Industry News

Serving as Chairman of the FCC has been the honor of a lifetime. And soon, my time in this position will conclude. 

Those are the words of Ajit Pai, who will preside over his final FCC Open Meeting come January 13. The meeting won’t involve any new business, with Bureau, Office, and Task Force leaders summarizing the work their teams have done over the last four years in a series of presentations.

And, it could involve a lot of salutes to the man some detest for “killing net neutrality” while others highly admire for his wit, affability, love of the Kansas City Chiefs, and that oversized Reese’s coffee mug.

RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION: Chairman Pai, we hardly new you. But, in the time you served on the FCC, you proved to be a champion of local media. From tiny AM radio stations to the biggest TV stations, you showed you care — perhaps a lot more visibly than your predecessor. The radio and TV broadcasters of America owe you much gratitude, and we will miss you and that coffee mug of yours. And, who can we taunt when the Buffalo Bills advance to the Super Bowl? While our Editor-in-Chief met you once — by chance at Reagan National Airport and you returned to D.C. from a Boston event in November 2019 — you were pleasant, and took time to chat in that airport corridor. Be well, sir, and best of luck on your next role.

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American Tower Corporation has closed its acquisition of InSite Wireless Group.

The total consideration for the transaction, subject to certain post-closing adjustments, was approximately $3.5 billion, including the assumption or repayment of existing InSite debt, and was funded by a combination of cash on hand and revolver borrowings.

American Tower Chief Executive Officer Tom Bartlett said, “We are pleased to close this immediately accretive transaction and expect to quickly begin driving new leasing activity on these high-quality, well-located assets. As 5G densification initiatives in the U.S. accelerate and network deployments in international markets continue, we believe we are well positioned to generate attractive, sustainable long-term growth, including on these new sites, while playing a key role in enhancing mobile broadband connectivity.”

American Tower expects the assets acquired from InSite to generate approximately $150 million in property revenue and approximately $115 million in gross margin in 2021.

One of Kansas’ only independent broadcasters has just seen one of its two UHF television stations placed into receivership.

It’s a channel that serves both Wichita and Hutchinson with a host of digital multicast networks including COZI TV, Estrella TV, Bounce, LIGHTtv and NewsNet.

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In the border city of El Paso, an FM translator at 88.1 MHz and its sibling at 101.7 MHz have offered Christian talk and teaching programs tied to KELP-FM 89.3, a facility located to the north in Mesquite, N.M.

That’s changing. The nation’s No. 2 licensee by station count is buying them.

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On December 22, RBR+TVBR reported on a transaction that will see a reborn “Ritmo” offer Tropical programming to Hispanics across the Delaware Valley, courtesy of Miguel Amador and his Ritmo Broadcasting.

Ritmo also operates a Top 40 operation with call letters that pay homage to a pioneering hit music FM that once served Philadelphia, and a FCC filing now shows he’s buying the AM and FM translator used to power up WIFI.

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Keeping it would have placed a reconstituted iHeartMedia over FCC local ownership limits.

As such, a Class C1 FM licensed to a Minnesota town that serves Grand Fork, N. Dakota, was placed in one of three trusts overseen by Barry Drake, the retired President/CEO of former Jacksonville-based radio station owner Backyard Broadcasting. 

Now, just over two years later, iHeart is reclaiming this FM.

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Outgoing Chairman Ajit Pai will use his last FCC meeting on Jan. 13 to showcase the commission’s work over four years.

“Serving as chairman of the FCC has been the honor of a lifetime,” Pai wrote in a blog post. “And soon, my time in this position will conclude.” He departs on Jan. 20 as the new Democratic presidential administration comes in.

“The FCC’s monthly meetings showcase the agency’s highest-profile work. And by any metric, we have been more productive, more collaborative, and more transparent since January 2017 than at any time in recent history,” Pai wrote.

“At the 48 meetings held under my leadership, we’ve voted on a total of 286 items at our monthly meetings — an average of six (5.96, to be precise) items per meeting. That compares to a recent historical average of well under three. Of the votes on those 286 items, 205 (71.7%) featured no dissents and 253 (88.5%) were bipartisan. These figures are far higher than comparable figures from the four preceding years.”

Pai expressed pride in his efforts to increase transparency, for the agency to “show its work” by sharing ahead of time what the FCC would be voting on.

