Industry News

Like a lot of projects, this one started with a need.

One of the Chicago stations that Salem owns has separate sites for day and night modes. One site needs to go off and the other comes on simultaneously. Both sites have older remote controls with system clocks that drift. Plus, Daylight Saving Time is hard to account for because of the limited number of events that can be programmed in the remote control.

A previous engineer had installed two of the Broadcast Tools GPS event controllers, and all was well for a number of years. Then one failed.

The symptom was erratic command execution at random times. The night facility might suddenly pop on in the middle of the day. The fault was easy to see, too. One of the segments of the LED time display, representing one bit of the CPU output, flickered erratically every once in a while.

Because the design has a single data buss running everything from display to commands on a time-multiplexed basis, those flickers occasionally hit the contact closure drivers and strange things happened at the site.

I thought the fix would be straightforward, since I knew which data bit was misbehaving. Broadcast Tools cheerfully provided a schematic and I began diagnosis.

This meant lifting the IC lead associated with that data bit on every item the data buss serves, then waiting for the misbehavior. I had to set up a relay trap to catch the behavior, since days might pass between episodes. At some point, I abandoned the process and declared the Broadcast Tools GPS to be a goner. So that’s where the need arose.

Broadcast Tools doesn’t make that device anymore, probably because more modern remote controls support Network Time Protocol (NTP) and have highly accurate clocks. Not for the first time, I was a technology orphan.

SOLVING THE PROBLEM

Enter the Raspberry Pi. What I needed was a generic GPS-referenced time server that I could use to issue commands with basic relay dry contact closures as the interface. This is one way to do that.

This project uses the Raspberry Pi 3B and assumes you have installed a Linux operating system on your Pi.

Jessie Lite is the distribution I have used for this. There are a hundred sites that explain this, so I won’t do that here.

I will suggest that loading a Linux image with all the graphical user interfaces is probably a waste. In addition, I have found that code writing and compilation for the Pi is best done on the Pi itself and using the command line. Fancy IDEs just take too long to get working right. Use the little editor nano that is installed with Linux. Just my opinion.

Starting with the time part of the project, the Raspberry Pi has a system clock, required for OS operation. I haven’t measured it, but the reports I’ve seen put Pi system clock drift at 15 seconds a day. This isn’t useful for my purpose without help. But the Pi can sync itself using NTP and the vast array of available internet time servers, providing it maintains an internet connection. That might be all that’s needed for many applications.

In my case, I can’t be assured that there will always be a reliable time reference. So I bought a Uputronics GPS Expansion Board that mates with the Raspberry Pi I/O header. They sold me an antenna as well. The board uses the serial UART pins on the Pi and issues a pulse every second when locked. In turn, these pulses trigger a CPU interrupt that “trains” the system clock.

Because the system clock is part of the OS and has no provision for an external sync pulse, the first significant undertaking was recompiling the Linux kernel to add that capability. (To obtain these instructions, just email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Please send me the McCoy instructions.”)

If successful, you’ll have built a Stratum 1 NTP server. This implies accuracy of just one or two milliseconds.

Read up a little on Linux ntpq, the time query language behind NTP. The command ntpq  – p will report the success of timesync. That and the blinking green light on the GPS receiver card are excellent comfort monitors.

In my case, I worried that the GPS signal might become impaired. And if the Pi was headed to a place without internet, a one-second pulse really won’t help unless the Pi gets the right time set initially. Travel to the installation site might be enough to screw things up. So I added a real time clock.

This is a Chronodot, with battery backup (eight years, they say) and 5 seconds per month precision. If I sync the Pi and the Chronodot to the time server here at the studio, the drive to the transmitter shouldn’t introduce meaningful error. And the Chronodot can be set to the system clock — synced by the GPS pulses — on a regular basis, as insurance against simultaneous internet disconnection and GPS reference loss.

EBAY HELPS OUT

Next up is the I/O to allow actions to be initiated by the Pi. The Raspberry Pi CPU is a 3.3 Volt device with not much current handling capability. I decided not to try to find out just how much.

