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Grants Petition for Declaratory Ruling Filed by Univision Holdings II, Inc.

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The Media Bureau enters into a Consent Decree with Unified Pentecostal Local Churches, Inc.

The Federal Communications Commission is encouraging communications companies to read a federal security advisory about cyber threats from Russia, and act on it.

“The commission urges all communications companies to take the recommended actions to protect their networks from cyber threats, to detect and notify CISA of cyber threats impacting communications services and infrastructure, and to share threat information with CISA and other industry stakeholders, as appropriate,” it said in an announcement.

CISA is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

On Jan. 11, CISA, the FBI and the National Security Agency issued a joint cybersecurity advisory called “Understanding and Mitigating Russian State-Sponsored Cyber Threats to U.S. Critical Infrastructure.”

[Read More About Cybersecurity and Radio]

The document states, “Historically, Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat actors have used common but effective tactics — including spearphishing, brute force and exploiting known vulnerabilities against accounts and networks with weak security — to gain initial access to target networks.” The advisory listed vulnerabilities known to be exploited by Russian state-sponsored actors, and goes into details that your head of IT will appreciate.

According to the advisory, critical infrastructure organizations in particular should take certain immediate steps including patching all systems, prioritizing known exploited vulnerabilities; implement multi-factor authentication; use antivirus software; and develop internal contact lists and support.

If you think you aren’t “critical infrastructure,” remember the role of broadcasters in local and national alerting and in disseminating information about national events. Media companies are juicy targets for the black hat crowd in general, as numerous experts have told Radio World over the years.

Companies can report cyber incidents to CISA via https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/report or to the FBI via a local FBI field office via phone at (855) 292-3937, or via email at CyWatch@fbi.gov.

The post FCC Shares Cyber Warnings About Russia appeared first on Radio World.

Until late September, all seemed particularly strong for iHeartMedia‘s stock price. A year-long increase was underway, with shares moving from just over $14 per share in late February to nearly $27.50 just four months later.

By October, however, worries about the Delta, and Omicron, variants of the COVID-19 virus accelerated, creating new concerns about ad dollar weakness at radio. Ups and downs for IHRT were seen, and the shares still managed to start 2022 at $21.57.

Since then, it has been a bumpy ride on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market for iHeart.

The latest dip for the company’s shares was seen on Friday, as IHRT fell 2.7% from Thursday to land at $18.67.

That’s the second-lowest closing price of the last six months, with a December 1 finish of $18.37 the only other time IHRT finished at this level.

While IHRT is still above where it was a year ago, it still marks a frustration for the company led by CEO Bob Pittman and COO/CFO Rich Bressler (pictured, top left). The current 1-year target price for IHRT is $32.78 per share.

The company has yet to see its shares climb above the $30 mark.

GeoBroadcast Solutions is calling out iHeartMedia for comments made in an FCC rulemaking proceeding that would allow FM broadcasters to geo-target content to specific zones of their coverage area for limited periods of time.

In fact, GBS says iHeart “today offers a service available to only iHeart’s stations that enables advertisers to do exactly the same thing, namely, offer advertisers the ability to geo-target their ads including in larger markets.”

iHeartMedia in a series of filings on Docket MB20-401 vigorously argued against adoption of the geo-target technology, citing unresolved technical concerns as well as a fear that it could completely upend the radio industry’s business model.

“While GBS attempts to convince the commission that its proposal will help smaller and minority-owned broadcasters, the reality is quite the opposite. Instead, the station groups least able to handle increased competition and a downward pressure on advertising rates are small and less-well-resourced ones,” iHeart wrote in comments filed in 2021.

GeoBroadcast says iHeart is being disingenuous with its allegations and said the broadcaster’s business practices prove it.

[Previously: FCC Receives New ZoneCasting Data]

The GBS technology, which it brands as ZoneCasting, uses FM boosters to allow for hyperlocal advertising and content independent of the signals of the primary station within different portions of the primary’s protected service contour. GBS claims any resulting co-channel interference or self-interference is manageable and not detrimental to listeners.

