Radio World

Mary Day Lee is seen with three of her protégés in this 1907 photograph. From left: Austen M. Curtis, Lee, Lloyd Espenschied, Frank Hart. ©Pennsylvania State Archives

The unexpected sometimes happens during a research effort. This was true in my quest to determine the truth about the fabled 1906 Fessenden Christmas Eve “first broadcast,” which is well known to Radio World readers.

In doing that research I learned about a cluster of young people — teenagers — who lived in a Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood, shared a strong interest in radio and eventually made careers of it.

They were all born around 1890, and as such, were the first generation of young people exposed to radio — the first true geeks or techno nerds. As radio was a hot item, and poorly understood by the average person, radio experimenters frequently provided grist for newspaper reporters.

One New York paper referred to the Brooklyn radio kids as “smart boys” and reported on their activities. One of these was Francis (Frank) Hart who, in 1906, began keeping a sort of radio log/diary. Hart and the remarkable perspective that his journal provided about early radio were mentioned in my articles writings about the “world’s first broadcast.”

Nowadays, it’s difficult to imagine not having instant 24/7 communications, or electric lights that work every time the switch is touched. Yet, 100 years ago, even in the largest cities, telephone service was a rather mysterious thing, subscribed to only by the rich; many electric power companies provided power only during the evening hours and shut down during thunderstorms.

High school science classes shied away from the teaching of subjects such as electricity, wireless, x-rays, flying machines and similar wonders. These inventions were too new, and most educators had little or no grasp of such technologies.

So where did the young people of that era turn to satisfy their hunger for knowledge in such areas?

Certainly, there were public libraries, but in the early 20th century, these weren’t universal, and — just as today — had to balance the reading interests of their clientele with resources available, meaning that the overwhelming majority of books were popular fiction rather than scientific treatises.

Magazines in the area of electricity and wireless were scarce — the first title printed in this country that catered to radio experimenters didn’t appear until 1908.

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum was in this donated Bedford Park mansion from 1899 until 1968. One of its radio station antenna masts is visible. It was erected in 1907–1908 and supported a 250-foot long antenna some 85 feet above the ground. Photo by George Flanagan

Filling an Educational Void

Children in Brooklyn were fortunate in having access to the first museum created exclusively for young people, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, established in 1899.

Its mission was “to actively engage children in educational and entertaining experiences through innovation and excellence in exhibitions, programs, and use of its collection.”

Hart and his peers were in their early teens when the museum opened. It’s not known if they became “regulars” immediately after opening day, but it’s likely this happened with the arrival of a recent college graduate trained in the sciences, someone who would have a great influence on the lives of Hart and his friends, many who went on to successful careers in radio engineering.

Unusual for the times, their mentor was a woman.

It was not uncommon for women to work in the field of telegraphy or telephony. In fact, they were chosen over men for staffing telephone switchboards, based on perceptions about demeanor and temperament.

One of Lee’s charges, Frank Hart, operates the museum’s first radio station as an unidentified youth observes. The station was located in Lee’s office and was under her control. It operated with the self-assigned call letters of ‘CM’ for Children’s Museum. Photo by George Flanagan

However, radio in the early 1900s was very much “a man’s world.” It involved working with lethal voltages, physically large and heavy apparatus and the climbing of high masts — something women “just didn’t do” then. (Lee de Forest’s 1907 marriage to Nora Blatch wound up in the divorce courts because she persisted in her career as an engineer after their nuptials.)

Such stigmas notwithstanding, Mary Day Lee arrived at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum on Oct. 3, 1905, and began a nearly two-decade-long career in instructing boys and girls about the wonders of electricity, radio and the physical world around them.

Her arrival was heralded with a small note in the organization’s Museum News:

ANNOUNCEMENT: It gives us pleasure to announce the appointment of Miss Mary Day Lee, of New Rochelle, New York, to the position of First Assistant in the Children’s Museum. Miss Lee is a graduate of Barnard College and of the Teacher’s College, New York, where she gave special attention to physics and chemistry. Her work at the Museum will include popular lectures on these subjects and she will be glad to meet any boys and girls who are interested in physical and electrical apparatus and experiments.

Census records indicate that Mary Day Lee was born in Richmond, Va., but the surviving records are ambiguous as to her exact date of birth. College records give it as April 21, 1879. The circumstances of her family’s move to New York City are vague. College records indicate that she graduated from Barnard in 1905, making her about 26 years old at the time of her museum appointment.

Lee was soon to become a pivotal figure in the museum’s operations and in early radio itself. During her tenure, she also would serve as the mentor to young people interested in the physical sciences.

Popularizing Radio in Brooklyn

Lee wasted little time in bringing one marvel of electricity to neighborhood children: a wired telegraph system, which gradually spread out to interconnect the museum with the homes of the young people that she worked with. Within a few months, this wired telegraph system morphed into a full-blown “wireless” station.

The beginnings of that radio station are recorded in the Museum News in spring of 1906, in an article titled “Our Wireless Telegraph”:

“The wireless telegraph receiver is now in good working order and hardly a day passes in which we do not hear messages from some of the stations in the vicinity, or some of the vessels outside the harbor.”

Although the article carries no author’s name, clearly it was penned by Lee. Further in the account is a detailed description of how to make detectors for radio waves and of the construction of a spark type of radio transmitter.

A capacity crowd awaits the setup of electrical apparatus in the museum’s lecture hall. Lee demonstrated and operated such equipment on a regular basis. ©Brooklyn Children’s Museum

The museum’s radio room — collocated with Lee’s office — soon became one of the most popular attractions at that institution:

“The number of devotees of ‘wireless’ grows steadily, and each week brings one or two more High School boys who wish to investigate the subject seriously and to persevere until they make a transmitter and receiver that will work.

“More than fifty boys from high schools and colleges have come expressly to see the instrument and about ten boys come regularly two or three times a week to experiment on some part of the apparatus.”

Other evidence of her accomplishments is found in an undated newspaper clipping, probably from the Brooklyn Eagle during her first year at the museum. Its gist is that by acquiring radio skills, a person could eavesdrop on commercial and naval communication traffic; but the article also establishes that Lee had sufficient mastery of both the Morse code and radio apparatus to teach these skills:

Of course there is considerable intelligence required before the wireless wiretapping is a success. Worst of all the wireless people talk in Morse code, like any other telegraphers, and before you can understand the dots and dashes … it is necessary to learn that code. Right here is where the Children’s Museum in Bedford Park, Brooklyn, comes into the story.

That unique institution, which is one of Brooklyn’s greatest claims to fame, as everybody knows, runs a set of miscellaneous lectures and courses for the instruction of children, in addition to exhibiting the armadillo, flamingo, cassowary and other stuffed animals for their edification. The curator is Miss Gallop and her assistant is Miss Lee. It is Miss Lee who has taught the boys physics and incidentally wireless [author ’s emphasis].

