Radio World

Bob Houghton

All hail to the Georgia Association of Broadcasters for its program to salute dedicated engineers in the state.

Here at Radio World, we celebrate efforts to elevate awareness of the role of our industry engineers. One such program is the GAB’s Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Award. Nominations are now open.

I wanted to learn more about it so I reached out to Bob Houghton, president of the association.

“In 2012, the state of Georgia revised the state Emergency Alert System plan,” he said.

“The GAB worked closely with the state on this project and received tremendous support from four engineers. Later that year the GAB decided to honor those four at the annual GAB convention, GABCON.”

From then on, engineers have been honored every year.

It was named the Angelo Ditty Engineering Award after the association’s longtime ABIP Inspector. Then, “In 2016, our much respected and beloved ABIP Inspector, Frank McLemore was killed in an automobile accident.” Now the name honors both.

“The great part about this award is that the recipients are nominated by their peers,” Houghton told me. “This could be other engineers, station management or on-air- talent.” Recipients are selected by the GAB board.

This year’s GABCON will be virtual. Send nominations for the engineering award to mlewis@gab.org by the end of September.

Criteria include dedication, professionalism and willingness to help other engineers.

“Engineers are often the unsung heroes of the broadcast industry,” Houghton said. “Most people don’t realize what all goes on behind the scenes to keep a newsroom running and to get content on the air. This literally could not happen without the minds and talent of broadcasting engineers. They are a very active and close-knit community as well.”

Nominations are invited; email mlewis@gab.org by the end of this month. Qualified nominees must have 20 or more years as a broadcast engineer, with the majority of that time spent in Georgia. The awards will be presented in October during the GAB’s Virtual GABBY Awards.

While I had him, I asked Houghton how Georgia stations are doing at coping with the pandemic, and working to get back to some kind of normal operations.

“Since broadcasting is an essential industry, it’s been very important that all of our stations stay on the air in times of crisis,” he replied. Local radio and television often provide crucial, life-saving information to members of their community.

“While it’s true that revenue is down, morale remains high. Local broadcasting continues to donate PSA airtime while raising money and building awareness to our communities. We are so proud of the ways our stations have overcome challenges and established new ways of communicating with their audiences.”

The association asks that you check the list of past winners first; the list is below.

Recipients of the GAB Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Award

2013

Dick Boekeloo

Robert Butler

Daniel L. Davis

Frank McLemore

2014

Marty Foglia

Michael Lawing

2015

David Williams

Jeff Brock

 

2016

LaVaughn Thompson

Randy Mullinax

Perley Eppley

2017

Bill Williams

Stu Graham

Knox Carreker

2018

John York

Dick Byrd

Vic Lester

2019

James Gay

Tom Giglio

Bob Helbush

The post The Story Behind GAB’s Ditty–McLemore Award appeared first on Radio World.

The author is regional director of engineering for Curtis Media.

NEW BERN, N.C. — Hurricanes are common occurrences in the Carolinas at this time of year.

Two years ago, a big one even by Carolina standards hit. Water from the Neuse River spilled into Curtis Media’s facility in New Bern, depositing 36 inches inside our studios. The consoles, the equipment, the furniture, all the wiring was completely awash in soot, debris and floodwater pushed inland by Hurricane Florence. Even the backup generator was lost to the flood.

Then the water receded and the real nightmare began.

 

The entire building four feet up needed to be stripped to the studs and miles of wiring needed to come out.

Very little was salvageable, except the server containing music and automation that I had placed high on a shelf as an afterthought some time ago.

I set up folding tables along the facility’s only concrete wall, found a generator nearby and grabbed a few spare consoles from the Wheatstone plant a few miles inland. These temporary arrangements would keep WMGV(FM) 103.3 MHz, WIKS(FM) 101.9 MHz, WSFL(FM) 106.5 MHz and WXNR(FM) 99.5 MHz The New Hot 99.5 afloat. I then began to plan new studios.

I quickly realized that we didn’t have the manpower to replicate the studios even if we wanted to. The wiring for our analog studios alone would have taken weeks. Getting contractors in and scheduled to do the work when others were also dealing with their own cleanup and renovation after Hurricane Florence was another problem.

All of this convinced us to go with ready-made Quickline furniture for the three production rooms and four on-air studios. Quickline is made by Wheatstone and is extremely modular. There are essentially five modular components that can be configured 32 different ways. Plus, because it’s built by a broadcast equipment manufacturer, it has things like removable rear access doors and adequate rack space.

We dropped into the furniture Wheatstone’s IP-12 control surface with mixing engine, M4IP-USB mic processor Blades and a VoxPro audio recorder/editor for seven studios, all identical. I had to rewire the entire building, but when it came to the studios, all I had to do was run shielded Cat-5 and a patch panel.

Within no time, the studios had new furniture, new boards and new routing, and they were fully functional.

I don’t expect to have to repeat the process anytime soon. But we do keep an eye on the weather around here.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

For information, contact Jay Tyler at Wheatstone in North Carolina 1-252-639-7000 or visit www.wheatstone.com.

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Studio console-maker AMS Neve has unveiled its latest console, the Neve 8424, a small-format desk based on the 80-series console range that is being aimed at project studios, educational facilities and small pro audios.

Intended for hybrid studios centered around an in-the-box workflow, the desk provides a center point between analog tools such as outboard gear, analog synths and the like, and the digital world of DAW workflows, software plugins and session recall.

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

The 8424’s dual-input channel strip allows for switching between recording and mixing inputs without additional patching, providing connectivity via 24 line-level inputs, dual 1073 preamps, and dual instrument DI channels, allowing users to record directly in the control room. The desk sports a dual cue mix system with talkback/return talkback capability and dual headphone amplifiers.

