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Issued a Forfeiture Order in the amount of $4,500 to Town of Coulee City for the violation of Commission rules.

The Media Bureau and the Office of Managing Director require Y2K, Inc., to pay delinquent regulatory fees or show cause why payment should be waived or deferred.

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Issued a Forfeiture Order in the amount of $1,500 to His Word Broadcasting Co., for the violation of Commission rules.

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At 330 Market Street in Philadelphia, Fox Television Stations-owned WTXF “FOX 29” is a prominent fixture in the Old City, with a home just steps away from Independence Mall. It remains a highly popular over-the-air station in a market where it competes against owned-and-operated stations from CBS, ABC and NBC. But, if it were up to the Media and Democracy Project, FOX Television Stations would lose the station’s license.

Why? Preston Padden, the former outspoken FOX executive who in recent months has teamed up with MAD, joins RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson for an exclusive 30-minute conversation that offers his views on why FOX shouldn’t be permitted to continue owning WTXF — something FOX through its attorneys at Covington & Burlington argues “would upend decades of established Commission precedent, put the Commission in a position fundamentally incompatible with the First Amendment, and threaten to deprive viewers in Philadelphia of a station that serves its community exceptionally well.”

To listen to Padden and Jacobson, simply click on the player at the top of this page or in the embedded player below to access the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

 

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Preston Padden” on Spreaker.

“We achieved a record quarterly advertising revenue of $274.4 million, up 14% year-over-year, led by strength in our Digital segment, which now comprises 84% of total revenue,” said Chris Young, Chief Financial Officer for Entravision Communications — a company rooted in Hispanic radio and TV in the U.S. but today is, beyond a doubt, a global digital ad solutions leader.

A simple glance at the company’s Q3 2023 results illustrates just how significant, and large, the digital revenue is for the company founded by the late Walter Ulloa.

For the period ending September 30, Digital Net Revenue soared by 23% to $231.49 million, from $188.88 million. By comparison, Television net revenue slid by 17%, moving to $29.55 million from $35.68 million, as Audio division net revenue (inclusive of Radio) declined by 19%, to $13.38 million from $16.5 million.

While it is clear that Digital fueled that net revenue growth, operating expenses grew by 9% overall — and by 21%, to $23.17 million, for the Digital segment.

Thus, while Entravision continued to execute on its “digital transformation strategy” during the quarter, a period that saw the signing of two new partnerships with Match and Pinterest, consolidated EBITDA declined by 45% to $14.19 million, from $25.97 million. Operating income slumped by 68%, to $5.13 million.

While non-returning political revenue and sales softness are to blame, Entravision nevertheless saw its net income fall by 70% in Q3 2023, dipping to $2.72 million ($0.03) from $9.39 million ($0.11).

Despite the steep year-over-year revenue dip, the revenue is in line with the consensus estimate from three analysts polled by Yahoo! Finance. Two analysts offered an EPS forecast, resulting in range of $0.01-$0.07; Entravision’s EPS fell right in the center of this range.

Entravision’s Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend to shareholders of $0.05 per share on the company’s Class A and Class U common stock, payable on December 29 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 15.

It’s the birthplace of KDKA Radio, widely regarded as one of the nation’s longest-running radio stations. In honor of that legacy, a team of broadcasting industry veterans that includes a Pittsburgh broadcaster and sports announcer on Thursday unveiled plans for a museum that will showcase the origins of broadcasting.

 

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TORONTO — ATSC 3.0 research, testing, and deployment is moving beyond the U.S., South Korea, Brazil and Jamaica. At present, the Broadcast-Broadband Convergence B²CLab infrastructure at Humber College in Toronto is squarely focused on bringing the benefits of the new digital broadcast television technology to Canada.

Helping as a key supplier is Thomson Broadcast-owned GatesAir.

 

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NEW YORK — FOX Corporation on Thursday released its financial results for the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal year. On first glance, the big takeaway is that a soft advertising market is impacting its revenue. However, a closer look at the company’s fiscal health report indicates that higher expenses are the culprit for a quarter that could have been better, and perhaps worse.

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Lawo’s management team, from left: CMO Andreas Hilmer, CCO Jamie Dunn, joint CFO/Vorstand Claus Gärtner, joint CFO/Vorstand Claudia Nowak, CTO Phil Myers, COO Ulrich Schnabl and CSCO Christian Lukic.

Equipment manufacturer Lawo has added Claus Gärtner to its executive management board.

He will also be the company’s new chief financial officer and “Vorstand,” succeeding Claudia Nowak when she retires next September. The two will hold that role jointly until then.

Other members of the board are Chief Commercial Officer Jamie Dunn, Chief Marketing Officer Andreas Hilmer, Chief Supply Chain Officer Christian Lukic, Chief Technology Officer Phil Myers and Chief Operating Officer Ulrich Schnabl.

Gärtner has held executive positions with Rheinmetall, Smiths-Heimann and Heidelberg Engineering Group. He holds a master’s degree in economics.

After leaving the company next year Nowak will join its supervisory board.

CEO Philipp Lawo stepped down from active management six years ago. In the announcement, the company said that Lawo has seen consistent growth over that time “even in the face of pandemic-related disruptions and supply chain challenges.”

The company, based in Germany, makes video, audio, control and monitoring technology for broadcast, performing arts, installed sound and corporate applications. Engineer Peter Lawo founded it in 1970 as a development firm for technologies used in the making of electronic music. 