Mary Day Lee is pictured with other Brooklyn Children’s Museum staff members. Rear row, from left: Miriam S. Draper, librarian; Agnes E. Brown, special assistant, Marguerite Carmichael, assistant to the curator. Front: George P. Engelhardt, assistant curator; Anna Billings Gallup, curator; and Mary Day Lee, assistant curator. According to information supplied by the museum, this photograph was taken in 1913 and was made on glass negative that was damaged in handling, resulting in the visible cracks. ©Brooklyn Children’s Museum

The wireless work was a result of the elementary course in physics which Miss Lee gives. The boys became very much interested in electricity, and especially in wireless telegraphy, and were soon constructing stations of their own.

The wireless station constructed and operated under the auspices of Lee was state of the art, employing a large induction coil for the generation of the thousands of volts of electricity needed for spark transmissions, and also a mechanical interrupter to drive the coil. The power supplied to the museum at the time came from an “Edison” power plant and was delivered as DC.

If Lee had accomplished nothing else during her lifetime, the construction and operation of one of the few pre-World War radio stations should be enough to put her in the record books.

Lee obviously took pride in the pioneer radio station she helped create, reporting in May of 1906 that it was undergoing “many improvements” and that “we soon expect to have the most powerful amateur station in this part of the country.

“We can receive without difficulty all the messages sent from stations within a radius of fifty miles, and sometimes we can hear Philadelphia,” she wrote in the Museum News. “Some of the boys have heard messages from Rockland, Maine, and Cape Hatteras, distances respectively of three hundred and four hundred miles. Unfortunately we cannot transmit as far as we can receive, but when we increase the height of the pole we hope to signal 25 or 30 miles.”

Behind the Mic

One of the “regulars” at the museum station was Frank Hart, who, concurrent with the establishment of the station, constructed a wireless station of his own in his bedroom. Hart is credited with assisting in the installation of the museum’s station — in particular, the erection of its large long-wire antenna, one end of which was anchored 85 feet above the building.

In addition to his logbook/diary, Hart kept a scrapbook documenting some of his accomplishments. One item is a newspaper clipping that describes his radio activities and apparatus. Although the date and newspaper name are missing, the story appears to have been printed in mid-1907, just a few months after Lee de Forest started his broadcasting activities in New York City.

What’s significant is that the clipping indicates young Hart was experimenting with something few others had tried: the transmission of speech via radio waves. And although this is speculative at best, the article lends some support in making a case for Lee to have been one of the first women — possibly even the first woman — to have her voice transmitted by radio.

Boy Holds Key to Wireless

There is a school boy, Frank Hart Irving [sic], at 942 St. Mark’s avenue, who though only sixteen years old, sat in his bedroom and by means of the perfect wireless telegraph instrument that he had made himself, followed the movement of every vessel in the fleet until it had reached Virgin Pass, and received every message sent out, even … official dispatches … which were intended only for official ears.

Frank has within the last two months constructed an electric arc and connected it with his wireless instruments, so that he may converse eight blocks away with a friend. It is an odd sight to see this boy stand in his bedroom, one wall of which is covered with telegraphic and electrical apparatus, and by playing the blaze from a Bensen [sic] burner on an arc light that he has rigged up, talk with a friend a quarter of a mile away without the use of wires …

The museum’s radio station was rebuilt under the direction of Lee in 1916 to improve its appearance and efficiency. In accordance with new federal regulations the station was operating with the government-assigned call sign of “2KP”. In describing the revamped facility, Lee notes that with the new transformer installed, “we can obtain 13,200 volts” and that it was rated at 500 Watts. The station was dismantled by government order when the United States entered the world war. ©Brooklyn Children’s Museum

What the reporter is describing is one variant of an early AM radio transmitter — known in some circles as an “arc phone.” (The Bunsen Burner mentioned supplied hydrocarbons needed to stabilize the arc.)

Such a device was fully capable of transmitting speech and music, and it was this technology that de Forest used in his early broadcasting experiments.

Hart was born on Aug. 12, 1891, making him 16 — the age indicated in the article — in 1907. He logged the first reception of de Forest’s speech transmissions on March 20 of that year. Therefore, we may assume he constructed his AM transmitter sometime in the spring or summer of 1907.

Hart made no entries in his journal about how this primitive radiotelephone transmitter came into being, but two scenarios are likely, and directly or indirectly involve Hart’s mentor and advisor, Mary Day Lee.

The first suggests that Hart approached her for information on construction of an arc transmitter. She certainly would have had the knowledge and skills to guide him in building such a device. Before he took it to his home, a period of testing and experimentation at the museum would have followed, providing her with access to this radiotelephone transmitter.

In a second scenario, Hart could have constructed the transmitter on his own. However, as a precocious teen, he likely would have been proud of his accomplishment and not hesitated in demonstrating this new “wonder” to Lee. Given her scientific curiosity, it’s almost certain that she would have tried it out herself.

In either case, Lee would have had the opportunity to experiment with the radiotelephone transmitter, and in doing so, could easily been the first female to have uttered words wirelessly across space — technically “broadcasting” to anyone within range.

The audience might have included other radio amateurs, as well as land-based or seagoing commercial station operators tuned to the proper wavelength, and possibly even the operators at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, who at that time were just getting used to de Forest’s frequent experimentation with speech and music transmissions.

I have no proof that Lee actually transmitted her voice via Hart’s machine. But I consider the likelihood high, given the availability of the transmitter and the timing. (See box at the end.)

Ms. Lee did not leapfrog into broadcasting as we know it; that business didn’t begin until the early 1920s. She remained in Brooklyn as a lecturer, teacher and mentor to museum neighborhood young people, continuing to operate and improve the wireless station there.

Both the world and radio were changing in the decade of the 1910s. The first U.S. radio laws were enacted in 1910, and two years later even stronger laws were passed governing radio station operations and apparatus. (See my June 3, 2009 article “When the Federal Government Stepped In”). The sinking of the Titanic also did much to create public awareness of the power of radio.

Mary Day Lee continued her work in educating young people about this increasingly valuable tool, and also continued to shatter “glass ceilings,” as she became — in 1917 — the first woman in New York City to be licensed to operate motion picture projection equipment. This was another “man’s world,” as it involved high-current electrical arc light sources, and the handling of extremely flammable and potentially explosive nitrate-based film.

The Great War

The entry in 1917 of the United States into the World War affected not only the museum’s radio activities, but also those of most other radio operations, amateur or commercial. On April 7, and by order of the president, all private stations were shut down or taken over by the government for its own use. This spelled an end to the wireless activities at the museum.

Lee noted the demise of the station in a house publication, the Children’s Museum News:

“[T]he Museum Wireless Telegraph Station was dismantled on April 9th. The wireless pole and all of the apparatus used in sending and receiving messages were removed.”

“While boys cannot hope to send or receive messages until after the war is over, the privilege of learning the wireless code and of practicing it on Museum instruments will be extended to beginners as heretofore.”

