Industry News

American patriotism does not belong to a political party. Do you disagree? Or perhaps discussion of this topic makes you uncomfortable? At least I’ve got you thinking about what it means to live in a democratic society.

Here’s a gut punch: Is getting the COVID-19 vaccine patriotic?

Medical authorities and most Americans say the “jab” is the only real way out of the pandemic. Some though feel that being coerced into vaccination is wrong in a free society, or believe the vaccine is not as safe as others Americans commonly get.

Not taking a stance on vaccination or being loud with encouraging messaging is a choice your radio station must discuss internally, if it hasn’t already, because this issue still hovers over our entire country as we seek to climb out of isolation, unemployment and fear.

Even at less-than-perfect efficacy, it is clear that vaccinations work beautifully to stem the tide. Not taking a stance is a choice, but your upper management should at least do so consciously instead of passively.

We all understand that when stations take political positions, as talk radio does, a specific form of politics will echo through the attitude the station projects. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s especially true in these times of “identity politics.”

However, this vaccination question — especially locally — is so important that avoiding the topic does not give even talk stations a pass. In fact, the issue should be debated regularly on the air. From what I’ve been hearing, the talk corner of the dial is not fully rejecting the idea of vaccination. Some on-air personalities and many listeners are open to it.

While masks remain important, we’re not just talking about those anymore. The increasing success of vaccination brings a lot more to the table in terms of supporting the health of one’s fellow Americans and aiding our economic recovery.

The more people who are vaccinated, the closer we are to the herd immunity that we need to compensate for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or well-established religious reasons.

If nothing else, it’s time to clue in vaccine skeptics that, while the jab is a choice, there will certainly be personal repercussions of rejecting it.

Depending on particular state law, some companies and entertainment or dining venues may employ or admit only those who hold vaccine certification. There will be much debate and angst about the right of the individual vs. the right of a business to protect its customers. Even so, some domestic and most international travel without vaccination proof will be restricted.

And perhaps most important, beating back COVID-19 will most certainly affect in-person school attendance. Our country needs our kids safely back in school more than ever. If necessary, do good research to bust the myths using information from your local health department.

For stations ready to go all-in with encouragement, here are kickstarter ideas.

Showcase short sound bites of your own on-air personalities saying that they got the shot with local places now taking appointments. If you can get format stars or other local celebrities to do this too, it will amplify the effect.

Consider promos with stats and studies showing that vaccination is safe. Interview well-known local doctors, along with little-league coaches, youth advocates who want open schools and public health, cultural and other community leaders.

Go for community rather than government. If there’s a mass-vaccination place like a stadium, do live remotes or regular cut-ins with updates on wait times and interviews with locals who just got the shot.

Highlight local business owners who want to encourage people to vaccinate so that they can fully reopen. If you’re able to obtain the percentage number of vaccinations in your city or county, highlight this percentage daily, or weekly, to show progress.

When you start to dive into all the things a station can do, the list gets long. In your heart you surely know that this type of advocacy is something radio stations do very well. Radio is the ideal platform for propagating community health and well-being. What could be more patriotic?

Read more Promo Power columns from Mark Lapidus.

The post Radio Is Well Positioned for Shot Advocacy appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is now accepting nominations for the 2021 NAB Marconi Radio Awards and will be accepting submissions until May 31.

Established in 1989 and named for inventor and Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, the prestigious awards recognize overall excellence and performance in radio.

Station and on-air personality nominations may be submitted for the 23 awards presented in the following categories:

• Legendary Station of the Year
• Legendary Manager of the Year
• Radio Station of the Year by Market Size
• Radio Station of the Year by Format
• Personality of the Year by Market Size
• Network/Syndicated Personality of the Year
• Best Radio Podcast of the Year

The NAB Marconi Radio Awards finalists are selected by an independent task force of broadcasters and will be announced in July. Winners will be recognized during a special event at the Radio Show, held October 13-14, 2021 in Las Vegas, and co-located with NAB Show.

All nominations must be submitted through the NAB member portal. The complete list of categories, entry rules and qualifications can be found here.

Contact Tobi Hall with questions regarding the Marconi Radio Awards, nomination process or station eligibility.

In a repeat of an already successful partnership, Procter & Gamble Co. in June will again team up with iHeartMedia for the return of “Can’t Cancel Pride,” a virtual relief benefit for the LGBTQ+ community as part of the company’s Pride Month observances.

