Industry News

U.S. radio stations doing great work in community service are being honored by the National Association of Broadcasters.

NAB just released the list of finalists for the 34th annual NAB Crystal Radio Awards. See list at bottom.

The recipients will be announced during an online awards program in April.

NAB will also present Howard University’s WHUR-FM in Washington with the Crystal Heritage Award. This recognizes stations that have won five Crystal Radio Awards for exceptional year-round community service efforts. Nine others have received the Heritage award.

WHUR’s selection means there are now two Heritage recipients in the nation’s capital; WTOP(FM) was chosen in 2018. The 2020 Heritage recipient was KCVM(FM) in Iowa (read our profile).

This year’s Crystal finalists are:

KBFB(FM) Dallas, Texas
KCLY(FM) Clay Center, Kansas
KDKA(AM) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
KIKV(FM) Alexandria, Minnesota
KIRO(FM) Seattle, Washington
KKBQ(FM) Houston, Texas
KKFN(FM) Denver, Colorado
KKZY(FM) Bemidji, Minnesota
KMVP(FM) Phoenix, Arizona
KNDE(FM) College Station, Texas
KOSI(FM) Denver, Colorado
KPNT(FM) St. Louis, Missouri
KRSP(FM) Salt Lake City, Utah
KSBJ(FM) Humble, Texas
KSL(FM) Salt Lake City, Utah
KSTP(FM) Saint Paul, Minnesota
KTAR(FM) Phoenix, Arizona
KTMY(FM) Saint Paul, Minnesota
KUPD(FM) Phoenix, Arizona
KYGO(FM) Denver, Colorado
KYW(AM) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
WARH(FM) St. Louis, Missouri
WBAB(FM) West Babylon, New York
WBAP(AM) Dallas, Texas
WBLI(FM) Patchogue, New York
WBYT(FM) Mishawaka, Indiana
WCCO(AM) Minneapolis, Minnesota
WDRV(FM) Chicago, Illinois
WDSY(FM) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
WDUV(FM) St. Petersburg, Florida
WFXE(FM) Columbus, Georgia
WGCI(FM) Chicago, Illinois
WHPT(FM) St Petersburg, Florida
WJJY(FM) Brainerd, Minnesota
WKTI(FM) Milwaukee, Wisconsin
WMCI(FM) Mattoon, Illinois
WMMR(FM) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
WNRP(AM) Pensacola, Florida
WOKV(FM) Jacksonville, Florida
WPLR(FM) New Haven, Connecticut
WSB(AM) Atlanta, Georgia
WSB(FM) Atlanta, Georgia
WSHE(FM) Chicago, Illinois
WTAW(AM) College Station, Texas
WTMX(FM) Chicago, Illinois
WTOP(FM) Washington, D.C.
WWPR(FM) New York City, New York
WWRM(FM) Tampa Bay, Florida
WXGL(FM) Tampa Bay, Florida
WXOS(FM) St. Louis, Missouri
WYCT(FM) Pensacola, Florida
WYKY(FM) Somerset, Kentucky

The post NAB Announces Crystal Radio Finalists appeared first on Radio World.

Automation and workflow systems provider ENCO has moved its headquarters from Southfield, Mich., to the community of Novi about 17 miles away.

“The newly constructed, 12,000-square-foot facility will offer a more collaborative work environment and a centralized location for staff and customers in the Detroit suburbs,” it stated in an announcement.

“ENCO’s entire operation across sales, administration, engineering, finance, management, manufacturing and marketing will be based in Novi, effective immediately.”

It said the interior uses an open floor plan and will bring previously separated functions closer together. “The spacious environments throughout all areas ensure that social distancing policies can continue to be met until the pandemic subsides.”

President Ken Frommert called it “truly a state-of-the-art facility” that includes an open production lab,  high-tech meeting and conference spaces, and various seating and lounge settings.

He said Novi is “an exciting city on the rise” and that the location is more accessible to Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

The new address is 41551 West 11 Mile Road in Novi, MI 48375.

The post ENCO Has New Headquarters appeared first on Radio World.

Entercom Communications, which this week expanded its holdings in the podcast space and amended its October 2016 credit agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, has announced that it plans to offer $500 million in aggregate principal amount of senior secured second-lien notes due in eight years.

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Entercom Media Corp., a subsidiary created by Philadelphia-based Entercom, is the issuer. And, it says it expects to use the net proceeds from this offering, due in 2029, to redeem all of its 7.25% senior notes due 2024 and to partially repay existing indebtedness under the company’s senior credit facilties.

Thus, it is a new debt for old debt swap, with the notes “fully and unconditionally guaranteed on a senior secured second-lien basis.”

The notes will be offered privately, Entercom says, to qualified institutional buyers.

Entercom shares have enjoyed strong growth over the last six months and open Thursday’s trading at $5.84.

It’s a far cry from March 9, 2020, when shares were at $2.35 just days before ETM was to see its last ex-dividend payment to shareholders. Entercom stock then slid to $0.83 as March 2020 came to a close, with much pandemic uncertainty crippling ad sales for broadcast media.

