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The two individuals serving as counsel to Fox Television Stations have written to the FCC asking them to reject the latest ex parte filing by one of the individuals associated with the Media and Democracy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit intent on getting the Commission to deny the license renewal of WTXF-29 in Philadelphia on the grounds that it aired false and misleading news reports during the 2020 U.S. presidential election cycle.

 

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The TVB has released highlights of a 4,000-respondent survey conducted by GfK on behalf of TVB which examines how American adults age 18+ engage with different media.

In this report, TVB asked about the amount of time spent on over 20 traditional and digital media platforms the day prior. The big takeaway: Linear TV has the highest reach of all measured media platforms.

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The University of Northwestern-St. Paul has in the last several years been a buyer, rather than a seller, of radio stations. Now, it is adding another FM to its roster of religious non-commercial properties — this time in Big Sky country.

 

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Cynthia Weeks has decided to part ways with the radio stations she controls in a small city to the east of the Odessa-Midland, Tex., market.

Who’s buying the properties? It’s an individual linked to a Florida company founded by a former Interep executive.

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In November 2023, Steve Kingston made good on rumors that the future of Adult Alternative WRNR would again involve a broadcast radio signal as he paid $75,000 for FM translator W260BM in Annapolis, Md., from Hope Christian Church of Marlton Inc.

Now, Kingston has agreed to buy an Annapolis AM, bringing ‘RNR one step closer to reclaiming an over-the-air presence in Maryland’s capital.

With the November 2022 sale of what was WRNR’s 103.1 MHz facility in Graysonville, Md., to Peter & John Fellowship, Kingston hinted at a new beginning for WRNR, which had acquired much of the musical heritage of the former WHFS in recent years. However, with the licensing of FM translators and a shift from analog to digital broadcast technology, WRNR’s coverage of the more lucrative Baltimore metropolitan area became more difficult in recent years. This led to the decision to sell the Class A in Graysonville, shifting WRNR to an online-only brand.

Soon, WYRE-AM will become a fully owned simulcast partners, if you will, of “WRNR Online.”

Richard Dent is agreeing to sell the venerable Class D daytime-only operation at 810 kHz, which must power down during nighttime hours to protect WGY-AM in Schenectady, N.Y., and a facility in the Bahamas.

WYRE has been simulcasting WRNR.com’s stream for the past 12 months.

Kingston’s purchase of WYRE is being done through the newly created Cortona Media, which is the buyer of W260BM. The purchase price was not disclosed in FCC filings made Wednesday.

The rapid acquisition of low-power television stations by the founder of 5-Hour Energy, Manoj Bhargava, as part of a large owned-and-operated strategy being carried out by Vince Bodiford, has continued with an agreement that will give NewsNet a property in Wyoming.

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The nation’s leading audience measurement service for broadcast media companies has earned a multi-year contract extension with the nation’s No. 1 owner of over-the-air television stations; NewsNation and Antenna TV; and WGN-AM in Chicago.

The deal with Nielsen also covers The CW Network, which is majority owned by Nexstar Media Group.

In particular, Nielsen will continue to provide local and national TV measurement services across 200 owned or partner television stations in 116 local markets across the country.

Furthermore, Nielsen will continue to be a “preferred” Nexstar provider of currency-grade TV audience data — an important boasting statement for Nielsen as it fights Comscore and other companies seeking to gnaw away at Nielsen dominance in the U.S.

“Nielsen is continuously working to evolve its measurement services to provide a comprehensive view of the fragmented viewing landscape,” the company said. “In reaching this agreement, Nexstar, as well as all Nielsen customers, have access to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement approach.”

This, Nielsen said, “combines the scale of millions of homes with Nielsen’s representative people-powered panels to provide more accurate and data-driven measurement the industry can trust to accurately represent their audience.”

Nexstar Chief Revenue Officer Michael Strober said the company is pleased to extend its relationship with Nielsen and is excited “about the potential” for Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement product “to more accurately measure all the places where consumers engage with Nexstar’s valuable content – over the air, via cable and satellite,
over-the-top, online and out-of-home.”

The author is chief engineer of Thy Word Network.

With eight different signals on the air plus two internet streams, I was looking for a way to have a simple one-look snapshot of everything. Inovonics gave me a way to make it happen. 

The project started with a conversation with my friend Ben Barber from Inovonics at a NRB convention in Dallas back in 2021. He was showing their INOmini FM/RDS Web-enabled FM receiver for remote signal monitoring. 