Read more People News.

The post Lawo Adds Gärtner to Its Executive Board appeared first on Radio World.

NEW YORK — The “Advertising Intelligence unit” of globally recognized Kantar Group is heading into the hands of an ad intelligence and sales enablement platform backed by Thompson Street Capital Partners and Endicott Capital.

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NEW YORK — The Broadcasters Foundation of America has kicked off its annual Year-End Giving Campaign. The Year-End Giving Campaign asks for personal tax-deductible donations to the Guardian Fund. Corporate donations can be given to the Angel Initiative, which is also tax deductible.

“Life can change in a heartbeat, and exorbitant medical bills can leave one of our colleagues in broadcasting in desperate need of assistance,” stated Scott Herman, Chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation. “I’m asking everyone in radio and television to consider a donation, in any amount, so that we can continue to provide assistance to those in our industry who need it most.”

A 501c3 charity, the Broadcasters Foundation provides financial aid to broadcast radio and television colleagues who are in need due to debilitating illness, accident, or tragedy.

“The Broadcasters Foundation is often the last hope for our peers suffering from severe illness or recovering from disaster,” said Tim McCarthy, President of the Broadcasters Foundation. “To date, we have never turned away a broadcaster who qualified for aid. Donations, in any amount, can ensure that the Broadcasters Foundation continues that track record.”

The Broadcasters Foundation has distributed more than $15 million dollars in aid over the past 20 years. This year alone, the Foundation will award approximately $1.8 million.

More information about the Broadcasters Foundation, including how to make a donation or apply for aid, is available at www.broadcastersfoundation.org, 212-373-8250, or info@thebfoa.org.

It’s a pure-play radio broadcasting company that focuses its efforts on stations serving audiences in small and mid-sized markets, with TV station ownership now in its past. It has no investments in ancillary industries designed to build out diverse revenue streams, nor does it have expense-laden initiatives associated with podcasting or a streaming app.

Guess what? Saga Communications is again one of the strongest-performing publicly traded radio companies in the U.S. Today under the leadership of CEO Chris Forgy, Saga has produced Q3 results that saw revenue beat forecasts. The EPS will make key shareholders such as Daniel Tisch likely smile, too.

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Are IP-based broadcast technologies “clouding” our judgment? 

The fad promises Arpège but gets us skunk. Radio management is often quick to toss out the old model of on-site hardware (along with its hosts, journalists, salespeople and support techs) as a cool money-saving tactic. But what happens if (and, increasingly, when) some online demon hijacks it, leaving a station crippled and embarrassed? 

A good example is the Sinclair/WRGB data breach mess-up in February of 2022, which lost ad placements and undoubtedly damaged the viewers’ experience.

A relentless pursuit of media consolidation began in earnest some years ago when FCC ownership limits were abolished, allowing creation of fewer and fatter 2,000-pound gorillas, corporate behemoths that stripped countless markets of their diverse, unique and independent voices. 

The AI craze seems to be only worsening this trend, with thousands more workers at risk of losing their jobs as fake “personalities” begin to deceive their “audiences” with cleverly designed tactics. Will the AI trend risk a complete takeover of the media by unfeeling software that may have an underlying evil agenda? 

I propose a new product to combat this called “ListenIP.” It creates “virtual audiences” with a feature nicknamed “AL” for “artificial listener.” It is tailored to fool owners, complicit advertisers and ratings services into thinking these stations are really popular.

One tool in this package, “PHON-e,” will be optimized for talk formats that depend on callers to support their boring, repetitive sports and political content. 

Just imagine: YOUR station can be top-rated while having NO actual listeners!

Are we to live eventually in a totally fake world where we cannot trust each other? It’s bad enough that most advertising offers are already misleading.

A wise man once said, “Many a promise is screamed from the rooftops, but truth always lies in the whispers.” How many times have you really read the “fine print” that reveals any “gotchas”? Honesty is based on truth; greed is rooted in deceit. Which do you prefer?

There’s an old truism: You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

As a child, I was fascinated by the diversity of voices and music I heard on my first love, a little Emerson table radio. I still recall visiting local stations and marveling at the personalities and the equipment that made it all possible; it cemented my desire to become part of a wonderful profession. 

I learned so much as an AM station engineer and DJ and as a tech consultant for another small daytimer, and I missed those experiences after moving to the television side. But I’d found my life’s purpose, and I’ll be forever grateful that I pursued it. It led to my passion for church media ministry and other projects. Alas, those “radio days” are gone, but one never really forgets their first love.

What matters is honesty and truth, and I think AI is leading us away from those. 

I recall an obscure 1975 song called “Turn Your Radio On!” by singer Ray Stevens, which suggests WE are all “radios” that need to be tuned to only the ONE valid “station”:

Turn your radio on…and listen to the music in the air;

Turn your radio on…and glory share.

Turn your lights down low, and listen to the Master’s Radio…

Get in touch with God…Turn your radio on!” 

(Lyrics by Albert E. Brumley, Sr.)

Where is your “radio” tuned?

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

The post Don’t Let AI Rob Us of What’s Important appeared first on Radio World.

Petitioner has requested the substitution of channel *34 in place of channel *11 at Des Moines in the Table of TV Allotments, and requested that we delete vacant channel *34, Ames, Iowa and substitute it with the allotment of vacant channel *21 to Ames.

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