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Issued an admonishment to Daytona State College, Inc. for public file violations for Station WDSC-TV, New Smyrna Beach, FL

SPRINGFIELD, VA. — Regular listeners to Hubbard Broadcasting’s experimental AM offering what literally is engineering maestro Dave Kolesar‘s iTunes playlist in “crystal clear” HD Radio may be wondering why they only received the analog signal for the station today.

Kolesar tells RBR+TVBR there’s a perfectly good explanation, and it involves a request from HD Radio’s parent.

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ATLANTA — With its outer bands prompting tornado warnings as a suspicious package led to the temporary lockdown of Concourse F at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, Hurricane Ida’s travel complications were somewhat minimal. To the north in Arlington and Alexandria, Va., a ferocious series of lightning strikes pounded the Washington, D.C., suburbs across the 3am hour.

Down in New Orleans, the cleanup from the storm is underway. The damage to the market’s radio and TV stations is now being assessed. It’s not pretty.

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Telos Alliance and Grass Valley announced a partnership that they say brings integrated intercom to cloud production.

This news is primarily of interest in video production, but it may touch some radio broadcasters whose infrastructure overlaps with video work.

Grass Valley is releasing Telos Infinity VIP (Virtual Intercom Platform — shown) on its GV AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform), an intercom offering for cloud-based media work.

“Infinity VIP on AMPP supports essential intercom functionality that is already well known to production professionals, including party lines, IFBs, groups and peer-to-peer communication,” the companies wrote in a joint announcement.

“This new cloud-based production functionality is being beta-tested by All Mobile Video (AMV) and will be live with an AMV customer later in the year.”

The announcement was made by Grass Valley CEO/President Tim Shoulders and Telos Alliance COO Scott Stiefel.

Telos said its Infinity VIP on AMPP cloud server and virtual panel apps are available from the AMPP app store and deploy in the same way as other AMPP applications.

Usage monitoring is consolidated with other AMPP applications to provide single billing.

The post Telos, Grass Valley Partner on Cloud Intercom appeared first on Radio World.

Audio equipment manufacturer Shure has brought a new executive on board to deal with spectrum and regulatory matters.

Prakash Moorut joins as senior director of spectrum and regulatory affairs for the mic manufacturer, whose products include many wireless devices. It is a new position.

“Moorut will be responsible for leading Shure’s efforts to advocate for audio professionals as it pertains to industry regulations,” the company said.

“He will serve as Shure’s point person with regulators, lawmakers and industry associations as well as partner with engineering and product management to create a regulatory roadmap that adheres to current and future policies.”

[Related: “Wireless Mic Industry Debates WMAS Technology”]

Moorut was with Nokia for 10 years, most recently as head of spectrum standardization. Before that he had a long tenure with Motorola. The announcement was made by VP of Quality Ahren Hartman.

Shure noted that wireless mics now play a role not only in broadcasting and film production, but also news reporting, theater, music, sports, worship, civic events, transportation infrastructure and education.

Moorut received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Ecole Superieure D’Electricite (SUPELEC) in France.

The post Shure Hires Moorut for Spectrum Role appeared first on Radio World.

It was only a matter of time.

The Media Rating Council on Wednesday saw its Board of Directors vote in favor of a suspension of the MRC’s accreditation of Nielsen‘s national television service.

It is also removing the current accreditation hiatus status designation from Nielsen’s Local People Meter and Set Meter Markets and will suspend accreditation for these markets.

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In a statement released midday Wednesday, the MRC said the changes will become effective in mid-September.

The changes come following the August 12 notification by MRC to Nielsen that the possibility of a suspension action for its National Television service had come to fruition. The MRC followed up with a similar warning to Nielsen for its Local Market service on August 20.

Regarding the Board’s decisions concerning the Local Market services, the Board chose to end the hiatus status that had existed for those markets since January 2021 after Nielsen’s confirmation to MRC on August 17 of its intention to add Broadband-Only (BBO) homes to its local panels in October 2021.

“Based on continuing issues with the Local Market services, some of which parallel those of the National Television service, as well as the Board’s assessment of Nielsen’s ability to appropriately integrate BBO viewing at a local market level at this time, the Board additionally suspended the accreditation for the Local Markets as well,” the MRC says.

