Smith who is president and ceo of the National Association of broadcasters. Senator smith we appreciate you coming into the studio for this interview. Always a pleasure, peter. Even if it is just approximate. You and jonathan. Thank you for having me. Host in this age of coronavirus how has this affected americas broadcasters . Guest in many ways it has affected us but i think perhaps its unfortunate but it seems that the United States and our citizens become aware of broadcasting indispensable, irreplaceable role in the firmament of American Life when there are natural or other catastrophes and calamities that befall us because it is then that the architecture broadcasting, one source of content to everybody in a geographic area, without stress on the System People began to realize how valuable broadcasting remains and survey after survey continues to show that broadcasting remains the most important source of journalism when people just want the facts. But you know the nab since its founding in 1923 has a big tradeshow and only one other time i think it was the last year of world war ii was the show canceled but that is certainly having an impact on us and to do the thing that was in the interest of the health of our exhibitors and attendees and our participants we had to cancel that show this year and that is a great injury for lots of reasons. This is having a huge impact on us but americans are turning to broadcasting and very large numbers right now because they want the facts and they know they will get them on a localized basis by going to broadcast channels. Host have you seen an increase in viewership since this crisis began . Guest absolutely. That is the result of folks staying at home and teleworking like we are doing with our nab staff and people want that local component as well as the national component. Both of which broadcasting brings and they want the facts and they get them from broadcast like no other source. Host lets bring jonathan who is editor of Communications Daily into this conversation. Hello, pleased to be here. Senator smith, we spoken before including on the show but they have been in much more normal times. One thing i wanted to ask you is what are the precautions in different steps that your members are taking right now whether it is internally, work from home, that the association or whether its changes they are making in programming in such. Guest what is interesting is the broadcasters are also people that live in their local communities and trying to be good citizens and while members of abc or cbs or msnbc or fox they are heeding the warnings coming from the cdc and the white house about ways that we can participate and introduce the spread of the virus so they are pulling resources and pulling crews that go out and sharing in ways that you normally dont expect competitors to be doing but certainly in ways that are lawful and very important but now because they want to stay on the air at the heart of every broadcaster i think, as has been the case, whenever there is a National Emergency broadcasters dont want to see Service Interruptions of any kind and hopefully our friends on the cable and satellite side as well would stand down until we get this behind us and avoid Service Interruptions if at all possible. That is our history of doing that and i have no reason to believe that that will not continue. As it relates to social media, you know, unfortunately social media is a new, relatively New Invention compared to other forms of communication but sadly they really do need what we have which is solid, factual journalism, social media of late until hopefully not in the future but of late it is been it has been where you go to get fake news and halftruths, false witness, distortions on outright lies and that seemed to spread faster in the society than the coronavirus. It is important that social media platforms begin coordinating with and working with traditional news outlets like broadcasting and newspapers for their legitimate journalistic stories and facts. At the end of these day in the calamities people want the facts. They dont want to be spun. They dont want fingerpointing. They want to know what the problem is where relief and recovery can be had and all avenues of escape and improvement and that is what real journalism provides. Im happy to say i represent an industry that is the central plank of real journalism now. Senator smith, you talk about standing down have you seen a hold on some of the issues that the National Association of broadcasters is concerned about such as media ownership, scc owner issues . Guest before the christmas recess Congress Finally settled the fiveyear debate that goes on and they made it permanent. It needed to be made permanent and you know, it was a lot that was 30 years old, renewed every five years and it became basically an attack on broadcasting by new entrants into telecommunications but fortunately the congress in their wisdom said you know, this is a law that was begun to help a satellite industry compete with cable well, 30 years ago have gone by and dishes covered all 210 markets but unfortunately my provider, att, does not. Theyve left out 12 of frankly, very vulnerable rural markets where they dont want to serve in places like maine and montana and even kentucky and i know, for example, the people in Bowling Green, kentucky would like to see the news about mitch mcconnell, not about Chuck Schumer because they have been able to take distant signals from new york for virtually nothing and bring them into the homes of those in Bowling Green, kentucky. You know, and a time like a National Crisis like coronavirus it doesnt help people in Bowling Green or missoula, montana to be getting new york or local news from la or new york. They needed about their community and that is why Congress Finally said okay, keep your word, serve all 210 markets, no longer can you import distant signals. Within congress did the right thing and broadcasters who provide localism are doing the right thing, giving the American People the news and information they need in a crisis. Let me push you for more details