NAB Show Monday: Storytelling, Speechifying And The FCC Visits

Monday

By PERRY MICHAEL SIMON in LAS VEGAS: Continuing its focus on content with this year's theme being "Every Story Starts Here," a nod to the current popularity of storytelling in all media, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS' annual SPRING convention, the NAB SHOW, launched MONDAY's sessions with NAB Pres./CEO GORDON SMITH offering his "State of the Broadcast Industry" speech, NPR CEO JARL MOHN with his own thoughts on the industry, appearances by FCC Commissioners and staffers, and one radio panel with five separate concurrent presentations.

Smith: Hey, Don't Forget About Broadcasters

Following a "lite" version of CIRQUE DU SOLEIL (a single performer spinning hoops amidst the output of a small fog machine) and BEASLEY CEO CAROLINE BEASLEY's introduction, SMITH touted broadcasting's community service role ("the electronic thread that keeps every community together, informed and safe"), its importance in news coverage (with a jab at social media companies complaining that the demise of local newspapers has dried up their sources of news), and ATSC 3.0 next-generation television (suggesting chips be included in all phone devices, a repeat of the unsuccessful attempt to get Apple to include FM chips in iPhones). He called for revamping present broadcast regulation while increasing regulation of tech companies "to ensure that these companies cannot use their market power to stifle competition and the financial viability of local news."

SMITH also took a moment at the outset to honor the late BONNEVILLE and HUBBARD executive BRUCE REESE, who recently passed away.

After SMITH's speech, TOM TAYLOR received the Spirit of Broadcasting Award from the NAB, calling for journalistic freedom and praising the trustworthiness of broadcast journalism. And ALAN ALDA was honored with the NAB Distinguished Service Award.

The View From NPR

MOHN continued the storytelling theme with a recounting of how he went from radio jock to station owner to TV executive and, ultimately, to the helm at NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, and also noted that NPR's approach to journalism follows the storytelling mode. On the network's success in the new media realm, MOHN said that when he got to NPR, "there were two camps, radio and digital... (but) if we view ourselves just as radio people or we view ourselves just as digital people, we will fail. We have to excel at both."

The conversation with AMPLIFI MEDIA CEO and ALL ACCESS contributor STEVE GOLDSTEIN also covered the network's success in podcasting ("a terrific business for us," MOHN enthused), with MOHN calling podcasts "an interesting entry point your young people" to discover public radio. He also explained NPR's development of its Remote Audio Data (RAD) measurement initiative as a way to attract brand advertisers, calling it "good currency that advertisers can use."

At the same time, five separate twenty-minute sessions repeated concurrently in the same large room composed the "Radio Engage" session, with consultant VALERIE GELLER, JACOBS MEDIA's SETH RESLER, NIELSEN's BILL ROSE, MEDIA STAFFING NETWORK's LAURIE KAHN, and COMPASS MEDIA NETWORKS' HIRAM LAZAR and YAMANAIR CREATIVE's YAMAN COSKUN offering advice on content, staffing, and sales issues. Attendees were issued headsets with the ability to select which presentation to hear.

Report From The Commissioners

FCC Commissioners MICHAEL O'RIELLY, BRENDAN CARR, and GEOFFREY STARKS tackled a range of issues in an afternoon NAB SHOW session, including ownership rules (CARR highlighting the different competitive situation, including non-broadcast media in the definition of competition; STARKS professing to be a "huge fan of broadcast" but not of large corporations "writing the local news" (a reference to SINCLAIR's "must run" edicts) and lack of diversity of ownership, calling for better access to capital and restoring the tax certificate program, which O'RIELLY said "is not coming back"), radio ownership in particular (O'RIELLY noting that the caps have not changed since 1995), expanding the definition of market competition (the present standard is "stagnant," O'RIELLY contended, adding that "it's everyone fighting for the same eardrums"), the repack and incentive auction, and AM radio (O'RIELLY calling for looser ownership restrictions on AM radio).

On pirate radio, O'RIELLY offered an update on the Commission's increased enforcement and education efforts, with the aside that some politicians were found to be advertising on pirate stations.

The convention runs through THURSDAY at the LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER.

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