Aggregator

.

.

On January 11, 2021, Beasley Media Group shares finished at $2.01. From that point through early November, BBGI would remain a rather steady issue on the Nasdaq GlobalMarket, with average prices in the mid-$2 range.

With Monday’s Closing Bell on Wall Street, Beasley shares have nearly erased all of its 2021 momentum. As such, the stock is ever-closer to its pandemic-era lows and more than $11 per share below where it stood four years ago.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The FCC’s Media Bureau has identified 231 MX groups, comprising some 883 applications, in its filing window for applications for new noncommercial educational (NCE) FM new station construction permits, which closed on November 9.

What’s next? A new window for settlements and technical amendments.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

We love great photos of broadcast facilities!

Photo courtesy Jake Wang/Fullwave Tower & Broadcast

Here’s one from the San Francisco market, posted on LinkedIn by Jake Wang. He’s vice president of construction for Fullwave Tower & Broadcast.

“A beautiful day on San Bruno Mountain yesterday!” he wrote. “We installed a new replacement ERI SHP-6 for our friends at KQED(FM). A great antenna that will surely last many years for them.”

Send us your photos of new or interesting facilities, whether it be of an antenna, transmitter, studio or NOC. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post A New Antenna for KQED appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC’s Media Bureau has published the list of mutually exclusive applications submitted in the recent window for new noncom educational FM stations.

The commission received almost 1,300 applications. Out of those, there are 231 MX groups with a total of 883 applications. They are listed here.

Now comes the 60-day period in which MX applicants can reach settlement agreements and file them with the FCC, and/or submit technical amendments to resolve conflicts.

The bureau also dismissed 13 MX applications that had “numerous significant and egregious technical defects.” Each applicant has an opportunity to ask for reconsideration.

It said it will expedite the processing of all complete and rule-compliant settlement agreements and technical amendments that are filed by Jan. 28, 2022. Applicants in MX groups that have not submitted settlements or technical amendments during this period will then proceed to a comparative analysis.

All the procedures are

The post FCC Publishes MX Application List for New NCE FMs appeared first on Radio World.

The new VP/GM of Nexstar Media Group‘s Lafayette, La., operations has been named. It is an individual who is “extremely familiar” with the market and the broadcast TV company’s CBS affiliate in the market.

He started as a videographer at the station’s news department in 1997, and spent 17 years there.

Going back to KLFY-10 is Chris Cook. Only this time, he’s the VP/GM at the station where he once held the roles of Promotions Coordinator, Marketing Director, Digital Sales Manager and Local Sales Manager.

Cook reports to Nexstar Media SVP/Regional Manager Mike Vaughn and comes on board after serving as Director of Sales for Circle City Broadcasting’s WISH-8 in Indianapolis. It is a role he took in early 2020, and saw Cook stay along side Circle City owner DuJuan McCoy. Prior to WISH, Cook for McCoy in Louisiana, at KADN-TV and KLAF-TV in Lafayette, stations McCoy sold to Byron Allen in 2019.

As such, Cook is returning home to Bayou Country.

“Chris is an excellent choice to lead Nexstar’s Lafayette media businesses,”  Vaughn said. “He’s intimately familiar with the market, and understands well the expectations of its viewers, advertisers and marketers. He’s thoughtful, innovative, and dedicated to delivering outstanding local content and service to the greater Lafayette area. His long track-record of success, broad experience, and ability to deliver exceptional ratings and sales results through unique local partnerships and superior customer service will serve him and the team at KLFY-TV well. I am looking forward to working with Chris as he assumes his
new duties and expect much success in the future.”

Cook added, This is like coming home. Plus, when you combine Nexstar’s commitment to
hyper-local content and the unique and innovative cross-platform advertising solutions we offer to our viewers and clients, the result gives us a distinct advantage over our competitors. I am confident that my experience has prepared me well to take on this new role and I am pleased to be re-joining the talented team of broadcast, digital, and sales professionals at KLFY-TV and klfy.com.”

