The Broadcasters' Desktop Resource

Greetings from your broadcast friends out on the Desert…
This is BDR Newsletter 850, Volume 17, #17 for November 26, 2025

C-BAND CHANGES CONSIDERED
At the FCC Open Meeting, the Commission agreed for an NPRM on what to do with the C-Band frequencies that have not already been sold off on auction. The “Big Beautiful Bill” that Congress passed specified that at least 100 MHz would be auctioned and made available for 5G and 6G by mid-2027. The request for Comments asks filers to further discuss use of the other frequencies, around 80 MHz. If the result is to pack those frequencies into the auction, it could very well totally end C-Band use by broadcasters.

MALWARE HACKERS INVADE AT LEAST ONE STATION
Why you need to be very careful if you use Barix boxes: A popular hack for some bad-actors has been to hijack the audio feed to some stations using Barix gear. This past weekend, KFNC in Houston was hacked, apparently due to the Barix unit still running the default longin. The ESPN programmed station had its football game interrupted with a loop containing EAS tones, a vulgar song, and the announcement of several social media sites. The station managed to restore normal programming after a several minutes.

That was not the only station that was similarly hacked. At least one other station reported a similar feed being presented to their system. Fortunately, the EAS received refused to relay the EAS tones, as they were way out of date.

TURKEY DAY CHAT TIME
This week, with so many planning their meal in mid-afternoon, we will still be meeting at 2 PM Eastern to talk radio. We will take a moment to enjoy the Les Nessman on-the-scene report that made for the most famous WKRP episode. And we will talk about broadcasting in general and a few “how I got into the business” stories.

Join us, even if you have to duck out for turkey (duck for turkey?). We should have a good time.
NOTE:  ARIZONA PRESENTATION TIME IS NOW NOON.

As usual, we meet at 2 PM Eastern (11 AM Pacific) on Thursday. Link requests are easily found at www.theBDR.net/TLG/ Our videos are also shown on the youtube.com/thebdrnet channel.