.

Paul Sylvester is Absolute Radio’s content director.

The pop-up service will take over Absolute Radio’s 1215AM frequency across the U.K. for 24 hours, and also be broadcast on DAB+ in London and online. Some of the station’s programs will be beamed to British armed forces around the world on BFBS Radio 2, and will also be made available to hospital radio stations across the U.K.

Absolute Radio’s Content Director Paul Sylvester explained the idea behind the station: “The 75th anniversary of VE Day is a momentous event in our history, and it’s tragic that celebrations have had to be rightly curtailed because of the Coronavirus. Taking the Absolute Radio decade strategy and creating this unique pop-up station for 24 hours is the simplest way that we can pay our own very small tribute.”

“The incredible music and compelling stories you’ll hear on Absolute Radio 40s will bring comfort and entertainment to those older listeners in self-isolation and remind the rest of us of the importance of this day,” added Sylvester.

The project is a co-production with TBI Media and has been made possible by a grant from the U.K. Government’s Audio Content Fund, which supports public service broadcasting on commercial and community radio.

Phil Critchlow is CEO and founding director of TBI Media.

TBI Media’s CEO and Founding Director Phil Critchlow explained the challenge they’ve had to overcome to create content for the station during lockdown: “Like everyone we’ve learnt a huge amount about recording and broadcasting remotely over the last eight weeks — much of that is being applied to this project. Alongside almost 80 pieces of music across the four hours of content, we have four separate presenters, and probably another 25 voices that need to be captured one way or another,” he said.

REMOTE GEAR

“In every case it’s about quickly making the best of the equipment available to each contributor,” Critchlow added. “We always briefly ask what resources are available — you’ll be surprised how many people have a mic they use with GarageBand — but not pushing things too far, where the way a voice is captured begins to get in the way of a contributor’s thought process.”

Critchlow explained his current technical set-up: “Where broadcast is concerned, we’re using Comrex devices, with a broadcast quality mic attached for anything that’s going live. For pre-records, the best option is a Zoom or similar call with contributor recording locally to a WAV recorder via a quality broadcast mic and sending the content for syncing afterward.”

He said the best results for microphones come from a tight cardioid polar pattern mic. “These can often be much more forgiving in a reflective domestic setting than a more expensive studio capacitor mic — so a dynamic mic like a Beyer M201 is great, providing you use a pop shield. Where time allows, we’ve actually been posting mics and WAV recorders to contributors, with return-to-sender pre-paid packaging enclosed.”

Critchlow advised that for remote recording, the biggest difference that can be made is talking to the contributor about where they are in their house.

He explained: “The objective is to avoid any reflective surfaces that create a reverberant “roomy” sound — so moving them out of the kitchen into a room with plenty of soft furnishings. Asking for curtains to be closed, and a blanket or duvet to be put on the table they’re sitting at, can make a huge difference. Also suggesting that electrical appliances that may be running close by are switched off — it’s surprise how a washing machine in the next room isn’t heard by a contributor but is heard by their mic!”

“For post-production we’re now using Reaper almost exclusively,” said Critchlow. “We’ve come up with a process of sharing all content and edit project files on Dropbox. This allows, in this case, four people doing the editing at various stages to quickly pick up, make changes to and pass on a Reaper file for others to finalize and add to the master program. The masters can also then be passed around as an edit desk before finalization.”

Critchlow said: “Absolute 40s is a huge team effort across TBI Media and Absolute Radio. While these are uncertain and challenging times, it continues to be a huge privilege to be creating content that can make a real difference to people — particularly in this case where some of the audience is likely to be older and potentially isolated from their friends and family.”

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The Telos Alliance will stream a series of four webinars this month, in lieu of the spring NAB Show.

The first focuses on what’s new with Omnia, including putting processing in the cloud with Omnia.9 PTN, as well as products including Volt and Omnia.11.

Subsequent webinars will cover Telos Infinity IP Intercom; an exploration of the new Axia Quasar flagship console; and tools for Next Gen TV, where the company’s Linear Acoustic and Minnetonka Audio products have application.

The four-day series starts May 18. Find information here.

