RALEIGH, N.C.—Capitol Broadcasting Co. has named Heather Gray vice president and general manager of WRAL-TV and WRAZ-TV here.

The move brings Capitol-owned NBC affiliate WRAL, Fox station WRAZ and the stations’ new media and digital solutions departments under a unified leadership structure for the first time, Capitol Broadcasting said.

Gray will oversee the Raleigh stations’ cross-platform strategy and operations, Capitol said.

Gray has worked for Capitol since 2017, rising through the ranks from creative services director to brand director to station manager to, most recently, interim GM. She’ll be the first woman to serve as WRAL VP and general manager in the station’s history.

“Heather’s leadership is rooted in vision, authenticity, and deep commitment to our mission and people,” Capitol Broadcasting President and CEO Jimmy Goodmon said.

Gray brings more than two decades of local media expertise to her new role. Before joining Capitol, she led marketing and programming at Tegna-owned NBC station KPNX Phoenix, where she launched the station’s digital brand and built one of that market’s first integrated social-media teams, Capitol said.

Gray serves on the boards of United Arts Wake County and the Local Media Association and is a past chair of the NBC Station Marketing Council.

ATLANTA—The Charlotte Hornets, Gray Media, Capitol Broadcasting and FanDuel Sports Southeast have reached an agreement to simulcast five games this season in various markets throughout North Carolina and South Carolina via the Palmetto Sports & Entertainment Network and other Gray affiliates. Capitol Broadcasting Company will distribute the games in the Raleigh, N.C. market.

This agreement marks the first time Hornets basketball has aired on local, free over-the-air television since the 2007-08 NBA season and will provide fans with more ways to watch Hornets basketball.

“We’re excited to partner with Gray Media’s Palmetto Sports & Entertainment Network to make our FanDuel Sports Southeast broadcasts available to a wider audience across the Carolinas,” said Hornets president of business operations Shelly Cayette-Weston. “As an organization, we remain committed to growing our fanbase, extending the reach of our TV audience and making our broadcasts more accessible to all.”

In addition to the local over-the-air stations, all five games will also be available on FanDuel Sports Southeast.

The five-game over-the-air television schedule (showing date, opponent and time) is:

• Jan. 27, Los Angeles Lakers, 7 pm
• Jan. 31, Los Angeles Clippers, 7 pm
• Feb. 5, Milwaukee Bucks, 7 pm
• Feb. 27, at Dallas Mavericks, 8:30 pm
• March 3, Golden State Warriors, 7 pm

RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAZ, the Capitol Broadcasting-owned Fox affiliate here, is transmitting content in high dynamic range (HDR) to ATSC 3.0 viewers using Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

The broadcaster selected Advanced HDR by Technicolor because it provides excellent visual quality, a simplified workflow and improved bandwidth efficiency, the company said.

“Capitol Broadcasting’s team explored the potential of Advanced HDR by Technicolor [specifically SL-HDR1] to create high-quality visual content while leveraging the single layer solution to drive data rate savings,” Valérie Allie, InterDigital’s video solutions group director, said. “Bandwidth optimization is vital for television operators like Capitol Broadcasting. Advanced HDR by Technicolor enables stations to expand their offerings, improve resolution, and enhance overall video quality while delivering additional channels within the same spectrum.”

After conducting live tests on WRAZ, Capitol Broadcasting's engineering team saw improvements from the capabilities provided by the Advanced HDR by Technicolor solution, it said.

The impact Advanced HDR by Technicolor can have on workflow convergence for broadcast operations is also significant. “This technology allows Capitol Broadcasting to explore multiple distribution scenarios without adding operational complexity while keeping technical infrastructures agile,” added Allie.

Interdigital, Philips and Technicolor collaborated on the development of Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

More information is available on the Advanced HDR by Technicolor website.

