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As 2023 came to a close, Salem Media Group revealed that the company, in a move designed to further reduce its debt, agreed to sell its Regnery Publishing arm to Skyhorse Publishing for an undisclosed price. This followed the $30 million sale of Salem Church Products to Gloo LLC in October 2023.

Now, the purveyor of Christian-themed and conservative Talk content that in 2021 relocated to Irving, Tex., is selling its former Ventura County, Calif., headquarters, while entering a sale leaseback agreement.

As first reported on Friday morning by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, Stamford, Conn.-based Siena Lending Group on January 19 confirmed to Salem CFO Evan Masyr and General Counsel Christopher Henderson via electronic correspondence Salem’s decision to sell its building at 4880 Santa Rosa Road in Camarillo, Calif. And, Siena gave its approval to the sale, given its role as a major lender to Salem.

Indeed, Salem is a borrower of Siena, and 100% of the proceeds totaling $6,231,900 will be paid to it by Salem. This will offset a new $26 million three-year asset-based revolving credit facility established between Siena and Salem on Dec. 26, 2023. It marked a return to Siena from Wells Fargo Bank, which happens to have a branch directly across the street from the Camarillo building.

The buyer of the building is Greg Robinson, President of Big Brand Tire Company. Big Brand Tire & Service centers can be found across Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado.

Salem will not be vacating the building. Instead, it has agreed to a five-year leaseback agreement with Robinson, with annual rent of $500,000. This will ensure the company’s current building use continues.

As Siena agreed to the sale of Salem’s former headquarters, it also said yes to agreements to the Loan and Security Agreement agreed to between Siena and Salem. First, an increase in the Letter of Credit limit was seen, from $1 million to $3 million. Other financial covenants will come into effect following the sale.

Salem has been busily working to whittle down its outstanding debt. As of September 30, 2023, long-term debt stood at $152.61 million, with total liabilities of $339.15 million. Salem’s total assets were valued at $471.3 million.

Meanwhile, a January 19 change for its stock transpired as “SALM” began trading on the OTCQX Best Market. The company voluntarily delisted its shares from Nasdaq; Salem shares have not closed above $1 since the first week of May 2023.

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — America’s Public Television Stations, the association focused on “ensuring a strong and financially sound public television system” and helping member stations provide essential public services in education, public safety and civic leadership to the American people, is putting the finishing touches on its 2024 Public Media Summit.

As APTS will celebrate its 45th anniversary at the event, it will also serve as the swan song for the organization’s President/CEO, Patrick Butler.

This year’s event is scheduled for February 26-28 at the Salamander Hotel in Washington D.C. from February 26-28, 2024. It is located adjacent to the former FCC headquarters in the Portals, a few blocks west of the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station.

The theme of the 2024 Summit is “Partners in Public Service,” and APTS says it will be celebrating the work members stations are doing with government agencies and other partners “to serve the American people in some truly extraordinary ways.”

Set to appear at the Summit are several nationally known politicians: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Senate Appropriations Vice Chair, will participate in a conversation with Margaret Hoover, Host of “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover.”

Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Shelly Moore Capito (R-W. Va.) will also be in attendance.

Additionally, all five voting members of the FCC — Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks, Nathan Simington and Anna Gómez, will offer “special messages” for Summit attendees.

The Summit agenda includes a review of the prospects for increased federal and State funding for public broadcasting, exploration of the technological innovations revolutionizing the public broadcasting business, and an assessment of progress in bringing greater diversity, equity and inclusion to member stations.

Review the full 2024 Public Media Summit agenda on the APTS website.

The broadcast TV station owner under majority control of Apollo Global Management is warning its viewers that one of the nation’s two direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service providers is planning to drop its stations from local channel lineups.

Call it a preemptive advisory that suggests a retransmission consent impasse could be just days away — again.

On Thursday evening, Cox Media Group issued a statement noting that it has called on DirecTV “to not block its customers’ access to breaking local news and weather, emergency information, live major sports and other entertainment programming provided by CMG’s local TV stations.”

That’s CMG’s way of saying that, as of now, DirecTV is not willing to agree to the terms presented by the TV station owner for a new retransmission consent accord. Indeed, CMG says that DirecTV “appears intent on pulling all of CMG’s local TV stations from its lineup, starting as early as February 2.”

