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A sample image from the Quu website.

Services that help a radio station manage its visual appearance in dashboards are becoming more and more important. An example is this announcement from Quu Inc. and Bonneville International.

Bonneville says it will use Quu software to publish synced programming and advertiser messages on vehicle dashboards in all of its markets. Those include Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and San Francisco

[Read: vCreative Can Now Publish to Quu]

“These messages, called Visual Quus, boost station and advertiser branding, recall and retention,” the software provider said in the announcement. “Paired with on-air content, Visual Quus offer a better user experience and generate immediate incremental revenue by adding text, logos and images to on-air advertisements.”

The announcement was made by Darrell Brown, president of Bonneville International and Steve Newberry, CEO of Quu.

Quu was founded by Joe Harb in 2007. Beasley Media Group is among the company’s investors.

 

The post Bonneville Signs on With Quu for Visual Messages appeared first on Radio World.

LG Ads, which offers cross-screen media and measurement products for convergent TV, has given the CEO reins to its co-founder — the man who has served as Chief Product Officer since 2013 and gave the entity its original name, Alphonso.

Meanwhile, a new President has been selected at LG Ads. He spent more than 15 years at Comscore.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has proposed establishing Raleigh and Boston as innovation zones to allow for advanced wireless communications and network innovation and research.

These designations would, among other positive impacts, help spur the development and integration of 5G network technologies and open radio access networks, or Open RAN.

Innovation zones are FCC-designated, city-scale test beds managed by the National Science Foundation’s Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research. If approved by a vote of the full Commission at its August 5 Open Meeting, this proposal will allow Raleigh and Boston to join New York City and Salt Lake City at the forefront of wireless technology innovation.

“These Innovation Zones will support cutting-edge research and development that is crucial for advancing our wireless leadership,” Rosenworcel said. “Moreover, by bringing together operators, vendors, vertical interests, and other government agencies, we are helping to spur a market for more secure and open 5G technologies. I am grateful to city and research facility leaders, and our partners at the National Science Foundation, for working with us to deliver these opportunities.”

The Innovation Zones initiative was first proposed by NSF’s Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research and, in September 2019, the FCC designated New York City and Salt Lake City as the first designated zones. These wireless technology test beds extend the geographic areas in which already licensed experimental program licensees can conduct tests. Parties have flexibility to conduct multiple non-related experiments in the zone, and the designation allows experimental program license holders, which are licensed to operate elsewhere, to also use the Innovation Zones.

In keeping with the FCC’s effort to explore the potential of Open RAN technology, each test bed is equipped for Open RAN research and testing. The FCC is in the process of taking public comment on the current status of Open RAN development and deployment, whether and how the FCC might foster its success, and how to support competitiveness and new entrant access to this emerging market. The Acting Chairwoman made the announcement of her proposed designations at today’s FCC-hosted Open RAN Solutions Showcase.

The Boston Innovation Zone, at Northeastern University, will support the transition of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Colosseum network emulator to a shared platform, usable by the research community. Colosseum, the world’s largest wireless network emulator, was originally designed to support DARPA’s Spectrum Collaboration Challenge. With the conclusion of that challenge, the larger research community will now be able to take advantage of Colosseum’s unique capabilities, including the ability to emulate full-stack communications, to support artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms and hardware in the loop. This project is expected to bring academia, government, and industry researchers together to accelerate advancements in wireless networked systems and Open RAN.

The Raleigh Innovation Zone, in collaboration with North Carolina State University, will house Aerial Experimentation and Research Platform for Advanced Wireless (AERPAW), which will focus on new use cases involving wireless communications and unmanned aerial systems. AERPAW will focus on how cellular networks and advanced wireless technologies can enable beyond visual line-of-sight unmanned aerial systems to accelerate development, verification, and testing of transformative advances and breakthroughs in telecommunications, transportation, infrastructure monitoring, agriculture, and public safety. The AERPAW testbed will be the first platform to allow testing at scale of open 5G-and-beyond solutions in unmanned aerial system verticals.

