Radio World

Edita Kudláčová (Photo by Khalil Baalbaki)

In March, Edita Kudláčová started her new job as the European Broadcasting Union’s head of radio.

In a presentation tomorrow, she will discuss her vision for the medium at the EBU’s online Radio Assembly.

She’ll tell Europe’s largest gathering of senior public radio officials that public radio is faced with a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity as well as extreme competition in the audio market, and discuss her ideas for approaching those challenges.

Radio World spoke to Kudláčová prior to the event and was allowed a preview of her comments.

Prior to assuming her new role, Kudláčová spent more than 12 years working for Czech Radio, rising from senior international relations specialist to chief creative producer. She has won many award including first prize for Best European Online Project and the Journalism Award at the 2019 Prix Europa for “1968 Project.”

Kudláčová has been a member of the EBU’s New Radio Group and, prior to that, the International Relations Radio Group.

COVID-19 and public radio

Kudláčová said that, confronted with a global pandemic, the world’s citizens have been eager for information to get them through this difficult time. In Europe, a large number have turned to public broadcasters for help.

“As a result, we have seen an increase in listeners to many public radio stations/networks during the past 12 to 13 months,” she said.

“The first increase occurred during the first lockdown in March and April last year. The second increase took place last autumn due to a second wave of lockdowns in European countries.”

According to the EBU’s audience research, listeners tuned to European public radio for a variety of reasons during the pandemic. The first area of audience growth was news.

“People choose radio because it is able to deliver trustworthy information quite quickly,” Kudláčová said. “The second increase that we saw was in entertainment content, which was for music streaming and music listening on air and FM.”

Radio also gained listenership among young people, in part because “lots of parents were looking for some sort of ‘visual detox’ to keep their children from staring at screens all the time,” she told Radio World.

All told, up to 26% of young people in Europe have been tuning into radio during the pandemic. This is a high level of listenership “which we have not seen in previous years, driven by public radio’s formats for these age groups.”

Opportunity and peril

Pandemic-driven growth in public radio listenership comes at a time when the medium is facing an increasing number of fierce competitors, both on air and particularly streaming on the web. Public radio is faced with a “one-in-a-lifetime opportunity as well as extreme competition in the audio market,” said Kudláčová. This is why European public radio has to act now to retain and grow its percentage of listeners in the multi-platform universe.

Achieving this means applying EBU members’ considerable expertise in producing high-quality audio content to create compelling content in music, sports, the arts and children’s programming, she said. Moreover, this content has to grab the attention of 21st century listeners who now enjoy an unprecedented degree of content choice.

“A lot of our member countries are already faced with increased competition in the audio market, because many digital platforms that previously only distributed audio content are now producing it as well,” Kudláčová noted.

“The degree of extreme competition that is emerging for listeners will force us to innovate quite quickly in order to survive.”

Edita Kudláčová plans to make this kind of innovation a priority for the EBU’s members and working groups, “to see where we can cooperate and progress with all of this together.”

Since her duties extend to the EBU’s Music Unit, Kudláčová is also working closely with musicians and music producers to survive COVID-caused concert cancellations.

“The EBU is already running a series of seminars together with the music creation industry on how best we can support the whole music scene and what needs to be done when the pandemic is over.”

Advancing digital and hybrid radio

The continuing progress of digital radio, specifically DAB+, and the deployment of hybrid radio within cars/trucks to retain radio’s share of the vital mobile market are priorities for Kudláčová.

“My division will continue to support the growth of DAB+ broadcasting across EBU member countries and to secure the position of public service radio in the digital market,” she said.

“The world needs independent, trustworthy public service radio now more than ever.”

As well, the EBU’s radio division will continue to work with EBU Technology & Innovation and the EBU’s Connected Cars and Devices working group to innovate the radio experience in cars and trucks.

“We’ll need to be looking at this year so that public radio stays relevant on ‘connected dashboards,’” Kudláčová said.

“I think this is a very big priority for public radio, because we need to cooperate on the international level in order to succeed — both in terms of the technology being used and the content being produced. We have to ensure that the content we distribute online makes sense for the online environment. We can do only if the EBU has an international strategy that is shared and endorsed by our members.”

Kudláčová has an ambitious agenda to fulfill as the EBU’s Head of Radio. This said, she considers herself a team player.

“It’s important that our EBU members are involved in this process, so that we really do this together,” she said. “I take it as a top priority to make sure that everyone involved in our radio efforts are well-connected and well-informed about what is going on, and that our agenda is clear and open to input from all of them.”

The post EBU’s New Head of Radio Sees Opportunity, Peril appeared first on Radio World.

An image from “Radio Rules: A Guide to FCC Regulations for Radio Stations”

Do you know precisely what information needs to be included in your station log? Are you current with the rules governing gaming ads? Do you know the legal definitions of obscenity and plugola?

A short new training course from the National Association of Broadcasters can help you or your employees with these questions.

The association is offering the scenario-based training to help people in U.S. radio have a better understanding of regulations from the Federal Communications Commission.

The course includes a lesson and four “learning activities” that take less than an hour to work through.

