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By Rob Dumke

A new television viewership report from the spot cable arm of the company that owns Peacock, NBCUniversal and Universal Studios, as well as Comcast, finds that streaming “consistently” serves as a strong complement to traditional TV ad campaigns.

This was based on research conducted during the first half of 2021 from Effectv, the ad sales division of Comcast Cable.

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Petitioner requests the allotment of reserved noncommercial educational channel *4 to Fort Bragg, California, as the community's second local service and its first local noncommercial educational television service.

Licensee has requested the substitution of UHF channel 14 for VHF channel 10 in the DTV Table of Allotments.

The two individuals at the helm of the nation’s largest audio content production and distribution company are preparing for a presentation on Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference.

Bob Pittman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Rich Bressler, President, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer, of iHeartMedia will participate in a question and answer session at the highly regarded investor event.

They’ll be chatting it up starting at precisely 2:05pm Eastern on Sept. 22.

A live webcast of the session will be available to the general public at the start of the session through a link on the Investors homepage of iHeartMedia’s website (https://investors.iheartmedia.com/).

A replay of the video webcast will be available in the Events & Presentation section of iHeartMedia’s Investors homepage.

 

What did iHeartMedia stock close at on September 16? Visit the Wall Street Report now at RBR.com’s homepage for a quick glance at all of broadcast media’s publicly traded stocks.

According to Nielsen, the return to the classroom had an effect on monthly TV and streaming viewing.

The Gauge, Nielsen’s snapshot of viewing trends, showed a leveling of viewership after three months of steady growth.

The August data reveals that streaming maintained a 28% share of total TV viewing, compared with broadcast TV (24%) and cable (38%).

Children 6-17 years old viewed about 7.5% less than the previous month.

Nielsen said that drop was offset a bit by a 0.5% increase in overall TV viewing. The slight uptick was attributed to adults tuning in to broadcast programming such as the Olympics.

By Rob Dumke and Adam R Jacobson

“Broadcasting locally but driving national results,” Davis Broadcasting Inc. has stood out in the markets in which it operates radio stations in for its commitment to localism.

Now, its President and CEO has personally written to those in favor of a resolution that would prevent the levying of any new performance royalty payments on Radio.

While the biggest piece of legislation on Capitol Hill designed to do this is largely dead, recording industry advocacy group musicFIRST on Monday will seek to resuscitate it.

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ATLANTA — Gray Television’s dedicated investigative team is readying the launch of a new weekly program featuring “watchdog reports” about government corruption, consumer alerts and health care issues.

The show takes the name of the investigate team and will premiere during this week across all of the broadcast media company’s stations.

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By Rob Dumke

The importance of fact-based broadcast radio and television journalism at a time when misinformation is running rampant on social media is a key mission for local news organizations across the U.S.

It’s also integral to the NAB, which has unveiled a new ad campaign giving a boost to local  stations in particular.

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On its surface, a follow-up report to the U.S. Latino Podcast Listener Report, released in July by Edison Research, offers rather encouraging findings on the percentage of U.S. Hispanics who’ve listened to a podcast.

Now, Edison believes the growth opportunity is even stronger.

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By Rob Dumke

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation is the latest organization to institute a “COVID Change” for an upcoming in-person gathering.

The 46th Annual Gracie Awards will now be a virtual affair.

The online event is scheduled for October 5.

This year’s awards coincide with AWM’s 70th anniversary. Since its inception in 1951, AWM has been committed to inspiring, educating, celebrating accomplishments and expanding networks of women across all segments of media.

The event will be hosted by actress and comedian Lauren Ash and feature performances by Jewel and Gospel and R&B performing artist Cece Winans.

The AllWomenInMedia page on Facebook will serve as the principal viewing point for the now-virtual affair.

By Rob Dumke

A new study, authored by Ph.D. Economist Hal Singer and Ted Tatos, has examined whether large technology companies should start contributing to the agency’s $9 billion a year program that supports efforts to bridge the digital divide.

It comes following a May 2021 suggestion by one FCC Commissioner that Big Tech should start paying its fair share toward the Universal Service Fund.