That publication also provided a partial listing of the young men — all trained in wireless by Ms. Lee — who by then had entered military service and were working in some aspect of wireless communications in the defense of their country.

Some of her former students kept Lee informed of their activities “overseas” as much as possible:

“Austen Curtis; the first boy who studied Wireless Telegraphy in the Children’s Museum announced in his last letter, dated at Paris, that he had been promoted to the rank of captain in the Radio Corps of the United States Army.”

Leaving the Museum

Although no formal mention of a wedding has been located, apparently Lee was married to Henry B. Weisse in, or sometime prior to, 1917. A New York museum association conference roster that year recorded “Mrs. Mary Day Lee Weisse” as an attendee.

Little is known about her husband; however census records indicate that he was a stockbroker and the couple lived in Queens along with her sister Florence and their father, Richard Lee.

A 1923 article chronicles the end of her tenure at the museum:

“The sudden resignation and departure of Miss Mary Day Lee early in February brought disappointment and regret to her many friends. For seventeen years, thousands of young people delighted in her lectures, and with her personal assistance many a troubled high school student solved his knotty problems in elementary physics and electricity. Under her direction for more than a decade there flourished an amateur wireless telegraph station where every eager inquirer into the mysteries of ‘Wireless’ found satisfaction. Full-fledged wireless operators, made during their recreation hours, emerged from this station at different times. Several of these gave noble service to their country during the World War; some in the quiet research of technical laboratories, others in wireless stations of ships at sea, and others amid the dangers of the trenches and dugouts of the battlefields of France maintaining what was of supreme importance, unbroken wireless communications.”

“We wish her all happiness in her new home at White Plains, New York, which is too far from Brooklyn to permit of her remaining longer in the museum.”

As far as can be determined, Lee Weisse was never directly associated with radio or broadcasting again, though the 1930 census showed that her sister, who still shared the couple’s dwelling, was employed in radio advertising.

In 1949, Lee Weisse received a small bit of recognition in connection with the post-war launch of television. That year, the Brooklyn Eagle published a story recognizing the accomplishments of one of her protégés, Lloyd Espenschied. He had enjoyed a long career at Bell Laboratories, and was being recognized as the co-inventor of coaxial cable, an essential commodity in television. Espenschied stated in the article that he and other Brooklyn youth had received early encouragement in their radio careers from both Lee and her supervisor, Anna B. Gallup.

Also mentioned were Austin Curtis and Frank Hart. Curtis had become a Bell Labs engineer too, and with Espenschied he participated in the world’s first long-distance test of radiotelephony in 1915. Hart was recognized as having served as the manager of a large trans-Atlantic shortwave communications station on Long Island.

Lee also was remembered by Alfred P. Morgan (1889–1972), who was in the same age group as Espenschied, Curtis and Hart. Morgan went on to author more than 50 books, popularizing the sciences for young people. Morgan recalled his association with Lee in the 1963 book “More Junior Authors”:

“I visited the Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, where an unusual young woman, Miss Mary Day Lee, a member of the Museum staff, not only encouraged boys to experiment with electricity and wireless telegraphy, but was able to aid and assist them. My hat is still off to the young woman who could discuss with you the fine points of winding a spark coil.”

Later Years

Lee Weisse and her husband spent the remainder of their lives in White Plains. After her relocation to this New York City bedroom community, she began a second career as a public school teacher, educating young people in science and biology. None of the records examined indicates that any children were born to the couple.

Mary Day Lee Weisse’s husband, Henry, died in late 1964 at the age of 87. She passed away on April 17, 1970 at the age of 90.

Postscript

The White Plains Rural Cemetery tombstone indicates that Mary Day Lee maintained her identity even after her marriage to Henry Weisse.

After Mary Day Lee Weisse left the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, little was written or otherwise recorded about her; I found it difficult even to determine when she’d died.

Census records are available only to 1930, at which time she would have been 70. Telephone books and city directories were of limited use, but did indicate that she was alive when 1970 editions were published.

My wife, Pamela, who grew up near White Plains, N.Y., suggested a visit to area cemeteries. Ultimately, we located Ms. Lee Weisse’ resting place and established her death date.

Photo: James O’Neal

She and her husband, Henry, are interred at the White Plains Rural Cemetery, which was established in 1795 and is only a short distance from their last home. However, even finding the couple’s gravesite proved a challenge. The cemetery’s keeper provided a map and general coordinates, but no visible grave marker was evident. It was only after pulling aside a large bush that we found the marker; even in death, Mary Day Lee Weisse remained elusive.

Judging by the size of the bush, we may have been the first to visit her grave since she was laid to rest 40 years ago. I note this only as a way of indicating how this person, a true pioneer and very much ahead of her time, has been all but forgotten. It is my hope that through this published account of her life and career, her memory will be kept alive and her deeds remembered. She was a remarkable person.

First Woman at the Mic?

Was Mary Day Lee the first woman to have her voice transmitted by radio?

In order to establish even a speculative case for such priority, we note that while de Forest was broadcasting on a somewhat regular basis in early 1907, it was not until 1910 that he experimented with live musical broadcasts involving Manhattan Opera Company diva Mme. Mariette Mazarin. She performed several operatic selections on the afternoon of Feb. 24, 1910, according to a report published that May in Modern Electrics. It’s possible that de Forest could have played recordings of female vocalists prior to 1910, but this appears to be the first documentation of his having transmitted a “live” female voice.

Another early radio experimenter and pioneer, Charles Herrold, started up a “radiotelephone” station, with his wife, Sybil, assisting with its operation and appearing on the air. However, this did not occur until 1909.

Another radio pioneer, Reginald Fessenden, in a 1932 letter recounting his early experiments in broadcasting, mentioned that “others” not specified — possibly his wife Helen, or his secretary “Miss Bent” — were supposed to have sung in his first radiotelephone “broadcast,” but developed an early case of “mic fright,” forcing Fessenden to go it alone. While Fessenden stated that this was at the end of 1906, it appears much more likely that his celebrated Christmas Eve broadcasting activities actually took place in December 1909.

In either case, this would clear the way for Mary Day Lee to have been first, if she indeed had worked with Hart in constructing or testing his arc transmitter.

The original version of this article appeared in Radio World in 2010.

The author thanks the following for help in preparation of this article: Pamela A. O’Neal; Jane Johnson, Mecklenburg County (N.C.) Public Library; Beth Alberty, Brooklyn Children’s Museum; Anne-Rhea Smith, Brooklyn Children’s Museum; Miriam Berg Varian, White Plains, N.Y. Public Library; and Harold Mercer, Jr., White Plains (N.Y.) Rural Cemetery.

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Jeanna Berge

iHeartMedia has named Jeanna Berge to be market president for Eau Claire, Wis., and Rochester, Minn., as Rick Hencley retires effective April 1.

Her position oversees FM stations KMFX, KRCH, WATQ, WBIZ, WMEQ and WQRB, as well as AM stations KFAN, WBIZ and WMEQ.

