Radio World

This is part of a Radio World series to celebrate early broadcasters as the industry prepares to note the 100th anniversary of what is, traditionally, considered the birth of modern commercial radio. This article was prepared with special assistance from Jim Hilliker.

In 1920, Fred Christian left his employment as a Marconi shipboard radio operator to become the manager of the Electric Lighting Supply Co. in Los Angeles. In addition to selling lighting fixtures, he began to offer the radio parts that tinkerers needed to build their own homemade radio sets.

From a back bedroom of his home, Christian also operated his 5 W amateur radio station, 6ADZ. On or about Sept. 10, 1920, he began broadcasting phonograph records borrowed from a local record store. Music transmission was not prohibited by amateur operators at that time, and dozens of hams around the country were broadcasting on informal schedules.

Christian, operating at the bottom of the ham bands on 200 meters (1500 kHz), was only the second radio station to broadcast in Los Angeles to that time. His aim was to promote the sale of radio parts in his store by giving his customers something to listen to.

The California Theatre
In 1920, there were still no fixed regulations governing broadcasting, and the first stations operated under a variety of license classes, such as amateur, experimental or “commercial land station.” (The renowned pioneer station KDKA debuted with a new category called “limited commercial” license under the call sign 8ZZ.)

But starting in December 1921, the Department of Commerce required all stations broadcasting news or entertainment to hold a “Limited Commercial” license, and so most of the handful of stations already broadcasting by that date obtained new licenses with new call signs.

By March of 1922, there were 66 such licenses issued. Regrettably, they were all required to transmit their programs on one of just two frequencies: 360 meters (833 kHz) for entertainment, or 485 meters (619 kHz) for market and weather reports.

Thus, Christian’s station 6ADZ acquired the call sign KGC, and it was now sharing a single frequency with about eight other broadcasters in the Los Angeles Basin. Those stations met periodically to agree on a shared operating schedule, and KGC was only able to operate a few hours a week.

In May of 1922, Christian made arrangements to broadcast live music from the California Theatre, a prominent silent movie house. He built a new 50 W transmitter (soon increased to 100 watts), and moved his entire operation into the theatre. The move necessitated a change in operating license, and he was assigned the new call sign, KNX, with the old KGC license being deleted shortly afterwards.

Christian’s was one of several stations that changed licenses that year, considered by the government then to simply be the transfer of a station from one license class to the other without an interruption in service. Both licenses were in the name of the Electric Lighting Supply Co., and Fred Christian was listed as the station manager and operator in both instances.

Calling itself “The California Theatre Radiophone,” KNX was now broadcasting live music four or five days a week, featuring Carli Elinor’s California Theatre Concert Orchestra and the music of the theatre’s organ. A nightly newscast was also featured.

But finances to support the station were limited; advertising was not yet condoned on broadcast stations, and so the entire operation was being supported by the sale of radio parts at the store.

KNX 500 W transmitter in 1926. Paul O’Hana at the controls. Credit: Source unknown (Click here to enlarge.)

“The Voice of Hollywood”
In October 1924, Christian sold KNX to Guy C. Earle, publisher of the Los Angeles Evening Express newspaper, who had the means to turn it into a first-class operation. Starting in 1923, stations that agreed to transmit with at least 500 watts and abstain from playing recordings were eligible for the new Class “B” license and their own dedicated frequency, so Earle bought a new Western Electric transmitter and moved KNX to 890 kHz.

KNX was now “The Voice of Hollywood” — on the air from morning to late night with sports, news, informational talks, drama by the “KNX Players” and live evening broadcasts by Abe Lyman’s Orchestra from the Hotel Ambassador.

Earle hired Carrie Preston Rittimeister to be his program director. She had experimented with paid programs at another Los Angeles station, and soon had KNX on a paying basis five nights each week.

The sponsors were local companies seeking name recognition, and there was a minimum of direct advertising in the programs themselves. By 1925, KNX was showing an operating profit of $25,000.
In 1929, Earle signed a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures, moving the KNX studios onto the Paramount movie lot. KNX was now the “Paramount-Express” station. Taking advantage of its Paramount connections, KNX became the first station to broadcast the Academy Awards in 1930.

In 1929, KNX was awarded 1050 kHz, one of two new clear channels the Federal Radio Commission had assigned to Southern California. A new 5,000 W transmitter plant was erected in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley, and a star-studded 24-hour dedicatory program was planned for Nov. 11, at which time KNX would debut its new powerful signal for the first time.

When the dramatic moment came to switch over to the new transmitter, radio listeners heard only a tremendous screech on the new frequency, and then … silence! After a few moments, the old 1 kW transmitter was coaxed back onto the air.

It was several days before the engineers could sort out the problem and settle KNX into its new channel. Then they discovered another problem: The new 5,000 W signal was not being reaching out as well as the old signal.

Consulting engineers were brought in from across the country to puzzle over the case, and they eventually determined that the fault was in the antenna, a 179-foot wire cage suspended between two 250-foot supporting towers. The towers were resonating at the 1050 frequency, disrupting coverage. The problem was ultimately solved by inserting porcelain insulators at the base of the towers.

Guy Earle soon sold his interests in the Evening Express newspaper and devoted all of his energies to KNX, now operating as the Western Broadcasting Co. One of California’s renowned engineers, Kenneth Ormiston, went to work planning to increase power on the clear channel frequency — to 10,000 watts in 1932, to 25,000 in 1933 and finally to 50,000 watts in 1934. In all cases, the 1929 Western Electric 5,000-watt transmitter was used as a driver for the high-powered amplifiers built by Ormiston.

After WLW in Cincinnati was allowed to operate experimentally at 500 kW, plans were drawn up for a further increase to 250 kW, but the idea was abandoned in favor of a new half-wave self-supporting tower, constructed in 1935, which greatly increased signal strength at a fraction of the cost of a huge transmitter.

KNX studio building, 5939 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood. Credit: Security Pacific National Bank photo collection (Click here to enlarge.)

In 1935, Guy Earle bought the 20,000 square foot Motion Picture Hall of Fame building at 5939 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and rebuilt it into the new KNX studio building at a cost of $250,000. It featured six studios suspended on floating floors. Studio “A” was 30 x 60 feet, and Studio “B” featured a new $35,000 Morton organ. Brand new RCA studio equipment was installed throughout.

Enter CBS
KNX was now a powerhouse station, with a powerful signal covering eleven Western states a night. It’s 1935 gross income of $675,000 ranked it among the six highest-billing stations in the country.

But the FCC became aware that much of that revenue was coming from the advertising of patent medicines, which the commission was seeking to eliminate from the airwaves. It decided to make KNX into a test case, and it set its license renewal for hearing over its advertisement of Marmola, a miracle fat-reducing product that the Federal Trade Commission determined to be ineffective and dangerous.

The hearing in October 1935 did not go well, and the KNX license was now in serious jeopardy.
In 1936, under pressure over the license hearings, Earle sold KNX to the CBS network for $1.25 million. It was the highest price ever paid for a single radio station to that date.

