Group won’t host event at NAB in Las Vegas due to coronavirus fears

The organization LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition pulled the plug Wednesday on hosting an industry event during this year’s National Association of Broadcasters 2020 convention citing concerns over coronavirus — one day after asking members to “help us figure out our event at the NAB Show 2020.”

LPTV Director Mike Gavino said the event typically draws about 250 people and is sponsored by equipment and antenna manufacturers, tower companies and other media consultants.

“We’re not a huge event, but it’s big enough that the FCC comes so they can talk to our part of the industry,” Gavino said. “It’s the one time of year where people can get together and renew friendships (and) share information.”

The coalition is a national research, advocacy and lobbying organization supporting FCC licensed low power television licensees, TV translators and new permit holders.

Gavino said when a couple corporate sponsors pulled out because of travel restrictions he thought more seriously about canceling the organization’s event, particularly after sending out a member survey to its newsletter subscribers Tuesday.

“Before I pulled the plug, I wanted to give our members some empirical data rather than just, ‘Hey, we pulled it out of the hat and said we’re scared,’” he said. “I wanted to show (attendees) that you could only get half the people here.”

He said the online survey received more than 100 responses within the first few hours of emailing it to members.

The final results showed 45 percent of respondents would not attend because of the coronavirus and 25 percent were “still evaluating the situation.”

Gavino said one respondent was in his late 60s and said he would not be attending because he has additional medical issues and his son was in treatment for cancer and any potential exposure to a virus, especially coronavirus, could be detrimental.

He said many of its members skew older with roughly 70 percent over the age of 51. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said older adults and those with chronic medical conditions are at higher risk of getting very sick from coronavirus.

NAB 2020 is anticipated to bring in more than 90,000 attendees from 160 countries and over 1,600 exhibitors at the Las Vegas Convention Center on April 18-22, according to the association.

“As of now, we are moving forward responsibly with NAB Show,” a post reads on the NAB website. The association was not immediately available for comment.

Others have also backed out of participating in NAB Show 2020 this week such as Adobe, Nikon and Avid.

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.