As an analog mixing platform, the 8424 offers 24 DAW returns across 24 channel faders or, for larger DAW sessions, a 48-Mix mode that allows a total of 48 mono inputs with individual level and pan controls to be mixed through the 8424’s Marinair transformer-coupled stereo mix bus. Engineers can use the 8424’s mono and stereo aux busses to connect to outboard FX units and route them back into the console’s two dedicated stereo reverb returns. Also onboard are four mono groups with two-band shelving EQ, inserts, and direct outs. The 8424 has an onboard recall system, allowing the console to save, load, and recall all settings, faders and pot positions for on a session by session basis.

Harkening back to the Neve 80-series console of years past, the 8424 stereo mix bus provides true voltage mixing into Marinair transformers, while additional features such as stereo insert, two-band shelving EQ and Neve’s proprietary Stereo Width control give users additional tools with which to work.

Each channel, group and stereo mix bus has its own switchable insert point, while dual onboard 500 series slots allow engineers to customize their signal chain and build a modular hybrid recording system, all connected and centralized through the 8424 console.

The Neve 8424 console is shipping, with an MSRP of $24,950.

Info: www.ams-neve.com

 

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Hunt down potential points of failure in your station’s power provision. Rethink how entertainment content gets to the car. Track EAS across your state. Plus a story about diversity in radio engineering and a special facility profile

Read it online here.

Prefer to do your reading offline? No problem! Simply click on the digital edition, go to the left corner and choose the download button to get a PDF version.

Radio Hiring

Blacks Are Few in U.S. Radio Engineering

We reached out to a number of African-American technical professionals who hold positions in radio and allied businesses to ask about their experiences in their engineering careers.

Facility Profile

They Built New Studios During COVID

Come inside Bonneville’s open-concept, interactive, AoIP broadcast facility in Daly City, Calif.

Also in this issue:

• How Alabama Monitors the EAS System
• Inside “Overheard at National Geographic”
• Don’t Dump on WWV (and Other Letters)

 

The post Inside the September 3 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

A new survey by iHeartMedia revealed that when it comes to the issue of trust, radio continues to rank among the most trustworthy media platforms around.

The new survey revealed that radio is ranked number one in terms of trust. Not only that, but radio was ranked by the respondents to be two times more trustworthy than social media.

[Read: New Audio Campaign Aims to Reinforce Radio’s Role as Trusted Partner]

The survey said that listeners found radio to be 79% more or just as trustworthy versus a year ago. Comparatively, social media was seen to be 50% less trustworthy than during the same time period. Similar sentiments were in store for other social media sites. In particular, the survey found that sentiment for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter has fallen in recent months, with Facebook down 56%, Instagram down 38% and Twitter down 140%.

When it comes specifically to trust the survey revealed that:

• 75% of those surveyed trust radio
• 66% of those surveyed trust television
• 57% of those surveyed trust websites
• 38% of those surveyed trust Twitter
• 37% of those surveyed trust Facebook

The survey also revealed that listeners believe that radio delivers tangible benefits to them, with an overwhelming majority of respondents citing that it improves their mood, helps them feel less isolated and allows them to feel more connected to their community. The survey revealed that listener connection with radio personalities is strong, with 77% saying that they trusting the information they receive from their favorite on-air hosts.

When it comes to advertising, the survey revealed that heavy radio listeners wield significant word-of-mouth power for advertisers. Those listeners had more brand conversations and more influence, the survey found, than heavy internet users or TV viewers.

According to Gayle Troberman, chief marketing officer for iHeartMedia, the pandemic has made it more important than ever for Americans to get information they trust and to find ways to connect with people. “These findings show that radio continues to deliver a much-needed and sought-out trusted companionship during this historic and uncertain time,” she said.

The survey was conducted by Engagement Labs during the timeframe of July 27–29. The findings released by iHeartMedia also include data from Engagement Labs TotalSocial survey, which was fielded between July 2019 and July 2020.

 

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Kent Cornish

The Sunflower State will recognize five individuals who represent the best that Kansas broadcasting has to offer.

The Kansas Association of Broadcasters will induct three new members into its hall of fame. That list includes Kent Cornish, who has served for more than 40 years as a Kansas broadcaster. Starting as an intern at WIBW(TV) in Topeka in 1975, Kent served as a news anchor, assistant news director and operations manager at WIBW for 12 years, as general manager for 10 years at KTKA(TV) in Topeka, and then spent seven years at KSAS/KMTW(TV) in Wichita. He served as president of the National Alliance of State Broadcast Associations in 2015 and will conclude his career later this year as president of the KAB.

Don Hall

A posthumous induction will honor “Dancin’ Don Hall,” an energetic radio personality who spent nearly 45 years on air in Wichita before he lost his life in an auto accident this past spring. Don began his career at KSEK(FM) in Pittsburgh while in college. He spent two years at KWBW(AM/FM) in Hutchinson, before moving to KEYN(FM) in 1974. He later joined Clear Channel Radio in Wichita before returning to KEYN in 2009. For 36 years Don served as the PA announcer for Wichita State Basketball and in 2019 was inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame.

Ralph Titus

Another posthumous induction will be made to Ralph Titus, well-known by many in Kansas as the “Voice of Kansas State University” for nearly 40 years. Ralph helped establish KSAC(AM)/KKSU(AM) radio as one of the premiere university-owned stations in the country. Ralph, a 1955 graduate of Kansas State, worked at KSAC during the four years he was a student. After serving in the Air Force, he had news and public affairs stints at WIBW(AM/TV) and KWTV(TV) in Oklahoma City. He returned to Manhattan, Kan., in 1961 as assistant manager and program director at KSAC. Ralph was instrumental in helping to develop the programming format for National Public Radio, which started in 1976. At KSAC/KKSU he was known by listeners for his erudite style and love for the arts. He is remembered for the many interviews he conducted with U.S. presidents, world leaders and listeners across the state of Kansas. Ralph retired as manager of KKSU in 1994. He passed away in October 2018.

