This year has been fairly unremarkable regarding the FCC’s unlicensed broadcast efforts: just 111 actions against a few dozen stations across 10 states. However, the overwhelming majority (76%) of enforcement efforts this year have been have been focused on the FM dials of New York and New Jersey. This is a clear sign of the broadcast industry’s active involvement in the enforcement process, acting as a conduit for complaints on which the FCC follows up.
That said, enforcement tactics remain almost wholly administrative. Only five Notices of Apparent Liability totalling $70,000 have been issued this year, while just one fine of $20,000 has been levied against a pirate radio operator. In every case, the FCC built up at least six months’ of evidence; in some instances (particularly involving pirates facing threats of fines in New Jersey), the unlicensed broadcasters have been on the agency’s radar since 2012. Continue reading “FCC Pirate Radio Enforcement Drops to 2004 Levels”
HD Proponents Seek Protection for "No New Spectrum"
An interesting trial-balloon was floated last month in Radio World. In it, John Kean, one of the founding employees of NPR Labs (who was let go in a reshuffle this past August) suggested that the FCC’s spectrum allocation rules be revised to better “protect” FM-HD Radio sideband signals.
Before going any further, it’s best to cover some history. HD Radio was adopted by the FCC in 2000 primarily on the premise that the system used “no new spectrum.” In fact, FM-HD signals double the spectral footprint of FM stations — but HD’s proponents got around this by appropriating fallow spectrum the FCC leaves between stations as the stations’ own allocation. Continue reading “HD Proponents Seek Protection for "No New Spectrum"”
FCC Facilitated Right-Wing Hit Job on Workers Independent News
A year and a half since I tendered my Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Communications Commission on its disturbing foray into determining the legitimacy of broadcast news outlets, the agency has finally responded. And it was with a big middle finger: of the more than 4,200 pages of documentation the agency identified as related to the case, the FCC released a paltry 88 (embedded at bottom).
The vast majority of this release is meaningless. It includes copies of the official orders in the WLS sponsorship-identification case, copies of the spot-sales contracts Workers Independent News entered into with WLS (it spent more than $33,000 to air its newscasts and feature programs on the station over a three-month period), official correspondence between the FCC and WLS’ attorneys related to the initial complaint inquiry, and some redacted e-mail correspondence between FCC staffers regarding the collection of the $44,000 fine assessed against WLS.
However, what little useful information gleaned from the disclosure only heightens the suspicion that the sponsorship-identification case against WLS was not motivated by the station’s failure to disclose (in a fraction of instances) that Workers Independent News had paid for its airtime, but rather by a right-wing operative seeking to muzzle Workers Independent News on ideological grounds. Continue reading “FCC Facilitated Right-Wing Hit Job on Workers Independent News”
NextRadio Cuts Costs to Spur Adoption
It’s been a good year for NextRadio. The Emmis-developed smartphone application that enables FM listening on compatible devices is making great headway with wireless carriers. After paying Sprint to become the first-adopter, well-coordinated lobbying and social media campaigns this summer convinced T-Mobile and AT&T to request that the device manufacturers they work with enable FM reception. (Verizon remains a holdout, but that campaign continues).
With the consumer-side adoptive trend gaining momentum, efforts are now afoot to bring more broadcasters into the NextRadio fold. The back-end system that broadcast stations interface with is called TagStation; it maintains the NextRadio directory, provides all images and supplementary content to the audio broadcast, and manages the in-app advertising experience. Stations can sign up with TagStation for free, which means they’ll be listed in the NextRadio app and can display their logo to users. Continue reading “NextRadio Cuts Costs to Spur Adoption”
Cumulus Meltdown Continues; is iHeartMedia Next?
Things continue to spiral downward over at Cumulus Media, whose stock closed at 29 cents at the end of trading last week. That put the company’s total market capitalization at just $67.8 million dollars, or just 39% of what the HD Radio system sold for two months ago. NASDAQ has threatened to delist CLMS stock next spring unless it can resume consistent trading above $1.
