On June 15, the Independent Broadcasters Association (IBA) announced a new partnership with Keego Harbor-based Summit Technology Group, making them the exclusive provider of broadcast engineering solutions to the over 1500 member stations that make up the IBA. Effective June 16th, all association members will have direct access to the national team of broadcast, electrical…
Michigan Radio reporter Sarah Cwiek has been selected as a winner of the 2021 Wade H. McCree Advancement of Justice Awards, sponsored by the Michigan Press Association Foundation. Cwiek was recognized for her investigation “Tax foreclosure lawsuit asks: How much can government take from property owners?” The story shows how citizens, especially those at risk…
Dan Boers has been hired as News Director at WXMI-TV/FOX 17 (Grand Rapids), effective June 23, 2021. He comes to the station after nearly a 20-year career at WOOD/WOTV/WXSP in Grand Rapids, where he was most recently news director for the past 6+ years. “Dan has a record of leading a high-performing news team and…
By: Seth Resler Jacobs Media Strategies About 15 years ago, when I was a Program Director for a radio station, I decided that I would take my programming staff on a field trip in lieu of our typical music meeting. My radio station, WBRU in Providence, made a habit of stepping out on new music.…
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) on Friday (6/11) released the rates and terms for webcasting royalties for 2021-2025, and the rates are going up. While the full decision explaining the reasoning for the rate increases will not be released to the public until the parties to the case have…
Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced (6/17) an accelerated end of all COVID-19 epidemic orders on gatherings and masking as COVID-19 cases continue to plummet following increased vaccinations. Beginning June 22, capacity in both indoor and outdoor settings will increase to 100% and the state will no longer require residents to wear a face mask. “Today is…
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday (6/17) unanimously approved several updates to its rules governing the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The FCC concluded alert repetition can be integrated into alert origination software as an automated function. That will allow the alert originator to program how, when, and for which EAS event codes it will need…
WKAR Public Media (East Lansing) has debuted a new documentary, Right to Read, which presents the moving story of Michigan families attempting to secure the right to read for their children. Faced with challenging circumstances — like social inequity, Michigan’s Read by Grade Three law, and limited access to books — parents, educators and experts…
Michigan Radio and ARISE Detroit! have announced that they will be working together to form a Community Reporting Engagement Council. The mission of the group is to strengthen networking with communities of color, serve as a sounding board and inform news coverage that is for and about Detroit. A key goal of the initiative is…
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP The Newspaper Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule is Finally Dead – And More Ownership Rule Changes – Including for Radio – Are to be Considered Last Friday, the FCC took two actions on broadcast ownership resulting from the recent Supreme Court decision (about which we wrote here) upholding changes to the ownership rules that the…