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Glades Media Company LLC enters into Consent Decree to Resolve Political File Investigation

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Keys Media Company, Inc. enters into Consent Decree to Resolve Political File Investigation

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FCC denies the Application for Review filed by PMCM TV, LLC, challenging the community of license change of WEDW from Bridgeport, CT to Stanford, CT

FCC denies the Application for Review filed by PMCM TV, LLC, challenging the grant of an application for WEDW to convert its facilities to a Distributed Transmission System

An image from Google Maps shows the installation locations; click on map to see details.

Digital Radio Mondiale is highlighting test measurements done by the Radio Republik Indonesia network.

“RRI has just conducted measurements proving that DRM in FM is spectrum- [and] energy-efficient, delivering audio and text in superior quality without any interference even in very crowded FM environments,” the organization stated.

It provided a link to a one-minute RRI video about the project.

DRM said that in June, “a digital radio transmitter was installed and commissioned by RRI at Pelubharan Ratu in Sukabumi province, West Java. This innovative step meant this is the first-ever digital radio broadcasting station for FMset up for warning functionality in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia.”

It said the station is broadcasting three audio programs in digital DRM, and a data channel presenting text of news and current affairs information in the Bhasa Indonesia language; that data is provided through the Journaline system.

A second digital transmitter was installed at Pantai Labuan in West Java; a third DRM FM transmitter was commissioned in July in central Java.

In addition, DRM said, RRI plans to install and commission two more DRM FM transmitters in West Sumatra and in eastern Indonesia in August.

It said RRI’s tests in West Java indicated that six test points covered by the 1 kW transmitter could be served with only 50 watts of DRM power. “In testing a simulcast broadcast using 1 kW and 800 Watt with spacing distance 150 kHz between the middle frequency FM and DRM, the measurement showed no interference between FM and DRM. The DRM quality was at least equally good to FM, but the sound quality of DRM was even better than FM.”

DRM provided a link to a coverage map as well.

[Related commentary: “Use DRM for India’s FM Band”]

The post DRM Highlights DRM for FM Tests in Java appeared first on Radio World.

Cumulus Media is getting out of the tower ownership biz. It plans to sell “substantially all” of its broadcast communication tower sites to Vertical Bridge and to lease access to them instead.

The company also announced that its net revenue in the most recent quarter was down almost 48% from a year ago.

The sale of its towers is a move to raise cash to pay down debt. President/CEO Mary Berner described it as “an agreement to monetize our tower portfolio for more than $210 million, proceeds which will further add to our liquidity and contribute to significant incremental debt pay down.”

The company reported the agreement in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in its latest quarterly financial announcement.

[Related: Cumulus Considers Selling Tower Holdings]

The first closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the fourth quarter.

The initial term of each tower site lease would be 10 years, followed by five option periods of five years each. If all the sites are sold, Cumulus expects to have lease obligations of approximately $13.5 million each year; while it will lose some annual tenant revenues, it will also save money in operating expenses.

“The transaction will not have any effect on the company’s current broadcast operations,” the company told the SEC.

In reporting its latest financials, Berner said that despite the pandemic, Cumulus generated $90 million of cash in the quarter “through quick and decisive expense actions, strong working capital management and the completion of the sale of land in Bethesda, Md.,” referring to the former tower site of WMAL. The completion of that sale netted it an additional $66 million in cash.

The company told shareholders that it had “meaningfully mitigated” the pandemic’s impact in the second quarter through “significant fixed cost expense reductions,” and that it expects total reductions of more than $85 million in 2020.

Still, the numbers were filled with minus signs as Cumulus struggled, like other media companies, to cope with the pandemic. In the latest quarter, Cumulus reported net revenue of $146 million, down almost 48% from the same period a year ago. It had a net loss of $36.3 million. For its entire first fiscal half, net revenue was $373.9 million, down about 32%, with a net loss of $43.7 million.

Cumulus owns 424 radio stations in 87 markets and is a major syndicator through its Westwood One arm.

 

The post Cumulus Will Sell Its Towers to Vertical Bridge appeared first on Radio World.

Nautel is adding another series of webinars.

