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Christian education organization Vanguard Association of Sunbelt Colleges Corp has won a construction permit for a new noncom educational FM station in Rosendale, Wis., despite an informal objection and a petition to deny from two other applicants.

VASC had been chosen by the FCC Media Bureau as the tentative winner of a mutually exclusive group of eight applications in the 2021 NCE filing window. The MX group also included Call Communications Group and WRVM, Inc.

According to the FCC, Call Comm then filed an informal objection, questioning whether VASC had the “reasonable site assurance” for its selected Fond du Lac County tower site.

Call Comm also alleged that VASC might have “attributable interests” with the Elijah Radio noncom broadcast network, an eerily familiar argument against the Christian organization. This is the second time this month where VASC was granted a CP despite objections. Earlier in February, VASC’s application won in neighboring Iowa.

VASC President David Biehl and Elijah Radio Vice President Thomas Beihl are siblings. Call Comm argued that because Elijah Radio had reached the 10-application cap for the filing window VASC’s application by association should be dismissed.

Additionally, WRVM filed a petition to deny the application, questioning whether the Rosendale application was part of strategy by Elijah Radio President Luke Rogers, VASC’s technical consultant, to circumvent the application cap. WRVM also alleged that VASC was ineligible to hold a noncom license in Wisconsin due to it not being registered as a nonprofit in the state, nor as a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity under the Internal Revenue Code.

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But VASC denied any attempt to circumvent the cap in its opposition to the petition. VASC also stated that it is a registered nonprofit in the state of Arizona. And in a letter of intent response to the commission, VASC included email correspondence between its desired tower owner’s agent.

In response, Call Com questioned whether Elijah Radio or Beihl’s father, Gary, has expressed de facto control over the application. VASC had included in its application a loan commitment in excess of $500,000 from Gary Beihl among its financial qualifications.

In its decision upholding the choice, the Media Bureau deemed VASC as having reasonable site assurance through its email correspondence. The bureau also rejected the argument that the familial and business relationships between the Beihls and Rogers’ were sufficient to demonstrate common control of applications.

The bureau also noted that it does not require applicants to be incorporated as nonprofit entities in the state of the proposed station, nor do they need to be qualified as a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit entity.

Outcome: a CP for Vanguard Association of Sunbelt Colleges in Rosendale. The proposed Class C3 signal on 88.3 would serve Fond du Lac and points west, including Ripon.

[Read the decision.]

The post Christian Organization Wins Another NCE Construction Permit appeared first on Radio World.

The Michigan Association of Broadcasters has announced the 2024 recipients of its Carl E. Lee Broadcast Engineering Excellence Awards. The awards are named for Carl E. Lee, a prominent Michigan broadcast engineer and station owner who was known for his innovation and recognition of opportunity, according to MAB.

Two awards are given to represent both radio and TV engineers.

Dave Grant

This year, the Carl E. Lee Award for Radio Engineering Excellence award was given to Dave Grant, the director of engineering for Cumulus Media in Grand Rapids, Mich.

In his nomination, Grant was said to be “a great mentor to all as he is always sharing his years of knowledge and explaining to staff how equipment works.”

According to the nomination, his radio career began in 1977 as a board operator at WKBZ in Muskegon running Detroit Tigers baseball games and eventually moved up to a phone screener position.

In 1979 Dave began working in Whitehall at 1490 WLRQ as an on‐air personality and started getting into engineering by repairing equipment around the facility while working with their engineer.

After a series of other chief engineering roles, in 2012 Grant became chief engineer for Cumulus Media Grand Rapids. He maintains six AM/FM radio broadcast facilities and assists with four additional stations in Muskegon.

“Dave is more than just a broadcast engineer as he also has found himself doing maintenance on generators that should have been retired years ago,” read the nomination. “He is one that can think creatively and always produces a solution.”

David Madison

On the other side of the broadcast coin, the 2024 Carl E. Lee Award for TV Engineering Excellence was given to David Madison, the former, longtime IT/maintenance engineer for WGVU Public Media in Grand Rapids, Mich. Now retired after 35 years with the company, his nomination reads: “[Madison’s] legacy of keeping WGVU on the air for so long needs to be honored. He will be greatly missed in retirement and his engineering talents can’t be replaced.”

