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News Release (Agenda Item)

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Personalized recommendations are provided by the “For You” function of the 360L platform.

SiriusXM’s new hybrid radio system, which combines over-the-air reception with streaming and on-demand functions, will be in many BMW vehicles starting this summer.

Its 360L audio infotainment system will start showing up in most 2021 models. The BMW deal continues a rollout of the platform with various carmakers; SiriusXM recently announced agreements with General Motors and Audi.

[Related: “It’s Confirmed, SiriusXM Will Acquire Stitcher” target=”_blank”]

The announcement was made by Ralph Mahler, department head, BMW Product & Strategy, and Chris Paganini, VP, Automotive Partnerships, at SiriusXM. Car buyers will get a 12-month subscription to SiriusXM’s All Access package.

The selling points for the 360L system include a library of recorded content available on-demand, personalized recommendations and the ability to search for related content.

The vehicle can also receive software updates. “One expected future software update will enable 360L’s newest feature, Personalized Stations Powered by Pandora,” the company said in its announcement. That capability will let drivers can create ad-free music “stations” based on the artist they are listening to, give songs a thumbs up/thumbs down and skip songs.

The new platform will come in 2021 BMWs including the 2 Series, 3 Series, 4 Series, 5 Series, 8 Series, X1, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 and Z4 models.

 

The post BMW Joins the 360L Hybrid Platform Bandwagon appeared first on Radio World.

GeoBroadcast Solutions is highlighting the use of its MaxxCasting synchronized FM booster technology in a single-frequency digital radio network at Entercom in San Diego.

GBS says this is the first commercially deployed HD Radio SFN. And it says the success of the project also supports its separate regulatory proposal to allow U.S. radio stations to use geo-targeting on FM boosters.

The station in this case is KWFN(FM), flagship of San Diego Padres baseball. The ballclub opens its abbreviated 2020 season at home on July 24.

GBS said the four-node SFN “extends clear FM and HD Radio coverage up and down the busy Interstate 15 and State Route 78 corridors. The improved signal also increases penetration with Nielsen PPM Portable People Meters to help broadcasters accurately measure audiences and set advertising rates.”

An image provided by GBS shows KWFN coverage with the boosters in place (including a fifth planned node).

Areas with better coverage reportedly include Escondido, Ramona and San Marcos; and GBS said the station has seen a positive impact in ratings.

The manufacturer quotes Entercom Market Technical Operations Director JR Rogers saying the commuter listening experience improved because “the holes in the signal coverage have been greatly diminished.” This despite difficult hilly terrain in the area. Rogers told GBS that the community was previously served by a powerful AM signal from Mexico.

Entercom, he continued, particularly wanted to improve KWFN’s coverage to support Padres game coverage.

Separately, as we’ve reported, GBS has been petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to let radio broadcasters air geo-targeted programming. KWFN is not such a case; but GBS says this implementation of an HD SFN demonstrates that geo-targeting will work when boosters are equipped with its ZoneCasting technology.

[Related: “GBS Gathers Support for Geo-Targeting”]

“ZoneCasting will eventually owe its success to MaxxCasting, the foundational architecture that is currently boosting FM and HD signals from the Boston market’s WXLO(FM) to KWFN in San Diego,” it stated.

(The GBS geotargeting proposal in turn prompted a separate group to ask the FCC to also allow geotargeting on translators, which GBS deplored as essentially muddying the issue, as we’ve reported.)

The San Diego HD SFN installation includes GatesAir Flexiva transmitters with FAX Exgine exciters, a Flexiva FXMI 4g Exporter/Importer HD Radio system and Intraplex IP networking and synchronization gear to time-lock FM and HD signals between the main transmitter and the nodes.

Bert Goldman of Goldman Engineering Management coordinated system design and FCC compliance. Shively provided directional antennas. Distributor SCMS managed equipment sales and staging.

Users and suppliers are both invited to send Radio World your news about interesting technology deployments. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post KWFN Deploys an HD Radio Single-Frequency Network appeared first on Radio World.

Responding to the story “Urban One Disappointed by FCC Action on AM Multicasts”:

Someone please put Ajit on the shoot and ask him why the commission won’t support expanding the FM band in the lower end!

It’s the simplest way to revitalize the AM stations in a way that is most easily supported by radio and transmitter manufacturers, and applying the same or similar rules governing the existing FM band.

This band could be designated all-digital and allow the AMs time to build their facilities ahead of and during the manufacturing of radios, while working toward a migration of the existing FM stations to an all-digital mode as well, with the possibility of fixing some allocation variances, like grandfathered overlaps that become meaningless in some cases once the stations are all digital.

I’ve been saying this for two plus decades now. Has we started one decades ago, we’d be settled in pretty good by now!