Commenting on the decision, MRC Executive Director and CEO George W. Ivie said,  “While we are disappointed that the situation has come to this, we believe these are the proper actions for the MRC to take at this time.” He added that the MRC’s Board of Directors, which includes advertisers, agencies, and media companies of all types, “is strongly unified” in its position on the matter.

Meanwhile, Ivie reiterated that the MRC “stands committed in our willingness to work with Nielsen toward the goal of being able to restore accreditation to these important services at the earliest possible time, and it is our hope that Nielsen likewise will continue to engage with MRC and its clients in pursuit of that goal.”

RBR+TVBR has contacted Nielsen for comment.

Images from the Facebook page of Cumulus station WZRH.

A 2,000-foot tower in Vacherie, La., co-owned by iHeartMedia and Cumulus, was destroyed during Hurricane Ida.

According to Jeff Littlejohn, executive VP, engineering and systems for iHeartMedia, the tower held the antennas of FM stations KVDU “104.1 The Spot,” owned by iHeart and licensed to Houma, La., and WZRH “Alt 92.3,” licensed to Laplace and owned by Cumulus.

Both are 100 kW stations.

“We’ve moved KVDU to operate from an existing aux tower and it is still serving the core New Orleans population,” Littlejohn said. “We are reviewing all long-term options.” He said no one was hurt.

WZRH posted on Facebook late Tuesday, “Unfortunately Hurricane Ida did a number to our broadcast tower. If things go according to plan, we’ll be back up at some capacity on ALT923.com and our ALT923fm app. Our hope is to get out as much information as possible to help our communities in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. We live here too.”

The tower is on Dicks Road in Vacherie in St. James Parish. It was built in 1988, according to FCCInfo.com.

Cumulus Media SVP, Technology & Operations Conrad Trautmann said on Wednesday: “Ida created widespread power outages across all of the New Orleans area, impacting all of our stations. Our engineering teams have worked tirelessly and have three of the stations back on the air serving the community.”

The fourth station, he said, was WZRH(FM). He said the Vacherie tower came down with only about 150 feet still standing.

“Thankfully, nobody was injured and we continue to assess the full extent of the damage. Our backup facility for that station remains without power so we are working for another solution to get that station back on air as soon as possible. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire community as the recovery process continues and we are doing our part in that recovery.”

 

The post Big Louisiana Radio Tower Comes Down in Ida appeared first on Radio World.

As advertisers wrestled to recalibrate their media spending in the pandemic, they didn’t overlook a “seismic shift” to Connected TV platforms. In fact, eMarketer estimates that “CTV” U.S. ad spending grew by 40.6% in 2020. Today, networks are continuing to place a greater emphasis on CTV within their upfronts.

What does this mean for broadcast TV and its clients? AudienceX COO Jason Wulfsohn shares his thoughts in an exclusive thought piece for RBR+TVBR.

By Jason Wulfsohn

The dynamics of the connected TV market fundamentally changed in 2020.

The sudden and significant audience growth in this channel has altered the trajectory of CTV advertising for the indefinite future.

For challenger and midmarket advertisers, it’s important to pay attention. As CTV grows and evolves, so too does the opportunity for brands with less formidable budgets to
strategically drive performance while tapping into the most powerful branding mechanism in the world.

With the lockdown of audiences in 2020, behaviors altered in many areas of their lives, which included spending a greater portion of their media time with streaming TV services. As advertisers wrestled to recalibrate their media spending in the pandemic, they didn’t overlook this seismic shift. eMarketer estimates that CTV U.S. ad spending grew by 40.6% in 2020 to more than $9 billion. That growth is accelerating this year, with CTV ad spend expected to hit $13.41 billion, and that figure is expected to go on to more than double by 2025.

Today, networks are continuing to place a greater emphasis on CTV within their upfronts. The majority of activity is occurring in programmatic channels, making CTV far more accessible to challenger and midmarket brands than broadcast and linear buys. This year, U.S. programmatic CTV ad spending will grow 54% to hit $6.73 billion, rising another 29 percent next year to $8.67 billion.