KAB is also honoring two other Kansas broadcasting professionals.

Amy Jo Williams-Wintz

Amy Jo Williams-Wintz — known as AJ to many — has been a KWCH(TV) sales rep in Hutchinson for 23 years. In addition to her role in advertising sales, AJ serves as a marketing consultant, able to advise her clients on all aspects of their business. Over the years AJ has given back to her community by volunteering her time and marketing talents to local schools, colleges, various non-profits, organizations and businesses in the communities where she has resided. She will be honored with the Mike Oatman Award For Broadcast Sales Excellence.

Working behind the scenes in Topeka television for more than 40 years, Bob Thibault is being honored

Bob Thibault

with the Sonny Slater Award for Service to Community and Station. Bob is currently the managing editor at the television stations KSNT/KTMJ/KTKA in Topeka and has served in several capacities in his 20-plus years there. Prior to his current position, he worked at WIBW(TV) for nearly 15 years as a photographer, producer and assignment editor. He’s a lifelong Kansan and a graduate of Colby Community Junior College and Fort Hays State University.

Due to the cancellation of the 2020 KAB convention, these honorees will be honored in person at the 2021 award ceremony.

 

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Entercom is taking another step toward automotive connectivity as it joins forces with an interactive technology manufacturer to integrate the Radio.com platform into a fleet of connected rental vehicles.

Entercom said its Radio.com audio platform will be made available through the Avis Budget Group Travel Assistant developed by Edison Interactive. Radio.com, a broadcast and internet platform that serves as the digital home for Entercom’s content across its stations and affiliates, was launched 10 years ago by CBS Radio and is now owned by Entercom.

This new platform by Edison will offer rental car customers a digital experience that includes talk and text capabilities, streaming media apps, media and gaming applications as well as audio through Radio.com. The Travel Assistant will be available to rent at locations throughout the U.S. and in Canada.

[Read: Entercom Places Radio.com Native App in GM Vehicles]

The goal, said Entercom and Edison, is to effectively digitally captivate customers from the beginning to the end of their rental car journey. For Entercom, partnering with Edison gives the media company the ability to further expand the reach of its audio content on a local and national scale as it attempts to redefine what a connected vehicle listening experience looks like.

“We want our listeners to be able stay connected to their favorite stations and podcasts regardless of the type of vehicle they may be in,” said David Rosenbloom, vice president of Corporate Business Development at Entercom. “We are excited to reach customers out of home in new and exciting ways in the transportation landscape.”

The radio industry has long been experimenting with different ways to heighten the customer automobile experience by connecting drivers to premium audio content. Recently Entercom launched its first native automotive application on nearly 7 million General Motors vehicles. Drivers with compatible vehicles will be able to access the Radio.com digital audio and content platform beginning Sept. 15.

Rosenbloom said this new native auto application will give drivers another way to connect with stations and talent “regardless of the market they live in.”

In addition to its Travel Assistant, Edison has also stepped into another four-wheel vehicle (the golf cart) with Shark Experience, a connected platform built into more than 23,000 golf carts across the U.S.

“We are heavily invested to develop solutions that amplify the customer experience,” said Jeremy Ostermiller, CEO of Edison Interactive. “By integrating Radio.com into our connected vehicle platform, we not only give end-users unprecedented access to hundreds of stations and thousands of podcasts, but they can also now enjoy the music and personalities they love.”

 

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An image of the sun in space. Stock photo Getty Images/fotojog

James Careless’ article in the Aug. 19 issue of Radio World about WWV and the MARS system being a last line of defense in case of another Carrington event was interesting and useful.

However, it should be pointed out that many of us have already lived through a Carrington-event-sized solar flare.

In August of 1972 there were a number of large flares that caused severe geomagnetic storms, causing AM station engineers to wonder what was causing their spark gaps to arc over seemingly at random.

The geomagnetic disturbance was enough to set off magnetic mines in Haiphong harbor, much to the dismay of the U.S. Navy. Auroras were seen as far south as Spain and there were serious ground fault currents generated in telephone and power distribution systems. Phone lines went out and power line protective relays tripped.

There have been some debates about what the actual strength of the Carrington event was, but the 1972 solar storm was in the same basic order of magnitude and was sufficiently well-measured to be a useful reference for people preparing for solar storms today.

Send Letters to the Editor to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Read more opinions n the Radio World Columns & Views section of the RW website.

The post Letter: We Already Had a Carrington-Style Event appeared first on Radio World.

Key players in the project, from left: James Jenkins, principal of GCI; Tom Frank, superintendent of GCI; Jason Ornellas, project manager for Bonneville; Darrell Brown, president of Bonneville International; Chuck Bullett, director of engineering, Bonneville San Francisco; Kurt Kerns, principal of V-Three Studios; and Kyle Larson, project manager at GCI.

Bonneville International Corp. currently operates 22 radio stations, four of which are now broadcasting from its new facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bonneville Bay Area consists of four FM radio stations, each of which holds a special place in the community. They are 96.5 KOIT, 99.7 NOW, KBLX 102.9 and 98.5 KFOX.

Building a brand-new facility during COVID-19 is one for the books. Bonneville has since debuted this new open concept, fully interactive, audio over IP broadcast media plant in Daly City, Calif.

It is a showcase, with high-quality construction, from the beautiful design in architecture to the technology deployment of Bonneville’s engineering team.

While this move from the SOMA District meant no more penthouse views of downtown San Francisco, we left behind a dated facility and layout. The new design was well thought out prior to construction and creates an experience for our listeners and clients, as well as a collaborative space for our employees.

Blank canvas

At the start of the project, the new suite, formerly used by Avid Technology, still had edit bays but the rest of the existing space was completely gutted back to concrete.