Perhaps a better comparison might be to a direct competitor: see Townsquare Media, one of the second generation of radio consolidators formed in the last half-decade and now the third-largest owner of radio stations in the country (right behind Cumulus). Townsquare owns about 100-150 fewer stations than Cumulus does, has no holdings in network syndication or distribution companies, but it is making acquisitory forays into online platforms/apps and just three months ago purchased a traveling carinval company. Sound familiar? Only on the surface, because Wall Street valued Townsquare at 106 million dollars last Friday ($10.70/share on 9.94 million shares). Continue reading “Cumulus Meltdown Continues; is iHeartMedia Next?”
Professional Miscellany
It’s been a busy academic year, and we’re only two months in! Here are some things going on in my professional life that might be of interest to you:
Radio’s Digital Dilemma will be released in paperback next year, somewhere in the January/February timeframe. This came as a pleasant surprise, and signifies that Routledge thinks there’s a larger readership beyond the few hundred that can afford the exorbitantly-priced hardcover.
RDD will be available via Routledge Paperbacks Direct, a publish-on-demand system which absolves the need for bulk print-runs. Continue reading “Professional Miscellany”
AM Revitalization Order Released
At the close of business last Friday, and with little fanfare, the FCC released its first AM revitalization Report and Order. This rulemaking began two years ago and the most significant outcomes have little to do with the AM band itself.
Comparing the FCC’s proposed rulemaking to the R&O shows that most of the agency’s initial proposals will be enacted. This includes things like allowing for more flexbility on interference calculations and protections, antenna siting and design, the option to use analog transmission protocols that are more energy-efficent, and increased utilization of AM’s expanded band channels. But the meat of the R&O involvews developments regarding the FM band and the utter lack of comment on a digital strategy for AM. Continue reading “AM Revitalization Order Released”
Love/Hate on Pirate-Hunting
Some interesting — albeit contradictory — rhetoric out of the radio industry regarding the “problem” of pirate radio and how to deal with it. First up is FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, the self-designated point-man for the unlicensed broadcasting issue. He’s spent the last year blogging up a storm about pirates and convening meetings with broadcast executives and lobbyists to scheme strategies to bust them.
His latest comments came at the NAB’s annual Radio Show, held this year in Atlanta. On a panel not ironically entitled, “FCC Experts Talk Radio,” O’Rielly touted the increased level of political heat pirate broacasters now face thanks to his tirades, but he’s lamenting the fact that “enhanced enforcement efforts” seem to be “in a holding pattern for a long time to come.” He’s asking the Commmission to begin a serious pirate crackdown “before Halloween, or at the latest, Thanksgiving. It’s time to put together a game plan and start executing.” Continue reading “Love/Hate on Pirate-Hunting”
Cumulus Meltdown: Consolidation Karma
The thud heard ’round the industry: Cumulus Media, the second-largest radio station conglomerate in the country, ousted its founders in late September. CEO Lew Dickey has been demoted to a vice chairman, while brother John (an executive vice president) has already cleared out his office.
The move was orchestrated by private equity firms who hold a significant portion of Cumulus’ stock and have not been pleased by the company’s meltdown this year, which has seen its stock price tank by more than 80%, from north of $4 at the beginning of 2015 to 75 cents at the close of trading last week. As I write this, Cumulus’ market capitalization in total is $169.5 million. That’s a valuation more than $1 million less than what DTS bought the HD Radio system for. Think about that: hundreds of stations, a passel of networks, and online properties worth less than a mostly-ignored technology. Continue reading “Cumulus Meltdown: Consolidation Karma”
No HD Bounce From Radio Show
The latest NAB Radio Show has come and gone, and there was little news about the HD Radio system other than the addition of new automobile makes and models to the company’s roster (including some GM models that had dropped HD last year). Not totally surprising considering that iBiquity’s just been acquired, and I’m sure the folks there and at new parent-company DTS were pretty preoccupied over the last couple of months with the deal.
But I did stumble across some interesting observations online that suggest there’s no rekindled love affair between HD and the industry just yet. In fact, folks still seem to be coming to grips with the fact that the technology still exists. The first is from Art Stone, the proprietor of Streaming Radio Guide. He scraped iBiquity’s directory of HD-enabled stations and crunched the numbers. iBiquity lists 3,818 “current HD based broadcast Channels.” This number counts all HD program streams, including HD-2/3/4 streams, and includes international broadcast licensees. Continue reading “No HD Bounce From Radio Show”