It caught my attention because it would not only monitor the on-air signal but also stream that audio out over the internet. With our stations scattered around a three-state area, I began to think about a way to keep both an eye and an ear on all the stations from our main studio.

We have remote controls that we check daily and that contact us if anything goes wrong; but I wanted something that would give me a one-look check on them all. 

My confidence monitor idea began to take shape.

I purchased an INOmni 635 for each of my seven FM stations. I already had an Inovonics 525N Modulation Monitor running at my AM station and two Inovonics 610 internet radio monitors watching our streaming signals. Then I set up a standalone PC running 16 GB of memory with a large monitor so I could run multiple instances of Mozilla browser at the same time.

The photos show the result. Each station has its own browser window; and the layout is saved so it automatically loads on startup. It sits in the hallway alongside our TOC racks, and at a glance we can see if all is well. 

I have two stations that will need upgraded internet before they can be used reliably, so they are absent from the screen now (will probably go to dual monitors then, too). 

A simple mouse click allows us to monitor the audio through a speakers running on the PC sound card, and alarms are available to text us if the audio is low or gone. We also have the PC online with remote desktop software so I can log in with my phone anytime I want to check the system overall health. It is much quicker than logging in to multiple stations!

Our confidence monitor has proven to be a great asset to our operation. While not inexpensive, when it is used in conjunction with our remote control systems, the redundancy factor is helpful … two is one and one is none!

Tell us about your own clever application of a radio technology product. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

[Check Out More of Radio World’s Tech Tips]

The post A Confidence Monitor for Thy Word Network appeared first on Radio World.

In Alabama’s largest market, Sinclair Inc. owns the MyNetwork TV and The CW Network affiliates, housed on full-power stations, as well as the low-power ABC affiliate.

As of today, these stations have a new VP/General Manager.

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The broadcast TV station ownership group propelling the transition to the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast standard across the U.S. has decided when it will reveal its Q4 2023 earnings results and discuss them with analysts and shareholders.

Sinclair Inc. will report its fourth quarter 2023 earnings results following the Closing Bell on Wall Street on Wednesday, February 28. A conference call to discuss the results will be held at 4:30 pm Eastern and is set to include CEO Chris Ripley, COO/President of Local Media Rob Weisbord and Chief Financial Officer Lucy Rutishauser.

After a difficult autumn on the Nasdaq market, Sinclair stock is trading at levels last seen in May 2023, and as of 1:20pm Eastern was priced at $16.16.

Four analysts peg Sinclair’s Q4 EPS to come in at $0.42, down from $0.79 one year ago.

Seven analysts provided a Q4 2023 revenue estimate, and the consensus believes it will finish at $838.75 million.

NBCUniversal Local’s Digital Innovation Team and the Laura Okmin-led organization that provides training and mentoring to women in sports media are partnering to deliver educational opportunities and experiences leading up to and surrounding Super Bowl LVIII, including onsite reporting and production in Las Vegas.

 

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Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.

In the ideal world, every scenario can be anticipated and preparation can be made. This is not a realistic expectation, but some preparation is realistic. Welcome to the thorny world of contracts for consulting engineers. 

Out here in “fly-over” country there are thousands of people with varying experience that are relied upon to keep small radio stations and various repeaters, translators and full power stations on the air. 

Some of us work only occasionally for a station or two while others have such work as their only income. Without us, the full-time corporate engineers might have to spend hours or days driving to a remote site just to reboot a system or reset a circuit breaker. 

The question is, how can a legal, practical contract be established between the large station groups and the engineers when every scenario can be so unique? This is the challenge that at least one large station group is attempting.

In one multi-page contract they are attempting to address the following issues:

• Requiring the contract engineer to not disclose proprietary information
• If the engineer develops any new solutions or improvements, they are intellectual property of the station group
• Insurance coverage — liability, etc., are to be the responsibility of the engineer
• Limits on what the local engineer can spend to get the station back on the air without the approval of the station group

These ideas are logical for full-time employees. But what about someone who works with multiple stations and groups? There is no upside for sharing any information between clients so that expectation is logical. The difficulty begins with some of the other clauses.  

Engineers may develop ideas outside of the realm of any one project. To sign a contract that states that any innovation belongs to one of the employers is probably going to be a non-starter.

Insurance is a necessary part of being a consultant in any field. If a station group has a specific expectation, then they should be providing that insurance. 

If a consultant is only doing occasional work to support a client, they cannot be expected to cover the cost. The cost would have to be recovered by the engineer in increased fees, and the station group will be tasked with approving an endless list of insurance policies from the various engineers. Spending limits are a good suggestion.  