Grant and Madison will be honored at the Michigan Broadcast Engineering Conference Mar. 12-13 in Lansing, Mich.

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The post MAB Announces 2024 Broadcast Engineering Award Recipients appeared first on Radio World.

With the court-ordered sale of their remaining stations on track, as Kansas Bankruptcy Court Judge Dale Somers has dismissed an attempt from creditor Belate LLC to negate the Tideline Partners LLC-administered process of finding winning bidders, the owners of Rocking M Media have a new headache to contend with.

This one comes courtesy of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and centers on Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rule violations.

 

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Technical Services Group, a broadcast engineering and commercial AV solutions provider, has announced it has integrated Georgia Copper into its operations following its January 2023 acquisition. In addition to relocating the company from its original Cleveland, Ga., location to TSG’s Baton Rouge, La., headquarters, TSG has launched a e-commerce website specific to the Georgia Copper product line.

Gary Smith founded Georgia Copper in 2007.

“Georgia Copper has long been a well-respected brand for the manufacturing and sale of USA-made copper grounding and bonding products,” said TSG in a press release. “Often hard to source, these products are in high demand at TV and radio broadcast facilities, data and emergency response service centers, RF systems integration firms and electrical engineering companies.

“TSG’s integration of the Georgia Copper preserves its trusted name, and TSG continues to market the products under that brand.”

According to the company, the new website was built “to facilitate fast, easy online ordering of Georgia Copper products.” The product catalog includes core copper, lightning and surge suppression products such as copper straps, copper braids, ground clamps and bars, protector bars, wire and other tools. The site offers credit card and PayPal payment options, and the ability to shop 24/7 outside of normal business hours.

The new website can be accessed at https://gacopper.com

In its systems integration work, prior to the acquisition, TSG said it had been a long-time customer of Georgia Copper, regularly purchasing grounding and bonding products for RF infrastructures, AV studio installations and equipment racks and machine rooms.

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The post TSG Launches New Website for Georgia Copper Product Line appeared first on Radio World.

As TikTok’s popularity in the U.S. continues to increase, a new Pew Research Center analysis finds that 52% of adults on the platform have ever posted a video.

Furthermore, a minority of adult users are responsible for producing the vast majority of content on TikTok.

Among the findings shared by Pew:

• The posting behaviors of younger adults do not stand out dramatically from other age groups. While 18- to 34-year-olds are much more likely to use TikTok in the first place than their older counterparts, around half of users in this age group have ever posted on the site – similar to the share among users ages 35 to 49.
• Users who have posted videos on TikTok are more active and customize more of their content. Posters typically follow more users, have more followers themselves and are more likely to have filled out their account bio. They are somewhat more likely to find the content of their algorithmically curated “For You” page extremely interesting.
• 85% of TikTok users say their “For You” page is at least somewhat interesting, including 40% who call it either extremely or very interesting. Only 14% say it is not too or not at all interesting.

“Despite the fact that more and more Americans are using TikTok, we found that nearly half of U.S. adult users never upload videos, and the most active 25% are responsible for a massive 98% of public content,” said Sam Bestvater, a Pew Computational Social Scientist. “It’s a reminder that most of what we see on TikTok was created by a small segment of the user base, and it might not reflect the average user’s experience.”

The study is based on the direct observation of the TikTok accounts and posting behaviors of 869 survey respondents who volunteered to share their account handle for research purposes as part of a survey of U.S. adult TikTok users.

To read the report, click here: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/02/22/how-u-s-adults-use-tiktok/

 

It’s been long known for its designing and manufacturing of broadcast transmitters for radio and TV and for media software systems used across broadcast media. Now, a division of the Elenos Group is welcoming back a senior sales leader for the role of Eastern Regional Sales Manager.

That position will be held by Joe Myers, who will be based in Lexington, S.C. Myers will represent the company for its products and service across the Eastern United States and in portions of the Caribbean.

He most recently served as Director of Sales at the MaxxKonnect Group. Myers’ sales roles include positions with such companies as Harris Broadcast/GatesAir, ENCO, and DJB, including his prior position with BE.