Berge also continues as SVP of sales for Eau Claire. She will report to Division President Shosh Abromovich.

“As market president, Berge will work closely with the programming, business and sales teams for all station brands in Eau Claire and Rochester and will oversee the stations’ on-air and digital programming as well as create new revenue opportunities,” a press release states.

Rick Hencley

Berge joined the cluster in 2011 as an account executive and has worked her way up in sales management.

She described Rick Hencley as a mentor. “I am determined to share that same motivation, positivity and creativity to help these ambitious teams excel.”

Hencley has also worked at Laird Broadcasting, Great Duluth Broadcasting, Phillips Broadcasting, Cumulus and Clear Channel.

Send People News announcements to radioworld@futurenet.com. Management and engineering position announcements are particularly sought.

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Futuri Media has named Jason Sosa as its chief technology officer.

The company offers audience engagement and sales intelligence technology for media. It cited Sosa’s experience in artificial intelligence as an important part of his background.

It said he has worked in emerging technologies including computer vision, mobile analytics, wearables, IoT and cloud. He was CEO and founder of Blackbox AI and has participated in TEDx several times as well as the MIT Enterprise Forum, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and other prominent platforms.

The announcement was made by Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig. Sosa is the company’s first CTO.

Clint Marsh, its SVP/Product, recently departed the company.

Send information for our People News coverage to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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Organizers of next week’s Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit reported strong advance registration for the free event. And Radio World has announced a number of new panelist participants.

Here is a summary of the expanded radio track, still subject to final additions. It now includes:

Welcoming Remarks: Editors’ Roundtable — The editors of Mix, Pro Sound News and Radio World will discuss recent trends and emerging technologies in pro audio and radio including virtualization, remote workflows, podcasting, digital technologies and more to open the day’s agenda.

Trends in AoIP — Edwin Bukont of E2 Technical Services, Michael LeClair of WBUR Boston and Chris Crump of Comrex explore current issues and “what’s next” now that AoIP has become well accepted in the industry.

Radio Keynote: Hybrid Radio & Android Automotive — David Layer of NAB PILOT takes attendees behind the wheel of a new Audi A4 to show what Audi’s hybrid radio platform looks like, and his colleague John Clark explains why radio managers need to know what’s going on with the Android Automotive OS, which is expected to create more powerful, modern infotainment systems.

Building the Virtual Air Chain — Radio World returns to the topic of a very popular recent ebook with a discussion about the meaning and the implications of a “virtual airchain” and what it will mean for radio. Roz Clark of Cox Media Group, Philippe Generali of RCS, Alan Jurison of iHeartMedia and Greg Shay of Telos Alliance share their expertise.

Critical Trends in Transmission — Geoff Mendenhall of Mendenhall Engineering and John Kean of Cavell Mertz & Associates talk with RW Editor in Chief Paul McLane about the impact of the DTV spectrum repack in radio, the opening of all-digital as an option on the AM band, audio streams on ATSC 3.0, the transport of FM composite baseband via IP networks, growing interest in single-frequency networks and the possible impact of hybrid radio.

Get the Most Out of Your Station’s Streams — Attendees will hear from veteran engineer and streaming expert David Bialik about loudness and upcoming AES guidelines, as well as the use of metadata and the importance of audio processing. Then John Passmore of New York Public Radio, which recently embarked on a journey to upgrade its digital streaming architecture to create more efficient, cost-effective and better-sounding streaming audio. John will talk about lessons learned and key considerations when building a streaming architecture for public radio.

Additional content is on the agenda including a radio track presentation by Wheatstone and pro audio track sessions on podcasting, house of worship projects, networking for music studios and other topics.

Registration for the summit is free. The event will take place April 1 and be available to registrants on demand for 30 days following.

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The National Association of Broadcasters wants speaker proposals for the upcoming NAB Show, which this year will be held in October.

“NAB Show seeks submissions regarding expert-led discussions from prospective presenters with fresh ideas and unique perspectives on key trends and technologies driving the future of media and entertainment,” it announced.

For the Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference it hopes for proposals on technology trends including IT- and IP-based systems and the incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, “as well as on next-generation systems throughout the media-delivery ecosystem.”

The deadline for speaking proposals is April 30.

 

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The Audio Engineering Society will conduct a series of webinars explaining how its audio standards process works.

The series is hosted by its Standards Committee. It promises to “illuminate the inner workings of the often complex, yet necessary, set of rules by which engineers and equipment manufacturers abide and the increasingly important role of the AES and its work to establish audio standards and practices that ensure interoperability worldwide.”

[Read: AES’ Prez Wyner Starts Term]

AES members can register for live interaction with the presenters, while non-members can watch a live stream of the event on the AES YouTube channel.

“The webinar will also provide opportunities for individuals to become involved in the ongoing proposal and establishment of working audio protocols,” AES stated.

The announcement was made by AES Standards Committee Chair Bruce Olson, who said the series should help demystify the standards development process.

A webinar on March 29 will discuss the current development of a procedure for loudspeaker test and measurement using a music simulation test signal called M-Noise.

On May 17, Nicolas Sturmel will discuss using AES67 over wide-area networks, the focus of the SC-02-12-M Task Group.

On July 26 Bill Whitlock will discuss ongoing initiatives on analog system interconnection standards in the SC-05-05 Working Group.

In the fourth webinar on Sept.20, Anthony Kuzub will discuss the new AES72 standard from SC-05-02 for transporting either analog or digital audio over quad twisted pair cable, including documentation of RJ45 connector pin-outs.

 

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NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association has announced that with the addition of Summitt Cellular, based in Cleveland, Ga., the tower industry group has more member companies than ever before.

NATE Member Services Chairwoman Jordyn Ladner, of tower maintenance company MILLERCO in Gulfport, Miss., said. “I am proud of the fact that NATE’s membership continues to grow in the face of a global pandemic and that point serves to demonstrate the essential contributions that the association’s member companies play to enable connectivity in the United States and throughout the world.”

[Read: NATE Announces Scholarship Recipient]

NATE Member Services Coordinator Jill Rethke pointed the benefits package for members. “The marketplace is clearly responding to the membership benefits that have been offered by the association over the course of the last several years.”

 

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The author is senior broadcast engineer, Educational Media Foundation.

Have you ever dealt with one of those “nightmare” sites? You know the type … Constant problems due to poor environmental conditions, no heating or cooling, and questionable power.

These sorts of hostile environments are the worst possible place for modern broadcast equipment. Top it off with the fact that the site is inaccessible for nine months out of the year without a dedicated snow vehicle and you have a perfect recipe for extended downtime.

Move the heat

That was precisely the description of KLCX(FM) and KWRY(FM), two combined FM stations in Southern Colorado mountain country.

These sorts of conditions may have been perfectly acceptable for tube rigs to keep chugging away (for the most part) but modern air-cooled solid-state rigs are far more reliable with better controlled environmental conditions.

