Industry News

NEW YORK — The VAB, which advocates for television industry sales growth initiatives, has moved forward with the launch of a Measurement Innovation Task Force.

This group, the VAB says, “formally mobilize a highly effective group of the top strategic minds in research, analytics and insights from TV publisher companies to accelerate the pace of overdue innovation in media measurement and currency.”

Already committing to the MITF: NBCUniversal and former Nielsen executive Kelly Abcarian. 

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SMPTE has named radio and television innovator David Sarnoff to posthumous honorary membership, the society’s highest accolade.

Honorary membership recognizes individuals who have “performed distinguished service in the advancement of engineering in motion pictures, television or in the allied arts and sciences.”

NBC was incorporated by RCA on this date (Sept. 9) in 1926.

The long list of notable names on SMPTE’s Honor Roll includes Walt Disney, Ray Dolby, Thomas Edison, Lee de Forest and Vladimir Zworykin.

“David Sarnoff is added to the Honor Roll for his visionary leadership in the advancement and implementation of color television and other communication technologies,” the organization sated.

[Read a bio of David Sarnoff.]

“Throughout his career as both a business and technology leader, David Sarnoff had material impact on advancing television and the allied arts and sciences. His understanding that radio signals could be ‘broadcast’ to many, and not be limited to a point-to-point communications channel revolutionized communication to the masses, starting with radio and later through the development and advancement of television.”

It noted that Sarnoff established “a highly productive and successful research and development lab to fuel innovation of new communications technologies. His support of innovation at the RCA Laboratories in Princeton, N.J., led to the establishment of the U.S. color TV standard in 1953 that served as the fundamental approach of monochrome-compatible color TV systems around the world.”

SMPTE also announced a number of other awards and scholarships.

The post SMPTE Honors David Sarnoff appeared first on Radio World.

In December 2020, TEGNA‘s Board of Directors authorized the renewal of its share repurchase program — a decision that allows the company to repurchase up to $300 million of its issued and outstanding common stock over the next three years.

On Thursday morning, the owner of broadcast TV stations, two digital multicast networks, a podcast network and Connected TV/OTT advertising platform Premion “updated” its repurchasing plans.

How so? It is accelerating the repurchase of shares, and it is “driven by accelerated achievement” of TEGNA’s leverage target.

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From our Who’s Buying What page: Cherry Creek Media will use in-dash Visual Quus from Quu Inc. in its radio markets.

Quu adds dynamic visuals to radio broadcasts. “Visual Quus are synced on-screen messages like text, logos, and images on vehicle dashboards related to radio station and client on-air content,” the company explained.

The announcement was made by Jonathan Brewster, CEO of Cherry Creek Media, and Steve Newberry, CEO of Quu.

Newberry said Quu’s web-based software allows stations to publish synced artist, programming and sales messages on vehicle dashboards as often as they want.

Send announcements for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Cherry Creek Media Will Use Visual Quus appeared first on Radio World.

TEGNA-owned Quest, the 24/7 adventure and exploration digital multicast network, has launched an ad-supported free streaming service — a move that could widen its reach.

The streaming app offers on demand programming from a catalog of factual entertainment, science, history and engineering programs, and daring adventure-reality series.

The Quest app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android and iOS.

Brian Weiss, VP of Entertainment Programming and Multicast Networks at TEGNA, says,  “Coupled with our prior launch of the True Crime Network streaming app, this launch furthers TEGNA’s commitment to providing outstanding ad-supported entertainment products to our viewers.”

Seriesavailable to stream include entertaining and informative fare, such as The Aviators, Scrap Kings, Mayday, Huge Moves, Monster Moves, Giant Lobster Hunters, Chasing Monsters and Aussie Gold Hunters. More series will be added in the coming months.

The app will also feature Farpoint Film’s Ice Vikings. For the second season premiering on Quest and streaming in October 2021, TEGNA will serve as a co-production partner. The Quest streaming app will also feature documentary originals such as WFAA’s award-winning VERIFY “Road Trip: Climate Truth” and more from TEGNA stations later this year.

A new webcast from Radio World will highlight the latest products from broadcast infrastructure suppliers and the major radio technology themes of the NAB Show.

The webcast, streaming on Sept. 30 and available on-demand afterwards, features a series of five-minute interviews with technology sponsors, creating a fast-paced look at their newest offerings.

“These next few months are a time of transition for our industry, with some major trade shows resuming while others have been pushed back again into next year,” said Editor in Chief Paul McLane.

“But whether you can attend these events or not, it’s important to stay on top of new products and technology. That’s what this webcast is all about: bringing you face to face with manufacturers to learn what they’ve been working on. And we’ll get a look too at themes of the Broadcast Engineering & IT Conference of the NAB Show including hybrid radio, the performance of all-digital AM in electric vehicles and other topics.”

Participating suppliers include Comrex, RCS, Telos Alliance, Wheatstone and WorldCast Systems.

Registration is free.

https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/3408988/C2FEA8E8AC6DC8212A6D2A016A670933

The post “Radio Face-2-Face” Features Latest Products appeared first on Radio World.

