Local News

FCC Grants KFMB-AM Sale to iHeartMedia

On May 29, 2020, the FCC granted the application to transfer control of KFMB-AM from Local Media San Diego to iHeartMedia. Local Media San Diego had purchased both KFMB-AM and -FM from TEGNA, but held onto only the FM station, now with the call letters KFBG (FM). KFMB-AM will have to change call letters as a condition of the TEGNA sale. KFMB 760 joins KOGO 600 and KLSD 1360 as San Diego market AM properties of iHeartMedia.

KFMB-AM has been operating under an LMA by iHeart since Local Media acquired it in March. The station runs a talk format with local hosts Mark Larson and Mike Slater as well as nationally syndicated hosts Armstrong & Getty and Mark Levin.

National

FCC Reminding LPTV Stations to Abandon the 600 MHz Band

FCC New 2020 Logo

The FCC yesterday issued a Public Notice reminder for low power television stations to cease operations on the “duplex gap” spectrum by the end of July 13, 2020. Some LPTVs were allowed to continue operating temporarily on TV channels 38 where a guard band exists between telecom channel A and old TV channel 37, or on TV channels 44, 45, or 46, where there’s a duplex gap between telecom uplink and downlink channels.

In the San Diego region, Entravision’s KTCD-LP on Mt. Woodson operated for a short time on channel 46 with analog service. They’ve since signed off.

In Los Angeles, KTAV-LD operates on channel 46 and will have to shut down or share a channel since they have no pending application for a new home channel. [Edit 6/23/2020 – The FCC granted KTAV-LD a Construction Permit for a displacement allocation on channel 21 from a Beverly Hills tower site. Channel 21 is adjacent to land mobile T-band channel 20, and had been off-limits to DTV in Los Angeles. ]

Meetings

Bob Orban Presents: “Maintaining Audio Quality in the Broadcast Facility”

Achieving excellent on-air and on-line quality audio is more important than ever because of the intensely competitive nature of available media. “Good enough” no longer works. Persuading audiences to listen and then return requires attention to quality at every stage of the production process, from program sources to audio processing. This presentation will help attendees achieve quality on-air and on-line audio broadcasting and netcasting goals.

Join Chapter 36 at either of two dates and times:

  • June 9th, Tuesday, 7:00 PM PDT, with Chapter 47 Los Angeles
  • June 24, Wednesday, 12:00 noon PDT, with Chapter 9 Phoenix

Send a request for either meeting to mailto:RSVP@SBE36.ORG. You will receive an e-mail two business days prior to the event with a GoToMeeting password. The presentation is open to members and interested guests.

You are eligible to receive the usual 0.5 SBE certification points for your attendance.

About Bob Orban

Bob Orban has been widely published and co-authored the chapter on “Transmission Audio Processing” in the NAB Engineering Handbook, 10th Edition. He currently holds over 20 U.S. patents. In 1973 he was elected a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. In 1993, he shared with Dolby Laboratories a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he received the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award. In 2002, he received the Innovator Award from Radio Magazine.

In 2015 Orban introduced the Optimod PCn 1600, the first Optimod that runs natively on the host computer’s Intel x86 processor; the software does not use dedicated DSP chips. In 2016 Orban introduced the company’s new flagship FM audio processor, the OPTIMOD-FM 8700i, featuring versatile five-band and two-band processing for both analog FM transmission and digital media.

Local News

KFSD (AM) 1450 Back on the Air

KFSD Escondido returned to the air May 20, 2020 with its adult standards music format, just under a year after going silent in June 2019. The station, owned by the Astor Group, has been looking for a buyer to take over the station since Art Astor passed away in 2016.

National

FCC and FTC Demand Service Providers Cut-off Phone Scammers

WASHINGTON, May 20, 2020—The Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission today demanded that gateway providers allowing COVID-19 pandemic-related scam robocalls into the United States cut off this traffic or face serious consequences. And this time, they named names. This is the second such action taken during the pandemic, following a successful push in April with similar letters from the agencies that led to the termination of other robocallers’ access to American phone networks.

Continue reading FCC and FTC Demand Service Providers Cut-off Phone Scammers →

Society of Broadcast Engineers