In some cases, however, it may not be possible to improve environmental conditions at the site. Furthermore, when you can’t access the site, it’s hard to keep up with air filter maintenance in such a dusty environment.

If you are not able to air condition the room, it makes a lot of sense to move heat outside in other ways and eliminate fans in the transmitter cabinet.

I had seen the Rohde & Schwarz liquid-cooled FM transmitters at a trade show but had never encountered one in the field. Their liquid-cooled television transmitters, however, seemed to be popping up everywhere during the television repack.

The TV engineers I talked to absolutely loved them. There was some hesitation over using liquid cooling due to lack of familiarity, but for a site like this it was worth trying something completely different. Clearly the status quo wasn’t working.

We undertook a massive project to replace both transmitters (30 kW for KLCX and 10 kW for KWRY) as well as the entire RF system all the way to the antenna. The price was competitive with air-cooled options.

Once the installation of the Rohde & Schwarz rigs started, I realized it really wasn’t all that much different than installing any other transmitter. Yes, installing the liquid-cooling loop and heat exchangers required learning a few “different” skills but it is not nearly as difficult as one would imagine.

Overcoming the dust

The transmitters are very well engineered (as one would expect). My only complaint was that the documentation, while complete, was very utilitarian. I found it a little difficult to navigate at times.

Another thing I encountered is that setting power on these rigs is slightly different than you might expect. It is set as a percentage of the full output capability.

The percentage is not calibrated against your TPO. Output power is displayed in kilowatts. An actual TPO percentage will need to be calibrated in your remote control. I made the mistake of activating the “Power Sensor Calibration” function without truly understanding how this worked. Thankfully, the touchscreen control panel made adjustments easy to access on site. The mobile-friendly HTML 5 GUI mirrored the front panel and was equally easy to use.

The transmitters have been in operation since about October of 2020 and have weathered the winter well, including multiple power bumps.

We have seen a couple of minor issues (one almost undetectable leak at the pump stand, and an erroneous power supply fault indication on one of the modules). Neither of these minor issues has kept the rigs from operating at full power. The factory will be addressing both issues under warranty once the snow clears.

Between getting the heat from the transmitters outside of the building and eliminating any fans in the transmitter cabinet itself (aside from a small fan in the controller) it has made for a much more reliable environment.

It never ceases to amaze me that even at a dusty site like this, the inside of the transmitter cabinet is still as clean as the day it was installed. The fact that redundant power supplies are integrated into the RF amplifier modules and liquid-cooled as well makes for a very robust system.

While I don’t plan to move away from air-cooled transmitters entirely anytime soon, there are certainly situations where liquid-cooling would be a good option. It’s nice to have yet another tool available to work around these sorts of challenging site issues.

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 Rohde & Schwarz USA in Maryland at 1-410-910-7800; for international requests contact Rohde & Schwarz in Germany at +49-89-4129-0 or visit www.rohde-schwarz.com.

 

The post User Report: Mountain Dust Is Conquered With R&S appeared first on Radio World.

Inovonics is packaging three 660 INOmini DAB+ monitors into one rack space for those in serious need for DAB+ digital radio monitoring.

Called the 600 DAB+ RackPack Bundle it allows broadcasters to monitor three independent off-air channels simultaneously. As typical of Inovonics, the “modestly priced” package is tailored to the budget conscious broadcaster.

The 660 DAB+ RackPack Bundle includes three 660 DAB+ 1/3 RU monitor-receivers preinstalled in a 1U rack shelf. Each of the three 660 DAB+ receivers includes analog L/R and AES Digital program outputs. Alarm notifications for carrier loss, digital program loss, and audio loss are visible on the LCD front-panel display and there are rear-panel tallies for customized alarm solutions.

Inovonics says that the bundle is backed by its three-year factory warranty and Premiere Support service.

Inovonics Sales and Marketing Manager Gary Luhrman said, “With the steady growth of DAB+ broadcasts across Europe, Australia and other global markets, there´s a real need for broadcasters to monitor their off-air signals and that´s one of our specialties.”

Elaborating, he added, “Our INOmini monitor-receivers are compact, sensitive and selective DSP-based receivers. Three units fit into a single 1U rack space but require just one power supply — ideal for the modern broadcast facility.”

List price is US$920.

Info: www.inovonicsbroadcast.com

The post Inovonics Packages DAB+ Monitor appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a framework to provide direct, read-only access to communication outage reports filed with Network Outage Reporting System and Disaster Information Reporting System to agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, tribal nations, territories and the federal government.

[Read: FCC Will Explore EAS on the Internet]

The rules will allow participating agencies to share NORS and DIRS information with first responders and other government officials who play a vital public safety role during crises and have a need to know this information.

Furthermore, the sharing of this information is expected to speed-up response and repair of the downed networks and infrastructure.

The post FCC Adopts Communications Outage Reporting Plan appeared first on Radio World.

The year 2021 may be looked upon as the beginning of a time of transition for social media, a period when the industry giants began to lose ground to the new kids on the block. The Infinite Dial 2021, from Edison Research and Triton Digital, chronicles the latest data and stats for social media, which it has been tracking since 2008.

Social media experienced regular growth between 2008 and 2016, when it began to plateau. It gained two percentage points from 2020 to 2021, when the research estimates that 82% of the population are using it, for an estimated total of 233 million Americans.

[Read: Survey Says Podcast Demographics Continue to Diversify]

The research suggests that Facebook continues its lead in social media brand awareness, recognized by 93% of respondents, followed by Instagram and Twitter. There is, as usual, some variance between awareness and usage.

Overall usage figures from Triton Digital and Edison Research show Facebook again in the lead with 61% of respondents, followed by Instagram with 43% and Pinterest holding the number three position with 31% of those surveyed. As this data is parsed by demographics, the usage figures begin to tell a story.

When usage numbers are crunched for the 12–34 demographic, Facebook fell from 62% in 2019 to 57% for 2021. Over the same time period, Instagram rose from 66% to 70%. Without a doubt, The Infinite Dial’s data suggests that the biggest mover was TikTok, which went from 25% in 2020 to 44% in 2021. A new player for 2021, Parler, made its debut at 3%.

The usage numbers for those aged 35–54 show similar trends. 2020 numbers for Facebook were 74%, which dropped to 71% in 2021. Over the same period, Instagram inched up slightly from 38% to 40%, while TikTok jumped from 5% to 16%. Parler grabbed 8% in its first showing.

The numbers for the 55+ group look a bit different. According to the data, Facebook still leads, but only by 57% for the current year, up from 52% in 2020. Instagram went from 15% to 17% over the same period. TikTok saw an increase from 2% to 6%, while Parler won over just 6% of the senior demographic.

When the numbers are compared from 2015 to 2021 for social media brand used most often, The Infinite Dial’s data suggests some interesting trends. Facebook has steadily headed downward, from 65% to 47%, making 2021 the first year that Facebook is not indicated as the most-used platform by a majority of social media users. Much of Facebook’s loss seems to have been taken up by those in the 12–34 demographic’s interest in Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

 

The post Survey Says Social Media Ecosphere has Modest Growth appeared first on Radio World.