We brought in V-Three Studios as the design and architects to create our vision on a blank canvas. V-Three Studios specializes in spaces that meet technical and functional demands while maximizing aesthetic appeal and respecting environmental and civic contexts and achieving their client’s unique goals.

Our contractor GCI Inc. is a premier Bay Area commercial general contracting firm specializing in building and site renovation, infrastructure, labs and tenant improvement with a focus on sustainability and LEED.

Bonneville’s construction and design team was led by Scott Jones, senior VP of engineering and technology (corporate); Carl Gardner, SVP and market manager for San Francisco; Chuck Bullett, director of engineering for the market; and myself, the director of engineering for Bonneville Sacramento.

I was tasked as the project manager to oversee the cutting-edge renovation of a floor in an existing building in the Daly City area, as well as the integration.

Having worked with all the vendors in the past on numerous other projects made for a smooth transition from San Francisco to Daly City, given the circumstances Bonneville was up against.

The new 18,000-square-foot facility is exactly what Bonneville was looking to achieve with a high-tech performance space, a multipurpose break room, a roof deck and the latest technology and digital integration for both broadcast and employee workspaces.

Scalloped positions and outside greenery make the talent more comfortable at 96.5 KOIT.

Beyond the visual elements throughout the suite, with both graphics and branding on video displays, the work area for non-programming employees features flexible seating arrangements known as a huddle space, as well as a mesh corporate Wi-Fi network to allow seamless flexibility. Studios were assembled in record time and the office furniture delivery and assembly went off without a hitch.

“In recent years, we have had numerous studio projects with Bonneville San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and Seattle in 2011,” said David Holland, the chief design officer at Omnirax.

“This project really was the confluence of the dream team — V-Three Studios and Bonneville Construction Team — and everyone involved was committed to make this facility a showplace collaboration. Scott visited Omnirax a couple of years ago at our showroom in Sausalito. Seeing our curved open plan and private office furniture, he immediately ‘got’ what we have been doing with our WeDesk line. This provided the entrée to allow Omnirax to bid on and then furnish the entire facility for Bonneville.”

Natural wood, neutral colors

As guests enter the facility, views of a “showcase” on-air studio for 99.7 NOW greet them, as well as a display of the technical operation center for which engineering is responsible.

A gorgeous first impression. Visitors are greeted with views of the Technical Operations Center, right, and a showcase air studio for 99.7 NOW.

Also visible from the lobby is a performance space fitted with a stage and truss with lighting, a sound system, a movable front-of-house station, and adjacent audio and video control rooms. This gives visitors a sense of what goes into making modern day media and shows off the new digs.

The performance space and adjacent audio and video control rooms.

Glass blankets the suite to allow natural light throughout, and the interior is set against the exposed concrete floors and finished with natural woods. A neutral color scheme was designed to enhance the LED cloud lighting for color to flow throughout ceiling grid of the suite.

The enhanced finishes, flow, continuity and efficiency now rival that of any modern office and multimedia facility.

“This facility is built for the future, with its planned flexibility in the technology infrastructure and the office/studio environments,” said Kurt Kerns, principal at V-Three Studios, LLC.

“As the broadcast industry continues to evolve in the digital age, the facility will be ready to adapt to the changing needs of the business model.”

Moving away from traditional office design and having less square footage, the open office layout dramatically improves the openness and visibility of the facility with a focus of huddle areas to promote collaboration and inter-department interaction.

End of May or Bust

Completion had been targeted for spring, with business commencing on April 13. Then the world got hit with a pandemic.

The project had been proceeding seamlessly and on schedule when the virus hit, right after delivery of the studio furniture. The project was just three weeks away from completion when lockdown went into place. A waiting game began for of all parties trying to find a solution to proceed cautiously.

Bonneville faced an additional challenge of its lease ending at its prior facility, which needed to be fully demised by the end of May.

The company was prepared to reopen the job site and resume construction with multiple shifts, subject to GCI’s site-specific plan for COVID-19 prevention and remediation. Kudos to GCI for a detailed plan and a full decontamination team to sanitize the site before remobilizing.

As GCI got back on site, we saw requirements for more additional notification, site signage and other added protocols. GCI’s safety and field teams, along with the industrial hygienist, walked the site with no indications that there would be any problems.

Visual inspections and site practice demonstrations went extremely well. They went through every process of the competent person training, site deliveries, subcontractor management and work procedures. Bonneville had a team of engineers from Salt Lake City, Seattle and Sacramento, waiting to fulfill the integration needs.

It is a testament to the trust amongst all the stakeholders, including GCI, that all were all able to weather the extended break and resume the project once the authorities deemed it safe to return to work.

AOIP Flexibility

The team of Bonneville engineers built 11 studios, four on air, with adjacent support rooms, a main production studio, and two voice-tracking booths.

This studio serves KFOX. All four on-air studios feature Wheatstone LXE consoles; and the workflow relies on RCS G Selector and Zetta for music playout and scheduling.

The backbone of Bonneville Bay Area now runs off Wheatstone, with its WheatNet-IP architecture, allowing any studio to be utilized for any function of the business. All four on-air studios feature the LXE consoles, and the eight production, support and voice tracking booths are equipped with L-8 consoles.

Various flavors of I/O WheatNet Blades plus multiple M4 and M1 microphone processors, Yellowtec mounting systems, KRK Rokit 7 Gen 4 monitors, and Telos VX enterprise studio phone system round out the broadcast infrastructure.

Also, during this transition, the cluster had an automation transition to throw into the mix. Bonneville has committed to RCS as a standard for all markets, utilizing both G Selector and Zetta to handle the music playout and scheduling functions. The Field Tech Services team of RCS did a lot of work prior to arriving for the cutover and made it a smooth transition as the stations began to operate from their new spaces.

Station branding is integrated into the design. The studios are inside DC Station on Junipero Serra Boulevard, a nine-story, multi-tenant LEED-EB Silver office tower with bay hill views.