You also get an online PDF of the NAB’s longstanding guidebook that summarizes relevant FCC rules and policies about programming and station operation. 

The guide has been updated for 2021. Its material is divided into four sections. 

The Content section explains rules about the broadcast of phone conversations, contests and promotions, defamation and privacy, hoax broadcasts, obscenity, payola and similar topics. Your air talent and promotions folks definitely need to be current on this material.

The Advertising section covers alcohol, lotteries and gaming, political advertising, tobacco and marijuana issues and donor acknowledgements, among other things. Some of these topics are sensitive and fast-changing and may vary by your locale. This is obviously an important section for your sales team.

Station Operation & Management digs into topics like the EAS rules, EEO, elimination of the main studio rule, RF radiation, station logs and tower lighting.

And there’s a whole section on Public Files & Reporting. I think most broadcasters forgot to review those rules in recent years, given the rash of consent decrees that the FCC has recently announced; the settlements don’t involve financial penalties, but sooner or later I suspect the commission will decide that broadcasters have now had fair warning to get their online public files in order.

“Radio Rules: A Guide to FCC Regulations for Radio Stations” is written so that anyone working in radio can understand it. While the course and guidebook don’t replace your station attorney, they might save you from having to make an uncomfortable call to that same lawyer down the road.

The course with PDF costs $89.99 unless you are an NAB member, then the price drops to $29.99. Info is at https://education.nab.org/courses/28060.

 

The post Radio Rules! (A Helpful Resource From NAB) appeared first on Radio World.

Cox Media Group has named Kim Dallow to head its Tulsa, Okla., radio cluster.

She was named director of radio operations, reporting to Regional VP Cathy Gunther. The cluster has five FM stations.

[Read: CMG Puts Long in Charge in Atlanta]

“Dallow brings to this role 26 years of experience in radio, including 14 years with CMG in the Tulsa market,” the company wrote in the announcement. Gunther said Dallow has been “serving unofficially as our operations manager for about a year now and our cluster has only improved with her at the helm.” She succeeds Nate Reed, who transferred to Florida last year.

She has been marketing and promotions director for the cluster for 11 years and the director of branding & programming for 103.3 The Eagle KJSR(FM) for five years. She will continue to program that station.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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Sinclair’s MarkONE mobile phone receives an ATSC 3.0 transmission with full-featured DRM radio services. (Photo: Sinclair)

Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology at the Sinclair Broadcast Group, flipped the switch on a 100 W transmitter to begin broadcasting ATSC 3.0 TV from atop the station group’s corporate headquarters in Hunt Valley, Md.

It is with the express purpose of testing reception on small devices like its MarkONE 3.0-enabled smartphone and, in particular, integration of Digital Radio Mondiale in its broadcast app.

The launch comes on the same day Sinclair and German technology research institute Fraunhofer IIS jointly announced they are working together to bring audio services using the DRM standard to ATSC 3.0. (Earlier this year, Sinclair rolled out 3.0 simulcasts of its Seattle radio stations with its DRM-based broadcast app.)

“We are actually building the DRM radio service into the [3.0] broadcast app environment,” Aitken said. “That means those [DRM] services will be carried in band and transported just like HEVC [high-efficiency video coding] and [Dolby] AC-4.”

While DRM relies on Fraunhofer’s xHE-ACC codec and the specified audio codec for the U.S. deployment of ATSC 3.0 is Dolby AC-4, the unsupported audio codec can be integrated into the 3.0 ecosystem via Sinclair’s ATSC 3.0 broadcast app, says Aitken.

“Even television sets through the [ATSC] A/344 interactive environment will be able to grab that app, consume the [DRM] player and bring that [xHE-AAC-based] player into the operational environment of the TV set,” says Aitken.

However, Aiken emphasizes that Sinclair’s NextGen TV programming will use the Dolby AC-4 codec. Only its audio services, such as the STIRR Radio simulcasts in Seattle, will leverage xHE-AAC coding through the DRM player in its broadcast app.

The strategy behind bringing DRM to the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem is multifaceted, says Aitken.

Uniting DRM with ATSC 3.0 offers benefits internationally. For instance, in India some 200 languages and dialects are spoken and the most prevalent means of receiving content is the mobile phone. Bringing 3.0 and DRM into harmony could offer broadcasters a way to build out a single broadcast infrastructure to deliver both TV and radio stations while offering a bandwidth-efficient way to reach radio listeners regionally in their own tongue, says Aiken.

“Bringing the rich digital radio experience of DRM to the innovative ATSC TV platform is a perfect win-win situation for users and broadcasters alike,” says Alexander Zink, senior business development manager for broadcast applications at Fraunhofer.

Sinclair, too, plans to leverage the bandwidth efficiency of xHE-AAC in the U.S. to deliver stereo audio services at as little as 26 kbps per channel over the air via its 3.0 broadcast app. It also is looking at how other DRM-based services might serve the public, such as Fraunhofer’s Journaline interactive information service.

One of the primary goals of the 3.0 rollout in Maryland, operating under a special temporary authority (STA) license from the FCC, will focus on the use of these DRM services and other broadcast app features on small receivers, says Aitken.