PRINCETON, N.J.—Triveni Digital has announced that Capitol Broadcasting Company—the owner and operator of WRAL-TV, WRAZ-TV, WILM-TV, and WNGT-TV in North Carolina—has selected Triveni Digital's award-winning Station Manager to simplify the operation and delivery of NextGen TV and ATSC 1.0 services. 

Capitol Broadcasting Company will deploy the industry-first Station Manager solution across its stations, setting up a foundation for efficient management of ATSC 3.0 operations, the companies said. 

"We are excited to renew our collaboration with Triveni Digital, a trusted technology partner and longstanding advisor for NextGen TV," said Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations at Capitol Broadcasting Company. "Deploying Triveni Digital's Station Manager was a strategic decision that will streamline our ASTC 3.0 and ATSC 1.0 operations, saving us both time and money on a corporate-wide level."

Triveni Digital's Station Manager will provide Capitol Broadcasting Company with a single interface for configuration, control, and monitoring of ATSC 3.0, ATSC 1.0, and virtual channels broadcast chains. The Station Manager offers control over every step of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast chain, including encoding, ROUTE/MMTP server, gateway, statmux, usage metering, delivery, and service availability. Using the Station Manager, Capitol Broadcasting Company will save time by not having to separately configure and manage NextGen TV equipment, the companies reported. 

"By adopting our industry-first, state-of-the-art management system, Capitol Broadcasting Company is lighting the path toward more efficient ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 operations," said Ralph Bachofen, vice president of sales and marketing at Triveni Digital. "The Station Manager will provide Capitol Broadcasting Company with a single, easy-to-use interface for controlling NextGen TV services, which is ideal for a broadcasting entity overseeing multiple stations."

Triveni Digital will showcase the Station Manager at the 2024 ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference, June 12-14, in Washington, D.C. More information about Triveni Digital products is available at www.TriveniDigital.com.

RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL-TV today named Mike Friedrich, a 20-year television news veteran, as its new news director, effective in May.

He will be responsible for leading WRAL News content teams across all platforms, including WRAL-TV, Fox 50, WRAL News+ (WNGT) and wral.com as well as news content on all streaming platforms and FAST channels, WRAL owner Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) said.

Currently, Friedrich leads the news team at KUTV, the Sinclair-owned CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City. While at KUTV, he led the station’s news to ratings improvements—No. 1 in both the morning and late news time slots and tighten the station’s standing with a legacy competitor at 6 p.m. it said.

The station saw the greatest share growth in the Salt Lake City market during his tenure. Friedrich also spearheaded growth on KUTV digital and social platforms, including a 143% subscriber increase on KUTV’s YouTube page, it said.

"I am honored to join one of the nation's most respected news teams, serving Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, and the surrounding communities across North Carolina," said Friedrich. "I consider WRAL to be on the Mount Rushmore of content centers. Their commitment to covering stories important to the Triangle and its dedication to showcasing what makes North Carolina unique and special is unmatched in the nation."

Friedrich will take over from 19-year news veteran Rick Gail, who announced he was retiring earlier this year. 

He previously held management roles in Washington, D.C., Houston and Baltimore. He also served as a Public Affairs Specialist and team lead at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Public Information Office.

“We are thrilled with the addition of Mike to the WRAL family. As a proven leader in local news, we know his guidance and leadership will be a great fit in maintaining and growing the diversified WRAL News products,” said WRAL and Fox 50 vice president and general manager Joel Davis.

More information is available on the station’s website. 

LAS VEGAS—In a move that will notably expand the availability of NextGen TV interactive applications to consumers, Verance has entered into agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Graham Media Group, and Capitol Broadcasting Company to  implement the Verance Aspect audio watermark on stations across the station groups. 

Aspect is Verance’s high-performance implementation of the ATSC open watermarking standards.  The Verance Aspect watermark launches broadcast applications by carrying metadata and triggers  associated with NextGen Broadcast experiences through all distribution paths (including ATSC 1.0 over-the-air, ATSC 3.0 over-the-air, cable/satellite, and over-the-top services) to reach 100% of  connected televisions. Without the Verance Aspect watermark, approximately 80% of households are  unable to receive NextGen capabilities.  

