Industry News

Kerry Denny has secured the purchase of a Class A television station serving the Bayou State’s second-largest market.

The deal involves the sale of a non-commercial, religious facility from a church in the city.

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Its share value is down 41% since early March. July 15 saw the “restructuring” of its Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) stations, resulting in the importation of two hosts across numerous stations it owns throughout the U.S.

Now, Audacy — the company formerly known as Entercom — has engaged in what’s called a “trade receivables securitization” that will give it a huge influx of cash.

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PORTLAND, ORE. — Alpha Media, as expected would occur within days of FCC approval, has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company says it has done so “with a significantly improved capital structure.”

In addition to “substantially reducing its debt”, Alpha raised incremental capital to pursue growth opportunities — suggesting it is a buyer.

This would “further enhance its position as a leading mid-market broadcaster across 44 local markets in the United States.”

“This is an important achievement for Alpha Media as we strengthen our Company’s ability to grow,” said Alpha Media Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Proffitt. “Today Alpha Media begins its next chapter, with an improved financial foundation, new capital and enhanced competitive positioning. We have greater financial resources and flexibility, and we will continue to invest in new digital capabilities to better serve our advertisers and communities across our local markets.”

Proffitt continued, “I am so proud of all that our teams at each of our radio stations have accomplished during this period. Our unique culture continues to be key to Alpha Media’s success, and I thank the entire Alpha Media family for their dedication and hard work. We are thrilled to continue our mission to deliver dynamic, diverse and exciting content to our communities.”

As RBR+TVBR first reported July 13, Alpha Media’s plan has received all necessary court and regulatory, including FCC, approvals, and all customary conditions have been satisfied. “With its financial restructuring complete, Alpha Media is positioned to continue serving each of the communities in which it operates across the United States,” it says.

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP served as Alpha Media’s lead restructuring counsel, and Kutak Rock LLP served as Virginia counsel. Wiley Rein LLP served as the Company’s FCC counsel. EY Turnaround Management Services LLC and Moelis & Co. served as the Company’s financial advisors. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP served as legal counsel to certain of the new equity holders and GLC Advisors & Co. served as financial advisor.

It was announced Friday that podcast listening app Pocket Casts will be joining Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com.

Co-founders Russell Ivanovic and Philip Simpson will continue to lead Pocket Casts as part of Automattic.

A release on WordPress.com said, “We will explore building deep integrations with WordPress.com and Pocket Casts, making it easier to distribute and listen to podcasts. We’re thrilled that we can continue to give our users a multitude of ways to tell and engage with stories that matter.”

— Podcast Business Journal

Digital Alert Systems is reminding users of DASDEC and OneNet EAS devices to update their IPAWS digital certificates.

“As you probably know, an IPAWS digital certificate expires on 21 August 2021. It is urgent that EAS Participants update their IPAWS digital certificates by or before that date,” wrote the company’s Edward Czarnecki.

[Read: National EAS Test Will Focus on Broadcast Chain]

“For DASDECs, we have an updated IPAWS digital certificate bundle that is now available and downloadable. There is no charge for this certificate update.”

If you don’t upload it by Aug. 21, CAP alerts from FEMA will not properly validate and will be rejected.

The certificate bundle can be applied to Version 3 or Version 4 software.

“If you are still running Version 3 software, the NPT test will be properly processed, however we still recommend you consider upgrading to V4 software,” Czarnecki said, noting that V3.0 was issued five years ago. Version 4 includes a completely upgraded operating system, plus numerous security, functional, and regulatory updates.

Sage Alerting Systems issued a similar notice recently, as we’ve reported.

The post DASDEC Users, Update Your IPAWS Certificates appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission is considering updating its political programming and recordkeeping rules for broadcast licensees for the first time in 30 years.

Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said two specific changes are designed to comply with statutory requirements and account for modern campaign practices.