By law, MVPDs including DirecTV and Dish are not permitted to provide broadcast TV signals to customers without a retransmission consent accord. That means that at 12:01am Eastern on February 2, CMG’s stations will go dark on DirecTV in the absence of a fresh deal.

The timing of the latest tussle between CMG and DirecTV is a reprise of tough negotiations seen three years ago, and comes right before the February 11 airing of Super Bowl LVIII on CBS.

As such, the telecast is threatened to be blocked to DirecTV subscribers in Seattle, where CMG owns CBS affiliate KIRO-7; in Dayton, Ohio, where CMG owns heritage CBS station WHIO-7; and in Jacksonville, Fla., as CMG owns CBS affiliate WJAX-47 in that market.

Commenting on the potential disruption for CMG’s stations, EVP Marian Pittman said,  “We’re dismayed that DIRECTV is trying to force a deal that would harm local journalism and broadcast stations. This hurts consumers who rely on our high-quality local news, weather, and entertainment programming.”

CMG also makes the claim that DirecTV’s strategy “stands to threaten the viability of local journalism at a time when broadcast TV stations are often the last source of local news, emergency information, and consumer protection left in their communities. While DirecTV aggressively tries to undermine the value of local broadcast stations, they know the truth. Local broadcast stations, including CMG’s stations, are consistently the most popular channels on DirecTV’s lineup.”

RBR+TVBR reached out to a DirecTV spokesperson for comment. As the DBS provider sees it, it is working with CMG to reach a new agreement “that will align the value and quality customers receive with the price they pay. Our request to Cox Media Group is simple, don’t force your viewers who are our customers, to pay an unwarranted rate increase for ‘free’ news, sports and entertainment that is widely available on local station websites, through an over-the-air digital antenna and direct-to-consumer streaming platforms.”

As CMG and DirecTV due it out over a new retransmission fee accord, individual TV stations owned by CMG including WSB-2 in Atlanta, its ABC-affiliated flagship property, are asking viewers to call 1-800-531-5000 to demand DirecTV keep the station on its lineup.

MVPDs have largely been critical of such tactics, assailing broadcast television stations for getting consumers involved in business negotiations.

 

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Privately held Block Communications has debuted a unique newscast-podcast format that can’t be seen on its FOX affiliate serving Kentucky’s largest market. Rather, it is an exclusive offering available to users of the station’s app, opening a new opportunity for both consumers and advertisers.

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North Carolina’s radio and television broadcasting stations could be in for a windfall of new advertiser revenue, as the State Lottery Commission on Thursday morning confirmed that approved, licensed sports wagering operators will be able to begin accepting online
wagers in the state in a matter of weeks.

 

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NEW YORK — They are designed to help Fubo consumers make better viewing decisions in real-time, the publicly traded company says.

Introducing “Instant Headlines,” which FuboTV Inc. describes as “a pioneering beta feature that generates contextual news topics as they are reported live on air.”

The new Fubo offering surfaces current programming topics and highlights them — in 10 words or less — in a home page news carousel. The page continuously refreshes each channel tile in the carousel, updating the user on the current topic being discussed on that channel. From there, the user can click on the channel tile to watch the live segment.

Instant Headlines is available to Fubo users on FireTV and Android TV, and is currently integrated with select 24 hour news channels, including national networks and, in certain markets, local stations.

The feature may be expanded to other devices in the future.

Fubo also said it plans to launch a suite of news-focused product features and intends to make similar features available for sports and entertainment content.

“Fubo continuously pushes the boundaries of innovation, delivering to consumers market defining product features optimized for live TV streaming,” said David Gandler, Fubo’s co-founder and CEO. “We were the first virtual MVPD to offer 4K streaming and multi viewing, which we launched years ahead of our peers. It’s Fubo’s premium user experience, coupled with our aggregated sports-first content offering, that provides meaningful differentiation in a crowded streaming landscape. We believe tech advancements will continue to demarcate Fubo from other live TV streaming services – appealing to both consumers and advertisers alike – and will contribute strongly to our profitability goals.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Member who chairs the Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chair want a clearer understanding of sports media rights in the U.S.

They hope to get answers in a hearing scheduled for January 31 on Capitol Hill.

House E&C head Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Bob Latta (R-Ohio) are calling the hearing “TV Timeout: Understanding Sports Media Rights,” and it is scheduled for the final day of the month at 10:30am Eastern, in Rayburn HOB Room 2322.