Radio World reported earlier NAB and the Small Radio Broadcaster Coalition were among the groups who questioned the technical soundness of geo-targeting and asked for further vetting of the system.

However, iHeart has voiced a more economics-based argument against the technology. The broadcasters claim radio stations already face a challenging advertising environment due to the twin pressures of new competitors and an extended pandemic, and worry the FCC proposal could potentially exert even more downward pressure on the advertising revenue and fundamentally alter the radio industry’s business model.

Geo-targeting and specifically the GBS ZoneCasting technology run the “risk splintering the local advertising market and crippling local radio stations at the worst possible moment for the industry.”

Other large radio broadcast groups, including Beasley Media Group, Cumulus Media, Audacy and Urban One, also have urged the FCC to be cautious in possible adoption of the technology.

Now GBS, in a letter to the FCC, throws shade at iHeart and accuses the broadcaster of leading a campaign of “unsubstantiated opposition” even as it offers geo-targeting to clients.

The company points to iHeart’s AdBuilder website, which lets ad buyers purchase ads on iHeart stations. “One core feature of iHeart AdBuilder is that it prompts new and existing advertisers to select communities, on a map, where they would like to target their ads as one of the first steps in the process of creating an ad,” GBS states in the letter.

GBS writes further in its correspondence to the FCC: “In light of this current offering, the commission should view skeptically claims from iHeart and its allies that geo-targeting content could create negative economic consequences for broadcasters. The disconnect between the iHeart AdBuilder website and the rhetoric from iHeart and its allies simply reveals the thinly veiled goal of the largest radio group owners reinforcing and seeking to maintain their dominant position in the market by denying smaller broadcasters an opportunity to use technology to level the playing field.”

GBS acknowledges that the geo-targeting of the iHeart AdBuilder platform differs from the use of geo-targeting at the zone level achieved by using FM boosters. “iHeart’s solution offers different content within a radio market defined by an iHeart station’s footprint whereas FM booster targeting offers different content within a radio market as defined by where the booster is installed. Both solutions imply more targeted ad spend by allowing advertisers to address their targeted audience while increasing overall revenue to the broadcaster.”

The GBS letter, prepared by Covington & Burling LLP, concludes: “We hope that this information is helpful to the commission in considering how the current industry landscape could be impacted by the proposed rule, and the potential economic opportunities that it may unlock for broadcasters and small and minority businesses alike.”

Furthermore, as GeoBroadcast has pointed out throughout the proceeding, “if the proposed rules are adopted, any change in a broadcaster’s operations would be voluntary. Broadcasters can decide for themselves if providing geo-targeted content is economically beneficial.”

GeoBroadcast Solutions has conducted field testing of its ZoneCasting system at several radio stations in the United States and is implementing the technology at KSJO(FM) in San Jose, Calif. The station began participating in an FCC experimental operation of the FM booster system in October and will continue broadcasting localized weather, sponsored traffic, and news during short parts of the broadcast hour through February 2022.

The tech company’s FM booster geo-targeting system also is slated to be implemented at WRBJ(FM) in Jackson, Miss., which has also been granted experimental authority, possibly as soon as late January.

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post GBS Says iHeart Is Being Hypocritical on Geo-Targeting appeared first on Radio World.

As a premium subscriber to the Radio+Television Business Report, you are on the VIP list to receive our Winter 2022 Special Report via instant download.

What awaits you?

• The Future of Broadcasting & OTT for OTA TV – Agora Director of Business Development for Media and Entertainment Brad Altfest is interviewed.
• Broadcast Media’s Top Tech Leaders – This first annual list salutes the best tech minds in radio and television – and it’s a reader-generated honor roll.
• Technology: Empowering Broadcast Radio and TV – The cancellation of the NAB Show and the delay of IBC Amsterdam didn’t put a hard stop to product rollouts and big plans for 2022.
• RBR+TVBR’s Products to Watch List – An opportunity to learn more about other companies of note to radio and TV companies.