Further, Aitken is hopeful that combining 3.0 and DRM in mobile devices, such as Sinclair’s Mark One smartphone, will advance the station group’s effort to get 3.0 receivers into vehicles as an affordable alternative to delivering data to cars and trucks via LTE wireless service, he says.

“Being able to demonstrate these services to the automotive world [with a Mark One-type mobile phone in a vehicle] allows them to begin to think about ATSC 3.0 for data delivery,” says Aitken. “By the end of the year, there will be upwards of 70% or more of the U.S. public served [with 3.0] by at least one broadcast facility, and the aspiration of companies like BitPath is to have multiple channels with bandwidth available over the next two to three years.”

 

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Benelux broadcaster Mediahuis is installing the OmniPlayer 3 radio automation software platform for its Flanders-located stations in Belgium. That includes its NRJ- and Nostalgie-branded stations along with individual stations of other formats.

Mediahuis Technical Manager Luc de Groote pointed to OmniPlayer’s ability to create separate brand-oriented versions of a program for each station. He explained, “The stations NRJ and Nostalgie, each with six regional editions, will use the edition function. With this, broadcasters can add advertisement blocks regionally and broadcast them simultaneously.”

[Read: OmniPlayer Chosen by RTL Belgium]

De Groote also noted that the company was familiar with OmniPlayer and “it is a stable and robust system.”

In addition to standard automation features, OmniPlayer 3 is bringing along a news editing and playout system.

According to a release the rollout will start with the singular format stations and then move to the larger NRJ and Nostalgie groups.

Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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The Federal Communications Commission has canceled a $3,500 penalty against a low-power radio station in Ohio.

The FCC’s Media Bureau had issued the notice of apparent liability for forfeiture to Lighthouse Ministries of Northwest Ohio, licensee of WKJH(LP) in Bryan, Ohio for failing to file a license renewal application and “willfully and repeatedly” violating the Communications Act by staying on the air after the license had expired.

An application should have been filed by June 1, 2020, to avoid expiration on Oct. 1. The station did not file a renewal application, so the bureau issued a public notice announcing the station’s license had expired.

Not until late October did the station file its application and ask for reconsideration, and the FCC then set a $3,500 penalty. But the station replied that it did not have the resources to pay, and it submitted financial documentation to that effect.

“We accept licensee’s showing — based on its financial statements — that payment of the proposed forfeiture would create a financial hardship,” the FCC wrote. “Accordingly, we will cancel the proposed forfeiture.” But it admonished the station for its “willful violation.”

The post Ohio LPFM Won’t Have to Pay Fine appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters announced the winners of the annual NAB Crystal Radio Awards.

They are:

KSL(FM) Salt Lake City

KRSP(FM) Salt Lake City

KSTP(FM) St. Paul

WBAP(AM) Dallas

WDRV(FM) Chicago

WFXE(FM) Columbus, Ga.

WJJY(FM), Brainerd, Minn.

WMMR(FM), Philadelphia

WSB(FM), Atlanta

WWRM(FM), Tampa

The NAB Crystal Radio Awards recognize U.S. radio stations for their year-round commitment to community service.

Howard University’s WHUR(FM) in Washington received the Crystal Heritage Award. This recognizes stations that have won five Crystal Radio Awards for exceptional year-round community service efforts. Nine others have received the Heritage award.

The post NAB Announces Crystal Radio Winners appeared first on Radio World.

Veritone said it has extended its analytics service agreement with Audacy, the former Entercom Communications.

The supplier said Entercom was one of the first adopters of its Veritone Discovery product, a content search and analysis program that uses artificial intelligence to organize and analyze its “unstructured media.”

[Read: AI Is the Next Step in Redefining Radio Ad Sales ROI]

Veritone said it is processing over 2 million hours of Audacy content annually.

“With Veritone Discovery, Audacy is also able to rapidly visualize and correlate advertising efficacy for over 230 stations in 47 markets nationwide,” the supplier stated in a press release.

Veritone said its Discovery system has recent updates including new Earned Media monitoring features, expanded audience data analytics and updated reporting customization features.

The announcement was made by Veritone SVP Drew Hilles and Audacy Chief Revenue Officer Bob Phillips.

Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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The Alabama Broadcasters Association will pay for 20 broadcasters to attend the NAB Show or associated events this October, and it plans a drawing to choose them.

The association has allotted up to $2,500 per person to cover airfare to Las Vegas, meeting registration and hotel; it will conduct the drawing on April 30.

Radio World asked ABA President Sharon Tinsley about the program.

Radio World: What prompted this effort?

Sharon Tinsley: It has been a tough year for broadcasters and budgets are tight. This is a way the ABA can help broadcasters attend the trade shows and have the continuing education opportunities they need at a time when they might not have the funds to do so on their own.

RW: What are the general guidelines?

Tinsley: We’re requiring that persons who submit their names be employees of member stations; they must have worked in the state in the business for at least three years; they have to include a narrative about how they hope to benefit from the experience; and a manager must also submit the employee’s name to be included in the drawing.