On eBay, I found a batch of fifty 5-volt SPDT printed circuit relays for about 50 cents each and bought them. Like lots of eBay parts, these were a little weird and didn’t exactly fit on a .100 hole spacing kludge board (see photos), but with a little hole reaming and folding over the wiper contact, they would solder. I put eight on the board.

Paranoia about semiconductor failures drove me to install a diode in series with each logic lead from the Pi. Microprocessors don’t like to have their I/O pins dragged outside the CPU supply rails, and the relays need 5 volts. Another diode in the emitter lead guarantees the surplus 2N2222s turn off reliably. I bought a bag of 500 of them in the TO-18 (metal) case about seven years ago and still have a couple hundred left. (Later, I found this pre-assembled relay array complete with driver FETs.)

For ease of testing, I put an LED for each relay alongside the transistors and wired the logic to the 40-pin header on my Pi. A more elegant solution would have been to install a header and use ribbon. Instead, I found some cable with the EIA color conductors inside, stripped the jacket and tacked them to the solder side of the Pi header for connections to 5 volts, ground and the CPU’s GPIO outputs. Having a known working IO device on the Pi makes debugging easier.

There is a protocol and development environment including C language code headers for GPIO compilation at wiringPi.com. Follow the instructions for installation. Get the sample code “blink” to work. It’s the “Hello World” of GPIO. Then you’ll have proofed your compilation process.

After that, the compiled program I wrote takes arguments from the command line used to call it. All that is needed is which relay number, whether pulse (and duration), latch or release. I use the inbuilt scheduler CRON to issue the commands. CRON executes shell scripts (.sh) for each needed function. The scripts have readable names like TxOn.sh. These scripts, in turn, call my program with the appropriate command line arguments.

I noticed right away that CRON alone wasn’t precise enough, time-wise, for some commands. Scheduling with CRON is only precise to the nearest minute. Typically, commands experience a latency of about 2 to 3 seconds from the CRON scheduled time. For a mode change between sites, this just wouldn’t work. So I added some code that, upon program launch, loops while checking the system clock seconds value for a match, actuates the relay, then exits. In my case, a time with seconds = 00 meant the program had to be called by CRON and the script in the previous minute. So for 5:00:00 a.m., the command executes at 4:59 and loops until the system clock seconds equals 00, executes the relay action, then exits.

This whole process could be designed as a program that runs continuously, perhaps reading a text file at launch for the actual schedule of command events. But I like CRON. It might be the oldest remaining component in UNIX and is highly reliable. And using a simple program that performs and exits nearly immediately means the operating system and time functions have unfettered access to the CPU.

Even if you don’t need commands performed but just need a bulletproof NTP time server, this will serve well. Your port 123 needs will be millisecond-accurately served.

Got a project article in mind? Email us to suggest: rweetech@gmail.com.

Read another project by Frank McCoy, “Receivers in a Box on the Roof,” from December 2019.

The post Using a Pi to Synchronize Timed Events appeared first on Radio World.

The nice letter from Mr. Vanhooser in the April 22 edition of RW Engineering Extra [“Elevated Counterpoise,” page 8] responding to my earlier article in the Feb. 12 edition was slightly off-point. So I thought I’d reply to his comment.

The elevated radial system works very well, since, of course, the primary purpose of the “ground” system for a vertical monopole is to provide a return path for the displacement currents. And this was shown clearly in Al Christman’s work that led to the acceptance and use of this system.

But it is not a technique for minimizing the necessity of an extensive “ground” system, merely a different technique, but one which may require as much or nearly as much real estate as a conventional buried radial system.

The same thing is true of two low-profile antennas in common use, the heavily top-loaded “Kinstar” antenna and the inductance loaded electrically short Valcom antenna. Both also excellent solutions to some situations.

And the point of the paper was to describe situations with minimum “ground” systems.

An interesting point about the use of elevated radials in directional arrays is that the return currents aren’t uniformly radial as they are in a single monopole. But numerical analysis techniques can also be used to modify the geometry and perhaps area of above ground systems as well. The currents in a conventional ground system for a directional array were described and discussed in an excellent paper by the late Oggie Prestholdt 30 or 40 years ago.

