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Extending its investment in podcasting, iHeartMedia announced a partneship with European podcast platform Podimo to translate and adapt podcasts “across the globe in different languages.”

The announcement was made by Podimo Chief of Strategic Relations Eva Lægdsgaard and iHeartPodcast Network President Conal Byrne.

They’ll start with the true crime podcast “Forgotten: Women of Juárez,” or in Spanish, “Olvidadas: Muertes de Juárez” in Spanish, German and Danish.

The podcast investigates theories about the disappearance of hundreds of young women in the city of Juárez, some found with symbols carved into their bodies or their wrists bound.

The adapted series will be released early next year in 20 countries in Latin America, Spain and the United States, with Germany and Denmark to follow.

 

The post iHeartMedia, Podimo to Translate Podcasts appeared first on Radio World.

Interconnects hardware manufacturer SoundTools has introduced its new WallCAT 8, a two-gang wall plate with four female and four male XLR connectors.

The plate utilizes eight connectors, allowing the choice of either input or output across four XLR channels. A pair of RJ45 connections in the back of the plate transmit analog audio, AES3, DMX and interCOM signals to multiple locations with a Cat-5e, Cat-6, or Cat-7 cable. All connectors on the WallCAT 8 come preinstalled — ready to go without a need for soldering.

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

Noting that “The WallCAT 4, male and female, have been wonderfully popular products for us,” Dave Rat, designer of SoundTools products wondered if the company could fit eight connectors on to a standard 4-inch x 4-inch wall box plate, and then set out to design it. “The WallCAT 8 is exciting because it allows the same panel to be used as either inputs outputs or any combination,” he says.

As with all SoundTools products, the plate is guaranteed for life by the company’s Happy Human Warranty, he said. “If you need a replacement during the unit’s lifetime, give our team a shout.”

Info: www.soundtools.com

 

The post SoundTools Launches WallCat 8 Wall Plate appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is chairman of Digital Radio Mondiale. 

When a manmade or natural disaster strikes, we are reminded that radio broadcasting can be considered the most resilient and most widely available tool to reach out to people and save lives.

We know how this works in the analog world; on-air services are interrupted for short audio announcements and typically restricted to a single language.

The DRM digital radio standard (www.drm.org) retains all the basic strengths of radio broadcasting for alarm dissemination, adding a whole set of modern features that can establish DRM’s Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) as part of any modern national alert network.

How does DRM work in case of disasters?

When a disaster situation strikes, an explicit alarm signal is triggered by the emergency authorities and sent by broadcasters to receivers indicating where to find the actual emergency program.

This allows radio receivers to monitor DRM’s dedicated alarm signaling channel in the background (e.g. while in deep standby mode) and to wake up on demand; or, while playing, to automatically retune to the indicated emergency program.

In practice this means that temporarily emergency services are inserted and available on air instead of interrupting ongoing services. This allows listeners to retune to the previously selected station as soon as they discover that they are currently located outside the affected area.

On various levels, a well-designed DRM network for EWF will ensure that an active alarm is limited to the extent possible for listeners in the area affected by the disaster. The Journaline component of the emergency program provides an accurate definition of the affected area as a region, so that a receiver can automatically switch back to the previously tuned service once it has established that the alarm is no longer relevant to the listener.

Digital radio’s unique capability of transmitting detailed and structured textual information using the advanced Journaline text application allows digital radio-based EWF services to reach a wider audience with different needs, like users with hearing impairments as well as non-native speakers or tourists who would not be able to understand audio-only announcements in the local language.

RRI implements DRM EWF

Where has been EWF on DRM been demonstrated? In one of the most disaster-prone areas of the globe.

The Indonesian public broadcaster Radio Republic Indonesia (RRI) has recently taken the final step towards implementing the DRM Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) in its five DRM FM transmissions recently commissioned in the Java island, the most populous of the 14,000 in the Indonesian archipelago.

This is shaping into the first-ever large-scale implementation of the EWF service in DRM in the Asian region.

A recent in-depth evaluation of the technical parameters and coverage of the DRM FM transmissions was carried out by the Indonesian Ministry of Information and Communication (Kominfo), arriving at some very favorable conclusions on the performance of both DRM in FM and EWF.

This is part of the commitment made by RRI to providing comprehensive emergency warning services to the public in Indonesia, using the DRM infrastructure.

But the public broadcaster alone cannot deliver it and a proper command chain needs to be set up involving the authorities providing the information, the transmission including the specific emergency path and the relevant and suitable receivers.

A recent webinar explained this and detailed the many agencies that need to work seamlessly together for this. So, disasters are terrible and averting them is not for the faint-hearted as without cooperation and coordination such a system is unworkable.

 

 

In August RRI carried out a special trial and demo in  Jakarta  highlighting and proving that the DRM EWF is an extremely versatile and dependable warning system; the trial proved that it can be configured to reliably and accurately generate appropriate warning signals to be delivered to the specific affected areas.

