By Brian Galante
Dielectric, the Sinclair-owned broadcast tower company headquartered north of Portland, Me., has seen significant growth of late with its radio broadcasting industry clients. In particular, FM station owners have been actively securing agreements with Dielectric. But, it hasn’t been doing it alone: much of the activity is tied to 49-year-old pro audio company SCMS.
Since going to market on behalf of Dielectric and its FM antenna systems, SCMS has boosted FM sales “by a very large margin over the first year,” the companies noted on Friday ahead of the NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Agreements with Minnesota Public Radio and Maine Public Radio have been reached. On the commercial side, SCMS will soon close a major deal with “a large commercial FM broadcaster” involving a master FM antenna system in Michigan.
“The number of master antenna products that enter our view is rising as the leading tower companies continue to buy more real estate, and broadcasters continue to consolidate,” said SCMS VP Matt Cauthen. “The tower companies bring the most opportunity as they court more stations onto their towers. That creates the demand that’s spinning up industry wide. With the recent consolidation in the radio market, Dielectric is poised to take that business through the technology they have developed for that business, including a range of FM manifold combiners with clever modular designs.”
For Dielectric President/GM Keith Pelletier, “SCMS has been instrumental in introducing the merits and expanse of our FM product line to executives and engineers unaware of our research, development and engineering efforts for radio. Moving forward, we anticipate that SCMS will specify us into more installation-based projects with complete RF system buildouts.”
SCMS representatives will have a presence on Dielectric’s West Hall booth (W3000) across the 2025 NAB Show. “The key is to get the customer engaged with the factory,” said Cauthen. “Once they talk to Keith or Cory (Edwards, OEM Product Manager and APAC Sales) on the strategic side, and then collaborate with Dielectric’s design engineers through collaborative software programs, it’s a win for everyone. It’s all about educating the customer on what Dielectric has to offer. And it’s a lot.”