Much of Entercom’s stock growth, however, has come in Q1. On December 28, 2020, ETM was at $2.47, with little signs of a jump past $3.

As RBR+TVBR first reported on Wednesday (3/10), HyphaMetrics has just secured a U.S. patent for a cross-media measurement platform.

The co-founder and CEO of HyphaMetrics, Joanna Drews, chats with Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson to share a bit more about the patent, consumer privacy, buying in the 2021-2022 Upfront and scatter markets, and where audio media fits in to HyphaMetrics’ business in this fresh podcast presented by Dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Joanna Drews, HyphaMetrics” on Spreaker.

A pair of Spanish-language television stations owned and operated by Hispanavisión Televisión will now have the benefit of local TV measurement services provided by the nation’s dominant ratings and audience consumption data provider.

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LOS ANGELES — The L.A. office of Davis Wright Tremaine has a new of counsel in its entertainment practice.

It’s someone with extensive in-house experience at NBC Entertainment, where she was most recently VP of Legal Affairs.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of bipartisan House of Representatives and Senators have reintroduced legislation allowing news publishers — including local radio and TV broadcasters — to collectively negotiate the terms on which their content may be distributed online.

It’s being billed as “a fight to save local news.” And, the NAB commends it.

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Andrew Curran, President/COO of DMR/Interactive, has penned an “open letter” to radio that takes aim at the industry’s unfulfilled opportunity to attract women between 18 and 49 years of age who are struggling to hold their families and careers together.

While there’s a need, and a call to action, what, specifically, could Radio do to achieve this goal?

Curran offers three thoughts exclusively to RBR+TVBR.

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MIAMI — It was a big gamble, one that Bill Siegel was called on to “evaluate and refine” in December 2019. A new English-language local newscast was in the works for South Florida — a 10pm newscast that would challenge Sunbeam Television’s long-dominant WSVN-7.

The E.W. Scripps Co. made the pledge in November 2019, with a spring 2020 launch date for a unique 30-minute newscast for Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and the Florida Keys.

Then came COVID-19, and another evaluation of the plan. Now, it has opted to move forward with multiple newscasts produced not by the recently acquired Scripps station’s own staff, but that by the Berkshire Hathaway-controlled ABC affiliate in Miami — its sole media property.

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The Media Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission has dismissed an objection filed against a Durham, N.C., FM translator. That objection claimed that the translator licensee should not be allowed to claim noncommercial educational exemption because the AM station being rebroadcast is owned by commercial organizations.

In its objection, Triangle Access Broadcasting alleged that the FM translator operator, Delmarva Educational Association who is licensee of W224DK, was not entitled to claim an NCE exemption for application and regulatory fees because the AM station they are rebroadcasting — WPTF in Raleigh, N.C., which is licensed to First State Communications — is a commercial station.

[Read: AM Station’s Spotty Operational Schedule Puts License at Risk]

Thus, Triangle argued, the translator is itself a commercial one. Triangle also argued that Delmarva shouldn’t be qualified to receive a nonprofit regulatory fee exemption. While Triangle recognized that Delmarva is a nonprofit entity, it argued that Delmarva disqualified itself from the nonprofit exemption because First State supplies commercial programming to the translator. According to Triangle, this gives First State an attributable ownership interest in Delmarva.

Triangle also alleged that Delmarva has failed to pay required application fees for the translator dating back to 2003. Triangle thus urged the commission to dismiss Delmarva’s application for failing to pay required fees and to cancel the translator outright unless the delinquency is resolved.

In response, Delmarva countered that its failure to pay a filing fee was inadvertent and it has since remitted payment. Delmarva also countered that the commission’s rules clarify that it is exempt from paying regulatory fees because it is a qualified nonprofit, tax-exempt entity under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue code.

Triangle acknowledged that even though Delmarva remitted payment, it questions Delmarva’s initial failure to pay during the licensing process. Triangle also maintained that Delmarva is not qualified for the nonprofit regulatory fee exemption because its operation of a commercial translator deviates from the “scope of its charitable purpose.” Added to this is the fact that Eastern Airwaves, a commercial entity that Triangle said co-owns First State, has exercised control over the translator. Thus it has an attributable ownership interest in the translator.

“[That makes it] improper for Delmarva to avoid regulatory fees based solely on Delmarva’s nonprofit status,” Triangle said.

But the Media Bureau disagreed. It said that informal objections to license renewal applications must not only provide well-supported allegations of fact but must also contain adequate and specific factual allegations. Triangle has not met this threshold, the FCC said.

For one, Delmarva acknowledged that it submitted the application without the requisite filing fees and went on to pay those fees. Secondly, the commission has already confirmed that Delmarva is a nonprofit organization. Finally, Triangle does not explain how First State or Eastern would have an attributable interest in the translator.

As a result, the bureau dismissed and denied the objection.

But the Media Bureau did find that Delmarva was remiss in its failure to pay the required application filing fees. It assessed the licensee a penalty charge equal to 25% of the filing fee for license of W224DK for a total of $17.50.

The post FCC Nixes Idea to Rebrand NCE Translator as Commercial appeared first on Radio World.