“Joe brings extensive experience and hundreds of great customer relationships to BE,” said Rich Redmond, President/COO of Broadcast Electronics – Elenos Group. “We are excited about the unique mix of Joe’s technology and content creation experience will help customers solve problems and simplify their operations.”

Myers added,  “This is an exciting environment to collaborate in developing creative next-generation solutions for Radio and TV content delivery which will solve customer problems and drive growth.”

Some 11 weeks ago, the President/COO of Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) used the final minutes of the company’s quarterly earnings call for Q3 2023 by sharing the news that he had tendered his resignation. With Albert Rodriguez no longer at SBS, the company’s board of directors in early February approved a move to make founder and chairman Raúl Alarcón Jr. its President.

RBR+TVBR has now confirmed that SBS’s Chief Financial Officer has exited the Miami-based Hispanic-focused broadcast media company.

 

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With Republicans nothing short of furious over the FCC’s 3-2 party-line vote to reinstate the EEO data collection generated through a single form that’s been dormant for two decades — and the use of the data in single-station reports, Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks believes the FCC’s actions simply amount to a reinstatement of “a longstanding, statutorily-mandated requirement to collect workforce diversity data from broadcasters.”

 

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It’s being called a “milestone” that underscores a “three-decade commitment of empowering the Latino community through trusted news and resources.”

Introducing a new state-of-the-art news facility in Las Vegas from Entravision Communications.

With Hispanics comprising 30% of Nevada’s population, its a “pivotal market” for Entravision, the company said as it inaugurated the new news facility.

In the Silver State, Entravision owns the Univision and UniMás affiliates serving both Reno and Las Vegas, the two DMAs in Nevada. It is also the owner-operator of Las Vegas FMs KRRN-FM 92.7 “Fuego” and KQRT-FM 105.1 “La Tricolor”; in Reno it has KRNV-FM 102.1, part of the Tricolor network.

“The inauguration of the Las Vegas news facility marks a significant achievement accompanied by the recruitment of nearly 40 incredibly talented individuals, further bolstering our teams,” said Entravision President/COO Jeffery Liberman. “As a civically engaged community, Latinos transcend partisan lines, with 43% of voters identifying as independent or other in both Las Vegas and the state. Failing to engage with Latinos overlooks a crucial and decisive political group in this year’s election.”

Political dollars, as well as informing voters in a key swing state across 2024, mean Entravision’s expansion in Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City “carries profound significance” for the company, which has transformed itself in recent years to become a global digital advertising-driven revenue machine.

Among those expressing their support of Entravision’s new facilities is Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.). “Entravision has the important responsibility of keeping Nevada’s Latino community informed about what is happening in our state,” the senator said. “I was proud to join Entravision to celebrate the ribbon cutting of their new studio in Las Vegas, and to honor the critical work they do to keep Nevadans engaged in their communities every day.”

Entravision’s television station in Nevada produce “Noticias Nevada.” Recent additions to the lineup at its TV stations there include morning, midday, and weekend newscasts; added staff has come with the additional news programming.

The Karel Čapek Memorial in Stará Huť. Photo by Ondřej Žváček, via Wikimedia Commons.

Thanks to some help from the archives of Czechia public service broadcaster Česky Rozhlas, visitors to the Karel Čapek Memorial in Stará Hut can now hear the author’s voice.

A novelist, playwright, critic and journalist, Čapek (1890–1938) is best known in English for his science fiction works, including the play R.U.R., which introduced the word “robot” to English. In Czech, he is credited with helping to shape the modern use of Czech as a literary language.

Working with the limited recordings of Čapek found in the ČR archives, the Karel Čapek Memorial used an AI tool create narrations in Čapek’s voice for the site’s “Po stopách Karla Čapka” (In the footsteps of Karla Čapka) mobile app. The augmented reality app, developed by Yord Studios, guides visitors through the memorial’s grounds combining historical photographs with descriptions read by Čapek. Visitors are invited to use the app to compare the current site with how it was when Čapek and his wife, Olga Scheinpflugová, lived there.