CBS/KNX Columbia Square dedication ceremonies, 1937. Credit: Author’s collection (Click here to enlarge.)

KNX was now CBS’s key station on the West Coast, and would soon become the home base for CBS’s Hollywood program origination.

In January 1937, CBS moved its Los Angeles network affiliation to KNX from KHJ and the Don Lee network, which caused a major realignment of network affiliations up and down the West Coast. Then on April 30, 1938, KNX and CBS moved into its new $1.75 million Columbia Square studio complex at 6121 Sunset Boulevard.

It would be the origination location for dozens of CBS radio shows heard nationwide over the next decade, featuring stars such as Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Burns and Allen. (KMPC then moved into the former KNX Sunset Boulevard building.)

The RCA 50-D transmitter installed at KNX in 1938. The photo has been colorized. Credit: Author’s collection (Click here to enlarge.)

In September, 1938, CBS debuted a new KNX transmitter complex on a five-acre parcel in Torrance. A gleaming new RCA 50-D transmitter was showcased in a streamlined domed building that was open to the public for regular tours. A new 500-foot guyed tower propelled the KNX signal across all of the Western states in the evening hours. In March 1941, KNX moved to its present frequency of 1070 kHz after the nationwide NARBA treaty adjustment.

As network radio transitioned to the disc jockey era of the 1950s, KNX adopted a middle-of-the-road format, featuring personalities like Steve Allen and Bob Crane, who broadcast his popular KNX morning show from 1957 to 1965 before leaving to become the star of the TV series “Hogan’s Heroes.”

Bob Crane at KNX, about 1960. Credit: Author’s collection Click here to enlarge.

In September 1965, vandals cut a guy wire, destroying the KNX tower. The station operated from a 365-foot unused tower acquired from KFAC until a new antenna could be built. An experiment using both antennas as a directional array during the 1960s was abandoned, but both towers still exist today.

The 365-foot tower is now the KNX standby antenna, located inside a city park in Torrance.

In April 1968, KNX adopted an all-news format, which has successfully maintained it as one of the top ten news stations in the country. Entercom Communications acquired KNX in 2017 when it merged with CBS Radio. KNX will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Sept. 10, 2020.

John Schneider is a lifetime radio historian, author of two books and dozens of articles on the subject, and a Fellow of the California Historical Radio Society. He wrote here in April about Lee De Forest, and last winter about the centennial of KRJ, perhaps the first in the U.S. to achieve a century of continuous broadcast activity.

References & Further Reading
• KNX History, by Jim Hilliker
• Email from Jim Hilliker, 2/27/2020
• “Broadcasting Magazine,” 10/1/35, 3/1/35, 2/1/35,
• “Radio Digest,” October, 1924; November, 1924; May, 1925
• “Radio News,” March 1930
• “Department of Commerce, Radio Service Bulletin,” 6-30-21, 5-1-22, 6-1-22
• “Radio’s Version of ‘Who’s on First?’” by Jeff Miller
• “Los Angeles Times,” 6-12-22
• KNX AM, Wikipedia

View the images above at full resolution:

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

Public media is in soul-searching mode right now. Big organizations like WBUR, Houston Public Media and Minnesota Public Media have laid off scores of staff. The death of George Floyd and nationwide Black Lives Matter protests have sparked many prominent organizations to have their quinquennial (that’s “every five years,” nongrammar nerds) introspection about racial diversity. And the pandemic has pushed others to consider how to ensure noncommercial media’s existence for years to come.

The diversity conversation is of particular interest to me because, for one, to paraphrase something that became clear during my fellowship with the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, inclusion is a strategic decision for any organization, which relates back to sustainability. As well, as someone not white in noncommercial radio, I appreciate how diverse voices inform fuller conversations in media.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Rest in Peace]

Dozens of public media groups have made statements on racial equity in the last month. I respectfully submit that anyone pondering why public media has a diversity challenge may wish to try a little harder, because those answers are quite obvious.

Public media has a fundamental problem with its orientation. Just like chasing the big headline, there is a lot of focus on the top players. Making dominant voices the default can have disastrous effects. When the frame of reference is one in which the attention is on top-tier organizations and what they do, diverse voices will always be marginalized until the aforementioned every-five-years rolls around.

To be clear, some of the biggest organizations are doing wonderful work. But they and many others would concur this is a systemic, not individuated, matter. If this normalization of power is to stay the name of the game, let’s not suffer handwringing about why black, indigenous and people of color don’t stay.

In addition, a lot of attention is also paid to hiring and leadership, but very little to governance. All-white or virtually all-white public media staffing should have been addressed long ago, of course, but hasn’t in many organizations. A board that is white by 75% or more is something worthy of conversation. This issue is complicated by boards not making diversity and inclusion explicitly central to discussions with new board members. Boards and top staffing must be replaced with those who appreciate contemporary currents.

Finally, it does not take an internet sleuth to see all the latest words from everyone in public media about racial equity and Google what actions they have taken and demonstrable successes you can see from them in the last five years in pursuit of inclusion. What is their staffing and board diversity now, last year, or the year before? How are they investing in communities of color? Who glossed over diversity or accountability? What were they doing before these statements? Maybe you can set a calendar reminder to check up on them in 12 months, too.

In full transparency, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters has a strong record on these issues since our founding in 1975. We were conducting producers of color conferences in 1982; launched African-American, Latino and indigenous initiatives in subsequent years; have the most diverse board in public media; consistently diverse staffing for decades; and are working with stations now to not just talk about, but address these issues. We’ve worked on diversity, equity and inclusion for generations. I applaud any organization that can say the same.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are more than simply the right thing. They are a choice that organizations make to align with donor and community values, and to solidify their futures.

 

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Ryan Steelberg. “Today, we are ingesting, indexing and analyzing over 60,000 hours of unique audio and video content each day. The scale of this processing, for audio and video, is a first in any industry.”

Ryan Steelberg is the president of Veritone. Our interview with him originally appeared in the free Radio World eBook “AI Comes to Radio.”

Radio World: What is Veritone’s AI offering in radio?

Ryan Steelberg: Veritone’s suite of AI-powered services and applications enable both local radio stations and networks to significantly accelerate their workflows, save costs and deliver incremental value to their advertising customers.

Veritone turns media streams into indexed and searchable data in near real-time. With Veritone Discovery, users can easily search for keywords such as brand names or talent, perform fast ad verification, analyze content and leverage custom reports and dashboards.

Veritone Attribute gives broadcasters the ability to correlate ads (including prerecorded, live and in-program executions) with the advertiser’s website traffic. This award-winning application arms sales teams with comprehensive performance insights to share with their ad clients and help them optimize campaigns, nurture client relationships, and ultimately secure more share of ad spend.

RW: What prompted you to explore this? 

Steelberg: If there’s one industry that can take advantage of the power of AI, it’s media and entertainment. Considering the large amounts of data broadcasters and content owners have to manage on a daily basis, AI is a critical component to success — it not only reduces costs and time but also opens up opportunities for incremental revenue generation as well as product innovation.