 

 

RRI had already decided to implement the EWF service in its new five DRM FM transmitting stations, which have become operational since June — currently operational in Java (the first DRM FM transmitter to be commissioned in the Asian region), Timor and West Sumatra.

 

The location of these initial DRM FM transmitters has been selected so that these transmitters could be efficiently deployed for EWF warnings (including tsunami warnings) in the western and southern coastal areas. More such transmitters are planned in the near term to cover many such critical areas.

As detailed by Sharad Sadhu in a recent DRM article, currently, all the DRM FM digital radio stations that can deliver EWF are broadcasting audio services RRI Pro 1 and RRI Pro 3, plus a Journaline text service with news and current affairs information in textual form (in writing) in Bhasa Indonesia (national language all without the need for Internet connection.

The Official Ministry of the Communications, or Kominfo, conducted extensive measurements in West Java and later at RRI Jakarta. Kominfo concluded that the test results in the field are consistent with ITU-R Recommendation BS.1114 and BS.1660.

These conclusions, now publicly available, include that DRM digital radio in the FM radio band can be implemented side by side (coexistence) with analog FM radio using 200 kHz frequency spacing from existing FM radio; full DRM implementation can be emitted with a frequency space of 100 kHz between adjacent DRM FM radio transmissions; DRM technology can also be used for EWF very effectively.

With this the stage is set for the first-ever large-scale implementation of the EWF service in DRM in the Asian region. This will surely set an example for other countries in this region to use DRM EWF technology to save people’s lives.

 

The post Does Emergency Warning Really Work on DRM? appeared first on Radio World.

One in a series of articles about the careers and experiences of Black engineers in radio broadcasting.

Rodney Belizaire (Photo by Joe Faraoni / ESPN Images)

Rodney Belizaire has worked in engineering in New York City for 37 years, work that allowed him to travel to points across the globe as a specialist in remote radio engineering.

Belizaire is senior engineer in Media Operations Engineering at Disney Direct to Consumer International. He provides technical management for the New York radio stations of ESPN and tech support for ESPN’s and DTCI’s audio initiatives, which cross over into TV and video.

Radio World: You started early in the field, showing notable initiative for a teen.  

Rodney Belizaire: When I was 13 years old, I gave myself a summer project of writing all of the CEs of all the major radio facilities I wanted to visit in New York.

I didn’t realize until years later how seeing one African American engineer, the only one I saw in my visits, made an impact on me. In seeing him do his job running the board, I saw someone who looked like me. It was at that point I realize that my dream was possible. I charted and planned my course from there.

RW: Has the acceptance level as a Black man in radio engineering changed since then?

Belizaire: I stand on the shoulders of mentors, colleagues and benefactors who paved the way for me throughout my career.

Due to the lack of diversity in broadcast engineering, there have been only a handful of those African Americans who I met coming up in the New York City community who were staff engineers, who by the way never even had aspirations to be more than that because they never felt the opportunities would come their way. Only one who was a CE, David Antoine, who I could look to for guidance and what I realized later was mentorship, on how to navigate the broadcast engineering field.

That said, there’s no way I’m in this industry without being given the opportunities by non-African Americans to prove myself. I’d like to think that my work ethic, commitment to excellence and good fortune to have crossed paths with the right people at the right time have kept me in the industry all these years.

I’d like to think that due to the diverse racial makeup and melting pot that New York City is, that as time went on, being an African American in media in general wasn’t like being a unicorn.

I’ve often wondered if I hadn’t been born and raised in NYC whether I would’ve have had the same opportunities. The cream of the crop in engineering talent works here, so I felt like I was playing catchup my whole career. I knew that I had to bring excellence to everything that I did every day.

There was also the silent but ever-present knowledge and burden that if I screwed up, I wouldn’t only be seen as just a bad engineer but I could jeopardize things for anyone who looked like me moving forward. My goal was and is every day to break stereotypes and biases that non-African Americans have about people who look like me.

[Related: “Is Diversity in U.S. Radio Engineering Possible?”]

RW: We’ve heard from other Black engineers about how they felt or were treated in certain employment circumstances. Have there been awkward situations?

Belizaire: I’ve run out of fingers and toes to count how many times that vendors, industry colleagues, etc., who have met me for the first time after dealing with me by email or phone, can’t even hide their shock that I am African American. Whatever they were or weren’t expecting when they do finally meet me, I knew that it wasn’t me.

At conventions, my attendee badge and the company I work for have opened many doors that I’m pretty sure would’ve otherwise been closed to me.

Most people tend to forget my skin color once they get to know me. I treat people the way I’d like to be treated and have been fortunate to be treated extremely well for the most part.

I’ve definitely done remotes, worked on job sites or entered buildings where I’ve experienced the standard extra level of scrutiny and circumspection.

I’ve also been stopped by the police for driving while Black in the middle of the night, on the way to a morning show remote prep, and had to have a White colleague vouch for me before I could enter a work site, because it was impossible, in the gatekeeper’s mind, that I was there to do what I said I was there to do, even if my name was on a list.