RW: Has ABA done this before?

Tinsley: We’ve done this on a much smaller scale in the past. We’ve offered to pay registration fees to the NAB’s Sales and Management Television Exchange and the fall Radio Show for several years, for up to five people to attend each. This year, we’re offering to cover the majority of the cost and for many more people.

RW: What is your general sense of the willingness of broadcasters to get back to physical trade shows and other in-person events?

Tinsley: I sense that people are eager to attend meetings in person again. We’re getting a great response to announcements like this one about the NAB meetings and our plans to host the ABA conference in person later this year.

Our vaccination rollout is going well in Alabama. In half our counties, over 30% of the population has had at least one dose. At this point, all persons over age 16 are eligible. We are ahead of the national average for vaccinations.

RW: What else should we know?

Tinsley: We’re hosting an in-person gathering of about 35 broadcasters at a Birmingham area hotel ballroom to view the National Association of Broadcasters’ State Leadership Conference together in May. We are taking measures to ensure everyone’s safety with only one or two people each at large dining table. We’re doing everything we can to bring people together, but keep them far enough apart!

Also, we are awarding $25,000 in Education Debt Retirement Grants this year, through which we will pay off $5,000 of student debt for five broadcasters. This is our second year to do this. And we are endowing a $50,000 scholarship fund at another Alabama college or university this spring. It will be our third year to do so.

Alabama broadcasters interested in the program should contact Sharon Tinsley. The deadline is April 30 at 4 p.m. Central time.

The NAB Show is scheduled for Oct. 9–13 in Las Vegas. The fall Radio Show is collocated with it on Oct. 13 and 14. Registrants to SMTE and the Radio Show can access to NAB Show exhibit floor at no additional cost.

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The author is project director of RadioDNS. His commentaries appear regularly in Radio World.

Fig. 1 — What happens when functionality implementation is misaligned.

Consider two organizations, both well established, commercially successful and global in reach. One makes products that the other distributes to consumers, each equally reliant on the other.

It would be pointless to make a product that couldn’t be distributed to consumers, or to create a distribution network for a product that doesn’t exist. And yet that happens when radio stations create services that car radios can’t use, and car radios implement functionality that radio stations don’t support. It’s a waste of time (and money) that we don’t have a lot of. When auto manufacturers work with companies like Spotify or Sirius XM, they get a clear brief, consistently implemented.

[Read: SurferNetwork Partners With RadioDNS]

Part of the challenge is the diversity and scale of the radio industry. Radio isn’t one single organization, but a myriad of different owners, brands, products and technical capabilities. On the relatively egalitarian radio dial, a huge media organization with big production budgets can be side-by-side with a small community broadcaster that works hard to stay on-air. Both have a presence that needs to be available to consumers. When you’re an automotive manufacturer, you can hear from a cacophony of radio stations, and working out if they’re all asking for the same things but in different ways is impossibly time-consuming.

The radio industry is getting better at focusing its requirements and communicating them clearly, and the automotive industry is getting better at realizing that communication with broadcasters avoids costly misunderstandings. Organizations like the NAB, WorldDAB and RadioDNS create opportunities for both sides to talk through the detail of how to implement the best possible radio experience in the car.

WorldDAB and RadioDNS jointly organize Automotive Workshops three times a year, specifically to address things that aren’t working as well as could be expected. These roundtable meetings discuss a mixture of current implementation issues, and identify gaps in functionality that could be easily closed. This focus on here, now and addressable problems is very different from the longer term horizon of groups like the WorldDAB Technical Committee or the RadioDNS Technical Group.

At the latest workshop, held in February 2021, we discussed current issues where we can see that the alignment between broadcasters and manufacturers isn’t right, and is causing problems.

Fig. 2 — Examples of DL+ rendering (Photo: Ford)

On the subject of providing real-time metadata, we looked at the big divergence between the relatively widespread support in cars for DL+ (and RT+), which allows specific identification of artist, title and other key pieces of metadata, and the fairly poor support of it by broadcasters. It was an opportunity for auto manufacturers to show how that function is displayed to drivers and why they value it, which was new information for many broadcasters. It’s a function that’s implemented and broadcasters haven’t been utilizing because they didn’t understand why they should.

We also discussed driver distraction, which is influencing so many decisions in the automotive industry about what drivers can see and can do. We talked about how broadcasters could reduce the risks of creating distractions by considering issues such as the repetition speed of text information and tailoring visual content to consider design elements like text size, text density, colors and brightness, particularly the potential for distracting glare from bright images during night time. It’s an effective way for manufacturers to educate broadcasters on how to create content and support functionality that manufacturers want and can include in vehicles.

Fig. 3 — Examples of visuals in the eye line of the driver

RadioDNS and WorldDAB run a help desk facility for broadcasters and manufacturers, recognizing that often the problem with solving a problem is getting hold of the right person. By acting as an information exchange, they can route problems to the people who can solve them, and look out for trends and issues that should be addressed by the whole community.