Streamline Publishing Audio/TV/Podcast division seeks a creative go getter who can wear many hats and likes to play on a dynamic team. Candidate should have excellent writing skills (editorial and marketing), be adept at social media, possess great people skills and not afraid to reach out to conference speaking prospects. Strong organizational skills, the ability to multi task, and attention to detail a must.

This is a part time position with the potential to grow into full time.
Send resumes to Deborah Parenti at dparenti@streamlinepublishing.com. No phone calls. Streamline is an EOE employer.

From our Who’s Buying What page: North American Tower Company has made a multi-site purchase of the Stellar Eclipse broadcast site monitoring system.

Stellar Eclipse is made by Shulins’ Solutions, which announced the sale.

“With this purchase [North American Tower] will increase their deployment of Stellar Eclipse to over 70 sites across the top 50 markets protecting over 350 of radio and TV stations,” Shulins stated in the press release.

[Related: “Shulins Opens Up His Own Shop”]

“Shared common antenna sites often with complex combining networks demand monitoring and protection beyond a simple remote control. To protect these significant investments, broadcasters need a proactive solution to not only provide next level of monitoring, logging and control, but a comprehensive VSWR system for maximum protection.”

It said North American is deploying a platform and architecture to protect the RF systems for FM and all formats of analog digital TV on VHF and UHF including ATSC 3.0. It also is using cloud-based monitoring of shared systems that Shulins says are often overlooked in an individual station’s remote control.

Shulins’ Solutions also offers drone-based tower inspections and broadcast consulting services.

Users and suppliers are both invited to send news about recent installations and product applications to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post North American Tower Expands Use of Stellar Eclipse appeared first on Radio World.

He’s a NAB board member and the only Black owner-operator of full-power “Big Four” network broadcast affiliates in the U.S.

Now, Byron Allen is vocalizing his support of President Biden’s choice to serve as a Democratic Commissioner on the FCC: Gigi Sohn.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

On Sunday, prior to the start of its 1pm Eastern coverage of the National Football League, the FOX television network aired a 45-second promotional message that in its first three seconds incorporated an EAS tone.

The promotion ran nationally, on affiliates and on FOX-owned stations. While the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Chief, Rosemary Harold, is likely reviewing the matter along with her team, non-FOX owned television stations that had no idea the promotional message was set to air until after the fact could also be held liable for what appears to be a blatant violation of Commission rules on emergency alert messages.

Or, are the affiliates not the guilty party, thus escaping a potentially large financial penalty?

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The President and Publisher of Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink and Radio + Television Business Report and the VP of Licensing and Industry Relations at BMI have been elected to the Board of Directors of the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF).

Taking the seats, respectively, are Deborah Parenti and Dan Spears.

The announcement came from co-chairs Jack Goodman, former NAB general counsel and longtime DC-based communications attorney, and Heidi Raphael, Beasley Media Group Chief Communications Officer.  “The LABF Board, and the broadcast industry as a whole, is indebted to Ginny Morris for her service to the Library and its mission of preserving the legacy of broadcasting and archiving its history,” said co-chairs Heidi Raphael and Jack Goodman.

Goodman replaced Hubbard Radio chief executive officer Ginny Morris as co-chair of the LABF in mid-2021. Morris, who will remain on the LABF Board, had served as sole chair of the LABF Board of Directors for the past eight years.

The LABF also announced that board members Chandra Clark, Ginny Morris, Harry Jessell, Heather Birks, John Taylor, Joyce Tudryn, Larry Patrick, Richard Liebner, Michael Carter, Wally Podrazik and Dennis Wharton were elected to new three-year terms.

Executive Committee members elected to additional two-year terms were co-chair Heidi Raphael, Jim Morley, Joyce Tudryn, Marci Burdick, Harry Jessell and David Kennedy.

Kathleen Kirby, a partner at Wiley, has agreed to serve as LABF’s counsel.

