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Radio World’s September ebook is about services, software or hardware that gives information back to managers to help them sell or help them make programming decisions — products that generate data, analytics or other intelligence tools to help executives create better ad presentations, tweak shows or make other key decisions.

What tools are available today to tell a manager who’s listening to a radio station or a radio stream? Where listeners were when they were exposed to a given show or ad? Or which ads ran and when? What insights can radio executives glean about their market demographics, about prospective advertisers and about consumer behaviors?

Our new ebook explores those questions. Read it here.

The post Actionable Business Intelligence for Radio: A New Ebook appeared first on Radio World.

With 78 watts of power, a high school-run radio station provides gold-based Country music to Hunterdon County, N.J. And, just like any other FCC-licensed facility, it must, like its students, get its paperwork done on time or be subject to a penalty.

In the case of WCVH-FM,  Hunterdon Central Regional High School is resolving its tardiness with the signing of a Consent Decree with the Commission.

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The Audio Division of the FCC has entered into a Consent Decree with the owners of an AM radio station serving Billings, Mont., as “The Mighty 790.” It resolves the improper  transfer of the licensee by two individuals to trusts controlled by their children.

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Keyur Parikh is the vice president of engineering for GatesAir, responsible for the leadership of product design, new technology strategy and quality management. He previously was VP and GM of the company’s Intraplex Product Group. This is excerpted from the ebook “The Evolution of AoIP.”

Radio World: Keyur, how you would characterize the role of AoIP in radio plants today?

Keyur Parikh

Keyur Parikh: It’s diverse in application, a technology being used in studios as well as for wide-area contribution distribution, which is where our products play.

In the studio environment, penetration is pretty widespread. It’s still homogeneous — in the U.S. you are either a Livewire or a WheatNet house. Ravenna is there too, though not as much. Internationally we see a lot more Ravenna and Dante. But even though we don’t participate in the studio equipment aspect, we’ve seen significant penetration of AoIP there. 

On the wide-area network side, most of the telcos are shutting off their T1 lines, so that area has taken off significantly over the last few years. Whether you talk about wired connections — cable, DSL or fiber — or terrestrial microwave or satellite, they are all using IP-based transport.

Wide-area IP transport use is widespread, and having our codecs support Livewire, WheatNet and AES-67 interface makes it easier for our products to be integrated into an end-to-end workflow from studio to transmitter. 

RW: Do you find that most engineers now are well up to speed with this somewhat complex topic? 

Parikh: We’ve seen the knowledge base expand over the last few years, especially among big radio groups, which have very knowledgeable IT and networking folks. 

For smaller radio stations it can be challenging because you need somebody who understands networking and IT as well as broadcasting. It can be hard to find those personnel. But overall, we have seen significant expansion of skillset in IP networking technology. Some in fact are using SD-WAN technology to take advantage of diverse IP transport paths. 

RW: Has AoIP matured? There was a period for eight or 10 years when it seemed to be changing very quickly, including the standards conversations. 

Parikh: The standardization and interoperability discussion has gone on for several years now. Codecs are interoperable at media level with EBU standardization. 

But there is now a trend to reduce cap-ex and op-ex. AoIP is just one of the technology in the platform. We’ve always looked at it this way: AoIP is one of the functions that our platforms perform. We are a full-featured media gateway and are integrating more and more functionality within this platform. We now support 10-band audio processing.

Our Dynamic Stream Splicing technology within the media gateway can reliably transport various other media over IP. For example, it can transport MPX over IP, HD Radio’s E2X streams and, on the TV side, it can transport ATSC 3.0. Because our platform is heavily software-based, we can add more functionality quite easily. 

We’ve also seen a push in radio to reduce the number of physical elements at the transmitter site. You’ll see more and more radio transmitters with built-in full-featured AoIP functionality so there’s one less box. In the past year or so we introduced our plug-in card, the IP Link 100e, a full-featured AoIP STL codec module for Flexiva transmitters that supports SRT and Dynamic Stream Splicing for reliability and security along with 10-band audio processing

Also new is the Intraplex IP Link 100n, which is a full-duplex, single stereo channel codec for simultaneous reception and transmission of audio over IP streams in STL, STS and other networking applications for radio and streaming.

