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A docket 80/90 addition to the FM radio dial, serving such Alabama cities as Winfield, Brilliant, Lynn and Hamilton, is being sold.

What does this mean for the Oldies programming currently heard on this Class A facility?

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LOS ANGELES — Allen Media Group‘s free-streaming digital platform HBCU GO, offering programming linked to the nation’s 107 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), has signed a long-term media rights partnership with the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC).

The ten-year arrangement grants HBCU GO cable, linear, streaming, broadcast, VOD, and pay-per-view rights coverage of all SIAC team sports through 2032 on a global level. Sports include regular season contests for football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and Olympic sports.

HBCU GO has also secured distribution for the SIAC sporting events on the CBS owned-and-operated stations in key television markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Sacramento, Miami, Tampa, and Pittsburgh.

“This is a historic moment,” said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of HBCU GO parent Allen Media Group. “The HBCU GO team is excited to partner with SIAC to distribute their conference games to a broader audience. We are committed to bringing the best of HBCU culture and sports to our global platforms.”

SIAC Commissioner Anthony Holloman commented, “Through this innovative streaming platform, we invite fans from around the world to join us in celebrating the indomitable spirit of SIAC sports and culture. This new era of digital engagement opens doors to boundless opportunities and ensures that every thrilling moment will be etched in the memories of our dedicated supporters. We extend our sincere gratitude to HBCU GO for their invaluable collaboration, and we can’t wait to share the excitement and passion of SIAC sporting events with fans everywhere.”

Listeners to a collection of Audacy Inc.-owned spoken word stations in the nation’s top markets will continue hearing news and information from CBS News Radio. It is thanks to a new, multi-year affiliation agreement with the audio content creation and distribution company.

Under the terms of the agreement, CBS News Radio will deliver its news coverage to 27 Audacy-owned stations, including WCBS-AM 880 in New York; WBBM-AM & WCFS-FM in Chicago; KYW-AM & WPHI-FM in Philadelphia; KNX-AM & FM in Los Angeles; and KCBS-AM & KFRC-FM in San Francisco, among other properties.

The agreement includes CBS News Radio’s top-of-the-hour newscasts, the CBS World News Roundup, breaking news, special events coverage, correspondent interviews and audio. It also gives the Audacy stations the ability to simulcast CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell telecasts as well as 60 Minutes and Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.

The Audacy deal comes as the nation’s top-billing radio station, WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C., on Thursday affirmed its relationship with CBS News Radio as its primary network news source. This came on word that WTOP Radio had aligned itself with ABC News Radio. That agreement positions the Compass Media Networks/Linkup-provided service as a secondary provider to the Hubbard Radio all-News giant, allowing listeners to again hear reports from ABC News correspondents including Jonathan Karl, Karen Travers, and former longtime CBS News Radio correspondent Stephen Portnoy.

Media Bureau grants Informal Objection and dismisses the KLLM(FM) modification application.

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In this letter to the editor, the author comments on Karl Zuk’s recent guest commentary “Lumos! Give Me Some Light!” Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

Long before the lightbulb ban, way back in the early transition days, I started buying incandescent light bulbs and managed to collect enough lamps for two lifetimes! I rather detested CFLs for their harsh light and RFI, plus they often melted down. These were just not for me. 

I have to admit now that the new LED numbers are much better. Selecting one, however, can be a little challenging as there are too many choices. 

Although I’m not a lighting engineer, color temperature has always been important to me in my career as well as in my personal environment. I much prefer the warm soft glow of an incandescent lamp, even a halogen.

Before I retired almost a decade ago, I spent nearly 45 years of my life with ABC in Chicago in the television engineering department. My experience began with quad machines, image orthicons, vidicons and vacuum tube distribution amplifiers and ended in the era of thumb drives, cameras with factory pre-registered solid-state imaging blocks and high-density processors. 

I don’t have any liking for the new stuff as there is nothing to tweak. Just point the camera at the white card and press a button. Color temperature? Who cares? It used to take a couple of hours to completely align a camera chain from scratch. I miss using my greenie!

All that said, a good article on how to choose the correct color temperature with the new LED lamps would be helpful. You could also compare the new lamps to the old incandescent ones. If your article pitched color temperature as an important but often-overlooked factor in creating a pleasant and productive workplace, even a magazine like Radio World might publish it! 

The author worked for WKS(TV) in Chicago. He describes himself as a “now-retired bum.”

[Check Out More Letters at Radio World’s Reader’s Forum Section]

The post Letter: Tell Us About Color Temperature appeared first on Radio World.

As expected, the nation’s leading multimedia company superserving Black consumers has regained compliance with the Nasdaq Stock Market’s Periodic Filing Rule.

Word arrived at Urban One on Thursday from Nasdaq that it is back on the exchange’s good list, now that it is caught up with the filing of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission through the third quarter of 2023.