The proposed Public Notice to be shared by Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel today with her fellow Commissioners would also, if adopted, modify the New York City Innovation Zone (known as COSMOS) to cover the three Columbia University and City College of New York campus areas. COSMOS is a city-scale outdoor testbed with a technical focus on ultra-high-bandwidth and low-latency wireless communications, with tightly coupled edge computing, a type of cloud computing enabling data processing at the edge of the network. COSMOS also was a host facility for the 2019 and 2020 O-RAN Alliance worldwide plugfests.

— RBR+TVBR Washington Bureau

It is an FM translator serving the Tennessee city of Chattanooga at 104.3 MHz.

Soon, it will be licensed to Immanuel Broadcasting Network.

Will “The Message” be altered for this operation?

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NATE has a new face in Washington.

The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association — also known as NATE, from its former name the National Association of Tower Erectors — announced Todd Washam as director of government relations and wireless industry network, a staff position.

The organization’s veteran lobbyist Jim Goldwater is nearing retirement; he has signed a short-term extension through February and will assist in the transition.

[Read: Kathy Stieler Joins NATE]

“Todd Washam comes to NATE with an extensive background that includes serving as a congressional staffer for approximately 10 years, working in the executive branch at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and working for the Air Conditioning Contractors of America Association,” the organization said in the announcement.

“Washam, an Ohio native, possesses a deep network of contacts on Capitol Hill, has a keen understanding of issues important to small business contractors and has considerable experience advocating for workforce development issues and the important role that the skilled trades play in our communities and economy.”

In the announcement, Washam was quoted saying, “Our country is investing in communications infrastructure projects at historic levels, and we need to ensure we have the skilled workforce available to see these projects come to completion.”

 

The post NATE Names Its New Head Lobbyist appeared first on Radio World.

On April 16, 2021, the Media Bureau, Video Division (Bureau) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in response to a petition for rulemaking filed by Sinclair Boise Licensee, LLC (Petitioner), the licensee of KBOI-TV, channel 9 (NBC), Boise, Idaho, requesting the substitution of channel 20 for channel 9 at Boise in the DTV Table of Allotments. For the reasons set forth in the Report and Order referenced below, the Bureau amends FCC regulations to substitute channel 20 for channel 9 at Boise.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts an Order on Reconsideration (Order) to consider petitions for reconsideration filed in response to revisions of technical rules that primarily affect Low Power FM (LPFM) radio stations.

The Media Bureau grants the assignment applications and waiver request of Alpha Media Licensee LLC, Debtor-in-Possession, and Alpha 3E Licensee LLC, Debtor-in-Possession

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A new study from Australia has found that not only is adoption of smart speaker devices on the rise, but that the devices are extending access to radio to more places and demonstrating that consumers in that country are open to the increasing possibilities of voice technology.

These were some of the findings from the latest Smart Audio Report Australia 2021, which found that a growing number of households are investing in smart speakers, are planning to purchase another speaker within the immediate future and place a high value on audio programming.

All in all, the report found that smart speakers are encouraging owners to listen to more music and news from online audio and AM/FM/DAB+ radio.

[Read: Is the Smart Speaker Like a New Age Home Radio?]

Ownership of smart speaker devices is on the rise across the board in Australia. The survey found that more than one quarter of Australians aged 12 or older — which comes to 5.6 million people — now own a smart speaker, a 53% jump from 2020 when only 17% owned smart speaker devices.

Photo: Getty Images Helen Ross

Among those Australians that currently own a smart speaker, 24% of those households own three or more of those devices, up from 13% in 2020.

The survey also found that both smart speaker user satisfaction and the intention to purchase is high, with the report predicting that as many as 8.7 million devices will be added to Australian households.

Usage is also on the rise. Of those in Australia who already own a smart speaker, 67% use them on a daily basis while 88% use them at least once during the week. Among owners, 61% plan to purchase another device in the near future while 38% of non-speaker-owning households say they plan to purchase one in the next six months.

These figures are on par with American smart speaker ownership in 2021. In 2018, only 5% of Australians owned a smart speaker, compared to 18% in the United States. That gap narrowed in 2021 with 33% of Americans owning a smart speaker compared with 26% ownership in Australia.

The study also revealed how listeners were engaging with their smart speaker devices.