I’ve also spoken about the future use of the existing AM band being given (allocated) to local municipalities for their public notifications, information and other messaging.

Nothing serves the public better than the city council and other divisions, having a direct connection to their citizens. We used to have this on our cable TV providers, but those have pretty much all dried up. But, being able to access this from anywhere (car, home, portable) is a better solution than the cable ever provided.

Traveler’s Information Stations are well programmed in some cities, but not many exist. A 250 watt TIS could serve two or three suburbs, or an entire community of small towns, especially when they aren’t all piled on top of each other’s frequency.

In light of recent and past events, maybe a local municipality’s TIS could be a platform for protests, rather than unsafe disruptions of traffic in the streets! That doesn’t work now because you can barely hear them, basically making them a waste of energy as just noise generators. At a minimum, they would sure be public service if they provided the city official’s updated information regarding those and other events.

Comment on this or any letter or article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

[Related: “FCC Officially Proposes to Allow All-Digital on the AM Band”]

The post Letter: AM Migration Is Still a Good Idea appeared first on Radio World.

In this document, the Commission removes regulatory uncertainty that could hinder the development of the new, innovative uses of broadcast spectrum that the ATSC 3.0 standard enables. Specifically, we clarify that long-standing television station ownership restrictions do not apply to the lease of spectrum to provide Broadcast internet services. By taking this step today, we help ensure that market forces, and not television station ownership rules that were written for different services, are brought to bear on and determine the success of the nascent Broadcast internet segment. This step will also help ensure that broadcasters and other innovators have the flexibility to generate the scale--both locally and nationally-- that may be necessary to support certain Broadcast internet services without being subject to regulations unrelated to the provision of such services. A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking relating to the broadcast ancillary and supplementary service rules is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

In this document, the Commission seeks comment on the extent to which we should clarify or modify our existing rules in order to further promote the deployment by television broadcasters of new, innovative ancillary and supplementary services, which we refer to as ``Broadcast Internet,'' as part of the transition to ATSC 3.0. We first seek comment generally on potential uses of the new technological capability from ATSC 3.0 and any existing regulatory barriers to deployment. We then consider specifically whether any changes or clarifications are needed to the ancillary and supplementary service fee rules and the rules defining derogation of service and analogous services. A Declaratory Ruling relating to the broadcast ancillary and supplementary service rules is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

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The Media Bureau reminds cable operators and DBS providers that after July 31, 2020 they must use e-mail to deliver covered notices to broadcast television stations

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If your radio station is tackling that elephant in the room (Hello there, Mr. Coronavirus) with panache, style or outright parody, the creators of a new awards event want to hear from you.

That’s the consensus of a new awards event — the Coronavirus Radio Ideas Awards — which will honor radio professionals from around the world that have used their brands and ideas to better serve their listeners during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Read: Radio Is the Local Lifeblood for Brands During COVID-19]

The Coronavirus Radio Ideas Awards will highlight the best ideas in 10 separate categories, such as Best Social Media Video Content and Best Hometown Video. Two other areas — Best Podcast and Best Journalistic Content — will be up for recognition later in the year.

Radio professionals have through July 31, 2020, to nominate their favorite ideas. After that, online voting will begin on August 6, 2020, and will continue through Sept. 7, 2020.

The contest is the brainchild of the radio industry companies Benztown, P1 Media Group as well as Radiodays Europe, Radiodays Asia and RDE Podcast Day.

The 10 categories up for nomination are:

Best Social Media Video Content

Best Virtual Event

Best Parody

Best Virtual Concert

Best Station Promo

Best Community Service

Best Social Media Visual

Best Hometown Video

Best Sales Promotion

Best Mega Promotion

The two other categories that are part of the awards can be nominated later in the year and those two will be being judged by a panel of experts. Those two categories are: Best Podcast and Best Journalistic Content.

To nominate your favorite promos, visuals, videos and parodies, go here.

 

The post New Awards to Honor Radio’s Humor and Insight on Coronavirus appeared first on Radio World.

A photo of a radio tower serving KJNP, North Pole, Alaska

AM radio station owners in the United States are likely to get a rule break next month from the Federal Communications Commission.

Chairman Ajit Pai says the FCC will vote on whether to eliminate the radio duplication rule for AM stations while retaining it for FMs.

“In 1964, the FCC first adopted rules to restrict the duplication of programming on commonly owned broadcast radio stations operating in the same geographic area,” Pai explained in a blog post.

The original reason was to prohibit FM stations in larger cities from duplicating too much programming of a co-owned AM station in the same area, though the cross-service limitation later was dropped.

“We’ve revised [the rule] several times throughout the decades in response to changing market conditions. The current version of the rule was adopted in 1992. Going on three decades later, the rules are overdue for a revision,” Pai wrote.