RW: Is any of this capacity or functionality being paid for on a monthly fee basis? 

Parikh: No, it’s not being offered “as a service.” We sell any added capabilities via software feature keys. The base platform comes with basic functionalities of AoIP that you need; then the 10-band audio processing or advanced reliability or security features are add-on capabilities. 

RW: Do these functions translate well to the cloud?

Parikh: Yes, in fact a few years ago we introduced a platform called Ascent. It’s a software platform that supports multiple channels of audio, up to 32 stereo channels in and out, and our IP gateway functionality. We use it not just for audio encoding and decoding but as an IP media gateway that can reliably transport ATSC 3 signals to multiple destinations. It’s a pure software platform, and your audio or media ingest and egress is all via IP also, so it lends itself to running as a software application on a COTS platform and also on a virtualized platform in the cloud. 

A few of our major customers are running Ascent in a cloud as a replacement for C-band satellite distribution. We will continue to see more of these use cases, a software product that can be placed in the CDN cloud.

RW: Is there a GatesAir philosophy for AoIP?

Parikh: Again it’s that AoIP is one of the technology features of our media IP gateway platform. 

We introduced the first models of IP Link codecs in 2012 and 2013, focused on wide-area, contribution and distribution. We focused on transport reliability and security from the beginning, with a built-in firewall and our Dynamic Stream Splicing technology, which can use multiple network interfaces to provide seamless failover. 

Recently, we included SRT, or Secure Reliable Transport, overlaid on top of our Dynamic Stream Splicing to enhance reliability and security.

The network layer capabilities that we have built in to our platform enable other IP-based real-time media packets to be reliably transported as well. For instance, we can take the HD Radio’s E2X packet stream or ATSC1 or ATSC3 packet streams and tunnel them into our own protocol and reliably send it for point-to-multipoint distribution. In public safety applications, we use the same philosophy and platform to reliably transport mission-critical voice and data signals. 

You can see the current Intraplex line on our website.

RW: Earlier you mentioned interoperability; does it come up as an issue in what you’re doing?

Parikh: We support the EBU standard on the audio side; we are able to decode signals from other codec vendors, and our signals can be decoded at the audio level by other vendors as well. 

The problem arises with signaling protocols such as SIP. Interoperability at that level is not where it needs to be, but we don’t really see a lot of requirements for SIP. The interoperability requirements we typically come across are at the media level, which is well-defined in the RFCs that the EBU standard specifies. 

RW: What is the most common question or obstacle you encounter?

Parikh: Each situation is different. People generally ask how much bandwidth they need. We ask, “How much can you get?” Today’s codecs have different ways of encoding audio, and with the state-of-the-art encoding algorithms like Opus and HE-AAC, we can get to very low bit rates. 

The question should really be how much bandwidth you think you can afford on a monthly basis. Then we can work from that angle to configure the codec not just for algorithm to use, but also for overhead we can afford for packet loss protection. 

So it’s important to understand the network topology and your operational budget.

RW: And what about that issue of security? 

Parikh: The number one concern when you migrate to an all-IP environment, whether it’s in the studio or on the WAN side, is security. We’ve already seen some ransomware attacks. Standalone codecs are also vulnerable; you don’t typically get ransomware attacks on individual codecs, but denial of service attacks and people hacking in to play different content can happen. So on the codec side, it’s important for vendors to add capabilities to protect against these vulnerabilities. 

RW: Has the sale of the company to Thomson changed anything for your part of the business?

Parikh: It has helped us because of the reach Thomson has internationally; our Intraplex products are being included in more proposals. Otherwise nothing has changed.

RW: Anything else we should know?

Parikh: Last year we introduced the 10-band audio processing in the platform. This year we introduced another integrated software capability within our platform, which allows users to monitor their feed to the transmitter site, with their smartphones. We send the received or off-air feeds to the cloud, where the server can record, generate events and alarms, which can be pushed to the user’s smartphones, allowing them to monitor multiple transmitter sites easily. 

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The post AoIP Is Just One Tool in the IP Toolkit appeared first on Radio World.