Big Brand Interest, Small Brand Advantage

The world’s biggest advertisers have started to get the message on the importance of CTV
within their overall media mix. However, many are still focused and heavily invested in linear broadcast advertising and are only shifting dollars toward CTV audiences at the margins of their spend activity.

For many big brands, CTV represents a way of incrementally extending their audiences beyond what they’re finding with the hundreds of millions they’re spending on linear. For challenger and midmarket brands, the CTV opportunity is quite different. These brands have largely been locked out of traditional TV advertising due to budget constraints. Limited linear TV inventory has typically been the playground of the world’s biggest brands and their correspondingly large budgets.

In this regard, CTV serves as the great equalizer for brands that can’t afford (and frankly don’t need) to buy into linear TV. By enabling smaller-scale buys that are targeted and addressable, CTV represents an asymmetrical solution that levels the playing field for challenger brands looking to drive performance in competitive markets. Even without broadcast-level budgets, these brands can drive share of voice where it matters most and do so in ways that integrate seamlessly with their online programmatic spend.

The CTV ad space will continue to evolve as bigger brands pivot their budgets in this direction, but the digital and programmatic nature of the opportunity—not to mention the growing audience and inventory opportunities—will continue to represent a significant competitive advantage for challenger and midmarket brands that embrace the opportunity. As a result, in the coming years, the competitive brandscape will evolve and diversify as well.

Those who want a preview of emerging category leaders need only tune into the CTV advertising space.

 

DO YOU DESIRE A DEDICATED PUBLICATION DEVOTED TO THE BUSINESS OF CONNECTED TV, INCORPORATING ‘FAST’ CHANNELS, SVOD and OTT? RBR+TVBR wants to know as we plan for the future today? Please share your thoughts with Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson via email at adam@rbr.com.

The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) and ACA Connects (ACAC), which sponsor the Independent Show, have decided to moved forward with a virtual 2021 event.

This, the organizations say, offers members and vendors with an opportunity to convene as an industry in the safest possible manner amid lingering uncertainty over the appropriateness of large in-person events.

In a statement released Wednesday, ACA Connects Chairman Patricia Jo Boyers explained, “After thoughtful discussion, ACA Connects and NCTC decided to take the Independent Show online next month because of difficult planning issues despite strong enthusiasm for such an important industry event to take place in Minneapolis. It’s the correct decision, with broad support from both ACAC and NCTC members. I’m positive the online event will be a smashing success.”

Outside of her ACA Connects role, Boyers is President of BOYCOM Vision in Poplar Bluff, Mo., a small MVPD and key ACA Connects member.

The 2021 Independent Show had been planned for Oct. 5-6 in Minneapolis; while the event had included a streaming registration option as a convenience for ACAC and NCTC Members who were unable to attend in person, this will now be the exclusive congregation point for attendees.

The decision to host the 2021 Independent Show online will not alter the meeting dates. The event agenda will remain as is, too.

“COVID-19 and the Delta variant have been a moving target. While our plan was to finally meet in-person, it has become more and more clear that it was not the responsible thing to do,” said NCTC CEO Lou Borrelli. “Nevertheless, the online show to me is a can’t-miss program, and I greatly look forward to seeing friends and members on the big screen.”

ACAC President/CEO Matt Polka (pictured, top left) joined NCTC’s Borrelli in endorsing the move to an online show given the current health environment. “We felt that transitioning the entire event to virtual was the best option and in the best interest of our members and vendor partners,” Polka said. “But let’s look at the bright side: We are going to keep all the great content we had planned as well as offer a few fun surprises for those who are registered for the virtual conference.”

Meanwhile, the NAB Show is moving full steam ahead with a full agenda of in-person events at the Las Vegas Convention Center — just days after the Independent Show concludes. The NAB is as of today only offering a smattering of NAB Show digital options; it is believed that the Radio Show is an in-person only event with no events streamed.

The Independent Show is an annual forum created to focus attention on the key public policy issues facing independent video and broadband providers and on other industrywide topics of concern and interest. 

LONDON — Video software provider Synamedia has integrated a range of its video offerings with Android TV and has extended its Infinite cloud TV platform to support Android TV devices.

Using Google’s Broadcast Stack for hybrid set top boxes (STBs) powered by Android TV, Synamedia has developed pre-integrated solutions including user interfaces, watermarking and broadcast/OTT security, Clarissa business insights, and Synamedia Iris addressable advertising.

