Radio+Television Business Report

CBS News and Stations President and Co-Head Wendy McMahon has solidified the company’s local television leadership in the Mile High City. In doing so, she’s appointed a VP/GM who has been News Director of the CBS O&O in the market since 2004.

He’s succeeding Walt DeHaven, who retired in July after nearly 20 years as the station’s GM and some 40 years in the local TV industry.

Rising to the top role for KCNC-4 is Tim Wieland.

He’s been at KCNC since 1994 and has held the News Director title for the last 17 years.

“I can’t think of a better example of someone receiving a well-deserved promotion than Tim Wieland,” McMahon said. “Tim understands the need to modernize and transform our brands and products for the future, and I am confident he will take our great team in Denver to new heights, focused on solid journalism, an unparalleled workplace culture and a community service commitment that is second to none.”

Wieland added, “I feel fortunate to have been able to spend almost my entire career at CBS 4, working alongside such an exceptional group of colleagues in our news department. Now, I am excited to take on this broader role and provide leadership and support to our entire CBS Denver family. As part of the newly united CBS News and Stations organization, we have a tremendous opportunity to deliver wins on a daily basis for the mutual benefit of our company, the diverse communities we serve, and our valued business partners.”

In 1999, Wieland briefly left Denver and spent two years in Atlanta, where he worked for CNN as a newscast producer and field producer.

Wieland gained his first professional experience as a reporter, anchor, producer, photographer and video editor at KREX-TV in Grand Junction, Colo.

The FCC late Thursday released its Report and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the “Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2021,” and there’s cause for cheer among radio broadcasters.

Why? The initial proposal to make broadcasters pay for a significant portion of the $33 million in additional funding that was appropriated by Congress to implement the Broadband DATA Act has been scrapped by the Commission.

The NAB assailed the plan. And, it appears Rick Kaplan and the legal team at the association have scored an important victory for broadcasters.

Here’s what this means for Radio in fiscal 2021, which begins October 1:

 

When breaking out the radio station regulatory fees, there is a reduction from FY 2020.

The $975 minimum regulatory fee for Class A AMs remains the same as it did in fiscal 2020. The biggest FM stations would see a regulatory fee decrease from $20,925 in fiscal 2020. This is significant, as the FCC originally proposed this group of stations to see a regulatory fee increase to $22,650.

 

When the newest FCC Commissioner, Nathan Simington, who will appear September 23 at the Hispanic Radio Conference, first took a gander at the initial draft of the Commission’s “MD Docket No. 21-190,” he had concerns.

The first version of the “Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2021” also raised the ire of many broadcast media companies, which argued that any increase in fees paid was unacceptable given the fiscal challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has brought.

The Commission has listened, and responded accordingly.

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U.S. financial markets finished the day on a downbeat note, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipping 64.03 to 35,341.47 and Nasdaq declining by 53.78, to 14,988.08.

For broadcast media companies, trading was mixed, with iHeartMedia among the climbers. The nation’s top audio media company saw its shares jump by 18 cents to $24.46.

Also up: Salem Media Group, with its shares rising 10 cents to $3.01.

For Audacy, it was another downbeat trading session despite a glowing report from Wells Fargo Securities that includes a $7 target price for AUD.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Nexstar Media Group CBS affiliate faces a small financial penalty for its apparent failure to submit its quarterly TV issues/programs lists to the FCC in a timely manner.

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It’s been an active August for Al Shuldiner, the FCC’s Audio Division Chief.

Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture are piling up, and they largely involve tardy licensees who didn’t submit their license renewal applications by the due date.

The latest NAL involves a pair of FM translators in Tennessee.

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The owner of 10 radio stations and TV operations “News Channel Nebraska” and “Telemundo Nebraska” is celebrating a rare achievement — a placement on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America.

Earning the honor is the Mike Flood–helmed Flood Communications.

Out of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the United States, 32 are from Nebraska.

The bigger takeaway: it is the only broadcast media company in the U.S. to make the latest list.

Flood Communications’ unique business mission is to serve two distinct audiences that it believes are frequently overlooked: rural consumers and Hispanics.

Not too many people may be familiar with Groveton, Tex. It’s on the southern tip of Davy Crockett National Forest, some two hours north of central Houston.

It also happens to be the home of a Class A FM, and North Texas Radio Group is readying to welcome it into its family.

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Cox Media Group’s broadcast television advertising rep firm CoxReps has appointed a new President.

It’s the individual who has served as COO since 2019, and in her new role will be asked to build on the “positive momentum” she is spearheading within the organization to strengthen operations and “strategically evolve” the business.

Rising to the role is Ann Hailer, who CMG Executive Chairman Steve Pruett says “exemplifies the leadership, collaboration and resilience” that are the company’s hallmarks.

