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2012: A Promise of Challenge and Opportunity
By Duane Alverson, MAB Chairman & President of MacDonald Broadcasting

Fellow Michigan Broadcasters -

First of all, I want to thank everyone who took time to attend the regional meetings in Saginaw, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Traverse City and Lansing during December as we work hard to finalize plans for the launch of our pro radio and television marketing campaign. We came away from these meetings with some fresh ideas on how we can make an even bigger impact with this program. But most importantly we came away with a strong level of support from broadcasters all across Michigan, thanks to your commitment to air these messages and support this initiative. Radio and television stations all across Michigan will soon be airing a very powerful message about the many strengths and advantages of our broadcast mediums.

Now is the time to make plans to attend the Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference on March 14 in Lansing. This is a great opportunity to gain new knowledge, reconnect with old friends and colleagues and capture a new sense of excitement for our industry. It’s also a great opportunity for you to introduce your new hires to the MAB and the many positive programs, events and individuals associated with our state organization. Someone took you the first time, right? It’s time to return the favor!

Michigan broadcasters continue to earn special recognition for their outstanding leadership and accomplishments. Most recently, the CEO of Saga Communications, Ed Christian, was named Executive of the Year by Radio Ink Magazine. Ed Christian is a past board member of the NAB and the MAB. He has been one of our strongest supporters over the years. Congratulations Sir Ed! Well deserved as evidenced by your stock price!

2012 promises to be another year of challenge and opportunity for all of us in the world of broadcasting. Your MAB leadership team and staff are here to help you along the way. We encourage you to reach out and take full advantage of the many programs and services available from your MAB membership.

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Reinvention... Innovation... Inspiration... All at GLBC 2012!

The world is changing quickly, and change means reinvention. Each time a major shift happens in our industry we have to take control of what our business will become, or risk never reaching our full potential.

The Michigan Association of Broadcasters and its partner groups are here to help you identify those changes and reinvent what broadcasters do and how we connect to our communities.

At the 2012 Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference, you will:

• Hear directly from industry experts about their take on the future
  
• Learn how to utilize new technologies to enhance your business
  
• See the latest in technology on the exhibit hall floor
  
• Make connections with your peers
  
• Recognize the best in our field and outstanding future broadcasters

This year’s General Session will start off with invited Special Guest Governor Rick Snyder!

Governor Snyder has been invited to open GLBC for the second year. Don’t miss this chance to hear directly from our Governor.

Following the Governor will be a high powered panel discussing how we are Reinventing Michigan. This panel will be moderated by Carol Cain, and will feature top experts on the economy, speaking about where we are headed as a state, and how it will impact the media industry.

Find out all the details on sessions and speakers at http://bit.ly/GLBC12

NEW for 2012! Broadcast Sales Intensive Mini-Conference & Best Practices Luncheon

Join your fellow sales professionals for a day full of inspiration and innovation specially designed for broadcast sellers. From 12:15pm-1:15pm, we will be hosting a separate luncheon just for sales pros that will include a special roundtable discussion. You’ll be encouraged to discuss and share best practices to improve your station’s sales. Bring your personal examples and questions for this timely sharing session. Select the “sales luncheon” when registering. Look for more details in the mail soon!

GLBC Exhibitor Highlight: Broadcast Electronics
Is Social Media Pushing Your Listeners Away?
By Jim Roberts, Commotion, a Broadcast Electronics Company

Have you noticed that the more involved in social media your station becomes, the further you push listeners away from your station?

It starts innocently enough. You tell your listeners to visit your website and then, because it’s the thing that we all have to do to keep relevant, your website sends them to Facebook or Twitter. Once your listeners leave your website, they are not coming back. Facebook is strategically designed to keep your listeners trapped there for hours. And once on Twitter, your listeners will surely visit other Twitter sites, most likely your competitor’s site. In fact, by design, Twitter will literally push your listeners to your competitors. And soon, your listeners have wandered far from your website and even further from your station.

So, what about your website? Your advertisers? Your station?

That’s the burning question posed by a growing number of radio broadcasters. For those broadcasters wanting to take advantage of social media without losing their listeners to other sites in the process, we have an answer: Commotion, a new Broadcast Electronics (BE) company specializing in interactive social media applications for radio.

The Commotion Platform does two revolutionary things. First, it brings all station content and real-time interaction with listeners back to the station website and mobile app in a single Commotion Activity Stream. Here, broadcasters can not only better control the content, but they can place their advertiser’s message in the Activity Stream as well.