The LABF serves the philanthropic arm of the Library of American Broadcasting, a collection of broadcast history, policy and tradition, including historical documents, professional papers, oral and video histories, books, scripts and photographs preserved at the University of Maryland in College Park, a suburb of Washington. In addition, the LABF, in conjunction with the International Radio & Television Society (IRTS), presents the Annual Giants of Broadcasting Event, which pays tribute to trailblazers in the radio and television industry.

New LABF Board Members Deborah Parenti (left) and Dan Spears

The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) elected two new board members at its recent board meeting: Streamline Publishing President Deborah Parenti and BMI Vice President of Licensing and Industry Relations Dan Spears.

The announcement came from long-time D.C.-based communications attorney and former NAB General Counsel Jack Goodman and Beasley Media Group Chief Communications Officer Heidi Raphael. Goodman replaced Hubbard Radio CEO Ginny Morris as co-chair of the LABF in mid-2021. Morris had served as chair of the LABF Board of Directors since 2013; she remains on the foundation’s board.

At the meeting, 11 board members were reelected to new three-year terms: Chandra Clark, Ginny Morris, Harry Jessell, Heather Birks, John Taylor, Joyce Tudryn, Larry Patrick, Richard Liebner, Michael Carter, Wally Podrazik and Dennis Wharton. Executive Committee members elected to additional two-year terms were co-chair Heidi Raphael, Jim Morley, Joyce Tudryn, Marci Burdick, Harry Jessell and David Kennedy.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Other current LABF board members include Mike Conway, Dave “Chachi” Denes, April Carty-Sipp, Gary Chapman, John Dille, Harry Jessell, Erwin Krasnow, Brian Philips, Patricia Smullin, Jeff Smulyan, Julie Talbott, Erica Farber, Dr. Judy Kuriansky, Mary Collins and Pierre Bouvard. Kathleen Kirby, a partner at Wiley Rein LLP, serves as LABF’s counsel.

“The LABF Board, and the broadcast industry as a whole, is indebted to Ginny Morris for her service to the Library and its mission of preserving the legacy of broadcasting and archiving its history,” said Raphael and Goodman in a joint statement. “We are delighted Ginny is remaining with LABF as a Board member.”

The foundation also extended its gratitude to Ramsey Woodworth, who transitioned off the board following more than 20 years of service.

The LABF is the philanthropic arm of the Library of American Broadcasting, the largest U.S. collection of broadcast history, policy and tradition, including historical documents, professional papers, oral and video histories, books, scripts and photographs. It is based at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Two New Board Members for Library of American Broadcasting Foundation appeared first on Radio World.

In August, the Entertainment Sports Programming Network known as ESPN received a proposed fine from the FCC in the amount of $20,000 for its use of an emergency alert system (EAS) code during a documentary it aired in October 2020 as part of its popular 30 for 30 series.

It now appears FOX Television Stations, and perhaps all of its affiliates, may be liable for a similar violation — one tied to a somewhat mysterious “NFL EMERGENCY ALERT” supporting the Philadelphia Eagles pro football club.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

iHeartMedia just put out some interesting data about which songs are most popular in the United States.

According to the company, it measured total audience spins (TAS) and streams across iHeartRadio stations to look at the top played songs and artists of 2021.

The #1 played song on the list is ”Levitating” by Dua Lipa, which the company said reached an audience of nearly 1.2 billion in the U.S. alone. The #1 played artist this year was Ariana Grande, reaching more than 2.6 billion listeners.

“What’s perhaps most interesting about this data is that it shows a complete picture of what folks across the country listened to — not just what those using digital streaming services had queued up.”

The Total Audience Spins is based on Mediabase airplay and is multiplied by the number of persons listening to the radio at the time of those plays, delivering total audience impressions which iHeart says is the broadcast equivalent of the number of streams from a streaming music service.

Its lists of top overall played songs and artists are below, followed by a breakdown by format.