Our AI-enabled technologies put linear media on a more level playing field with digital media, giving broadcasters the analytics, transparency, efficiency and immediacy they need to help their advertising customers measure media ROI and as a result, maintain share of wallet against digital alternatives.

RW: Does any of this constitute a first for the industry?

Steelberg: At Veritone, we unify substantial domain knowledge from previous successful companies and technologies (AdForce, 2CAN Media, dMarc, Google) with in-depth AI technology expertise and vision, all of which position us uniquely in the marketplace and give us competitive advantage — we are the first AI-native company in this industry.

Today, we are ingesting, indexing and analyzing over 60,000 hours of unique audio and video content each day. The scale of this processing, for audio and video, is a first in any industry.

RW: What do you allow radio professionals to do that they couldn’t before? 

Steelberg: Two things: One, Veritone radio customers can validate placements in near real-time, expediting the clearance process faster than ever before. Second, our radio customers are now able to compete with digital advertising alternatives by definitive attribution of e-commerce or other website transactions correlated to radio ad placements. To validate placements, sales teams can search on-air content within minutes of the broadcast and perform on-demand or automated searches to track any advertising message, whether live-read or prerecorded, through a simple user interface.

RW: Who are some of Veritone’s radio customers using AI?

Steelberg: iHeart, Learfield IMG College, Cox Media Group, Entercom, Cumulus Media, Beasley Media Group, Bell Media, CMG Radio.

RW: Where do you think AI for radio is going next? 

Steelberg: We believe that AI is already changing the game for radio today, and broadcasters who embrace AI technologies will reap tremendous opportunities and competitive advantage. However, we are convinced that this is just the start for an industry that will reinvent itself. We are excited to be part of this development and to help those who are ready to embark on this journey.

We just announced aiWARE’s expanded content classification capabilities, powering contextual ad placements and brand safety management at scale for podcasting. And also, our VeriAds program, which is helping broadcasters to liquidate unsold ad inventory and drive incremental revenue, is growing rapidly in the radio space.

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The Tonor TC-777 is an inexpensive multichannel USB cardioid pattern microphones mic package.

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

Tonor gives it a frequency response of 100 Hz–16 kHz and a 16-bit 44.1 kHz/48 kHz sample rate.

It ships with USB cable, foldable tripod mic stand with folding feet, mini shockmount, pop screen and a pop filter with its own clip.

Info: www.tonormic.com

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From the Radio World “Who’s Buying What” page:

Nautel GV5 at Candy 95.1

KNDE(FM) “Candy 95.1” in College Station, Texas, took delivery of a new Nautel GV5 FM transmitter last month.

According to Nautel, the project was initiated though Giesler Broadcasting Supply, a Nautel Factory Authorized Sales and Service partner in Alvin, Texas.

Ben Downs is the general manager and self-described “transmitter wrangler” for KNDE, which is part of Bryan Broadcasting. He told Nautel that the GV5 was purchased along with a new STL system to allow all of its HD channels to be broadcast.

The manufacturer quoted Downs as saying, “Past experiences have made us expect challenges from a digital install, but the GV5 made this even less a headache than some analog installs.”

He complimented the front-panel AUI that measures and displays operating aspects of the RF signal.

RW welcomes submissions for Who’s Buying What, from both buyers and sellers. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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A user’s display; note On Demand tab. Two more images appear at bottom of this story.

The SiriusXM audio platform that includes hybrid radio capabilities will be available on the popular Ford F-150 model trucks. The two companies announced that SiriusXM with 360L will be available in 2021 F-150s.

Hybrid radio combines one-way over-the-air reception with streaming delivery and two-way data; in this case the OTA service is a satellite signal.

Broadcast companies too are interested in hybrid radio capabilities to keep competitive in the dash, and have been dealing with both technical and royalty questions, as we have reported.

[Read: “Hybrid Radio Picks Up Momentum”]

Among the hybrid radio benefits of the 360L system are On Demand functionality and personalized recommendations. SiriusXM also promotes “seamless navigation between satellite and streaming channels and SiriusXM On Demand content.” The system can receive over-the-air software updates as well.

Ford buyers and lessees get a trial subscription to SiriusXM’s All Access package. The audio platform will be integrated into Ford’s new SYNC 4 infotainment system.

Audi recently announced it would offer hybrid radio capable of receiving terrestrial analog and HD Radio signals, and it also will support the SiriusXM system in several models. Dodge Ram was the first to offer 360L in a 2019 model; and GM announced in December that it planned to bring 360L to a million cars in 2020. But Audi is believed to be the only system with hybrid radio capability that supports terrestrial FM radio as well.

 

Satellite channels with logos are visible.

 

A sports content display with updated score.

 

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Supporters of a proposal to create a new class of FM in the United States say they will push ahead despite news reports this week that indicate FCC Chairman Ajit Pai doesn’t have the majority of support among FCC commissioners needed to launch a rulemaking process to advance the plan.

Chairman Pai, who in the past has advocated for the new class of service, made the disclosure during testimony Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, according to those familiar with the latest development.

The C4 proposal would allow Class A stations to upgrade their signal strength. Experts familiar with the proposal say existing Class A stations would double their power level from 6 kW to 12 kW if C4 is created, but the NAB and others worry that the move would create further interference challenges in the FM band.

[Read: Commentary: Buffer Compromise Would Boost FM Class C4]

The most recent development doesn’t surprise Matthew Wesolowski, CEO of SSR Communications Inc. He is licensee of WYAB(FM) in Flora, Miss., and was co-petitioner of the FM Class C4 petition for rulemaking (RM-11727) in 2014.

The FCC issued a Notice of Inquiry in 2018 (MB 18-184) to further examine the proposal, but comments collected at the time reflected trepidation by some broadcasters and industry experts over the potential for increased interference in the FM band, especially considering the proliferation of FM translators in this country. FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly is on the record as not supporting the C4 FM proposal.

Wesolowski says his C4 FM proposal has faced hurdles in Washington since the beginning.

“In February, 2018, when Chairman Pai announced that a FM Class C4 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would be forthcoming, I polled the media advisors of each of the commissioners to see where they stood. At the time, there were at least three votes in the affirmative to move forward on the NPRM, including from the chairman’s office itself,” Wesolowski says. “The Chairman did have a member of his own party coming out against the idea, so it is understandable that he did not want to rush something along without general agreement from his side of the aisle.

Since then Wesolowski says he and other C4 FM advocates have presented Pai and the commissioners with several alternatives and creative workarounds in an effort to win consensus, he said. “We believe that we have several acceptable proposals before the commission right now.”

One of those creative solutions might be waiver-based applications, Wesolowski says. Since 2018 three Class A FM stations have submitted waiver-based applications that would result in the same type of power upgrade sought by supporters of the C4 proceeding. One of the applications failed to gain FCC approval while the other two are still pending, he said.