Regards, and stay safe!

Radio World welcomes letters to the editor at radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Letter to the Editor: Elevated Concerns appeared first on Radio World.

Equipment manufacturer AEQ shared photos of a recent audio over IP installation project in Spain; view them below.

Radio station À Punt Radio is part of Valencian Media Corp. (Corporació Valenciana de Mitjans de Comunicació). In this project the station has been equipped with AEQ Forum IP Split consoles and visual radio systems.

“In the Central Control room, routing is performed by a BC-2000 digital audio matrix with TDM technology, IP connected with Dante to the studios, whose main element is a Forum Split IP digital mixer,” according to a project summary from AEQ.

[Related: Read the Radio World ebook “AoIP for 2020”]

“Four radio studios were installed around a Forum IP Split digital mixer with 16 faders and a separate audio engine, which relied on the Forum Screen software application to help with control.” Two of these studios also have an automated video camera system.

A Capitol IP mixing console assists assist journalists in recording radio and television broadcast signals.

The work was done by the AEQ System Engineering Department under Bernardo Saiz, supervised by Francisco Calabuig and the À Punt Radio engineering team.

Send news and photos of your radio facility project to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post A Look Inside Valencia’s À Punt Radio appeared first on Radio World.

As director of operations for Holy Spirit Radio, which operates two non-profit 5,000-watt AM radio stations in the Philadelphia market, I often fixate on achieving quality sound at a low cost.

My best friend since age 3, Jason Lee Sklar, is a DJ at the top-rated Philadelphia Entercom station B101. As you can imagine, there are some major differences in our small AM stations compared to a commercially successful FM like B101. One of the major differences which sounds silly to many but makes a huge difference is the microphones.

Each week, prior to going on the air, Jason shares a selfie on social media. What did I notice? Often not Jason but the shiny Neumann microphone. Top stations, such as B101 or NPR, use the reliable and crisp Neumanns. These microphones are fantastic but often out of the price range for small radio operators such as ours.

Holy Spirit Radio has, like many, used the Shure SM7 and/or Electro-Voice RE20 microphones. These have for many years been standards in the broadcast industry, especially on the AM band. The RE20 was introduced in 1968. The Shure SM7 was introduced in 1972. These are great microphones and they last a long time. I can’t help but wonder if the ones we own are from those original years. More on that in a moment.

These microphones have been perfect for the sound on the AM band, but are we truly AM broadcasters anymore?

Listening has evolved in recent years as younger individuals utilize other methods to listen to their favorite radio content. Many like myself often forgo the typical radio dial and jump to streaming audio via their phones or other devices. Streaming can offer a crisp digital sound compared to the interference that often happens on the AM band.

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE

Two years ago, before some extensive equipment upgrades, I found our sound during live broadcasts to be a little muffled. This was especially noticeable while listening to our live stream. I found it frustrating, but I could not pinpoint the exact cause.

One day, we had extensive noise in our production room, and the cause was some microphone cables. This was not a new occurrence. In the past, we would add filters to fix it, but I wanted a more permanent fix. I decided to run to our local Guitar Center to purchase a few cables in an attempt to clear up the noise.

The plan was to hit Guitar Center, buy the cables and get back out. So often, that is my plan when shopping. But as I walked past the display case of microphones, the salesperson observed me salivating over the Neumann TLM 49. It was similar to the microphone I would see Jason share each week on Facebook.

As the salesman asked if I wanted to check it out, I said, “I would love to, but it’s way out of my price range” (over $1,600). As any good salesperson would do, he asked a few questions, such as, “What is your use?” I think I surprised him when I answered, “Radio station studio.” I answered the question, but was not planning to buy a microphone. He suggested that I look at the Aston Origin microphone, which cost $299.

[Related: “How Should I Disinfect My Microphone”]

The microphone has a very industrial look. Not something you would expect in a radio station studio. I checked it out but resisted the impulse to purchase it and got on with the purpose for my visit.

