NorthEast Radio Watch 4/7/2025: At NAB, More Questions than Answers

In this week’s issue… Fear and Uncertainty in Las Vegas – Memory Stations to sign off – WNED, WBFO rebrand – Najman out at WDEV – Zoomer expands in Ontario

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

LAS VEGAS – Are there any certainties left in the broadcast business?

It’s hard to find many this year as the NAB Show kicks off here in the desert. As the exhibit floor opened Sunday, it looked much as it always does, but behind the scenes, broadcasters and the industry around them are looking for answers that often just don’t seem to exist right now.

We’re just a week or so away from the comment period for the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding aimed at removing broadcast regulations deemed obsolete or unnecessary, and that would surely have been something commissioner Nathan Simington would have been asked about at his policy discussion here, if it hadn’t been abruptly cancelled Sunday night. Commissioner Anna Gomez, who’s coming out at her own expense, is still slated to appear this afternoon, where she’s certain to also face questions about the possible elimination of station ownership caps and other shifting ground in Washington.

If broadcasters are suddenly free to buy more stations, though, who’d have the money to do it? The sudden drop in the stock market will be on broadcasters’ minds here, and so are the tariffs that triggered the economic tsunami late last week.

Even if broadcasters could still afford to take on big projects, it’s not at all clear how those tariffs will affect all the equipment on the floor at the show, much of it imported from Asia and Europe – and even the “made in the USA gear” still depends heavily on parts and materials from abroad that are also affected by those tariffs.

If it sounds like it’s all a little nerve-wracking, it is, and it’s interesting to see how much of the usual NAB Show camaraderie and pageantry carries on in spite of what’s happening out there in the rest of the world.

We’re here for a few more days, and we’ll have much more on the NAB Show and the state of the industry ahead in NERW and on our Top of the Tower podcast in the days to come.

(And yes, that even includes some hope: coming up later this week on the podcast, you’ll hear from a broadcast engineer/manager with some timely ideas for how stations and groups can combine forces and share resources to survive and thrive. We’ll also bring you some encouraging news from broadcast educators about what they’re seeing from their students. Stay tuned.)