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Industry News

2021 Radio Mercury Awards Finalists Announced

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

NEW YORK – Some 149 radio/audio spots and campaigns made it to the finals of the 30th anniversary Radio Mercury Awards.

This year marks the first time all categories were open to all languages. The submissions were created by advertising agencies, brands, production companies, radio stations and digital companies.

The 2021 finalists range from regional to large advertising agencies and radio stations, as well as national and local advertisers from categories including automotive, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, government services, healthcare, insurance, nonprofits, quick-serve restaurants, telecommunications, travel and hospitality. Entries were judged on their creativity, originality, execution and effective communication of a brand’s message.

“This year’s Radio Mercury Awards is celebrating the work that came through in 2021 and acknowledging the Awards’ 30-year history,” said BBDO Atlanta Chief Creative Officer Robin Fitzgerald and chief judge for the 2021 Radio Mercury Awards. “It was great to hear the amazing work, and I can’t wait to celebrate the winners in November.”

In addition to Chief Judge Fitzgerald, the final round judging panel included John Berman, executive creative director, R/GA NY; Nathalie Brown, executive creative director, VMLY&R NY, Bianca Guimaraes, partner and executive creative director, Mischief NY; Paul Johnson, freelance copywriter and creative director, NY; Derrick Ogilvie, vice president and creative director, BBDO Atlanta; Alejandro Ortiz, executive creative director, Campbell Ewald Detroit/NY and Sherman Winfield, executive creative director, VMLY&R Atlanta.

Event sponsors for this year’s awards include Audacy, iHeartMedia, Nielsen Audio, Sound and Fury and World Wide Wadio. Dedicated sponsors are Cherry Creek Media, Oink Ink Radio, Triton Digital, and Xperi along with general sponsors CBS News Radio, Forcht Broadcasting, Miller Kaplan and Neuhoff Media.

The Radio Mercury Awards winners will be presented at 6 p.m. ET on November 17 during a virtual ceremony. For more information about the event, log onto www.radiomercuryawards.com.

 

Creative Radio Campaign: Agency/Production Company/Advertiser/Radio Station or Group

How to Quit (Podcasts)
Tobacco Free Florida
Alma

NOT Like Lutefisk, Premium Cocktails, Discover Lunch
Norseman Brewing Company
Alpha Media

Barbershop Quartet
Progressive Insurance
Arnold Worldwide

Self Empowerment for Pets
Progressive Insurance
Arnold Worldwide

The Thing About
Progressive Insurance
Arnold Worldwide

Truckless Ads
Progressive Insurance
Arnold Worldwide

“For You:” Meemaw + Dog Years +Homebody
Motel 6
Barkley

DAYS OF OUR EYES
Urban Optics
Bryan Broadcasting

Finger Lakes Top 10 Campaign
Cayuga Radio Group/Finger Lakes Top 10
Cayuga Radio Group

Eat A Hotdog
Kayem Foods, Inc.
Connelly Partners

Ward and Mabel Series
Joey’s Auto Shop
Des Moines Radio Group

Deserve Radio
Dr. Pepper
Deutsch LA

Talkin’ Trees
Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce
Eagle Creative

Boston Lager/Wicked Hazy
Samuel Adams
Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Smith’s Liquor_Uncommonly Good Campaign-3 Spots 7-30-21
Smith’s Liquor Gallery
Haugo Broadcasting

When All You Can Food Is Think About
Postmates
Mother in LA

Apts.com Radio Renters Campaign
Apartments.com
RPA

DIY Dave
One Choice Mechanical
SummitMedia

Ask Your Neighbors: Look Around, Ice Breakers, Hints
GEICO
The Martin Agency

Obvious News: Babies, Clothes, Soft Talkers
GEICO
The Martin Agency

Home is Where the Bugs Aren’t
Orkin
The Richards Group

Motel 6 2020 Radio Campaign
Motel 6
The Richards Group

Speed Campaign
iHeartRadio
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Creative Radio Spot for a Cause: Agency/Production Company/Advertiser

