Industry News

The Society of Broadcast Engineers’ Ennes Educational Foundation Trust has awarded five scholarships for 2020. The recipients were chosen from applications received by July 1, 2020, from the previous 12 months.

The Harold E. Ennes Scholarship, Robert D. Greenberg Scholarship, John H. Battison Founder’s Scholarship and newly created Gino Ricciardelli Scholarship are awarded to individuals interested in pursuing or continuing an education in broadcast engineering and technology. The Youth Scholarship is specifically for a graduating high school senior interested in broadcast engineering as a career. Each scholarship awarded this year is for $2,500.

[Read: Wayne Pecena Re-Elected SBE President]

SBE President Wayne Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE, said, “The SBE has an ongoing focus on education, and the Ennes Scholarships are yet another piece of the overall education effort. We look forward to seeing the great progress of these five budding engineers as they further their education goals with the assistance of the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust.”

Recipients of the scholarships are:

• Harold E. Ennes Scholarship — Chris Gamelin of Middletown, Conn.;
• Robert D. Greenberg Scholarship — Jon Sanelli of Albertson, N.Y.;
• John H. Battison SBE Founder’s Scholarship — Ismail Otu, CRO, CTO, Charlotte, N.C.;
• Gino Ricciardelli Scholarship — Sadie Levy, New York.;
• Youth Scholarship — Isaiah Dickson, Brookhaven, Pa.

The post SBE’s Ennes Educational Foundation Announces Five Scholarship Recipients appeared first on Radio World.

CallMe diRECt from Vortex Communications connects shows to guests and remote contributors by simply sending a link from a web browser to them, letting a user record both ends of a live interview in lossless quality for later editing.

Even when network conditions are poor guest audio will be recorded reliably in the browser and uploaded for use in the background in near real-time. All audio is end-to-end encrypted and never stored in the cloud securely offering the simplicity of a live call with the reliability of local recording, the company says.

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

It is available as an add-on for CallMe Click-&-Connect cloud codec that puts guests, contributors and reporters live on air by connecting them to a studio IP audio codec without the need for them to have special hardware or software. The guest clicks on the station’s branded CallMe page and connects with stable 15 kHz live two-way audio, accessible through their web browser.

For those who cannot afford a full-blown IP codec, CallMe-T is Vortex’s low-cost hardware IP codec with Quick-Dials for easy connection and SmartStream for multiple-destination simultaneous connectivity.

CallMe-T is compatible with most IP audio codecs. It has balanced stereo plus USB audio for connecting a USB headset or mixer making it ideal as a back-end for CallMe Click-&-Connect, for home studio use and as an add-on for the huge installed base of ISDN mixers for use over IP.

Info: www.vtx.uk

The post Getting Connected With CallMe diRECt appeared first on Radio World.

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

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

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

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

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

From then on, engineers have been honored every year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recipients of the GAB Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Award

2013

Dick Boekeloo

Robert Butler

Daniel L. Davis

Frank McLemore

2014

Marty Foglia

Michael Lawing

2015

David Williams

Jeff Brock

2016

LaVaughn Thompson

Randy Mullinax

Perley Eppley

2017

Bill Williams

Stu Graham

Knox Carreker

2018

John York

Dick Byrd

Vic Lester

2019

James Gay

Tom Giglio

Bob Helbush

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

The author is regional director of engineering for Curtis Media.

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

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

Then the water receded and the real nightmare began.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post User Report: Wheatstone Quickline Counters Florence’s Flood appeared first on Radio World.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Info: www.ams-neve.com

The post AMS Neve Launches Neve 8424 Console appeared first on Radio World.

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

Read it online here.

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

Radio Hiring

Blacks Are Few in U.S. Radio Engineering

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

Facility Profile

They Built New Studios During COVID

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

Also in this issue:

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

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

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

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

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

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

When it comes specifically to trust the survey revealed that:

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

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

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

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

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

The post Radio Ranks As Most Trustworthy Source in New iHeartMedia Poll appeared first on Radio World.

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

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

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

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

KAB is also honoring two other Kansas broadcasting professionals.

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

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

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

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

The post Kansas Broadcasting to Honor Its Own appeared first on Radio World.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The post Entercom’s Radio.com Platform to Be Integrated in Expanded Range of Vehicles appeared first on Radio World.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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