At the workshop RadioDNS and WorldDAB also announced they will be carrying out an extensive and detailed survey of manufacturers’ and broadcasters’ capabilities, to identify and close as many implementation gaps as possible. The first results will be presented to the next workshop, and comprehensive results available later in the year. It’s an opportunity to create a step change in the experience of radio in cars on the road today for the least effort on behalf of both broadcasters and manufacturers.

The automotive workshops are unique in structure, encouraging interaction and discussion about implementation and problem solving. With over 70 people attending the last workshop, they’re also very well attended with people with knowledge and ability.

The next WorldDAB and RadioDNS Automotive Workshop will be on June 8. Information about registration will be made available close to the time, on both the WorldDAB and RadioDNS websites.

 

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Sinclair’s MarkONE mobile phone is shown in a promotional image receiving an ATSC3.0 transmission with DRM radio services.

Fraunhofer and Sinclair will work together to integrate Digital Radio Mondiale into the ATSC 3.0 digital TV platform.

Their agreement will help advance Sinclair’s goal of incorporating audio services into ATSC 3.0 and its MarkONE mobile phone. The organizations said their ultimate aim is “the adoption of both standards worldwide for the benefit of broadcasters and listeners alike.”

Fraunhofer IIS is familiar in radio circles as developer of audio codecs including xHE-AAC. Sinclair Broadcast Group is a media company and major proponent of ATSC 3.0. The organizations said they are “joining forces to bring the best possible digital radio experience based on DRM to users of the ATSC 3.0 digital TV platform.”

Using digital TV to disseminate radio in new ways is an idea that Sinclair is already exploring in Seattle, promoting it as a new way to combine internet and over-the-air audio.

This week’s announcement was made by Alexander Zink, senior business development manager for broadcast applications at Fraunhofer IIS, and Mark Aitken, SVP of Sinclair Broadcast Group and the president of ONE Media 3.0.

Zink pointed to the rollout of ATSC 3.0 in South Korea and the United States as evidence of its success, and said DRM “is adopted in a steadily growing number of countries all over the world.” DRM is used for medium-wave digital broadcasting in India and is competing to provide FM services there.

[Related: “Digital Radio Mondiale in Focus in India”]

Sinclair and Fraunhofer IIS plan a demonstration of transmission of DRM-based services over ATSC 3.0. “This joint project is expected to open the door to close collaboration between the respective standard bodies, the ultimate goal being the adoption of both standards worldwide for the benefit of broadcasters and listeners alike.”

Digital Radio Mondiale is a digital radio platform that uses the xHE-AAC codec and Journaline on-demand information service.

The collaboration of Sinclair and Fraunhofer IIS aims at establishing the seamless transport of DRM-based services with all their advanced digital radio features on the ATSC 3.0 TV platform,” Fraunhofer and Sinclair said in a press release.

“This allows established DRM broadcasters to create the DRM content once and then distribute it simultaneously via dedicated digital AM/FM transmissions and on the digital TV platform.” It said listeners get a “seamless and full-featured digital radio experience across all broadcast platforms” using any reception device such as radio and TV sets, mobile phones and car receivers.

[Related: “Why Should Radio Care About ATSC 3.0?”]

 

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Charlyn Stanberry has been hired on to join the lobbying team at the National Association of Broadcasters.

She will be vice president of government relations and report to Shawn Donilon, executive vice president of government relations.

Stanberry is former chief of staff for Rep. Yvette Clarke, a Democratic congresswoman from New York, for whom she also worked as legislative director and counsel.

[Read: LeGeyt Is Experienced D.C. Lobbyist]

Past roles also include VP of external affairs for Net Communications; counsel for the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council; and professional staff member for the Congressional Black Caucus. She was a regional voter protection director in Florida for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.

She also is an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia where she teaches Foundation Civics and Ethics & Values.

In the announcement, NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith said Stanberry “has excelled on Capitol Hill, in the private sector and in the legal community, and commands expert knowledge of the legislative process.”

Last week, NAB announced that Smith plans to retire from the association at the end of this year, to be succeeded by Curtis LeGeyt, a veteran of that same lobbying department.

The post Stanberry Joins NAB Lobbying Team appeared first on Radio World.

KING FM has joined VuHaus Group.

The classical music station in Seattle “will curate a new local Seattle Classical page on the NPR Live Sessions website with their unique, local and engaging music video content,” VuHaus announced.

Nonprofit VuHaus Group is a network of public radio and TV stations and national radio shows that support emerging and local artists. The announcement was made by Chris Kirchner, COO of VuHaus Group, and Brenda Barnes, CEO of Classical KING FM.

[Read: Tiny Desk Series Works From “Home”]

VuHaus and its video platform “NPR Live Sessions” encourage music discovery through video, station collaborations and partnerships with NPR Music and other organizations. The network is supported by funding and grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is operated by Public Media Company.