Jutel is highlighting new technical architecture for its RadioMan platform. It is a virtual browser-based radio production and playout system built in the cloud.

The company said web-native technologies and architecture enable more flexible deployment models.

“RadioMan users can move freely in-between different locations, as laptops and tablets are used as a thin clients to access RadioMan virtually through a web browser,” it states on its website.

The system can deploy in a cloud environment, on physical hardware or as a hybrid.

“Every radio station can benefit from taking out expensive on-site hardware and moving to virtual environments, especially small, pop-up, temporary and web-only radio stations. Instead of having expensive on-site infrastructure throughout many locations, RadioMan allows for the infrastructure to move to one centralized location.”

It said RadioMan also allows the user to access it using any browser on any thin client. “With older systems, users tried to access one machine, which created a bottleneck that slows processes down considerably,” it said.

“However, RadioMan’s built-in load balancer allows the user to redirect HTTP traffic across the load-balanced back-end infrastructure. The back-end itself is run on Apache web servers and the messaging between the front and back-end infrastructure is controlled via web-native ActiveMQ messaging.”

The company deployed PostgreSQL database with RadioMan 6 to make it more affordable and easier to deploy.

The HTML interface runs inside the RadioMan deployment and there is no need for third-party plug-ins. The REST API allows for a user to build interactivity so that MAM, traffic and newsroom systems can be integrated with RadioMan.

Jutel, based in Finland, was founded in 1984 by Jorma and Reijo Kivelä and their business partner Timo Turunen, founded the company in 1984. The first RadioMan was introduced in 1992.

The post Jutel RadioMan Gets New Architecture appeared first on Radio World.

Fletcher Ford

Software company Radio Workflow has a new chief executive officer and has added sales and support offices in Billings, Mont., and Davenport, Iowa.

The firm is based in New Jersey and also has a presence in Australia.

Fletcher M. Ford is the new CEO; he joined Radio Workflow as a partner in 2020. The company did not have a CEO prior.

“Other members of the key management team will be Robert Maschio, director of sales, and Shane Zammit, director of product,” the company stated in an announcement. Those three also are the owners.

The company makes sales, traffic, billing and production software and recently introduced a browser-based traffic and billing system. It also plans the launch of a site called MyRadioDeals.com.

[Related: “Radio Workflow Provides Dividends to Regional Media”]

The post Radio Workflow Names Ford as CEO appeared first on Radio World.

Geoff Mendenhall

“Critical Trends in Transmission” will be on the docket in the radio sessions of the Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit on April 1.

The summit is a one-day online event that is free and also includes a track about pro audio plus virtual exhibits. (Register here.)

“We’re pleased to welcome Geoff Mendenhall and John Kean, two of broadcast’s most respected engineers, to talk about transmission topics in our 30-minute roundtable,” said Radio World Editor in Chief Paul McLane.

John Kean ©2018 Patty Schuchman Photography.

“Both of these gentlemen have been recipients of the NAB Radio Engineering Award; both have authored chapters in the NAB Engineering Handbook, among their many other accomplishments,” he said.

“We’ll have a discussion about the impact of the DTV spectrum repack in radio, the opening of all-digital as an option on the AM band, and audio streams on ATSC 3.0. We’ll also touch on the transport of FM composite baseband via IP networks, the growing interest in single-frequency networks and the possible impact of hybrid radio.”

Geoffrey N. Mendenhall, P.E., is an RF engineering consultant who has spent most of his 55-year career developing broadcast equipment technology for leading manufacturers. His many contributions have made him one of the industry’s best-known experts on FM transmission. He has authored over 50 technical papers on broadcast technology.

John Kean is a member of Cavell Mertz and Associates and has 45 years in television and radio technology. He is former senior technologist at National Public Radio, where he directed network projects and technical studies at NPR Labs, which he helped found. He also has done consulting engineering with Jules Cohen and Associates and with Moffet Larson and Johnson. He is active with the Audio Engineering Society and National Radio Systems Committee.

Register for free here.

 

The post Summit Explores Trends in Transmission appeared first on Radio World.

Planned studio design with street-facing window (Beneville Studios and AUX1 design)

WMMS, WTAM and the other iHeart stations in Cleveland will get a new home this year. The company will move its regional office, including nine stations, downtown from the suburbs.

The stations involved are WMMS(FM), WTAM(AM/FM), WMJI(FM),  WGAR(FM), WHLK(FM), WAKS(FM), WKAS(HD2) and WARF(AM).

“The new location will be at 668 Euclid Avenue and will include a 10-year agreement lease with K&D Group,” the company said in a release.

The company currently has offices in the suburb of Independence, where it moved in March 2001.

It released these images showing the planned layout.

“The new agreement will move iHeartMedia Cleveland’s nine radio stations, along with the company’s sales, marketing, digital and Total Traffic operation to the new state-of-the-art street-level facility,” it stated. “The new offices are scheduled to open by the end of 2021.”

Planned entryway design.

It said this will move more than 100 employees to downtown.

The announcement was made by Keith Hotchkiss, president of iHeartMedia Cleveland.

The post iHeart Will Move Cleveland Stations Downtown appeared first on Radio World.

Entercom will use an HD-2 FM channel in Chicago as it continues to feel its way in expanding radio programming about sports betting.

It announced launch of “The Bet 105.9 FM-HD2,” which will be part of its BetQL Audio Network and an affiliate of CBS Sports Radio.

Until now, that HD-2 channel carried a simulcast of its main station, WCFS(FM), which is branded as WBBM Newsradio.

Because it is a digital subchannel, the content will only be heard by listeners with HD Radio receivers in Chicago. HD Radio developer Xperi has said that receiver penetration continues to increase in major markets.

The company said The Bet format “will feature national sports talk and sports betting programming heard across Entercom’s robust portfolio of sports stations, as well as the BetQL Audio Network.”

Entercom  recently made similar moves in Los Angeles, where the content is heard on an HD-3 channel, and Denver, where Entercom is using an AM station for the format.

[Related: “Entercom Tries Betting Radio in L.A., Denver”]

Rachel Williamson, regional president and market manager in Chicago, said in the announcement that since legalization in 2019, “sports betting has exploded in the state of Illinois and we’re delighted to enter the arena of this rapidly growing landscape to deliver insightful content to our listeners with the launch of this new station.

Programming includes “BetQL Daily” with Joe Ostrowski and Ross Tucker and “You Better You Bet” with Nick Kostos and Ken Barkley.

[Related: “Radio Gambles on Sports Betting”]

The post Entercom Expands Gambling Radio to Chicago appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is the general manager of Radioplayer Worldwide, responsible for all Radioplayer countries outside the UK.

