Friday, February 24, 2006

NJBA Heads To Washington

This weekend, a delegation of  NJBA Board Members will head to Washington, DC to lobby the New Jersey Congressional Delegation on radio and TV issues effecting broadcasters, listeners and viewers in the Garden State. High on the list of radio issues, is preserving the present audiences of New Jersey Radio stations by extending the stations protected contours. The other major radio issue is the question of confining satellite radio broadcasters to the provisions of their license, not allowing any local content.  Just national broadcast only.

In TV, the major issue is multistream must carry on cable and satellite TV. The Cable companies are claiming that broadcasters want six times the amount of bandwidth TV has now. However, this is untrue. All six DTV channels fit in the same space as one analog station needs now.

All Future, All The Time

The Mid Atlantic States Conference will concentrate on future technology all the way from HD Radio to Streaming Audio and podcasting. In addition to the overall general conference, Program Directors will discuss how they must better manage their time, as the are now going to have twice as many stations to program. Engineers will learn about antennas and equipment necessary for the broadcast of HD radio. Managers will need to know what the laws are regarding streaming audio, including new costs, rights fees and where the FCC stands on HD Radio. Sellers will need to deal with twice as much competition and the prospect of selling twice as many stations over night. Learn the latest techniques of selling in the new radio world. Add in a grand opening night party at the TSOP nightclub and the fabulous closing reception with games and prizes and you at the Mid Atlantic States Conference, June 5 and 6 at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Make your plans to be there.   Remember, in order to register on-line, your station must be a paid member.   If your station is not a paid member, you will not be able to register on-line. 

EEO1Source Is Free, but...

It appears that QuickNews caused some confusion in its last EEO1Source story. Just to set the record straight, EEO1Source is free to all members of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association. However, in order to make use of EEO1Source as automatic as possible, stations will want to subscribe to the fax service, which automatically sends out faxes of job openings to your EEO list and records the fact that the faxes have been sent. The cost is about ten cents per fax and is purchased on a yearly basis. Further, the first enhancement to EEO1Source is the audit module. When EEO1Source was written, there were no FCC EEO audits so there was no need for an audit module. However, now there are audits, and EEO1Source has responded with an audit module, which automates your responses to the FCC. The Audit module costs $300.00, one time cost, or for $600.00 an employment unit can get both the fax service, audit module and help desk functions from Litera, the authors of EEO1Source. Six state associations including New Jersey own EEO1Source itself.

Get your Best of the Best entries ready.  Memo and entry form have been mailed.  The dealine is April 14th.

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