“It’s now routine for the agency to publish the exact text of commission meeting items three weeks in advance of any votes being cast; to include a one-page fact sheet describing in plain English what each item does; and to post a monthly blog from yours truly introducing the agenda in a hopefully-engaging way.”

And for the January meeting, Pai said he has invited FCC bureaus, offices, and task forces to prepare presentations highlighting their accomplishments over four years.

“Three weeks hence, the spotlight properly should shine on them.”

The post FCC Teams Will Summarize Work on Jan. 13 appeared first on Radio World.

Television viewers in the largest TV market in the Pacific Northwest can now get a taste of the future.

And, it includes broadcast radio.

Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary ONE Media 3.0 has combined both television and radio services for delivery in Seattle, thanks to ATSC 3.0 technology and the NEXTGEN TV voluntary rollout now underway.

How is broadcast radio involved?

Using radio content from Sinclair’s over-the-top service STIRR, the audio channels will be available for free immediately to anyone with a NEXTGEN television set connected to the internet.

But, what over-the-air radio is included? Sinclair’s press release, interestingly, references “radio channels” that are actually Stingray-produced music channels as found on Hotwire’s Fision cable TV service.

Intriguingly, Sinclair did not even reference its lone radio properties: News KOMO-AM 1000 & FM 97.7; Hot AC KPLZ-FM “Star 101.5”; and Talk KVI-AM 570.

However, Sinclair confirms that the Broadcast App developed by ONE Media 3.0 “is the centerpiece for delivery of these new services.”

Piloted by ONE Media 3.0 in Nashville, NEXTGEN radio services, branded as “STIRR XT,” are what’s now available in Seattle.

In Sinclair’s words, “The new technology brings a new ‘age of radio’ into the listening environment of NEXTGEN viewers by utilizing NEXTGEN-enabled TVs and mobile devices to expand the reach of audio services.  Combining these Internet audio services with over-the-air radio is next on the horizon for the Seattle market.”

While it did not offer one set of call letters as part of this new service, Michael Bouchard, ONE Media’s VP of Technology Strategy, said, “This breakthrough technology lays the groundwork for our future plans of enhancing the reception of terrestrial over-the-air radio services throughout the country, as NEXTGEN TV is deployed by broadcasters everywhere.”

Radio is part of the content pitch that Sinclair Broadcast Group is using as it highlights a new TV service in Seattle based on the NextGen TV standard.

Sinclair’s One Media 3.0 subsidiary described the benefits for viewers in that market: “Consumers can now begin receiving both television and radio programming in the new format,” it stated in a press release.

The “radio” content is online audio, but the company also indicated it plans to integrate OTA radio soon.

“Using radio content from its over-the-top internet service STIRR, the audio channels will be available for free immediately to anyone with a NextGen television set connected to the Web,” it said Wednesday.

“Included among the radio channels will be Stingray Hits List, Stingray Hot Country, Stingray Latin Hits and a dozen others.  The new service coincides with the launch of seven television stations using the new digital standard.”

Sinclair has been a big advocate of the ATSC 3.0 standard, highlighting its video quality as well as mobile delivery and the ability to combine wireless broadcast content with content from online. One Media 3.0 developed its broadcast app to take advantage of that.

“Piloted by One Media 3.0 in Nashville, NextGen radio services, branded as STIRR XT, are now available in Seattle,” the company said.

“The new technology brings a new ‘age of radio’ into the listening environment of NextGen viewers by utilizing NextGen-enabled TVs and mobile devices to expand the reach of audio services. Combining these internet audio services with over-the-air radio is next on the horizon for the Seattle market.”

It quoted VP of Technology Strategy Michael Bouchard saying the technology “lays the groundwork for our future plans of enhancing the reception of terrestrial over-the-air radio services throughout the country, as NextGen TV is deployed by broadcasters everywhere.”

The STIRR radio channels and some STIRR video channels are available to anyone with a NextGen TV connected to the internet.

The post One Media 3.0 Highlights Radio in NextGen TV appeared first on Radio World.

BRADENTON, FLA. — Gray Television has moved forward with the submission to the FCC of a formal Good Faith Complaint against Frontier Communications in response to the MVPD’s failure to reach a new retransmission consent agreement tied to one of its legacy systems for an ABC affiliate serving Sarasota and Manatee Counties along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and two stations in South Carolina.

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