However, Al Shuldiner, chief of the FCC’s Audio Division, told Radio World earlier this year that he does not view waivers “as a workable solution for something as significant as a new class of service.” He said at the time the FCC would continue to study the issue.

Wesolowski says the interference concerns voiced by the NAB and some of the major broadcast groups, specifically in regards to FM translators, are unfounded.

“Several large groups, relying on intuition instead of hard data, have posited that the FM Class C4 proposal would cause devastating effects to secondary services. The studies do not support that conclusion,” he said. “The FCC’s recent FM translator interference mitigation efforts and reporting standards have further diminished any potential for problems.”

In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, Wesolowski says many Class A broadcasters, hampered by their weak signals, are struggling in the current economic climate. “There are many small broadcasters who are barely hanging on these days and need the commission to approve the FM Class C4 proposal.”

 

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I would like to thank Frank Karkota for the excellent article “No to Digital AM” and I have to agree with him 100%. AM radio works, it always works; neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night makes it fail (with the exception of the daytimers).

I have a real hatred for digital RF. I am one of those people who live in a rural area, where we still use outside antennas for television. Back in the good old NTSC days we could watch all of the channels we could receive, some maybe a little snowy, but we could watch them all. Now with this digital stuff, only on the second Tuesday of the odd months when the moon is in its third quarter can we watch half as many stations because the audio and or video are constantly breaking up.

Now, digital FM. I put together a Class C HD station a few years ago. I can hear the very clean analog signal on a fair automobile radio in stereo up to about 50 miles from the transmitter, while the HD signal is gone in 15.

I am a volunteer fireman, have been for 50 years. Our county switched from analog to digital two-way. Well, let me say, if I go into a burning building, I won’t take a digital HT; they either work or they don’t, and in a hot fire scene, they don’t. The old analog HTs maybe get a little noisy; but if I am trapped inside, the analog radio will get me out.

Now that I have expounded on my distaste of digital RF, let’s go into AM. Frank hits the nail on the head: You can receive AM radio on anything. How many people remember the razor blade radio, it’s a crystal set but used a piece of graphite and a razor blade edge for a detector.

AM is simple, digital is overly complicated. The way things are going in this world, it might not be long before we are all hiding in foxholes trying to build an AM receiver.

Frank also mentions quality. I personally couldn’t care less if the radio station has a response from DC to light at .00000001% harmonic distortion and -125 dB S/N; if the programming sucks, I won’t listen, case closed. I would much prefer any AM  station that is programmed with what I want to hear, and don’t care if the response limit is 3 kHz with 10% distortion in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Radio listening is down not because it needs to be digital, it’s down because much of the programming is just plain bad. Everything voice tracked, no local personalities,very limited music rotation, dollar a holler 40 minute stop sets, it’s bad.

I gave up on most FM years ago although there still are a few good small-owner FMs around here in Iowa. The AMs for the most part dial up stuff on the old XDS receiver and walk away. So what’s the difference; make AM all digital and the programming will still stink. There have been some improvements in AM programming because of the FM translators, but the AMs just sound like automated FMs with nobody home.

I have to agree 100% with Frank, let’s keep at least one form of communications reliable: good old tried-and-true analog AM. With the newer receivers it sounds good and works. Maybe at night with the skywave it fades in and out, but it will never go to complete nothing, as when a digital data stream gets  the slightest glitch. It’s another case where “we built something now let’s force it down their throats to create a market.”

What’s wrong with Class B modulators and Class C RF amps anyway?

[Related: “Don’t Shrug Off Benefits of AM in Digital”]

The post Letter: AM Is Simple, Digital Is Overly Complicated appeared first on Radio World.

Here’s news of interest to the alerting community, including those working in broadcasting.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency now makes available an archive of Common Alerting Protocol, or CAP, messages sent by alerting authorities through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) since mid-2012.

Check it out here. (Note that traditional “EAS only” alerts are not part of this.)

“FEMA leadership prioritizes hosting and publishing the datasets, which allows internal and external partners to understand IPAWS data, conduct analysis and to inform decisions to improve alert and warning,” FEMA stated in an announcement.

“Several stakeholders, including researchers, media, the public and those who have submitted FOIA requests, are now being directed to OpenFEMA for information.”

One of the people interested in this development is Ed Czarnecki, senior director of strategy and government affairs for technology manufacturer Digital Alerting Systems.

“This new IPAWS web archive of alerts should provide a very handy reference source of historical CAP alert data for a variety of users, including academics, policy researchers, the press and others,” he told Radio World.

“The IPAWS archive isn’t a real-time resource, and includes a 24-hour delay in archiving messages,” he noted. That delay is to reduce the risk of being confused with an active alert received from the live IPAWS feed.

“So it isn’t something for monitoring or compliance purposes. The new IPAWS archive will only show what CAP alert have been sent into the IPAWS system. It will not reflect which CAP messages have actually been received or processed by broadcasters. The archive will also only show the CAP messages that have been entered into IPAWS, and not any conventional EAS-only messages.”

He noted that for monitoring, aggregating and auditing alert messages at broadcast stations, companies like his own provide tools that aggregate real-time EAS and CAP alert data.

As described more specifically on the OpenFEMA site: “This data set contains recent, historic and archived IPAWS Common Alerting Protocol v1.2 messages from June 2012 to the present including date, time, event code … city, county, joint agency, police, law enforcement, Collaborative Operating Group (COG), state(s), locality, territory or tribe. It can be used to capture and analyze historic and archived messages.”

This is raw, unedited data from the IPAWS Alert Aggregator created by over 1,450 alert originators across the country.

Questions about the program can be emailed to OpenFEMA@fema.dhs.gov.

[Related: “FEMA Says No National Alert Test This Year”]

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An archival aerial image of the site. Courtesy Dave Sproul

The sale of the legacy WMAL(AM) tower site near Washington has been completed by Cumulus Media.

The company said this week that it has finally closed on the sale of the 75-acre piece of land in heavily populated Bethesda, Md.

The buyer is Toll Brothers, which plans a housing development.

[Related: “WMAL Tower Site Demolition Begins,” 2016]

President/CEO Mary Berner issued a statement: “Given the difficult operating environment, our ability to continue to strengthen our balance sheet with the proceeds of this deal is particularly meaningful, and we greatly appreciate the efforts of Toll Brothers in working with us to bring this five-year effort to completion.”

The sale price was $74.1 million. “Net proceeds from the sale are required to be used to pay down debt, unless otherwise reinvested in the Company’s business over the next 12 months,” it stated.

The site had been active since WMAL put a transmitter into service there in 1941. Cumulus turned off service from the site in 2018. The call sign of its station on 630 kHz is now WSBN.

[Read a related technical story, “Diplex Two Four-Tower DA Stations 60 kHz Apart? No Way!”]

Watch a drone video of the site below.

 

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“Unfortunate and substantively wrong.”

That’s the reply from a group of broadcast owners to the criticisms they received this week from GeoBroadcast Solutions.