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Nielsen says people who only listen to podcasts every week or two are an increasingly important part of the growth of podcasting.

“Today, almost half (49%) of U.S. podcast listeners are light users who are presumably new to the medium: people who listen anywhere from one to three times a month,” the company says in highlighting results of its latest Podcasting Today report.

“That’s a notable contrast to a typical podcast listener five or 10 years ago when most listening came from people who were more likely to listen to each and every episode from their favorite titles — episodes that are oftentimes released once a week.”

Nielsen says this finding “highlights two important storylines.”

It says consumer interest in “new, engaging content” from all forms of media continues to grow, and that podcast content “has proven to be an attractive option” during the pandemic.

It also says the pandemic “paused the growth of heavy podcast listeners,” because of changes in lifestyles and schedules. “Yet while the percentage of heavy listeners declined slightly last year, we’re now seeing it increase, rising from 25% earlier this year to just under 30% as of May.”

[Read: Podcast Listeners By the Numbers]

Nielsen believes the pandemic has not had a negative impact on overall podcast engagement.

“While listener growth  flattened somewhat during the second half of last year, it has ramped up notably in 2021, largely due to an increase in at-home listening, which is attributable to light listeners checking out the medium. The rise in at-home listening is also somewhat counter to historical podcast engagement, and again, speaks to the transformation of industry to a broader audience.”

 

The company asserts that brands and agencies need to be tracking engagement with podcasting and putting the platform to use.

 

The post Podcasting Gets Boost From Casual Listeners appeared first on Radio World.

The NAB Show may have been cancelled, but industry manufacturers still have an opportunity to highlight their new products this season.

The Best in Market Awards offer a platform for the many products and solutions in the marketplace that could not be seen at major trade shows this year. The program will serve in place of the “Best of Show” Awards that would have run at the convention.

The program is open to all manufacturers of professional radio, TV and AV products and solutions, regardless of exhibitor status at major events.

The Best in Market awards will be judged and presented by Future brands Radio World, TV Technology, TVBEurope, Next, Mix, Broadcasting & Cable and Sound & Video Contractor.

These awards are intended to honor and help companies promote outstanding products launching in 2021.

The deadline for nominations also has been extended to Oct. 7. 

 

The post The Awards Are Still On appeared first on Radio World.

Coverage map provided by GeoBroadcast Solutions.

From our Who’s Buying What page: FM station WAWE in the Chicago market is using a GeoBroadcast Solutions MaxxCasting System.

The station, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., is owned by Educational Media Foundation and is part of its Air1 Radio Network. GBS said management wanted to improve WAWE’s signal quality and audience.

The equipment for this synchronized-node booster system was purchased through Doug Tharp at SCMS, U.S. distributor of GatesAir/PR&E systems.

“The recently deployed enhancement improves the reach into the lower west side of Chicago in an area quite problematic for its broadcast signal troubles at the convergence of the city’s three major expressways,” GBS said in its announcement.

“The signal improvement … was strategically implemented through a four-node network using the MaxxCasting system. The coverage now reaches the University of Chicago, Rush Medical Center and the historic Pilsen community.”

It quoted EMF Senior Broadcast Engineer Shane Toven saying the station had been coverage-challenged, especially “between the Loop and O’Hare.” He said GBS designed the system for the Chicago market and that EMF worked with GBS to launch a similar one in Boston at WKVB, including HD Radio subcarriers.

“After licensing that system, GBS helped us finish up the WAWE nodes to significantly improve our coverage in the Chicago market and reach deeper into the community,” Toven said.

GBS also said that with these MaxxCasting nodes in place, the same infrastructure could be used to diplex similarly located stations that want to improve coverage. Its Director of Infrastructure Deployment Vern Egli was quoted: “The convergence at the expressway interchange notoriously has had poor reception, due to the concentration of broadcast signals emanating from Chicago’s large towers and the amount of daily automotive traffic.”

MaxxCasting uses nodes to reduce interference between main and booster FM transmissions. It deploys a cluster of high-power, directionalized and synchronized node sites.

