Industry News

As the $2.65 billion merger between West Palm Beach-headquartered ION Media and The E.W. Scripps Co. winds its way toward completion, a series of amendments have been submitted with the FCC that have seen the inclusion — and now exclusion — of three stations that had been designed for sale to INYO Broadcast Holdings, which is getting a host of spin-off properties.

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Emerging technology could simplify facility infrastructure and reduce costs for broadcasters by eliminating reliance on hardware and utilizing the cloud instead.

A two-part session at this fall’s virtual Radio Show conference explored virtualization of traditionally hardware-based systems and the benefits of the fourth generation of HD Radio technology.

Moderator Roz Clark, senior director of radio engineering for Cox Media Group, framed the conversation as a look at the next generation of radio architecture, which will involve fewer hardware boxes in facilities as broadcasters move toward more service-based systems.

[Read RW’s free ebook “Virtualizing the Air Chain: Next-Gen Radio Architecture”]

“We know broadcast equipment is specialized, expensive and wears out. It requires maintenance and cooling. And all of these things are magnified by the number of stations you own, so evolving things forward and making it a more cost-effective and useful part of our business is a goal we all have,” Clark said during his introduction.

He noted that the NAB Radio Technology Committee is working with equipment manufactures to create common platforms to develop technology solutions.

“We are trying to simplify things, make it interoperable and adopt best practices, to develop technology to fit within the existing infrastructure — and the modern infrastructure as it evolves,” Clark said during his introduction.

The first panel included Jason Ornellas, regional director of engineering for Bonneville International Corp.; Alan Jurison, senior broadcast engineer at iHeartMedia; and Lakeya Jefferson, director of audio client engineering at Nielsen Media.

A goal of the NAB Radio Technology Committee, Clark said, is to make it easier and more cost-effective to implement HD Radio as the industry transforms into a digital transport delivery mechanism.

One part of that effort involves the software to insert Nielsen Audio PPM codes. Another is the implementation of Emergency Alert System content into an HD sub-channel stream.

Jefferson said Nielsen has taken its enhanced Critical Band Encoding Technology, or CBET, which is used in its PPM hardware encoders, and made it available in a software-based version to be integrated into third-party devices and products that may exist in broadcast facilities.

“We are excited to offer a wide variety of options when it comes to encoding. Nielsen is planning a beta release of our audio software encoder to a select group of audio processing vendors, including Orban, Wheatstone and Telos/Omnia, and AM stations with a wider production release later this year,” Jefferson said during the online session.

Field evaluation for AM stations began in early October with plans to release FM and streaming in 2021, Jefferson said.

Ornellas, who chairs the PPM Subgroup of the technology committee, said Bonneville successfully beta tested software-based PPM encoding using Orban processing at KHTK(AM) in Sacramento, Calif., and KSL(AM) in Salt Lake City. So did Cox Media at its stations WSB(AM) in Atlanta and KKYX(AM) in San Antonio, Texas.

“It was pretty seamless, with no issues for either the terrestrial AM or HD channel,” Ornellas said of the Bonneville testing. “We were able to see that the PPM encoding was being present right on the processor as well as the Multichannel Encoding Monitor. Nielsen was happy with the quality assurance they were expecting. This is a huge first step.”

iHeartMedia’s Jurison has been working for some time on getting the EAS component of the broadcast air chain put into software and virtualized into HD Radio subchannels.

“It’s been a challenge for (iHeartMedia) to get EAS onto the HD-2, -3 and -4 subchannels. We expect the next-generation architecture to move a lot of things out of defined-purpose hardware and into the cloud,” he said.

“We think some of the low-hanging fruit is the multicast channels. A lot of those stations just play music with few elements. As we migrate audio and radio into the cloud, these seem like good choices for us to virtualize.”

iHeartMedia uses a physical audio switcher that is tied to the EAS encoder to get EAS messaging onto the FM subchannels, Jurison said. The industry’s challenge, he says, is how to get EAS onto the subchannels without requiring hardware in the local market while remaining FCC-compliant.

He said Gen4 HD Radio technology and an embedded HD Radio importer/exporter will allow broadcasters to “virtualize” this process.

“It’s a whole new way of looking at HD Radio. The HD-2, -3 and -4 are perfect for us to begin putting things up in the cloud; but the cloud doesn’t have an EAS encoder,” Jurison said.

He explained that broadcasters will have the capability, thanks to the Gen4’s embedded importer/exporter, to connect the EAS encoder via 2wcom’s HDRCC, an HD Radio capture client appliance, which will encode all audio.