The benefit is scheduled to feature performances and appearances from “the most influential voices in the community,” and what iHeart promises to be “the biggest names in culture and entertainment.”

“Can’t Cancel Pride” formally returns on June 4 at 9pm, in each time zone. The event will stream on iHeartRadio’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram TV pages, iHeartRadio’s PrideRadio.com and broadcast on iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide. It will also be available on demand throughout Pride Month — until Thursday, June 30.

The event began in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic’s spread across the U.S.

This year, “Can’t Cancel Pride” will also again partner with The Greater Cincinnati Foundation to administer and distribute financial support raised by the event to LGBTQ+ organizations with a track record of positive impact and support of the LGBTQ+ community.

This includes GLAAD, SAGE, The Trevor Project, the National Black Justice Coalition, CenterLink and OutRight Action International.

The 2020 inaugural virtual relief benefit helped raise visibility and funds for LGBTQ+ communities most impacted by COVID-19; the pandemic had a damaging effect on the fund-raising efforts that LGBTQ+ organizations rely on to survive. It has also closed community centers, prevented support groups to meet in person and has had an adverse effect on a number of industries in which so many LGBTQ+ people make their living.

Partnering with six organizations with a long track-record in creating positive change within the community, “Can’t Cancel Pride” raised over $4 million.

Hosted by Elvis Duran and Laverne Cox, the one-hour benefit special featured performances by Adam Lambert, Ben Platt, Big Freedia with Tank and the Bangas, Katy Perry, Kim Petras, Melissa Etheridge, Sia, Ricky Martin and Carla Morrison, as well as John Cameron Mitchell, Neil Patrick Harris, Darren Criss, Andrew Rannells and more.

In addition to music, “Can’t Cancel Pride” also featured special appearances from Billy Porter, Bebe Rexha, Cara Delevingne, Ciara, Dan Levy, Hayley Kiyoko, Kermit The Frog, Lena Waithe, Matt Bomer, Nico Tortorella, Peppermint, and Tituss Burgess.

Full details and lineup announcement for the 2021 “Can’t Cancel Pride” are forthcoming.

In late February, Nexstar Media Group announced that President of Broadcasting Tim Busch will retire on May 31.

On Monday (5/3), it revealed who will be rising to take on Busch’s soon-to-be former duties.

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Affiliates of the public radio satellite system in the United States are in the process of completing a major receiver switchover.

The project involved deployment of XDS headend hardware and the XDSv7 Content Management system from manufacturer ATX. “Collaboration with NPR was paramount in helping ATX enrich and improve its XDS Radio Platform with new and advanced enhancement,” said Jose Rivero, an executive with the company’s Media Broadcast business.

Radio World asked Michael Beach, NPR vice president of distribution, about this project in March.

RW: What was the scope of this project?
Michael Beach: More than 300 public radio stations interconnected through the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS) installed two new ATX receivers. Those downlink sites in turn feed about 1,200 public radio stations throughout the country.

RW: What specific equipment is being swapped out or upgraded?
Beach: The specific equipment at the stations includes two ATX XDS PRO4S Integrated Receiver Decoders. The receivers are integrated with our proprietary software, ContentDepot, which enables content management, scheduling and automation integration. These ATX receivers are replacing two IDC 4104 Integrated Receiver Decoders at each station.

In addition, we’ve rebuilt our Network Operations Center (NOC) in Washington — the hub of our system — and made significant upgrades to our Backup Network Operations Center (BuNOC) in St. Paul, Minn.

RW: What are the key benefits to stations of the change?
Beach: The new ATX system enables us to add new services immediately, and to add others over time with some additional development work.

For example, as soon as we implemented the new system, we were able to activate a backchannel internet connection. This allows instantaneous remote status monitoring by the NOC at NPR headquarters. That means we know immediately if a station is having signal issues or has gone offline.

Another feature of the new PRO4S receivers is that they will automatically receive a feed across the internet in the event that the satellite signal is lost for any reason.

The receiver also helps NPR consider future bandwidth-delivery options over terrestrially-based networks. Using the new system, stations can not only subscribe to national radio content, but also schedule when the content will be played out of the receiver locally.

RW: We heard that there were some bumps along the way. What problems cropped up and how were they resolved?
Beach: The scale of this project was huge. It included a rollout to all public radio stations in the network and required a large equipment change at our main and backup facilities.

