At NAB Show, everything is designed to connect ideas, technology and the people shaping the future of broadcasting. The Broadcasters’ Guide helps you navigate the Show and plan in advance to maximize your time at the event. Highlights include:
Central Hall
TV and Radio HQ featuring live conversations and industry insights.
At a recent auto show, an automotive company CEO asked, “Do you even need radio in your car?” NAB Director of Communications and Social Media Grace Whaley answered this question in Radio Ink.
“We need radio in cars because when disaster strikes, radio is still one of the fastest, most resilient, and most local ways to reach the public with life-saving information. That is not an industry talking point. It is how America’s emergency communications system actually works.”
3. FCC Extends Deadline for Compliance with the Audible Crawl Rule
The FCC’s Media Bureau has released an Order extending an existing waiver of a rule that requires TV broadcasters to provide an aural representation of visual, nontextual emergency information that is displayed during non-newscast programming, such as radar maps or other graphics about an impending weather emergency that are displayed in the corner of a TV screen during regular programming (also known as the “audible crawl rule”). The rule is intended to ensure accessibility to such graphic images for blind and low vision people.
The order grants an additional extension for an 18-month period, through November 29, 2027, or until there is a ruling on a pending NAB petition for rulemaking, whichever is sooner.
The order acknowledges the continued unavailability of any automated technical solution for complying with the audible crawl rule, and the fact that the critical details about an emergency provided in such images form are usually duplicative of information conveyed in textual crawls that are translated into aurally accessible speech.
NAB filed the petition for rulemaking referenced in the order in November 2024. In the petition, we asked the FCC to amend the audible crawl rule to specify that compliance with the rule is fulfilled if a station provides aurally accessible text crawls that provide duplicative or equivalent information to the information conveyed by the radar map or other visual image.
NAB believes this approach will provide broadcasters the regulatory certainty needed to continue displaying such graphics while ensuring access to emergency information.
In addition, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr published a blog this week indicating further consideration of the audible crawl rule and perhaps NAB’s petition during the Commission’s next monthly agenda meeting on April 30, 2026.
Chairman Carr states that the FCC will enhance “accessibility by proposing to amend the Audible Crawl Rule, to eliminate an unworkable provision while ensuring that people who are visually impaired continue receiving the critical emergency information they need. This action keeps that information available in an accessible audio format while long term, modernized solutions are developed.”
This is all we know about the FCC’s plans as of this publication, so please stay tuned for more information.
4. April Carty-Sipp Talks NAB Show on the Broadcast Advocate
NAB Executive Vice President, Industry Affairs and Innovation April Carty-Sipp joined Randy Gravley of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters on NASBA’s Broadcast Advocate podcast to preview this year’s NAB Show.
Presented at NAB Show by TVNewsCheck, the Women in Technology Awards celebrate exceptional women who are shaping the future of media and entertainment technology. The awards will be presented at on Tuesday, April 21 at 5 p.m. in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West Hall at the Media and Entertainment Theater (W1467).
This year’s honorees are: Ana Eliza Faria e Silva, senior executive, Broadcast Standards, Regulatory Strategy and Digital Television Innovation, Globo; Terri Davies, president, Trusted Partner Network; Lindsay Stewart, co-founder and CEO, Stringr; Devanshi Kotak, senior product manager, Cisco; Mersedeh Najishabahang, Ph.D., electrical engineer, Dielectric; and Valeria Sosa, live broadcast engineer L5, Netflix.
6. Carrie Healey Joins NAB as Vice President of Communications
Carrie Healey has been named vice president of Communications at NAB. Healey will serve as NAB’s primary spokesperson and media relations strategist to advance broadcasters’ policy priorities before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.
7. Deadline Today: NAB Board Elections
The 2026 NAB Board of Directors election will be conducted by VoteNow.com from February 10-April 13. The 2026 election is for even numbered radio districts and six at-large television seats. The eligible radio districts up for election are listed below, followed by the election schedule.
For questions about the NAB Board of Directors election, please contact Jennifer Landry-Jackson at 202-775-2520 or jlandry-jackson@nab.org.
2026 Radio Districts:
District 2 - New York, New Jersey
District 4 - Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia
District 6 - North Carolina, South Carolina
District 8 - Louisiana, Mississippi
District 10 - Indiana
District 12 - Missouri, Kansas
District 14 - Iowa, Wisconsin
District 16 - Colorado, Nebraska
District 18 - Southern Texas
District 20 - Montana, Idaho, Wyoming
District 22 - Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah
District 24 - Southern California, Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa, MP
(Northern Mariana Islands)
2026 Schedule of Electronic NAB Board Elections:
👉 April 10 - Ballots due in 
April 13 - Notification of winners and if run-off required
8. NAB on the Move
NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt attended the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters (OAB) Convention this week, where he presented community service awards and honored retiring president Vance Harrison. LeGeyt is pictured here with Harrison and Will Payne, current OAB president.
NAB Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President of Emerging Technology John Clark and Vice President of Technology Programming and Education Josh Miely visited Graham Media Group's WKMG-TV in Orlando to preview the station's NextGen TV News Technology Lab project centered around an AI streaming weather show, which will be discussed at a session during NAB Show. WKMG’s project, along with a project at Sinclair’s WJLA, are funded by a Knight Foundation grant. Additional projects at four other stations are planned to launch later this year.
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