Why are Rodgers and Latta convening the hearing? “The media marketplace has rapidly evolved over the last decade to adapt to the shifting dynamics of the sports’ media rights debate and the rising influence of online streaming platforms,” they note. “The introduction of streaming services, in particular, has expanded the options for people to choose where, when, and what content they view, including live sports. We look forward to discussing this evolution and better understand the innovation and competition in this market and how it has changed the consumer experience.”

Perhaps the key word here is “disrupted,” and streaming services such as Peacock and Amazon Video gain exclusives, such as National Football League telecasts.

A witness list is forthcoming.

Comcast Corp., the NBCUniversal parent, on Thursday reported its Q4 2023 earnings results. The big takeaway as Brian Wieser, the respected media industry financial analyst who leads Madison & Wall, sees it?

OTT platform Peacock is powering NBCU, as the linear media assets are experiencing turbulence.

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Last Saturday, more than 150 listeners across the U.S., Italy, France and Japan huddled by their radios to decipher a series of Morse Code transmitted by the Maritime Radio Historical Society.

MRHS was formed on July 12, 1999, the date of the supposed last commercial Morse transmission in the U.S. Today, the group operates stations KPH, KFS, KSM and, on amateur frequencies, K6KPH. In addition to honoring the craft of maritime radio, KPH also hosts a number of events — most recently, an over-the-air cryptographic challenge.

A Quick History Lesson

During the Cold War era, “numbers stations” were frequently heard on the shortwave bands by radio amateurs and SWLs (shortwave listening). Using voice or Morse Code, these stations would broadcast encrypted messages in the form of five-letter groups of numbers.

The encryption methods used by number stations are widely believed to use a one-time pad (OTP) procedure: the simple addition (or subtraction) of a set of random numbers from the OTP to encode (or decode) the cleartext. Once used, the OTP key was never re-used and destroyed after use. “Number stations still offer a powerful advantage in our modern world: provably unbreakable security and complete anonymity,” says MRHS on its website. “All the recipient needs are the OTP, a shortwave radio and to be on the right frequency at the right time.”

KPH’s Crypto Transmission

On Jan. 20, KPH transmitted a coded message consisting of five-digit groups. The message was encrypted using typical Cold War numbers station cryptographic procedures. All KPH listeners were invited to try their hand at receiving and decrypting the message.

To recap the event, and to learn more about KPH, Radio World chatted via email with Bill Ruck, one of KPH’s passionate volunteers.

Radio World: Can you share a little bit about KPH’s history?

Bill Ruck: When the maritime business collapsed the [former KPH] licensee sold the license and shut down the transmitters. The founders of the Maritime Radio Historical Society went to Point Reyes National Seashore with a proposal to operate the station. They accepted the proposal and now we operate, maintain and interpret the station for visitors in partnership with Point Reyes National Seashore. It is now a National Park Service Historical Site and on its way — very slowly — to becoming a NPS Museum.

The transmit site for all MRHS stations is the original 1914 Marconi site in Bolinas, Calif. The receive site is the RCA point to point site built in 1930 at Point Reyes, Calif. KPH commenced receive operations at the Point Reyes site in 1946 when the station reopened after the war. (Photo credit: MRHS)

RW: How often does KPH hold events like this past weekend’s crypto transmission?

Ruck: It takes a lot of time to put this together but we really want to do a crypto event twice a year. This is our third crypto event. The first two used Enigma (German WWII system) encryption.

RW: What was your role with the event, and at KPH in general?

Ruck: While I really like to work on equipment lately I have mostly been “interpreting,” giving descriptions of what we do at KPH to visitors. Last Saturday, I explained not only the history of KPH but what we were doing, and kept the visitors from annoying the operators sending the five number groups.

Cypress Tree Avenue leads visitors to the historic KPH maritime radio receiving station, Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, Calif. (Photo credit: Frank Schulenburg/Wiki)

RW: How and why did you get involved at the station?

Ruck: Long story. One of my high school friends worked for Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in downtown San Francisco part time at night. When he graduated he became the teletype operator at Point Reyes. I used to hang out with him while he worked and saw KPH in full operation about 50 years ago. Then, years later, a mutual friend invited me to join, not knowing my previous experience at KPH. It was too easy to get sucked in.

