Watch out!

Hackers About!

Another Ransomware Attack 

on group of radio stations.

Tuesday 19 October 2021

A disturbing report from Seattle this morning that a group of stations have come under sustained cyber attack. The victims are the stations in what has been for many years called the Sinclair Broadcast Group but were sold to Lotus Communications three weeks ago for around $5 million cash plus a further $13 million in 'deals'.  Sinclair have retained the ongoing rights to the KOMO call letters and they will continue with their TV channel of that name. They now have around three hundred outlets.

The stations concerned are

News 1000 KOMOSeattle

97.7 KOMO-FM Oakville

97.7 K249DX Redmond,

Hot AC “Star 101.5” KPLZ Seattle 

and 

Conservative Talk 570 KVI Seattle

The attack was RANSOMWARE and manifested to listeners as key stations such as Star 101.5 having intermittent dead air,  songs skipping and no imaging (jingles and recorded liners) between the songs.   On 1000 KOMO, the company's main news outlet,  and on 97.7 KOMO FM,  a long-form talk show was broadcast to replace the station's regular news programmes when the studio IT kit crashed.   The cluster's online streaming for all those stations, plus KVI 570AM  all went down.  The company announced that many of its servers and in studio work stations were encrypted  or infected with ransomeware  and many of their office  networks were disrupted.   

The ransomware attack began to be noticed on Friday but intensified over the weekend.  Ransomware hackers often launch their attacks at the beginnings of weekends in the hope that victims will be short-staffed. In June, the Cox Media Group was also the subject of a ransomware attack that  left many stations unable to use their computers or phones for several days.

RANSOMWARE ATTACKS 

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly used to extort money from media companies.  A Trojan is usually fed into the broadcaster's system, often as a  malicious attachment, embedded link in a Phishing email. 

The program then runs a small programme which locks down the operating system. They will offer to call off the attack in return for online e payment - often in Bitcoin, which helps them cover their tracks and makes the payment non trackable.

The best solution is to have your systems always perform regular back ups, and ensure that key staff are able to execute procedures to restore your most vital files. Regular tests that the procedure is working are vital.  Have YOU ran yours this week?

KOMO, KPLZ and KVI are legendary heritage radio stations in America's north west and have previously had massive audiences. 

Click HERE for more RADIO NEWS. 

World of Radio 

STEVIE WONDER 

JOINS BATTLE 

FOR THE FUTURE 

OF RADIO

Legendary Motown musician Stevie Wonder has joined the battle for the future of radio. He's written a lengthy article about how the current trend towards ever more copyright bodies is stifling radio and may lead to its demise. The move will certainly drive many smaller stations out of business, leaving only the big boys on the bands - the major conglomerates.

Stevie makes several impassioned pleas in his article (you can read it all by clicking here), and stands up firmly on the sign of broadcasters.  He owns his own station in Los Angeleses, called KJLH Stevie says it stands for Kindness, Joy, Love and Harmony and he insists that the DJs have a free hand in the music they play. The station even includes the name FREE in its title.  Stevie bought the station over forty years ago, in the early 1970s. KVLH has long been one of the leading black music stations in California and is now the oldest African-American owned station on the west coast.

"Radio give us not only music and entertainment and direct into our homes, but news, war and religion, " says Stevie.  "It has helped shape the psyche of our country in difficult times and it has served to reassure us that we were not alone at times we thought we were. And while radio has seemingly been eclipsed through the years by other forms of mass communication, radio remains that constant that we rely on to always be there to deliver what we need."

The first thing most people think about when they think about radio is hearing their favorite song," Stevie reminds us. "Or they will be tuning in to listen to their favorite radio personality, because to this day DJs are often just as big a star as those on the records they spin (an out-of-date metaphor, I know, but you get the point).

"The first thing most people think about when they think about radio is hearing their favorite song," Stevie reminds us. "Or they will be tuning in to listen to their favorite radio personality, because to this day DJs are often just as big a star as those on the records they spin (an out-of-date metaphor, I know, but you get the point)."

"Mo matter how much current artists embrace new technology and platforms to spread their music, if you ask any one of them, they will still tell you that their biggest kick came from hearing their song on the radio for the first time, " says Stevie in the article. 

One of Stevie's best friends will tell you exactly the same. Paul McCartney (his and Stevie's duet Ebony and Ivory was #1 around the world in late 1983) reports that the first time he and the other three Beatles heard their music on the radio was in the group's van travelling home from a gig in 1962. They herd it on Radio Luxembourg; DJ Tony Prince has the actual copy played  and now signed by Paul McCartney its worth over £10,000. 

"All across the country there are still independent station owners maintaining a strong and vital link to their communities in the form of being not just a source of entertainment but also the eyes, ears and voice of their listeners. They are small-business men and women trying to be of service to their local markets while also dealing with the obstacles of running a radio station. I know these people very well, because I am one of them. I have owned my radio station KJLH in Los Angeles for almost 40 years," says Stevie, whose music continues to be among the most downloaded on iTunes. KJLH programmes all kinds of black-oriented music, but primailly jazz and urban contemporary. 

  "We strive very hard to be a meaningful member of our community and offer things that the large or nationwide programmers can’t. We are a home to our listeners, a place they find comfort and refuge from the mass market. All that is threatened if we cant stay in business. As a songwriter and recording artist, I grew up at a time when there were only two performing rights organizations in the United States, ASCAP and BMI. In virtually every other country in the world there is only one society. Then came a third, SESAC. And now we have a fourth: GMR. We  independent station owners are facing higher costs to play the music our audience wants to hear.  We have chaos, uncertainty and uinfairness!"

Let us all find a way to create a better system that takes away the need for any of us to be unhappy. 

Let us work together to get this thing right.

(CLICK to read Stevie's full article) 

Welcome to the World of Radio - UK

Welcome !

Welcome to the World of Radio UK's first posting on Blogspot. The site will be of appeal to disc jockeys and engineers, indeed anyone working in radio. It will also be of appeal to radio enthusiasts and regulators too. Anyone interested in the wide and diverse world of radio broadcasting.

This Blog will include topics that are more conversational, rather than just simply recording the headlines of news items.   If it is just the headline new items from the world of radio you want to see, they still be found on our web site's News Page or on the Facebook page.

We focus on areas of broadcast transmission, programming and licensing  from a  European point of view and cover  private and public radio, all forms of terrestrial radio be it AM (medium wave, long wave or short wave), FM, DAB  or Internet Radio.  Even AM Stereo.   We also cover the latest news about radio studios, the equipment needed, including audio processing, automation and the bare essentials of hard drives and microphones.

You are more than welcome to contribute - we look forward to hearing from you.

If you want to add something anonymously (unless its offensive!) please send an email to
 paul (at) worldofradio.co.uk

The World of Radio UK blog is owned by World of Radio Limited, 

a UK limited company, registered # 8503418