When I got home, I started to Google the Aston Origin and began reading reviews and understanding more about the microphone itself. The microphone was designed and built in the United Kingdom. The designers wanted to build a microphone that had a unique design, was affordable and built in the UK.

They wanted something that could be unique in the market, yet competitive against the microphones built in places like China. Even some of the best and longest-lasting microphones are now built in cheaper places, such as China.

As soon as the Aston microphone hit the market in 2016, it was a hit, especially with UK bands. As word spread, the brand also became a hit in many other parts of the globe. As I continued to search, reviews started popping up, and comparisons to the Neumann were prevalent on the web.

Many people like to review specs, so here are the specs of the Aston Origin:

• Transducer Type: Condenser
• Acoustic Operating Principle: Pressure Gradient
• Directional Polar Pattern: Cardioid
• Frequency Response: 20 Hz–20 kHz (+/-3dB)
• Equivalent Noise Level: 18 dB A-Weighted
• Sensitivity at 1 kHz into 1 kohm: 23.7 mV/Pa
• Maximum SPL for THD 0.5%: 127 dB
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (rel. 94dB SPL): 76 dB A-Weighted
• Pad Switch: -10 dB

I am personally not a big fan of all the specs or listing of awards on websites. But what struck me was the awe people had for the natural sound of speech.

Around the same time as I discovered the Aston microphone, I was obsessed with the sound of some of the best content producers. I heard a podcast called “The Pub” (episode #17) that featured NPR engineer Shawn Fox discussing the unique sound of their programs. In the podcast, the engineer credited the Neumann U87 microphone ($3,500). One of the features that Shawn discussed was the bass rolloff switch, cutting off some lower frequencies.

This was important because of the way listeners often hear the radio with background noise, such as with a window down in a car. He made the point that it is not about fixing the noise levels for studio environment, but instead for the listening environment.

As I reviewed the Aston Origin, I noticed that it also has a bass rolloff switch. They also have a higher-end microphone called the Aston Spirit ($449) which, similar to the Neumann U87, also has a second switch to change the polar pattern.

As I connected all this information, it became inevitable that I would soon be trying out these Aston microphones.

QUICK RESULTS

It seems that every time I go to a store like Guitar Center, I get so caught up in looking around and invariably leave without purchasing one of the items on my list and have to make a return trip to the store. On this occasion, since I was going back to the store anyway, I decided to give the Aston Origin a shot, so I bought a microphone.

The next morning, I set up the mic in our production room. It was simply easier to set it up there since the board could provide phantom power easily. At the time (2017), we had a much older board in our main studio.

Then I asked one of our live hosts to cut over to me in the production room during the show. I wanted to see if anyone noticed a difference, but I would also later check out the recording to see if I could hear a difference.

To my shock, people did notice a difference, including an immediate phone call from the head of the station asking why I sounded so much better than the others on the air. I then told him about the experiment. Needless to say, by the end of that day we bought the total supply out of the three area Guitar Center stores. We replaced all our mics.

Just to be clear, there is good reason the Shure SM7B and Electro-Voice RE20 have been standards for so long. It became evident after I replaced our mics that our older mics may have been from one of those early years. We took the time to take them apart, and we found the entire insides to be disintegrated. Based on what we found under the hood, I am shocked they sounded as good as they did. In many ways, I am amazed that they even worked.

Up until about two years ago, we often did not replace older equipment but instead patched it up to keep it running. This microphone replacement kicked off many upgrades, and today, our sound is outstanding over the air and on the streams. Just like these microphones, we attempt to keep costs low, but we also weigh the cost with listener experience as well as ongoing maintenance and longevity. The Aston Origin was very helpful in positioning us with this mindset and well worth the investment we made.

In life and in radio broadcasting, it is easy to be jealous of what others have, but at the end of the day, with the help of others, you can find things that are just as cool but cost far less with very similar and, in some cases, even better results.