The Technical Operation Center at the previous facility housed 30 racks, and our new space has 14. We went with in-line CRAC (computer room air conditioning) units with an HVAC unit in each row creating a hot/cold aisle like a data center. A great amount of thought went into rack placement and layout, with a standard of color-coded cables all leading into a master patch panel that interconnects the whole facility, making it extremely versatile.

Closer view of the Technical Operations Center

Bonneville wanted the glass-enclosed TOC to be on display with all the lights and meters visible from the lobby as people enter the suite. Bonneville’s integration team of engineers moved into the TOC and studios to receive and rack equipment and begun cabling the space from start to finish in record time.

Unified Look

The result of this collaborative design effort is a space that has a unified look that extends from reception, studios and conference spaces, out to groups of open-plan desks and private offices. We are excited to put this facility on display and ready to have it filled with our employees as soon as it is safe to do so.

“The leadership team at Bonneville dedicated a serious amount of time to work with V-Three Studios in the planning stage of the project,” said Kurt Kerns of V-Three. “That kind of early input makes for a well thought out facility and minimizes the potential damage further down the road while building such a complex technical facility.”

102.9 KBLX. Note station logos on cabinetry legs.

Bonneville wishes to thank all the vendors and partners that went above and beyond for this project, as well as the dedicated engineers from out of market who contributed a significant amount of time to the build. This is a huge technical success that accomplished Bonneville’s goals and exceeded all expectations.

Radio World welcomes proposals for facility profiles including studios, RF plans and other technical infrastructure. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post They Built New Studios During COVID appeared first on Radio World.

The author is director of engineering services for the Alabama Broadcasters Association.

Prince Hamlet spoke the words “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Today the question is “to lump sum or not.”

U.S. broadcasters and cable systems that utilize a C-Band satellite system to receive programming must each answer that question, and do so by Sept. 14.

As you probably know, these changes to your satellite system are due to a pending FCC auction of the lower half of the C-Band spectrum to broadband operators for 5G operation. And there have been many articles written over the last several months about this repack and the technical upgrades that will have to be completed to your satellite system.

But there’s still a lot of confusion over whether a user should take an FCC-authorized lump sum payment (about $8,900 for most people reading this), which is enticing but will require the owner then to pay for any upgrades needed to their satellite system or just let satellite operators do the necessary upgrade with no cost to the station.

Satellite operators will supply and install necessary equipment to have your system compliant (even if it means moving the dish or installing a new one). Changing your inside equipment such as receivers or decoders? That may be required by programmers and is not covered by the FCC payment plan.

During their changes, satellite operators will dual-feed programming to minimize interruption of service.

Mark Johnson of LinkUp Communications

In a recent webinar from the Alabama Engineering Academy, available here for your viewing, Mark Johnson of Linkup Communications did a great job of untangling some of the confusion. (The discussion is not just for Alabama stations.)

He warned operators to do their homework on what upgrades will be needed before making the final decision. “Everybody doesn’t have the same situation.”

Unforeseen situations with your satellite system could exhaust the lump sum amount, leaving the operator paying the overage out of pocket. Older satellite equipment may not compliant; replacement parts may no longer be available.

“There’s a lot of antennas out there that are no longer manufactured,” he said during the webinar. “If for some reason there’s something wrong with your feed assembly, you take the lump sum you’re responsible for that.” And the FCC, he said, has been very clear: The lump sum irrevocably surrenders your right to ask for additional reimbursement.

Among the insights he shares is what happens next if you don’t take the lump sum, and how long he thinks it’ll take to receive reimbursement. That starts at about the 57 minute point of the video.

Should you decide to take the lump sum, stations are encouraged not to put the funds in the general operating budget. Put it in a separate account or shoe box under the bed. It would be too tempting to use it for current expenses, but then when the work is done, guess who has to come up the money?

In addition, if you decide to receive the lump sum, you must notify the FCC by the Sept. 14  deadline and answer a number of technical questions. Johnson covered the needed information during the webinar.

Finally, what if you failed to register your dish in 2018? Unfortunately  the FCC has not indicated that they will open a new window for stations that did not register their dish in 2018 to do so. That means you are not eligible for any reimbursement, including the lump sum.

Find more articles on this topic including information about other resources here.

The post ABA Webinar Offers C-Band Advice appeared first on Radio World.

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

Labor Day brings all kinds of folks into travel mode. Yet, across America, the mask wars are raging. How can radio best intervene in the interests of public safety?

By now, virtually everyone has heard of the feuds over how helpful face coverings are in stopping the spread of COVID-19. Georgia is one of the most prominent examples of the partisan divides, but this disagreement is being played out across the United States. And who has not been exposed to a Facebook post, text or image about face coverings?

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Tuned Out]

Since the days of “duck and cover” and even long before, radio stations have been a first line of defense for the American people. As media first responders, radio stations nationwide educate listeners about natural disasters, wildfires and area emergencies by providing essential information. We may tell our audiences about shelters, the latest data about a regional calamity, or ways they can protect themselves from smoke, landslides, and any number of issues that arise. Many now are important players in explaining COVID-19, but it’s evident our job has only just begun.

Scientists agree that social distancing and mask wearing are both effective in slowing the spread of coronavirus. However, in many communities, this is not a debate about health of a community. Instead, it is about misunderstandings and, at times, conspiracy theories that threaten to tear at the very fabric of who we are.

First Draft News recently held a meeting on the proliferation of antiface covering social media messages and memes. Their themes may prove instructive for your station.

The “infodemic,” as First Draft News called it, is worldwide and taps into old boogeymen like The Government, Big Brother, the New World Order, et al. At points, you’ll see mask wearing likened to gun ownership — arguing that, if liberals can choose whether or not they own firearms, conservatives can choose whether or not they wear masks. However, these forces are not the only problem, as First Draft notes the pro-mask contingent regularly amplifies their opposition and spreads misinformation. The Guardian takes a dive into how masks became a political issue.