The memorial’s director, Zdeněk Vacek, told Radio Prague International, that the project used all the available recordings of Čapek that ČR had. “This was relatively easy, since the recordings are less than 10 minutes in total. Čapek had a monotonous voice, he did not like to speak in public, much less in front of a microphone, which explains why there are so few recordings.”

Vacek said that these recordings were sufficient for the AI software to synthesize Čapek’s voice, however, “and we could have him read some of his own authentic statements or those of his friends about their time spent here.”

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The post Radio Archives Give Voice to Czech Author appeared first on Radio World.

For broadcast television, growth in a non-political year is a challenge — especially coming after a record-breaking electorate-focused advertising season. Yet, Gray Television in Q4 2023 enjoyed a 2% core advertising increase as retransmission consent revenue increased by 3% year-over-year.

While that’s highly positive news for the broadcast TV station owner, a 6% increase in broadcasting expenses put a damper on what the company calls “strong” financial results for the fourth quarter. Investors reacted negatively, sending Gray shares down significantly on Friday morning.

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If you’re an avid Radio World reader, you know that we love to highlight unique radio facilities, whether they be local or abroad. If you happen to love that sort of content, you’re in luck!

Broadcasting since 1954, Trans World Radio, or TWR, is a Christian radio distributor that collaborates with U.S.-based radio stations to spread the gospel via local FMs, mediumwave or high-powered AMs and shortwave transmitters.

According to its website, TWR’s programming is broadcast in 200-plus languages on air, online and on the ground in 190 countries. It is currently celebrating its 70th anniversary this month.

With such an extensive resume, TWR was bound to have at least a few unique transmitter sites. One such site that we’ll share with you here can be found “Where America’s Day Begins,” floating just above the equator in the western Pacific Ocean.

In Micronesia, TWR’s shortwave member station on Guam, KTWR, serves listeners across most of Asia, spanning Siberia to India to Indonesia.

The KTWR site has three transmitters, one 100 kW HC100 and two 250 kW TSW2250Ds. The six TCI curtain antennas (one 2x2x1.5, one 2x3x.5 and four 4x4x1) were installed during various years from 1977 to 1998. Radio World is told that TWR installed the antennas and transmitters with their own personnel and volunteers.

Mike Sabin, the Asia broadcast technical operations director for TWR, shared the neat picture below featuring KTWR’s transmitter facilities.

“The antenna switch matrix shown at the right in the photo is a custom system made from HCJB field switches,” said Sabin. “We installed it in 2014.”

Sabin said the KTWR site has three solar arrays with a total power capacity of 87 kW.

KTWR’s transmitter site on Guam. (Credit: Mike Sabin)

The broadcast site sits in Malesso — Guam’s southernmost village. Malesso skirts the island’s southern shoreline on a long strip of land between mountains and sea, which provides interesting broadcast capabilities.

“Being on the foot of a mountain and close to the ocean has helped the broadcasts be easily heard all over Asia,” said Sabin.

Now, the location of the pristine site we see above hasn’t been without its challenges. The island of Guam — a U.S. territory since 1898 — is no stranger to natural disasters and inclement weather. Recently, in 2023, Typhoon Mawar brought widespread flooding and 140 mile-per-hour winds — equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane — when it struck on May 24, wreaking a whopping $112 million in damage. Mawar is recorded as the strongest typhoon to hit the territory since 2002.

KTWR was not immune to Mawar’s harsh winds, but did fair a little better than expected, according to Sabin.

“All of the antennas had varying amounts of damage, [but] the buildings and the transmitters faired well,” said Sabin. “One antenna was a complete loss, [but the] towers were all fine.”

Since the typhoon made landfall last May, Sabin said a new TCI 611 4x4x1 curtain antenna has been purchased and will be installed this spring.

Scenes from the KTWR tower site following Typhoon Mawar. (Credit: Grant Hodgins/TWR)

After nearly two months of disrupted programming, the shortwave station resumed its regular on-air schedule on July 15. Prior to that, three other shortwave broadcasters in Asia aired some of KTWR’s usual programming while the team on Guam repaired the wrecked antennas.

Sabin’s remarks on KTWR’s recovery last July serve as a strong reminder for stations to take emergency preparedness seriously … and to expect the unexpected.