Forty-nine percent of Australians have used a voice assistant to interact with a brand or service. Sixty-seven percent of smart speaker owners listen to the device while multitasking, such as while cooking, doing chores or entertaining. Users are also reporting that smart speakers are changing the way that people interact with other technology — 49% say they’ve begun using their voice-operated assistant on their smartphone more frequently since purchasing a smart speaker device, with 40% saying they spend less time with other technology once they began using their smart speaker.

The report also touched on parental use of smart speakers. Fifty-one percent with children in the household said reducing screen time was a reason they purchased a smart speaker with 69% agreeing that the devices have made it easier to entertain children.

Among smart speaker brands, Google continues to dominate the smart speaker market in Australia with 24% owning a Google smart speaker, 3% owning an Amazon device and 1% owning an Apple HomePod.

Photo: Apple

“Smart speakers have fundamentally changed the way people interact with media,” said Megan Lazovick, vice president at Edison Research, who presented the results in a webinar. The report was conducted by Edison Research and was commissioned by Commercial Radio Australia, the Australian commercial radio broadcasting group, along with TalkVia, an Australian technology company.

“It is a good bet that the Australian population will continue to grow more comfortable with this technology and opportunities will grow for those in audio and advertising if they embrace smart audio, too,” Lazovick said.

The Smart Audio Report Australia study was conducted via a national online survey of 5,000 adults aged 18 and older in Australia in April and May 2021. Additional data was taken from the Infinite Dial Australia from Commercial Radio Australia, Southern Cross Austereo/LiSTNR, Triton Digital and Edison Research.

 

The post Smart Speaker Usage on the Rise Down Under appeared first on Radio World.

Radio program provider American Public Media Group has named Heather Riddle as its new senior vice president and chief development officer.

She previously was vice president of institutional advancement and alumni relations at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. She starts on July 22.

Riddle succeeds Randi Yoder, who has retired.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

A release said Riddle will be responsible for “leading the vision and developing the strategy for APMG’s philanthropic support. She will direct the fundraising teams, cultivate lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with donors, oversee major campaigns, and implement innovative plans to inspire and secure essential contributions.”

In addition, “As a member of the executive team reporting to APMG’s CEO, Riddle will help to accelerate APMG’s ‘Audiences First 2025’ strategic plan, prioritizing the changing needs of the people and communities APMG serves while elevating the role of philanthropy in the organization’s future growth.”

She said, “I’m thrilled to join the APMG community of exceptional staff, loyal listeners, and members who believe in the mission of public media.”

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post APM Picks Riddle appeared first on Radio World.

Despite an effort by the company’s founder to stop it, the Audio Division of the FCC’s Media Bureau has moved forward with the approval of Alpha Media‘s voluntary debtor-in-possession status.

As such, an emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection appears imminent.

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Sinclair Broadcast Group has created a position that will see an individual lead the company’s information security program across all business functions, charged with creating and executing Sinclair’s security vision, strategy and operating model across its entire portfolio.

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Crossings TV can be found over the air on low-power TV station KBTV-8 in Sacramento; on Comcast Xfinity systems in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco and Seattle-Tacoma; and on Charter Spectrum systems in Los Angeles in New York — some of the nation’s biggest Asian American population centers.

Why did Frank Washington, founder and CEO of the Sacramento-based channel, and COO Daniel Sakaya, each decide to focus their careers and attention to the build-out of a television channel that offers a variety of programming targeting all of these different groups?

They share this, and more, in this encore RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast from January 12, 2021, presented by DOT.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Frank Washington” on Spreaker.

Global advertising spend is on course for 12.6% growth this year.

That’s an upgrade from the 6.7% initially projected, as the global ad market rebounds strongly from the COVID-19 downturn of last year.

It is a conclusion from business intelligence firm WARC.

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On July 1, an individual whose resume includes stints as EVP/Ad Sales and Marketing for TV One and, before that, as VP of Client Strategy for Viacom Media Networks officially took the reins as CEO of the owner of two New York City radio stations and Fairway Outdoor. 

The company’s stock price actually dipped slightly, while remaining steadily in a range seen across 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic proving to be a non-issue.

On Monday, July 12, MediaCo Holding stock exploded like a West Coast wildfire. A day later, a bit of profiteering was taking shape.

Is this the latest example of Wall Street investors taking diversity commitments from Fortune 100 companies to the bank?

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