I have an active interest in the history of technology, especially radio, and to be involved in a radio station that dates back to 1905 is heaven for me.

Bill Ruck in front of one of MRHS’ Press Wireless PW-15 transmitters. “This is a WWII vintage transmitter that operates every Saturday,” says Ruck. (Photo credit: MRHS)

RW: What kind of programming does KPH do outside of these events?

Ruck: Every Saturday we broadcast marine news and weather in both Morse Code and teletype. There are a few, mostly historic, ships that have the equipment and operators to send messages in Morse. If you take a SS Jeremiah O’Brian San Francisco Bay Cruise (which is highly recommended) you can go to the ship’s radio officer, fill out a radiogram blank and watch as the radio officer sends the message to us. We then forward that message via email. We also send the JOB “Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill” just because we can.

We also operate on amateur HF bands under the call K6KPH. Same thing — hand-sent Morse Code.

This is a picture of Position 1 at the Point Reyes receive site. Mike Payne is holding the microphone on the voice link to the Bolinas transmitter and Roy Henrichs is sitting down. Context: Position 1 has the senior operator controlling all of the transmissions from a total of 6 operating positions. (Photo credit: MRHS)

RW: How many volunteers help to keep the station running?

Ruck: We have about eight regulars and a few more that come by once in a while. We NEED more volunteers.

RW: Why is keeping the art of Morse transmissions alive important to KPH, and you?

Ruck: For almost 100 years maritime radio was the only contact between a ship at sea and land. Until the 80’s this was almost all hand-sent Morse Code. Gradually, several technologies took over and today a ship sends email via satellite. We honor the men, and some women, that were radio officers at sea.

I tell visitors “We do the radio equivalent of a Civil War re-enactment.” There is no money in hand-sent Morse Code anymore, but by keeping the single operational Coastal Marine Station in the U.S. on the air — even if only Saturdays — is living history. While the KPH project is well known in our limited circles, my goal is to get the word out as much as possible.

So, What Was Transmitted?

Here’s the Numbers message as sent (both CW and RTTY):

CQ CQ CQ DE KPH KPH KPH
CQ CQ CQ DE KPH KPH KPH
NUMBERS MESSAGE FOLLOWS
=
447 447 447
=
14408  22398  89277  37674  58289
07722  15378  84975  30552  61128
69986  02108  68467  10079  92331
32982  54092  37446  22905  15340
17129  81152  39418  67073  25414
81456  43361
=

And here is the cleartext:

CURRENT OP  COMPROMISED.  ABORT.
TRAVEL   IMMEDIATELY  TO  ISTANBUL VIA SWISS  PASSPORT.
CONTACT AGENT  MAX.   DANGER,  INSIST   ON   MOSCOW    RULES.
BURN   AFTER   READING.

One of the event’s participants followed orders and sent the below video to KPH.

Visit KPH’s website for more information on its history and future events.

Submit business announcements to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Morse Code Is Alive and Well at KPH appeared first on Radio World.

A logo for Touche Douce from Facebook.

The Federal Communications Commission is ramping up its pressure on a person it describes as “one of the longest-operating [radio] pirates in the Miami area.”

It has proposed the maximum allowable penalty, about $2.4 million, against Fabrice Polynice for allegedly operating a pirate station known as “Touché Douce” over 22 days in 2023. In a notice of apparent liability, it said Polynice had also been issued forfeiture orders in 2013 and 2018.

This is the fifth multimillion-dollar penalty proposed by the FCC since the PIRATE Act significantly raised maximum fines in 2020. Only one to date has progressed to a final forfeiture order, involving Radio Impacto 2 in New York; there has been no further word about that one being paid or collected.

The FCC also has proposed four smaller fines in the Miami area.

Penalties of about $358,000 each are proposed against Brindley Marshall, Wilfrid Salomon and Cameron Brown. “All three individuals have been operating pirate radio stations for years and have received multiple warnings to cease their unauthorized broadcasting,” the commission wrote. The dollar figure is the maximum penalty for three days of alleged violations in 2023.

The FCC also proposed a forfeiture of $120,000 against Abdias Datis.

“These operators were not just using the public airwaves unlawfully, they were increasing the risk for harmful interference of authorized users,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement. “That is unacceptable.”

The NALs were approved unanimously by the FCC commissioners.

In each case, the people named have an opportunity to respond and counter the allegations before the FCC confirms a forfeiture.