The August commission meeting agenda has been released. It includes a notice of proposed rulemaking that, first, would revise the definition of “legally qualified candidate for public office.” If ultimately passed, this proposal would update the list of activities that may be considered in determining whether an individual running as a write-in has made a “substantial showing” of their candidacy. It would add use of social media and the creation of a campaign website to the list.

[Read: Changes to Radio Technical Rules Advance]

“At the time our current rules were drafted, social media and campaign websites did not exist,” the draft NPRM states. “Media coverage of recent campaigns on the national, state and local levels indicates that the use of social media has become an activity that bona fide candidates routinely use to solicit support, financial contributions and votes. Recent articles reveal that bona fide political campaigns use major social media platforms to advertise, connect with supporters, and fundraise, and that such engagement in social media use, for example, by creating a Twitter or Facebook account, typically increases donations for new politicians … In addition, social media platforms enable political campaigns to build support by disseminating campaign updates and targeting advertisements to potential voters, and they provide sophisticated tools to regularly measure user engagement.”

The draft NPRM also would also revise the FCC’s political recordkeeping rules to conform with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 to include any request for the purchase of advertising time that “communicates a message relating to any political matter of national importance” (i.e., issue ads) and specify the records that must be maintained. The commission said the current rule language does not reflect the federal law on this question.

If this NPRM is approved in August, these proposals would then be opened for public comment before the FCC would take action. In addition to radio and TV stations, the changes would apply to cable system operators, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service providers and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service licensees.

The commission noted that it had not has done a formal review to update the political programming and recordkeeping rules in 30 years.

A PDF of the draft NPRM is available on the Radio World website.

The post Rosenworcel Wants to Update Political Programming Rules appeared first on Radio World.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Media Bureau has opened what is formally called MB Docket No. 21-293.

It deals with “Revisions to Political Programming and Record-Keeping Rules,” and it is certainly a topic of interest for every broadcast media C-Suite executive.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes to update the Commission’s political programming and recordkeeping rules for broadcast licensees, cable television system operators, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service providers, and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) licensees.

“The proposed updates would conform our rules with statutory amendments, increase transparency, and reflect modern campaign practices,” the FCC says.

The NPRM proposes two specific actions.

First, the Commission proposes to revise the definition of “legally qualified candidate for public office” in the Commission’s political programming rules to add the use of social media and creation of a campaign website to the existing list of activities that may be considered in determining whether an individual running as a write-in candidate has made a “substantial showing” of his or her candidacy.

Second, the FCC proposes to revise the Commission’s political recordkeeping rules to conform with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) to include any request for the purchase of advertising time that “communicates a message relating to any political matter of national importance” (i.e., issue ads) and specify the records that must be maintained.

A Comment Date and Reply Comment Date are forthcoming, as they will respectively reflect 30 days and 45 days from the date the NPRM is published in the Federal Register.

On March 6, Audacy stock topped the $6 mark, repeating a feat achieved in early February. All seemed bright for the company formerly known as Entercom, as its stock price had been stuck in the $1.50 range until the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election for months.

Since that early March finish, Audacy shares are down 41% in value. The latest dip comes on reports that its Top 40, or Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR), stations, on Thursday saw a culling of its air personality roster.

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It’s Virginia’s home for public media, headquartered at 23 Sesame Street in Richmond. It rebranded in August 2019 from Community Idea Stations.

Now, VPM is gaining attention again, but for the wrong reason. It’s received a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for not making a required public file upload to the Commission’s “OPIF” in a timely manner.

It was also admonished by the Commission.

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The acquisition of three broadcast towers in Norfolk from Com-Ent LLC has closed.

This puts the structures in the hands of an entity that owns or operates more than 1,000 structures across the U.S.

CTI Towers, headed by Tony Peduto, is the buyer, and it will now own tower structures used in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia by Max Media, Hindlin Broadcasting, and Sinclair Communications (not to be confused with Sinclair Broadcast Group).

Michael J. Bergner of Bergner & Co. served as the broker in this transaction. He notes that the towers are “income producing,” and such structures remain in high demand. “I fully expect values to go even higher as 5G services come online,” he notes.