The other revolutionary thing that Commotion does is give the station a dashboard, called the Commotion Wall, where they can interact with all listeners on all platforms and across all mobile devices. In real-time! Radio listeners can still authenticate through Facebook or Twitter, but the point at which they interact with the station happens in the station’s mobile app and on the station website. For the station, it’s the difference between hosting your own party and just showing up at someone else’s party. Even better, listeners from all social media channels and devices can all interact with each other. For example an iOS user authenticated through Twitter can see comments from an Android user who authenticated through Facebook.

The concept behind Commotion Wall is to make the communication source transparent to the station. Whether listeners are engaging the station through Facebook, Twitter, IM or SMS , it all comes into a single interface. And when the station DJ replies, the message is routed back automatically to the originating social media channel. A key difference between Commotion Wall and other social networking aggregators, like HootSuite, is that Commotion is also aggregating the other side of the conversations taking place on the station website and mobile app in the Activity Stream.

In addition, Commotion Wall supports voice mail as well as photos, which can be helpful for contests and other listener interactions.

Best of all, because the Commotion Wall was created just for radio, it enables broadcasters to manage, moderate, even monetize all that communication specifically for broadcast purposes. It lists all incoming social communication in a single vertical timeline and tracks history, making individual history information easily available every time a listener sends a new message. For example, an announcer can thank a listener for a song request they just made and, based on history information available to him, ask the listener how he or she liked the concert they won tickets to three months ago.

Of course, the Commotion Wall gives broadcasters full control over what gets published on the Activity Stream and what doesn’t, along with the ability to block troublesome users. And, because broadcasters retain listeners through their own unique Activity Stream on their website, instead of pushing them off into social media parts unknown, they have the ability to place ads in the Activity Stream where they can be seen by listeners on the web and on their mobile app.

Commotion is a new Broadcast Electronics company formed last year to specifically address the growing use of interactive and mobile applications in radio stations today. Broadcast Electronics assembled a team of the most creative and passionate software and radio programming minds to create Commotion, which is a mashup of “community” and “motion” to create a commotion for radio stations!

The result is a suite of Commotion products, including Commotion Wall as well as CrowdControl, a crowdsourcing application for engaging and polling listeners, plus Campaign Manager, a complete mobile marketing platform, and Now Playing tools for text readout and song tagging.

Visit Broadcast Electronics at the Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference Exhibit Hall in booth #89 or visit www.bdcast.com.

GLBC Exhibitor Highlight: Nautel
AM Power Savings with MDCL – Now FCC Approved
Jeff Welton, Central USA, Nautel

Nautel’s Head of Engineering, Tim Hardy, has long been an advocate of energy conservation in AM broadcast transmitters and has been working with such technologies, known generally as Modulation-Dependent Carrier Level (MDCL) in Nautel transmitters since the mid 1990s. Most recently, he lobbied the FCC to establish procedures for the use of Carrier Control Algorithms by AM broadcasters in the U.S., and on September 13, 2011 the FCC Media Bureau announced that it will permit use of energy-saving transmitter technologies by AM stations.

MDCL control technologies or algorithms have long been used by international broadcasters operating high-powered AM transmitters to reduce transmitter power consumption. While some broadcasters may have concerns over audio quality, the FCC notes “the long experience of transmitter manufacturers and broadcasters abroad, and the initial reports from experimental operations in Alaska, however, indicate that such adverse effects are generally imperceptible.”

How Much Could You Save? A Station Power Usage Example

The current average residential rate in the U.S. is close to 10 cents per kilowatt hour and some regions exceed 25 cents. An older tube type 50 kW transmitter might operate with an electrical efficiency factor (RF power output divided by AC power input) of around 70%. Assuming an additional 10 kW of radiated sideband power, this transmitter will consume nearly 86 kW. The daytime yearly energy usage of this station (assuming a 12 hour day) would be 377,000 kilowatt hours per year for an average cost of $38,000. Depending on the night time status, this station could use up to $76,000 annually.

Using the above-mentioned MDCL technologies (standard in Nautel’s NX Series) one can realize power reductions of 30% (or more) for annual savings of $22,000 plus. For customers with an NX, Nautel’s AM transmitters with exceptional efficiency of up to 90%, the overall savings including MDCL could be up to $35,000 per year.

By combining both the NX’s built-in efficiencies and MDCL technology, cost savings of this magnitude can repay the capital investment for a new transmitter in just a few years. Over the life of a 50 kW transmitter cost savings easily exceed $500,000.

MDCL Included Free in Every NX Transmitter

When the first NX rolled out in 2008, Tim Hardy urged the rest of the Nautel management team not to charge extra for MDCL technology but to include it for free and provide it as a standard pre-installed software feature (i.e. not an optional circuit board) in all NX Series transmitters (now available in models from 25 kW up to 2 MW).