As a result of the implementation, each  of the broadcaster’s NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) applications, which offer the opportunity to drive  new business models and revenue through interactive applications, can now reach up to five times the  number of homes by specifically enabling all homes that receive their television signals through the  NextGen TV’s HDMI connection via a cable/satellite set top box or media adapter.  

This announcement of major broadcaster agreements builds on the momentum that Verance  announced at NAB last April that LG Electronics was the first television manufacturer to implement  ATSC 3.0 watermark detection on NextGen TVs. Verance expects additional television manufacturers  to follow in LG’s footsteps. 

“Bringing Verance’s Aspect watermarking to all of our stations accelerates our NextGen Broadcast  applications strategy to better understand our viewers and to provide them with personalized  broadcast experiences,” said Mike Kralec, CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group. “We believe that Verance’s  watermarking technology substantially enhances use of the NextGen Broadcast standard that we hope  that all the television manufacturers will adopt quickly.” 

A demonstration of the Verance Aspect watermark application will be on display at the NAB Show in  Las Vegas, April 16-19. As part of the ATSC Booth (#W3443), Sinclair will be showing how viewers can  have access to Broadcast App functionality by embedding the watermark in the audio signal that  launches the interactive experience on a NextGen TV for any pay TV or ATSC 1.0 over-the-air  viewer. The Broadcast App is then available to all NextGen T viewers who want to take advantage of  this new capability, regardless of how they receive the TV signal, gaining access to both broadcast and  broadband content. 

“NextGen TV is a game changer for broadcast television, and it is exciting to see interactive experiences  powered by Verance watermarking on Gray’s stations,” said David Burke, senior vice president and CTO of Gray Television. “With Verance watermarking, Gray can now proceed with confidence, knowing that  our applications can be received by the largest number of viewers across all of our signals and can help  Gray with our business objectives.” 

“Verance’s Aspect watermarking will enable Graham to reach our HDMI viewers with interactive  experiences,“ said Anthony Plosz, vice president and CTO, Graham Media Group. “This capability enables Graham  and other broadcasters to better understand and serve our audiences and to better support our  NextGen TV business opportunities.” 

“We are excited to rollout Verance’s Aspect watermarking across our stations to help drive the  distribution of our NextGen TV apps to a larger audience and to allow us to bring new NextGen  experiences to our viewers,“ said Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations, Capitol Broadcasting Company. “This opportunity will help us to better scale the broadcaster application  opportunity.” 

“Sinclair, Gray, Graham, and Capitol are at the forefront of a broadcaster movement to establish a direct  connection with their viewers to drive engagement and revenue, and Verance is excited to have these  innovative broadcasters as partners. As interactive applications deploy across the United States with the  broader deployment of NextGen TV, we are excited for enhanced viewing experiences, such as sports  betting and dynamic advertising, that drive new revenue opportunities for broadcasters,” said Nil Shah, CEO of Verance.

WILMINGTON, N.C.—Capitol Broadcasting Company recently worked with Broadcast Electronics, part of the Elenos Group, to launch ATSC 3.0 at W30ER-LD, the broadcaster’s low-power digital station here.

The project is rooted in the 2019 installation of a Broadcast Electronics ATSC 1.0  Genesis TV-1k2 transmitter at WARZ-CD in Smithfield, N.C, which is part of the Raleigh-Durham market. BE engineer Jeff Clampitt worked with WRAL’s engineering team, including director of engineering and operations at CBC/WRAL Pete Sockett, Matt Brandes, Mike Mory and Dan Lane on planning, commissioning and training to support the conversion to 3.0. 

“Capitol Broadcasting has been at the forefront of innovation of NextGen TV with ATSC 3.0 and extending this to our station in Wilmington was the next logical step,” said Sockett. “We currently carry WILM’s local programming as well as MeTV and H&I TV on the new ATSC 3.0 channel and intend to take full advantage of NextGen capabilities, including datacasting and mobility.”