“She is a respected, passionate and committed leader who is laser focused on bring the best out of her people to deliver exemplary customer service and outperform the competition,” Pruett said. “Over the years, Ann has played a critical role in positioning CoxReps for success by embracing disruption and championing innovation. I am excited to see how the future unfolds under her leadership.”

Hailer has spent most of her career with CMG, serving in various sales, management, and key leadership roles with increasing responsibility throughout her tenure. Prior to serving as COO, she was SVP/Director of Sales.

“My journey at CoxReps continues to evolve and this is the exciting beginning of a new chapter,” Hailer said. “The media industry is more diverse and competitive than ever and I’m incredibly honored to take on this role and lead the amazing CoxReps team during such an extraordinary time. I look forward to further strengthening our business, driving success for our premiere station group clients, and providing the most advanced solutions to agencies and advertisers in the local media space.”

Is broadcast television’s retransmission consent revenue growth trend, when compared to long-term advertising forecasts, a concern when it comes to station valuations, should a transaction be in the future?

That’s just one of the thoughts longtime broadcast station valuation and appraisal specialist David Schutz shares in an exclusive interview with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM. It’s a preview of what’s to come in the Fall 2021 Special Report.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: David Schutz” on Spreaker.

A recently divorced friend of public relations veteran Rosemary Ravinal who was browsing her feed of prospects on a dating app said she liked one gentleman because he exuded “executive presence.” Ravinal asked herself the following question: If the term “executive presence” is a measure of desirability on a dating site based on a static image, does that lessen the importance of those qualities in the business world? To satisfy her curiosity, Ravinal consulted a few friends at recruiting firms.

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Telestream, a provider of digital media tools and workflow products owned by Genstar Capital, has purchased a live event hosting and distribution platform used by Fortune 500 companies and others to stream content to their customers, employees, and members.

As such, Sherpa Digital Media’s platform is now fully integrated with Telestream’s offerings.

Telestream CEO Dan Castles notes, “Sherpa Digital Media has built a solid platform that many rely upon to stream their live, interactive events, and we intend to continue its development to expand into new areas such as using our Wirecast product to produce events distributed on the platform.”

Sherpa Digital Media allows customers to create live events and webinars.

The platform includes breakout rooms, video hosting, marketing automation integration, secure streaming, and the ability to scale up to hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Sherpa Digital Media is a privately held company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. The team includes a remote workforce which will be fully integrated into the Telestream family.

Existing customers can expect to see additional resources being deployed to support the platform around the world.

A new Wells Fargo Securities report gives linear media a big boost, while lowering expectations for the software industry.

It has much merit, given the financial institution’s track record on coverage of broadcast media companies with publicly traded shares. And, the report provides media executives with further ammo in their fight against local digital.

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LOS ANGELES — A company considered to be a “pioneer for managing, distributing and monetizing content” has received a strategic investment from Fox Corporation.

This, Eluvio says, is designed to accelerate the adoption of Eluvio’s platform across the broader media and entertainment industry.

As part of the investment, the companies also announced that Eluvio will provide the underlying technology platform for Blockchain Creative Labs, FOX Entertainment’s and Bento Box Entertainment’s recently launched NFT business and creative unit.

Fox Corporation’s investment marks the completion of Eluvio’s Series A round at a valuation of $100 million.

Paul Cheesbrough, Chief Technology Officer and President of Digital for Fox Corporation, will also join Eluvio’s Board of Directors.

Launched in 2019, Eluvio is led by technologists Michelle Munson and Serban Simu. The company’s Eluvio Content Fabric is an advanced, open protocol blockchain network purpose-built for owner-controlled storage, distribution, and monetization of digital content at scale. It provides live and file-based content publishing, transcoding, packaging, sequencing, dynamic and static distribution, and minting of derivative NFTs–all backed by blockchain contracts providing proof of ownership and access control.

Eluvio LIVE, powered by the Eluvio Content Fabric, is a multi-tenant turnkey platform for publishers that provides 4K streaming and ticketing of events with media marketplaces.

“At FOX, we believe that the blockchain, and the overall shift towards a more decentralized web, is providing creators with a wealth of opportunities to reach consumers with exciting new experiences,” Cheesbrough said. “Michelle, Serban and the Eluvio team are the best in the business when it comes to the software and scalable infrastructure required to power live, decentralized experiences across the blockchain and our investment will help bring this technology to a wider market of content creators, media partners and advertising clients.”

In May, FOX Entertainment and Bento Box entered the NFT business with the formation of Blockchain Creative Labs and a $100 million creator fund to identify growth opportunities in the space. As such, Blockchain Creative Labs will launch a dedicated digital marketplace for creator Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated comedy, KRAPOPOLIS, marking the first animated series to be curated entirely on the blockchain.

