Friday, March 21, 2003

 NJBA Half Million Dollar Buy Assured

NHTSA, The National Highway Transportation Administration has asked the NJBA to coordinate a paid radio campaign for fasten seat belts. The campaign is budgeted at $490,000.00.  All stations that run the Division of Highway Traffic Safety NCSA will automatically be bought. Your NCSA Rate will be used for the buy. You do not have to submit any avails. Stations that do not participate in the NJBA NCSA DHTS program, must submit avails. If interested in submitting, call Phil at 1-888-NJBA-Fone for information. We expect come fall, NHTSA will once again come up with another $490,000.00 dollars for another seat belt buy.

 NJ Congressmen Answer The Call

Chairman Bob McAllan and Executive Director Phil Roberts have been making calls on the members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation. We have requested a budget allocation in the amount of $300,000.00 for the State Police to finance a new EAS system. The system “EM Net”, manufactured by Comlabs (www.comlabs.com) is successfully operating in Florida and was just installed in PA.  Both Senator’s Corzine and Lautenberg are pushing the measure in the Senate, and Congressmen Smith and Andrews are heading up a bi-partisan push in the house.  All of the Members visited pledged to support the program. This system would be a major upgrade to the present system and would co-exist with the State Police Trunk System, which is currently in use.

 Best Of The Best Time

All Stations should be working on submitting their entries to NJBA’s Best of the Best awards in both radio and TV in the Garden State. The categories are: Best News, Best Commercial, Best Public Affairs and Best Station Promotion. Dateline is 5:00 pm EST Friday, April 11, 2003.  A panel of broadcasters from another state will do the judging. All audio must be either on CD or tape cassette and video must be on VHS tape. Any entries not submitted in the proper formats will be rejected and not considered by the judges.

 Scholarship Credits For EEO

NJBA has mailed Scholarship applications to all colleges in New Jersey. Stations wishing to get EEO scholarship credits are requested to check for a memo on Monday outlining the NJBA EEO Scholarship program.  In a nutshell, stations must contribute to the scholarship fund, run a spot on the air promoting the scholarship and sending out scholarship applications to requesters.  NJBA will supply the spot and the scholarship forms to those stations choosing to participate. Stations will be requested to enclose an envelope for the return of the scholarship applications directly to the NJBA Scholarship Committee, headed by Dr. Jay Siegfried, Chairman of the Broadcast Department at Middlesex County Community College.  NJBA will also supply the mailing labels for 8X10 envelopes.