Industry News

Smart speaker maker Sonos will be using the Powered by Napster digital audio platform as a service for its new Sonos Radio HD high-definition audio streaming service.

A release explains what a “platform as service” does: “[the] platform offers companies a full suite of technologies and solutions that includes licensing and rights holder management, media streaming and download infrastructure, applications, personalization, recommendations, customer billing, and royalty administration capabilities.”

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

Powered by Napster is a service from Rhapsody International. That company’s Bill Patrizio, president and CEO, said, “Our ongoing work with Sonos signals the continued significant growth of digital music and the demand for high-definition audio streaming.”

The new Sonos Radio HD service will provide the basic free Sonos Radio stations in high-definition, CD-quality 16-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC audio. The ad-less stations provide curated stations along with thematic stations along with 60,000 local radio stations worldwide and specialty sounds such as sleep and pink noise.

Sonos smart speaker owners can subscribe to Sonos Radio HD for US$7.99/£7.99 per month after a free 30-day trial.

Radio World invites both users and suppliers to tell us about recently installed new or notable equipment. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

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All across Louisiana — whether your station is behind prison walls or in a tiny village in the middle of the Pelican State — failing to file a license renewal application on time can result in a monetary forfeiture.

That is the case for the so-called Incarceration Station. KLSP(FM) is a Class A station run by the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the nation’s largest maximum-security prison. Angola Penitentiary, as this former plantation is known, was designed to function as small, self-sustaining community complete with a fire department, a dairy and a radio station — making Angola the only penitentiary in the U.S. to be issued an FCC license to operate a station.

Established in 1986, KLSP (whose call letters denote the Louisiana State Penitentiary) is 100-watt station that operates on 91.7 from inside the prison. Those broadcasts can be picked up by the 6,000 prisoners and 1,800 staff spread across Angola, a compound larger than the island of Manhattan. Interestingly, former prisoners include musicians Lead Belly and Freddy Fender.

[Read: Arizona Licensee Gets Green Light on License After Agreeing to $15K Consent Decree]

But whether inside or outside of prison, FCC rules are rules. And the Media Bureau delivered a Notice of Apparent Liability and Forfeiture to the station in mid-November for apparently violating a section of the commission’s rules that requires a licensee to renew its broadcast station license within a specific timeline. That deadline is no later than the first day of the fourth full calendar month prior to the expiration date of the license.

For the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the application for renewal should have been filed by Dec. 2, 2019. According to the Media Bureau, the application was not filed until May 29, 2020, and the licensee provided no explanation for the lateness of the filing.

In this case, the FCC chose to set a $3,000 monetary forfeiture, which is the base forfeiture amount that the FCC can set in cases like these.

The situation was similar for station KVDP(FM) in Dry Prong, La. The licensee of the station — Dry Prong Educational Broadcasting Foundation — also allegedly failed to file a license renewal application. In this case, the application should have been filed by Dec. 2, 2019, but was not filed until May 22, 2020, with no explanation for the late filing.

As a result, the FCC has notified Dry Prong Educational Broadcasting Foundation that it has an apparent liability for forfeiture in the amount of $3,000.

Both Dry Prong and the Louisiana State Penitentiary have 30 days from the delivery of the Notice of Apparently Liability to pay the forfeiture or file a statement seeking reduction or cancellation of the forfeiture.

The post Failure to File a Renewal Application Trips Up Two Licensees in Louisiana appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters has named Téa Gennaro as its new CFO.

President CEO Gordon Smith said Gennaro will come on board as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the organization later this month.

She joins at a time when the NAB, and associations in general, have been challenged financially by the business impact of the pandemic and the dramatic reduction in major in-person events.

According to a recent communication to its members, NAB this year has instituted cuts to executive compensation, “significant” budget reductions and a hiring freeze.

Its board recently approved a one-time assessment on members “intended to make up for lost revenue due to the cancellation of NAB Show, which accounted for 70% of NAB’s operating budget, as well as the expected decline in future convention revenues as the result of COVID-19.”

Gennaro is former chief financial officer of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC National) in Washington. She has also worked as a controller in the Outsourced Accounting Client Service branch of Tate & Tryon, a CPA firm.

“As EVP of Finance and CFO, Gennaro will lead NAB’s financial operations, including internal and external reporting, audit, tax, financial systems and the budget process,” the association stated.

She succeeds Trish Johnson, whom NAB said has transitioned into a consulting role.

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GatesAir has promoted Mark Goins to vice president of North American sales.

This follows the recent announcement that Joe Mack has taken the new role of chief revenue officer and that Rich Redmond has left the company. Goins reports to Mack, who in turn answers to CEO Bruce Swail.

“Mark will lead an experienced team of North American representatives across regional sales management, key accounts and inside sales, and work with GatesAir executives to develop annual strategic initiatives for improved growth and support,” the company stated in an announcement.

[Read: GatesAir Names Joe Mack as CRO]

Goins joined predecessor Harris Corp. 19 years ago.

“He has gradually worked his way up the ladder, beginning with an inside sales position and becoming senior director, North America sales upon transitioning to the GatesAir team,” it stated.

“In between, he served as strategic account manager and regional sales manager, which provides him the diverse experience required to successfully lead the current North American sales team.”