According to 2wcom’s website, the HDR-CC “requires a setup that has EAS audio connected to the capture client as well as a GPI to trigger the alarm. When the alarm is triggered, the three-channel HDR-CC logs into the importer and replaces all supplemental channels (HD2–HD4) with the alarm program. After the GPI is released, the HDR-CC logs out and the importer continues with normal operation.”

Jurison says Gen4 HD Radio technology will eliminate complicated audio switching requirements for emergency alerts. iHeartMedia is field testing the new system. The session included an explanation of how audio is delivered from an iHeartMedia data center in Cincinnati through its tech center in San Antonio to WWHT(FM)’s transmitter site in Syracuse, N.Y.

“We are essentially generating audio in the Cincinnati data center that goes through our WAN to the transmitter site in Syracuse with no hardware in between to generate the HD2 channel,” Jurison said.

In conclusion, Jurison said by using the Gen4’s embedded importer/exporter and 2wcom’s HDR-CC, broadcasters have the ability to insert EAS into any multicast channel from any data center anywhere across the country and eliminate physical hardware switching.

Part two of the virtual equipment evolution session featured presentations from broadcast equipment manufacturers Nautel, GatesAir and Rohde & Schwarz. The companies are working on Gen4 HD Radio virtualization technology for use in the cloud.

Moderator Roz Clark described an ongoing open collaboration to find radio architecture solutions that includes radio broadcasters, equipment manufacturers and Xperi, the parent of both HD Radio and the hybrid radio platform DTS Connected Radio.

“It’s really the three-legged stool approach between all of us. We want to simplify the architecture, we want to ease implementation to make it cheaper, better and faster. And also to leverage the technology that surrounds the broadcast business in general,” he said.

Philipp Schmid, chief technology officer for Nautel, said since a lot of the radio air chain is based on “purpose-filled boxes,” there is the need to look at the transition to a software environment and that HD Radio presents the opportunity to do so.

“However, HD Radio also adds cost and complexity,” Schmid said, “due to having to keep audio aligned between the FM and the HD-1.”

Nautel, which manufacturers transmission equipment, has partnered with Telos Alliance to develop a new Gen4 HD system using Omnia Enterprise 9s audio processing software and the Nautel HD multicast transmitter platform.

“The whole system can be applied in the cloud and can be scaled and is highly reliable,” Schmid said.

Nautel’s goal is “easy HD Radio conversion, cheaper HD Radio conversion, security and interoperability for third parties and legacy equipment,” he said.

A webinar of the Gen4 HD Radio system by Nautel is available on the company’s website.

Rohde & Schwarz manufactures the THR9 liquid cooled FM HD Radio transmitter and its HD component, the HDR900 built on the Gen 4 HD Radio architecture, according to information presented during the virtual conference.

“We suggest creating a functional block for all of the HD encoding. This block can live in the cloud or it can live virtually,” said Don Backus, account manager of radio transmitters at Rohde & Schwarz. “It gets us simplicity and it also gets us the ability to provide an abstraction from the hardware layer and that does allow for a virtual implementation or in the cloud.”

Backus said standardization on AES67, a technical standard for audio over IP and audio over Ethernet interoperability, and IQ over IP interfaces are key to the overall process.

“We want to define structures that enable less costly solutions with virtualized hardware and cloud computing,” Backus said.

To conclude the virtual Radio Show technology session, Kevin Haider, product manager, radio transmission for GatesAir, touched on the latest Intraplex IP link audio codec.

Haider said integrating IP tunneling capabilities within audio codecs provides multiple benefits for HD Radio applications, including maintaining relative delay between FM and HD signals across the network and providing reliable HD Radio E2X data streams across IP networks and limited bandwidth STL networks.

“It also allows for broadcasters to move their HD Radio exporter and importer to a studio where it is easier to maintain,” he said.

The post Engineers Explore Next-Gen Architectures appeared first on Radio World.

A partnership that enables “a new way” to measure TV marketing has been brought to market.

And, it is being billed as a “first-of-its-kind solution” that combines MarketCast‘s data science expertise and Kinetiq‘s ad detection platform to measure competitive benchmarking for tune-in TV attribution.

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SAVANNAH, GA. — Just how much did Gray Television‘s broadcast TV stations and digital platforms attracted in the form of political advertising in 2020?

It’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the twin U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia are the icing on the cake.

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Gray’s total tally for political advertising since Jan. 1, 2020, is now upward of $400 million, net of commissions and agency fees.

There’s more: Since Election Day, Gray’s local television stations and digital platforms in the Peach State have run approximately $20 million net in political campaign and political issue advertisements related to the two run-off election races for U.S. Senate seats.

With the special elections scheduled for Jan. 5, 2021, and President-Elect Biden campaigning for the Democratic candidates in Atlanta on Tuesday, Gray expects political advertisements in Georgia to continue well past New Year’s Eve and into the first days of 2021.