 

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Kim Guthrie will leave Cox Media Group, the company announced.

Guthrie is president and CEO and has been with Cox for 22 years, but it was only in December that she was named president and CEO of this new iteration of Cox, so her tenure in this role was short.

[Read: Cox Assesses Radio Listening]

Late last year Cox Enterprises completed the sale of its radio and TV stations, along with other assets, to the new media company Cox Media Group, majority owned by private equity funds, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The decision to leave was hers, according to today’s announcement.

Executive Chairman Steve Pruett, who came aboard in December, becomes interim CEO until a permanent leader is appointed. The company said “Guthrie will work with Pruett on an orderly transition.”

Cox owns 54 radio stations in 10 markets, among its other media holdings.

 

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The NAB Show may have gone virtual this year, but the flesh-and-blood chairman of the Federal Communications Commission will still participate online.

The National Association of Broadcasters announced that Chairman Ajit Pai will take part in a “keynote conversation” with NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith on Wednesday, May 13 during the NAB Show Express Welcome event.

[Read: “Welton Is More Than Just Tips n Tricks,” interview with award recipient Jeff Welton]

“The industry’s top regulator and the head of NAB will discuss communications policy issues before the FCC, including spectrum policy and media ownership,” NAB announced.

The opening session will be streamed on nabshowexpress.com at noon Eastern on May 13 and available on-demand following its conclusion.

Smith will also deliver his annual “State of the Broadcast Industry” address and present several awards including the Engineering Achievement Awards and Crystal Radio Awards.

 

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FM translators would be allowed to originate some programming content for the first time, if two dozen radio companies get their way.

The group of licensees, under the joint name “Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination,” told the FCC in a filing that “to serve the public interest with increased program diversity,” both FM boosters and translators should be allowed to originate programming for up to 80 hours a week.

Translators and boosters currently rebroadcast only the primary station’s programming. Boosters, which operate on the frequency of their primary station, have been in the news because they are the subject of a separate proposal from GeoBroadcast Solutions. It wants the FCC to allow limited unique programming on synchronized boosters to allow a new geo-targeted or “zoned” capability. The FCC has been taking comments on that.

But the filing by the group of 24 licenses takes the idea much farther.

Allowing FM translators to originate any local programming at all would be a big change, particularly now that so many stations have them in the wake of the AM revitalization effort. AM stations with FM translators would be included under the proposal.

[Read: Let’s Investigate Geo-Targeting, NAB Tells FCC]

“The Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination seek a uniform FCC rule change for both FM boosters and FM translators to allow each to originate programming content provided that the primary station is retransmitted for no fewer than 40 hours in any calendar week,” they wrote.

“Further, rather than restrict new uses of FM booster stations to the GeoBroadcast Solutions content-specific programming, an FM booster or translator should be able to split off programming whenever such split programming content serves its listening audience, provided the primary station continues to be rebroadcast on the FM booster no fewer than 40 hours in any calendar week.”

The proposal was filed by attorney John Garziglia of Womble Bond Dickinson. The 24 licensees own 108 full-service stations and 85 FM translators.

The stations believe the FCC should not concern itself with restricting which kinds of content should be allowed.

“As with FM booster stations, the FCC should not restrict FM translator licensees in their programming content decisions,” they wrote. “Some radio stations may choose to broadcast different localized advertisements. Others may broadcast localized city council meetings for two or more communities in their coverage areas. The broadcast of multiple localized high school sports games may be what serves a particular station’s listeners. Another station may broadcast two different kinds of ethnic entertainment programming at certain times of the day.”

While this filing was made in response to the GBS proposal, it is a much different beast.

Indeed, the group of licensees said they “take no position as to whether the GeoBroadcast Solutions technical proposal … is wise as a radio listener reception matter. Such concurrent broadcasting of different content on the same frequency within the same service area may be an interference disaster.” Rather, they wrote, their goal is “to provide diverse programming over FM translator and booster radio facilities without the FCC’s heavy thumb restricting their choice of content.”

If the GBS concept of originating limited separate programming on same-channel booster stations is acceptable “as a regulatory matter,” then so should be the origination of limited separate programming on FM translators.