Nautel has also developed products for installation on older transmitters that do not have internal signal processing capability. The latest product utilizes an NX series DSP exciter card in a 1U chassis. Modified carrier and audio signals are sent to the host transmitter allowing it to benefit from this technology.

Find Out More

For more information about AM energy saving technologies, including MDCL, we have put together a useful FAQ document you can download http://www.nautel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/AM-Power-Saving-Techniques-FAQ.pdf

Speak with one of our representatives today or visit Nautel at the Great Lakes Broadcasting Conference & Expo in booth # 72 to find out more about the NX Series and power saving solutions from Nautel.

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Amendments Change Some Eligibility Criteria For Unemployment Benefits
By Robert Boonin (pictured left) and Mark Jane (right), Butzel Long

Amendments to the Michigan Employment Security Act were signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder on Monday, December 19, 2011, and became effective at that time. The following summarizes some of the more important amendments for broadcasters and other employers.

CHANGES REGARDING TYPES OF TERMINATIONS TRIGGERING BENEFITS

1. Voluntary Terminations

The amendments clarify that certain events constitute a voluntary termination without good cause attributable to the employer, and therefore disqualify an employee from receiving benefits. These events are terminations due to:

• The employee being absent from work for at least three consecutive work days without contacting the employer, provided that the employer informed the employee of the requirement to contact at the time of hire;

• The employee negligently loses a requirement for the job of which he or she was informed at the time of hire (example: a license necessary to perform the duties of the job).

Read More: Amendments Change Some Eligibility Criteria For Unemployment Benefits

Listeners Speak: 10 Programming Moves to Strengthen
Your Ratings in 2012
By Gary Berkowitz, Berkowitz Broadcast Consulting, Inc.

One of the most exciting parts of my job is to travel the country and conduct research. Here are ten tips that come up most often in market after market that if implemented, will lead to stronger ratings for you.

• Identifying music is a major benefit to female listeners. In research groups when you bring up back selling of music, most agree that it is very important and their favorite station does not always do it. We (radio people) think they know all the songs. They (listeners) disagree. In many cases, the listeners brought this up as a negative. They wonder why their favorite station does not tell them the songs played. Putting this info on your website is a step in the right direction, but not what they really want, which is to hear it on the air. This especially applies to newer and re-current songs.

Read More: Listeners Speak: 10 Programming Moves to Strengthen Your Ratings in 2012

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Legislative Recap – Top State Laws of 2011

2011 proved to be a busy legislative year with major GOP policy initiatives becoming laws. Below we list some of the most significant new legislation enacted last year.

Anti-Bullying Law:
Governor Rick Snyder called for the anti-bullying legislation in his education message in April. The new law requires schools to establish anti-bullying procedures. Several versions of this legislation were introduced, including one that would exempt statements based on moral and religious conviction. However, after the intense national media scrutiny, the anti-bullying bill that was signed into law in December (PA 241) does not contain such exemptions.

Item Pricing Law Eliminated:
For 35 years Michigan required retailers to sticker every item of merchandise for sale – a law considered burdensome by business groups who have tried for years to repeal it. Governor Rick Snyder brought up the repeal of the item pricing requirement in his first State of the State address and the legislation passed both chambers and was signed into law in March. The item pricing requirement officially ended September 1.

Charter School Cap Removed:
The initial legislation eliminated the cap on charter schools in districts where at least one school is failing academically. However, Senator Phil Pavlov (R-25) introduced a measure that abolished the limit on charter schools completely. After heated debates in the House Education Committee, recall of Representative Paul Scott (R-51) the House Committee Chair, and drama on the House floor, the bill to phase out the cap by 2015 was passed. Starting 2012, the charter school cap doubles from 150 to 300.

Workers’ Compensation Reformed:
The new law sets workers' compensation benefits at 80% of an injured worker's after-tax wages, permits the subtraction of retirement benefits from the weekly workers' compensation payment, requires the injured party to seek employment, extends the time period a company physician is involved in the case, and revises future wage earning capacity for those not permanently disabled. The Republican-led Legislature approved an exemption for police officers and firefighters from the bill, but rejected attempts by Democrats to extend the same exemption to corrections officers, teachers, veterans, hospital workers and skilled trade workers.

Redistricting:
The Republican-controlled state government oversaw every aspect of redrawing of districts for the Michigan Congressional districts as well as lines for state House and Senate seats. Michigan lost one Congressional seat because Michigan was the only state in the country to lose population over the last decade. The reconfigured districts will mean vigorous election campaigns in 2012 as many candidates will face highly contested primaries.

