Industry News

The National Association of Broadcasters is expressing concern about what it is calling a significant increase in regulatory fees by the Federal Communications Commission on broadcasters.

For the third consecutive year in a row, the commission plans to increase fees to “unfair, unsustainable levels,” particularly in light of the economic impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the broadcasting industry, the NAB said in its filing.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposed a 5 to 15% increase in regulatory fees for radio broadcasters face a (with TV broadcasters fee factor jumping nearly 9%) even though the commission’s general salary and expenses budget increased by only 0.5%, the NAB said. The FCC proposes to collect $374 million for the 2021 fiscal year, with Congress appropriating expenses into two separate categories: $341 million to cover FCC salaries and expenses and an additional $33 million specifically to cover costs associated with the implementation of the Broadband DATA Act.

Ann Marie Cumming, NAB senior vice president of communications, said in a statement that the NAB objects to its members being used to pay for the funding the Broadband DATA Act. The legislation is designed to improve accuracy of the FCC’s broadband availability maps to help close the digital divide that exists between urban and rural areas.

Not only does the FCC fail to explain the reasons for this year’s fee increase, but it’s clear that the commission is forcing broadcasters to subsidize the regulation of other entities that are either contributing less than their fair share of fees or being given a free ride altogether, she said.

In its filing, the NAB said that the commission has an “obligation to ensure that its regulatory framework enables TV and radio stations to serve the public interest in free, over-the-air broadcast service, which means that the broadcast industry must remain economically viable in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”

The NAB urged the commission to adjust its proposal so that only the beneficiaries of the commission’s Broadband DATA Act initiatives pay for the associated costs. The NAB also pressed the commission to expand the base of fee payers to include big tech and other unlicensed spectrum users that use a substantial amount of the commission’s resources and benefit from its activities.

“Many broadcasters simply cannot afford unnecessary expenses in a year when revenues continued to decline due to the economic impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a slow-moving recovery,” the NAB said in its filing. “The commission must confront and correct the elements of its regulatory fee proposal that impair broadcasters’ ability to remain economically viable in a competitive marketplace, and undermine their ability to provide quality, free service to the public.”

The broadcast industry must remain economically viable in an increasingly competitive marketplace, the NAB said, a situation made all the more tricky because broadcasters cannot simply pass on regulatory costs to consumers.

The FCC is seeking comment on its proposed changes, which are available through Docket Number 21-190 at the FCC’s ECFS comment database. Reply comments are being accepted through June 18.

The post NAB Questions Fee Hike Proposed by FCC for FY2021 appeared first on Radio World.

He has been a researcher and writer for the Senior VP of News at Sinclair Broadcast Group for the past three years.

Now, he will be that C-Suite executive’s Chief of Staff — a position that appears to be unique to Sinclair.

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From our “Who’s Buying What” page: Connect said Monaco Media Diffusion is using its KYBIO monitoring and control platform.

MMD is a radio and TV operator for the Principality of Monaco. Connect is part of the WorldCast Group.

The company said MMD is using KYBIO to oversee operation of its FM and DAB infrastructure including 136 devices such as transmitters, satellite receivers and audio processing.

KYBIO can be purchased as a cloud-based SaaS or on-premise license; MMD chose the latter, with a five-year support contract. The company says its users include RAI, Bell Media, Sutro Tower and Disney Television.

MMD’s managing director is Thierry Poyet. Technical contact is Guillame Asso.

The post In Monaco, MMD Puts KYBIO to Use appeared first on Radio World.

ORLANDO — At first glance, it seems like all is functioning normally for the website of Cox Media Group Classic Rocker WMMO-FM, which serves Central Florida.

“Desire” by U2 is playing. A “First Responder Fridays” nomination form can be filled out and submitted. The “Listen Live” button is ready for a push. Once it’s pressed, an “audio temporarily unavailable” message appears. Still.

“You may be offline,” it reads. “Please check your connection and try again using the Retry button.”

The problem isn’t that of the user, however. WMMO, like all of CMG’s radio and TV properties, have fallen victim to a ransomware attack — a cyber nightmare that began late last week.