“The BE transmitter has been extremely reliable since turn on, and the transition to ATSC 3.0 was smooth and simple," he continued. "We couldn’t be more pleased.”

All BE television transmitters feature Pro TV inside technology providing an advanced, software-defined exciter that is future-proof. Support for IP content distribution with 4x IP Gb ports is standard, the company said.

BE’s Opti Power advanced precorrection and crest factor reduction software yield increased MER performance and efficiency that works in concert with next-generation high efficiency Doherty amplifier technology to reduce energy consumption and lower operation costs, it said.

“We are delighted to partner with Capitol Broadcasting to continue their NextGen TV leadership and thank them for trusting Broadcast Electronics to help deliver their content to the Wilmington area,” said Rich Redmond, president and COO of Broadcast Electronics.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

RALEIGH, N.C.—Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL has launched a new 24/7 local streaming news channel, WRAL News+. 

The company has also built a new streaming studio for the service.  

The WRAL News+ streaming channel simulcasts WRAL News throughout the day and provides unique content and updates from journalists who work for WRAL News+, WRAL reported on its website. 

The new WRAL News + channel is also available to both streaming audiences and radio audiences.

Users can access the channel via: 

• WRAL connected TV Apps for Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs.
• The radio at 99.3 in Raleigh, 96.5 in Durham, and everywhere in the Triangle on 101.5 HD3.
• WRAL.com by clicking on “WRAL News+” to watch or “Listen Live” to get the audio-only stream.
• The WRAL News mobile app by clicking “watch live” right at the top of the homepage of the app.
• Users can also stream audio of WRAL News+ free from the WRAL News app or by going to wralnewsradio.com. 
• Users can also find the news radio stream link on wral.com.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Pete Sockett, director of engineering and operations for Capitol Broadcasting Co.’s TV stations will be recognized at the NAB Show this year with the 2022 NAB Engineering Achievement Award for TV. Sockett is responsible for leading and steering the technology needs of CBC and preparing for the coming trends affecting broadcasting.

During his career, Sockett has been instrumental in a total rebuild of CBC’s HD technical plant, the launch of the first nonlinear HD newsroom, development of workflows for IP-ENG, implementation of Mobile DTV and Mobile EAS, creation of the first 4K-HDR documentary produced at a local TV station, the launch of the first commercial, simulcast TV station using the ATSC 3.0 standard and the launch of local sports channel WNGT.

Sockett sits on the board of directors for the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and is the chair of the ATSC 3.0 Advanced Emergency Alerting Implementation Team. He has earned three Emmy Awards, Broadcasting & Cable’s Technology Leadership Award and an Edward R. Murrow award. He is a co-inventor of a patent for geolocation.

I had a chance to talk with Pete in advance of the show and anyone who knows Pete is well aware of how approachable and down to earth he is, which perhaps comes from his Canadian heritage. 

Pete grew up in the Toronto area and started out as an auto mechanic. Dissatisfied with his employment situation, he decided to take some electrical engineering courses at a local technical college and after graduating, started out his broadcasting career with CTV, Canada’s largest privately held broadcast network.

From there he moved on to WWJ in Detroit and WBBM in Chicago before settling in Raleigh, N.C. in 2003 to work for the Goodmon family, owners of Capitol Broadcasting Co.    

When he arrived at CBC, he was put in charge of operations at WRAL-TV but as time has gone on, his responsibilities have expanded to cover so much more, including OTT, DTV subchannels and college sports. 

Jimmy Goodman—junior and senior—have been the driving force behind WRAL for decades and Pete says they’re always wanting to do “the next great thing.”

“And it’s basically been my job to get it done,” he said.

Pete describes himself as a “relatively average good engineer, not particularly genius by any means,” and attributes the technical success of WRAL’s expanding media services to his engineering colleagues. 