Teacher Tenure Altered:
The law which, in the past, made it very difficult to fire teachers who have achieved a certain level of seniority was reformed to make it easier for the school districts to let go of teachers considered ineffective. Under the new law, three consecutive ineffective ratings for a tenured teacher can constitute a cause for dismissal. The legislation also stipulates that when schools have to reduce workforce for financial reasons, they will put an emphasis on retaining effective teachers as opposed to laying off teachers based on seniority.

Emergency Manager Law:
This legislative proposal led to some of the largest protests in years at the State Capitol. The bill substantially increased the powers of the emergency financial managers, set up by PA 72 of 1990, to run cities and school districts considered to be in a financial emergency by the state. Under the new law, the emergency managers would have the added ability to modify or void contracts with the employees. The emergency managers would also have the power, although needing the Governor’s approval, to dissolve a municipality or a school district.

Tax and Budget Reforms:
Under the new tax laws, Michigan Business Tax was replaced with the six (6) percent Corporate Income Tax, which marked a significant change in the way our state taxes businesses. Additionally, the Governor and Legislature implemented immense changes to Michigan personal income tax. For the first time, pensions from public sector jobs will be subject to tax. The exemption for retirement income from private sector jobs drops from $45,120 to $20,000 for singles and from $90,240 to $40,000 for married couples. The Earned Income Tax Credit fell from 20 percent to six percent of a filer’s federal EITC. The charitable donation exemption to public institutions also ceased along with the $600 per child credit for child care expenses.

MAB PAC Scrapes Bottom - NEEDS YOUR HELP

Your membership in the MAB means that you have one of the strongest legislative advocacy teams in Michigan working for you! We are here to protect and advance the interests of our local broadcasting members. MAB and MAB PAC works for you to ensure that state laws and regulations do not burden you or your station.

Because of redistricting, 2012 election will be one of the most contested in a decade. Top lawmakers who support the Michigan broadcast industry will be looking for our help to make sure that the MAB has a seat at the table when the key policy decisions are being made. To do this requires a strong Political Action Committee (PAC).

Unfortunately, PAC funding is at an all-time low and we need your help and financial support to be effective in our legislative efforts on your behalf! Your donation will give the MAB PAC the resources we need to continue the momentum in serving you. Please consider making a personal donation to the MAB PAC today.

You may make a donation online at www.mabpac.org or send a personal check to MAB PAC, 819 N. Washington Avenue, Lansing MI 48906

MAB is supporting your industry. If you have never donated before, it is time for you to make that personal donation to the MAB PAC.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-17), Karole White MAB President/CEO and Trey Fabacher MAB Vice Chairman/Chairman Elect and VP/GM WWJ-TV/WKBD-TV (Detroit) on the day of the 2012 State of the State Address.

Michigan Broadcasters Air State of the State

More than 60 Michigan radio and television stations joined Michigan public broadcasters in airing the Governor’s second State of the State Address and the democratic response Wednesday evening January 18. "At least two television and radio stations in every market carried the address live," said Karole White, President/CEO of MAB. Many others either delayed the program and ran it later due to schedule conflicts, or recorded it and used excerpts in their newscasts. Many stations streamed the video on their websites. This will be one of the most widely viewed State of the State even topping last year’s address.

Public television broadcasters also carried an analysis of the State of the State address by "Off The Record" host, Tim Skubick and a panel of professional journalists. The analysis is a tradition for public television. It reviews the Governor’s address and the media panel discusses the possible impact the initiatives mentioned in the address may have for citizens of our State.

The Governor’s message focused on improving Michigan’s infrastructure as well as his 4x4 approach to a Healthy Michigan and decreasing obesity. Another issue mentioned was campaign reform. Though the MAB has no quarrel with good campaigns, we have fought bills in the past that try to make broadcasters the “campaign cops” or require broadcasters to fill out and file lengthy state forms in addition to our federal requirements. MAB will watch this initiative carefully and will try to get a seat at the table when campaign reform is discussed.

MAB was represented at the receptions in the Capital prior to the State of the State address by MAB Chairman Duane Alverson, MacDonald Broadcasting, who was seated on the floor of the House chambers as a guest of Rep. Jim Stamas (R-98). MAB Vice Chair/Chairman-Elect Trey Fabacher, CBS Television Detroit, also joined MAB staff making the rounds at events and meeting legislators.