The company will manage and sell digital KRAPOPOLIS goods, including NFTs of one-of-a-kind character and background art and GIFs, as well as tokens that provide exclusive social experiences to engage and reward super fans.

Set in mythical ancient Greece and centered on a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other, KRAPOPOLIS is fully owned and financed by FOX Entertainment and will be produced by Bento Box.

Additional news about Blockchain Creative Labs-driven content will be disclosed in the coming weeks.

— Editing by Adam R Jacobson

MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Solutions is bringing a new version of its flagship SilverBack-V series fiber camera adapters to market.

Ideal for content producers of live concerts, sports and other televised events, the new SilverBack-VB retains the main features required for HD, 4K and even 8K productions while streamlining the feature set for smaller budgets.

The SilverBack-V and SilverBack-VB both convert digital cinema cameras into SMPTE studio cameras for use in live multi-camera productions.

As such, a live production company can now mix and match digital cinema cameras.

“Digital cinema cameras were traditionally used for filmmaking, but a larger sector of content producers now desire these cameras for their 35mm and larger image sensors,” said Jesse Foster, Director of Product Development and Western Region Sales. “The larger imager size provides a shallower depth of field and greater emotion by having the foreground on a different focal plane than the background. Digital cinema cameras also bring 4K resolution, HDR and Wide Color Gamut, as well as 24fps support for film-like motion blur as well as high framerate acquisition for slow motion. These benefits are now available to users that could not achieve their storytelling goals because they were priced out of the market.”

The SilverBack-VB is a 1RU half-rack-width enclosure that provides a full-bandwidth fiber optic link between any 12G, 4K or HD camera and a truck, control room or video village position. The design puts more emphasis on video payload across four I/O options, including bi-directional 12G-SDI and 3G-SDI, while streamlining audio transport options to the essentials. Live multicamera production features such as intercom, genlock, timecode and serial data, along with front-panel status monitoring, are retained to optimize live cinematic production flexibility.

The SilverBack-VB is also vendor-agnostic. When paired with MultiDyne’s JUICE-48 power supply, users can operate on a hybrid cable and provide power to the camera, or use lightweight, robust tactical fiber and power the camera locally. The SilverBack-VB also adds PoE capability to power remote control panels and other production workflows over Ethernet – a first for the SilverBack series.

“The modular design of the SilverBack-VB ensures that the system can be customized with various types, amounts and directions of video inputs and outputs, while our agnostic approach provides no limitations to camera choice for our customers,” said Frank Jachetta, CEO at MultiDyne. “Our latest SilverBack innovation, one of our flagship product lines today, incorporates the proven connectivity solutions of MultiDyne’s decades of experience outfitting high-end, broadcast-quality production requirements.”

— Brian Galante

Borrell Associates has just completed the analysis of its annual local advertiser survey, conducted in April, May and June. The findings are now available for all to digest.

What’s the biggest takeaway?

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HOUSTON — A facility exchange agreement is in the works that sets the stage for a move of a Tropical-formatted Spanish-language operation branded as “La Calle.”

It involves Daij Media, and two religious broadcasting licensees.

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On the evening of November 15, 2020, outdoors enthusiast turned radio station owner Jamie McKibbin died in a boating accident near Tippecanoe, Ohio.

Now, the properties associated with his McKibbin Media Group are being transferred from his estate to his widow.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has selected an individual to serve in the newly created SVP/Innovation and System Strategies, effective Sept. 13.

He will be responsible for the development and implementation of a multi-faceted strategy to advance innovation and sustainability of public media through accelerating public media’s digital transformation.

Taking the role is Stacey Decker.

“Stacey is a strategic and creative thinker with more than two decades of innovative leadership in public media,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB. “He is a technology leader whose experience with broadcast technology, navigation, and communications systems was enhanced through five years of service in the U.S. Coast Guard. He will help CPB develop and create strategies and services to assist the public media industry in many areas, including implementing and leveraging the new Next Gen TV broadcast standard.”

For the last two years, Decker has served as president of Public Media Management, a media management and content distribution service, and chief technology officer at Signal Infrastructure Group, which builds and operates the physical and digital infrastructure to enable all broadcasters – commercial and public – to leverage the full power and revenue opportunities of ATSC 3.0.

From 2013 to 2019, Decker served as chief technology officer for WGBH in Boston, playing a key role in evolving the organization’s strategic planning, production, audience development, and technology direction. For 11 years before that, Decker held technology leadership roles for Nebraska Educational Telecommunication and South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He also served on the PBS Technical Advisory Committee from 2010 to 2016.

Between Clarksville and Jackson, Tenn. is the town of Camden, perhaps best-known as the closest municipality to the Patsy Cline plane crash memorial.

Camden is also home to an AM/FM combo and FM translator owned by an individual who recently passed away. Now, his stations are moving into a trust.

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