While Urban One is now in compliance with the exchange’s filing rule, Nasdaq has informed the company led by Alfred Liggins III that it will be subject to a Mandatory Panel Monitor for a period of one year, or until December 29, 2024.

If, within the one year monitoring period, Urban One again fails to comply with the Periodic Filing Rule, the company will not be permitted to provide the Nasdaq Staff with a plan of compliance with respect to that deficiency, nor will the company be afforded a cure period.

Instead, upon the Nasdaq Staff issuing a delist determination letter, Urban One would then have an opportunity to request a new hearing with the initial Hearing Panel or a newly convened Hearing Panel if the initial Hearing Panel is unavailable.

Urban One trades as “UONE” and closed Thursday’s trading at $4.03 per share. Preferred shares are traded as “UONEK,” and these completed Thursday’s trading at $3.64.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The local commercial broadcast television and radio industry generates $1.23 trillion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 2.52 million jobs through direct and stimulative effect on the American economy.

That’s the key takeaway from a new study from Woods & Poole Economics produced with support from BIA Advisory Services.

The analysis examines broadcasting’s impact on the economy through direct employment, its ripple effect on other industries and as an advertising medium for messaging consumers. Radio and television stations’ influence on the national economy, as well as information by state, is provided in the study, which was shared by the NAB late Thursday.

“From trusted local and national news, live sporting events and popular network programming to critical emergency information, broadcasters provide the content Americans rely upon each day,” said NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “These local stations are also an engine for economic health and development keeping local dollars within our hometowns across the country. America’s broadcasters provide jobs, connect businesses with new customers through advertising and stimulate growth.”

The study found that direct employment from local commercial broadcasting, which includes jobs at local television and radio stations as well as in advertising and programming, is estimated at more than 314,000 jobs, generating more than $55 billion annually in economic impact.

Broadcast television accounts for over 193,000 of these jobs, as well as more than $34 billion in GDP, while broadcast radio generates 121,000 jobs that result in more than $21 billion in GDP.

“Industries as varied as telecommunications, public utilities, manufacturing, transportation and retail trade provide inputs into the production of local television and radio broadcasting,” the study said. “When measured with a technical input-output analysis an additional 99,000 jobs are supported in other industries because of the goods and services requirements of local television and radio broadcast stations.”

The study also examined the ripple effect employment in broadcasting has on local economies through the consumption of goods and services by industry employees. Local broadcasting has a ripple effect on other industries of nearly $139 billion in GDP and more than 784,000 jobs, the report concluded.

“The income from local television and radio broadcast jobs flows through the economy creating additional jobs and income in various economic sectors,” the study notes. “A job in local television and radio broadcast stations multiplies itself by helping create jobs in construction, farming, mining, state and local government and all other economic sectors. The workers in the industries supplying goods and services to local television and radio broadcast workers in turn consume goods and services.”

Local broadcasting’s largest impact on the American economy stems from its role as a forum for advertising of goods and services that stimulates economic activity, Woods & Poole found. The study estimated local broadcast TV and radio advertising generated $1.03 billion in GDP and supports 1.42 million jobs. More than $630 billion in GDP and 875,000 jobs are attributed to the stimulative effect of broadcast television, and nearly $400 billion in GDP and over 540,000 jobs are attributed to radio.

“The primary role of broadcast television and radio is reducing the cost of product information through advertising,” the study reads. “In this way, broadcast television and radio stations have their most significant impact on economic growth. Reaching all United States households, local broadcast television and radio stations provide consumers with highly valued marketplace information and businesses with immediate economic and competitive intelligence.”

A Class C3 FM serving Wheatland, Wyo., will not be permitted to change its community of license and move to a new transmitter site. The decision from the  Commission comes after an informal objection was submitted by another broadcast group suggested the move couldn’t happen, as the locale was not a licensable community for allotment purposes.

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A supplier of cable and satellite direct-to-home communications equipment and an innovator of telecommunication systems for Internet Protocol TV, OTT and Digital Terrestrial Television services has officially brought to market the first certified and security verified device for reception of NEXTGEN TV signals.

And, it is available from the online portal of one of the nation’s biggest retailers.

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The Senior Counsel to the Chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has joined the office of Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr, to serve as his new Legal Advisor.

Arpan Sura is taking the position.

To Carr, Arpan “is a true lawyer’s lawyer as well as an experienced advisor on a range of policy issues,” he said. “His wealth of experience on wireless, satellite, consumer protection, media, technology, and litigation issues will be a tremendous asset to the office. I look forward to drawing on his advice and counsel.”

In his former role at the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Sura focused on spectrum policy, emerging technologies, and infrastructure matters.

Before joining the Commission, Arpan spent more than a decade representing clients in the telecommunications and technology sectors, most recently as Counsel in the Communications, Internet, and Media practice at Hogan Lovells.