Gray has a presence in Augusta, Albany, Columbus and tiny Thomasville, Georgia, where WCTV-6 also serves Tallahassee, Fla. Most notably, Gray owns long-dominant CBS affiliate WTOC-11 in Savannah, Ga.

ATSC 3.0-powered next generation television signals have been launched in the biggest DMA to date: the home of Russell Wilson, and the setting for the cinematic classic “10 Things I Hate About You.”

Seven Seattle TV stations are now broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV, the new digital broadcast standard.

It makes the Seattle-Tacoma DMA the largest market where NEXTGEN signals are available, following the recent launch of Tampa-St. Petersburg.

The stations offering ATSC 3.0-powered signals are Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s ABC and Univision affiliates, KOMO-4 and KUNS-51; Cox Media Group‘s CBS affiliated KIRO-7; FOX O&Os KZJO-22 “Joe TV” and KCPQ-13; and TEGNA‘s NBC and unaffiliated KING-5 and KONG-16.

BitPath led the planning process and coordinated efforts across Seattle’s seven local television stations.

In a major about-face that signals a fresh retransmission consent deal — perhaps under pressure from key Massachusetts legislators on Capitol Hill — Comcast‘s Xfinity cable TV service will no longer be pulling the plug on stations from “neighboring DMAs” that would have seen all Hearst Television stations not bound by must-carry rules removed from its channel lineups.

It’s also signals a big victory for some small communities near Brunswick, Ga.

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Media ad sales platform Matrix has formed a group of thought leaders from across the industry, including some of its own executives, to identify outcomes and workflows that will advance how television will be bought and sold within the next three years.

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A graduate of the University of Georgia and Vanderbilt University School of Law, he’s served as an artist manager and has been a professional drummer with The Chris McCarty Band. 

Since August 2008, he’s been in the Atlanta office of legal giant Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Now, he’s leaving, as the music and entertainment industries has come calling … sort of.

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Former Senior VP and Head of Corporate Communications and PR Esther-Mireya Tejeda exited in September, later resurfacing as SoundExchange‘s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.

Soon afterward, Jennifer Morales Mathews exited as VP/Corporate Communications and PR and shortly thereafter took the role of Public Relations Manager at Amazon Music.

The exits left a big hole at Entercom Communications. Now, it has filled it with Tejeda’s successor.

Now SVP/Head of Corporate Communication and PR at the audio media company that owns Radio.com and podcasting platforms Pineapple Street and Cadence13 is Ashok Sinha.

He will serve as a member of Entercom’s executive leadership team, reporting to Chief Marketing Officer Paul Suchman.

Who is Sinha? He has been VP of Corporate Communications at WarnerMedia since October 2016, and in that role most recently headed internal and external communications strategy for WarnerMedia’s technology organization, as well as employee communications across the company’s direct-to-consumer, sales and distribution divisions.

Before joining WarnerMedia, Ashok was SVP/Corporate Communications at Publicis Media from March 2013, VP/Corporate Communications for Current TV for 11 months, Director of Communications for Oxygen Media for 15 months, and Chief of Staff at (RED) for 20 months.

From May 2005-September 2008, he was Manager of Communications and Public Affairs for MTV Networks’ Logo, at the time a LGBTQ-focused cable TV offering.

“As a lifelong consumer of music and the spoken word, I believe in the power of audio and its ability to engage, entertain and inform the world,” Sinha said. “I’m delighted for this opportunity to join Entercom and its award-winning corporate communications team, and lead the charge as we tell the story of audio in this dynamic time for media.”

Flash back to fall 2019 at a community station abuzz with activity. A DJ is in the studio, spinning records, while volunteers socialize, work in production studios and assemble donor gift packages. Training is underway for new recruits and anticipation is high for a co-promoted concert at a nearby venue. Hugs are exchanged along with “hellos” and “goodbyes.”

For much of 2020 most of these activities were just a memory, as stations adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.

What does community radio look like when the community isn’t necessarily allowed inside the station? How are stations that pride themselves on 24/7 live in-studio DJs doing radio when they must restrict access to their buildings? And how are volunteer-reliant stations adjusting to socially distanced engagement?

The Grassroots Radio Conference confronted these questions in October. Held virtually, the event was hosted by ARTxFM, otherwise known as WXOX(LP) in Louisville, Ky.

Dr. MarkAlain Dery has a unique perspective on studio safety, as an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist as well as founder of community station WHIV(LP) in New Orleans. He spoke as part of the online conference.

For much of this year, only one person at a time has been allowed at WHIV. Masks are required and a clean sock is placed over the studio microphone for each shift.