This is a brewing disagreement about separate proposals which nevertheless are related, given that they both seek to envision new and potentially dramatic changes to how FM licensees in the United States are allowed to use the spectrum.

To review the background: Technology company GeoBroadcast Solutions wants the Federal Communications Commission to allow FM stations to air unique content on synchronized FM boosters, to create very localized “geo-targeting” ability, an idea it has been working on for most of the past decade.

A group of two dozen owners collectively called Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination recently told the FCC that if it were to allow that idea, the commission should also allow translators to originate content, potentially an even bigger change in the FM landscape. (Here’s a link to that proposal.)

Boosters and translators were created to help deliver a primary station’s content (on the same or different frequencies, respectively). They are prevented from originating their own content. But the number of translators has skyrocketed in this century due to several factors, most recently the FCC decision to grant AM stations FM translators of their own.

GBS visibly has been working to garner industry support for its idea and would like the FCC to take the next regulatory steps. So one can imagine the reactions in its offices when a group of broadcasters came forth with a call to broaden the discussion to translators. As we reported, the company this week “took issue” with how the broadcast group had connected their proposal to its idea. [Read “GBS Emphasizes That Translator Proposal Is Separate From Its Own.”]

Now the owners have fired back through a statement from their attorney John Garziglia of Womble Bond Dickinson. They say they are just seeking the same opportunity for limited program origination for translators as GBS is asking for boosters.

“GeoBroadcast Solutions’ claim that geo-targeted programming emanating from an FM translator is ‘fundamentally different’ is only true in the sense that GeoBroadcast Solutions will be unable to profit from the proposed FM translator service to the public,” it stated.

“FM translators and FM boosters are both secondary FM facilities carrying the programming of a primary radio station. The only substantive technical distinction between the two is that an FM booster is on-frequency and has a significant potential to cause interference to its primary station’s radio listeners, while an FM translator has no potential of causing such interference.”

The broadcast group said it is not critical of the GBS concept and that indeed it makes “eminent sense for secondary facilities that re-broadcast the programming of a primary station such as FM translators and FM boosters to have the flexibility to be able to broadcast geo-targeted programming that a broadcaster determines will best serve its listening audience, including localized emergency alerts, news, advertising, city council meetings and high school sports games.”

But, they said, this shouldn’t be limited to boosters. In fact, they said, “Multiple FM translators serving different portions of a station’s coverage area could now, but for the FCC’s program origination restrictions, geo-target different areas, since many radio receivers with RBDS will switch frequencies between geo-targeting FM translators carrying the same primary station.”

Touching on an issue of industry concerns about the GBS proposal, the broadcasters said that if translators were to be allowed to work in a geo-targeting capacity, they would not be subject to destructive interference to the primary station’s radio audiences, “unlike FM boosters in which interference may be reduced but never entirely eliminated.”

The group further criticized GBS for “troublesome chutzpa” in comparing its technology work to the innovations of ATSC 3.0. The booster proposal, they said, “is hardly a ‘technological advancement.’” GBS declined further comment.

We’ll see where this goes next. The FCC is taking comments about RM No. 11858 via its comment system by July 23. You can read our coverage of recent comments about the booster proposals here.

The post FM Translator, Booster Advocates Disagree in Origination Dispute appeared first on Radio World.

GeoBroadcast Solutions has a gripe today.

GBS is the company that wants the Federal Communications Commission to approve a special synchronized use of FM boosters to allow stations to offer geo-targeted content.

But as we’ve reported, a separate alliance of two dozen radio groups has said that if the commission approves of that idea, it also should let FM translators offer original content.

[Read: Should Translators Originate Content? FCC Is Taking Comments]

Now GBS wants to make clear that the two proposals are entirely separate.

“GeoBroadcast Solutions takes issue with the efforts by Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination to connect its own request with the FCC by attempting to join the petition we filed on March 13 for a simple rule change,” the company stated in an email.

“Our filing relates solely to FM boosters, and proposes no changes whatsoever to the FCC’s rules regarding translators. Our proposal thus reflects technological advancements in the same way that the 2017 FCC decision that allowed television broadcasters to use the Next Generation TV standard (aka ATSC 3.0), reflecting technological advancements. Our proposed minor rule change would add just two clauses in the rules (§74.1231) and does not call for any other change.”

GBS pointed out that its idea is to allow geo-targeted programming “during a fraction of the broadcast hour.” It says its technology has undergone “multiple field and lab tests” and been in development since 2011.

“Furthermore, our proposed rule change would capitalize on the original purpose of FM boosters and its ability to use the same frequency for spectrum efficiency,” GBS continued. “Proposals to use non-fill-in translators to transmit a week’s worth of key programming would skew this proceeding in an entirely different direction. It is so fundamentally different than what we proposed that it warrants an entirely different discussion, since it proposes a fundamental rewrite of rules on certain translators and is not driven by technology innovation.”

It said it supports innovation but that “each offering must stand on its own for its merit and market potential, and not create the misrepresentation that they should be connected in some way.”

 

The post GBS Emphasizes That Translator Proposal Is Separate From Its Own appeared first on Radio World.

Who earned the Radio World “Best of Show” Awards? What should radio people know about the Xperi/TiVo deal? Why does WWV still matter? Explore the answers in this issue — along with much more, including two stories related to artificial intelligence: a chat with Zack Zalon of Super Hi-Fi and a commentary by Ryan Steelberg of Veritone.

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.

Newsmaker

Super Hi-Fi Queues Up Streaming Music

Who is this company that has been grabbing headlines lately in music and radio technology?

Global Radio

Radio Méga Creatively Connects With Listeners

Community station in France runs a radio studio on an electric tricycle.

Also in this issue:

• State-of-the-Art Audio on an Octal Tube Socket
• On-Air Solutions During Coronavirus Quarantine
• College Radio: After the Shock, Resistance Is Now

 

The post Inside the June 24 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

After a few starts and stops, the Federal Communications Commission has approved a construction permit for a new FM translator in El Cajon, Calif. — after making clear its rules on issues like contour overlap, engineering errors and how best to calculate interference for translators that do not yet exist.

It was a back and forth battle for two licensees looking to get broadcast licenses approved. Last year Family Stations Inc. came out on top as the winning bidder for a new cross-service translator station in El Cajon, though it soon saw its application dismissed by the Media Bureau for potential contour overlap violations.

[Read: FCC Deletes Call Signs of Two California FM Stations]

While Family Stations went about filing a petition to amend that translator application, licensee Positive Hope filed a modification application seeking a new transmitter site for its low-power station KVIB. But that petition too was given a hard stop by the FCC when the Media Bureau dismissed the modification application due to a failure to comply with minimum distance separation requirements.

In the meantime, Positive Hope filed an objection to Family’s translator amendment and asked the Media Bureau to step in and reconsider the earlier dismissal of its own application.

Family responded in a petition for reconsideration by arguing that its translator amendment is permissible under FCC Rules. It quoted the section of the rules that defines an application for minor change any application seeking to make a channel change to any same-band frequency “upon a showing of interference to or from any other broadcast station.”