As Synamedia notes, video service providers “can now pick and mix from these pre-integrated services to build an Android TV solution that best meets their needs, while also having the option to use the entire bundle for a complete end-to-end package.”

Synamedia is also working to define new interfaces and integration points for advanced features so that operators can select products for their hybrid Android TV tools.

Google’s Broadcast Stack, launched in October 2020, is designed to accelerate the reach of the Android TV operating system by providing the video technology providers with clarity and direction about how hybrid services can be deployed rapidly and economically. “Operators can take advantage of Android TV’s proven functionality and well-defined upgrade path, as well as having the flexibility to add custom features for their particular needs,” Synamedia says.

In October 2020, Entravision Communications took a big step toward becoming a digital-first multimedia organization by acquiring a majority stake in a digital advertising company serving over 2,000 brands and agencies each month across the U.S. and Latin America.

Now, Entravision has acquired all of the outstanding shares in the company, making it a wholly owned unit.

Entravision now owns 100% of Cisneros Interactive. That’s because the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company with television and radio properties focused on the U.S. Hispanic consumer moved forward August 31 in acquiring the 49% of Cisneros it did not own.

“With this full acquisition, Entravision will further position the combined platforms and service portfolio to be one of the largest premier global digital advertising solutions companies,” the company said.

Over the past decade, through growth and acquisitions, Entravision’s digital marketing offerings have expanded significantly. Entravision’s Digital business is now the clear revenue driver, far exceeding Entravision’s television and radio profits, respectively.

With the full ownership of Cisneros Interactive, along with Entravision’s most recent acquisition of MediaDonuts, which added digital capabilities in 7 countries in Asia, digital now comprises 73% of consolidated revenue as of the most recently reported quarter ended June 30, 2021. Digital Segment revenue improved over 1,000% year-over-year to total $130.2 million for the second quarter 2021.

The digital business focuses on several key areas, including Top Tier global audience and media representations; programmatic technology; digital audio solutions advertising and branding; and mobile performance solutions. Cisneros Interactive maintains unique sales partnerships in 17 Latin American countries, including partnerships with Facebook, Spotify and LinkedIn. The company also offers digital audio solutions and services through representation of a vast audience reached through 350 publishers.

Entravision Chairman/CEO Walter Ulloa commented, “This joint venture has been a great addition to Entravision, with impressively strong performance, leadership and culture. Digital revenues have surged over the past three quarters since our majority investment in Cisneros Interactive, and we plan to continue to invest in expanding our global footprint, management and digital service tools.”

Engineer Charlie Wooten manages for success in Florida. A U.S. non-governmental organization makes a difference in Africa. Shortwave radio proves to be resilient.

In Workbench, we have an adapter that simplifies AES connections.

And we have product news from Angry Audio, Lawo, Studio Technology, AEQ, ElectroVoice, Wheatstone and Shure — including our Buyers Guide section on studio furnishings and microphones.

Read the issue.

The post Inside the Sept. 1, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

This article originally appeared in the May 23, 2012 issue of Radio World.

John Hibbett DeWitt Jr. was a radio wunderkind.

He put Nashville’s first radio station on the air when he was 16; was hired by Bell Labs even though he was a college dropout; revolutionized AM transmitter technology; built the country’s first commercial FM station; set the stage for satellite communications; put Nashville’s first TV station on the air; created the first solid-state broadcast gear; and headed operations for one of the nation’s biggest entertainment operations.

Yet Jack DeWitt seems to have escaped notice in many industry circles, even though he left the transmitter building for the last time only about 13 years ago.

Beginnings

Jack DeWitt, seated left, is seen in a WSM staff photo from the early 1930s. The microphone is an RCA 4-AA condenser. Photo: Les Leverett (Click here to enlarge.)

DeWitt was born in Tennessee on Feb. 20, 1906, about the time serious experimentation in transmitting speech and music over the air began. He became interested in radio early; he was a radio amateur operator in his early teens and was hired at age 16 to construct a radio station for a Nashville girls’ school. The callsign WDAA was issued in 1922 to what became the city’s first commercially licensed station.