Importance is placed on handwashing and disinfection of surfaces, and the production booth is closed. Flyers implore, “Spread Love, Not Germs.” WHIV supplies washable masks, which show hosts drop into a container marked “dirty” upon exit. Dery emphasizes the aerosolized nature of coronavirus, pointing out that masks and ventilation are both critical.

Because of the challenges in keeping studios clean and safe for volunteers, many community stations have opted to limit access drastically, with some shutting down in-person activities entirely.

In the early days of the coronavirus, WXOX shifted to a staggered studio schedule so that on-air hosts were not running into each other during program transitions. The initial plan was to have one volunteer do a show in the studio, followed by a remote broadcast.

Even with that precaution in place, WXOX General Manager Sharon Scott grew increasingly worried about everyone’s health.

“Literally, I wasn’t sleeping at night,” she reflected. When the outbreak worsened, she closed the studio. By that point most hosts were already broadcasting from home.

While each community station approaches broadcasting amid a pandemic differently, many used archived programs and automation to fill schedules when live DJs cannot be in the studio.

This was the initial approach at WFMU(FM) in East Orange, N.J., near New York City, where only a skeleton crew of staffers is allowed at the station.

Looking back on the early rerun-filled days, Station Manager Ken Freedman said that “It was awful.” He described the awkwardness of airing pre-virus shows that felt out of step while listeners in New York and New Jersey were going through the crisis.

Quickly, priorities shifted to setting up home studios for WFMU’s sheltering DJs. Freedman described how “sobering” it was to be at an epicenter of the pandemic, knowing people who died and having DJs come down with the virus.

Although WFMU has been doing remote broadcasts over IP for over 20 years, Freedman said that in some ways it’s more difficult today because there are “so many more options.” With around 100 different studios in DJ homes, it can be “very challenging” to help orchestrate myriad options and troubleshoot all the permutations of breakdowns in the broadcast chain.

It’s a similar situation at WXOX, where live broadcasts are originating from home studios across Louisville.

One vintage record-loving DJ has taken over a dining room table with their turntable setup; another broadcasts from a front porch, with bands playing in his front yard; and some keep it super simple using just a laptop.

To facilitate live remote broadcasting, WXOX created a secondary stream that only the on-air hosts can access. Hosts broadcast live to this stream, which the station picks up to transmit over FM and online. Scott recommends that for this behind-the-scenes stream, stations obtain a plan with the highest bit rate and lowest cap on the number of listeners to save on costs.

Under current circumstances, stations also have been more tolerant of variations in sound quality to allow community radio hosts to work remotely. Even the voice memo app on a smartphone can be used to record audio, from interviews to public service announcements.

At cash-strapped community stations, home setups for DJs can be Spartan; but low-cost or free software platforms help. Minimal requirements are a computer, internet connection, and headphones.

Sharon Scott encourages DJs to connect with an Ethernet cable to help mitigate troublesome WiFi connections. USB microphones are also recommended, although not every DJ has one.

Software used by DJs to stream live at WXOX and WFMU includes AudioHijack, Rocket Broadcaster, LadioCast and BUTT (“broadcast using this tool”).

Pacifica Network has posted a discussion of software and strategies for remote broadcasting that includes Zoom, Squadcast, Riverside.fm, Ringr, Zencastr, phone interviews, Cleanfeed, split-tracking, Dropbox, Splashtop, VPN, Rocket Broadcaster and Radio Hijack.

ARTxFM also has a remote tutorial at www.artxfm.com/remotestations/. And additional tips can be found in the archived conference sessions at www.youtube.com/VirtualGRC.

In Ames, Iowa, KHOI(FM) show hosts have been doing live radio and interviews using Zoom video meetings. Station Manager Ursula Ruedenberg calls it the “simplest solution” for programs with co-hosts and guests, despite some audio sacrifices.

Listeners have been understanding. “It’s a COVID-19 sound … people freezing up or sound getting a little bit wonky just has become part of the way things sound now,” she articulated.

Beyond technical glitches, the “COVID-19 sound” has unintended benefits.

In Albany, N.Y., Paul Smart of WCAA(LP) has led audio production workshops that eschew “professional gloss.” For him, providing access and building community are more important.

Hearing tidbits of extraneous sounds on the airwaves, like background noises from dogs barking and phones ringing, has sparked listener interest in making radio at WCAA. That has led to an uptick in home-produced shows, allowing the station to expand local programming.

Community building is at the core of these efforts. Scott said, “In the midst of political turmoil, civil unrest and a range of local disasters, community broadcasting is more important than ever. Meanwhile, the global coronavirus pandemic makes accessing our studios a formidable danger of its very own. Yet, as FM broadcasters, we have committed ourselves to being there for our local community in times of emergency. We must also be there for each other.”

The post Community Stations Share COVID Stories appeared first on Radio World.