The effort required careful planning and execution because it involves an overhaul of equipment, software upgrades and working with almost 400 organizations, many in different time zones. This all needed to be coordinated while running a network 24/7, and a switchover to the new system without causing any stations to go off the air.

Then add a pandemic, just before we planned to ship the receivers.

[Read: Tiny Desk Series Works From “Home”]

The effect of the pandemic meant that many organizations closed their physical stations and moved staff to work remotely either for weeks or months. Many are still working remotely. Since station engineers were working remotely, deliveries had to be delayed until last fall, and then installations were delayed.

Each public radio station is independent of the network, so local station technical designs vary. This means that the receivers require a different, unique effort to fully integrate into each broadcast station’s audio chain.

In some cases, local engineers may have waited until late in the transition phase of the project when we offered both the old and new interconnection systems side by side in dual operations. If the integration effort required more than the local station engineers envisioned, then wrapping up the work in time for the completion of dual operations on Feb. 26, became a challenge for some. We continue working with individual stations that did not complete their integration on time.

Our project management office and account reps worked tirelessly to determine workarounds and time-saving options with our engineers.

For example, the pandemic meant we needed to delay travel to complete installation work at the BuNOC in Minnesota, too. When our engineers were finally able to travel, they drove nonstop from Washington to St. Paul to be as careful as possible and avoid nonessential interactions.

Our engineering team adjusted their schedules, too, making improvements in our NOC and also guiding engineers who were able to get into their stations through installations. Our NOC technicians and help desk adapted to phone and Zoom calls to try to make this transition as smooth as possible. Station leaders across the country and their engineers continued to be terrific, understanding, and patient partners throughout the project. That’s gratifying, especially considering that they each had challenges they were dealing with in their worlds, too.

It’s been an amazing team effort across the entire PRSS, and a reason that we’re such a strong network of technology and people.

RW: What is the budget for this project and who bears the cost?
Beach: The project is part of a four-year, $25.8 million contract between NPR as the system operator and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The cost of operating the system is funded by the users — public radio stations and public radio content producers. The total scope of the contract includes the local receivers, a major revamp of the main and backup technology in Washington and St. Paul, lease of satellite bandwidth for content delivery, and replacement of some aging satellite antennas at local radio stations.

RW: What is the expected lifespan of a new deployment of receivers across the U.S.?
Beach: The station receivers have an expected life span of four to five years. However, NPR is maintaining a limited inventory of replacement receivers, and has an arrangement with the system vendor for repair or replacement as needed.

RW: What else should we know?
Beach: The new total network design allows the PRSS to provide better service to stations through a network monitoring system to help troubleshoot local receiver issues 24/7. The ATX system also better positions the system for network topology changes — including the transition to a terrestrial delivery system as those costs become more affordable.

Stations now have increased flexibility to create multiple unique playout schedules from the receiver, including the ability to time delay live content. We’re also working closely with stations who are offering ideas about new features they’d like to see.

The post PRSS Stations Get New Receivers appeared first on Radio World.

The author is executive director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

We have reached President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, and vaccine distribution may go down in history as one of his signature achievements. What does that mean for radio stations and reopening?

When Joe Biden arrived in the White House, the coronavirus spread was a top concern in the minds of many Americans. More than 400,000 people in the U.S. had already died from the virus, and vaccinations had sputtered. The Trump administration shouldered much of the blame for the slow response, and voters seemed to want leaders to go on the offensive. Biden promised a bold plan of 100 million COVID vaccine shots in the first 100 days.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: New Radio Filing Is Here]

With spring in the air, Biden can claim victory for that pledge. The United States has administered over 200 million COVID-19 vaccines in his first 100 days in office. The breakneck pace and sheer accessibility of vaccination today — states like Texas and others have made vaccines freely available to everyone — is sparking hope in somewhat of a return back to normal.

Offices, including those of radio stations, are part of the normalcy conversation. Dozens of major corporations and municipalities have announced plans to fully reopen this summer. For media outlets, including public and community radio, the discussion about reopening to staff, volunteers and the public is in full swing.

What are the issues radio stations should consider when weighing out reopening their studios and facilities?

First and foremost, it is best that stations follow recommendations of their cities and counties for reopening. City and county leadership are monitoring infection rates daily. They can give your station tips on issues like office capacity and what other nonprofits and businesses are doing. They may even be able to point you to a group of organizations like yours and how they’re mapping out reopening, and to what degree.

