<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-1'?><rss version='2.0' xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'><channel><atom:link href='http://www.theradiojournal.com/headlinefeed.asp' rel='self' type='application/rss+xml' /><title>Radio Journal Headlines</title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com/</link><description>Lastest Headlines</description><lastBuildDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:19:13 GMT</lastBuildDate><language>en-us</language><item><title>Digital FM gets its power increase.   </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Once Ibiquity and NPR agreed on a compromise over the hotly-debated issue of more power for FM stations running HD Radio, the only real question was how long it would take the FCC to approve the power hike and what the details of the ruling might look like. On Friday, the FCC issued an order that essentially rubber-stamped the compromise, allowing stations to increase digital power from 1% (-20 dBc) to 4% (-14 dBc) of analog power, starting 30 days after the order is published in the Federal Register. Most stations will be able to increase power still further, to 10% (-10 dBc), as long as they meet certain interference criteria. Grandfathered superpower stations will be somewhat more limited: most will be able to go to -14 dBc, but some very high-powered stations will remain limited to the present digital power of -20 dBc.]]></description></item><item><title>+ HD supporters praise the boost. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Ibiquity CEO Bob Struble calls the FCC`s order ``another milestone`` in the HD Radio rollout. ``The Commission has worked closely with the radio broadcast industry on this item, and chose a prudent course for the power increase which met the needs and addressed the concerns of the key constituents,`` Struble says. Wasting no time, public radio stations KUHF, Houston; WAMU, Washington and KUVO, Denver are all poised to boost power as soon as they can.  ``They`ve had their finger poised on the button for some time,`` says NPR technology chief Mike Starling. ``All three are especially active with multicast channels and have been successful with listeners, but some say they`re having difficulty picking up the stations indoors or with drop out.`` The National Association of Broadcasters is hailing the FCC`s decision too, saying a stronger signal will help stations better serve listeners. A survey of NPR member stations in October found 70% plan to do so in the next year. Starling says, ``There`s a significant appetite for increasing power`` among public stations. Given the costs of new equipment and higher power bills for a service that`s not yet producing much new revenue, it`s not clear yet how many commercial stations will follow suit.]]></description></item><item><title>+ Opponents worry about interference mitigation. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| On paper, the FCC`s order expresses concern about the possibility of new interference from higher-powered digital FMs to their analog neighbors on adjacent channels. The Ibiquity-NPR agreement suggested that at least three interference complaints from within the affected station`s protected contour should be required to trigger FCC action, but the FCC raised that number to six complaints of ``ongoing (rather than transitory) objectionable interference.`` Those complaints start a 90-day clock for the FCC to investigate and take action. If the Enforcement Bureau misses that deadline, the digital station would have to begin reducing power in stages, all the way back down to â€"20 dBc, until the interference goes away. Some broadcasters doubt the FCC`s willingness to put teeth behind the procedure; Bob Savage of upstate New York`s WYSL, Avon (1040) notes that after several years, the FCC has still yet to act on his documented complaints of interference from an adjacent-channel AM digital operation, CBS` WBZ, Boston (1030). And there`s one area where conflicts are likely: while class B stations are protected from analog interference to their 54 dBu contour, and B1 stations to their 57 dBu, the FCC`s power-hike calculations consider only the 60 dBu contour for all FM classes. The FCC`s order says the larger protection areas for B and B1 stations will be enforced through the mitigation process.]]></description></item><item><title>+ No love for LPFMs. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Advocates of low-power FM have been worried about digital interference since the start of HD Radio, and several LPFM groups weighed in with concerns about harm to their signals from more powerful digital carriers. The FCC declined to provide new protections for LPFMs, saying to do so ``would constitute a dramatic change in LPFM licensing rules and the relationship between LPFM and full-service stations.`` The FCC`s order notes that many LPFMs exist only because they`ve voluntarily agreed to accept interference from existing analog signals, and so it would be ``both unfair and at odds with secondary service licensing principles to deny a full-service station additional digital power based on the potential of increased interference to an LPFM station.``]]></description></item><item><title>Vandals take down Georgia tower. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Country WLHR, Lavonia, GA (92.1) is off the air after its 284-foot tower collapsed early Saturday. A winter storm brought rain and snow to northeast Georgia, but Georgia-Carolina Broadcasting co-owner Art Sutton says no ice had collected on the mast. The damage suggests the guy wires were deliberately cut. ``This was a deliberate case of sabotage based on the experience I`ve gained about radio station towers over the 33 years I`ve been in the business,`` Sutton says. Why someone would want WLHR off the air isn`t clear, but Sutton tells our sister publication Inside Radio he doesn`t suspect it was eco-terrorism. ``I don`t think we have to worry about the environmentalists in our area but it was definitely a case of someone cutting through seven guy wires.`` The Franklin County, GA Sheriffs Department is investigating and has contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Engineers are working to find a temporary tower location for the station. Sutton says he`s found a temporary tower site and hopes to have WLHR back on the air in a week or so.]]