Working with equipment manufacturer Telos Alliance, and entitled “Radio Air-Chain Innovation,” the new series starts Aug. 13 and continues on Aug. 27 and Sept. 10.

Telos Alliance Executive Chairman Frank Foti said, “Nautel and Telos Alliance have collaborated numerous times in the past, and we have an affinity for each other, both technologically and philosophically.”

A release explained, “This new series indicates a close alliance between the companies to bring solutions to broadcast engineers that will focus on ways to leverage ‘Made for Radio’ standards and technologies — MPX, µMPX, MPX node, E2X, HD Radio PAR, and virtualization — to solve nagging air-chain issues and open the door to new and easier implementations of HD Radio transmission opportunities.”

Nautel is also continuing its current Transmission Talk Tuesday webinar series. On Aug, 18 is “Back-ups and STL” and on Aug. 25 is “Life on the Road.” The latter focuses on tales of sales pros traveling.

All webinars are free, start at noon and count for half an SBE recertification credit. They are hosted Nautel’s Jeff Welton.

 

The post Nautel Teams With Telos on Webinars appeared first on Radio World.

Rules are rules, so says the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. And there’s little leeway given, especially in the case of a licensee that bent the rules by modifying a station’s operating parameters without FCC approval.

Even if the licensee claims it did so as a form of “self-help.”

[Read: FCC Stands Behind Philadelphia Translator Decision]

That was the case for Ondas de Vidas Inc., the licensee of FM translator station K256BS in Palmdale, Calif. Ondas balked at the $12,000 monetary forfeiture handed down by the Enforcement Bureau after Ondas began operating the station at unauthorized power levels.

It was back in April 2017 that the bureau first issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture after finding (on two separate occasions) that Ondas operated the station at power levels that exceeded those found on the station’s license.

Ondas in turn argued that the proposed forfeiture should be reduced or canceled for several reasons: the bureau should have alerted Ondas of the violations before issuing the notice, the station was entitled to operate at a higher transmitter output power than specified on its license, and because Ondas was a thinly funded, nonprofit entity.

The commission considered those arguments but ultimately rejected them and formally issuing a Forfeiture Order of $12,000.

In a second round of arguments, Ondas also reasoned that, following damage to the station’s antenna, it intentionally increased the station’s transmitter power — a “permissible means of self-help,” Ondas argued — in an effort to continue operating at the station’s authorized effective radiated power. The licensee also acknowledged that, in retrospect, it should have followed established procedures — such as filing an application for special temporary authority — to obtain commission approval.

After fully considering the petition, the commission found none of the arguments persuasive and affirmed the $12,000 forfeiture originally assessed in the forfeiture order.

The bureau said that Ondas was mistaken in assuming it was somehow entitled to additional warning before the bureau can issue a notice. It also rejected the notion that a licensee can sit back and await findings of violation before taking appropriate steps to ensure compliance with commission rules.

The bureau also rejected the notion that any “good faith compliance efforts” outweigh the fact that Ondas deliberately increased the station’s transmitter power output. Ondas willfully violated FCC rules plain and simple, the bureau said.

The commission also rejected Ondas’ claim that it has an unblemished tenure as a licensee and thus any proposed forfeiture should be lowered. While this action may be Ondas’ first monetary sanction, the bureau reminded Ondas’ of several other nonmonetary sanctions over the years, which included operating from an unauthorized location, interference violations, unauthorized facility modification, unauthorized antenna orientation and several EAS violations.

As a result, the bureau dismissed Ondas’ petition and reiterated that the licensee is liable for a monetary forfeiture of $12,000.

 

The post Translator Handed $12,000 Forfeiture for Operating at Unauthorized Power Levels appeared first on Radio World.

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Cohan Radio Group, Inc. enters into Consent Decree to Resolve Political File Investigation

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Fort Myers Broadcasting Company enters into Consent Decree to Resolve Political File Investigation

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BMZ Broadcasting, LLC enters into Consent Decree to Resolve Political File Investigation

FCC Conditionally Grants Channel 3 TV's Complaint Seeking DBS Must Carry Rights