Top Overall Songs 2021

1. “Levitating” Dua Lipa (1.19+ Billion)
2. “Save Your Tears” The Weeknd (969+ Million)
3. “34+35” Ariana Grande (898+ Million)
4. “Kiss Me More” Doja Cat ft. Sza (888+ Million)
5. “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” Lil Nas X (822+ Million)
6. “What You Know Bout Love” Pop Smoke (810+ Million)
7. “good 4 u” Olivia Rodrigo (733+ Million)
8. “Peaches” Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar/Giveon (696+ Million)
9. “Leave The Door Open” Bruno Mars/Anderson .Paak/Silk Sonic (692+ Million)
10. “drivers license” Olivia Rodrigo (660+ Million)

Top Overall Artists 2021

1. Ariana Grande (2.6+ Billion)
2. Dua Lipa (2.5+ Billion)
3. The Weeknd (2.39+ Billion)
4. Olivia Rodrigo (2.2+ Billion)
5. Pop Smoke (1.99+ Billion)
6. Doja Cat (1.66+ Billion)
7. Justin Bieber (1.57+ Billion)
8. Luke Combs (1.27+ Billion)
9. Ed Sheeran (1.27+ Billion)
10. Luke Bryan (1.18+ Billion)

Top Country Songs 2021

1. “Just The Way” Parmalee ft. Blanco Brown
2. “Lady” Brett Young
3. “What’s Your Country Song” Thomas Rhett
4. “Single Saturday Night” Cole Swindell
5. “Famous Friends” Chris Young & Kane Brown
6. “Forever After All” Luke Combs
7. “Better Together” Luke Combs
8. “Gone” Dierks Bentley
9. “Made For You” Jake Owen
10. “One Of Them Girls” Lee Brice

Top Country Artists 2021

1. Luke Combs
2. Luke Bryan
3. Jason Aldean
4. Thomas Rhett
5. Blake Shelton
6. Sam Hunt
7. Kenny Chesney
8. Dierks Bently
9. Lee Brice
10. Dustin Lynch

Top Hip-Hop Songs 2021

1. “For The Night” Pop Smoke ft. Lil Baby/DaBaby
2. “What You Know Bout Love” Pop Smoke
3. “You’re Mines Still” Yung Bleu ft. Drake
4. “On Me” Lil Baby
5. “Time Today” Moneybagg Yo
6. “Back in Blood” Pooh Shiesty ft. Lil Durk
7. “Calling My Phone” Lil Tjay Ft. 6LACK
8. “Beat Box” SpotemGottem
9. “Late At Night” Roddy Ricch
10. “Heartbreak Anniversary” Giveon

Top Hip-Hop Artists 2021

1. Pop Smoke
2. Drake
3. Lil Baby
4. Moneybagg Yo
5. Roddy Ricch
6. Yung Bleu
7. Rod Wave
8. Megan Thee Stallion
9. Pooh Shiesty
10. Lil Tjay

Top Alternative Songs 2021

1. “Monsters” All Time Low ft. blackbear
2. “Follow You” Imagine Dragons
3. “Sofia” Clairo
4. “my ex’s best friend” Machine Gun Kelly & blackbear
5. “All My Favorite Songs” Weezer ft. AJR
6. “Shy Away” Twenty One Pilots
7. “Therefore I Am” Billie Eilish
8. “Waiting on a War” Foo Fighters
9. “Heat Waves” Glass Animals
10. “Nowhere Generation” Rise Against

Top Alternative Artists 2021

1. Green Day
2. Twenty One Pilots
3. Imagine Dragons
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Linkin Park
6. Foo Fighters
7. Weezer
8. All Time Low
9. Machine Gun Kelly
10. Blink-182

 Top R&B Songs 2021

1. “Leave The Door Open” Bruno Mars/Anderson .Paak/Silk Sonic
2. “Pick Up Your Feelings” Jazmine Sullivan
3. “Damage” H.E.R.
4. “Can’t Let It Show” Tank
5. “He Don’t Know Nothin’ Bout It” Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Ft. Babyface
6. “You Made A Fool Of Me” Anthony Hamilton
7. “Not Another Love Song” Ella Mai
8. “Look Easy” Robin Thicke
9. “Complicated” Leela James
10. “Essence” Wizkid ft. Tems

 Top R&B Artists 2021

1. H.E.R.
2. Bruno Mars/Anderson .Paak/Silk Sonic
3. Ella Mai
4. Chris Brown
5. Jazmine Sullivan
6. Mary J. Blige
7. Wale
8. Khalid
9. Tank
10. Usher

The post Dua Lipa, Ariane Grande Score Big on iHeart Popularity Chart appeared first on Radio World.