></description></item><item><title>Towers down in Oklahoma. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| The ice that`s been snarling roads and cutting power across Oklahoma also downed two towers in Lawton last weekend. KJMZ, Cache, OK (97.9) and KBZQ, Lawton (99.5) were silenced when ice toppled both stations` towers, 380` and 350` tall respectively. The two sticks were just 40 feet apart. KBZQ came back on the air quickly from a backup site, but KJMZ remained silent at press time.]]></description></item><item><title>Another tower down in South Dakota. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Media Associates` KBJM, Lemmon, SD (1400) was yet another victim of the ice and wind that swept across the prairie states last week. Its 180` guyed tower came down in late January, and the station right on the South Dakota/North Dakota state line was silent for several days while engineers lashed up an emergency replacement antenna, a dipole suspended from a utility pole that will keep the country format on the air while a permanent replacement tower is built.]]></description></item><item><title>Baltimore`s WVIE wants more night power. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| What was once daytimer WEBB (1360) has grown substantially in the last two decades. The Baltimore-market AM owned by the Mangione family is now WVIE, Pikesville, MD, operating on 1370 with 50-kw by day and 7700 watts at night from two separate six-tower arrays on opposite sides of the city. Now WVIE is applying to increase its night power even more: it`s seeking 24-kw at night, with no changes to the six-tower night array in Owings Mills that sits on the site once occupied by sister station WCBM (680), which itself moved to a new site outside Baltimore a few years back. If granted, the increased power will help WVIE overcome a crowded 1370 channel at night, where its interference-free contour is a painfully high 27 mV/m.]]></description></item><item><title>Oregon scam artist loses another FM. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| It`s been a bad year for Sandra Soho, even before the FCC got involved. The Oregon woman is serving a 38-month prison term after being convicted last February on 17 felony counts of stealing public assistance. She`s on the hook for a half-million dollar fine. And she`s now lost a second FM license. Back in November, the FCC pulled the license for KRAT, Altamont, OR (97.7) after learning that Soho had apparently used the stolen identity of an Oregon man to apply for that license. Now the FCC has ordered the deletion of KBUG, Malin, OR, after determining that the sole director of licensee Malin Christian Church was none other than Sandra Soho. As a convicted felon, she`s ineligible to hold a license now. KBUG was a class C1 signal on 100.5 with a CP for a downgrade to 100.9A, and it had been silent since last August, when permitting issues with the Bureau of Land Management forced it off the air.]]></description></item><item><title>FCC fines LPFM for what amounts to identity theft. </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| The ironically-named Ethics Inc. has been hit with a $20,000 fine for allegedly logging onto the FCC database system (CDBS) and posing as Baton Rouge Progressive Network to gain control of WHYR-LP, Baton Rouge, LA (96.9). In the ruling, Audio Division chief Peter Doyle says Ethics` principals ``perpetrated a fraud on the agency`` by filing a series of unauthorized applications with the aim of ``taking control`` of WHYR-LP from license holder Baton Rouge Progressive Network.]]></description></item><item><title>Early in the year, LPFM boosters already fight the congressional clock.   </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| ``We will not give in,`` the Prometheus Radio Project tells supporters worried the proposed Local Community Radio Act (S. 592) will get lost in the shuffle as Congress focuses on health care, the economy and November`s elections. Prometheus believes it needs to get the bill to President Obama`s desk by this spring or it will die on the legislative vine. The proposed legislation has already cleared the Commerce Committee, but it still needs to be officially reported and filed for it to come to a vote by the entire Senate. The House approved an LPFM expansion bill late last year that included tougher provisions, such as mandatory reporting of interference complaints, on-air alerts to listeners about potential signal conflicts and a requirement that LPFMs fix any interference to a full-power station on the third-adjacent channel - even outside the big FM`s contour protection area. The NAB didn`t oppose the House bill, but spokesman Dennis Wharton says there are still a number of elements broadcasters would like to see addressed in the Senate bill. ``We would like clarifying language recognizing full power radio stations as the `primary service` and language that further protects adjacent channels from possible interference from LPFM stations,`` Wharton says. LPFM groups are looking to Senate co-sponsors Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ) to lead the charge.]]></description></item><item><title>Canada This Week -  End of the line for two big AM signals.   </title><link>http://www.theradiojournal.com</link><pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[| Of Canada`s big provinces, Quebec has led the way in the abandonment of the AM dial. It`s now completely silent in most Quebec communities, and hanging on by a thread in Quebec City and Montreal. That thread frayed a bit more on Friday, when Corus abruptly announced it was shutting down two of its three Montreal AM stations, French-language news-talker CINF (690) and English-language oldies CINW (940). ``These two AM stations are not viable, particularly in the current economic climate,`` said the Corus statement announcing the closure. Both 50-kw stations enjoyed the biggest AM signals in the market, on the clear channels that had been vacated when CBC/Radio-Canada moved its stations to FM in 1999. Since they`re reserved as Canadian clears, the demise of CINW/CINF won`t offer new night opportunities for US class D stations on their frequencies, but those stations will at least enjoy less interference after dark for now. It`s not clear when, or if, Canada might reactivate 690 and 940 under new licensees.]]></description></item></channel></rss>