kind of talking about broadcasters and the socalled paid tv operators not having disputes during this time. Is that something broadcasters are committed to . It struck me that even if not both sides were committed to it if particularly broadcasters would you know agree that we will keep our programming going even if we dont come to a new carriage agreement and is that something your industry you are committed to it and there wont be blackouts at this time . Guest i dont speak for each individual company in the sense that of their economic decisions but i know that i have heard on calls with our executive committee and individual members that they recognize the public response ability not to have Service Interruptions during this time but yeah, in the and it does take two of at the negotiating table so we hope the npv ds also share that same public spirited is and will help us to ultimately get fair value but also be highly attuned to the needs of our viewers and listeners. Let me ask you about working with the social media companies. There has been mention there, tension not just with broadcasters but with the aforementioned npv ds partly in the role and Service Providers can you tell me are there concrete steps that your members or even your group are taking right now that have those lines of mitigation open so as you would say the social media platforms can be getting the factual current news . Guest i think it is in the interest of social media to have relationships that have economic values but have relationships with broadcasters and newspapers to get localism because they need to up the integrity of their platform because, as i say, a lot of falsehoods and rumors and slanders occur in ways in which spread like a virus and misinformation. There needs to be a real focus on the value of real journalism and that is still alive in our country but we need that to begin to migrate into social media with more earnest effort that has been in the case. There is a bill in congress and i was pleased to see the Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell was on it that creates a framework for social platforms to deal with local content providers like newspapers and radio and television stations. We hope that happens because i think for the importance of it informed citizenry its really important that we find market waves to support good journalism. People just want the facts. I mean, today if people want to watch something they dont turn to netflix, for example, for news on the coronavirus but they go to their broadcast signal. When you are on the radio if you want news about what is happening in your community you dont turn to spot if i come a uturn to your local am or fm station that is in the business of providing information along with entertainment to keep them informed improve improve the quality of their lives. Let me ask you about social distancing. If you mentioned some of it. At your membership, and your organization in washington could you talk more about how that has affected both those constituencies . We saw the nab show postponed so we discussed that but what is the name for you and your members in terms of meetings, is all virtual or is anyone meeting physically or are you yourselves going to the office . Anything youd like to share about that. Guest well, as an association our staff we are teleworking now. Actually we are moving from our Dupont Circle location to down by National Park to a new building and we will be moving into that in the early april but social distancing and teleworking it is happening all over. You can tell it by the lack of traffic and you can tell that we are probably going to have to learn a lot of new ways to communicate with some distance until this virus passes and maybe Going Forward into the future this will become more a part of American Life. Host senator smith, go ahead and finish but i didnt mean to interrupt. Guest when it comes to, for example, the nab show this was an agonizing decision we made even before there was tremendous insistence by the government that we cancel. We did cancel about one week before it became an avalanche and we did it because of the community that we represent. The nab show exhibitors and our attendees, technology, content providers this is where we all come together once a year and we make investments into business and acknowledge rate progress that has been made and its a really important piece of american commerce but even before this virus be set this nation we hit also begun to reform our nab show in a way that was not just a weeklong gathering in las vegas but it was a yearround digital platform and we also have a new york tradeshow, nab trade show and so we are looking at enhancements for that but also having Digital Opportunities for our exhibitors and their customers and our members to engage with one another 3625 days a year and not just just the nab show as important as that is. We are trying to create a more holistic, more modernized system for the way we do business and we share information in terms of content, technology and education and camaraderie that really is enjoyed by the community of technology and broadcasting. Host gordon smith, a show was scheduled to be held in vegas and how many attendees and have you looked at the Economic Impact of that . Guest we are still calculating the impact, peter. We normally have roughly 100,000 visitors a year attend that, look at a million square feet of exhibit space and of course, its a huge loss but we are going to do our best to replace that with a digital platform that is still makes their products available and information out and then, of course, we hope within enhanced nab show in october where our attendees can kick the tyrus of the new technologies and content ideas that that will be an enhanced show but then we expect this virus to, as happens with most, it will fade away as the weather gets warmer and we can have a great nab show next april but we are not going to forget the lessons we have learned through this terrible shutdown of our economy. Host one of the things on your agenda at the nab show was an interview with