It’s officially the holiday shopping season, as the first night of Chanukah was Sunday, November 28. Now, the focus is on Christmas and Kwanzaa, and brick-and-mortar retailers are fueling their desires to lure shoppers by investing heavily in spot television.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Giving Tuesday, the international day of giving, is November 30. The Broadcasters Foundation of America is asking for donations to help radio and television colleagues who are in acute need due to illness, accident, or disaster.

“There’s never been a better opportunity to make an impact by giving back and helping those in our business who have been hit by tragic and unthinkable circumstances,” said Tim McCarthy, Co-President of the Broadcasters Foundation. Scott Herman, Chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation, added, “As you’re thinking of the organizations you love and support, please consider including the Broadcasters Foundation in your donations.”

For over seventy years, the Broadcasters Foundation has provided medical aid and disaster relief to broadcasters and their families across the United States. This year, the Broadcasters Foundation will award more than $1.8 million in monthly and emergency grants.

Individual donations can be made to the Guardian Fund, corporate contributions are accepted through the Angel Initiative, and bequests can be arranged through the Legacy Society.

To learn more or to donate, please contact the Broadcasters Foundation at 212-373-8250 or info@thebfoa.org or visit www.broadcastersfoundation.org.

Until now, the fiercest vocal opposition to President Biden’s choice for a Democratic seat on the FCC has come from Republican Senate leaders such as Lindsey Graham.

That may still be the case. Yet, broadcast media’s biggest voice Inside the Beltway has “serious concerns” about Gigi Sohn. While her nomination is not being opposed by the NAB, it is very disturbed by her involvement in a now-shuttered service that purported to be a non-profit local TV-by-IP service that skirted around retransmission consent accords.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Origin Sports Network, an offering from Gray Television-owned Raycom Sports, has expanded its lineup of distribution partners.

As such, Gray brags, the “FAST channel” has more than quadrupled its addressable audience size.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Chris Imlay credits an abiding love of ham radio as one of the reasons he has devoted his career to communications law.

Imlay, 68, retires as general counsel for the Society of Broadcast Engineers at the end of 2021. His tenure in that role began in 1991, but his actual work for the group goes back to 1980 when he took up SBE’s appeal of the FCC decision to eliminate the First Class Radiophone License.

Announcing of Imlay’s retirement, SBE President Wayne M. Pecena said, “Chris Imlay has been a valuable resource for and asset to the SBE over the past 41 years. He has also been a staunch advocate for the SBE’s goals and objectives. He is a tough act to follow.”

Imlay specializes in federal communications law but has represented licensees and associations of communications users, especially technical and electronic communications associations, electronic equipment manufacturers, colleges and universities, in addition to his work on FCC regulatory issues for SBE.

“I still plan to work with a handful of my mom-and-pop broadcasters as clients past the end of the year. I want to make sure they are settled and taken care of as I begin to wind down my practice,” he said. “But I have to give this up at some point and there are other things I want to do.”

Imlay began his legal career in 1975 after graduating from American University’s Washington College of Law. He began practicing communications law in 1979 when he joined the firm Booth and Freret.

It was there that his long relationship with the SBE began. Soon Imlay found himself attending society board meetings and NAB Shows, and providing reports about pending FCC regulatory issues.

Imlay was retained as SBE communications counsel in 1984. In 1991, SBE President Rick Farquhar arranged for the board to confer Imlay with the general counsel title.

Advocacy role

Reflecting on his career, Imlay said, “I have valued my work with the SBE, as it has allowed me to do what I do best: defending spectrum allocations of clients and participating in technical regulatory proceedings. I have always been most comfortable working with broadcast engineers.”