Absurd Reality
Change the Ref
Alma

How to Quit (80s Music)
Tobacco Free Florida
Alma

How to Quit (Podcasts)
Tobacco Free Florida
Alma

How to Play Soccer
The Aspen Institute’s Project Play
Arnold Worldwide

How to Play Tennis
The Aspen Institute’s Project Play
Arnold Worldwide

Fireman
Commence Sense Media
Goodby Silverstein & Partners

SH*T
Colon Cancer Coalition
LERMA/

Tiger Bone Wine Truth
Big Cat Rescue
PPK

Worst Shark Attack Ever
Animal Welfare Institute (AWI)
PPK

Whatever Gets You Talking
Seize the Awkward
The Ad Council and Droga5

Curiosity
The Ad Council
Wordsworth+Booth

Creative Radio Spot: Agency/Production Company/Advertiser

Old McDonald
BOGS Footwear
AMBH

Daa Tadaa: Birthdaaa
Progressive Insurance
Arnold Worldwide

Dog Years
Motel 6
Barkley

Easy
GA Lottery
BBDO Atlanta

Snicker Satisfies: Autotune
Mars Chocolate North America
BBDO NY

Snicker Satisfies: Commercial Free
Mars Chocolate North America
BBDO NY

Rapid Reconsideration
Ways 2 Go – Denver Regional Council of Governments
Cactus

Meditations
PetSafe
Chemistry

Mindfulness
PetSafe
Chemistry

Sorry about 2020
PetSafe
Chemistry

Thanks But No Thanks
Kayem Foods, Inc.
Connelly Partners

Minimalist Home
Liberty Mutual Insurance
Copper Giants

BOAT :45
Dr. Pepper
Deutsch LA

Evenin’ With Steven
California Milk Processor Board
Gallegos United

Locked it In
Liberty Mutual
Goodby Silverstein & Partners

It’s Not Weird
Milton Sleep Company
Greatest Common Factory

Jeep Earth Odyssey
Stellantis
Highdive Advertising

Sewer Clog
Same Day
Love Communications

Car Dealership
Postmates
Mother in LA

Dating App
Postmates
Mother in LA

Home Improvement
Postmates
Mother in LA

Promo Radio Show
Postmates
Mother in LA

Competitive Couple
Jeopardy!
Oink Ink Radio

Pat’s Other Jobs
Wheel of Fortune
Oink Ink Radio

Game for Excitement – Nebraska
Minnesota Lottery
Periscope

Excited Mom
Witte Museum
Plot Twist Creativity

Finnish Lessons
NoDoz
Preston Spire

Super50X Big Squeeze
New Jersey Lottery
PureRED

Unusual Voice
Doody Calls
Push Button Creative Audio

Switch & Save Radio: Burgers
Farmers Insurance
RPA

Pop
North Texas Tollway Authority
The Integer Group

Ask Your Neighbors: Look Around
GEICO
The Martin Agency

Obvious News: Soft Talkers
GEICO
The Martin Agency

Family Table
Orkin
The Richards Group

Motel 6 Feet Apart
Motel 6
The Richards Group

Pets Welcome
Motel 6
The Richards Group

Creative Radio Spot: Insightful Voice

Dog Years
Motel 6
Barkley

Homebody
Motel 6
Barkley

Meemaw
Motel 6
Barkley

More Lines
Comcast NBCUniversal
Burrell Communications

Muleta
Covered California
Casanova//McCann

Car Dealership
Postmates
Mother in LA

Car Repair
Postmates
Mother in LA

Promo Radio Show
Postmates
Mother in LA

Creative Radio Spot: Radio Station or Group

Disco Colonoscopy
Kansas Medical Clinic
Alpha Media

Billionaires in Space
Cooper Systems
Audacy

Budweiser Select
Anheuser-Busch
Audacy

A Man & His Dog
Stark Brewery
Binnie Media

Dry Eyes
Urban Optics
Bryan Broadcasting

The Legend of Hidden River Cave
Hidden River Cave
Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation

Disc Replay
Disc Replay
CUMULUS MEDIA

BALLWASH.COM VALENTINE’S DAY 2020
Ballsy
CUMULUS MEDIA Atlanta

The B Word
Oxendine Law Firm
CUMULUS MEDIA Atlanta

Taste Buds
Chocolate Boutique
Forever Media, Inc.

Barn Dance
Dr. Anne Aesthetics
Hubbard Broadcasting-myTalk 107.1

Horror House Haunt
Party at Trav’s
Hubbard Radio Cincinnati

Throwback Caffeine Attack
Mr. Coffee Bean
Magic Broadcasting

POS
Golden Rule
Majestic Communications

Gluten Free
Primo’s Pizza
River Radio

Hearing Loss
Merit Hearing
SummitMedia

Avocado
Schweid & Sons
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Bones
iHeartRadio
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Chinchilla
Absolute Roofing
The Studio at iHeartMedia

The Chair
Absolute Roofing
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Creative Spot for a Cause: Radio Station or Group

Roofs for Vets
Lon Smith Roofing
Audacy

Adventures of Lifeguard
Jacksonville Radio
Jacksonville Radio

Live, Laugh, Love
Yellow Medicine County Human Services
Lakeland Broadcasting

Black Voices of Humboldt County #2
In-House PSA
Lost Coast Communications, Inc.