The question is, what is it worth to be off the air for an extra day or two because the local contract engineer could not get approval for necessary repairs? Another consideration being potential added expense for extra time and trips caused by the delay in purchasing. If there is a hole in the roof of the transmitter building, shouldn’t it be possible to get it fixed without permission?

I do not envy the legal minds that are attempting to refine such a contract. I am sure there are many other issues that should be included in such a contract to cover more scenarios. Where does it become impractical to try and anticipate every scenario? 

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

The post The Thorny World of Contracts for Consulting Engineers appeared first on Radio World.

NEW YORK — NBCUniversal has unveiled the dates and locations of the company’s two “marquee” ad sales-generation events, its One24 and Upfront gatherings. “Together, these industry events will demonstrate the technological advancements that power NBCUniversal’s premium content as well as the celebrated IP and iconic talent that bring inspiring stories to life every day from across the company’s vast portfolio,” the Comcast unit says.

On Wednesday, March 20, NBCUniversal will host the fourth annual One24 technology conference at 30 Rock’s Studio 8H, home of “Saturday Night Live.” Here, NBCU seeks to reveal its latest capabilities in automation, data, ad innovations and measurement.

Then, on Monday, May 13, key NBC executives and talent will return to Radio City Music Hall for its annual Upfront presentation. And, in a reprise of recent years in which the NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises team has not held an Upfront of its own, a few minutes to key programming across the Spanish-language networks will be seen at Radio City. That evening, a “Telemundo Celebration” will be staged at The Shed, a Hudson Yards arts center and event space.

“NBCUniversal has always put our advertising partners at the center of everything we do,” said Mark Marshall, Chairman of NBCUniversal Global Advertising & Partnerships. “As consumers’ viewing habits continue to shift, the opportunity to connect with audiences across platforms is more valuable than ever. I’m thrilled to spotlight NBCUniversal’s extensive One Platform tech advancements and premium content offerings on two iconic New York City stages for this year’s One24 and Upfront presentations. The announcements we will make will further our commitment to driving the most effective media for our partners.”

 

In October 2019, an executive who was EVP/Business Operations at Univision Communications before joining DirecTV in July 2013 locked horns with Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) regarding a retransmission consent impasse between the direct broadcast satellite service provider and the owner of a FOX affiliate serving his home district that was being “blacked out,” by law.

Robert Thun gained notice for his take on how carriage negotiations take place. “The broadcasters come to us with a gun to our head telling us, ‘you are going to take this price,’” he said at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on STELAR reauthorization.

On Wednesday (1/31), Thun was back on Capitol Hill, this time for a House Energy & Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing designed to understand sports media rights in the U.S. And, as far as he’s concerned, the shift of live play-by-play sports programming from regional sports networks shouldn’t be cheered so much.

 

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LOS ANGELES — He’s stated on multiple occasions that he seeks to own the largest collection of broadcast television stations in the U.S. Some industry observers question how he’ll be able to do so, from a financial perspective.

Now, Byron Allen, who did not succeed in seeking to obtain TEGNA as its planned merger with the Soohyung Kim-bankrolled Standard General fizzled in 2023, has made a bid for a significant interest in the owner of CBS News & Stations.

“Mr. Byron Allen did submit a bid on behalf of Allen Media Group and its strategic partners to purchase all of Paramount Global‘s outstanding shares,” a company spokesperson shared in a statement provided to RBR+TVBR, and all media organizations. “We believe this $30 billion offer, which includes debt and equity, is the best solution for all of the Paramount Global shareholders, and the bid should be taken seriously and pursued.”

The “$30 billion offer” was first reported late Tuesday by Bloomberg. Subtract the debt to be assumed by AMG, and the offer is for an acquisition of all outstanding voting shares of Paramount Global at a $28.58 price, and all outstanding non-voting shares at $21.53.

 

 

The Video Division, Media Bureau (Bureau), has before it a notice of proposed rulemaking issued in response to a petition for rulemaking filed by TV 49, Inc. (TV-49 or Petitioner), the permittee of an unbuilt television station on channel 31 allotted to Wittenberg, Wisconsin. The Petitioner has requested that the Commission delete channel 31 from Wittenberg and allot it to Shawano, Wisconsin in the Table of TV Allotments and modify its construction permit to specify Shawano as its community of license. TV-49 filed comments in support of the petition, as required by the rules, reaffirming its commitment to file for channel 31 at Shawano.

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