VuHaus Group also includes WFUV in New York City; KCRW in Los Angeles; Vocalo Radio/Chicago Public Media in Chicago; KXT in Dallas/Ft. Worth; WXPN and WRTI in Philadelphia; GBH in Boston; Indie 102.3/Colorado Public Radio in Denver; Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, Ore.; KUTX in Austin; KTBG The Bridge in Kansas City; WUNC Music in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; WMOT and WNXP in Nashville; 88Nine Radio Milwaukee/WYMS in Milwaukee; “Live From Cain’s” in Tulsa, Okla.; “Mountain Stage” in West Virginia; and “Colorado Sound” in Fort Collins, Colo.

 

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A Flexible PVC pipe union.

Bill Bowin, CSRE/CBNT, chief engineer at North American Broadcasting, writes that we’ve “beaten to death’” the topic of condensate drains over the last six months, but Bill has one more trick that he has used on rooftop units that he wanted to share.

Rooftop units may be located far from the roof drains and require a very long piece of PVC drain pipe.

Sometimes, installers don’t use glue so the PVC junctions can be disassembled and cleaned later. But Bill finds that this is not a good idea. Wind on the roof may move the long horizontal runs of PVC around, and, if the fittings are not glued, joints can pull apart.

An alternative to glue is to use pipe unions, so the drains can be taken apart, cleaned and reassembled. Bill provided a closeup of the junctions at one of his sites; note each section can be easily removed.

Fig. 1: PVC junctions make disassembly and cleaning much easier.

You’ll also find a number of online videos on this subject from manufacturers like Flexible PVC.

Nifty sensor

Consulting engineer and frequent Workbench contributor Frank Hertel of Newman-Kees RF Measurements & Engineering spotted this interesting device.

The SensiML is a sensor tile that can be affixed to a fan or motor. It’s a predictive maintenance device that gives a condition readout on a smartphone.

Watch a very interesting demo of it at https://youtu.be/qad5dFzqdI8.

The SensiML is a sensor tile that can be affixed to a fan or motor. It’s a predictive maintenance device that gives a condition readout on a smartphone.

Using the sensors in the battery-powered STMicro SensorTile, which is mounted atop the fan, SensiML shows how its AutoML software can produce autonomous predictive fault models. The device’s sensing algorithms can be built by developers with little to no data science expertise using the SensiML Analytics Toolkit.

Remember the failed blower fan on the BE transmitter that was causing overheating, discussed in the Feb. 17 issue? A sensor such as this, mounted on each fan, would alert the engineer of failure, loose mounting or blade obstruction.

Visit https://sensiml.com/products for more information. A headline on that page gives a sense of their purpose: “Transform your IoT device from merely connected to truly intelligent.”

Seeking slip-ups

Louis Judson was the first of many to respond to our question about a flaw in the Seekers’ Abbey Road video discussed in the Feb. 17 issue.

Louis, who works as an audio engineer for Intuitive Audio in the Bay Area, notes that the percussion is not in the room and apparently not on the multi-track either.

He also noted the interesting mic position on Judith Durham. “Assuming it is side address, why have the mic below her and pointing up? That would invite ‘plosives’ — better above the singer, pointing slightly down.”

But what was the “flaw” I referred to? Louis spotted it as well. Watch when the engineer starts the Ampex recorder. He presses what appears to be the “stop” pushbutton and doesn’t depress the “record” pushbutton.

Okay, picky-picky! Still a fun video to watch.

John Bisset has spent over 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is still learning. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance, holds SBE CPBE certification is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

The post Pipe Unions Can Solve PVC Problems appeared first on Radio World.

Streaming service provider SurferNetwork has implemented RadioDNS to support radio stations that want to participate in hybrid radio.

“With so many features, such as ‘follow on’ that dynamically switches between broadcast and internet radio, and enhanced ‘now playing’ information, hybrid radio is the way of the future,” the New Jersey-based company stated in a press release.

[Read: Power Up Hybrid Radio With RadioDNS].

WEZF(FM) Star 92.9 in Colchester, Vt., owned by Vox AM/FM, is one of the first stations to get a DNS hookup through SurferNetwork. Jamie Dennis is chief engineer and director of IT for Vox AM/FM.

Nick Piggott, project director at RadioDNS, was quoted in the SurferNetwork announcement saying, “RadioDNS is looking forward to more stations across the U.S. adopting our standards in the future.”

Bill Grywalski is president and co-founder of SurferNetwork.

Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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Circled: Modified DPA d:dicate 4006 omnidirectional microphone placed on the outside of the Perseverance rover.

When NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed on February 18, it was an exciting triumph; after all, it’s not every day that NASA sends something more than 134 million miles across space and has everything go to plan. Perseverance is there to collect rock and sediment samples for future return to Earth, search for signs of ancient microbial life, and more, but one of its first successes was to simply record and send back audio from the Red planet for the first time.

NASA opted to use an off-the-shelf DPA d:dicate 4006 omnidirectional mic in tandem with an MMA-A digital audio interface and MMP-G modular active cable. The mic itself was stripped down to its bare essentials, said René Mørch, product manager, DPA Microphones, in order to reduce its weight as much as possible. “The microphone and the MMP-G are housed outside on the port side, while the MMA-A is safe in the rover itself so that it will not go through the outside temperature changes.”