What can a radio station do in this climate? Clearly, there are the established health protocols to share. A station can do creative public service announcements that make information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many stations are doing exactly that — educating listeners with information that may is online, but could feel intimidating or hard to access. Stations are diligent about making emergency information understandable during a disaster; surely that ingenuity exists in a pandemic too.

Similarly, PSAs and other conversations may be the way a station can tackle misinformation about safety. A plethora of journalism organizations have stepped to help media correct the public record and clear up misunderstanding. How could your radio station tackle some of the rancor in a fashion that is compassionate and builds community? Panel discussions, listening sessions and more beckon.

Unfortunately, disputes over masks are here seemingly as long as COVID-19 may be with us. Radio stations can play a crucial role in cutting through the noise during this major health emergency.

The post Community Broadcaster: Mask Off appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has put the kibosh on a request to revamp its noncommercial educational (NCE) licensing rules.

In this case, the firm Discount Legal asked the commission to reconsider the way the commission licenses mutually exclusive (MX) FM radio noncommercial educational groups. Discount Legal, Bay Area-based lawyers that specialize in community radio, argued that the FCC should set up a secondary grant policy for MX groups, saying that this would foster a more efficient nationwide radio communication service and generally encourage more effective use of radio.

[Read: FCC Eliminates Radio Duplication Rule for Both AM and FM Bands]

As it stands today, when a filing window for NCE stations is opened, the commission places conflicting applications into MX groups before applying internal processing. It then selects one application for grant from each separate MX group. A point system is given to each application based on public-interest criteria (such as diversity of ownership, localism or technical superiority) and that the application with the most points in an MX group is the tentative selectee.

But when it comes to the idea of naming runner-up applications, the commission dismissed the idea for two main reasons: One, it would be burdensome to FCC staff to create and implement a secondary grant procedure and two, it would potentially give a green light to inferior applications.

Discount Legal countered by saying that nearly all the work to determine secondary grants has been done already. “The fruit of all that work remains available for secondary analysis,” the firm said in its petition for reconsideration. “Once the first selectee becomes final, the group can be re-scanned at a glance for applicants not in MX conflict with the winner. Free-standing applicants can be selected secondarily. Others, in subconflict, can be readily compared under the point system from work previously done.”

But the FCC disagreed. The commission has repeatedly stressed that the goal of the NCE licensing process is to maximize the quality of grantees, not simply to grant the maximum number of applications.

“The commission’s one-grant policy is designed to encourage the best possible application submissions in every filing window,” the commission said. “By having only one grantee per MX group, but allowing all non-selectees to reapply in the next window, the commission creates virtuous incentives, which yield a higher-quality result than a policy of granting as many applications as possible, regardless of quality.”

As a result, the commission dismissed and denied the petition of Discount Legal.

 

The post FCC Nixes Call to Revamp NCE Licensing Rules appeared first on Radio World.

Attendees can expect things to look a bit different at the first all-virtual 2020 Radio Show, even as some familiar features of this annual event will remain — from keynote addresses and townhall speeches to in-depth discussions on audio, advertising and podcasting.

The five-day show will kick off with a CEO Townhall on Monday Oct. 5, moderated by NBC News Senior Business Correspondent and MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle. She will be joined by Mary Berner, president and CEO of Cumulus Media; David Field, chairman, president and CEO of Entercom Communications; and Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.

[Read: Fall Radio Show in Nashville Is Cancelled; Online Event Set Instead]

The National Association of Broadcasters also recently announced new speakers for its leadership and business sessions. Author and business leader Rishad Tobaccowala will head the Oct. 6 session “Reinventing Leadership with Heart and Soul” while radio host and author Dave Ramsey will speak at the Oct. 9 session “Leadership 2021 — Inspiring and Building Successful Teams.”

Two key tracks will run concurrently throughout the convention. The Channel A sessions will address issues like inclusivity, local sales tactics and ideas for resurrecting businesses in 2020 and beyond. The series of Channel B sessions will dive into the technical side of the radio business including a behind-the-scenes look at the nation’s first all-digital AM station, an update on radio and the connected car, and a look at the evolution of broadcast equipment, including advances in hardware and software in the cloud.

Other highlights during the Oct. 5–9 show — which the NAB announced is now open for registration — include a series of award presentations and technology demonstrations.

The post Virtual Radio Show Announces Latest Speaker, Session Lineup appeared first on Radio World.

The author is director of engineering services for the Alabama Broadcasters Association and chair of the Alabama State Emergency Communications Committee.

Broadcast engineers have a lot to look after, even before COVID-19. A successful station operation depends almost entirely on proper technical operation. From the studio to the antenna, there is a lot of “stuff” that must be installed and maintained.

One important item in the chain is your Emergency Alert System equipment. As with any type of technical system, it is important to have some type of monitoring system to ensure that every section is working properly. This also includes working with all the end users to clear up any problems.

Simple Setup

While there may be various ways for your State Emergency Communications Committee (see sidebar at bottom) to monitor an entire system, in Alabama we chose to take advantage of the ability built into most EAS units to export to an FTP server in real time.

It is a simple system to create and maintain:

• Set up an FTP server; most state broadcast associations have one running;
• Create a folder in the root directory of the server to receive the data;
• Have stations load the log-in information in their units.

Fig. 1 shows information loaded into the EAS unit. Every time the station unit has any EAS activity, it will transmit a report to the server.

Fig. 1: Information loaded into the EAS unit.

We found an easy way to create a database to check the “health of the entire system.” The data from the FTP server is copied into Microsoft Word; using the Find tab, the data can be separated by type of alert/test.

Currently we fill out the database manually; we haven’t found any software yet that will do this. However, it only takes a few minutes each morning over your first cup of coffee.