The Miami notices are a result of the commission’s first sweep of the Miami area under the PIRATE Act. The commission must conduct regular sweeps of five cities where pirate radio is most common.

Rosenworcel described the field regional management and agents in the Miami field office as “a team on the front lines of enforcing our rules governing the public airwaves.”

The FCC this week also issued an update to Congress on its pirate radio enforcement efforts in the past fiscal year.

The post FCC Plans to Fine Five Radio Pirates in Florida appeared first on Radio World.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The newest FCC Commissioner on Thursday named her Chief of Staff while revealing who will serve as a legal advisor for media and technology, and for both wireline and space issues and for wireless, public safety and consumer protection matters.

Anna Gómez also has a new executive assistant.

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“Appeal No. 23-1787,” the second argument heard on Wednesday morning by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, could give Indiana broadcast television station owner DuJuan McCoy a renewed racial discrimination fight against the nation’s two direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers.

 

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Radio World Buyer’s Guide articles are intended to help readers understand why their colleagues chose particular products to solve various technical situations. This month’s articles focus on telephone systems and applications for radio.

WGFA has been a pivotal voice in the Illiana community, broadcasting from Watseka, Ill., since 1961. Founded by Dick Martin, the station emerged to fulfill the need for radio services in the underserved regions of eastern Illinois and western Indiana.

Over six decades, WGFA has expanded from a single station to three under the Iroquois County Broadcasting Corp. umbrella, still owned and managed by the Martin family. ICBC’s 400-foot tower continues to dominate the landscape of cornfields, embodying the slogan that inspired its initialism “The World’s Greatest Farming Area.”

Erik Bonilla-Sanchez, systems engineer at Inrush, checks the Telos VXs system.

The station’s commitment to local businesses and community engagement has placed a premium on listener participation. However, technical limitations with standalone VoIP hybrids led to frequent dropped calls and busy phone lines, undermining attempts to run contests, record farm reports and engage with listeners live on air.

In 2023, ICBC partnered with Inrush Broadcast Services to address these and other engineering challenges. ICBC embraced Inrush’s proposal to overhaul its phone system using the Telos Alliance VXs platform.

Inrush installed the necessary hardware, a small Lenovo server, at the ICBC studios. The physical setup, involving two network cables and power, was straightforward. Remote configuration, from the operating system installation to test calls via VXs, was completed in under 24 hours, aided by Inrush’s installation workflows and WGFA’s Livewire infrastructure.

The station’s staff say the introduction of VXs transformed its operations, with enhanced audio quality and reliability. Sports Director Andy Moore told Telos, “The difference is night and day. I can now confidently put calls on the air without worrying about audio clarity or dropped connections. It just works, allowing me to focus on what matters most: serving our listeners.”

[Read More Buyers Guide Reviews Here]

The post Illiana Broadcaster Deploys Telos VXs appeared first on Radio World.

MIAMI — Fabrice Polynice, the long-time operator of an unlicensed FM radio station at 90.1 MHz based in North Miami, Fla., has received a multimillion-dollar fine from the FCC under its “PIRATE Act” authority for the continued broadcasts of the pirate operation.

It is one of five proposed fines against a total of five unlicensed radio operators in the Sunshine State, and are actions resulting from the FCC’s first sweep of the Miami area under the law, which was enacted exactly four years ago.

The quintet of fines against broadcast buccaneers total $3.5 million, and are possible thanks to the January 2020 enactment of the “Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act.”

Under the legislation, the FCC was given the ability to significantly increase its fines handed to pirate radio operators, pushing it up to inflation-adjusted amounts of $119,555 per day and a maximum of $2,391,097. That’s the exact dollar amount of the Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture handed to Polynice, specifically for the operation of “Radio Touche Douce” across 22 days in 2023.

RBR+TVBR on January 14, 2024 independently confirmed the continued broadcasts of this unlicensed radio operation from Coral Gables, Fla., some 17 miles to the southwest.

The FCC acknowledged that Polynice is one of the longest operating pirates in the Miami area. In fact, he received a forfeiture order in 2018 and, before that, in 2013.

While Polynice’s proposed fine is the largest by far, the FCC also proposed fines of $358,665—the maximum penalty for three days of violations in 2023—against Brindley Marshall, Wilfrid Salomon, and Cameron Brown.