The companies also argue that, because the commission’s new translator interference rules “have redefined the coverage contours of FM stations,” the extended coverage contours out to the greater of the 45 dBμ contour or a 25-mile radius from the translator site should now apply to what is regarded as a fill-in station for the purposes of the FM translator rules.

And further marking this proposal as a potential big change, the group would like the commission to designate four-letter call signs with the suffix “-FX” for translators that originate limited programming content. “FM translators originating programming will be serving listening audiences just like any other broadcast station,” they wrote.

The broadcasters in the filing are Miller Communications/Kaskaskia Broadcasting; the Cromwell Group of Illinois and Hancock Communications; TBE LLC; SSR Communications; Port Broadcasting; the Fingerlakes Radio Group and Chadwick Bay Broadcasting; Blackbelt Broadcasting; Mazur LLC; The Original Company, Old Northwest Broadcasting and The Innovation Center; Virden Broadcasting; Lovcom Inc.; Genesee Media Corp.; Viper Communications; Mountain Top Media; Eastern Shore Radio; and MTN Broadcasting and Eldora Broadcasting.

Among familiar broadcaster names on the proposal are Randal Miller, Bud Walters, Terry Barber, Mark Lange, Matt Wesolowski and Cindy May Johnson.

 

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Dennis Wharton

Dennis Wharton has been spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters longer than anyone in its history. But he’ll retire from that role come July.

Wharton, executive vice president of communications, has been with the association for 24 years. Ann Marie Cumming will become the association’s primary spokesperson, and Wharton will continue to serve as a senior advisor, according to President/CEO Gordon Smith.

In an email to the NAB Board of Directors, Wharton described his tenure at NAB as “the privilege of my professional life,” noting he had been “in the catbird seat for countless moments in broadcast history,” including the launch of HDTV, radio performance royalty fights, “wardrobe malfunctions, and media consolidation battles. According the NAB announcement, he’s is most proud of the unparalleled public service of local broadcast stations, on prominent display during the COVID-19 crisis.

[Read: NAB Campaign Targets Coronavirus Aid, Federal Ads for Local Stations]

Smith called Wharton “a fervent advocate for local broadcasting” and made special note of his enthusiasm and good humor. “We wish Dennis all the best and are fortunate to have him stay on as an adviser to NAB.”

In Wharton’s letter, he praised the NAB board, his co-workers, local broadcasters, state broadcast association executives and reporters who covered NAB through the years. He reserved special gratitude for colleagues on the NAB communications team, which he has overseen for more than two decades.

Wharton joined NAB in 1996 as vice president, Media Relations, and subsequently was promoted to senior vice president in 1997 and executive vice president in 2006. He has overseen NAB departments that include media relations, research and public service. Wharton joined NAB after a 16-year journalism career in Ohio and as Washington bureau chief for Variety, where he covered legislative and regulatory issues related to broadcasting, cable and Hollywood movie studios.

[Read: COVID-19 Response Toolkit Now Available From NAB]

Michelle Lehman

NAB also announced it will merge the association’s communications and marketing departments into a new Public Affairs department, led by NAB’s Michelle Lehman, executive vice president of marketing. In her new role, Lehman will be responsible for NAB’s media relations, public service and research divisions.
She also spearheads the “We Are Broadcasters” campaign and directs marketing campaigns to promote NAB events and activities, overseeing the association’s brand, messaging and digital strategy.

Lehman began her career in Washington, on Capitol Hill serving as press secretary for former Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and then for the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee, under the leadership of former Ranking Member Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn). She also served as associate director of technology policy for a boutique public relations firm, as well as vice president of public affairs and chief spokesperson for the National Beer Wholesalers Association before joining NAB.

Lehman has tapped Ann Marie Cumming, senior vice president of communications, to serve as the primary spokesperson of the organization. In this role, she will be assisted by Zamir Ahmed, vice president of media relations, who has been with NAB since 2011. Cumming, who joined NAB in 1994, will oversee media relations and the research division led by Vice President of Research Dan McDonald.

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