[Also by this author: “Be Smart When Thinking About UPS”]

The post Guitar Center, a Broken Cable & Facebook Jealousy appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters has created a position called chief diversity officer, and named Michelle Duke to fill it starting in July.

Duke is the president of the NAB Leadership Foundation and will continue that role as well.

[Read: Renovations Underway at Old NAB Headquarters]

“In the newly created position, Duke will spearhead NAB’s internal efforts to further equity and inclusion at all levels of the organization and elevate NAB’s external role as a resource to NAB member companies in their efforts to increase and promote industry diversity,” the association stated.

According to NAB, Duke was a reporter for the Nashville Banner and later moved to the Newspaper Association of America, where she became director of leadership programs. She joined NAB as the director of diversity and development in 2005 and was promoted to vice president of diversity in 2009.

“Duke became vice president of the NAB Education Foundation (renamed NABLF in 2019) in 2010 and was elevated to president in 2019, overseeing the foundation’s day-to-day operations as well as developing and managing industry programs in diversity and leadership,” it said.

NABLF programs include the Broadcast Leadership Training program and the annual Celebration of Service to America Awards.

The post NAB Creates Chief Diversity Officer appeared first on Radio World.

There’s some money available from a foundation to help community radio stations in the United States pay their electric bills.

The Sun Radio Foundation, based in Austin, Texas, has announced a “Sun Radio Recharge” COVID-19 relief program. It is a nonprofit organization for the arts that aims to preserve the heritage of Texas music, support community radio and have minimal impact on the environment by using solar power. There are 12 stations in its network.

The foundation said it will accept applications from community and noncommercial radio stations nationwide for one-time gifts of up to $250 each. These are intended for stations that don’t have Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding or tax-payer subsidies. Here’s the application.

[Read more Radio World coverage of community radio issues.]

In the announcement, Daryl O’Neal, executive director and founder of the foundation, said, “Local musicians and the community radio stations who play their music are struggling. Many small, independent community radio stations do not receive any tax-payer funded ‘public radio’ stipends through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.”

He said that hundreds of community stations won’t receive any of the $75 million in COVID relief funding given to the CPB.

A separate program helps local area musicians and crew members who are struggling to pay electric bills.

The foundation also is accepting donations for this relief program at https://secure.donationpay.org/sunradio/.

The post Foundation Helps Community Stations Pay the Power Bill appeared first on Radio World.

The author is a former engineer at WCRB(AM/FM), WSSH and WFGL/WFMP. He has also been a contract engineer and a manufacturer of SCA receivers and EAS equipment for television.

I am opposed to the digitization of the AM broadcast band and believe it would be a mistake. I have six reasons.

The first is personal. In the 1950s when I was a boy, I built my first radio. It was a very simple crystal set. It consisted of a coil which I hand-wound, a cat-whisker galena detector and a headphone. There were no capacitors. Living 10 miles from the nearest station, which was only 1,000 watts, no single station was very strong so I picked up a number of stations. One night, I even picked up Radio Moscow and the BBC. This was the beginning of my lifelong interest in radio.

When I was in high-school, I got my amateur license and built a number of AM receivers and transmitters for the ham bands. Had it not been for that crystal radio, which would not have worked with digital, I might never have had a career in radio.

The second reason is the simplicity of making both receivers and transmitter. AM radio can never die, just as long as there are books that explain the technology. Anybody, with a little knowledge and a few tools, can make a decent AM radio with readily available discreet components. With a little more knowledge it is easy to build a low-power AM transmitter. AM radio will always be there and the parts are readily available.

[Letter to the Editor: AM Stereo Is Still an Option]

Despite my lifelong work, both in receivers and transmitters, I could not build a digital receiver or transmitter with discreet parts. I doubt that the proponents of digital radio could either. It is just too complicated. In order to make either, you need sophisticated microprocessors and there are only a few companies that make them, most of which are in Asia. If the supply from Asia were cut off, it might be five to 10 years before new consumer digital receivers could be built with processors made in the USA.