fcc chairman pai, what did you plan on asking . Guest chairman pie is a great man and superb fellow and he is certainly understood and it is paying off now, the irreplaceable importance of broadcasting in the firmament of tillich medications to the American People. I had planned to ask him about things like ownership restrictions on broadcasting and certainly does not apply to social media platforms or other entrance into the communication but only broadcasting is kept intentionally small and sometimes we need to scale to be able to compete, not sometimes, we do need scale to compete with these new entrants in communications. But there are lots of issues. We read talk about the repack of the spectrum repacked after the sale of a whole bunch of our broadcast spectrum where people need to rescan their Television Sets and literally in the last phase of that. It is supposed to be over by this summer but phase ten which was on the horizon already chairman pai has said we will give you more flexibly if this virus gets in the way of deadlines and we will give you that flexibility so they been a real help and a partner and understanding here as we have transitioned into this new world of reduced spectrum for broadcasting, digital compression and then, of course, i wanted to thank him for and all our commissioners who supported the voluntary introduction of what is called a tfc went zero which is a transmission standard which will bring to the American People incredible new optics in terms of picture quality, even better than what you have in hd and bring immersive sound into your home and tremendously mobile so you can get video with an antenna that you plug in or maybe someday Cell Companies will allow you to get broadcast as well as digital streaming on your devices so it doesnt to up your bank account. When that happens broadcasting will remain with this new standard that the cornerstone of tillich medications it will because what we do is unique and localism is our franchise and ours alone can we produce it and that is what is needed in a time of crisis and a tfc. 0 will allow Emergency Alerts that are hyper localized about what the problem is and where recovery can be found or rescued and its a tremendous addition to the Emergency Alert system to the American People. Host jonathan, a little less than five minutes left. I appreciate it. Let me ask you about the upcoming move and it so happens that the fcc is moving two months after you all so when is the nab headquarters move planned for and is that going to remain on track . Guest yes, it is on track and we will, literally as i speak here in your studio, we are moving and we are moving from 1771 and street northwest two 1m street southeast. We are a block away from National Park and four blocks away from the house side of the capitol hill and it will be a wonderful change for nab and certainly puts a stake in the ground that broadcasters are here and we are well and not just surviving but thriving and we are here to fight for our piece of tillich medications because they reckon people need this not just to survive but to thrive. Its a beautiful new building and will enhance our efficiency and put us closer to the business we are in. Our business is advocacy the laws and regulations that allow them to continue to thrive in america and that building will be part and parcel of that literally new location and new effort on our part. Good to know the move is on and no changes there. You talk about the next Generation Television and you did mention the device makers so its part of the broadcaster plans could be getting this new tv standard on cell phones and any progress there . Guest again, this is where our telephone and tablet manufacturers need to add a broadcast antenna to it. Its not much of an addition and its a great enhancement to the usefulness of your devices. Right now you could get lots of video on your iphone or samsung but it goes against your data gaps and its expensive and its bandwidth hogging and so you get more and more people on broadband and it stresses the system and creates a something of a traffic jam. You see that in buffering and broadcasting has none of that. Its the most efficient his mission of video and there is nothing like it in the world and that will be an important feature for, i think, one of the manufacturers will come up with this and see the competitive value and when the American People understand how the mobility is enhanced by this 3. 0 standard they will want that and whoever produces it first will sell devices when people look to renew or change their devices. Host you have been watching the communicators and our guest this week has been gordon smith, former senator from oregon and longtime National Association of broadcasters, president and ceo, our guest reporter has been jonathan make who is the executive editor of the Communications Daily. Gentlemen, thank you for your time and for putting up with our social distancing studios. This communicators and all others are available as podcasts. Television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago but our Mission Continues to provide unfiltered view of government. Already this year we brought you primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus but you can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on the free radio app. Be a part of the National Conversation to cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan created by private industry, americas Cable Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Coming up tonight on book tv, books about history. First, musician tim mcgraw and biographer john meacham discuss history through some. Then the book land of hope, a history of america. After that america for americans looks at prejudice towards immigrants throughout american history. Later, when it was grand, the history of radical republicanism in the civil war. Next, musician tim mcgraw and biographer jim meacham discuss history through songs. This was part of the 2020 Rancho Mirage writers festival in california. [inaudible conversations]
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