There are other factors affecting the microphone’s recordings besides the temperature. Between the extreme temperatures and the thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere, higher frequencies attenuate more quickly, and there’s also a lower speed of sound, roughly 540 mph versus a typical 760 mph on Earth.

[Read: Miking Up Mars]

The 4006 mic was put on the rover to record audio of the descent, like friction from the atmosphere and dust thrown around by the craft’s thrusters, but there was no certainty that it would survive the trip. Ironically, the mic wasn’t able to collect sound from the landing, but has since captured and sent back audio from the planet’s surface. Those initial audio files were sent to DPA’s engineering team for processing, and then back to NASA for final analyzing and publishing.

If it seems surprising that NASA never recorded Mars before, it’s not for lack of trying. Some previous landers captured some wind noise via seismometers with minimal success, while other landers that had microphones either crashed or NASA opted to leave the mic off for fear of affecting the landing. Perseverance’s recordings, then, mark the first proper audio to be captured on Mars.

We can look forward to hearing more from Perseverance in the months to come, too, as its mission is just getting started. The rover will spend at least one Mars year — roughly two Earth years — exploring the landing site as it sends back data and the gusty, windy sounds of the Red Planet.

The post Recording the Red Planet appeared first on Radio World.

Tracy Johnson

Tracy Johnson Media Group announced the availability in North America of AudioLogger, a recently introduced software product that can be used to record “any radio station in the world.”

The company, based in San Diego, said approximately 100 stations in the United States and Canada are using the software. It says AudioLogger is intended to be used for competitive monitoring, accessing air checks and video publishing, among other things.

As part of Radio World’s “Supply Side” series with manufacturers, we asked Tracy Johnson about it.

Radio World: What is AudioLogger?
Tracy Johnson: AudioLogger allows users to record any radio station in the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, then edit, manage, export and share that audio in many ways.

RW: And what does Tracy Johnson Media Group do?
Johnson: My main business focus is consulting radio stations on talent coaching, programming and marketing. We also have a show prep service, Personality Magnet; a premium content site for programmers, personalities and marketing pros, Insiders Radio Network; an air check coaching service, AirCheckCoaching.com; and have now launched AudioLogger.

RW: What is your business involvement with the product?
Johnson: We are the exclusive dealers for North America and have been intimately involved with the creator through the development of the app. The software has been beta testing in the market and is now in general release. Tracy Johnson Media Group is the first dealer in the network, but there are likely to be more added to represent other parts of the world in the coming months.

RW: Who is the designer in Belgium?
Johnson: The company that designed the software is Rute98, which is headed by programmer Alain Claes. I’ve known Alain for many years as a colleague and client.

RW: What is unique about AudioLogger that other products in this sector don’t do?
Johnson: There are several unique aspects. First, it’s so easy to use. All of the functions are intuitive and take place on one dashboard. Second is the ability to record any station in the world, regardless of location. Third is the ability to export audio to video instantly. And fourth is the cost. AudioLogger starts at just $9.99 per month.

RW: What other features should we know about?
Johnson: There are dozens of features, but some of the most popular include the ability to download the music log and most-played list of any station. We’ve already had two new clients tell us they plan to drop their current music monitoring service. The video to audio export feature is a major timesaver. It’s so easy to create an online video. A digital manager told me they would be saving up to four hours a day in their department with this feature. And a user can export any segment to a branded landing page, then invite listeners, winners or advertisers to hear and share the segment.

RW: What does it cost?
Johnson: There are three subscription tiers ranging from $9.99 to $49.99 per month. The difference between the tiers is the features unlocked at each level. Additional users and stations can be added to any subscription for a modest fee.

RW: What else should we know?
Johnson: I’ve been using AudioLogger for several months and I can’t imagine my life without it. It really is the world’s smartest, most affordable audio logging system with benefits for every department in any radio station, from sales to programming to promotions to the digital team to engineering and air talent.

 

The post AudioLogger Is “Smart and Affordable” Logging appeared first on Radio World.

Promotion for Native Public Media coronavirus vaccination PSA campaign.

Getting the word out to Native American and Black communities about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines is the priority behind public media’s latest funding campaign.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has awarded more than $300,000 to Native Public Media and to KTSU(FM), a public radio station licensed to historically black college and universities, to coordinate a COVID-19 public outreach campaign.

That campaign, which will reach a total of 51 public radio stations serving Native and Black communities, will be broken down between 36 tribal stations and 15 stations licensed to HBCUs. The goal is to provide fact-based information to populations that have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: How Stations Fight the Virus]

Figures show that Black and Native people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, regardless of location or age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the coronavirus has been far deadlier for Black, Native and Latino Americans than for other groups in the U.S.

Native communities depend on Native American-oriented stations for news and health information and as a local forum for discussion about critical issues, said Loris Taylor, Native Public Media president and CEO. “As in any community, a solid network of partnerships is critical to address Native American and Alaska Native emergency needs. We are grateful to CPB for funding these information campaigns, which address resilience gaps during this time of national emergency.”

Promotion for Native Public Media coronavirus vaccination PSA campaign.