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The Media Bureau issues an Order adopting a Consent Decree resolving the unauthorized transfer of control of KGHL Radio, LLC, licensee of Stations KGHL(AM), Billings, Montana, and K234CP, Billings, Montana

The Media Bureau enters into a Consent Decree with Hunterdon Central High School Board of Education, Station WCVH(FM), Flemington, New Jersey

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Issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order and Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture to Upper Wenatchee Valley TV Association Inc., in the amount of $10,500 for violations of Commission rules.

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A newly-released book titled “Hot Mics and TV Lights: The American Forces Vietnam Network” tells the story of the military broadcast network that served U.S. service personnel during the Vietnam War.

At the height of American involvement in the war, Armed Forces Vietnam Network served more than 500,000 fighting men and women at one time — first with radio, then with a number of television stations.

The author, military journalist Marc Phillip Yablonka, said much of what has previously been written about the American Forces Vietnam Network “has been overstated and far from comprehensive, including the most famous work: the movie ‘Good Morning, Vietnam.'”

Hot Mics and TV Lights shares the perspective of 37 individuals who served with AFVN over the course of the war.

“Although many of the stories are humorous, AFVN suffered significant casualties,” wrote Yablonka. “Five broadcasters were taken prisoner, and at least one radio announcer earned a Purple Heart while on air. But typical war stories do not dominate this book.”

Instead, Yablonka said readers will hear the memories of “Bobbie the Weathergirl,” Vietnam’s biggest TV celebrity, and Wheel of Fortune game show host Pat Sajak when he was an AFVN deejay.

Yablonka said Hot Mics and TV Lights gives readers a broad sense of what those serving with the network experienced.

“[It’s] not just another book about the Vietnam War, but rather the chronicle of a storied broadcast network and its personnel who did their jobs as a costly war was being waged, often just outside their studio doors.”

Hot Mics and TV Lights can be purchased on Amazon.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The post New Book Shares Stories of the American Forces Vietnam Network appeared first on Radio World.

Local and national radio ad revenue in the United States will continue to decline slowly in coming years, according to a forecast from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

And although radio’s digital revenue will grow, it won’t be enough to avoid a drop in total revenue over the coming six years. The firm thinks total radio revenue in 2023 will be about $15.15 billion but will drop to $14.26 billion by the end of 2028.

“The local ad market continues to be stronger than the national side of the spot ad business for broadcast stations, with major brands and ad agencies shifting budgets to streaming, mobile and social media platforms,” wrote Principal Research Analyst Justin Nielson.

“Our 2023 projection breaks down to $21.86 billion from TV stations — including core national and local spot, political and digital/online — and $11.97 billion from radio stations, which includes national and local spot and digital, excluding network and off-air.”

Nielson wrote that radio’s big sales categories of auto, retail, travel and entertainment were burdened by the pullback in advertising during the pandemic and now are hurt by interest rates and price inflation.

“Consumer spending that rebounded post-pandemic with shelter-in-place and masking orders being lifted has now come under pressure, although has not dipped into recessionary levels yet,” the analyst wrote.

He noted radio’s competition from streaming audio and on-demand options such as Spotify and Pandora, as well as an overall decline in listenership due to WFH plus issues with AM radio being removed from some EVs and hybrids.

The firm is projecting that U.S. radio’s core local spot ad market will decline 3% to $8.49 billion in 2023, then decline 1% in 2024, down 3% in 2025 and then down 1% to 2% over the remaining forecast period. National radio ad revenues are forecast to decline by 4.5% to $1.97 billion in 2023 and by 6% in 2024, then start to decline more steeply, by 7% to 8.5%, after that.

“We project digital gains of 6.5% in 2023, 6% in 2024 and a range of 5.7% to 5.1% growth through the rest of the projection period. Radio station owners are continuing to invest in streaming, podcast and digital marketing service initiatives, with digital revenues expected to rise to $1.98 billion by the end of 2028.”

Off-air revenue is forecast to grow 3% in 2023 and 2.3% in 2024. He said live events remain a growing segment for radio and will reach $2.45 billion by the end of 2028.