It’s just the latest in a string of incidents involving radio broadcasting companies. What would you do if your operation is next?

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TORONTO — On March 10, the latest PPM top-line radio statistics for Canada’s largest media market were released by Numeris, the nation’s measurement services company.

Among all of the radio stations appearing in the report, a Rogers Sports & Media AM that 28 years ago today dropped its 20-year-old Top 40 format for all-News was the No. 2 radio station by cume, and again one of North America’s most-listened-to stations on the AM dial.

That ratings supremacy has no bearing on branding, however, and the growing trend of optimizing advertising and marketing opportunities in a cross-platform, national manner.  As such, “680 News,” along with four other Rogers-owned all-News stations, are getting a name change once autumn brings fall foliage to full tilt.

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Ralph Justus, who for many years was at the center of technology developments in U.S. broadcasting and consumer electronics, has died.

He was known in our industry through roles at the Federal Communications Commission, National Association of Broadcasters, Consumer Electronics Association and Electronics Industries Alliance. Among other accomplishments he was credited with playing an “instrumental” role in the development of digital TV standards starting in the late 1990s.

According to his obituary, he died at age 72. Justus finished his career as a patent examiner for the U.S. Patent Office.

According to a 2004 profile published by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, Justus started in broadcast technology in the late 1970s as supervisory electronics engineer of the FCC Television Branch and a staff engineer in the AM and FM radio branches.

In 1983 he moved to the NAB to become director of engineering, regulatory and international affairs, working on issues involving radio and television technologies, auxiliary and satellite systems, spectrum management, proceedings at federal agencies including the FCC, EPA, FAA, Department of State and participation in the International Telecommunications Union, according to the ATSC article.

He then moved over to become director of engineering for the CEA (now called the Consumer Technology Association), where he worked on radio and TV system design and performance, TV antennas, audio technologies, regulatory activities and consumer electronics/cable TV compatibility.

For several years starting in 1999 he chaired the ATSC Technology Group on Distribution, or T3. In that role he was “instrumental in guiding many new DTV standards,” according to the 2004 article.

In 2003 Justus also was elected president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Consumer Electronics Society, according to a Radio World story at the time. He also was a former president of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society.

At the CEA he was promoted after eight years to the post of vice president of technology and standards, a position he held until he left in 2005, according to his LinkedIn page. He later worked for the Building Performance Institute and as a consultant before joining the USPTO in 2012, working on radio, television and satellite communications, telecom technologies and intellectual property patent applications.

Justus also was active in technical organizations such as SMPTE and the AES. He was a graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering.

The post Ralph Justus Dies; Former Tech Executive at NAB, CEA appeared first on Radio World.

Its two TV stations have gained international recognition for their roles as pioneers in the advancement of ATSC 3.0-powered NextGen TV in the U.S.

Now, those stations’ owner has re-evaluated its access to local TV ratings data, which in recent years has seen an exclusive relationship with Nielsen.

That’s about to change.

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At 12:26am Eastern on June 6, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral.

It was a successful launch, carrying a SiriusXM satellite into space.

While that was successful, Sirius XM Radio Inc. has a whole other kind of launch ready for takeoff — and this one is on Wall Street.

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LONDON — Global, the Media & Entertainment group that seeks up to 49.9% equity interest in iHeartMedia, has selected a North America CEO for its digital advertising platform, DAX.

It sees the internal promotion of a U.S. media industry veteran and the shift of the person currently in the chief executive chair to “a key advisory position with the company.”

Matt Cutair is relinquishing his role as DAX US CEO, a position he has held since the 2017 launch of DAX US.

DAX US launched in 2017, following Global’s purchase of AudioHQ, where Cutair was co-founder and CEO.

With the change, Les Hollander (pictured) has been promoted from Chief Growth Officer to CEO/North America at DAX.

This consolidates North American operations for DAX, with Hollander overseeing the U.S. and Canada.

