In a significant win for broadcasters last year, NAB was able to secure expanded Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility for stations as part of the COVID relief package that was signed into law at the end of 2020. This allows broadcasters to have the same physical-location based eligibility as restaurants and hotels under the original CARES Act, regardless of whether the broadcast company is publicly traded. Read More

A 10-application precedent has prevailed at the Federal Communications Commission which has voted to adopt that limit on broadcasters in an upcoming filing window for noncommercial FMs, according to a report in InsideRadio. The decision allows the Media Bureau to move forward with the filing window, which will be the first time in more than a decade that the FCC moves to license new noncommercial FMs. Read More

Elections Committee and as vice chair of the Senate Local Government Committee. She also is a member of the committees on Environmental Quality; Families, Seniors, and Veterans; Health Policy and Human Services; Judiciary and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's biggest challenge to legalizing marijuana may be his fellow Democrats, according to a recent article in POLITICO. Read More

As we highlighted in our weekly summary of regulatory issues for broadcasters, last week saw a letter from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo to the FCC asking for the FCC to review the enforcement of the rules established by the CALM Act, which prohibits loud commercials on TV stations. Read More

You say they don't do that anymore! Not true, they do. It's easier than ever before. With so much of our business activities available in our public file and on electronic forms at the FCC, they can easily inspect a station without ever coming to your door. Additionally they still investigate complaints. Read More

Veteran News Director Mike Schram has joined Gray Television's WILX-TV (Lansing) as News Director, effective May 3. A graduate of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, he started his career in broadcast journalism as a newscast producer at WLNS-TV in Lansing. He then spent several years as a producer at sister Gray station WJRT-TV (Flint). Read More

Vickie Thomas, City Beat Reporter for Audacy's WWJ-AM (Detroit), has announced her retirement at the end of the month. Her last day live on the air is scheduled for April 29. She will continue to host the weekly "Black Business Minute" feature for the station. Read More

Veteran WLUC-TV (Marquette) News Anchor Steve Asplund has announced that he will retire in February 2022 after more than 42 years at the station. WLUC Vice President and General Manger Rick Rhoades recently made the announcement. Read More

After a seventh-month fight against the West Nile virus, WOOD-TV (Grand Rapids) Barton Deiters passed away April 16.

Deiters spent a professional career of more than 30 years in journalism, first as a print journalist at the Grand Rapids Press and then later at WOOD-TV. Read More

The MAB is sad to pass along word that Chris Herlein, affectionately known as “Boatman” by friends and listeners of WWKR-FM (Hart/Ludington), passed away April 18 at age 54, reportedly after contracting the COVID-19 virus. Herlein passed away at Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital. Read More

The annual Michigan Associated Press Media Editors broadcast competition has announced their winners in the 2020 Michigan APME awards. Read More

Jacobs Media will present its Techsurvey 2021 results in a free webinar on Thursday, May 6, at 2 p.m., sponsored by Veritone. This year’s annual study, “Radio in the Year of COVID,” is comprised of more than 42,000 core radio listeners from 470 participating stations and charts the impact of COVID-19 and its disruptive effect on radio listening and other media consumption. Read More

YES! YES! YES! When you establish meaningful local-direct professional relationships, you ultimately increase your contract selling skills while keeping customers for life. We'll discuss how to improve your account list value with passionate, loyal clients who will refer other businesses to you. Help your clients to spend a larger share of their budget with you now, establishing trust in your range of services and abilities. We'll also discuss setting up client meetings and keeping control of the discussion. As you go from business to business, you will find "it's the best of times or the worst of times," in other words, it's the perfect time to introduce long-term rock-solid agreements to your clients.

For many of us, one of the most important questions we were taught to ask in a customer needs analysis was “What is your ad budget?” And we were taught that if we asked that honestly that we’d get an honest answer. But submitted for your consideration, think about you. When you go to buy, say a car, the dealership often asks you what your budget is. Do YOU tell them? Or if you do tell them, do you lowball? Read More