Awkward Silence
NAMI of Southwest Missouri
SummitMedia

Creative Use of Nonbroadcast Audio

Pedigree Doghouse
Pedigree
BBDO NY

Bedtime Stories
Walmart
FCB Chicago

Beyond 28
Golden State Warriors
Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Podfast
BNY Mellon
Havas New York

The Lady Bod Podcast
St. Elizabeth Healthcare
Hubbard Radio Cincinnati

Radio Recliner
Bridge Senior Living
Luckie

AHAttorneys at LAHAw
Coca-Cola
Preacher

Public RAHAdio
Coca-Cola
Preacher

Blanked Out
iHeartRadio
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Creative Use of Songs/Music (Original or Repurposed)

Le Period Weeks and Bladder Leaks
Poise
FCB Chicago

Red and Yellow Waltz
Poise
FCB Chicago

Sometimes
Pittsburgh Guitars
Garrison Hughes

Beyond 28
Golden State Warriors
Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Family Table
Orkin
The Richards Group

Chinchilla
Absolute Roofing
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Distracted
iHeartRadio
The Studio at iHeartMedia

Feels Like Home
Tennessee Department of Tourist Development
VMLY&R/Six Course, Inc.

Integrated Brand Campaign with Radio/Audio

Grand Introduction
Motel 6
Barkley

Pedigree Doghouse
Pedigree
BBDO NY

Don’t Go Viral Campaign
Medical University of South Carolina
Chernoff Newman

We’re Calling the Shots, We’re Bedmakers, It’s Not Weird.
Milton Sleep Company
Greatest Common Factory

When All You Can Food Is Think About
Postmates
Mother in LA

Can I Get An AHA
Coca-Cola
Preacher

Puppets Campaign
North Texas Tollway Authority
The Integer Group

Purpose-Driven Spot or Campaign: Agency/Production Company/Advertiser/Radio Station or Group

Black History Month on WVKL
United Negro College Fund
Audacy

Coping 19
CDC and The Ad Council
Audacy

More Lines
Comcast NBCUniversal
Burrell Communications

Better
CUMULUS MEDIA, iHeartMedia and Audacy Radio Stations
CUMULUS MEDIA

Freedom Day Fun Facts
WTKS FM
CUMULUS MEDIA

More Than That with Gia Peppers
GM, Kroger and P&G
dentsu

Extra Dedications
Extra Gum, Mars Inc.
Energy BBDO

Widen the Screen
P&G
Katz Media Group

Widen the Screen
P&G
Katz Media Group

OT Solid Waste – Toilet Paper
Otter Tail County Solid Waste
Leighton Broadcasting

#StopGunViolence
RL
LERMA/

Bingo Recovery
Northstar Problem Gambling Alliance
Preston Spire

Giving a Voice to American Small Businesses
American Express
Studio Resonate

P&G Widen The Screen
Procter & Gamble
Townsquare Media/WKXW-FM

Radio Station or Group Promotional Spot or Campaign

Bring a Player to School
MECU Credit Union
Audacy

Thank a Teacher Giveaway
Kaiser Permanente
Audacy

Michael Ray Up Close and Personal
KKBQ
Cox Media Group

Rolling Stones Tickets
KGLK
Cox Media Group

We Don’t Want To See Your Face
CUMULUS MEDIA/KQRS
CUMULUS MEDIA

We Will Rock You Sing Along
WDRV FM Radio
Hubbard Radio Chicago

Black Excellence
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia

Vote
Fieldview Broadcasting
KWBG

RBR-TVBR

Brand Strength, and Staying Power, at Spot Cable

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

What is the biggest takeaway from the latest Spot Ten Cable report from Media Monitors?

There is very little fluctuation from last week, based on the play count of paid advertisements tracked by the iHeartMedia-owned company. And, that’s a good sign for spot cable that long-term activity is alive and well.