“This award is for them,” he said. 

WRAL was a pioneer in launching ATSC 1.0 in the 1990s and is on the frontlines of deploying ATSC 3.0, having launched an experimental NextGen TV service in 2016. WRAL ceased that 3.0 transmission in September 2019 as part of the FCC TV spectrum repack broadcasting. Five years later, in 2021, it launched 3.0 on WRAL, WRAZ and WARZ-CD with WUNC soon to join.

Pete is optimistic about the future of 3.0 and the opportunities it affords. While it’s still early in the process, Pete and his colleagues are dealing with a lot of moving parts and trying to figure out what the “killer apps” will be. He also hopes that the industry will widely embrace the standard. 

“I really hope that everybody keeps working at it—across the industry, not just in small pockets,” he said. “The whole industry, in general, needs to pick up and run with it.” 

Pete will be recognized along with Ashruf El-Dinary, senior vice president of Digital Platforms for Xperi, recipient of the Radio Engineering Achievement Award, by NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt during the “Hollywood’s ‘Binge Times’ OTT Battle and NAB Engineering Awards”  session,  Sunday, April 24 at 3 p.m.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) launched ATSC 3.0 broadcasts of its WRAL NBC affiliate, WRAZ Fox affiliate and WARZ-CD (Retro TV), which is currently owned by Waters and Brock Communications but has been sold to CRC pending FCC approval, on Dec. 15,  expanding the lineup of NextGen TV channels in the market.

Pending FCC regulatory approval, WUNC (UNC-TV, PBS) will launch over the next few weeks, CBC said. With the four stations and last month’s launch of Nexstar’s WNCN (CBS), WTVD (an ABC O&O), WUVC (Univision) and Sinclair Broadcast Group’s WLFL (CW) and WRDC (MyNet), the market becomes one of the few in the nation with all major networks supporting NextGen TV, CBC said.

PLUS: ATSC 3.0 Deployments: Where and When Will NextGen TV be Available?

“TV is the greatest wireless technology you forgot about,” said CBC President and COO Jimmy Goodmon. “NextGen TV is the next step in the evolution of free over-the-air television with new benefits like mobile broadcasting, personalization for viewers, advancements in rich, interactive media plus a much improved emergency alert system. It’s next level.”

In late June 2016, WRAL launched over-the-air ATSC 3.0 service with simulcasts of its noon news in 1080p HD and a 22-minute 4K/UHD HDR documentary on a separate channel operated with an FCC experimental license. WRAL ceased that 3.0 transmission in September 2019 as part of the FCC TV spectrum repack.

 “I love being a part of a company that has always been out in front, and this transition is no different,” said Pete Sockett, CBC director of engineering and operations.

“The fact that WRAL was open to partnering with WARZ-CD, a Class-A, low power station, is wonderful. It will let us cover our metro quite well for linear programming delivery, but leaves us with bandwidth to start developing other viewer experiences, such as delivering Advanced Emergency Information, viewer specific content and other opportunities via a Broadcaster App. It is, yet again, a great time to be in this industry.”

ATSC President Madeleine Noland congratulated all of the broadcasters in the Raleigh market that are making NextGen TV available to viewers. “ATSC 3.0 is a powerful, evolvable platform,” she said. “Innovative, community-minded broadcasters like CBC and UNC-TV now have a flexible foundation to deliver amazing new experiences to viewers. With ATSC 3.0, television just gets better and better.”

RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL, the Capitol Broadcasting-owned NBC affiliate in Raleigh, together with several major broadcast vendors have completed a successful end-to-end broadcaster-to-receiver test using ATSC 3.0 Advanced Emergency Alert information to enhance the ability of broadcasters to communicate with the public in the event of an emergency.

“We are dedicated to providing our viewers with the most innovative programming and capabilities available,” said Pete Sockett, director of Engineering & Operations at WRAL. “With our successful completion of this test, we are one step closer to providing a critical service to our viewers with life-saving potential.”