Before completing high school, DeWitt started up two other Nashville stations. After graduation, he briefly explored a career as a shipboard radio operator but decided this was not his calling and enrolled at Vanderbilt University. His career at the school proved equally short-lived, as did DeWitt’s next stop at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

“I became interested in a broadcasting station [in Knoxville] that was owned by a local telephone company and spent my time at it rather than studying,” DeWitt said, as quoted in Craig Havighurst’s 2007 book, “Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City.”

DeWitt’s efforts to obtain a college degree ended here; but as the record shows, he didn’t really need one.

WSM Takes to the Air

When the 19-year-old returned to Nashville, he learned that the National Life and Accident Insurance Co. was interested in launching a radio station. He was hired to help and spent summer and fall working to construct what was to become WSM (“We Shield Millions,” a reference to the insurance company’s slogan). The station took to the air on the evening of Oct. 5, 1925, with DeWitt running the controls.

He remained at WSM for a time and did engineering work for other stations, until an opportunity to become more deeply involved in radio engineering arrived in 1928 with a visit to WSM by a Bell Labs engineer.

DeWitt made a favorable impression, and soon the Nashville radio prodigy was on his way to New York City and a research job at the prestigious laboratory.

However, it was not to last. In the fall of 1930 DeWitt took leave from that job to testify at Federal Radio Commission hearings aimed at determining WSM’s worthiness for one of the new 50 kW assignments opening up. WSM was awarded the coveted slot and DeWitt was offered the job of shepherding the power increase as the station’s chief engineer.

Understandably, this caused him considerable angst. “It was one of the tough decisions of my life,” he said, as recorded in Havighurst’s book.

“Here was the great Bell Telephone Laboratories, where I really got a good education in electronics with all sorts of facilities and everything. And here was WSM, a radio station in my hometown. Should I go back to my hometown where I would be a big frog on a little pond, or would I stay in New York and try to make my career?”

Return to Nashville

The pond won out, and soon DeWitt was back in his old surroundings, where the 50 kW project was in progress.

One element was not quite a done deal: the antenna. RCA, supplier of the 50 kW transmitter, advocated conventional flat-top horizontal antenna technology. DeWitt had been involved at Bell Labs in testing a “new” half-wave vertical radiator, and he appreciated the superiority of that design.

“Bell Laboratories was in the business of designing radio transmitters and studio equipment [and] now, they wanted a good antenna to recommend to purchasers of their equipment,” DeWitt recalled in a 1982 interview.

W47NV became the nation’s first commercial FM operation, airing its first commercial message on March 1, 1941. The event was highlighted in Broadcasting magazine. (Click here to enlarge.)

“There was a man by the name of Dr. Stuart Ballantine … brilliant man … He pointed out that there was no point in putting up separate towers and stringing antennas between them because the towers could only be a problem due to the currents induced in them from the antenna and it would distort the pattern. Why not use [just] the tower?

“The first one of those towers was put in at Wayne Township, N.J., for the Columbia Broadcasting System. Strangely enough, I worked on that installation.”

DeWitt didn’t have a tough job in selling the vertical, which added only about 10% to the $200,000 budgeted for the power increase. Blaw-Knox was awarded the contract for another “diamond” tower. It is still used by WSM.

After the plant went into service, DeWitt started experiments aimed at improving transmitter performance, earning him his first patent, a feedback system for reducing hum and noise.

“It reduced the distortion from maybe 5–8% percent in the transmitter, to about 1%, and it was broadband,” said DeWitt. “I got a patent on it and sold it to RCA for $10,000, which allowed me to build a house.”

Making History

A lifelong love of good music, coupled with curiosity and expertise in RF, undoubtedly were driving factors in DeWitt’s lobbying the insurance giant to apply for an experimental FM license. He designed and constructed a 20 kW transmitter for the purpose, along with a turnstile antenna that was mounted atop the AM radiator, apparently the first time that an AM tower served a dual purpose.

WSM was a pioneer FM broadcaster in another respect. In 1941 it was granted the country’s first commercial FM license, W47NV. The station’s ERP was 65 kW; it provided service as far away as Alabama and Kentucky. (The low-band station survived through the war years, moving to present day high-band operations in the late 1940s. Unfortunately, like many pioneer FM stations, it produced little revenue and went dark in the 1950s.)