The RBR+TVBR Winter 2022 Special Edition is available now to all subscribers!

LOCK IN YOUR COPY BY BECOMING A RBR+TVBR MEMBER TODAY.

It’s a tastemaker Adult Alternative noncommercial FM that since 2007 has done what stations such as KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif., and WXPN in Philadelphia have brought to local radio listeners.

Now, ’88Nine’ is seeking a new Executive Director, as Kevin Sucher has stepped down “to pursue other opportunities.”

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In the final days of 2020, the FCC approved a request by Univision to accept foreign investment in excess of the 25% benchmark set forth in its regulations. Then, in summer 2021, the company that is today majority controlled by Searchlight III UTD and ForgeLight and led by CEO Wade Davis requested the Commission’s OK for two specific non-U.S. based entities to grab a share of Univision ownership.

A Declaratory Ruling was released by the Commission on Friday.

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Que pena … The end is near for “Qué Buena” listeners across the New York Tri-State Area.

For those who have wanted WFME back on a FM signal heard in Gotham, it is almost time to rejoice.

Family Stations has closed on its acquisition of what will soon be the former WQBU-FM 92.7, licensed to the Nassau County municipality of Garden City, N.Y.

According to the asset purchase agreement, finalized on December 2, 2021 and subsequently filed with the FCC, Univision is selling WQBU and its two boosters, giving it coverage in Manhattan and Queens, for $9 million.

A 10% escrow deposit was placed with Kalil & Co., as escrow agent. Kalil & Co. represented Univision in the transaction, as the exclusive broker. As previously reported, Univision months ago retained the Tucson-based brokerage to help it spin non-essential radio stations.

With the deal’s completion, after 18 years Family Stations will regain much of its lost FM signal coverage from the sale of the original WFME-FM (today WXBK-FM 94.7) to Cumulus Media in late 2012. At the time, WFME “moved” to 106.3 MHz, a facility from 1964-1993 known as WVIP-FM. As locals can attest to, it is hardly a New York-market facility, with a 980-watt Class A signal covering northern Westchester and Fairfield County, Conn.

Even with WQBU, WFME still will lack a Northern New Jersey FM signal. However, there is an AM option. WFME-AM 1560 uses a two-tower daytime signal and three-tower nighttime signal pushing out 50kw watts of Christian talk and teaching fare; it sold its Maspeth, Queens, tower site and uses a new site based in New Jersey.

In the 18 years since Univision purchased what is today WQBU, it is being sold for $51 million less.

The deal value crossed what Hoffman Schutz Media Capital’s David Schutz in December told RBR+TVBR is a “psychologically significant valuation metric” — one dollar.

Based on the new 2020 Census, the 60 dbu “service area” contour of WQBU reaches 9,396,000 people. “At a $9 million announced selling price, that represents a population metric of $0.96 per person,” Schutz concludes, adding that the twin synchronous on-channel boosters in Manhattan and Brooklyn didn’t exist when Univision bought the facility.

Representing Family Stations, best known for its association with the late Harold Camping, as its FCC legal counsel is Matthew McCormick with Fletcher Heald & Hildreth.

Eric Wotila has gained notice across the U.S. for his role as President of digital multicast network NewsNet.

Now, he’s in the news as Wotila has agreed to an asset purchase agreement that will adjust the ownership in the station branded as “NewsNet Michigan.”

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For fans of Denver-based pro and collegiate sports teams that have rights agreements with Altitude Sports, watching play-by-play while at home has been a frustration for those who are Comcast subscribers for more than two years. The two parties have been sparring over a carriage agreement, and on December 17 mediation was agreed to. Meanwhile, DISH has also been unable to secure a new rights agreement with Altitude.