“While we do keep an updated contingency plan for broadcast coverage, every catastrophic event we have had over the past two decades has proven to be unique,” he told TWR. “This particular event unfortunately took the prize for the longest complete outage at KTWR, ever.”

The author was born on Guam and lived though six typhoons, the last of which was Typhoon Pongsona in 2002, a Category 4-equivalent super typhoon.

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The post This Shortwave Station’s Transmitter Site Sits Pretty in the Tropics appeared first on Radio World.

It is no secret that the final three months of 2022 were highly impacted by record-level political advertising dollars.

That’s why a closer look at The E.W. Scripps Co.‘s fiscal results for the final quarter of 2023 is worthy of consideration. “Our fourth-quarter results reflect improvement in the advertising marketplace, both at the core local level and nationally,” company President/CEO Adam Symson shared ahead of Scripps’ earnings call for analysts and investors.

In fact, the company exceeded guidance on revenue, despite recording a net loss in the quarter. A non-cash goodwill impairment charge associated with Scripps Networks, along with restructuring costs related to a company-wide reorganization, are the key culprits for the results.

With Chief Operating Officer Lisa Knutson sharing positive details regarding Scripps’ automotive advertising, up 9% in the quarter, Symson detailed some of the topline results from the TV station owner.

Operating revenue declined to $615.77 million from $680.94 million, beating the consensus estimate of $602 million offered from 6 analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance.

Five analysts offered their estimates on Earnings Per Share, and they were widely varying, with the low estimate at -$0.06 and the high estimate at $0.46.

Scripps missed, reporting a -$3.17 per share loss, compared to EPS of $0.84 in Q4 2022; this is, again, due to the non-cash goodwill impairment charge. A net loss of $268.34 million was registered, shifting from net income of $85.55 million.

Adjusted EBITDA declined to $117.61 million, from $208.19 million, as Free Cash Flow dipped to $45.13 million from $153.52 million.

ELECTION-YEAR SHIFTS

The big addition of political advertising dollars in the fourth quarter of 2022 is the primary reason why Local Media segment revenue fell by 12.1%, to $381.03 million, in Q4, from $433.44 million in the record-shattering quarter of one year earlier. Local Media profit came in $85.71 million, moving from $151.63 million.

Looking ahead, Knutson looked to Montana, with strong dollars coming in already as Sen. Jon Tester appears to be in a tight race. Nevada, Ohio and Arizona are also looking strong with respect to political dollars to its stations there, Knutson added.

Then there is Florida, with controversial ballot issues potentially driving advertising toward its television stations across the Sunshine State.

With Local Media looking forward to strong political dollars, Scripps Networks seeks to reverse a 7.1% revenue dip, moving to $230.14 million, from $247.84 million. Segment profit was down to $64.26 million, from $80 million.

CORE GROWTH

Core advertising has, for many broadcast television companies, fallen short of the dollars attributed to retransmission consent revenue of late.

That is the case for Scripps. However, core advertising increased year-over-year — by 1% — shifting to $165.77 million from $164.19 million in Q4. Retransmission consent revenue, perhaps to the chagrin of the American Television Alliance (ATVA) and ACA Connects, soared by 22.3%, to $195.78 million, from $160.05 million.

What does The E.W. Scripps Co. expect to see in Q1 2024 and across this year? The Local Media revenue is set to surge, while Scripps Networks revenue growth will be more challenged.

To say that the two Republicans on the FCC are displeased with the party-line 3-2 vote to reinstate a federal requirement that broadcasters file Form 395-B every year with the FCC that lists the race and gender of their employees may be an understatement.

In the view of Brendan Carr, “instead of confining today’s decision to lawful age action, the FCC chooses a different course—one that violates the Constitution, as the D.C. Circuit has already determined in not one but two separate FCC cases.”

 

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With the FCC on February 7 adopting rules, released late Thursday evening, that would reinstate Form 395-B data collection for the use of determining broadcast media workforce composition, the Commission on a 3-2 party-line vote also moved ahead with a plan to create an identical requirement for multichannel video programming distributors ranging from cable TV suppliers to direct broadcast satellite companies.