Our technology is becoming too complex. When I was a teenager and had my first car, I could repair just about anything. I could diagnose ignition problems, adjust the carburetor, check the timing, you name it! Today, if a car fails, it must be taken to a garage with sophisticated diagnostic tools, and the sensors cost a fortune to replace. Do we want the same with our AM radios?

The third reason why we should not go digital is because of the remarkable advancements in receiver technology. New receivers use digital signal processing (DSP) for all functions from antenna coil to recovered audio. Basically, DSP receivers heterodyne the incoming signal to a low frequency using an image-rejecting mixer. The signal is digitized and then demodulated by a virtual receiver that is mathematically ideal. The recovered audio in digital form is applied to a digital to analog converter, then amplified, and to the speaker. Within this ideal receiver is software to remove most unwanted impulse noise.

I tried Silicon Labs Si4770 AM/FM receiver chip and the reception is spectacular! Adjacent channel rejection is 57 dB. Signal to noise ratio for 30% modulation is 60 dB. Total harmonic distortion at 90% modulation is 0.2%. Receiver bandwidth adjustable is 100 Hz to 15 kHz in 100 Hz steps or automatic, based upon strength of desired and adjacent channels. Since the passband is nearly flat, that translates to an audio bandwidth up to 7,500 Hz. One surprise is that during periods of selective fading, there is no distortion.

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

If you want to hear what DSP sounds like, get into a fairly new car and listen to the AM radio because most new cars use DSP. A number of Asian companies are making DSP integrated circuits for AM/FM radio. They are cheap and the radios use only the loop antenna and no other coils or filters. There is consistent performance from receiver to receiver and no alignment. To select the frequency, the radios can use a microcontroller or a potentiometer attached to a ruler dial. Within a few years, all radios will use DSP and the problem of poor quality radios will cease to exist. Most important, the AM band will still be compatible with existing radios and technology.

The fourth reason for rejecting digital is the poor recovered audio quality of digital radio. I tried a trial version of professional DRM transmitter software. The software provider included a bug that causes the software to fail after three minutes use, and then it has to be reset. I downloaded the “Dream Receiver,” a PC computer based receiver, to evaluate reception. Thus, I could compare DRM to AM. The DRM was very clean. No noise could be heard at any usable signal level. But the audio did not sound as good as AM.

The fifth reason for rejecting digital is that the listener would lose some listening options. If you have two stations, one AM and the other digital, they will both be noise-free near the transmitters. As you move away from the transmitters, the AM signal will become noisy, but the digital will remain clear. At some point the digital will disappear, but the AM signal will still be usable, albeit noisy.

I do not listen to a station because it is close or because it is strong, but because it has a program that I want to hear. I will tolerate some noise to listen to that program, but with digital, I will be forced to listen only to local stations whether I like the program or not, or I will not listen at all. Furthermore, sometimes stations fade in and out, partly because of propagation, but sometimes because of co-channel interference. If the station is AM, there will be a period of noise during the fade, but if it is digital, the station will cut out for the duration.

Finally, most car radios will need to be replaced to permit digital reception. I intend to keep my car for at least ten years. Will I have to buy a new car just to get traffic reports and possible emergency information? Or will I have to purchase an expensive replacement radio and go through the misery of disassembling the dashboard to make the change?

I can find no valid reason to replace the AM band with digital. For most people, it will provide no significant improvement in quality. It will greatly reduce the range of many stations, especially clear-channel stations. The listeners will have fewer choices because they will be limited only to local stations.

Radio World invites industry-oriented commentaries and responses. Send to Radio World.

The post No to Digital AM appeared first on Radio World.

In this issue, Frank McCoy helps you build a GPS-referenced time server to issue commands with contact closures as the interface. Cris Alexander ponders what radio engineers have learned during the coronavirus crisis. Frank Elias likes his new Aston Origin. And lots more.

Read It Online Here.

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

BEST PRACTICES
AM Notes From the Field

Mike Pappas has visited a ton of transmitter sites and he comes away with some lessons that may help your station sound better and operate more efficiently.