NPM, which provides leadership, resources and strategic services to public radio stations across Indian Country, will be in charge of organizing, coordinating and providing financial support to tribal stations to produce and broadcast public service campaigns and other relevant content, such as social media infographics. A series of multimedia materials were produced by NPM and KTSU, the public radio station based at Texas Southern University. KTSU will also be responsible for providing funds to other HBCU stations to help them produce additional content and engagement materials.

“Public media stations, locally operated and highly trusted, are well-positioned to provide critical information to communities hard hit by the pandemic,” said Pat Harrison, CPB president and CEO. “By providing accurate and reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the continuing need to wear masks and maintain social distance, these stations will reduce the spread of disinformation and advance the public health of the communities they serve.”

CPB is a founding partner of the COVID Collaborative, a national assembly of leaders from different sectors developing a unified platform for addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

The following stations are to receive public media funding and support as part of the public media campaign.

Tribal stations:

• Alaska: KNBA, Anchorage; KBRW, Barrow; KYUK, Bethel; KCUK, Chevak; KZPA, Ft. Yukon; KIYU, Galena; KOTZ, Kotzebue; KSDP, Sand Point; KUHB, St. Paul; KNSA, Unalaskleet; KRFF, Fairbanks
• Arizona: KNNB, Whiteriver; KUYI, Kykotsmovi; KGHR, Tuba City; KOHN, Sells
• California: KIDE, Hoopa
• Colorado: KSUT, Ignacio
• Idaho: KIYE, Lapwai
• Minnesota: KKWE, Callaway; KBFT, Nett Lake; KOJB, Cass Lake
• Montana: KGVA, Harlem
• New Mexico: KCIE, Dulce; KABR, Alamo; KTDB, Pine Hill; KSHI, Zuni
• North Dakota: KEYA, Belcourt; KMHA, New Town; KABU, St. Michael
• Oregon: KWSO, Warm Springs; KCUW, Pendleton
• South Dakota: KILI, Porcupine; KLND, McLaughlin; KDKO, Lake Andes; KOYA, Rosebud
• Wisconsin: WOJB, Hayward

HBCU stations:

• Alabama: WJAB, Alabama A&M University, Normal; WVAS, Alabama State University, Montgomery
• Georgia: WCLK, Clark University, Atlanta
• Mississippi: WJSU, Jackson State University, Jackson; WURC, Rust College, Holly Springs; WPRL, Alcorn State University, Lorman
• Missouri: KJLU, Lincoln University, Jefferson City
• North Carolina: WNCU, North Carolina Central University, Durham; WRVS, Elizabeth City State University, Elizabeth City; WSNC, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem
• Ohio: WCSU, Wilberforce
• Texas: KTSU, Texas Southern University, Houston; KPVU, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View
• South Carolina: WSSB, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg
• Virginia: WNSB, Norfolk State University, Norfolk

 

The post Tribal and HBCU Stations Receive Public Media Funds for Coronavirus Outreach appeared first on Radio World.

Solid State Logic has introduced a digital audio workstation control surface, the UF8. It provides remote access to hardware faders, encoders and high-resolution color displays. It’s primarily intended for use in music creation, production and mixing, post-production and webcasting.

The UF8 is expandable to a 32-channel control surface and offers integration for all major DAW platforms. SSL’s new 360° control software (both Mac and Windows-compatible) manages multiple controller configurations, customized user keys, and DAW switching across multiple layers, allowing for switching between numerous sessions.

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

The unit offers 100 mm touch-sensitive faders; high-resolution color displays; eight “endless” rotary encoders; creation and use of custom workflows via five banks of eight programmable user keys and three quick keys, adding up to 43 assignable keys per UF8; an intelligent multipurpose channel encoder; mouse scroll emulation, providing control of any plug-in parameter that is hovered over; the ability to switch control between three simultaneously connected DAWs; the ability to chain up to four UF8s together for a total of 32 channels of control; and a pair of SSL plug-in: SSL Native Vocalstrip 2 and Drumstrip.

Andy Jackson, SSL studio product manager, said, “UF8 is an obvious next step in SSL’s development in ergonomically designed studio tools for today’s mixers, producers and creators. The layout and build quality are all about our fixation with ‘human engineering’; creating products that keep you in the creative zone with high-speed access to every fader or control, without operator fatigue or discomfort.”

Info: www.solidstatelogic.com

 

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty says its audience in Russia is growing significantly but that the government there has escalated its effort to force RFE/RL out of the country.

President Jamie Fly said the organization has been targeted “because we continue to provide a growing audience in Russia with objective news and information at a moment when the Kremlin is trying to limit access to information.”

The organization said that Russia’s media regulator plans to serve RFE/RL with a new round of 130 charges, bringing its total alleged violations to 520 just in the past several months.

RFE/RL says it has almost doubled its audience in Russia over the past five years, reaching an estimated 6.7 million people. That includes social media videos produced by Current Time and online audiences for the Russian Service.

It noted that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week expressed concern over these Russian efforts.

 

The post RFE/RL Says Russian Pushback Is Increasing appeared first on Radio World.