The proposed merger between TEGNA and Standard General has collapsed, according to a statement from TEGNA. The merger would have seen Standard General acquire TEGNA for $5.4 billion, including the company’s San Diego-based television station, KFMB TV.
The collapse of the merger comes after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) raised concerns about the deal and called for a hearing on the matter. The delay caused the deal to pass a finance deadline. The FCC said that the merger would have given Standard General too much control over local news and could have led to higher prices for cable and satellite TV subscribers.
Skyview, the distribution service used by CBS Radio News, ABC Radio News, and others, failed yesterday as radio station affiliates found silence when their automation systems had expected network news insertions. Skyview posted the following announcement to stations receiving their streams through XDS receivers:
Skyview Networks experienced unauthorized access to its IT environment, resulting in interrupted technical services. Immediately upon learning of the incident, Skyview activated its comprehensive incident response plan. We have initiated advanced monitoring and threat detection across our systems and data. We have also engaged third-party forensic experts to help us contain and investigate the incident. These efforts are fully underway.
IMPORTANT:
During this undetermined period of time, it is advised NOT to reboot your XDS receiver.
Please reach out to affiliaterelations@skyviewsat.com if you have any questions.
San Diego and Imperial Counties can hand broadcast engineers some challenges with respect to receiving the Emergency Alert System (EAS) LP1 and LP2 stations, both AMs. If you are relaying the signals of KOGO 600 and KLSD 1360 from an AM transmitter site, you must have good filtering and shielding from your own transmitter signal, and be able to receive the signal at night. And if you’re in El Centro, how do you even receive a Primary Entry Point (PEP) signal required for national tests?
Richard Rudman, California State Emergency Coordination Committee Vice-Chair, has some viable suggestions for receiving PEPs:
Monitor your usual LP-1, like KOGO, which depends on receiving a PEP signal
Monitor the NPR network via satellite
Monitor an NPR affiliate like KPBS San Diego or KQVO Calexico
Monitor SiriusXM’s “barker” channel.
The latter option is worth explaining. You can use any SiriusXM receiver and as long as you hear audio, you’re good. The barker channel is the free channel used as a reception confidence signal and for promoting their subscription options. In the event of a national emergency or test, they interrupt that, or any, active channel you are listening to with any national EAS message.
The FCC announced in mid-December that February 28 is the new deadline for submitting a Form One in the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) in anticipation of a National EAS Test, which, as of this writing, does not have a test date established.
While there was no national test in 2022, if your station was operating before last year, you likely have an account set up on the ETRS. The FCC said it would open the site for Form One filings on January 3, 2023.