Fig. 2 shows a partial database.

Fig. 2: Partial database

If you see that a station has been missing a certain test for several weeks, contact its engineer to check on the problem. The data received also include an audio file of tests, so it is easy to listen to the quality.

Audio Quality

The FCC recently issued a report on last year’s national test, reporting that one of the main problems was quality of the audio. If a station is having a problem receiving quality audio from a source, the committee can work with the station engineer to correct the problem and, if need be, assign a different source.

The beauty of this system is that there is no cost to set it up, either to the station or or the state broadcast association, plus the speed of the response.

We recently had an agency issue an Amber Alert. After notification of the alert, we looked at the log and discovered that the text of the alert was missing. After a simple phone call to the origination agency, the alert was retransmitted, this time with the text.

If a station has EAS equipment that cannot export data to an FTP server, simply have them add a dedicated email in the unit. That way the committee can still get the report from that station.

Note that this monitor service is only for the state committee use in maintaining the system. It does not replace the legal requirement that the station chief operator review the station log on a weekly basis. That log is required to be retained for a period of two years.

sidebar:

EAS Coordination Is Essential

Not only is EAS participation required by the FCC, but it is a major community service for your listeners and viewers. At the station level, approved equipment must be installed and configured correctly. The commission requires that proper operation of the EAS system is checked once a week and logged in the station log.

As most readers know, a committee in each state, often named the State Emergency Communications Committee or SECC, is tasked with setting up a secure and reliable origination/distribution system to ensure your equipment receives the correct alerts and test. That leads to the creation of an EAS state plan, which all broadcasters and cable systems should follow.

The committee plans and oversees the entire EAS origination/distribution, plus closely works with FEMA and other state and national agencies.It’s important to have representatives of all stakeholders participate. This includes your state emergency management agency, the National Weather Service, state broadcast association, state cable association and of course engineers from radio and television.

Here is a list of SECC chairs and links to state plans on the FCC website.

The author is a recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award. Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post How Alabama Monitors the EAS System appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters is expressing concern about the threat to local journalism from a handful of digital technology platforms.

In a filing submitted to the House Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith said a handful of powerful digital technology platforms — including Google, YouTube and Facebook  — are placing local broadcast radio and TV stations at a serious competitive disadvantage and hampering their mandate to serve the public interest.

“Local journalism is now at risk due to the overwhelming competitive position of a handful of technology companies in today’s digital marketplace,” the NAB said in its filing.

[Read: Techsurvey Reflects Consumer Dynamics]

Broadcast stations must use digital platforms to effectively reach their audience but stations have little leverage when dealing with the digital giants that control access to content, Smith said in a statement about the NAB filing. He contends that because of the tech platforms’ dominant role as content gatekeepers, their unilateral decision-making and ranking algorithms are negatively impacting broadcast radio and TV stations’ ability to deliver local news and information to communities.

This is particularly troubling because those algorithms consistently favor national sources over local sources, favor controversial and polarizing content and opinion sources over high-quality journalism, and can make it difficult for smaller, local publishers to reach audiences at all, Smith said.

“The massive shift in advertising to other platforms has profoundly affected local broadcasters,” Smith said. “Stations in mid-sized and small markets with limited economic bases have been disproportionately impacted because any significant loss of revenue has an outsized effect on their ability to pay the largely fixed costs required to operate and to produce or acquire news and other programming.”

Today only a slight majority of TV stations report profitable local news operations with many radio stations in markets of all sizes are struggling to make local news programming financially viable.

Smith also called out the lack of transparency over these digital platforms, which impose advertising limits and policies that impede stations’ ability to effectively monetize their own content online. “These platforms’ technologies and unilaterally set policies hurt local providers of quality journalism … . Receiving cents on the dollar does not enable TV and radio stations to recover the considerable costs of producing local content in the first place.”

The NAB said it supports legislation to address these issues, including the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act that would allow broadcasters and other news publishers to collectively negotiate with digital platforms regarding the terms on which their content may be distributed online. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

“[W]e emphasize our support for laws and policies that adequately address the unique role of free and local OTA broadcasting and its value in a democratic society,” the NAB said in its filing.

 

The post NAB: Local Journalism Under Threat From Dominant Digital Platforms appeared first on Radio World.

A WorldDAB promo image explains the concept of hybrid radio in simple terms.

Lest you had any doubt, the “visual experience” that consumers get from radio in their car dashboards is of growing importance.

Now WorldDAB has launched a campaign to encourage broadcasters to use visual assets to keep digital radio prominent there. It’ll certainly be of interest to European broadcasters given the European Electronic Communications Code directive that mandates digital radio in new car radios across Europe starting this December.

[Read: Broadcasters Must Be at the Heart of Radio’s Dashboard Development]

“The campaign underlines the important role visual information now plays in providing a positive digital radio experience for drivers,” the group stated, “and it offers guidance to broadcasters on how to use information they already have in the form of metadata to provide a richer experience for the driver.”

The organization is providing an animated video, an information sheet for managers and other resources.

WorldDAB is an industry forum that promotes DAB digital radio; its dedicated Automotive User Experience (UX) Group is involved in this campaign. It noted that metadata enables visual information, text and graphics including station name and logo, air talent name, song title and album artwork to be displayed.

This image highlights the importance of metadata in future (and current) dashboards.

It said metadata also is taking on increasing importance as hybrid radio — meaning OTA radio plus streamed versions of the same content, working in-sync — becomes more common.

The chairman of the WorldDAB Automotive Working Group is Laurence Harrison; he is quoted in the announcement saying car manufacturers need confidence that broadcasters will provide metadata. “That in turn will ensure that they prioritize the radio user experience in their cars.”

He added that as screens in cars get even better, metadata and visual components become even more important.

 

The post WorldDAB Puts Spotlight on Visual Experience appeared first on Radio World.

