Monty Tayloe

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai changed his request to amend the AM Revitalization draft order to include an AM-only translator application window in 2017, he said in a speech to the National Religious Broadcasters' President's Council Wednesday. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said last week that she supports the current draft order -- which doesn’t contain an AM-only translator window -- but endorsed the idea of opening a window after the TV incentive auction. By changing his stance to align with hers, Pai is trying get Clyburn to vote with him over Chairman Tom Wheeler, who's seen as being against the translator window, broadcast attorneys told us.

Broadcasters face “trying times” at the FCC, said Commissioner Ajit Pai Wednesday in remarks prepared for delivery to the National Religious Broadcasters' President's Council Wednesday. “Is this all a test by the FCC to see if broadcasters have the patience of Job?” he asked. Pai opposes proposals to prioritize unlicensed white space devices over TV stations in the TV band, he said. “When it comes to broadcast television spectrum, broadcasters should have priority. But sadly, the Commission no longer appears to believe this.” Though the incentive auction means some low-power TV broadcasters will be displaced, the FCC shouldn’t exacerbate the problem, Pai said. “If low-power stations are not allowed to continue operating in the UHF band, they will go out of business. That’s just not the case for unlicensed devices.” The FCC should open up spectrum in the 5 GHz band, Pai said. He also spoke about the AM radio revitalization draft order (see 1510070065)

The draft AM revitalization order doesn’t currently include an AM-only FM translator application window and that isn't expected to change, broadcast attorneys and FCC officials told us Monday. Though an FCC official told us two commissioners -- Mike O’Rielly and Ajit Pai -- have now requested to change the draft order to include a translator window, it takes a majority to force such a change. In the wake of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s statement Thursday (see 1510020047) announcing her support for the current draft order’s proposal for a waiver that will allow broadcasters to relocate translators from up to 250 miles away and prioritizes smaller stations, Chairman Tom Wheeler is seen as having locked down the Democratic support, several broadcast industry officials told us.

ATLANTA -- The FCC should remove regulatory burdens that have “completely outlived their utility,” said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in an FCC session at the 2015 Radio Show Thursday. Along with outdated rules, the commission should also try harder to eliminate pirate radio operators, he said. Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Peter Doyle and Policy Division Assistant Chief Robert Baker discussed a petition to revamp low-power FM and how political advertising and online file rules apply to radio stations.

Broadcasters unanimously opposed the FCC proposal to preserve more channels for unlicensed and wireless mic use, in comments on a vacant channel rulemaking. Prioritizing unlicensed use over licensed TV broadcasters upends FCC policy, said Mako, Sinclair and numerous other broadcasters in docket 15-146. The commission can't make such a “radical shift” without first establishing a record to inform it, Sinclair said. There is “no logical way” for the FCC to “legally determine that unlicensed services, which have never" before "been accorded priority” over licensed services, “should now be found to have priority,” Mako said. Without a record, the proposed policy shift is “arbitrary and capricious,” Sinclair said. The vacant band rule would interfere with broadcasters taking full advantage of the new ATSC 3.0 standard, said Bonten Media and Pearl TV. “ATSC 3.0 is a near-term reality, and the Commission’s decision in this docket should preserve its significant benefits for the American public,” Pearl said. Implementing some of the channel sharing facilitated by the new standard will require stations to alter their contours, which could become “impractical or impossible” if TV stations have to worry about protecting unlicensed channels, Pearl said. The vacant channel rule would “improperly constrain television stations’ options for new or expanded television services” and reduce the chances to make broadcasting more diverse, said the Association of Public Television Stations, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS jointly. If the FCC does enact the rule, it should come with exemptions for noncommercial educational full-power stations and translators, they filing said. The agency can't make the vacant channel proposal into a rule because it conflicts with congressional directives to preserve low-power TV spectrum, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition. The FCC must instead go back to Congress for guidance, the coalition said. The commission must provide “a legitimate opportunity” for displaced LPTV and translators to get new channels after the auction, Gray Television said. The FCC should also allow qualified LPTV stations after the auction to transition to Class A status, Gray said. The vacant channel policy is unlikely to be useful, Sinclair said. “The likelihood that the white spaces will have practical (as opposed to theoretical) value for unlicensed service is very small,” said Sinclair. “Unlicensed uses have been permitted in the white spaces of the broadcast bands for years, but the only evidence of usage suggests a few isolated experiments (and failed experiments at that).”