Thank you to all of the people who made this year’s State of the State address such a huge success! A special thanks to Gary Blievernicht, Engineering Manager of WKAR-TV, for handling the public television feed and for arranging the satellite time for commercial stations and considerable coordination. Also, a huge thanks to WJRT-TV and their expert team for handling the uplink so that all stations could receive the feed whether or not they could send a truck. We certainly also want to thank Larry Estlack, MAB Director of Technology, for assisting coordinating members technical needs on the scene and Dan Kelley, MAB IT Manager, for the radio stream. There were many more staff and volunteers that made up the team that brought these statewide events and we wish to thank all of you for helping to demonstrate the power of over-the-air broadcasting.

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More EEO Fines on Their Way - And Helpful Hints on EEO Compliance From the FCC's EEO Webinar
David Oxenford, Davis Wright Tremaine

Recently, I participated in an FCC-sponsored webinar to discuss its EEO rules. Along with two other private firm lawyers, the chief of the FCC's Office that administers its EEO rules and one of his senior staff members participated on a panel to discuss the legal obligations of broadcasters and MVPDs in meeting the EEO rules. The panel, which lasted almost two hours, was a very thorough discussion of the requirements of the FCC rules. It provided insight into how the FCC identifies problems, and even suggested some ideas as to how broadcasters can assure compliance with the requirements in the easiest way possible. While lengthy, the webinar, which is archived on the FCC's website, is worth viewing to get a very good summary of the FCC rules. If a station or MVPD has its management employees and others with hiring responsibility sit down and watch the video, and use it as part of a training program for management employees on EEO matters, it may even count as one of the non-job specific supplemental outreach initiatives that the FCC requires each entity subject to the EEO rules to conduct.

We wrote recently about a set of FCC fines to two broadcasters that had not widely disseminated information about all of their job openings - relying instead on only a combination of internal sources (word-of-mouth, station websites, intra-company referrals) and Internet websites for their outreach efforts for a substantial number of job openings. At the webinar, the FCC officials said that there were a number of other enforcement actions in the pipeline that should be public soon. The FCC is reviewing every license renewal application that is filed with the FCC to determine if its accompanying Form 396 provides information necessary to demonstrate compliance with the three prongs of the FCC's EEO program - wide dissemination for all job openings, notice of job openings to community groups that request such notice, and non-vacancy specific initiatives that are designed to educate a community about the nature and requirements of broadcast jobs. Stations are also reviewed when the FCC conducts random audits (5% of all stations and MVPDs are supposed to be audited annually) and when complaints or other information comes to the attention of the FCC staff. Staff members remarked that they have even called stations to discuss issues when visiting a station website for personal reasons and noting the absence of the most recent Annual EEO Public File Report that needs to be posted on a station website on the anniversary date of the filing of the license renewal applications for stations in the state of the station's city of license.

Read More: More EEO Fines on Their Way

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Purchase Your Tickets Now for the 2011 BEA Ceremony!

Don't wait, get your tickets now for the 2011 Broadcast Excellence Awards ceremony. Also be sure to join us prior to the ceremony for the 2012 MAB Legislative Reception and Walk-Around Dinner. Come and meet your local Representatives and Senators and invite them to stay for the Broadcast Excellence Awards.

Tickets are only $35. Reserved tables are available. Please contact the MAB office for more information at awards@michmab.com or at 517-484-7444.

Get your tickets here!

Attention Michigan Radio Stations!

Have you entered the Community Service category for the 2011 Broadcast Excellence Awards?

Then consider entering your station's community service efforts in the 2012 NAB Crystal Radio Awards, too!

This past year has provided many opportunities for Michigan radio stations to serve their communities in various and unique ways. Given for year-round commitment to community service, the NAB Crystal Radio Award is one of the most prestigious awards in radio and gives your station the opportunity to receive national recognition. The award, which is open to all radio stations, will honor 50 finalists and be given to 10 winners in Las Vegas at the 2012 NAB Show. Complete information, including examples and tips, is available here.  

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ABIP Reminder

The annual MAB's Alernative Broadcast Inspection Program (ABIP) is underway! It's a great opportunity to get your station fully FCC-compliant. A few dollars invested in our compliance program can give licensees peace of mind, and save both thousands of dollars in potential fines as well as possibly a whole day spent away from business when such an inspection occurs.

MAB's Larry Estlack will use the same checklist the FCC does when it inspects a broadcast station and help you with compliance issues. Once in compliance, the MAB will issue a certificate and notify the FCC that your station has passed. Your station will then be free of routine FCC inspections for three years.

To schedule your inspection, contact MAB's Ann Cochrane at 1-800-YOUR-MAB or email her at acochrane@michmab.com.