“2025 has been a big year for RF investment, outpacing studio investment by a substantial margin,” said Matt Cauthen from SCMS, Dielectric.
“Some of that is cyclical relative to the aging of RF plants. Perhaps more interesting is how changes within the tower business are buoying antenna sales. That largely has to do with broadcasters moving to new tower locations, sometimes to improve market coverage and increasingly for consolidation purposes. Dielectric’s innovation cycle has been ahead of curve to address these trends.”
Dielectric and SCMS have now been in partnership for two years and look set for continued activity in 2026 and beyond. Fueled through investment in renewed FM infrastructure, tower consolidation, and a collaborative customer service approach, “the partnership has exceeded sales expectations with key milestones in FM antenna and combiner sales.”
Dielectric’s FM antenna sales exceeded 100 units for the first time in 24 years through Q3 alone, largely powered through SCMS’s strong customer relationships, knowledgeable team and personal sales approach. The partnership also propelled a record annual number for FM manifold combiner sales, including more than 20 units destined for a national FM broadcast network in Africa.
Dielectric’s manifold combiners pair especially well with large FM master antenna systems, both of which are in demand for consolidation purposes. As the leading tower companies lure more broadcast tenants to their towers, the number of FM signals per tower — often 10 or more — require master systems that can support multiple stations from a common infrastructure. Dielectric rolled out a modernized range of manifold combiners in 2024 and this year introduced its Ringmaster Series of FM master antennas. Including a 10-station RingMaster antenna system and a manifold combiner for a Vertical Bridge tower site in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.
SCMS had also recently sold RingMaster antenna systems installed on towers in Tallahassee, Florida, Gainesville, Florida, and Newport News, Virginia. Cauthen adds that Dielectric antennas were specified into several disaster recovery projects due to Dielectric’s ability to accelerate manufacturing and delivery timeline.
“Our partnership with SCMS has been impactful in many ways, including their ability to bring us into more FM projects earlier in the cycle,” said Keith Pelletier, President, Dielectric.
“That alone has driven sales of our RingMaster antennas, which we introduced in June, far earlier than anticipated. It’s necessary to have real-world examples of new and innovative technology working in the field to drive sales, and we already have several RingMaster systems installed and functional thanks to the SCMS team. We also see a bright future with SCMS for our TV business as we anticipate an increase in ATSC 3.0 network rollouts come 2027.”
Based in Raymond, Maine, Dielectric LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Dielectric is a leading provider of innovative broadcast products. The company has been building and delivering antennas and RF systems optimized for every TV and FM radio broadcast need since 1942. SCMS has been a Broadcast/AV Equipment Solutions provider since 1976. Customers come to SCMS from professional radio, audio/visual, television broadcast, educational and religious venues, for informed solutions and great broadcast gear.
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