Family pointed to interference with station KKLJ(FM) in Julian, Calif., as the basis for its translator amendment and said it has identified at least 83 individuals who are located within or very close to the area in which the 60 dBu contour of the translator overlaps the 45 dBu contour of station KKLJ. These individuals would “likely experience interference if the translator were to operate on the frequency proposed in the initial application,” the licensee said.

Not so fast, argued Positive Hope. In its informal objection and petition, the licensee contended that Family is not eligible to apply for a non-adjacent channel change under FCC rules because Family cannot demonstrate interference because “no interference can exist for a translator that cannot exist.”

Plus, Positive Hope said, if a nonadjacent channel change were allowed in this circumstance, “any translator applicant that gets dismissed for any fatal translator engineering error would simply find any nearby FM broadcaster that would appear to interfere with the translator applicant’s original proposal, then pull together a petition for reconsideration.”

Positive Hope also argued that the translator amendment was unacceptable at the time it was filed because the specified facility conflicted with co-channel station DKRSA(LP) in El Cajon, Calif.

But the FCC has very specific rules on when it can consider certain petitions. In these cases, the Media Bureau said that it will consider a petition for reconsideration only when the petitioner shows either a material error in its original order or new facts are raised that were not or existing at the time. The commission said that Positive Hope failed to meet either burden.

The commission clarified that yes, in fact, Family is eligible to seek a non-adjacent channel change for the station because the channel change rule set out in the FCC rules applies to amendments to long-form applications. Furthermore, the commission said it would favorably consider petitions for reconsideration of an initial dismissal when the applicant submits an amendment within 30 days of dismissal.

In the case of Family, the licensee made a proper showing of interference to justify a non-adjacent channel change under the FCC rules; such a showing may consist of a simple engineering statement of mitigation of interference at the requested frequency, the bureau said.

An unbuilt station, by necessity, must submit a showing of predicted rather than actual interference. In this case, the commission found a significant zone of potential interference within the contour overlap of the translator’s 25 dBu contour and KKLJ’s 45 dBu contour — that indicates a substantial possibility of interference to KKLJ listeners in this area. No such zone of potential interference would be created with another broadcast station at the proposed frequency. Therefore, the commission accepted Family’s showing that the proposed non-adjacent channel change would avoid predicted interference.

The bureau did not buy Positive Hope’s argument that Family’s translator application should have been dismissed for failing to protect DKRSA. In this case, the filing of a petition for reconsideration does not automatically stay the decision for which reconsideration is sought. Instead, a bureau action remains in full force and as a result, there is no basis for reconsidering the staff’s decision not to dismiss the translator application due to the status of the cancelled DKRSA facility.

As a result, the bureau granted the petition for reconsideration filed by Family Stations, it reinstated the new translator application and denied the objections filed by Positive Hope.

 

The post California FM Translator Gets Green Light appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. local radio advertising this year will total about $12.8 billion, according to a new forecast from BIA Advisory Services.

It’s not a welcome number, though it’s unlikely to surprise any radio sales managers. If it holds, it would be a drop of about 9% overall compared to last year’s $14.1 billion, whereas BIA’s original 2020 projection had anticipated slight growth for this year.

The research company said it is reducing its forecast due to the impact of the pandemic on the economy.

Broadcast ads still make up the biggest piece of radio’s revenue pie, and unfortunately that’s the segment where the pandemic is really taking its toll. The BIA estimate projects $11.4 billion for over-the-air revenue — which would be a decline in spending of more than 10% from 2019 — and $1.4 billion for digital revenue, including local ads sold by streaming companies.

The digital component is notable, holding at last year’s pace.

[Related: “This Is the Time to Make Connections”]

SVP and Chief Economist Mark Fratrik noted that radio’s digital spending number passed $1 billion only last year. “For 2020, our ad forecast shows that digital sales, including streaming, will stay steady. Then by 2021, radio online revenue will start to climb back up again. On the over-the-air side, we see a bigger COVID hit, with a steep drop in 2020 and some recovery back by 2021.”

It expects the biggest spending on radio will come from the finance/insurance, retail, auto and tech sectors. “These industries may benefit from the continuing shift in radio listening from the car to the home as at-home audio environment features give consumers multiple opportunities to consume promotions,” the company said.

It calls streaming “a major growth opportunity for broadcasters to maintain existing audiences and attract new, younger listeners,” noting the popularity of streaming and podcasting compared to before the pandemic and saying these trends are “likely to take root.”

Earlier BIA projections anticipated that 2020 would be a relatively decent year for radio and other media thanks in part to it being a big election year.

The post Broadcast Radio Ads Tank While Digital Holds Up appeared first on Radio World.

Joe Pags, center, news anchor Cari Laque, left, and technical director Polo Cuellar

Author Joe Pags is host of “The Joe Pags Show.”

I began my broadcasting career 31 years ago, working in local radio. My career took a detour into television when I became the main news anchor at the local NBC affiliate in Saginaw, Mich. I stopped doing radio for a while and did television news anchoring for about 13 years.

But radio is my first love, and I especially love talk radio. So I found a way to get back into it — first in Albany, N.Y., then on a morning show in San Antonio, at WOAI(AM) 1200 kHz. I took a big pay cut, but I did it because I love radio.

I’ve been there for 15 years now, and in that time, I’ve been able to shape the show into something that felt right for me. We shifted to an afternoon spot and more toward talk radio, and we started syndicating. “The Joe Pags Show” (www.joepags.com) is now heard on 130 stations through Compass Media Networks.

People love our show because we don’t fit into a traditional talk show mold. I’m in this industry because I’m an entertainer, so we focus on that first and foremost. We integrate music and other segments to maintain a lighthearted tone but also bring straight news and information expected by our core listeners. We offer a morning show feel in the afternoon, one that appeals to people in demographics that aren’t typically consumers of talk radio.

About 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to get back to work as quickly as possible, so I began building out my own studio, which is closer to my home. Since then, I’ve been doing the show primarily from my studio.

For about nine years now I connect to WOAI by using my Comrex BRIC-Link codec. So much of my career has depended on me being able to connect quickly to affiliate stations or for doing fill-in spots for other nationally syndicated hosts, and BRIC-Link has made this possible. In the last several years, I’ve only had to set foot in the WOAI facility a handful of times.

I’ve always believed it was possible to be a broadcaster, in the truest sense of the term. I’ve never been a TV guy or a radio guy or an internet guy — I’m a guy who wants to broadly cast what I do. I think that all of broadcasting can be utilized in one show. Given that belief (and my experience in television), I’ve always wanted to incorporate a visual element into our show. I want people to have the option to listen to “The Joe Pags Show” live and also as a podcast, and to make it possible for them to watch it as a live video stream. Letting people see the inner workings of the radio station while I’m doing the show is pretty cool.