Hollander took his most recent role for DAX North America in May 2020. In that time, Hollander re-aligned the U.S. and Canada markets for growth as DAX added NPR, Wondery and Sounder to its roster of digital audio publishers.

Hollander will continue to report to Guy Jones, Product of Data and Digital Director for DAX. Jones is based at Global’s Leicester Square headquarters.

Hollander is a digital audio advertising veteran with over 30 years of expertise. He joined DAX from Spotify, where he was responsible for building the organization’s digital audio monetization business through direct, programmatic and automated channels, as Head of Global Audio Monetization.

Prior to joining Spotify, Hollander was a VP of Ad Revenue at Pandora and held senior management positions at Gannett, CBS Radio, and, interestingly, iHeart predecessor Clear Channel Communications. Hollander also co-chaired the United States IAB Audio Committee from 2016-2020 and has sat on several industry boards throughout his career including the Mobile Marketing Association.

Hollander commented, “In the past year, despite major disruption to the industry, we have collaborated with our colleagues in the U.K. to demonstrate innovation in streaming, podcasting and voice activation as well as signing some fantastic new partners. At a time when audio is thriving and we’re seeing a huge shift in consumer habits; I’m looking forward to this opportunity and the next stage of DAX’s growth.”

This past week, Adthos introduced what it calls “the only free ad-serving technology built specifically for radio.” Athos Ad-Server is an ad sales application that replaces playout of ads by an existing automation system, allowing digital audio and radio “to be sold seamlessly within a single integrated campaign.”

We sought to learn more about it and emailed with Raoul Wedel, CEO of parent company Wedel Software.

[Read: Adthos Ad-Server Is Free Ad-Serving App for Radio]

RW: What prompted Wedel to launch this Adthos initiative?
Raoul Wedel: Our traffic and billing system can do live reconciliation. But when implementing it, we found out that it would require integration and development with each and every automation system provider. Instead of building dozens of integrations, we felt this was a better solution. And made it available for free.

RW: Why would a broadcaster wish to replace the ads in an existing automation system?
Wedel: For traditional ad playout, the Adthos Ad-Server comes already with maybe two dozen features that most small automation systems don’t have. Like live reconciliation, sending new logs live without intervention or integration with cloud storage systems for material management.

The future of audio advertising is dynamic, in scheduling or creative replacement. If terrestrial radio wants to keep up with digital they will need to move forward on those subjects. The Adthos Ad-Server is a simple, non-intrusive app that can be easily installed and managed. It allows for frame-accurate ad replacement. So an advertiser can play a McDonald’s spot on the radio but may replace the ad with a local franchise’s address.

RW: What are the main features and benefits of Ad-Server?
Wedel: It reconciles your schedules live. Logs can be sent without any intervention; material can be stored cloud-based.

Also it includes a streaming encoder compatible with Triton, AdsWizz, Icecast and Shoutcast. It enables dynamic scheduling and dynamic creative replacements.

And it gives advertisers and agencies a portal to view their schedules and listen to an aircheck of what has been played.

RW: Ad-Server is free, so how does Wedel Software benefit, i.e. how do you make your money from the service?
Wedel: We feel that the current state of technology of radio stations is preventing terrestrial radio advertising from moving into the digital space. This is our vision of a solution for the problem. And we’re putting our money where our mouth is. By laying this foundation it opens the door for other technologies and advances to truly gain broad acceptance in the market. It is a platform that we can build on.

RW: You said there are future integrations planned, what kind of additional features should we expect?
Wedel: There are three main releases of the platform, we call chapters. The second and third chapters are due after the summer and since the ad server enables dynamic scheduling and dynamic ad replacement, you’d have to think along those lines.

RW: What else should we know?
Wedel: That we have made it as easy as possible to convert to our platform. In a testing phase, the ad server can run in parallel with your current automation system. Even though it is free, we have staff dedicated to onboarding our first customers. Our platform comes with a preloaded list of U.S. FCC licensed stations and station owners, so it’s easy to start.

The post Raoul Wedel Talks About the Adthos Ad-Server appeared first on Radio World.