NASB Elects New Board Member at 20th Annual Meeting
May 14, 2008May 12, 2008 (Cary, North Carolina, USA) - Bill Damick of Trans World Radio was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) at its 2008 annual meeting in Cary, North Carolina on May 9. Damick also gave a presentation about shortwave audience research during the event.
The meeting was hosted by Trans World Radio (TWR) at its world headquarters building in Cary, which is a suburb of Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. This year’s conference was the 20th annual meeting of the NASB, which is a professional association for the nation’s privately-owned shortwave stations.
Opening the meeting in a large auditorium with a giant glass wall looking out into a tranquil North Carolina forest, Trans World Radio CEO Thomas Lowell expressed his view that shortwave broadcasting remains an important delivery method for TWR’s Christian message in many parts of the world. TWR invited representatives of the NASB to speak to staff members about the viability of shortwave radio in today’s world, in the midst of new technologies like satellites and the Internet. The NASB reps explained that there are many countries where Internet access is non-existent or very limited, and many places that cannot be reached by local FM signals.
Again this year, as it has for the past several years, the NASB annual meeting was combined with the annual meeting of the USA DRM Group. The DRM meeting took place on May 8 at the same TWR venue, and featured speakers such as Adil Mina of Continental Electronics, who is chairman of the USA DRM Group and a director of the DRM Consortium. Mina gave an update on the latest developments at the Consortium, and the prospects for new consumer-friendly, inexpensive DRM receivers in the coming months.
The NASB annual meeting had a very North Carolina flair this year. Besides TWR’s participation, the meeting featured a presentation by NASB member Fundamental Broadcasting Network, which operates shortwave stations WTJC and WBOH on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. An audiovisual program was also offered by the staff of the IBB Greenville, North Carolina transmitter site, from where the Voice of America and Radio Marti are transmitted. Rachel Baughn, the veteran editor of Monitoring Times magazine, which covers shortwave extensively, spoke about her publication and the need for shortwave stations to provide timely information to magazines such as hers which reach the shortwave listening public. Monitoring Times’ headquarters is located in Brasstown, in western North Carolina. Lunches and dinners at the meeting included typical North Carolina fare such as pork barbecue, grit cakes and sweet tea. They were sponsored by NASB members and associate members Media Broadcast, Comet North America, Thomson Broadcast, WMLK and Continental Electronics.
Another session which drew a great deal of response dealt with shortwave radio’s role in crises and disasters, such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Personnel of various stations talked about how they can be most helpful when a disaster occurs. Mike Adams of Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) told delegates that he is developing a disaster plan for his stations that can be implemented in the event of sudden need, which other NASB members may want to adopt as well.
A new member and a new associate member were welcomed at this year’s NASB meeting. Jason Cooper and Brady Murray of WWCR in Tennessee gave a brief introduction to their station, and Allan McGuirl of Galcom International in Canada talked about his company’s newest innovations, including a multi-frequency “fix-tuned” shortwave receiver and a low-power FM transmitter that will eventually be adapted for use on AM and shortwave as well.
At the Cary meeting, the NASB decided that its representatives at the upcoming High Frequency Coordination Committee (HFCC) meetings will be Glen Tapley of WEWN in Alabama, who will attend the B08 HFCC Conference in Moscow in August; and Jeff White of WRMI in Miami, who will go to the A09 conference in Tunis, Tunisia in February of next year.
Besides newly-elected board member Bill Damick of TWR, the other NASB board members are Jeff White of WRMI (president), Mike Adams of FEBC (vice president), Glen Tapley of WEWN, Adrian Peterson of Adventist World Radio and Charles Caudill of World Christian Broadcasting, which operates shortwave station KNLS in Alaska. All were present in Cary except Caudill, who was hosting a visit to his headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee by the president of Madagascar, where World Christian Broadcasting is building a new shortwave station. Mike Adams was re-elected to a second three-year board term. Jeff White and Mike Adams were re-elected as president and vice-president, respectively. Dan Elyea of WYFR in Florida was re-elected NASB Secretary-Treasurer, and Thais White of WRMI was re-elected Assistant Secretary Treasurer.
Bill Damick replaced Elder Jacob O. Meyer on the board. Elder Meyer, of WMLK in Pennsylvania, ended two consecutive three-year terms on the NASB Board this year. According to the Association’s bylaws, after two terms, board members must rotate off for at least a year.
The new board decided to investigate the possibility of the NASB commissioning a survey of shortwave listeners in North America, and it talked about methods of publicity that the group can use to make listeners more aware of its member stations and organizations.
At the NASB business meeting in Cary, the members decided the dates and places for the next two annual meetings, which will again be held jointly with the USA DRM Group meetings. The 2009 meetings will be co-hosted by World Christian Broadcasting and WWCR in the Nashville area on May 7 and 8, 2009. The 2010 meetings will take place May 13 and 14 in Hamilton, Ontario, hosted by associate member Galcom International.
Complete audio files of this year’s meetings, as well as video presentations, will soon be available on the NASB’s website, www.shortwave.org.
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