 

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It was a time when OutKast dominated Top 40 radio and George W. Bush was gearing up for a reelection campaign as U.S. President. That’s when state broadcaster associations filed a petition seeking reconsideration of the Third Report and Order and Fourth NPRM regarding EEO data collection by the Commission.

On February 7, 2024, the FCC decided to act on that 2004 petition, granting it in part while also denying it in part, dismissing in part, and deferring in part.

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With FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel now emboldened by the presence of Anna Gómez as a third and decisive vote-maker on contentious proposals that will not get the support of the Commission’s two Democrats, another 3-2 party line victory has come.

This time, it involves the collection of workforce composition data for television and radio broadcasters.

A Fourth Report and Order, Order on Reconsideration, and Second Further Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking are all moving forward, thanks to the February 7 adoption by Democrats of the three EEO-related policy-making matters. The R&O and NPRM were not distributed until late Thursday afternoon.

Specifically, this action reinstates the collection of workforce composition information from broadcasters on Form 395-B. Additionally, addresses a 2004 Petition for Reconsideration — indeed, something filed 20 years ago. Furthermore, the FCC is now seeking comment to refresh the record regarding the reinstatement of collection of Form 395-A data.

A 62-page document outlining the specifics was shared by the FCC.

The actions by the Rosenworcel Commission come after the FCC suspended more than two decades ago its requirement that broadcast licensees file Form 395-B, which collects race, ethnicity, and gender information about a broadcaster’s employees within specified
job categories.

In July 2021, the Commission released a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to refresh the record, a move designed to end the dormancy that with a 2-2 Commission could not move forward, as Republican Commissioners Nate Simington and Brendan Carr do not approve of the language in the FNPRM.

They still do not approve. Yet, “after careful consideration of the record,” Democrats moved forward to “reaffirm the Commission’s authority to collect this critical information,” putting the wheels in motion that broadcasters should resume filing Form 395-B on an annual basis.

“Given the importance of this workforce information and Congress’s expectation that such information would be collected and available, we reinstate this collection in a manner available to the public consistent with the Commission’s previous, long-standing method of collecting this data,” the FCC said.

For the Commission, the ability to collect and access data from Form 395-B is “critical,” as it will not only give the FCC information about the broadcast industry workforce but also empower them with insights and observations they can provide in reports to Congress. “Collection, analysis, and availability of this information will support greater
understanding of this important industry,” the Commission said.

The Commission added, “Without objective and industry-wide data it is impossible to assess changes, trends, or progress in the industry. Consistent with how these data have
been collected historically, we will make broadcasters’ Form 395-B filings available to the public because we conclude that doing so will ensure maximum accuracy of the submitted data, is consistent with Congress’s goal to maximize the utility of the data an agency collects for the benefit of the public, allows us to produce the most useful reports possible for the benefit of Congress and the public, and allows for third-party testing of the accuracy of our data analyses.”

With this move, the Commission is also addressing a pending petition for reconsideration from 2004 regarding the use of Form 395-B data from state broadcaster associations, while also deciding to seek to refresh the record on the reinstatement of the collection of FCC Form 395-A. This form concerns the workforce composition of multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).

In the document, the FCC explains that an idea to substitute Form 395-B with the Radio Television Digital News Association diversity study “would be inconsistent with the section 334 prohibition on changes and would provide a less complete view of the broadcast sector.” Also failing to serve as a suitable substitute is form EEO-1, the FCC determined.

Meanwhile, the the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) was brought into the spotlight, as concerns regarding the public availability of the data collected from Form 395-B arose. The conclusion from the Rosenworcel Commission? Neither CIPSEA nor the Freedom of Information Act affords an appropriate basis to collect Form 395-B information in a confidential manner. “Reinstatement of the Form 395-B data collection in a publicly available manner is wholly consistent with the equal protection guarantee contained in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” the Commission added.

And, the FCC disagreed with a claim from the NAB and state broadcaster associations that the collection or publication of the data on a licensee- or station-attributable basis will still somehow result in unconstitutional “sub silentio” pressures or “raised-eyebrow” regulation, the Commission said.