Ecosystems in support of hybrid radio continue to be built.

From RadioDNS today comes news of two more developments; and we can expect to hear more about these as concepts of hybrid radio take on a larger role in our radio marketplace.

(RadioDNS is a non-for-profit that promotes technical standards for combining broadcast radio and internet technologies that enable interoperability. Its website says the goal is that “content from one radio station can reach a multitude of devices, and devices can get content from a multitude of radio stations.”)

First, the organization has published an update to its Service and Program Standard to add controls for listening based on location, or geo-fencing.

“This was a function requested by some U.S. broadcasters to minimize use of streaming within areas where there’s good FM radio coverage,” said Project Director Nick Piggott.

“As rights to content, particularly music and sports rights, get more complex (and more expensive), constraining access to known areas and platforms gets more important,” he wrote on the RadioDNS website.

He gave these examples of where stations would want to control listening based on location:

• A station prefers listeners not to stream where there is good FM coverage, because streaming is more expensive (technical and rights costs). They define their FM coverage area and “deny” access to streaming within that area. Now streaming should only happen outside the good coverage area.
• The same station may have a known “hole” in their FM coverage, so they can “allow” streaming within the coverage hole, within the good coverage area. So their geo-fencing can contain nested areas.
• A different station may have rights to a sports event but only within their country. They can “allow” streaming within their country, and “deny” it everywhere else. If they’re clever, they can have an alternate stream with different content that is provided outside their country instead.

Piggott said these controls are not just applicable to streaming but can be applied to any analog, digital or streaming distribution platform, and to a whole service or to individual programs. “We’ll be working to help everyone understand what a good implementation looks like.”

The details of that development are here.

Second, RadioDNS has now published its Radio Metadata Terms of Use.

“We’re really hoping this provides the template for the global industry to come to a common understanding of ‘fair use,’ which removes some of the uncertainties on using metadata to enhance broadcast radio,” said Piggott.

This document is an attempt to codify acceptable use of content made available by radio stations for radio devices. It’s a template that broadcasters can adopt if they think it describes how they’d like their metadata and content to be used by device manufacturers.

Piggott wrote about this recently on the Radio World website (read that here.) “We think a standard is valuable because it dramatically reduces the complexity of working out what ‘OK’ looks like, and establishes a consistency that allows manufacturers to make a radio that works for the majority of radio stations globally,” he wrote then.

The RadioDNS website describes this document as a “simple, passive, implied agreement” that will help manufacturers and broadcasters both. “If a manufacturer knows they are using metadata and content as described in these terms, they can use it from every broadcaster who adopts the terms with no further checks. If a broadcaster is happy for their metadata and content to be used as described in the Terms, they can adopt them just by linking to them,’ the site states.

Read more about it on the RadioDNS website.

Piggott noted that the Automotive User Experience Working Group of WorldDAB has just published its recommendations on metadata, and that the National Association of Broadcasters is helping U.S. broadcasters to understand hybrid radio and how it may affect them.

The post RadioDNS Adds Geo-Fencing to Its Standard appeared first on Radio World.

Public media biggie WGBH is dropping the “W” in its name that long identified it as a broadcaster based east of the Mississippi.

Where some organizations might make such a branding tweak without calling attention to it right away, GBH went big.

“While its local TV and radio broadcast stations will always be important, the new branding recognizes GBH’s commitment to on-demand and digital-first content for audiences nationwide through streaming, apps, podcasts, social media, educational curricula and virtual events,” the organization stated.

It reported that more than half of its audience impressions come via digital platforms, so it dropped the “W” to “better reflect its leadership in the new media environment.” Affiliate WCAI becomes  justCAI. WCRB will become CRB Classical 99.5. WGBX Channel 44 becomes GBH 44.

The organization is a multiplatform creator for public media, producing content for PBS and partnering with NPR and PRX. Its studios and newsroom are in Boston.

The announcement was made by Jon Abbott, president and CEO, and Tina Cassidy, chief marketing officer. They noted that the new logo still uses a “drop shadow” design that dates to the 1970s, created by Chermayeff & Geismar.

And when you’re a really big public media entity, you can get away with delving into the fine details of how you updated your logos.

“The font will change to the clean and modern Red Hat, which functions better digitally,” it announced. “The iconic audio mark, also known as the sting, or the sound that audiences hear at the end of GBH-produced content, will not change.” And they chose purple as a new primary brand color, calling it “vibrant” and “digital first,” and because “equality, wisdom, empathy, creativity and resilience are all associated with purple and align with GBH’s core brand values.”

The station released a brand launch video, watch here.

 

The post Public Media Biggie WGBH Drops the “W” appeared first on Radio World.

Following up on an earlier story — after evacuating the company premises in Felton, Calif., as fires raged nearby, Inovonics reports that things are returning to the previous normal.

The factory is open, processing and shipping orders while tech support is up and running.

[Read: Inovonics Factory Affected by Evacuation Zone]

A relieved Inovonics CEO and President Ben Barber said, “Inovonics was untouched by the fires and though many of us had to evacuate the valley, no employees’ homes were harmed.”

The company says that if anything fell through the cracks during the closure, customers can contact them at sales@inovonicsbroadcast.com or tech@inovonicsbroadcast.com.

 

The post Inovonics Back From Fire Threat appeared first on Radio World.

This year has provided such unusual challenges to the radio industry. Yet the day-to-day needs of keeping a station on the air have not disappeared in the COVID-19 haze.

Those needs don’t go away. Meanwhile, the pandemic has created windows for some facility managers to proceed on projects with less interruption and to contemplate different ways of building future facilities while incorporating more remote workflows.

So we have collected in one package a cornucopia of new and recently introduced products, large and small, for the radio broadcast professional.

Read it here.

The post 2020 Fall Product Planner appeared first on Radio World.