WHITE PAPER
Headphone and Earbud Testing

The folks at Audio Precision lay out everything you always wanted to know about in-ear monitoring but were afraid to ask.

Also In This Issue:

• Using a Pi to Synchronize Timed Events
• Don’t Let a Crisis Go to Waste
• Reader’s Forum: A Difference of Potential

The post Inside the June 17 Issue of Radio World Engineering Extra appeared first on Radio World.

Wow. What huge changes we have seen in just a few short months, and not just in our industry or nation, but the entire world!

My guess is that for most readers, as it has been for me, the past 2-1/2 months have been sort of surreal, almost like some kind of sensory deprivation because we have lost so many of our points of reference. During the height of the lockdown, much of the time, I would find I had lost track of what day of the week it was and even the date. Things all sort of ran together. It’s getting better now that things are beginning to open up, but it’s still weird.

I’ve heard it said, usually by pols and pundits, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” In the political sense, there is in my view some shame in that kind of attitude. But out here in the real world, there is some wisdom.

Restated in a more positive way, “Don’t fail to learn some things from this crisis.” And we haven’t. We have, in fact, learned a great deal, and I think that is going to change our industry — hopefully for the better — going forward. So what have we learned?

NECESSARY SIMPLIFICATION

At the top of my list is, we have learned what is truly important and what is not. That goes for equipment, processes, procedures, even the programming we broadcast.

A time of crisis, whether the COVID-19 lockdown, a terrorist attack, a hurricane or some other natural disaster or some other national, regional or local crisis, forces us to make decisions as to what is essential and what we can live without. It distills what is otherwise very likely a rather cluttered situation into the essence of what we actually need, and that’s a good thing. It’s so easy to get lost in the minutia in our workaday world.

Any broadcast engineer who has been through a crisis, especially one that has physically impacted the station’s facilities or infrastructure, knows what I’m talking about here. Boil it all down and it takes very little to be on the air: a microphone, some sort of mixer, some sort of playout device (even a laptop computer with Groove or Media Player), an audio processor, an exciter, an RF amplifier, transmission line and antenna supported on something with some elevation.

While the instant crisis has not, in most cases, affected facilities or infrastructure, it has forced broadcasters to do a whole lot more with a whole lot less, quite often by VNC, TeamViewer or other remote desktop software, using VPNs and other tunnels across the public internet.

In many of the clusters in my company, stations operated for a month or more using virtual mixers on such platforms, even doing live talk with hosts and guests at their homes connecting to the (unmanned) studios with remote codecs or smartphone apps that talk to our studio codecs — and it worked very well! The quality was so good that listeners were hard pressed to know the difference.

GOOD SPORTS, MOSTLY

I have watched, at first with some amusement but then with growing irritation, our local television outlets doing essentially the same thing, with anchors, reporters and weather people doing their thing from their “home studios.” Except for the acoustics, which were often hollow and echoey, the quality was acceptable, but the delay was really irritating.

As a broadcast engineer, I get it — there are encoding, transmission and decoding delays that have to be lived with in both directions, and those add up to several seconds of the on-camera person staring at the camera and nodding long after the other person has quit talking.

Thankfully, in radio, unless we are dealing with a bidirectional satellite link with its space-segment transmission delays in each direction, the amount of latency or delay in our codecs is short enough that listeners don’t notice it. That gives radio a real leg up on other segments of the industry.

Except for the largest operations with their separate IT departments, broadcast engineers have been tasked to equip station staffers to work from home. This includes operations people of course, but also managers, account executives, office managers, traffic people, administrative personnel, writers and producers. Some operations were, to some degree, already set up for this, but in a lot of cases, engineers had to scramble to get things configured and people trained.

Part of that training was to explain to people that in a crisis, we have to expect a certain amount of inconvenience. In my company, most folks were good sports about it, grasping that we simply could not recreate their office conveniences for them at home, but I have heard tell of some situations elsewhere … well, we’ll leave it at that.

Needless to say, there were undoubtedly some challenges of a non-technical nature for a lot of engineers, especially in the early days of the lockout. For both engineers and others in stations or clusters, it was a learning experience unlike any other, but we adapted and people got their work done from home and other remote locations.