You may also wish to decide how open you want your station to be. Vaccinated staff may feel comfortable around unvaccinated individuals or those whose status is unclear. Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee that a vaccinated person won’t contract the virus. So, you may want to explore this matter with staff and your human resources people. Will you want to do a temperature check with guests? What are your cleaning and social distancing protocols? These are among the topics you will need to resolve.

Voluntary or mandatory vaccination is another question you may want to consider. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Labor have previously noted vaccines may be required as a safety measure. If your station wants to make vaccines voluntary or mandatory, you will need to ensure that you are making appropriate medical or religious accommodations as they are necessary.

The National Federation of Community Broadcasters recently issued a variety of templates and a checklist for community radio stations considering reopening. Such documents may prove beneficial to stations starting the long journey toward welcoming back our communities to radio studios.

The post Community Broadcaster: Reopening Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Westwood One announced several promotions.

Susan Stephens becomes SVP and general manager of Westwood One Programming.

“In this expanded role, Stephens, a 28-year veteran of Westwood One, will work to optimize programming and content opportunities and collaborations between news, talk, music, and entertainment,” the company announced.

Tim Seymour becomes SVP, head of operations, overseeing operations, partner relations, affiliate & sales operations, traffic & continuity, and research operations teams.

And Becky Bennett is promoted to VP of partner relations. “In addition to managing the compensation inventory procurement process and current partner relationships, Bennett is responsible for developing new producer partners.”

Stephens and Seymour report to Westwood One President Suzanne Grimes. Bennett reports to Seymour.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Three Promoted at Westwood One appeared first on Radio World.

In October 2020, RBR+TVBR reported on the sale of a booming 22kw Class B with a tower atop a peak in the Shenandoah Mountains to Educational Media Foundation. 

It was a bargain for the facility, which reaches the western half of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and had been Hot Adult Contemporary WINC-FM, licensed to Winchester, Va.

While EMF bought the station, the intellectual property stayed with seller Centennial Broadcasting II. Now the company led by industry veteran Allen Shaw is selling the two stations “WINC” moved to last autumn.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had both adverse and positive effects on the Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry, S&P Global Market Intelligence reports.

“With a global economic slowdown, sports cancellations and more, traditional TV advertising experienced steep declines in 2020,” it says. That said, the pandemic accelerated other trends such as digital transformation, OTT video usage, and even new telehealth applications.

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Artificial Intelligence-as-a-sales aid pioneer Veritone is now offering support for a new AWS initiative that is designed to enhance Veritone’s AI-enabled applications to provide new ways for business and content creators to find, share and monetize their content.

AWS for Media & Entertainment is an initiative featuring new and existing services and solutions from AWS and AWS Partners, built for content creators, rights holders, producers, broadcasters, and distributors.

AWS adds the newly announced Amazon Nimble Studio to a portfolio of “purpose-built media and entertainment industry services.”

AWS for Media & Entertainment also aligns AWS and AWS Partner capabilities against five solution areas: Content Production; Media Supply Chain & Archive; Broadcast; Direct-to-Consumer & Streaming; and Data Science & Analytics for Media.

Veritone’s AI-powered Digital Media Hub, combined with the power of the underlying AWS infrastructure, “leverages cutting-edge technology to safely and more efficiently facilitate the distributing, archiving and storing, as well as licensing and monetizing, their content securely in the cloud,” the company says.

Veritone Digital Media Hub is a cloud-native, AI-powered media management platform hosted on AWS that is specifically designed for content owners in sports, film, TV, news and media enterprises. The platform is built on Veritone’s aiWARE operating system.

Across all Veritone platforms, AWS cloud storage and compute services correlate 16 million unstructured data objects per month, process 1 million hours of audio and TV media per month and perform 2.5 million AI cognition tasks, including transcription, translation, and face recognition, per day.

“Our collaboration with AWS strengthens our ability to help media and entertainment companies solve some of the biggest challenges they face in digitally transforming how they manage and ultimately monetize their content,” Veritone President Ryan Steelberg said. “Combining the power of AWS with our AI-enabled Digital Media Hub, we ensure companies’ valuable media assets are secured in the cloud, accessible anywhere, and placed a few keystrokes away for distribution and monetization.”