With America’s entry into WWII in 1941, DeWitt’s electronics expertise was sought by the military’s radar program. He became director of the Army’s Evans Signal Laboratories in New Jersey and did much pioneering work in radar. But it was a postwar experiment that put him and the lab in the limelight.

DeWitt had a strong interest in space and astronomy, and after the war’s end, found time to recreate an experiment he’d tried unsuccessfully in 1939: bouncing radio signals from the moon.

He made this entry in his personal notebook in May of 1940:

It ha[d] occurred to me that it might be possible to reflect ultra-short waves from the moon. If this could be done it would open up wide possibilities for the study of the upper atmosphere. So far as I know no one has ever sent waves off the earth and measured their return through the entire atmosphere of the earth.

In addition, this may open up a new method of world communication.

The moon is visible several hours out of every 24-hour period in the year. There are many times when communication by this method might be extremely valuable such as during magnetic storms and daytime radio ‘blackouts.’ This may provide a means in the future of bringing television programs over long distances, such as across the oceans.”

In early 1946, his second moon bounce attempt succeeded, opening the door to the age of satellite communications. (While Arthur C. Clarke predicted satellite communications in a 1945 magazine article, it was DeWitt who actually relayed the first radio signal from a satellite, in this case, the moon.)

Peacetime Career

Jack DeWitt moved the WSM operation into the new world of television on Dec. 30, 1950. This picture shows what opening night was like at WSM(TV). DeWitt appears between the transmitter and its operating console. Photo: Allen Nelson (Click here to enlarge.)

After the war, broadcasting was burgeoning, with equipment once again available for upgrading stations and constructing new ones. And while a partnership in a Washington engineering firm — Ring and Clark — looked especially promising, another offer soon surfaced.

The National Life folks had decided to separate WSM operations — along with those of the Grand Ole Opry, and the organization’s artist bureau — from the insurance business. It sought someone to head up these newly formed enterprises as president. DeWitt’s name was at the top of the list. Though tempted by the Washington job, he realized that he belonged back in Nashville.

Television was starting to come into its own, and just as with FM, DeWitt wanted to be first on the air in Nashville.

WSM managed to secure a CP before the FCC’s 1948 “freeze” on new applications; soon DeWitt was laying the groundwork for a new television station.

Television cameras were especially pricey in 1950, the year WSM(TV) took to the air. Few people had seen one. Yet DeWitt was bold enough to roll his own. According to Ray Tichenor, who was hired during WSM(TV)’s first year, DeWitt bought two RCA cameras and immediately cloned them.

“Of course, he had to buy the IO [image orthicon] tubes and yokes from RCA, but everything else was done in-house,” Tichenor recalled. “The copies worked as well as the originals. Mr. DeWitt was a genius at building things.”

The ‘home-brew’ WSM television transmitter. Photo: David Wilson/Doug Smith (Click here to enlarge.)

Television transmitters have always been big-ticket items as well. As DeWitt was an RF man par excellence, he likely would have fabricated his own if time hadn’t been a factor, but DeWitt settled for a commercial rig. Once the dust settled, though, Nashville’s RF grandmaster constructed a backup 5 kW television transmitter, as well as a 20 kW linear amplifier for boosting ERP up to the 100 kW authorized by the FCC in 1952.

This “exciter/afterburner” combo remained in service for a quarter century or so. To the credit of DeWitt and his engineering staff, the workmanship was exacting. The one-of-a-kind rig offered scant evidence of being homebrewed, blending in perfectly with the commercial transmitter.

Solid-State Out of the Gate

DeWitt also should be recognized for beating the “Camden giant” — and apparently everyone else — in bringing solid-state broadcast gear to the marketplace.

This was via the “International Nuclear” equipment line. The company existed for some two decades and produced a range of broadcast gear, with its initial product being a transistorized video distribution amplifier (the TDA-2) designed by DeWitt.

Loyd Wayne Pilkinton, a former technician at International Nuclear, recalled that building broadcast gear was really not part of that company’s plan.