The test at WRAL was conducted in May. It showed AEA emergency information can be passed successfully through ATSC 1.0 OTA, cable and satellite paths as well as via OTT and ATSC 3.0 transmissions from a sole insertion point, Capitol Broadcasting said.

Several vendors participated in the test, including Digital Alert Systems with its DASDEC-II emergency messaging platform; Triveni Digital, which supplied its GuideBuilder XM and StreamScope XM MT; and Verance with its Aspect watermark embedder and receiver toolkit.

As part of 3.0, Advanced Emergency Alerting can be used to do more than warn of an imminent danger. It can be used to convey rich media, such as video, images, maps and real-time updates, as well as to wake up sleeping TVs to target information to households in the path of danger.

During the test, AEA information remained intact throughout various conversions and across multiple platforms so that households with a Next Gen TV or 3.0 adapter could receive AEA information. Delivering AEA via cable, satellite and OTT means the reach of AEA information is far greater than if it were solely used to enhance over-the-air TV service.

A second phase of the test is in the planning stages and may include working with a TV manufacturer to showcase the enhanced capabilities of AEA, according to the broadcaster.

For the test, the Digital Alert Systems DASCEC-II generated the emergency information messages and Triveni Digital’s GuideBuilder XM served as the 3.0 signaling generator and Next-Gen TV transport encoder, adding the AEA signal to the broadcast to inform the TV that emergency information was available for retrieval. The StreamScope XM MT provided a way to analyze the accuracy of the AEA protocol at every demarcation point in the broadcast chain, it said.

Verance’s Aspect watermark ensures AEA metadata and triggers can reach all smart TVs across all distribution paths, including 1.0 and 3.0 OTA, cable, satellite and OTT. Over the past year, Verance has partnered with Capitol Broadcasting to embed and detect the Aspect watermark.

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.

RALEIGH, N.C.—There will be a new way for North Carolina high school football fans to experience their teams, as Capitol Broadcasting Company has announced it is launching “HighSchoolOT Live,” a weekly, live streamed show that will provide footage of multiple football games from across the region.

“HighSchoolOT Live” will feature a Game of the Week that will offer a multi-camera production, graphics, and game commentary from HighSchoolOT.com Senior Editor Nick Stevens and former high school football coach Wayne Bragg. The in-studio “HighSchoolOT Live” production will offer in-game updates from five other games that week.

Starting Aug. 19, “HighSchoolOT Live” will air every Friday during the regular season from 6:55 p.m. to at least 10 p.m. Fans will be able to see the show on HighSchoolOT.com, HighSchoolOT.com mobile apps, and WRAL OTT apps for Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Audio from the show will be streamed on WCMC-FM 99.9 The Fan. 

NEW YORK—Capitol Broadcasting Company is renewing its deal with Nielsen for its local television measurement services, a press release announced. Per the agreement, Capitol Broadcasting will continue to receive Nielsen’s industry-standard local TV ratings.

In addition, the renewal also includes licenses for Nielsen Scarborough and Nielsen Local TV. Scarborough provides stations with local market insights into consumer consumption, lifestyle, shopping and media habits. NLTV allows stations to analyze viewing within and across its coverage area. With NLTV, Capitol Broadcasting is also able to create custom trade areas and customized audience samples.

Capitol Broadcasting Company is a media company based in Raleigh, N.C.

CINCINNATI—Capitol Broadcasting Company and OTT video news service Newsy have come to terms on a deal that will see Newsy’s daily news videos play across Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL.com, WRAPSportsFan.com and HighSchoolOT.com.

This deal adds on to Newsy’s online presence. The millennial-focused digital news service also is features on more than 30 Raycom websites and has distribution across OTT platforms, including Apple TV, Watchable from Comcast, Pluto TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast.

Capitol Broadcasting is a communications company that owns stations throughout North Carolina.