Category: Member News

Copyright Board Asks Supreme Court To Keep Royalty Rates It Set For Religious Stations.

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The Copyright Royalty Board is defending its rate setting decision-making to the U.S. Supreme Court where religious broadcasters are looking to overturn June 2021 decision in the so-called Web V proceeding that covers radio’s streaming royalties for 2021 to 2025. The CRB says it largely maintained the rate structure that has governed noncommercial radio webcasts since 2006, which has set significantly lower rates for noncommercial stations.

The National Religious Broadcasters Noncommercial Music License Committee has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the rates set by the CRB. It doubled the minimum fee for noncommercial webcasters to $1,000 per year for each station or channel. But that rate will go up if a station has a large online audience. The CRB says noncommercial operators will need to pay an additional $0.21 for every 100 songs streamed for all digital audio transmissions above 159,140 aggregate tuning hours in a month per station or channel. Those rates rose to $0.25 for every 100 songs on Jan. 1 under annual inflation adjustments.

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News Corp. and OpenAI strike ‘multi-year global partnership’ deal to use journalistic content to improve ChatGPT

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OpenAI and News Corp. on Wednesday announced a “multi-year global partnership” that will allow OpenAI to access current and archived articles from News Corp.’s outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s, The New York Post and more.

As part of the deal, OpenAI will be able to display content from News Corp.-owned outlets within its ChatGPT chatbot, in response to user questions. The startup will also be able to use News Corp.’s content “to enhance its products,” or, likely, to train its artificial intelligence models.

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NAB Says Multilingual EAS Alert Plan Could Do More Harm Than Good During Emergencies.

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The National Association of Broadcasters says a proposal to use pre-scripted alerts to help ensure non-English speakers are reached during an emergency could be more of a hindrance than a help. It is warning the execution could cause “further confusion” for non-English language audiences during an emergency, saying multilingual template EAS alerts will be “ineffective and confusing” as well as putting a new cost burden on broadcasters.

“The messages will have to be stripped of meaningful content to their essentials to be translated into pre-canned scripts in 13 different languages. No doubt, those pre-canned scripts will omit information and nuance that may be crucial to delivering an effective warning to the receiver,” NAB says in comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC is currently considering a proposal (PS Docket No. 15-94) that it says would help ensure that alerts reach the more than 26 million Americans with limited English-language proficiency. It would create an alert reservoir that stations could tap into during a disaster situation to deliver EAS alerts in 14 languages, including English and Spanish. The recordings would be stored in EAS devices, and the translated audio for each template would be provided as audio files or links to streaming audio.

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As sources increasingly dismiss journalists, Poynter assembles best practices to help

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Relationships and beat reporting basics are the keys to battling back against sources who don’t engage

Politicians have long stonewalled journalists. But recently, it’s gotten worse.

An Arizona legislator filed a restraining order on a journalist for knocking on their door. A Pittsburgh school board held virtual meetings long after the law allowing them expired. Politicians bypassed local reporters for partisan media outlets.

These are just a few instances of journalists being shut out of their efforts to cover public business and hold officials accountable.

Such reports led the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at Poynter to convene a symposium to address the phenomenon. In late 2023, a group including public media leaders, entertainment and sports journalists, local reporters, political columnists, political advisers, editors, policy advocates and several Poynter leaders gathered in Miami at the offices of the Knight Foundation.

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Nebraska Broadcasters Association Donates $25,000 For Tornado Relief

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“Our hearts ache for the families directly in the path of the devastating storms,” says Shannon Booth, NBA Chairperson of the Board and GM of  Gray’s television stations in Lincoln, Hastings and North Platte.

The Nebraska Broadcasters Association (NBA) has made a $25,000 contribution to the United Way of the Midlands Nebraska & Iowa Tornado Relief Fund.

“Our hearts ache for the families directly in the path of the devastating storms,” says Shannon Booth, NBA chairperson of the board and GM of Gray’s television stations in Lincoln, Hastings and North Platte. “These funds will stay local and benefit our neighbors and friends in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa as they begin to rebuild their lives. Local broadcasters care deeply about the communities we serve.”

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“America’s Dairyland” Works to Grow Engineers

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In Wisconsin, broadcasters take a multifaceted approach to addressing the engineering shortage

For the past decade or more, radio and television managers have been dealing with a dilemma: Many veteran engineers are retiring while few skilled young people are stepping in to take their place.

Leaders of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association are well aware and are taking a proactive approach. Their strategies include working with colleges and vocational schools that have relevant courses, encouraging the use of apprenticeships, and hosting conferences and seminars, sometimes in conjunction with the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Their goal is to provide young adults with opportunities to understand the engineering profession while giving them the training, mentorship and guidance they need to succeed.

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Former FEMA Admin Gaynor: Where Cell Signals Fail, AM Is There

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Former acting Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Pete Gaynor is the latest official to speak out in favor of the AM For Every Vehicle Act, referencing growing nuclear danger overseas as well as recent domestic technological troubles.

The past administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency published an op-ed in The Hill discussing how the nationwide cellular blackout on February 22 underscored the vital importance of retaining AM as the cornerstone of the United States’ emergency infrastructure.

This incident, which left millions of Americans without cell service, led to first responders voicing concerns about the potential dangers posed by the lack of cell reception, particularly the inability of the public to reach emergency services. Gaynor says the vulnerability of cell towers and internet signals, especially during disasters, to both natural and man-made threats, including potential foreign cyber-attacks, was starkly illuminated.

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FCC Moves to Simplify Sending Multilingual Emergency Alerts

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The FCC plans Feb. vote on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to make it easier to send multilingual alerts over TV and radio

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As part of its tentative agenda for the February Open Commission Meeting, Federal Communications Commission has announced that it will vote on a proposal to increase the accessibility of the Emergency Alert System by making it easier for TV, radio and other outlets to send multilingual emergency alerts.

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Jacobs Urges AM Stations to Lean Into Apps and FM Options

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Consultant writes with urgency in face of “abandonment” by some carmakers

What can AM broadcasters in the United States do in the face of news that major carmakers appear to be willing to drop over-the-air AM reception from their cars?

Consultant Fred Jacobs has some ideas today. He wrote partly in response to the news that Ford apparently will phase out AM reception from most of its new vehicles, not just from electric ones.

(As we’ve also reported, Volvo also appears to have made that decision. Read our sampling of what the individual carmakers told Sen. Ed. Markey.)

Jacobs knows these are depressing developments. In a blog post, he writes that the NAB and Sen. Markey  “are on it” and understand “the gravity of the moment.”

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What Happened In Vegas: Five Trends From CES You Need To Know.

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Fred and Paul Jacobs delivered their version of the ManningCast for hundreds of broadcasters Thursday, unpacking CES 2023 and what it means for radio during a webinar presented in collaboration with Inside Radio. “When you go to CES, you can’t help but think about the future,” Fred says. “It’s less about toys and more about trend-spotting and putting together the pieces, looking for repeating themes and patterns.” Here are five insights into what the future looks like, as seen through the Jacobs lens.

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