“International Nuclear Corp. was formed by Mr. Ray Weiland of Brentwood, Tenn.,” Pilkinton said. “Ray was working at Vanderbilt Hospital for Dr. George R. Meneely and had been building electronic equipment for the new age of nuclear medicine. I worked for Dr. Meneely and Ray at Vanderbilt Hospital during the day and for International Nuclear Corp. at night and Saturdays. I wired the first 2,000 TDA-2 units.”

DeWitt filed for a patent in 1961. It became one of the first patents for solid-state broadcast products.

WSM (We Shall Manufacture)

This ‘high-band’ turnstile FM antenna was created by DeWitt and WSM staff to replace a 44.7 MHz ‘low-band’ antenna used by WSM’s original FM outlet, W47NV. The turnstile is no longer used but remains on WSM’s 808-foot Blaw-Knox AM tower. When the original turnstile went into service in 1940 it was believed to be the first FM antenna supported by an AM radiator. Photo: John Hettish

Homebrewing was done on a grand scale at WSM. As explained by J. Wayne Caluger, the TV director of engineering in the years after DeWitt’s 1968 retirement, it was easier in the 1950s and ’60s for station personnel to build equipment than to buy it.

WSM had a small capital equipment budget but a large maintenance fund. Thanks to DeWitt’s design engineering ability, technicians with excellent construction skills and a Nashville metal fabricator that could match most anyone’s layout and paint job, the station had incentive to brew its own. Employees joked that the WSM call sign really stood for “We Shall Manufacture.”

This do-it-yourself modality served WSM well and provided technicians the opportunity to learn about inner workings of equipment they used on a daily basis.

On one occasion after DeWitt’s retirement, this mentality caused a glitch. During a visit to the station he noticed a large number of “bootlegged” International Nuclear distribution amps. DeWitt, who received design royalties from International Nuclear, became upset.

“He went in and complained … about how this was costing him money,” said Caluger. “He was quickly reminded of all the reverse engineering that he’d done and was told that the pot couldn’t really call the kettle black.”

Other Accomplishments

Jack DeWitt. Photo: Grand Ole Opry

DeWitt is also remembered by former WSM staffers for innovations such as a homebrewed system for receiving first-generation weather satellite images. By constructing it in-house, DeWitt trumped another Nashville station that had been promoting the arrival of satellite imagery, for a fraction of the cost of a commercial system.

He constructed an atomic frequency standard for maintaining WSM(AM) at 650 kHz. The carrier was so precise that other stations used it as a frequency standard.

After retirement, DeWitt kept experimenting and inventing in several fields, including optics and lasers, which led to a surveying instrument for civil engineers.

Jack DeWitt died on Jan. 25, 1999, some 53 years after his successful moon bounce experiment and just a few weeks shy of his 93rd birthday. A joint Senate/House resolution in the Tennessee legislature mourned his death “while also rejoicing in the life of this exceptional man whose exemplary character, many accomplishments in the realms of science and technology, and voluminous contributions to the growth and prosperity of this state and nation will be remembered and appreciated for generations to come.”

James O’Neal is technology editor of TV Technology magazine. He has written in Radio World about VOA’s Greenville, N.C., facility; the evolution of broadcast transmitter power supplies; radio pioneer Mary Day Lee; and numerous other topics.

He thanks David Hilliard of Wiley Rein LLP for recorded interviews and information about DeWitt’s involvement in the CCBS. Clyde Haehnele, retired WLW engineer, helped with DeWitt’s postwar work in Washington. Former WSM Director of Engineering J. Wayne Caluger provided personal recollections. Loyd Wayne Pilkinton and Larry Bearden offered insights about WSM and International Nuclear Corp. John Hettish maintains the WSM radio tower and provided photos of the FM turnstile radiator still mounted atop the AM tower. Craig Havighurst fielded many questions and helped with photos; his book “Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City” is highly recommended. Thanks also to Scott Baxter, an RF genius put to work tending the homebrew WSM(TV) transmitter in his teenage years; Les Leverett, long-time National Life and Accident Insurance chief photographer; and the late Ray Tichenor, who was hired to work at the fledgling TV operation in 1950, shortly after high school, and remained with the operation for more than four decades. Before his passing, Mr. Tichenor provided useful information especially about the homebrew television cameras and the television transmitter.