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Adam Jacobson

More Brand Continuity In Latest Spot Radio Report

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

There aren’t much week-to-week changes among the top paid advertisers using spot radio to reach consumers. That’s a sign of media commitment to AMs and FMs. But, given the high number of iHeartRadio promotional spots seen, it also points to more opportunities for brands to take advantage of radio’s hyped “reach” factor.

As seen below, DuckDuckGo is a new — and active — user of Spot Radio.

Indeed has also been a brand that has embraced radio of late.

But, compared to the promotional spot plays for iHeartRadio, and a podcast at No. 10 on the report, advertisers have a way to go.

On the bright side, Lowe’s surpassed rival The Home Depot in outreach via radio for the week ending September 26, entering the Spot Ten with a No. 6 finish.

Adam Jacobson

FCC’s Managing Director Office, OCBO Sees Staff Shift

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A couple of senior staff changes have been made in the FCC’s Office of Managing Director and the Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO).

Now Deputy Managing Director in the Office of the Managing Director: the person that is presently Director of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities.

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RBR-TVBR

Consumers Wrestling With 2,021 Uncertainties

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

Hybrid shopping, localized travel, a focus on health and wellness, the rise of challenger brands and an increase in e-commerce in areas of higher infection, are some of the buying behaviors in the U.S. that remain in a post-pandemic era.

Here’s what this may mean for your advertising trends in 2022, courtesy of Ascential-owned research firm WARC.

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RBR-TVBR

From Podcast and News TV To Radio Host

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

BOCA RATON, FLA. — To Newsmax viewers, he’s known as the host of a weekend cable news show. For podcast listeners, his “Newsmax Daily” offering provides a “humorous and entertaining analysis” of current news, with distribution on such platforms as iHeartRadio.

Now, Rob Carson is leveraging his podcast skills by becoming the latest individual who seeks to be heir to the Conservative Talk Radio Throne left empty by the late Rush Limbaugh.

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Adam Jacobson

Cumulus ‘Project Guesthouse’: AM Spins In Keystone State

Radio+Television Business Report
3 years 8 months ago

It’s code-name is “Project Guesthouse,” as documents filed with the FCC late last week indicate.

And, it involves the sale — rather than the surrendering of licenses to the Commission — of AM radio stations Cumulus Media no longer desires.

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Adam Jacobson

Marketron Traffic Services Are Back Up

Radio World
3 years 8 months ago
The above screen grab shows the status of Marketron services as of Monday morning Sept. 25. See current status by clicking the image.

Marketron says service has been restored to all of its traffic customers, following the ransomware attack that took its platforms down the weekend before last.

Those customers now have access to all of the data that was in the platform as of Saturday morning Sept. 18.

“Some business services, such as electronic invoicing and payments remain impacted; however, customers should be able to build to conduct their traffic operations. Our teams remain focused on fully restoring all services,” Vice President of Growth Marketing Bo Bandy wrote in an email on Sept. 25.

The image above shows the Marketron service status board as of Monday morning Sept. 25.

The company has posted a series of recommendations for clients whose service has been restored.

Bandy also said Marketron has hired forensic investigators and cybersecurity firms “to stand up an entirely new network environment, a gold standard in recovery from a security perspective. With the assistance of our third-party specialists, a state-of-the-art end point detection and response tool has been deployed to the environment, which is continuously monitored around the clock by security professionals.”

The post Marketron Traffic Services Are Back Up appeared first on Radio World.

Paul McLane

Radio Face-2-Face: A New RW Webcast

Radio World
3 years 8 months ago

Radio World presents a special webcast in which five technology vendors provide a fast-paced look at their newest offerings.

Representatives of RCS, Wheatstone, WorldCast Systems, Telos Alliance and Comrex talk with RW Editor in Chief Paul McLane about their new product introductions.

Paul will also update you on several stories that Radio World has been following including drones in radio, trends in shortwave, computational FM antenna pattern modeling and more.

Especially in light of the cancellation of several major trade shows, it’s important to stay on top of new products and technology.

The free webcast streams on Sept. 30 and is available on demand after that date.

Register for the webcast.

The post Radio Face-2-Face: A New RW Webcast appeared first on Radio World.

Paul McLane

BEITC Serves “The Gods of the Machines”

Radio World
3 years 8 months ago
Royal V. Howard, left, was NAB’s director of engineering in 1947 when the BEC was born. He’s shown with Wesley Dumm, owner of Associated Broadcasters, in a 1942 photo. Courtesy John Schneider.

Among the many things disrupted by COVID-19 is the opportunity for the National Association of Broadcasters to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its Broadcast Engineering & IT Conference.