According to the FCC, the three individuals have been operating pirate radio stations “for years” and have received multiple warnings to cease their unauthorized broadcasting.

Lastly, the FCC proposed a forfeiture of $120,000 against Abdias Datis for operating a pirate radio station during three days in 2023.

In a statement issued during the FCC’s January Open Meeting, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “These operators were not just using the public airwaves unlawfully, they were increasing the risk for harmful interference of authorized users. That is unacceptable.”

Rosenworcel thanked the Field Regional Management and Agents in the FCC’s Miami Field Office for their work on the investigations. “This is a team on the front lines of enforcing our rules governing the public airwaves,” she said. “I am grateful for their efforts, which have been boosted in a big way by congressional action in the ‘PIRATE Act.'”

Rosenworcel also thanked “those in Washington who took up their work and converted it into what we have here today, including Loyaan Egal, Jeremy Marcus, Matthew Gibson, Ryan McDonald, Michael Rhodes, David Marks, Robert Keller, and Reggie Breshears from the Enforcement Bureau; and William Dever and David Konczal from the Office of General Counsel.”

RBR+TVBR RELATED READ:

‘PIRATE Act’ Positives, Even With Enforcement Concerns

From the Radio World Who’s Buying what page: Alternative music station WFUV(FM) in New York City has upgraded its Broadcast Electronics AudioVault audio media management system to AudioVault 11.

George Evans, director of technical operations for the Fordham University station, told BE that the platform helps “to deliver our unique blend of programming to the number 1 market and prepare our student journalists for the evolving media landscape.”

He said the station has a “unique mandate to champion music discovery and foster an appreciation of our diverse musical heritage but also to train the university’s next generation of multimedia professionals through educational programs and practical experience.

BE said in the release that the station “is nationally recognized for its unique format of adult album alternative music, award-winning local news, and sports” and noted that it is the highest rated alternative music station in the United States.

Features of AV11 include a new AudioVault Scheduler that improves management of complex program and content distribution tasks. 

AudioVault Anywhere provides control and simplified operations from connected devices, supporting remote functions including voice tracking, playlist and program management and remote broadcasts, while the CloudVault feature enables cloud-based sharing and redundancy on a scalable Microsoft Azure platform.  

Users of AV11 can load content from Adobe Audition directly, eliminating data entry. And an enhanced AVWatchDog feature monitors schedules and playlists in advance and proactively notifies the user of problems.

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

The post WFUV Deploys AudioVault 11 System appeared first on Radio World.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC has updated its rules and proposed additional updates designed to improve communications network reliability, resiliency, and transparency during disasters and outages.

The rule changes, approved unanimously by the Commission on Thursday at its January Open Meeting, will increase participation in, and enhance the use of, the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), in which service providers report on their operational status during emergencies. This operational data informs service restoration efforts during disasters, when it is vital for first responders and the public to maintain communications.

Certain types of communications providers are required to report network outages to the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) on an ongoing basis. During disasters, the FCC may also activate DIRS to gain greater situational awareness, keep public safety officials and the general public informed about service outages, and support service restoration. In the case of DIRS, however, industry participation is voluntary—which can result in information gaps that impair emergency response. There are also information gaps with NORS because some communications providers are not required to participate.

To address these gaps, and to enhance public safety, the Commission adopted rules that:

· Require cable communications, wireline, wireless, and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to report daily infrastructure status information when DIRS is activated for geographic areas in which they provide service.

· Suspend NORS reporting obligations when providers are required to report in DIRS during a disaster, so they are not obligated to report twice.

· Require DIRS filers to provide a single, final summary DIRS report to the Commission within 24 hours of the deactivation of DIRS.

The Commission is also seeking comment on:

· Whether to require TV and radio broadcasters, satellite providers, and broadband Internet access service (BIAS) providers to report in NORS and/or DIRS.

· The extent to which the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) should be subject to NORS and/or DIRS reporting.

· Whether providers should be required to supply the Commission with after-action reports detailing how their networks fared during the emergency or disaster event.

· Whether providers should be required to report the location of mobile recovery assets during a disaster response, as well other specifications of those assets.

 

In November 2021, the FCC opened a filing window for new noncommercial FM radio station applications. Six groups of mutually exclusive applications for new construction permits resulted from the filing window. Now, the Commission has moved forward with its final tentative selectees, determined through its point system.

 

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