Radioplayer, the not-for-profit broadcaster-owned and -operated aggregator platform, has spent the lockdown period adding new countries across Europe and increasing audience reach.

Radioplayer is a unique initiative where broadcasters have come together to fund a joint platform where they can ‘Collaborate on technology and compete on content’ ensuring that their content is available in one place just like on the radio.

Radioplayer aims to keep the user interface simple whilst focusing on a highly rated user experience.

Remarkable year

Radio has been incredibly lucky over the past year. With many people confined to home, listenership internationally has increased as people appreciate the companionship that radio offers as well as access to local and highly trusted information. During a national crisis, trusted news from where you are is vital.

Surprisingly, maybe, at this time exactly a year ago when coronavirus forced people to stay at home, Radioplayer saw large increases in online listening on all its platforms internationally.

Despite being at home, people were accessing radio via their computers, phones, tablets, TVs and smart speakers which nowadays are the new radios, especially with the younger demographics that are so important for radio’s future.

It is almost 10 years now since the BBC and commercial radio in the UK saw the advantage of working together on a shared platform and Radioplayer was born.

Norway and Belgium liked what they saw and joined the UK. Radioplayer grew across western Europe and nearly four years ago Canadian broadcasters joined the family.

However, the rate of growth in the last year has been something else. In the early stages of the pandemic last year, Radioplayer Italia launched and in November it was the turn of the Netherlands. Sweden should have launched by the time this article is published, followed not far behind by Radioplayer France.

Three pillars

In each country, Radioplayer is licensed to a local organization running a not-for-profit platform in that country on behalf of the broadcasters there. We are run by broadcasters, for broadcasters.

And that is the real secret of Radioplayer, the ability to pick up the phone and speak directly to the key personnel at every member broadcaster ensures that Radioplayer can represent the radio industry across the private and public service spectrums like no other organization.

Radioplayer has three main pillars to its customer facing platforms.

The first is automotive, with the car dashboard being identified as the place where radio has always dominated and, not surprisingly, the industry does not want to lose its prominence there. The dashboard is joined by smart speakers and connected devices and by the traditional platforms of apps and web players.

Countries are free to choose what products are launched locally. Radioplayer products place the smallest of stations on the same level as their much bigger and better resourced cousins. A country could also choose to join Radioplayer only for our automotive business-to-business work.

Equally important though is the power of the Radioplayer collaboration.

With many of the world’s biggest broadcasters sitting around the Radioplayer table, Radioplayer can speak with a single industry voice to the automotive sector as well as the platforms that carry live and on demand radio. They know that when they speak to Radioplayer, they are speaking to the much wider industry in one conversation.

They also know that through the WRAPI (the Worldwide Radioplayer API), they have access to live and accurate metadata from thousands of broadcasters as well as streams and content that come from trusted, licensed broadcasters. The car companies and platforms don’t need to worry about sports or music rights because this is official broadcaster content.

Radioplayer’s work with car companies is growing. We have been partnering with Audi/VW Group since 2017 to power their amazing hybrid radio experience with more to follow.

Our partnership model is unique in the automotive world and involves a direct collaboration with broadcasters to keep radio strong and prominent in connected car dashboards. For Radioplayer, this is about the broadcast/hybrid radio experience when a driver or passenger presses the button marked “radio.”

This is founded on the use of our official broadcaster metadata via the WRAPI but also includes technology and design support, requirements to meet certain user experience criteria and collaboration on development of the future radio experience. Radioplayer is currently running an ad campaign in the UK based around the future of radio in the car, as shown here:

The hybrid radio experience that Radioplayer champions is platform-agnostic so it doesn’t matter if your over the air transmissions are FM, DAB or HD Radio or a mixture. One of our user experience rules states that over the air transmissions, where available, will always be favored over IP saving both broadcasters and listeners from unnecessary data costs.

Despite recent successes, the Radioplayer team is not sitting back. Conversations are taking place with more new countries as broadcasters realize how important it is to add their voice to the industry conversation.

Radioplayer stations reach an audience of approaching 400 million people in Europe and Canada and serve around 80% of radio listening in those regions so not surprisingly the Radioplayer team are spreading their sights wide and setting challenges in new regions and territories.

 

The post Galkoff: Radioplayer Continues to Grow appeared first on Radio World.

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

In the coming weeks, the White House will launch a national vaccine promotional campaign. Traditionally, these monies have largely gone to commercial radio and television. However, there are many reasons why the Biden administration should turn to public media, especially community radio.

According to CNN, the forthcoming advertising push is aimed at addressing fears of Americans hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine. Misinformation and delays in vaccine access are among the reasons that polls suggest people are skittish. Although many states have been slow to immunize residents, Pres. Biden has pledged to see vaccines will be more available to all Americans, 18 years of age and up, by May. Promoting the benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 is now on top of the nation’s agenda.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Off Road]

The Department of Health and Human Services is taking the lead on educating the public about vaccination as part of a $250 million campaign. President Biden has said on several occasions that he’s willing to commit much more, however, to ensure the American people have the knowledge they need to make an informed choice.

Television, radio and digital media will be valuable players in these campaigns, as they have been historically. In this year, federal leaders would serve communities well by giving more attention to the United States’ community radio stations in presenting these crucial messages.

In a forthcoming study from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, more than 90% of stations are broadcasting public service announcements related to the coronavirus. Seventy-five percent of broadcasters are airing PSAs daily. The overwhelming majority of these announcements are produced in collaboration with local agencies and nonprofits. Clearly, community radio has seen the need for COVID-19 education and is fulfilling the need. They’re ready to make and broadcast locally relevant content now.

Community radio stations are also producing on-air and online programming to talk to their listeners about the coronavirus. For example, Hoopa Valley, Calif.’s KIDE has been jumping on Facebook Live to educate its tribal audience about the fight against COVID-19 on the reservation. Several other stations are engaged in similar initiatives.

Community radio is a lifeline in many areas, which the Department of Health and Human Services must take notice of. Rural community radio stations are situated in communities which are, at many turns, not served by other area outlets broadcasting locally relevant content. In a few cases, it may be even hard to get TV. Yet there is community radio, crowdsourcing questions, vetting guidance with regional nonprofits, and doing crucial work to save lives.

The question about advertising dollars must be about more than simplistic equations of audience size. Who has trust? Is it the station I can rely on to play Kane Brown twice an hour, or the station broadcasting daily the latest area infection rates and talks with city leaders on how to stop the spread, like Oregon’s KPOV? I’d put forward a station like Santa Barbara’s KCSB, which produces a newsletter by staff and students four times a week on COVID-19 for its University of California campus and the city at large, is far more critical in getting out these messages than a station whose morning show many may be in the habit of listening to.

During a pandemic, the comfort of habit is meaningful, of course, but community radio’s responsiveness today is worthy of Pres. Biden’s attention and that of federal leadership.

The post Community Broadcaster: Vaccines and Impact appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is head of Digital, Platforms & Transformation for the EBU, an alliance of public service media with 115 member organizations in 56 countries. Read about its mission here.