Radio affiliates of Skyview Networks will be given access to elections results and maps from The Associated Press as part of an expanded agreement, which took effect on Monday.

Affiliates who opt to use AP’s elections data will have the opportunity to design their own visualization dashboard for what best suits their needs. They will have access to live vote count maps, declared winners, and delegate counts in every major party primary and caucus event in the 2024 presidential race.

“We are pleased to bring AP’s gold standard election data to radio affiliates through Skyview Networks,” said Sara Trohanis, AP’s VP for Americas Revenue and Strategic Partnerships. “AP has counted the vote and declared winners in every U.S. presidential election since 1848, and we look forward to providing accurate, trusted results to the world once again in 2024.”

Jeanne-Marie Condo, president of network partnerships and chief revenue officer of Skyview Networks, “Our newly extended agreement with The Associated Press lifts our network opportunities to new heights. AP’s expansive portfolio of news coverage and short-form inventory is a beacon for advertisers seeking the highest of standards in network reach.”

Skyview Networks President/CEO Steve Jones added, “As part of our renewed agreement with AP, we’ll be collaborating on additional opportunities to grow the audio segment of their diverse and global business so that more of their valuable services are available to radio broadcasters and audio consumers.”

For the past three years, the Southern New Jersey communities of Clementon and Berlin have been able to tune to an FM translator used to rebroadcast “Ritmo FM,” originating from the HD3 multicast signal associated with WPEN-FM in Philadelphia.

Soon, this will change, thanks to a transaction that awaits FCC approval.

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As 2024 begins, longtime media broker Greg Guy, the founder of recently launched Tideline Partners, is optimistic. With the year starting off with a deal involving the sale of low-power television stations in Los Angeles and Seattle, coming off a transaction that sees two Denver-market FMs being spun, Guy is perhaps in a strong position compared to his peers … or is he?

In this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, Guy shares his views on the deal-making landscape for both broadcast TV and radio in a conversation with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Greg Guy” on Spreaker.

The National Association of Farm Broadcasting has named Colleen Callahan as its interim executive director. Based in Platte City, Mo., where NAFB is headquartered, Callahan will serve in the role until a permanent executive director is hired.

Former NAFB Executive Director Tom Brand stepped down from his post this past December, having lead the organization since 2011.

A current member of the NAFB, Callahan was elected as its first female president in 2002. She was also inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame in 2011.

She is a 1973 graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and started her career as the agribusiness director at WMBD Radio-TV in Peoria, Ill., according to a NAFB press release.

Prior to her new role, Callahan served as the director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, as well as the Illinois director of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development. She owns and operates Colleen Callahan Consultancy.

“Colleen Callahan has the enthusiasm, business management, and industry experience we need to help the NAFB continue to do great things while we’re searching for our new executive director,” said Carah Hart, 2024 NAFB president, in the release. “She will serve in the position until the new executive director is named and will help with the onboarding process. We look forward to having Colleen at NAFB in the months ahead.”

The NAFB executive board, along with the board of directors, will continue its search for a permanent executive director. The job listing can be found here.

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The post Callahan Named Interim NAFB Executive Director appeared first on Radio World.

It’s an oft-repeated tale — the digital goliaths ranging from Amazon to Meta and Google are suctioning dollar after dollar away from traditional linear media, offering inexpensive targeting at scale. But, a newly released report from the University of North Carolina Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media offers some rosy predictions for 2024.

Specifically, it suggests that news executives and entrepreneurs who understand the opportunity that can come from investment in local media by the state’s ad buyers will make more money.

 

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From Radio World’s Who’s Buying What page: India public service broadcaster Prasar Bharti has ordered 96 rackmount audio processors from ATC Labs.

ATC said its Perceptual SoundMax Model Q24-6111 processors will be used at 48 FM radio stations that are part of the All India Radio (AIR) service operated by Prasar Bharti. It expects to begin deployment in the spring.

The version supplied to AIR will include new features such as a built-in RDS encoder, independent processing for dual digital outputs and streaming, a streaming encoder and improvements to the audio processing platform including low-latency AI algorithms, according to a press release.
The Perceptual SoundMax line was introduced in 2013; ATC said its notable users include SiriusXM.

“The latest 2023/2024 release of Perceptual SoundMax has been further enhanced using ATC Labs’ latest breakthrough patent-pending technology in low-latency AI/ML audio analysis algorithms, which is being integrated in ATC Labs product under the label AIdeal Audio.”

[Read more product news.]

The post AIR to Deploy 48 ATC Labs Audio Processors appeared first on Radio World.

In a major advancement for Sinclair Inc., its four nationally distributed digital multicast networks are being brought to viewers in some of the nation’s biggest DMAs for the first time,

It’s thanks to agreements just announced by the Baltimore-based media company and its new partner, Paramount Global.

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