The post Jack DeWitt: An Engineer’s Engineer appeared first on Radio World.

With four months remaining of 2021, it is abundantly clear that the “normal” workplace pre-pandemic is a thing of the past.

For PR veteran and “Zoom expert” Rosemary Ravinal, this means video conferencing will become a fixture of workplace culture to varying degrees. “Your professional future may depend on how well you navigate the virtual environment.”

It’s time to get serious, folks.

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For about 5 1/2 years, she was the Local Sales Manager for TEGNA-owned WFAA-8 in Dallas-Fort Worth, the market’s ABC affiliate. She joined the station as an account executive in July 2009 after holding various sales roles for Cumulus Media, CBS Radio, and iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel in the Dallas market.

Now, this former radio industry sales leader is taking a key sales and partnership post with the esports and entertainment company that Gray Television invested $28.5 million in during this company’s March 2021 Series C fundraising round.

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More than two years ago, America’s “Big Four” broadcast television networks united in seeking to stop a streaming service from bringing over-the-air channels to their users without the requisite retransmission consent agreements.

On August 31, a New York Federal District Court finally offered a glimmer of what could be a rough ride ahead for the David Goodfriend-helmed Locast. He declined to honor a request from the controversial donation-based service for summary judgment in the case, which focuses on copyright infringement. Why? Its non-profit argument may be full of holes.

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NEW YORK — Gen Media Partners has created a strategic task force designed “to champion the power and influence of certified minority-owned and -targeted radio stations to advertisers and agencies.”

It will advocate on behalf of multicultural-owned and -targeted radio stations “and demonstrate multicultural radio’s remarkable power to connect with audiences.”

SVP/Hispanic Platforms and MC Initiatives Ann-Marie Figueira will lead the initiative.

“Our goal – our job – is to make sure advertisers and their agencies look beyond the large-scale companies and include independent, certified minority-owned and -targeted radio groups in their plans,” explains Kevin Garrity, Chief Executive Officer of Gen Media Partners. “We’re already seeing a receptiveness to learning more about these stations and their effectiveness at reaching multicultural audiences with content that is relevant to their specific lifestyles, tastes, and cultures.”

GMP represents 1,176 radio stations in 168 markets, and claims to reach 95% of the U.S. multicultural population.

— Renee Cassis

In this document, the Commission proposes to update its political programming and recordkeeping rules for broadcast licensees, cable television system operators, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service providers, and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS) licensees. The Commission proposes to update its political programming rules by adding the use of social media and the creation of a campaign website to the existing list of activities that may be considered in determining whether an individual running as a write-in candidate has made a "substantial showing" of his or her bona fide candidacy. The Commission also proposes to update its political recordkeeping rules by incorporating provisions which were adopted in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

The Media Bureau enters into a Consent Decree with Radio Companion Limited Liability Company

Who are podcast listeners? According to studies from Edison Research, Cumulus Media and Nielsen, today’s podcast audience is young, educated, employed and upscale — making this an audience that advertisers may want to reach.

According to data from Edison Research’s Share of Ear study, Cumulus Media’s Podcast Download release, and Nielsen’s Scarborough USA+ studies, podcast listeners are on average 14 years younger than the AM/FM radio audience (median age 48) and 20 years younger than broadcast television network audiences (median age 54). The median age of podcast listeners — aged 34 — has stayed relatively consistent quarter over quarter for the last three years, according to the Edison Share of Ear research and Nielsen Scarborough USA+ study.

[Read: Top-Performing Podcasts Are Consistent]

The podcast audience is an attractive one due to their education and upscale lifestyle, said Pierre Bouvard, chief insights officer at Cumulus Media-Westwood One, in a recent blog. More than half of podcast listeners over 18 who have listened to an audio podcast in the last 30 days are employed in a white-collar occupation. Of those, 55% have a household income of more than $75,000 and 39% hold a management position.

A Nielsen podcast study released in May 2021broke down several key background factors even further to include employment and graduation status. The percent of persons aged 18 or older who have listened to an audio podcast included full time employees (56%), individuals with a household income of more than $100,000 (39%) and achievers with post-graduate degrees (16%).

All of these factors contribute to making this group an audience that advertisers want to reach, Bouvard said.

 

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