REBUILDING

Somehow, during the height of the lockout, the weather didn’t get the word that the weather was supposed to be calm and clear. Spring thunderstorms and even tornadoes came through a lot of markets, especially in the south, right about that time, adding to the workloads of engineers.

In our company, we took a lightning hit on the FM tower at one of our midwestern market studios at the end of March. While there was very little in the way of direct damage, the H-field from that strike ate a lot of NICs and op-amps. Precious resources had to be diverted to deal with the results of that strike.

In Alabama in mid-April, thunderstorms and tornadoes chewed up trees, power lines and yes, even a guy wire on one of our towers. It wasn’t easy, but our engineering crew managed to maintain social distancing while addressing those issues and keeping the operations, sales and admin staffs working from home.

One final thing that we have learned, in addition to the above and countless other lessons, is that things are going to be different from here on out. We will do radio in a different way, both on the technical/operations and administrative sides. What that will look like is anyone’s guess at this point, but it will be different. Much of what we implemented during the crisis will carry over into the day-to-day post-crisis.

I think we’re looking at a lengthy period of rebuilding, both in terms of the local and national economies in general and in terms of the broadcast business specifically.

We’re going to have to hunker down for a time, keep things running as economically as possible, and focus on rebuilding our business. Capital budgets likely won’t be what they were in years past. Repair and maintenance will be the name of the game. Many equipment manufacturers will divert resources from manufacturing to support to keep their customers running. Radio engineers will have to be creative as never before to keep their stations on the air and operating at peak efficiency with less budget to work with.

For many, that means that right now, we need to be taking a hard look at our facilities, searching out weak spots and having frank discussions with owners and managers. If we are already crippled going into a lean period, we could find ourselves in dire straits not too far down the road. Our tanks need to be full now so we don’t run out of gas a few months or a year down the road.

Finally, this is a grand opportunity for radio engineers in markets and operations of every size to shine, to show their stuff, to make themselves indispensable. It will be the engineers who hold the facilities together. I’ve already heard one corporate executive say to one engineer, “You’re saving our company.” That was true for many during the crisis, and it will remain true going forward. Don’t miss your chance to be the hero of your station or cluster.

Cris Alexander, CPBE, AMD, DRB, is director of engineering of Crawford Broadcasting Co. and technical editor of RW Engineering Extra. Email him at rweetech@gmail.com.

The post Don’t Let a Crisis Go to Waste appeared first on Radio World.

An Arkansas man must pay $10,000 for alleged illegal broadcasting, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Gerald Sutton has been directed to pay within 30 days, after which the FCC says his case may be referred to the Justice Department.

The investigation began in summer of 2018 when the FCC says it received a complaint about an unauthorized FM station in Alma, Ark. It says an agent subsequently observed a signal on 103.1 MHz, traced it to an address in Alma and found that it exceeded allowable limits under Part 15 of the rules. An agent identified Gerald Sutton as the operator, said he refused an inspection, and said the signal disappeared after the agent’s arrival but was turned on again later.

According to the commission summary, Sutton subsequently wrote to the FCC at the end of 2018 to say that the federal Communications Act did not apply to him.

The Enforcement Bureau issued a notice of apparent liability against Sutton in August 2019, and now says he never replied to it.

“Pirate radio stations undermine the commission’s primary mission to manage radio spectrum,” wrote Ronald Ramage, acting field director of the Enforcement Bureau, summarizing the commission’s longstanding stance on this issue.

“Such illegal operations can interfere with licensed communications, including authorized broadcasts and communications by public safety entities. Moreover, such illegal operations pose a danger to the public because they interfere with licensed stations that inform their listeners of important public safety messages, including Emergency Alert System transmissions that provide vital information regarding weather and other dangers to the public.”

[Related: “It’s Official: PIRATE Act Signed Into Law”]

The post FCC Issues $10,000 Fine in Arkansas Pirate Case appeared first on Radio World.