Several years ago, I purchased a Comrex LiveShot to do live video broadcasts with NewsMax TV. It has worked very well for us — we experienced very little delay and found the video quality to be amazing. It was easy to set up. Granted, I am a technical person, so I more or less know what I’m doing, but I think LiveShot would be easy for someone with less experience too. There’s a video/audio input, an output, and once it’s connected, that’s it — you’re ready to go. Plus, the LiveShot Control App has made it easy for me to monitor connections from my smartphone, so I could make adjustments without fuss.

We did a show from the studio with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz as a guest, and I found it to be startlingly easy to use. We were live on the radio, and also connected with live video to NewsMax TV. I hooked up two cameras — one for me, and one for the two-shot. The broadcast went off without a hitch.

I think it’s vital that we, as radio broadcasters, don’t lock ourselves into one format, because we’ll be left behind by technology if we do. We have to be thinking about how to play to a new, younger audience — a more diverse audience than we traditionally expect to have. How do you keep them connected? Fifteen year-old kids spend much of their time on TikTok and Snapchat, which are heavily video-based. There’s constant visual stimulus, and I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t provide that also. I appreciate that Comrex technology has given me the flexibility to work from home and explore more of these avenues.

For information, contact Chris Crump at Comrex in Massachusetts at 1-978-784-1776 or visit www.comrex.com.

 

The post User Report: Pags Uses Comrex LiveShot to Break Barriers appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is manager of the EBU’s Media Intelligence Service.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating across the world, but it has also brought out the best from many people and institutions. This is also what we have observed at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), with our public service radio members transforming their working procedures and their output radically to serve their fellow citizens.

The responsiveness of public service radio during this crisis and the way citizens have turned to it in search of trusted news shows that radio at the service of the public is part of the essential infrastructure of any modern society. Any infrastructure requires the major use of technologies, and this has also been the case for radio.

SUPPORTING CITIZENS AS A PRIORITY

In tough times, citizens have been able to experience anew how public radio plays a vital role in society. Initially, this meant providing and curating trustworthy information to deal with the uncertainties of a completely new situation for most citizens. But this role quickly expanded to encourage people to stay at home and keep safe in many creative ways.

An image from the report “Public Radio Response to the Pandemic”

Staying at home also meant a completely new situation for citizens but also for broadcasters. And based on its abilities, radio found new missions, namely providing release during the lockdown, supporting a sense of community by bringing people together, supporting citizens in need and encouraging solidarity, supporting kids and parents at home through special educational and entertainment programs, providing emotional support in an spiral of negativity, and giving voice to citizens’ experiences, creating a common arena and documenting the state of the nation.

Examples abound. Classical music station France Musique made a very creative use of technology by organizing three participatory living room concerts with 600 amateur musicians and 46 members of the Orchestre National de France playing the famous Waltz No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich and demonstrating that music was alive during lockdown. In Viva l’Orchestra à la maison (Viva the orchestra at home!), videos showing the musicians joining from their homes were published online as well as on social media, with amateurs invited to send in video recordings of how they played at home. Professionals from the national orchestra instructed the amateurs through video tutorials. In fact, video has become a key tool during this period, adding to audio on public radio’s platforms but also on social media platforms which have been heavily used during this period.

Generally speaking, public radio stations have been more open to participation from the audience, including not only videos but also voicemail or via the broadcasters’ apps. In Belgium, VRT honored the heroes of COVID everyday life such as nurses, bus drivers or supermarket cashiers. During the campaign Helden van de dag (Heroes of the day), VRT’s Radio 2 received more than 1,000 messages a day through its app from listeners wishing to celebrate their baker or postman.

SUPPORTING CULTURE AND ARTISTS ALSO A PRIORITY

A big part of this support to citizens included bringing arts and culture direct to their homes, as all cultural venues were closed. This also had the beneficial effect of supporting the much-needed cultural sector, heavily affected by the lockdowns.

To support artists and the creative sector, public radio increased their exposure in their broadcasts, for instance by increasing the rotation of national musicians, including many newcomers and less well-known artists, or creating dedicated online events. In the Netherlands, for instance, NPO Radio 2 organized two online festivals aiming to promote freelance artists from the Dutch music scene by giving them a free platform and technical support, e.g. by setting up audio and video livestreams to air their music. The sessions were broadcast live on visual radio.

[Related: “EBU Members Work to Ensure News Continuity”]

As a logical next step, they also stepped in for cancelled cultural events, including not only music, strongly associated to radio, but also theater, cinema, literature, or performing arts. For example, BBC launched its Culture in Quarantine virtual festival of the arts by creating a dedicated platform for British culture. This cross-platform initiative features most intensively across BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, TV channels BBC Two and BBC Four, and digital platforms BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer.

In cooperation with Arts Council England, the platform includes performances, guides to shuttered exhibitions, quarantine diaries from creative visionaries, but also advice on how audiences can themselves be creative at home or readings from fictional and non-fictional books.

Supporting creators in need was also a shared goal, by launching and accelerating new commissioning processes or, in general, supporting audio creators.

Finally, public radio stations have also provided a forum for artists and their experiences, for instance by kickstarting the discussions about the aftermath with different cultural parties.

RECONSIDERING PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

All this fantastic output has been produced in many cases by journalists, producers and technicians that did not have access to their stations’ facilities. The use of everyday technology, usually thought not to have the required quality, was considered good enough in these highly atypical circumstances. The value of their flexibility increased in harsh conditions and made some organizations move further in their digital transformation in a few weeks than in the last few years.

With many broadcasters already back in their facilities, it will be interesting to see how much of those reactive crisis management processes consolidate in the long term. Beyond the technical possibilities, the crisis may have impacted more deeply on the culture regarding technology within radio stations. Time will tell.

The above insights come from a report recently published by the EBU on Public Radio Response to the Pandemic.

Comment on this or any article by emailing radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

[Related: “On Its 70th Anniversary, EBU Maintains Initial Vision”]

The post Public Service Radio for Lockdown: Citizens and Technology appeared first on Radio World.

The author is general manager of KNRL/KNLX in Oregon.

Paul, regarding the article “How WOGO Helped a Wisconsin School Graduate Seniors”:

I don’t know if you want any more graduation stories but I’ll give you ours.

It began when Pastor Jerry Kaping of Wellhouse Church in Sisters, Ore., called the station and wanted us to broadcast a drive-in church service for Easter, which we did as churches were closed.

A scene from the graduation event. Photos courtesy Principal Joe Hosang

Since the schools are closed due to the pandemic, the Sisters High School was looking for a way to honor their graduating seniors. Principal Joe Hosang called Pastor Jerry and asked if he thought the Christian station would broadcast their drive-in graduation. And Pastor Jerry generously committed his church to pay for the broadcast.

Graduates and families drove to the Sisters Rodeo grounds, where vehicles were parked, spaced appropriately. They could then turn to KNLX 104.9 and listen to the ceremony while watching seated in their vehicle.

The ceremony started at 6:15 p.m. with graduates singing songs that were pre-recorded. Valedictorian speeches also were pre-recorded. It culminated with seniors walking across the platform, appropriately spaced and wearing masks.