“Radio’s lower ad cost, local audience and relatively high return on investment compared to other media will keep it relevant, although digital investments point to future growth opportunities, with the spot ad market for radio expected to decline over the forecast period,” Nielson concluded.

Over five years he expects radio station local and national spot ad revenues, including digital, to decline at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.98% in rated markets, with non-rated markets declining at a CAGR of negative 2.68%.

“Total radio revenue, including national and local spot, digital, off-air and network revenue, is expected to decline slightly at a five-year negative CAGR of 1.2% from an estimated $15.15 billion in 2023 to $14.26 billion by the end of 2028.”

The company published the chart below with more details.

 

The post Analyst Lays Out U.S. Radio Revenue Forecast appeared first on Radio World.

Shure’s SM7 microphone family has a new member.

Called the SM7dB, it is a dynamic vocal mic with cardioid polar pattern like the SM7B but adds a built-in active preamp that can be bypassed with a switch. 

“The SM7dB provides creators and audio engineers with the exact rugged construction and legendary audio quality of the SM7B, with the addition of a phantom-powered, built-in preamp designed by Shure,” the manufacturer says in its press release.

“This integrated preamp provides a supplementary +18 or +28 decibels (dB) of clean gain, eliminating the need for a separate preamp, and freeing users from the hiss and noise introduced by many audio interfaces when their preamps are driven to the levels necessary to provide enough gain for the SM7B.”

Shure says the added gain brings the sensitivity up to a level optimized for most audio interfaces. “This guarantees users enough gain on hand for their audio to be heard with maximum clarity in a recording, on a broadcast or while streaming, regardless of their audio interface.” 

The mic also the same EQ controls as the SM7B, with bass roll-off and presence boost. Retail price is $499.

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The post Shure Introduces an SM7 With Active Preamp appeared first on Radio World.

Some of its peers have yet to reinstate a quarterly dividend suspended following the onset of the COVID-19 virus in the U.S. some 3 1/2 years ago. For Saga Communications, cash rewards to its shareholders has been a hallmark of stock ownership. Now, Saga’s board has said yes to another quarterly cash dividend of significance.

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It didn’t take long for the senior Republican on the FCC to offer a public comment on a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking being circulated among the Commissioners from Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that would restore Title II broadband classification. He’s dead-set against the idea. But, is the GOP unable to stop it?

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Brendan Carr

We don’t have to wonder where FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr stands on whether to restore net neutrality.

“Carr Opposes Plan for Government Control of the Internet” is the headline of his statement in response to Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s announcement Tuesday.

Carr, senior Republican on an FCC that now has a Democratic majority, calls the plan unlawful. He said Americans want more freedom on the internet, not government controls.

“Six years ago, Americans lived through one of the most Orwellian campaigns in regulatory history. They were told that the 2017 decision by my Republican FCC colleagues and me to overturn the Obama administration’s failed, two-year experiment with government control of the internet would mark ‘The end of the internet as we know it’ and that ‘you’ll get the internet one word at a time.’ None of the apocalyptic predictions came to pass. Quite the opposite.”

Carr argued that broadband speeds now are up, inflation-adjusted prices are down, competition has increased and “record-breaking broadband builds brought millions of Americans across the digital divide.”

He said “utility-style” regulation of the internet is about control, not improving the consumer experience.

“But do not take my word for it.  Two of President Obama’s former solicitors general — some of his top lawyers at the DOJ — wrote just last week that Title II regulation of the internet ‘would vastly expand the commission’s authority and would transform the way a federal agency regulates a vitally important element of our economy and the personal and social lives of hundreds of millions of Americans.’ That includes targeting pro-consumer offerings under a boundless ‘general conduct’ rule.”

He believes the proposal “opens the door to broadband rate regulation,” will slow rural broadband expansion and will increase prices. He also calls it “a big gift to Big Tech,” since Title II regulations hamper their competitors and “leave Big Tech companies free to continue operating in a biased and non-neutral manner.”

Carr concluded: “Rather than heading down the doomed and damaging path toward Title II, the FCC should focus on advancing the many important policies over which the commission does have authority  —from rural broadband and spectrum to public safety and illegal robocalls.”

The post Carr Calls Net Neutrality Proposal Unlawful appeared first on Radio World.