News

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  American Legion Baseball U.P. Finals To Air On RRN Stations

  This weekend (7/22-25), Results Radio Network stations will air The American Legion Baseball Upper Peninsula Zone Five tournament, with 21 games scheduled in Escanaba and Gladstone over four days. Seventeen of those games will be broadcast on the stations of the Radio Results Network. The top two teams from this tournament, plus the Marquette Blues,… read more

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  FCC To Clarify Political Advertising Rules – No Significant Changes Proposed

  By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP Last week, it was announced that the FCC would be considering some changes to its political broadcasting rules at its monthly open meeting in August.  In some quarters (see, for example, this article), that raised concern that significant changes were coming in time for the 2022 Congressional elections.  But,… read more

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  WCRZ Raises $101k for Whaley Children’s Center

  Townsquare Media’s WCRZ-FM (Flint) raised over $100,000 for the Whaley Children’s Center with Roof Sit 2021. Morning show personalities Clay Church and Lisa Marie, along with Mindy Williams, President and CEO of Whaley Children’s Center, were living on the roof of the Grand Blanc McDonald’s for three days (7/14-16) to raise funds for the Children’s… read more

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  WNMU-FM’s Evelyn Massaro Retires

  Evelyn Massaro, longtime station manager and development director of WNMU-FM in Marquette has retired after a 42-year career in public media.  Massaro retired June 30. “It’s never a dull moment when you work in public media and I wouldn’t have had it any other way,” Massaro said in an email to The Current confirming her… read more

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  FCC Reminds Television Stations of EAS Obligation to Persons with Disabilities

  On July 21, the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an advisory to remind Emergency Alert System (EAS) Participants of the requirements to ensure that EAS alerts are visually and aurally accessible.  This advisory is targeted at television broadcast stations, analog and digital cable systems, wireless cable systems, wireline video systems and… read more

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  WVFM Named WMU Flagship

  Midwest Communication’s WVFM-FM (Kalamazoo) has been named the Bronco Flagship station for Western Michigan University football, hockey and men’s basketball beginning this fall. The 33,000-watt 106.5 FM signal which reaches Western Michigan fans throughout the region, serving Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek. “Midwest Communications has been a tremendous broadcast partner of WMU Athletics as… read more

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  How to Build Radio Station Remote Kits for the Digital Age

  By: Seth Resler Jacobs Media Strategies As a radio broadcaster, back in the day, my favorite event of the summer was the day that the Warped Tour came to town. As an alternative rock radio station, the Warped Tour inevitably had a dozen or so bands that we wanted to interview. So a team of… read more

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  WILX-TV Announces Sports Team Changes

  Gray Television’s WILX-TV (Lansing) has announced that longtime Lansing sports reporter Fred Heumann will take on the role of co-Sports Director with the WILX Sports Team on August 1, 2021. Heumann will play a pivotal role in the day-to-day operations of the sports department. “We are fortunate to have Fred and Tim Staudt’s decades of… read more

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  WCSX-FM Morning Personality Big Jim O’Brien Signs Multiyear Renewal Deal with Beasley

  Beasley Media Group has renewed a multiyear deal with WCSX-FM (Detroit) morning personality Big Jim O’Brien. The veteran Motor City on-air personality, who has been officially serving as the morning host for the past six years, has worked at the station for a total of 18 years. “It’s been an honor to create Big Jim’s… read more

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  Longtime Michigan Broadcaster Don Backus Retires

  Veteran Michigan Broadcaster and broadcast equipment marketing professional Don Backus has announced his retirement.  Backus spent two decades on the station side, in ownership, management, sales, on-air and news.  He is also known for this work representing companies like Rohde & Schwarz, ENCO, BE and Audio Broadcast Group. Backus attended Michigan State University in East… read more

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  More Michigan Congressmen Sign LRFA

  The MAB is pleased to announce another cosponsor has signed on to H.Con.Res.33, the House Local Radio Freedom Act. Congressman John Moolenaar (R-4) has joined fellow Representatives Jack Bergman (R-1), Debbie Dingell (D-12), Fred Upton (R-6) and Tim Walberg (R-7) in support of the resolution. The NAB reports that they are up to 159 cosponsors… read more

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  DASDEC Releases Required Update

  Following last week’s advisory from Sage regarding the availability and required installation of an update due to the expiring IPAWS digital certificate, DASDEC has announced their firmware update to meet the August 21, 2021 deadline. As with Sage, there is no charge from DASDEC for this update.  Digital Alert System’s Ed Czarnecki says you must… read more

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  Allen Media Buys Gray Television’s WJRT-TV

  Gray Television, Inc. has reached an agreement to divest WJRT-TV, its ABC affiliate for the Flint-Saginaw, Michigan television market, to Byron Allen’s Allen Media Broadcasting, LLC for $70 million dollars in cash. Gray’s sale of WJRT-TV facilitates regulatory approvals for its pending acquisition of the Local Media Group division of Meredith Corporation by removing the… read more

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  WADL To Become Detroit’s MyNetworkTV Affiliate

  Adell Broadcasting’s WADL-TV (Detroit) has announced that it has secured the market’s MyNetworkTV affiliation, and will make the switch September 20.  Scripps-owned WMYD-TV is the current affiliate of the network in the city. WADL is currently an independent station, airing primarily first-run syndication and off-network programming. In a press release, owner Kevin Adell says “he… read more

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