[Related: “Radio Duplication Rule Up for Discussion”]

Given other recent votes that eased AM rules by this commission, it seems the change is likely to pass.

The rule at present prohibits any commercial AM or FM radio station from devoting “more than 25 percent of the total hours in its average broadcast week to programs that duplicate those of any other station in the same service (AM or FM) which is commonly owned or with which it has a time brokerage agreement if the principal community contours … of the stations overlap and the overlap constitutes more than 50 percent of the total principal community contour service area of either station.”

When the commission proposed the change a few months ago, it noted that the current rule was adopted 27 years ago to foster competition, programming diversity and spectrum efficiency, but that radio has changed significantly since then.

Pai cited “realities of the marketplace” and technical challenges faced by AM broadcasters as reasons to lift the rule from those licensees. “This approach will afford AM broadcast licensees greater flexibility, facilitate all-digital broadcasting by AM stations and ultimately allow stations to improve service to their communities.”

(Pai’s reference to all-digital service on the AM band was brief but suggests that the FCC soon will allow AMs to switch to that mode if they wish, as it has recently proposed.)

Another rule change that looks likely to be adopted at the August commission meeting has to do with broadcast infrastructure and antenna siting.

The rules currently prohibit the grant or renewal of a license for an FM or TV station if the applicant or licensee controls an antenna site that is “peculiarly suitable” for broadcasting in the area and does not make it available for use by other similar licensees.

The FCC noted last fall that when these rules came about around the end of World War II, FM and television were in their infancies, and the infrastructure available to broadcast a signal over the air was sparse.

“Back then,”  Pai wrote, “the commission froze the construction of new broadcast facilities in order to preserve equipment and materials (or materiel, if you’re so inclined) for the war effort. At the same time, the commission adopted rules requiring existing broadcast licensees to share their facilities in certain situations. To our knowledge, there has never been a case where all the criteria necessary to invoke the rules were successfully met. And given the significant broadcast infrastructure deployment since then, and the fact most towers are now owned by independent companies that lease tower space to broadcasters, these rules no longer serve any practical purpose.”

Pai said no broadcasters even filed comments about the proposed repeal.

Meanwhile on the C-Band front, Pai said he has circulated final draft procedures for a C-band auction to be held in December, to be voted on next month, and said the commission is moving quickly on this issue.

“If it weren’t for COVID-19, the ‘Top Gun’ sequel would be in theaters right now,” he pointed out. “Nonetheless, you can rest assured that we’ll all be mavericks in three weeks. That’s because when it comes our August meeting’s main attraction, repurposing C-band spectrum for 5G, we feel the need — the need for speed.” And he kindly provided a link for that cultural reference.

The post FCC Is Likely to Kill the Duplication Rule for AM Stations appeared first on Radio World.

Eight-year Nautel vet Kyle Dibbin looks to be moving out in the world with a new appointment as regional sales manager for Africa and the Middle East for the transmitter maker. He was most recently business development manager for the VS line of FM transmitters.

Dibbin started in 2012 in a hands-on role in testing and repair before moving to customer service roles.

Nautel Senior Director of Broadcast Sales Wendell Lonergan said, “Kyle has a wealth of knowledge both in the technology behind Nautel transmitters and customer interaction on a daily basis. … His passion for providing long-term quality transmitter solutions to customers will be a great asset to our partners in this region.”

 

The post Nautel Names Dibbin for International Sales appeared first on Radio World.

If and when it proceeds with the test, WTLC would be the second full-time all-digital test station on the AM band in the United States.

An AM radio station in Indianapolis has received permission to operate experimentally using all-digital transmission; it would be the second such full-time test station in the United States.

But the experiment may never take place.

Station owner Urban One is not happy that the Federal Communications Commission approved only part of its request. The commission did not allow the company to rebroadcast digital multicasts of the AM test station over two analog FM translators.

In response, Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins III told Radio World, “AM radio is at best beyond challenged, and at worst headed towards extinction. Any digital applications that improve coverage and the ability to deliver multiple streams of content is critical to AM’s survival.”

He said the fact that FM digital allows the ability to broadcast multiple sources of content over translators has been a key use for FM digital. “That ability is even more critical to the survival of the AM spectrum. I hope the FCC will allow this key use of AM digital technology in our quest for experimental authority. Everyone says they want to save AM; now here is a chance to do it.”

The Story til Now

The station in question is WTLC in Indianapolis, located in Nielsen market #25.

Urban One asked for permission to use the MA3 mode of HD Radio to test all-digital operation there. (FCC rules currently do not allow all-digital operation on either AM or FM, though the commission has been considering lifting that restriction for AM stations, and many in the broadcast industry have expressed support of that idea including the National Association of Broadcasters.)