Family members cheer from a social distance.

I’m not sure how many times we played “Pomp and Circumstance” but it was more than several. We concluded around 8:30 p.m.

I’ll say just a little about the technical aspects.

In this day and age of digital I suspect many of the younger broadcasters do not have a clue about the man Marti or the equipment which bears his name. But drive-in church services and drive-in graduation will not work well using streaming devices due to the delay even where an internet connection exists.

In our case this was a three-hop Marti radio link due to terrain (see photo at bottom). One shot to a mountain, a second shot to our main transmitter site and then a shot to the studio. In all, over 60 miles. And it sounded very good.

Yes this was a break in format, but it was something we could do for the kids and the community, and that is what broadcasting is all about … right?

 

The graduation dais is at center. The antenna feeding the radio station is faintly visible at far right above the bleachers.

The post Letter: Helping Sisters High School With a Three-Hop Marti appeared first on Radio World.

All plans for the C-Band auction will remain on schedule for now, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a motion to stay the auction by a group of satellite operators.

The motion was officially filed under PSSI Global Services LLC, but was also supported by ABS Global Ltd., Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitas S.A., Hispamar Satélites S.A and Hispasat S.A. They argued that the FCC initiated a chain of events — starting with the election by space station operators to relocate from the C-Band on an accelerated schedules — that would harm them by “benefitting competing space station operators that are eligible for relocation and accelerated relocation payments and depriving them of spectrum access rights without compensation.” In addition, they said the FCC did not have the authority to modify their spectrum rights, gave out to much money in accelerated payments and arbitrarily excluded them from getting those payments.

[Read: C-Band Spectrum to Be Cleared on Accelerated Timeline]

The court ruled that the “[a]pellants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.” This means that the C-Band auction will currently continue as planned until the court hears the challenge on its merits and gives a judgement at that time. The court has asked both parties to submit a briefing by June 29.

“Today’s ruling is great news for American consumers and U.S. leadership in 5G,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “I am very pleased that the D.C. Circuit rejected this attempt by small satellite operators with no U.S. operations in the C-Band to delay our efforts to repurpose critical midband spectrum. The FCC will continue to defend our order on merits, and I look forward to our C-Band auction beginning on Dec. 8.”

The FCC had denied a similar petition to delay the start of the auction by the same group of international satellite operators two weeks ago, according to Radio World’s sister publication Multichannel News.

The C-Band auction will see the transition of current C-Band operators move from the top portion of the spectrum as the FCC frees up 280 MHz for 5G. More information is available on TV Technology’s C-Band hub page.

 

The post C-Band Auction on Track as Court Denies Sat Ops’ Stay appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is VP of operations at DJB Radio Software Inc. This commentary is excerpted from the Radio World ebook “Trends in Automation.”

Virtualization. Cloud. Untethered Radio.

A couple of years ago I was invited to give a chat at my local AES chapter about remote broadcasts. As a lifelong radio guy I have stories aplenty (as most of us do), and the AES folk were fascinated by my tales of “guerilla engineering.”

On this particular occasion I gave a humorous history of radio remotes starting from the days of literally bringing the radio station to the remote site via a cargo van (or horse-drawn carriage) to today’s more rational events. These might include a small mixer, a couple of mics and a laptop or two, but are still firmly rooted at a table and plugged into a wall.

I then got all “what if” and I started talking about the radio remote of the future. I envisioned the radio host as a one-man band, going from place to place in a shopping mall with nothing more than a tablet strapped to their arm and a headset mic (Bluetooth, of course) on his or her head. I raved like a lunatic about cloud-based this and virtualized that with AES67 to deliver audio and AES70 managing control protocols. No wires or other obsolete shackles to hold our fearless host back — no broken folding table and threadbare chairs — just untethered freedom!

Little did I know my seemingly far-fetched Roddenberry-esque model would start coming to life in short order but it would also become a model for brick-and-mortar radio stations — not just remotes.

Virtualization is here. Cloud is here. The question is — how do we make it work?

LITTLE C, BIG C

Adam Robinson

In 2018 I took on my current position with my lifelong friend Ron Paley at his second automation venture, DJB Radio Software. Among the challenges presented was to come up with a cloud model for the newly minted DJB Zone radio automation platform.

No problem! We’ll go get some space at AWS, spin up a cloud server and off we go. Right? Well … partly.

If all we want to do is run an automation system in the cloud, DJB Zone, or any of the popular automation platforms, can accomplish the task by simply using the cloud to house data or to run the software virtually on a cloud-based server. An HTML interface or third-party remote access software can get you to the dance, so to speak, and virtual sound drivers can send audio back to your studio or direct to your transmitter site. Let’s call that model “Little C” cloud.

Expectations are high among the decision makers in the industry that we can further rationalize operations by employing this wonderfully cost-effective place called “the cloud” to replace expensive brick and mortar studios. We’ll call that model “Big C” cloud and it is a complex beast.

SHOWING BACKBONE

If what we need is something that resembles the traditional radio model of mics and phones and multiple audio sources and codecs with a host (or hosts) in multiple locations all contributing to one broadcast without so much as a single physical fader, we’ve got quite the hill to climb. Getting automation in and out of the cloud is one thing, but what about the backbone?

First and foremost, there’s the issue of reliable internet connections — even the most robust fiber pipe suffers from downtime. Next, we have to tackle multipoint latency not only in audio but in LIO controls. And then there’s the issue of a virtualized, cloud-based mixing console that can handle inputs from all over the place and sync all of this disparate audio.

“It works for the streaming services — why not for traditional radio?” asks the most vocal member of the peanut gallery.

For starters, radio has a very different business model — it is not an on-demand service, nor is it entirely “canned” content. It also has a fickle audience — for generations now, radio listeners have been trained to be impatient. With that in mind, I generally respond to our vocal friend with the following — if it takes a few extra seconds for Apple or Spotify or Pandora to buffer, the average listener happily sits there watching the little wheel or hourglass go around. If a radio station disappears for a few seconds, that same listener will hit seek and move on to the next available frequency that IS playing something.

Live. Local. Immediate. The three hallmarks of radio since the dawn of the golden age. Lose those and we may just lose radio as we know it. This is the challenge facing not only the software companies but the hardware manufacturers too.

“Little C” cloud-based automation is a reality — there are some rough corners to smooth out yet, but we’re getting there. It’s the challenges of “Big C” that must be overcome before we can truly virtualize and “untether” radio. In the meantime, we can happily enjoy the many benefits of virtualizing radio automation systems in a central TOC or a cloud platform, saving money and increasing synergies among markets. Let’s invest those reclaimed resources in coming up with a new model for radio that will see it into its second century.

Adam Robinson is a 25-year radio veteran who has worked on both sides of the mic. An early adopter of radio automation and AoIP systems, he is now VP operations for DJB Radio Software. Contact him at adam@djbradio.com.

The post Cloud-Based Automation Is a Reality; Now What? appeared first on Radio World.