The SBE chief counsel was elected a Fellow of the SBE in 1997, which he still considers the most important honor received throughout his professional career.

Imlay, who has worked with 22 SBE presidents, describes himself as a “down in the trenches” communication lawyer, focused on advocacy and education.

“I grew along with the advocacy program at SBE. It’s been interesting how that happened. I fell in with a very technically inclined communications law firm, and that was a stroke of luck. The very first thing I worked on for SBE and then-President Bob Jones was the appeal of the FCC decision to eliminate the First Class Radiophone License, which interestingly was was very much against SBE’s best interest.

[Subscribe to Radio World]

“SBE thought the license signified something and should be preserved. SBE lost, but the appeal did serve as the first step into the waters of advocacy, something at the time the SBE board hadn’t really considered.”

This would signal a major turn in philosophy for SBE and a growing role for Imlay within the organization.

“Spectrum management issues were beginning to become a thing, and SBE thankfully believed this was an important topic for its membership. I never tried to push them in that direction, but gradually we undertook more and more advocacy projects,” Imlay said.

Imlay credits another past president, Richard Rudman, with a leadership role in developing SBE’s more proactive approach.

“He had some important observations about how broadcast engineers needed access to decision-makers and how the broadcast auxiliary spectrum needed protection from encroachment from incompatible sharing partners or being reallocated. This was great foresight, considering what we see currently from the FCC in regards to spectrum management.”

Informing regulators

An early goal for Imlay was making sure people who worked at the FCC understood what broadcast engineers did in the way of program production and ENG.

Under Rudman’s guidance SBE turned the corner in how it approached advocating in FCC dockets dealing with spectrum. But Imlay said Rudman also realized the need to educate FCC staff.

“SBE had never taken an active role in broadcast auxiliary spectrum protection but more a reactive role; we became more active in that. We decided we needed to do more than just make comments in rules proceedings.

“So we organized half-day long presentations to the FCC staff. It was very well received by FCC engineering staff and even non-technical staff. We quickly learned this was a good thing, creating comprehensive awareness of what broadcast engineers do and why spectrum is important to them.”

So began Imlay’s longtime focus on “educational advocacy” and his efforts to ensure that the FCC and those in Congress were aware of nuances of the work of broadcast engineers and how they utilize Broadcast Auxiliary Services.

Chris Imlay is shown speaking at the NAB Show in 2014. (Courtesy SBE)

“Today everything I do is generally focused on spectrum issues, everything from advocating for more UHF wireless mic spectrum, following the 600 MHz auction, to making sure that 2 GHz especially, but also 6.5 GHz and 7 GHz are continually available and not usurped by incompatible services,” he said.

“SBE is focused on making sure the scientific integrity of those spectrum compatibility determinations are made as a prerequisite for a spectrum sharing proposal. And that it shouldn’t only be an economic analysis judgment of the FCC.”

In fact, Imlay said a section of the Communications Act focuses on the economic success of spectrum auctions, which forces the FCC to accept proposals based on their potential economic success.

“It’s the policy of the United States to encourage the provision of new technologies and services to the public; so anybody who opposes a new technology, that is proposed to be permitted under the act, has the burden to demonstrate that the proposed service is inconsistent with the public interest,” he said.

“So without assessing anything about the technical integrity of a new proposed service, the U.S. policy is for the FCC to support that service. By definition that puts incumbent services, like broadcast radio and TV, which are considered older technology, at the back of the bus,” Imlay said.

Imlay is known for his work helping amateur and broadcast engineering associations prepare materials in FCC rule making and adjudicatory proceedings.

H said he believes the FCC does a “poor job” of ascertaining spectrum compatibility before making rulemaking decisions. He nevertheless characterizes the technical competency of the FCC as “exceptional and consistently high,” especially in the Office of Engineering and Technology and in the Media Bureau.

“Audio Division engineers are top-notch, to a person, and they are accessible and helpful. That said, they are not always consulted by the bureau front offices when technical decision-making occurs. But they should be,” Imlay said.