Philip Falcone‘s re-emergence as the CEO of Sovryn Holdings, following his not-so-savory split with HC2 Holdings in June 2020, has captured headlines across 2021.

Under his leadership, HC2 was a buyer. Now, Sovryn is shaping up to be an acquisition player, too.

Falcone has just signed off on paperwork that will bring him a Big Apple low-power TV property.

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The author is program director of Worship 24/7.

With a new studio comes a new console, and with a new console comes new furniture. Usually in that order.

After years of streaming Worship 24/7 and with a broadcast license finally in hand, we started construction in mid-2019 on our new broadcast studio in Wilsonville, Ore.

A generous donor had given us funding for one studio. We have a 24/7 Christian music station that we stream online and broadcast on KURT 93.7 MHz near Portland, KTDD 104.9 MHz near Seattle and more recently, KJOQ 100.9 MHz in Duluth, Minn.

We ordered a new Wheatstone Lightning analog/digital hybrid console and started mapping out where to put the automation PC, the monitors for automation and production software, and where we’d seat the occasional guests. We quickly realized that furniture from Staples wasn’t going to cut it. We needed a workspace that could hide the PC and various auxiliary boxes below the console, one that would have enough space on the surface for monitors and a console, not to mention a seating area for our guests.

Luckily, we found what we were looking for from the same place we ordered our console.

QuickLine furniture made by Wheatstone has five modular components that I’m told can be made into 32 different configurations. That’s important when you have one studio and there’s a good chance you’ll be moving things around over time.

The QuickLine desk was delivered to us as knock-down modules for shipping purposes. Modules are made of high-pressure laminate on all sides. It came with all the hardware and decent assembly instructions, which made it a simple matter to install the five modules the way we wanted them. We set it up so that the board op could easily see all our monitors to the side and center and with a large wing to the other side where we mounted a microphone for our guests.

Unlike furniture we might have picked up at an office store, we have standard equipment racks made specifically for broadcast and punch block holes where we needed them, which made it fairly easy to route the PC cabling for the monitors and the console cabling.

We are pleased with the rounded countertop corners and the flow of having a central workspace with the guest position off to the side. Concealed hinges were a bonus, and the fact that it was cost-effective was certainly a consideration.

We plan to add another studio at some future point but, for now, we are getting the most out of the studio we have and feel confident that as we grow into this studio, this desk will change with us.

Info: Contact Jay Tyler at Wheatstone at 1-252-638-7000 or visit www.wheatstone.com.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

The post User Report: Wheatstone Furniture Fills Bill for Worship 24/7 appeared first on Radio World.

A veteran global news executive whose rise in television came in Australia has been appointed to the role of EVP/News Operations and Transformation, CBS News and Stations.

He’ll report to CBS News and Stations Presidents and Co-Heads Wendy McMahon and Neeraj Khemlani in a newly created senior leadership role, in which he will be responsible for “reimagining and aligning” the News Operations and Engineering functions across CBS News and Stations.

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iHeartMedia is asking for “a targeted, moderate approach” to changing local radio ownership rules in the United States.

It says the Federal Communications Commission should eliminate the limits on how many AM stations one entity can own in a market, but that it should retain current limits on FMs.

This position, which iHeart had laid out before and is reiterating now, puts the largest U.S. radio company in opposition to the National Association of Broadcasters on this issue.

NAB too would lift the AM subcap, but it wants the FCC to allow an entity to own up to eight commercial FM stations in Nielsen markets 1 through 75, and up to 10 if the licensee participates in the FCC’s incubator program. NAB also wants no cap on FM ownership in markets 76 and smaller.

A licensee currently can own up to eight stations in the largest Nielsen markets but no more than five in one service (AM or FM).

iHeart is worried that “potentially catastrophic harm” could befall AM stations were the FCC to adopt NAB’s proposal to substantially deregulate the FM band.

“The paramount importance of AM radio stations to localism, the trustworthiness of our nation’s communications and information infrastructure, and the continuing financial disparity between AM and FM stations in the relevant broadcast radio market warrant that the existing local radio common ownership limits be eliminated for AM stations but retained for FM stations,” it wrote.

It also says that by maintaining the FM subcap limits, the commission will ensure that financial incentives essential to the success of its Incubator Program remain in place. “The commission should be guided by the overarching principle of doing no harm.”

iHeartMedia has previously expressed concern about relaxing limits on FM ownership, saying it would lead to further devaluation of AM stations and hurt AM owners, including women and minorities, by destroying the financial value of those assets.

In this regard IHM is in agreement with the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), which has told the FCC that any move to relax the limits on local ownership would increase consolidation and hurt African Americans and other minority station owners and entrepreneurs.

[“NABOB Opposes Lifting Subcaps”]

iHeart also noted that it recently launched the Black Information Network as a national audio news service with a Black perspective and voice, and that it “already has repurposed more than 30 local stations serving large Black populations, the majority of which are AM stations …”

The FCC requested comments to refresh the record in its quadrennial review of media ownership limits. Reply comments are due Oct. 1 (Docket No. 18-349).

The post iHeart Says Lifting FM Subcaps Could Devastate AM Band appeared first on Radio World.