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's support of an AM-only FM translator application window after the incentive auction shouldn't prevent her from supporting Commissioner Ajit Pai's call to have the translator window included in the AM Revitalization draft order, a spokesman for Pai told us Friday. “There's no reasonable explanation” in the statement Clyburn released Thursday for not supporting the window, Pai's spokesman said. Clyburn said the incentive auction would prevent AM broadcasters from being able to use the translator window until 2017 (see 1510010069), but Pai's spokesman said Clyburn could push to have the translator window included in the draft order with language stipulating that it be opened after the auction. Pai would support such a compromise, the spokesman said, though it wouldn't be his “first choice.” Clyburn's office wouldn't comment.

Nielsen will launch an improved version of its system for measuring radio listenership in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore in October, Nielsen officials said at the NAB Radio show in Atlanta. The new system, an enhanced version of the ratings company's current Critical Band Encoding Technology (CBET) system, is better able to measure ratings in an “acoustically crowded” environment, said Arun Ramaswamy, Nielsen chief engineer. Nielsen rates radio listenership through signals that are encoded in radio broadcasts and picked up by Nielsen's portable people meter (PPM) devices worn by their panelists. Quiet radio content, such as talk, can make it hard to mask the PPM signal, while loud content can make it hard for PPMs to pick up those signals, broadcast industry officials told us. The enhanced CBET process is better able to handle those situations, Ramaswamy said. What is not clear is the effect of Nielsen's new system on The Telos Alliance's Voltair device, which broadcasters buy to improve PPMs' receipt of Nielsen's encoded rating signal. Voltair enhances “opportunities” for the signal to be picked up, said Telos Alliance Director of Multimedia Marketing Kirk Harnack in an interview. Broadcasters have had an 8 percent improvement in their ratings when using Voltair, Telos Alliance Vice President Geoff Steadman told another crowd gathered for Voltair's presentation. Industry officials are concerned that Nielsen may take some sort of action against Voltair or broadcasters who use the device, broadcast attorneys and officials told us. That possibility is one reason for large crowds at the company's events at the radio show, broadcast officials told us. Nielsen Local Media Director Matt O'Grady wouldn't comment on the matter. Steadman said he didn't know how the new CBET system would affect Voltair's product, and the company won't know until it can study the new system.

ATLANTA -- There aren't enough commissioner votes in favor of an AM-only window for FM translator applications, broadcast attorneys told us Thursday. Their remarks on the sidelines of the NAB Show came after Commissioner Ajit Pai urged the FCC to include the window in the AM revitalization effort. Pai said he asked the other commissioners Wednesday to include the window in the draft order. “The moment of decision has arrived; Commissioners will now have to decide with whom they will stand,” said Pai in the emailed statement. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn had supported the translator window as acting chairwoman and when the idea was in an NPRM. But she introduced a new wrinkle.

ATLANTA -- Data and targeted advertising are the best way for radio to compete with digital media for ad dollars, said ad agency buyers and radio executives at the NAB Radio Show. “We're leaving a lot of dollars on the table by not having that information,” said Jennifer Hungerbuhler, Amplifi U.S. managing director-local video and audio investment. To allow radio to provide the same kind of information as digital advertising, industry officials are looking to programmatic ad technology, which will use computers to automate part of the ad selling and buying process and allow radio broadcasters to collect data and target spots, said ad industry officials, Nielsen executives and broadcasters during several panels Tuesday.

ATLANTA -- A false perception that radio isn't doing well and has a relatively slow rate of return are making it difficult for the industry to attract investors, said radio licensees and investment analysts at the NAB Radio Show Tuesday. Recent Nielsen studies show that radio stations are doing better than potential investors think, and that webcasting competitors such as Spotify and Pandora aren't doing as well, said Entercom CEO David Field. “We're not telling the story of radio nearly well enough,” said Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw.