w w w. a l - b a. c o m October 10,

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1 Sent by: Alabama Broadcasters Association Reply to the sender w w w. a l - b a. c o m October 10, 2008 Please make sure that anyone at your station who should receive important news from the FCC, NAB, ABA and industry news in general is signed up to receive the ABA E-News and blasts. Sign up at: "Monarch and Mums" at a roadside stand in Cullman County on 9/28/08. Rep Artur Davis sides with broadcasters Don't forget EAS equipment when you roll back clocks on November 2nd The Alabama Broadcasters Association, founded in 1946, has served the broadcasting industry in Alabama for more than sixty years. The ABA is dedicated to protecting and enhancing

2 WAAY-TV welcomes new General Manager WSFA 12 News broadcasts local news in high definition Comcast sees gold in DTV conversion Radio Stations asked to help with DTV transition education broadcasting and promoting the professional status of our members. We provide programs and services beneficial to the individual broadcaster and to our members as a group. Radio Heard Here spots available for download HD Radio hits milestones Reason... a sales article by Jeffrey Hedquist Alabama Coal Association joining ABA PEP program Cox Radio's "Pastor Pisani" wins Spirit of Kindness Award Former WYDE Chief Engineer Gray Passes Transactions... Former ABA scholarship recipient encourages donations Make your tax deductible donations to the ABA Ed Foundation before Dec 31 On the road again... Rep Artur Davis sides with broadcasters

3 Twenty six members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), including Alabama s Rep. Artur Davis, placed their signatures on a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressing concern that the Commission s localism proposal to require 24-hour station staffing and to require stations to relocate their main studios will have an adverse impact on the ability of broadcasters, particularly small and minority-owned broadcasters, to continue to serve their communities. As you know, earlier this year, the industry was also successful in securing the support of over 160 members of the House and Senate who have previously written to the FCC to express their concern on behalf of broadcasters. All of Alabama's House of Representative members are among the 160 signatures on the earlier letter to the FCC. Don't forget EAS equipment when you roll back clocks on November 2nd When you roll back your clocks and watches, don't forget to update the time on your EAS equipment. Most manufacturers say you should NOT simply change the Time-of-Day readout on the front of their EAS unit on DST day. This will cause the internal UTC clock to be incorrect, causing you to possibly miss receiving alerts due to the UTC-based times sent in EAS Alerts. Many units may call for an upgrade but EAS Chairman Larry Wilkins advises that you may not want to incur that expense since your station will likely be required to purchase new EAS equipment next year. Most manufactures will be posting instructions on their website regarding changing the time manually. These procedures must be followed very precisely to avoid having an incorrectly set internal UTC clock. WAAY-TV welcomes new General Manager New WAAY-TV GM Art Lanham arrived in Huntsville a few weeks ago. I had the pleasure of meeting him and WAAY's Traffic Manager Robin Dorning on Monday of this week (10/6). WSFA 12 News broadcasts local news in high definition WSFA 12 News, Montgomery s NBC affiliate for the past 54 years, has launched a market first, broadcasting all of its local newscasts in Digital High Definition. WSFA 12 News first broadcast digital television in Montgomery nearly four years ago and has been providing NBC Nightly News, Today on NBC, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O Brien, prime time programs, NFL and many other sports events in Digital High Definition. WSFA 12 News is the second television station in Alabama to broadcast local newscasts in High Definition, joining NBC affiliate WVTM-TV in Birmingham. WSFA 12 News invested more than a million dollars over the past year in the project, adding new weather and news sets in the studio, new studio and field cameras, new graphics and new editing and production equipment. Viewers can experience WSFA 12 News in true High Definition on their digital cable channels (Brighthouse 211 in Wetumpka and Greenville, 226 in Eufaula; Charter 711; Knology 903) or on Channel 12.1 over the air on their HD television set though an antenna. Providing local news and weather in High Definition furthers our community commitment to quality coverage, says Ken Selvaggi, WSFA 12 News Vice-President and General Manager. WSFA 12 News is owned by Montgomery based Raycom Media and produces more than five hours of top rated news daily and publishes news stories hourly on WSFA.COM, averaging nearly three million page views each month. Comcast sees gold in DTV conversion

4 RBR Oct 9, 2008 Get Ready for the digital television transition in February by eliminating the need for an antenna and converter box or new TV. Just sign up for cable is the pitch from Comcast. The cable giant figures there ought to be some people among the estimated 13 million US households who will lose television service come February 17, 2009 unless they do something to replace or modify their analog TV set hooked up to an antenna. Comcast says its Get Ready initiative is the easy answer, so why wait? Go ahead and get ready for the DTV transition today by replacing that rabbit ears antenna with cable service. The simple fact is that basic cable is the easiest path through the digital transition and now consumers can get it for free. With one call to COMCAST, we can professionally install basic cable service on every cable-ready TV and will deliver more channels with no new boxes, no new remote, no antennas and no reception issues, said Derek Harrar, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Video Services for Comcast. DTV is a landmark event in the history of television and we re doing everything we can to help, he added. Free? Did he say free? Yep, here s the deal. Sign up for at least one additional Comcast service, such as broadband Internet, and get free basic cable for 12 months. New subscribers who don t sign up for anything but basic cable get a rate of $10 per month for 12 months. We daresay Comcast is not the only one looking to sign up new subscribers and make a buck or two from the DTV switchover. DirecTV and Dish are also offering themselves as alternatives, as are FiOS, U-Verse and the various cable MSOs. And, of course, eletronics retailers are happy to sell hot, new digital TVs to anyone who wants to upgrade to the new technology. Radio Stations asked to help with DTV transition education As you know, February 17, 2009 is the date of the digital television transition. There is a massive public awareness effort underway to inform the public about how to prepare for the transition. In AL, there are 187,000 households that receive television over the air and are in danger of losing their television reception completely on February 17 unless they take specific steps. ABA is asking radio stations to assist in this important public education effort by airing DTV PSA's. The National Association of Broadcasters has made available fully produced DTV Action radio spots, and has provided scripts for stations wishing to use their on-air talent. Spots are available in :60, :30, and :15 second versions as well as English and Spanish and they are taggable. They can be downloaded from Radio Heard Here spots available for download The first five spots in the Radio Heard Here campaign are available for download and use by radio stations. The spots were developed to remind consumers of the important role radio plays in their everyday lives and to engage consumers in a way that motivates them to think about new ways to access and use radio. To download the spots, go to the advertising download section of the campaign website at You will be prompted to complete a registration process if you have not already done so before being allowed to download the spots. If you have questions or need additional information, call or support@radioheardhere.com HD Radio hits milestones

Inside Radio10/8 HD Radio's rollout continues to make headway as several base technology goals are met. More than one million HD Radio modules and 1.

5 Inside Radio10/8 HD Radio's rollout continues to make headway as several base technology goals are met. More than one million HD Radio modules and 1.5 million chipsets have been manufactured for retial. The announcement coincides with ibiquity certifying the 100th HD Radio technology product. Reason... a sales article by Jeffrey Hedquist Reason has power. I don t mean to say that reaching your audience with logic is better than touching their emotions. No, you have to do that, but making an unsubstantiated claim won t be as effective as telling the story behind the claim. When you make a claim and describe the benefit, explain why you can do it. If something s on sale, tell the audience why. Did you buy a large volume and are passing on the discount? Did you make a mistake, overbuy and are stuck with left over merchandise? Are you just willing to earn less in profit to move the merchandise and give customers a good deal? If your computer store offers free help before and after the sale from a software consultant, tell those skeptics out there why. You know they can go anywhere to get a good price, but you want to build a relationship so they ll come to you as their computer needs grow, so you ve decided to invest in each customer. Sure, it s costing you money, but you want them to remember you when they re ready for another purchase. Whatever your position, offer, claim, benefit, give em the true reasons for what you re doing. By doing that your commercial will sound less like advertising and more like a story, a friend explaining why they can help. Reason is the servant of emotion. You know that you ll win the hearts of your listeners by touching their emotions. A reasonable explanation will give their mind ammunition to justify their decision to buy from you. Jeffrey Hedquist creates reasonable commercials to get unreasonable results at Hedquist Productions, Inc. P.O. Box 1475 Fairfield, IA Phone , Fax , jeffrey@hedquist.com Hedquist Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Alabama Coal Association joining ABA PEP program The Alabama Coal Association is joining the ABA Public Education Partnership program. We'll have a radio and TV spot in the mail around October 20th. Currently, all stations should have spots in rotation for the Alabama Army National Guard and the Alabama State Bar. The US Coast Guard contract has expired and we won't know if they are coming back to the program until near the end of the year. Please pull Coast Guard spots for now if you haven't already. A new State Bar "Foreclosure" spot was delivered via DG Fastchannel last week. Only stations

6 in Huntsville need to be airing it at this time. The spot will be launched market by market as the Bar can meet the demands of their FREE foreclosure assistance to Alabama homeowners. If you are not a Huntsville area TV station, please hold the spot until we contact you. Radio spots will be delivered in person at the appropriate time. Thanks to everyone for supporting the PEP program! Contact Cindi McGee if you have any problems or need copies of any spots. cmcgee@al-ba.com or Cox Radio's "Pastor Pisani" wins Spirit of Kindness Award BIRMINGHAM, AL October 10, 2008 Cox Radio, Inc. today announced that Pisani Standfield also known as Pastor Pisani, on-air talent with WAGG-AM in Birmingham, has been awarded the Spirit of Kindness Award from The Kindness Revolution for helping to make Birmingham a kinder community. Pastor Pisani will be honored on Friday, October 10 at The Kindness Revolution s Spirit of Kindness Award breakfast at the Bradley Lecture Center at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. I am honored to accept this wonderful award, commented Stanfield. I am grateful to be a part Birmingham s special community, and deeply appreciate the recognition from The Kindness Revolution. The award would not have been possible without the support, hard work and dedication that all of my colleagues at Cox Radio bring to the Birmingham community. Pastor Pisani portrays a true example of what it means to be kind, said David R. DuBose, Vice President, Market Manager at Cox Radio-Birmingham. Pisani s consideration of others and warmhearted attitude is just one of the many unique attributes she brings to Birmingham and our company. We are extremely fortunate and proud to have her as part of our team. Former WYDE Chief Engineer Gray Passes Jim Gray, former Chief Engineer of WYDE (850 AM) and local contract engineer passed away on Friday, October 3 at the home of his daughter in Hoover. Jim was one of the original members of the Birmingham Engineering group which was later to become SBE Chapter 68. He held the offices of Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Secretary Treasurer, and was always in attendance at meetings before he retired and moved to Gulf Shores. Earlier this year he moved to Hoover to live with his daughter Christy Miller. Grave side services for Jim were held Monday, October 6 in Hoover. Provided by: Frank Giardina Director of Engineering Citadel Birmingham Transactions... RBR $50K WQLS-AM Dothan AL (Ozark AL) from Horizon Broadcasting Company (Wayne North) to Hughey Communications Inc. (Randall Hughey, Debra Hughey). Cash. [FCC file date 9/2/08] $199.5K WIXI-AM Jasper AL from James Lee to Snavely Broadcasting Company LLC (Elsa Snavely, David Snavely). $20K escrow, balance in cash at closing. [FCC file date 9/12/08] Former ABA scholarship recipient encourages donations

Dear Alabama Broadcasters: By way of re-introduction, I am Ryanne Duffie and a past recipient of an Alabama Broadcasters Association Scholarship in 1999.

7 Dear Alabama Broadcasters: By way of re-introduction, I am Ryanne Duffie and a past recipient of an Alabama Broadcasters Association Scholarship in I am writing to encourage you all to consider giving to the new Alabama Broadcasters Association Educational Foundation, and to thank you for the opportunities it has provided me. The scholarship helped me fund part of my undergraduate degree at Birmingham- Southern College. Specifically, the money received helped to pay for books, gas and my tuition for one semester. In addition, I know that placing such an accolade on my resume has helped me to stand out in my pursuit of obtaining a law degree with a focus on entertainment and intellectual property law. During the past nine years, I continued to work at my father s radio station in Dothan, AL. I also worked on many video productions for film and television prior to going to law school. While in law school, I served as the Vice-President of the Entertainment Law Society, Director of Volunteers for the Crossroads Film Society, received an offer for an internship in BMI s legal department in New York and was selected to receive the Entertainment Law Society s Most Valuable Student award by my law professors. When you consider which scholastic foundations to support this year, please put the ABA s Educational Foundation at the top of your list. The value it provides is not measured in monetary terms alone. Rather, its effects have lasting impressions that resonate throughout a person s life. With more money in the fund, the ABA will have the ability to provide more opportunities for learning. Thank you for helping give shape to my future. Help mold the future of broadcasting in Alabama by giving to the ABA Foundation today. With sincere thanks, Ryanne E. Duffie, Esq. Ryanne is the daughter of Past President and ABA Board Member - Terry Duffie from Dothan, AL. She graduated Cum Laude this past May from

Mississippi College School of Law. She was admitted to the Mississippi Bar on October 2, 2008, and will sit for the Alabama Bar in August 2009. Ryanne is an associate at Frascogna Courtney, PLLC (www.

8 Mississippi College School of Law. She was admitted to the Mississippi Bar on October 2, 2008, and will sit for the Alabama Bar in August Ryanne is an associate at Frascogna Courtney, PLLC ( in the entertainment law division helping musicians, filmmakers, and authors with intellectual property law. She can be reached via at or Make your tax deductible donations to the ABA Ed Foundation before Dec 31 The ABA Educational Foundation is open for business. We are in the process of formulating a paid internship program and hope to have it in place for the spring. Stations may apply for interns, students may apply for internships and we'll match you up. An unbiased panel will choose recipients in a similar manner to the former scholarship program. The ABAEF can now accept credit card transactions (AMEX, MC and Visa). Get your points and do some good at the same time. And, of course, an old fashioned check is always welcome! Contact Tina Currier at tcurrier@al-ba.com or to make a donation. Remember, your station also gets credit under EEO plans for your support of a scholarship program like this. Visit the ABAEF website at: On the road again... Since our last ABA E News, I've met the new WBRC GM, Lou Kirchner here in Birmingham (and her Assistant Felicia Rylee) and the new WAAY GM Art Lanham in Huntsville. On Monday of this week (10/6), Brad Carr of the Alabama State Bar and I visited Huntsville area radio and TV stations to deliver the special "Foreclosure" spot. The campaign will be rolled out county by county in the eight counties where foreclosures are highest in number. We saw Georgia Jones and Lisa Screws at WAFF-TV; Patrick O'Connor at WZDX-TV; Amber Keyes at Rocket City; Hundley Batts of WEUP AM/FM bought us lunch; we visited with Rick Brown and Stephanie McGee at Clear Channel; Bill West and Audrey Raines at Cumulus; Shellie Erskine at WRSA-FM; Robin Dorning (and Art) at WAAY-TV; David Williams and

9 Jean Nance at WHNT; and, Rachel Fears at WHWT-FM. Monday, I'm delivering two DTV presentations at the Fairhope Public Library... one at 2pm and another at 6pm...so, if you're in the neighborhood come on by. On Tuesday, I've lined up a full day of station visits in Mobile and look forward to seeing everyone! Be sure to give us a call if we can help you in any way. Sharon This was sent from Alabama Broadcasters Association Immediate removal with PatronMail SecureUnsubscribe. To forward this to a friend or colleague, use this link. To change your address or update preferences, use this link.

The Broadcast Digital Transition

The Broadcast Digital Transition Impact on Cable Television Households Juan Otero Senior Director, Government Affairs Comcast Cable 1 The switch to digital-only television signals in early 2009 will usher