“One, two, three, four. Is it snowing where you are, Mr. Thiessen?”

The very first radio transmission of a voice in 1900 by Reginald Fessenden was little more than a casual question about the weather.

His name is now long forgotten by most people, but that initial conversational aspect of broadcast radio seems to be more alive than ever.

Digital, distributed, in spontaneous organized rooms, audio conversations are taking the internet by storm. Of course, I’m talking about Clubhouse and various other social audio apps that are currently seeing a steady rise in popularity.

Hype? Perhaps. The ecosystem is still new and fragile and the business model as yet unclear. But the map is expanding and as the world is locked in we all seem to crave more intimate digital experiences. Where video can quickly feel too much, audio has a lower threshold for spontaneous socializing.

So is this the next step in the great unbundling of radio?

How radio evolves

If Radio 1.0 is live, linear terrestrial radio with all its magic: connecting people, ideas and music in a schedule that guides listeners across the day then Radio 2.0 can be considered the moment when users got control through interactivity and on-demand content. Very much anything that happened after the invention of the iPod.

Today web and mobile streaming services also emulate radio-like flows, letting you cue up music, talk and more. Spotify and Deezer come to mind as obvious examples, but the range is endless and even video services like YouTube and Vimeo can now be considered as alternative radio stations.

What is left is the less developed area of live episodes: in the moment — spontaneous — and social but also highly tailored or customizable, the third wave: Radio 3.0.

A third wave

The new wave of audio apps have a distinctive social layer. They are either extensions of existing social networks allowing people to chat and send audio messages. (e.g., Twitter launching audio tweets)

Or they are whole new social ecosystems that have audio at the center like Clubhouse, Space or Voicehub. These last ones can be quite overwhelming with hundreds of people in “rooms” in the hands of a skilled or unskilled moderator.

But even here you start seeing well-produced and executed talk shows. With great guests, clear rules of engagement and schedules you can add to your agenda so you don’t miss any upcoming talks.

A second and equally important evolution that is part of Radio 3.0 is the advent of personalized and customizable radio with object-based media, allowing users to mix and match their live radio streams with the music they like, fast forward, save, skip and any other smart or chosen interaction.

One radio show becomes a million individual experiences — while keeping a shared live backbone.

The great unbundling

This third wave further unbundles the traditional radio stream of morning shows, news briefings, hit shows and intimate interviews. Every part of the schedule now can be experienced in isolation.

• The morning show: Spotify is clearly eyeing this traditional radio block with new formats like “Your Daily Drive” and “The Get Up.’
• The news briefing: Google and Amazon are both redefining the news briefing and are experimenting with aggregated new news formats like “Your News Update.”
• The hits: Spotify and other music streaming platforms have defined their own rankings and are challenging the classic hitlists.
• The talk show: Clubhouse and social audio apps are experimenting with new scheduled live panels and talk shows and seeing figures like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg appear.
• The focused deep dive or interview session: Interview podcasts are a popular genre that mimic the intimacy of a radio conversation.

Reinventing radio

Rather than a threat, this could be an opportunity for traditional radio broadcasters. Never before has there been such a rich landscape for audio experiences.

From my European vantage point at the EBU, I see many public broadcasters rising to the occasion.

• Podcasting is on the rise and a significant part of that new podcast listening time in Europe goes to content produced by public service media (PSM). In the UK, BBC podcasts account for 34% of all podcasting hours.In France, data from the new eStat Podcast measurements by Mediamétrie clearly illustrates the leadership position of Public Broadcaster Radio France in the French podcast landscape.
• PSM rethinks radio in myriads ways. Experimenting with smart streams and atomized content that can be rearranged to enhance the user experience. The new functionalities German Public Broadcaster SWR is exploring in their new mobile app are an impressive example.
• PSM also evolve by putting more local and diverse talent in front of the mic — blending different media and styles to suit the tastes of a new generation. RTBF Tarmac comes to mind as a prime example. And new social audio spaces feel like a natural ground to deepen the connection with the audience and engage in valuable conversations.

These are just a few examples of how radio and audio is evolving. We are just at the start of the third wave. A lot of the new opportunities will have to be tested and tried. Not everything will stick; but experimentation is key and doesn’t need to be complex.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post The Great Unbundling of Radio appeared first on Radio World.

The author is operations manager of KQAL(FM) in Winona, Minn.

The campus radio station at Winona State University has always led the way in technology among broadcasters in Winona, Minn.

KQAL(FM) was the first radio station in the area with a website; it was the first to do online streaming; the first with a mobile app, and the first to broadcast RDS song/artist metadata. So being the first to broadcast in HD Radio was a logical step for KQAL.

Our upgrade to HD Radio operation went on air in October 2020 with a new Nautel VS2.5 HD transmitter and the new HD Multicast+ Importer/Exporter.

We have been using Nautel for a long time. KQAL’s first venture with Nautel was a M50/V1 exciter/transmitter combo, we then moved up to the VS1, and when we decided to go HD it was a no brainer to stay with Nautel. The customer support, reliability and AUI are unparalleled. And our rep, Jeff Welton, guided us along every step of the way.

The HD MultiCast+ made our transition to HD easy and installation was a breeze. It is basically the standards-based version of Xperi’s HD Radio software implemented on a device that uses an embedded Windows site server. This is a proven, well-supported industrial-quality OS that is used for high-availability applications ranging from bank machines to audio processors.

To put it simply, AES digital audio goes into the onboard sound card and HD Radio comes out, ready to be fed into the Nautel HD exciter. The installation manual is comprehensive yet easy to follow. The only tech support I needed y was to resolve a question about what port to use for song/artist metadata.

Before Nautel can ship any equipment, stations must have a license agreement with Xperi. Being a state university station, KQAL had to receive contract approval from the system office in St. Paul, Minn., and that process delayed us for several weeks.

But when that was resolved, things moved fast. Xperi notified Nautel of the consummated deal on a Thursday, Nautel shipped Friday and it was on-site Monday.

KQAL is an Axia Livewire plant; all sources are digital with no analog conversions at any point, including a digital STL. The 2 RU HD MultiCast+ has everything we needed for managing our signal. It works flawlessly with Livewire; it encodes our digital channel along with data services, and it supports the Artist Experience information that we hope to use soon. The exporter brings together the digital version of the main audio stream plus the HD content and feeds it all to the VS2.5.

Our General Manager Doug Westerman teaches a “Fundamentals of Radio” course at WSU. It’s a great entry to try broadcasting, putting students into the KQAL environment to learn the basics of radio at an actual station. Adding the HD capability to KQAL ensures that our students are staying on the cutting edge of radio technologies, programming and operation. It’s just another “first” for a university that has been leading the way since 1858.

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 Nautel in Nova Scotia at 1-902-823-5131 or visit www.nautel.

The post User Report: KQAL Move to HD Simplified With Nautel appeared first on Radio World.