The NAB Show 2023 drew 65,013 registered attendees and 1,208 exhibiting companies, according to preliminary numbers announced by the trade group Tuesday. The 2022 show, the first after the two preceding events were canceled due to COVID-19, had 53,458 registered attendees and 940 exhibitors, while the pre-pandemic 2019 had 91,460 people and over 1,600 exhibitors. This year was the trade show’s centennial anniversary. Next year’s show will be April 13-17 in Las Vegas, the release said.

The FCC should vote in the near future on reinstating equal employment opportunity data collection, said public interest and civil rights groups in a meeting with Media Bureau staff Friday, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 19-177 Wednesday. The groups were the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council. “It is a best practice and consistent with current business and regulatory norms to collect and publish employment data,” the filing said. “Essentially the same data” is used on EEO and FCC forms “so companies are most likely already in possession of the data needed for both forms,” the filing said. The groups also said the data should be made public: “Public data will best serve the public interest.”

The FCC unanimously approved an order on updating low-power TV and TV translator rules, said Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The item had been set for commissioners' open meeting Thursday but has been deleted from the agenda, according to the FCC’s website. The order updates rules for LPTV and translators to reflect the digital transition, and requires LPTV stations to comply with station identification requirements. The order also rejects calls from the LPTV Broadcasters Association to replace the term low-power television in FCC rules with “local power television.” The "purpose of this proceeding is to eliminate confusion within our rules,” the order said. “Because several of our rules stem from statutory requirements, and because Congress has used the term ‘low power television,’ we believe that changing this term would result in inconsistencies between the statute and the rules and would create, not eliminate, confusion within our rules,” the order said. The order also requires a minor modification permit for all LPTV station relocations, where previously LPTV stations were allowed to relocate less than 500 feet without a permit. The order updates the coordinates used to determine land mobile radio protection, and updates FCC rules for assigning LPTV call signs. “These updates reflect the Commission’s continued effort to ensure our rules clearly reflect the Commission’s requirements, and are understandable to all stakeholders,” the order said.

India public broadcaster Prasar Bharati will allow GeoBroadcast Solutions to test its geotargeted radio systems on All India Radio starting in mid-April, said GBS in a news release Monday. The test will begin with the broadcaster's radio stations in Delhi and Bengaluru and reach a combined listenership of 23 million, the release said. “The technology will not only reach underserved communities through an improved broadcast signal but will also provide zoned customized content to various dialect and ethnic groups,” GBS said. The installation should be completed and ready for trial by the end of the summer, it said.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (FEMA IPAWS) staff endorsed an NAB proposal to allow broadcasters to replace physical emergency alert system equipment with software, NAB and broadcasters New York Public Radio, iHeartMedia, Cox Media Group, Graham Media and Capitol Broadcasting told the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a meeting Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 15-94. The shift to software would reduce the time to repair equipment and install security patches, NAB said. The software "would still operate if Internet or cloud connectivity is interrupted,” the filing said: “NAB is not advocating a fully cloud-based approach.” The broadcasters also told the agency they're “agnostic” on the development of such software. “We anticipate, and would likely prefer, that the current vendors of EAS equipment take the lead in such an effort, because this would allow industry to reap the benefits of their experience and expertise in this somewhat niche area of technology,” the filing said.

The FCC shouldn’t hold broadcast licensees responsible for errors or discrepancies resulting from proposed changes to the way geographic coordinates of stations are calculated, said NAB in comments posted Wednesday in docket 22-227. The agency should also specify land mobile channel reservations that don't require protection by broadcasters, or rule that reservations that sat idle for over 50 years don’t need to be protected. NAB expressed concern about adjusting FCC rules to reflect the agency staff’s current practice for calculating a station’s effective radiated power: “The proposed use of ‘staff’s current practice’ rather than the explicit mathematical definitions in the rules for determination of effective radiated power is ill-defined, will lead to confusion,” and “raises questions concerning the apparent unofficial amendment of Commission rules by practice without notice and comment.” The FCC should retain provisions allowing low-VHF stations to maximize both power and height to increase their service, or make clear that changes don’t preclude power increases above zone maximums by low-VHF stations, said Marantha Broadcasting.

Pennsylvania radio broadcaster Roger Wahl’s FCC license was revoked, said an Enforcement Bureau order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Wahl’s license for WQZS(FM) Meyersdale was designated for hearing after he pleaded guilty to multiple crimes involving allegedly attempting to have a woman sexually assaulted. Wahl took nude pictures of the victim using a camera he concealed in her bathroom, impersonated her on a dating website, and later tried to destroy the evidence of what he had done, said the EB order. “His conduct was adjudicated to be entirely willful, comprising a sequence of acts performed over time and calculated to harm his victim,” said the order. "And even though Mr. Wahl has typically complied with FCC rules and policies, the record reflects no efforts by Mr. Wahl to remedy these wrongs." The hearing proceeding for Wahl’s license was terminated by FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin in August (see 2208020053) after he missed multiple deadlines with no explanation.

A pilot project using ATSC 3.0 to disseminate advanced emergency information was launched in Washington, D.C., and Virginia’s Arlington and Fairfax counties by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and One Media 3.0. The program will provide “free, over-the-air redundancy” to emergency messaging currently sent by local governments via text, email, and social media, said a news release Tuesday. One Media’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcast, will also provide “rich” supplementary information to those messages using newsrooms at its local TV stations. The pilot program will initially use the facilities WIAV-CD Washington, D.C., and then migrate to ABC affiliate station WJLA-TV Washington, D.C, which has broader reach, the release said. “Rather than simple text crawls across a TV screen that a tornado is approaching, for example, NextGen Broadcast powers a much more robust signal that can render real time doppler radar, weather images, evacuation routes, shelter locations, flood maps -- and do it in multiple languages,” the release said. The pilot is an outgrowth of an Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance roundtable event in D.C. in December (see 2212080044, the release said. “Anyone in the WIAV viewing area who has a NextGen TV set or a NextGen set-top converter box should be able to receive the emergency messages from WIAV,” the release said. The program will eventually incorporate other devices and jurisdictions, the companies said.

The FCC is seeking comment on an NAB petition for an additional extension of a waiver of a 2013 rule requiring broadcasters to provide audio description on a second audio stream of emergency information conveyed through graphics, said a public notice in docket 12-107 Monday. Compliance was originally required by 2015, but the agency granted an 18-month waiver and has repeatedly extended it, most recently by five years in 2018. NAB requested a two-year extension for the current waiver, which expires May 26. NAB says it remains “unable to identify a workable solution based on existing technology that can perform the functions required by the rule,” the PN said. “We seek comment on NAB’s request, including whether two years is the appropriate timeframe for any extension.” Comments are due April 24, replies May 1.

Twitter labeling NPR a “US state-affiliated media” Tuesday is “unacceptable,” said NPR CEO John Lansing in a release Wednesday. That’s a description that doesn’t apply to NPR under Twitter’s own guidelines, Lansing said. Twitter’s guidelines list state-affiliated media as not having editorial independence. “NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way,” Lansing said. “ A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.” NPR’s Twitter account still bore the label Wednesday. Twitter didn’t comment.