So sure, I’ve been made to feel like I don’t belong; but I don’t let that stop or define me. What defines me is that I’m there to do a job to the best of my ability and my employer’s satisfaction.

RW: What does it feel like to be in your shoes right now? What emotions do you have about the current social movement?

Belizaire: Let’s face it, most senior executives who run broadcast stations or operations don’t live in areas where they see many people or interact socially with anyone who look like me. Once they leave work, they may never see another African American unless they are at work.

Whatever they may feel about African Americans, whether it’s conscious or unconscious bias, they may not want to place anything as important as the technical reins, directly tied to their revenue, in the hands of someone who looks like me.

In general, every decision I make outside of my home is usually rooted in avoiding situations that could need or cause me to justify my existence based on someone else’s bias, prejudice, stereotypes, etc.

Someone said to me after the George Floyd incident that racism never really went away. It was only dormant. That’s a powerful statement inasmuch as even with the societal progress that’s been made, it may easily take a couple of more generations before enough biases have been put aside.

I’ll admit that I was caught off guard and dismayed by the events that led to the powder keg and frustration of the national movement, because I mistakenly thought we were more evolved as a society.

That said, I and my family do our part to dispel stereotypes, defy negative expectations and do the best we can to be part of a society that changes for the better. And I do believe this will get better with the awareness brought on by the events that put a spotlight on biases and still-pervasive racism. I pray that the conversations that have begun will continue.

RW: What can broadcasters do to improve recruitment protocols in order to bring more diversity into the technical side of radio?

Belizaire: The issue isn’t just recruitment. It’s pay parity. And education about career options since most kids don’t even see radio as a viable medium anymore.

I know that the SBE [Society of Broadcast Engineers] and others do their best to evangelize broadcast engineering, but broadcast engineering is seen as a dead end. I am guilty myself about not evangelizing for it, but the jobs are minimal, require a lot of work due to reduced staffing and are thankless in any markets outside of the top 10.

I mentor younger folks, but I can’t get them interested in engineering. The few I’ve tried to interest don’t have the fire in the belly and aren’t interested. There’s a reason why most recruits are coming from IT, which works on the studio side of things. Who’s teaching RF? Those are mostly contractor jobs now.

RW: On that topic, what would you say are the most important issues or trends in U.S. radio engineering?

Belizaire:  Relevancy, adaptability and trendsetting. The issues loom larger than ever with the exponential changes in technology year over year, instead decade over decade.

How do engineers use technological trends to reach the audience wherever they are, using whatever methodologies are necessary? More than ever, the radio engineer needs to continually adapt to be media technologists, staying ahead of the curve through continual education.

SIDEBAR: Hello From Venice

We asked Belizaire to share an interesting career project memory:

“One of the pinnacles was helming the first ISDN remote originating from Venice, Italy,” he wrote.

“In 1995 while being a staff engineer at WQXR-FM in New York, America’s foremost and most listened to classical station, I was afforded the opportunity to be the remote engineer for week-long live broadcasts originating from Venice.

“There were many challenges surrounding the use of an external Adtran NT-1. Outside of Italy or to non-visitors, it’s not universally understood that Venice is many little islands that make up two larger sections separated by the Grand Canal, making up one larger island not on the Italian mainland. The Venetian telecom central office had never done or had an ISDN use request off the Italian mainland, so their telco central office wasn’t even entirely equipped to accomplish what was needed.

“Between my broken — really, nonexistent — Italian, a dedicated Italian telecom professional, our benefactor’s political connections and clout and a miracle or two, we were able to become the first broadcasters to originate a live remote from Venice using ISDN in 15 kHz mono.

“All the broadcasts were done from the Safe Venice Society’s offices next to the Grand Canal, which provided great ambient sound and views for the host, who was giving play by play descriptions of the breathtaking views down the Canal and having the listeners view Venice from his mind’s eye.

“An attempt to originate a couple of the broadcasts from one of the hotels never happened because they could not move or provide ISDN in time to the second location. Whichever central office configurations that worked in the offices did not work at the hotel.

“Imagine traversing the Venetian streets with a cart full of equipment on almost cobblestone-like streets, rushing to make it back to the offices in order to get the broadcasts on the air. I will never forget that.”

The post Belizaire Reflects on Race, Success appeared first on Radio World.

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Media Bureau announces pleading cycle for proposed sponsorship identification requirements for foreign government-provided programming

FCC upholds dismissal of application filed by Korean Gospel Broadcasting Network for a new cross-service FM translator station at Los Angeles, CA, to rebroadcast Station KGBN(AM), Anaheim, CA

Media Bureau Exends Comment Period on the Request for Permanent Waiver of Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-ownership Rule Filed by Fox Corp.

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In this document, the Commission seeks comment on rules proposing to require specific disclosure requirements for broadcast programming that is paid for, or provided by a foreign government or its representative.

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