As such, DirecTV is today the lone home in the Denver DMA for Altitude Sports, as Charter’s Spectrum service, which Altitude has a deal with, is not available.

A “revolutionary” NextGen television service could bring Altitude for those who don’t wish to wait for a possible deal with Comcast.

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The Association of Public Radio Engineers Board of Directors is making available scholarships to help new public radio engineers attend the 2022 Public Radio Engineering Conference (PREC). The scholarship program is also open to public radio engineering and operations personnel who haven’t attended PREC in five years.

The 2022 conference will be held at the Tuscany Suites in Las Vegas, April 21–22, immediately preceding the annual NAB Show.

Dan Houg, past president of the APRE Board of Directors, says “years ago I was a brand-new radio station engineer and a recipient of the APRE scholarship. I can attest to the impact attending the Public Radio Engineering Conference has on my ability to build and move our station forward. It opens contacts within the industry and provides connections with peers that persist as I go about my daily work.”

The scholarship includes a one-year APRE membership, the PREC registration fee, an Awards Dinner ticket, and three night’s lodging at the conference hotel.

Full details of the application process are available on the APRE website.

The post APRE Offers Scholarships for ’22 PREC appeared first on Radio World.

Nexstar Media Group and ViacomCBS have reached comprehensive multi-year agreements to renew the existing CBS Television Network affiliations in 39 markets across the country.

That’s not prevented an affiliation switch from transpiring in the biggest city in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, to the benefit of Lilly Broadcasting.

Effective Friday (1/21), WJMN “Local 3” in Marquette, Mich., became an independent news station serving the city and nearby Escanaba, which comprise DMA No. 182. It is now a MyNetwork TV affiliate, and “will continue to provide the news, weather, sports and entertainment that we have for over 50 years across the Upper Peninsula,” WJMN noted on its website.

The new CBS affiliate for Marquette is WZMQ-19, DT2. It is owned by Lilly, which will retain its MeTV affiliation on Channel 19.1, at least for right now. The station is available on Charter’s Spectrum lineup as Channel 3, on DISH on Channel 5, and on DirecTV as Channel 20. A new logo is already in place.

“All of your favorite CBS programming and shows will continue with no disruption, along with CBS Sports coverage of the NFL and NCAA College Basketball including March Madness,” WZMQ said.

Lilly Broadcasting has CBS affiliates in Erie, Pa.; Elmira-Corning, N.Y.; the U.S. Virgin Island and Puerto Rico. It agreed to purchase WZMQ in October 2017 for $103,475.

A Nexstar spokesperson contacted by RBR+TVBR declined to comment on why a new affiliation deal with CBS in Marquette did not come to fruition. All of the other CBS agreements were renewed.

The affiliation switch comes as Nexstar secured a fourth and final agreement that the company says completes “all of ViacomCBS and Nexstar’s affiliation renewals.” Some 39 markets retained their CBS affiliation, and this deal follows three affiliation deals renewed in early 2021.

The new Nexstar/ViacomCBS agreement gives the latter permission to place Nexstar’s CBS affiliates on Paramount+ and on vMVPD platforms.

ViacomCBS President of U.S. Networks Distribution Ray Hopkins commented, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Nexstar that includes several early renewals of our CBS network affiliations. This deal demonstrates the power of our collective partnership and our commitment to maintaining strong relationships in order to best serve audiences across the country with leading content.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The agreement includes renewals for the following CBS affiliates:

• KTAB in Abilene, Tex.
• KRQE in Albuquerque
• WIAT in Birmingham
• WVNS in Bluefield-Beckley, W. Va.
• WIVB in Buffalo
• WCIA in Champaign, Ill.
• WRBL in Columbus, Ga.
• KGPE in Fresno
• WANE in Ft. Wayne, Ind.
• KREX in Grand Junction, Colo.
• WFRV in Green Bay, Wisc.
• WNCT in Greenville-New Bern, N.C.
• WSPA in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.
• KVEO in Harlingen, Tex.
• WHLT in Hattiesburg, Miss.
• WHNT in Huntsville, Ala.
• WTTV in Indianapolis
• WJTV in Jackson, Miss.
• WTAJ in Johnstown, Pa.
• KLFY in Lafayette, La.
• WLNS in Lansing, Mich.
• KLAS in Las Vegas
• KLBK in Lubbock, Tex.
• WREG in Memphis
• KXMC in Minot, N.D.
• WKRG in Mobile
• WBTW in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• WMBD in Peoria, Ill.
• KOIN in Portland, Ore.
• WPRI in Providence, R.I.
• WNCN in Raleigh
• KCLO in Rapid City, S.D.
• WROC in Rochester, N.Y.
• KLST in San Angelo, Tex.
• KELO in Sioux Falls, S.D.
• WJHL in Johnson City-Bristol-Kingsport
• WKBN in Youngstown, Ohio

The deal also includes two stations owned by Mission Broadcasting, Nexstar’s close shared services partner: KOLR in Springfield, Mo., and WYOU in Wilkes Barre-Scranton.

The warning signs were there, with influential Wall Street observer Michael Nathanson one week ago cutting his price target as increased OTT competition and slowing growth made Netflix a little less rosy of an investment.

It turns out Nathanson was right on the money with respect to Netflix’s overall health. Disappointing earnings and subscriber forecast misses were seen by the visual entertainment giant, leading to a Friday sell-off that saw NFLX down by more than 21% in the 1pm Eastern hour.

Yet, there’s dissent among just how poorly Netflix is performing. According to one industry observer, “Netflix’s performance is superb when you consider the crushing competition encroaching on what used to be a fast growing, greenfield market.”

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Chances are that if you live in a multi-unit residential tower or community with a homeowners’ association or spend time in an office building, your choices for broadband services are, well, none — there’s one provider, thanks to contractual arrangements and legacy wiring and provider limitations that in many cases are a thing of the past.

The Chairwoman of the FCC wants to do something about that, and on Friday shared with her colleagues a Report and Order and Declaratory Ruling that she argues would promote competition and increase choice for broadband services for people living and working in multiple tenant environments (MTEs).

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Addressable Advertising. It’s a desire of practically every marketer and advertiser, with media buyers and planners seeking out every form of communication to deliver what the client wants — personalized messaging.

That puts radio in an odd position. Yes, it has audio streaming opportunities. But, radio broadcasting’s broad reach — long its selling point and biggest positive for an advertiser — is now a detriment. What’s an owner of a FM radio station to do?

GeoBroadcast Solutions has an answer, and in autumn 2021 successfully tested technology that literally localizes an FM signal, offering advertisers more options by geo-targeting audiences. It’s asked the FCC to amend its booster rules to allow for program origination — key to the voluntary use of “ZoneCasting” by FM station owners.

The FCC obliged in November 2020 by adopting a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, now under consideration.

Obstacles could prevent “ZoneCasting” from proliferation across the U.S., however. And, GeoBroadcast Solutions says in a letter submitted this week with the FCC, iHeartMedia is the biggest obstructer to making “ZoneCasting” happen.

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Broadcast Partners has added 2wcom’s multi-channel cloud capability to SmartRadio, its cloud radio production service. It announced integration of MoIN software in SmartRadio.

“MoIN will enhance SmartRadio’s ‘audio playout as-a-service’ capabilities with encoding and streaming multiple audio channels simultaneously,” the company stated.

The announcement was made by Broadcast Partners CEO Robert-Jan van der Hoeven and 2wcom Systems CTO Leif Cipriani. The companies noted that they have been working together for some 15 years.

MoIN takes its name from “Multimedia over IP Network software.”

Radio World invites both users and suppliers to tell us about recently installed new or notable equipment. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Broadcast Partners Adds 2wcom MoIN to SmartRadio appeared first on Radio World.