Radio and TV techies will have to wait another half-year to gather in person again now that the 2021 NAB Show has been cancelled. But knowing the interest that our readers have in this topic, here’s our  interview about the history of the engineering conference with NAB Senior Vice President, Technology Lynn Claudy.

Radio World: How did the BEITC get started?

Lynn Claudy: NAB consultant and former staffer Skip Pizzi wrote a NAB PILOT blog about this very subject in early August at nabpilot.org. Here’s an excerpt:

“The year: 1947. The place: Atlantic City, N.J. The event: The first NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference (BEC) — subsequently renamed the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology (BEIT) Conference — held continuously on an annual basis thereafter, making the 2021 BEIT Conference the 75th such event.

“Prior to this conference, NAB’s Engineering department had collaborated with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), the University of Illinois and Ohio State University to produce a standalone broadcast engineering conference hosted by the universities, dating back to 1938. That event was curtailed after the 1942 program due to World War II, and NAB was involved again when it restarted in 1946.

FM pioneer Major Edwin Armstrong was among the speakers at the inaugural engineering conference. Courtesy John Schneider.

“But the following year NAB decided to launch its own engineering conference, to be held in conjunction with the 25th NAB Convention in Atlantic City, and the NAB BEC was born. Among the presentations there was a demonstration of ‘Unusually High Frequencies in FM Relays’ by Major Edwin Armstrong.

“The first BEC was a one-day event, held on Sept. 15, 1947, at the Atlantic City Convention Center, renowned for its many years as the site of the Miss America Pageant. The conference grew to two days at the 1948 NAB Convention in Los Angeles, expanded to three days the following year and settled on a four-day length at the 1950 show in Chicago. It later expanded to a fifth day when partner content was added, a length it currently maintains.

“That growth over the years indicates the conference’s popularity, and historically it has had the highest attendance — and the greatest longevity — of any NAB Show educational offerings.”

RW: Lynn, who conceived it and who were the early drivers of its success?

Claudy: Much of the thinking and strategy behind launching the Broadcast Engineering Conference may be lost to antiquity, but a lot of credit should go to then-NAB President Judge Justin Miller and NAB Director of Engineering Royal V. Howard.

Miller, a former associate judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, served as NAB president from 1945–1951. Howard, former VP of engineering at KSFO in San Francisco, was director of the engineering department at NAB from 1947 to 1950.

In those early days, questionnaires were sent out to the broadcast engineering community each year seeking guidance as to topics for technical papers for presentation at the NAB Convention. The NAB Conference Committee, which still exists today with a slight name change, supervised the final conference agenda to conform as much as possible to the survey results.

RW: An anecdote from the early days?

Claudy: According to the conference transcripts, the first conference was opened by Royal Howard with the following auspicious statement: “My name is Howard. Most people think that I am the director of engineering for NAB; actually I am the coordinator of confusion.”

Right before lunch, the group was addressed by NAB President Judge Justin Miller, who said:  “Mr. Chairman, I am very happy to be with you this morning. I have not been going to most of these clinics, but I felt a particular obligation to the engineers, especially because NAB may seem to have been neglecting you during the last couple of years preceding this one. As a matter of fact, I have always been inclined to regard you folks more or less as the gods of the machines. I confess that if there is anything I do not know about in broadcasting, it is engineering.”

RW: Can you give us sampling of radio technology topics that appeared on the agenda over the years?

Claudy: The BEC and the current BEITC have always, by design, centered on the important topics of the day for broadcast engineers. Because of how papers and presentations are sought out and selected, it has been high on the relevance scale for technologists and engineers attending the show, and a great educational adjunct activity to visiting the exhibits on the show floor.

It’s pretty hard to pick out the important topics at any given point in time. But a sampling of four presentations might be illustrative of the value and, in retrospect, the perspective that the conference has provided over the years:

1. Going back to the first NAB Engineering Conference again, one of the talks was on “FM Broadcast Station Construction” presented  by Paul A. DeMars, a consulting engineer with the Raymond Wilmotte organization. He ended his talk with the following, which tells you something about the times:

“We hear a lot about the coming atomic age.  There have been a lot of serious and semiserious statements made that because of the vital importance of broadcasting in our national life, broadcasting stations, at least a certain number of the large key ones, may have to be put underground in order to prevent a national panic in the event that our present facilities should be totally wiped out,” he said.