The post EMF Deploys MaxxCasting in Chicago appeared first on Radio World.

ViacomCBS’s BET unit has formally launched BET Studios, with a pledge of offering equity ownership for Black content creators.

The principal partners are Kenya Barris, Rashida Jones and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas.

Barris is an award-winning writer, producer, and director who created the “ish” multiseries franchise (Black-ish, Grown-ish and Mixed-ish). Jones is an actress, director, writer, and filmmaker, known for her appearances on “The Office” and in the 2010 feature film “The Social Network.”

Thomas is a television, film screenwriter and producer who has worked on numerous CBS TV series.

“The demand for premium content from Black creators has accelerated dramatically as a result of both the rapidly changing media and social landscapes. BET, with our 40-year legacy of celebrating Black culture, and the full power of the ViacomCBS ecosystem—is uniquely positioned to service this demand,” said BET President Scott Mills. “As a company with its origin in Black entrepreneurship, we are incredibly excited to create the first major studio to provide Black creators with ownership, creative freedom and the unparalleled partnership and support of BET.”

BET Studios will be headed by Aisha Summers Burke, who was recently appointed EVP/GM of the new venture.

Issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in the amount of $3,000 to WTZT Television, Inc. for public file violations for Station WTZT-CD, Athens, Alabama

The Bureau enters into a Consent Decree with The Board of Directors of Wittenberg College

Issued an Admonishment to Kingdom Broadcasting Inc. for public file violations for Station KLMB-CD, El Dorado, AR

Audacy and Cumulus Media struck a content distribution partnership.

They said Cumulus’s 413 radio stations and family of podcasts will be available on the Audacy digital platform.

The announcement was made by Larry Linietsky, senior vice president of digital operations and business development and Cumulus, and Corey Podolsky, VP of business development for Audacy.

Podolsky said the addition of Cumulus radio stations “enhances and bolsters Audacy’s position as the fastest growing digital platform for radio listeners” and that Audacy “looks forward to building on this initial partnership with Cumulus.”

The Audacy app has about 2,000 stations including Audacy’s own 230 or so, plus podcasts and other programming.

The post Cumulus Stations Join Audacy App appeared first on Radio World.

Barix introduced the first in a new set of Exstreamer products, the Exstreamer M400 IP audio decoder.

It says the existing line of Exstreamer AoIP codecs are popular for radio broadcast applications including studio-to-transmitter links, studio-to-studio links and remote contribution, and that the new hardware offers a more modern, extensible version with more support for current standards.

The announcement was made by Product Manager Davide Nossa, who said the platform provides “more processing power, enhanced security features and greater extensibility, alongside expanded support for audio formats and technology standards including Opus and AES67.”

Features include stereo, line-level, analog audio output with RCA-type connections. It can decode streams in MP3, AAC-HE, FLAC, PCM, Opus and Ogg Vorbis formats.

AES67 support enables the decoder to be configured as a dedicated AES67 receiver and decoder, enabling integration into AES67-based AoIP networks and interoperability with Dante-compatible devices.

“The Exstreamer M400 incorporates the full AES67 interoperability guidelines including RTP audio delivery, multicast addressing and PTP-based synchronization with a separate master clock device,” Barix said.

“Supported discovery methods include SAP (Session Announcement Protocol), mDNS (multicast DNS) and RTSP, enabling the decoder to automatically identify and list available streams from Dante, Ravenna and other audio over IP solutions that use these protocols. SDP (Session Description Protocol) information can also be manually inserted for interoperability with third-party solutions that do not support these standards.”

It said the Linux-based IPAM 400 audio module provides significantly higher processing power and a more programmable, software-driven architecture that allows easier expansion, prototyping and customization. “A larger buffer size and advanced buffer management technology can be configured to further bolster the Exstreamer M400’s resilience to network performance disruptions in applications where minimizing latency is not critical.”

It also cited expanded support for IT security standards, IPV6 and internal audio file storage with externally triggered playback.

The post Barix Has New Exstreamer M400 IP Audio Decoder appeared first on Radio World.