To continue serving local listeners during its test, WTLC proposed that two FM translators associated with WTLC would continue to operate in analog — an important consideration since all-digital testing means listeners with analog receivers would no longer be able to hear the AM signal.

The FCC accepted all of the above and it notified Urban One of that in a letter in May.

However, it did not approve the company’s request that multicast channels of the AM test signal be rebroadcast over those two FM translators. And therein lies the rub.

Urban One had hoped that the project would be a logical “next step” to the work done at Hubbard’s WWFD in Maryland. The potential use of multicast channels in AM digital has taken on a higher profile since WWFD tested an HD-2 multicast in December, as we’ve reported.

“WTLC will introduce an HD Radio MA3 multicast feature into a top 50 Nielsen radio market with consequent publicity to gauge listener interest in the purchase of AM multicast receivers,” Urban One wrote in its application.

“As technology is fast-moving and radio receivers for 2022 and beyond are now being designed, new AM receivers incorporating the reception of HD Radio MA3 multicast sub-channels may depend upon concrete indications from the FCC that it will authorize this multicast mode, and from broadcasters that they will utilize this multicast capability.”

But the FCC staff apparently didn’t buy into this idea, at least not yet — perhaps feeling that the question of allowing all-digital AM stations and the question of using such stations for a new kind of translator “play” deserve separate consideration. This is speculation because the commission’s only comment on the matter was brief: “At this point we are not authorizing the rebroadcast of the (second) multicast channel on an FM translator station,” wrote James Bradshaw, senior deputy chief of the Audio Division, in the same letter.

Urban One attorney John Garziglia of Womble Bond Dickinson told Radio World that the company had

CEO Alfred C. Liggins III told Radio World, “Everyone says they want to save AM; now here is a chance to do it.”

engaged in “several in-depth discussions” with Audio Division officials ahead of the filing and explained its intentions, including the use of translators to rebroadcast multicast channels in the same way that FM stations can. He said Audio Division officials had “expressed optimism” that the request would be favorably received.

Only after the filing was made, he said, did the staff say it would not allow the AM multicast channel to be carried on an FM translator. Garziglia said Urban One would not would have asked in the first place had it not received informal assurances that the proposal as written would be favorably considered.

He also said that Urban One subsequently told the FCC it would not proceed — “it simply does not work for WTLC as a business matter” — but that the commission issued its partial approval anyway.

Radio World invited comment Tuesday from the FCC and will report any reply.

“Chicken and egg”

Garziglia expanded on Urban One’s thinking in his comments to Radio World: “Unlike HD sub-channels, which are a reality, the HD Radio digital multicast channel chipset is being just being introduced. Going forward, it will be a ‘chicken or egg’ situation — multicast capability will not be included by consumer receiver manufacturers because they are not sure that consumers want this feature, and consumers will not ask for this feature because they are unaware that it exists.”

Urban One, he said, “was trying to take a lead, consistent with its business responsibilities, to expend the funds and efforts to introduce AM HD Radio digital multicast programming to the public, and to enable receiver testing of the AM MA3 multicast technology by manufacturers.”

Without the ability to simulcast the AM HD Radio digital multicast programming on an FM translator, he said, “the public will never know that the AM digital multicast programming is there. In addition, the purpose of introducing AM multicast capabilities to the public so that the public will demand such receivers is lost.”

He said the company saw a business benefit of serving the public with two AM multicast streams of programming; but without the multicast carriage, “it would be a losing business proposition, a consideration of which is often overlooked by the FCC but is vitally important to radio broadcasters.”

He concluded, “Unfortunately, at least at this point, the FCC is an obstruction, rather than a forward-looking champion of the radio listening public” in failing to approve the authority.

Garziglia said Urban One intends to seek an audience with Chairman Ajit Pai in the hope that his office can encourage the Audio Division “to take the wider policy view” — that the introduction of AM digital multicast broadcasts carried by FM translators “will be good for the public, good for the future of radio broadcasting, and good for the FCC in its encouragement of diverse programming.”

WTLC is a Class B AM station on 1310 kHz with 5 kilowatts daytime and 1 kW nighttime directional. Branded “AM 1310 The Light,” its format is inspiration and praise. The test would be in cooperation with Xperi and Nautel, both of which supported the request and are also involved in the first experimental station, Hubbard’s WWFD in Frederick, Md.

The testing would use a Nautel NX5 transmitter with NX HD upgrade, Exgine and HDMC+, operating in Xperi’s HD Radio MA3 all-digital mode broadcasting both a digital main channel and a digital multicast channel.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

The post Urban One Disappointed by FCC Action on AM Multicasts appeared first on Radio World.