“Possibly the large number of FM stations that are technically feasible and that will in all probability be built scattered all over the U.S. within the next decade may furnish the national service, even in the event of atomic war, that will take the place of the almost impossible problem of putting the old standard facilities underground.”

2. A talk from the 1957 conference titled “The Radio Station of the Future” presented by John M. Haerle with the Collins Radio Company showed a perspective on how radio might be changing in the future. Here are a few of the ideas from that talk, both prescient and otherwise:

“Would it be beyond the realm of possibility to envision a transmitter built in open fashion on the walls of its own building? The entire transmitting plant could be shipped to the site, the walls bolted together in typical prefab fashion and the various circuits joined by terminal boards. Ridiculous? Today, possibly … not in the radio station of the future.” …

“Monitors could be heading for obsolescence. Transmitter crystals have been improved to the point where it is actually true that some modern transmitters are more stable than the companion frequency monitors.” …

“The radio station of the future will eventually use some form or some adaptation of automatic programming. Many point to the operator who is required to be on duty and to the possibility that a so-called ‘robot’ operation would result in programming devoid of personality. Perhaps a compromise will be the semi-automatic operation, in which the operator on duty can select or cue any desired record by pushing a button.”

3. The NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference has long sought reports from standards organization and other groups to report their progress at the annual convention. For radio, the National Radio Systems Committee has been a consistent presence at the conference since the early 1980s, whenever announcements were timely.

Formed in 1958, though, there was another NSRC, which stood for National Stereophonic Radio Committee. At the 1960 conference, C.G. Lloyd, former NSRC chairman, presented the progress of that committee’s quest to deliver stereophonic broadcasting and had just delivered a report to the FCC on the subject. The NSRC had received 14 proposals for FM systems, at least seven for AM and four for TV sound. Each of these broadcast platforms eventually followed different circuitous paths to stereo — 1961 for FM stereo, 1984 for television sound and 1993 for AM stereo — but the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference helped engineers understand the process from the beginning.

4. Radio has endured many technical controversies, with digital radio being a particularly salient example. At the 1991 NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference, NAB sponsored a demonstration of the Eureka-147 DAB system with transmissions from the top of the H on the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel next to the convention center (now the Westgate) and a repeater installed on the roof of the Golden Nugget Hotel downtown. A 40-seat bus fitted with a receiver and headphones drove attendees around Las Vegas showing the consistently crystal-clear audio quality of the system.

At the Broadcast Engineering Conference, an entire afternoon was devoted to the different technical approaches to digital broadcasting, Eureka-147 included, but also a presentation from Paul Donahue from Gannett Broadcasting and Tony Masiello from CBS titled “Project Acorn: Compatible DAB.”

Those who have been around awhile or studied radio history will recognize that this was the original concept for the system that eventually became HD Radio. At the time, NAB had officially endorsed the Eureka-147 DAB system and was favoring an allocation for DAB in the L-band. This issue was hotly debated at the 1991 convention at various levels, and of course, in-band, on-channel technology eventually won the argument for NAB and for U.S. broadcasters.

It’s notable, though, that the Broadcast Engineering Conference program did attempt to present all sides of the proponent technologies and kept the politics to a minimum, as the advocates had a forum where they could plead their respective cases on a technical basis.

RW: How is the BEITC different today?

Claudy: The conference has moved with the times, such as adding “Information Technology” to the title of the Broadcast Engineering Conference, recognizing the importance of IT skills in the modern broadcast plant.

Other than that, NAB Technology still has a committee of broadcast engineers that meets several times a year, albeit virtually these days, to organize topics, review papers, assign session chairpersons and so forth, all the things that go into planning a top notch technical conference.

This year the chair of the BEITC Committee was Jim DeChant, vice president, technology at News-Press & Gazette Broadcasting.

We also work with partner organizations including the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) to provide program content that will be relevant to the BEITC audience.

RW: Describe how BEITC content is found and chosen today, and by whom.

Claudy: In a normal year, a call for papers is released in the fall, and the BEITC committee and NAB Technology staff review the submissions and accept papers that will be presented late in the year.

Papers that will be published in the proceedings must be submitted by mid or late January. We will typically get submissions that would occupy at least twice the space that we can accommodate, so it’s a pretty competitive process. If there ends up being gaps in the program, or important topics identified where there weren’t any submissions, NAB Technology staff may solicit additional speakers.

The post BEITC Serves “The Gods of the Machines” appeared first on Radio World.

Paul McLane

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