Defining an “engineer”

The attorney recalls some “wins and losses” through the years. One important victory was preventing states from implementing statutes that required broadcast engineers to register with the state and obtain a PE certificate.

“The effect of these statutes, which were intended to protect the public, meant broadcast engineers couldn’t call themselves engineers. Our position was and still is that broadcast engineering is a different animal than civil or mechanical engineering. Broadcast engineers work in facilities solely under the jurisdiction of the FCC and states have no jurisdiction to regulate the practice of broadcast engineering,” Imlay said.

“These statutes were clearly not in the interest of broadcast engineers. We had some good decisions in Texas and Oregon; and we don’t seem to have those issues today.”

SBE did end up losing a battle to prevent numerous FCC field offices from closing a few years ago.

“We took the issue to Energy and Commerce Committee members in the House and to Commerce Committee members in the Senate. The aggregate loss of engineering talent when the field offices closed, and the loss of rapport and positive working relationships with broadcast engineers caused by the forced retirement of experienced FCC field engineers, was a nightmare. We have visited with House members in an effort to restore some of that talent, and continue to do so,” Imlay said.

There are issues on which SBE continues to seek action, including background noise on the spectrum. The society believes the commission lacks a good basis for determining levels of ambient, manmade RF noise in various allocations.

“The FCC relies heavily now on spectrum overlays and the interference temperature of receivers, and it uses those concepts in determining what radio services can be combined in the same bands. That presupposes that the FCC knows how much noise there is in various RF environments,” he said.
“SBE’s frequency coordinators know their markets very well and they know what works and what doesn’t, but FCC doesn’t have any idea what those levels are,” he said.

Imlay, points to SBE’s certification program as the “flagship” of SBE educational services.

“Without exception, I have found SBE presidents, folks like Chriss Scherer and Richard Rudman and really all of them, to be team-spirited folks not interested in self-promotion at all.”

The SBE has 5,000 members and 114 chapters across the United States. It will split Imlay’s responsibilities, planning to retain an Indianapolis attorney for association business matters.

“I believe they have already found an Indianapolis law firm to help with corporate and tax type issues, which isn’t something I really did anyway. The important part of finding a successor to me is finding somebody who is skilled in spectrum allocations and spectrum management issues,” Imlay said.

Imlay is a devoted bagpiper. “I just love the sound of the instrument and the emotive sound of it.”

Imlay, described as a spectrum expert by many in the industry, says he spent countless hours of his career writing comments on behalf of SBE for FCC spectrum dockets, which would have been for naught without the expertise of practicing broadcast engineers.

“As technically oriented as my law firm is, I’m not a broadcast engineer. I have to rely on fact-gathering of SBE board members, the SBE Government Relations Committee and leaders of our frequency coordination program. All FCC responses are very collaborative efforts,” Imlay said.

Imlay resides with Rita, his wife of 41 years, in Cloverly, Md. The couple has two children, Bonnie and Ashton, and two grandchildren, Simone and Langston. (“So far, only one of the family is an engineer,” Imlay said.)

Since 2014, Imlay has been managing member at what is now called Booth, Freret & Imlay LLC. He said he hopes to find a balance in order to work two or three days a week and have more time to fish and play his favorite musical instrument.

“I have 24 acres in western Maryland that I manage and do forestry on the weekends. I just haven’t had the time to enjoy that,” he said.

“I’m also a dedicated bagpiper. I go to all the Highland games in the area. I compete in solo and band competitions. In fact, I have studied with some of the old masters in Scotland. I just love the sound of the instrument and the emotive sound of it,” he said.

Imlay has all kinds of interests to pursue in semi-retirement. “I haven’t been up any of my three ham radio towers in way too long. I have rotators that don’t work. I have coax and antennas to replace. And I need several new transceivers, so I want to stop and smell the RF for a change,” he said with a chuckle.

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

The post Imlay to Retire as SBE General Counsel appeared first on Radio World.