It said areas of focus for Goins will include NextGen TV, HD Radio adoption, single-frequency networks (SFNs) and also GatesAir’s Intraplex range, “as business models and networking opportunities expand with the Audio over IP transition.”

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This commentary appeared on the Inside Music Media website on Nov. 12 under the headline “iHeart Moves to Eliminate Engineers.” Because of its relevance to engineering readers we reproduce it with permission. Radio World has invited comment or reply from iHeart and will share any we receive.

Eventually it had to come to this — elimination and for now at least a major reduction in the number of engineers it takes to keep iHeart stations on the air.

This promises to be a major RIF in addition to the firings of last week and the ones I have written about this week that will constitute “The Big One.”

Spread over the entire chain of stations and their clusters, eliminating engineers — long a goal of iHeart management — could get them closer to their 5,000 total employee number from an estimated 12,000 at the start of 2020.

The engineering firings are risky, more widespread than originally thought and, in a sense, creative.

For anyone who has ever worked in a radio station, the details about to be shared are, to say the least, scary.

• Start with a standardized digital studio console – It will reportedly be networked to the transmitter site and the new remote consoles that they are installing will allow more remote control of the transmitter by the emergency operations center.
• Emergencies will be referred to “The Tiger Team,” which is a group of engineers in the company that can jump on a flight at a m oment’s notice to go fix the engineering issues at the station. Keep in mind that the “Tiger Team” as they are called will only be able to respond to problems that don’t threaten to knock a station off the air.
• A list of local contract engineers will be kept close by – Part of the reason will be to make things look safer in case of devastating engineering issues that either keep a station off the air, force a reduction of power or have to deal with a massive issue such as fire.
• Major markets will retain an iHeart-employed chief engineer – This says a lot about how iHeart views its platform. Some 35% of all their revenue comes from 10 or fewer major markets and apparently iHeart does not want to jeopardize operations there. Expect a chief engineer to be retained and perhaps even an assistant if the chief is lucky.
• The MO is to have complete remote control of the station’s transmitter and air chain without a local engineer – just a contract engineer or “Tiger Team” replacement. This also reinforces rumors that iHeart wants to standardize their studios so that this skeleton system makes sense.

While this economy of scale is dangerous and ill-advised, iHeart is one of the most debt-ridden groups with revenue problems some but not all of which are caused by the coronavirus economy.

If the remote-control operator cannot verify that the transmitter shut down due to an issue with the antenna and they try to switch to a backup and put it on the “bad antenna” they can cause a higher problem.

Or if the transmitter did a safety shutdown due to a power supply or tube issue, they can make the problem worse by tinkering with it remotely and not having boots on the ground to confirm the issue.

Jerry Del Colliano is a professor at NYU Steinhardt Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions Music Business Program. This commentary originally appeared at Inside Music Media and is republished with permission.

[Related: “How Will iHeart’s ‘Centers of Excellence’ Strategy Play Out?”]

The post Commentary: iHeart’s Plans for Engineers appeared first on Radio World.

It’s more than likely that a broadcast engineer or multimedia tech professional will be called on at some time to connect a smartphone into a broadcast plant or multimedia studio.

The Angry Audio Bluetooth Gadget makes that process much less stressful while providing great capabilities for the reception and transmission of audio, whether that audio is basic cellphone grade, or from a codec app like Cleanfeed, Luci Live Lite, etc.

Making connections

The Bluetooth Gadget uses Bluetooth 3.0 to receive and transmit audio. The device will select from one of three codecs (AAC, aptX or SBC) to optimize the connection’s audio quality.

Connections for a mix-minus analog input and the left and right channel analog outputs are balanced +4 dBu XLR on the rear panel. There’s another XLR output on that rear panel. It’s a transformer balanced XLR male digital audio connection that can feed an AES digital device.

On the front along with the lights and switches there’s a TRRS jack wired to the CTIA standard for connecting a smartphone directly, so a hot switch between a Bluetooth paired smartphone, and a wired smartphone connection can be made without reconfiguring connections.

Audio from the TRRS jack is unbalanced, with RFI filters on each input. Angry Audio provides an adapter for phones that use the OMTP standard for wiring. The device has a small antenna to help with reception; stated range for the device was 50 feet.

Versions for North America (115 VAC) and export (230 VAC) are available along with plugs for Europe, Australia and the United Kingdom.

The Bluetooth Gadget is AoIP-friendly. Angry Audio includes a StudioHub XLR to RJ-45 adapter pair for the left and right outputs, and an XLR-to-RJ45 adapter that can be used for the mix-minus input.

Simple operation

I tested the Bluetooth Gadget analog style with my Allen+Heath ZED 10 studio mixer and my Samsung Galaxy A6 smartphone. The balanced, mix-minus audio came from the ZED 10’s FX send bus’s TRS jack; the balanced audio connected to an input channel via analog XLR.

Pairing the Gadget to the phone involved flipping a switch on the front panel, and selecting the device on my smartphone. Once levels were set, making calls and recording them was simple.

Basically, if the smartphone has service, a standard cell call can be recorded or broadcast.

Angry Audio’s Michael “Catfish” Dosch said other applications besides putting calls on the air were considered when developing the Bluetooth Gadget.

“Most Bluetooth audio devices are receivers (sinks) only, useful for playback, but we thought a bidirectional interface would let you use your smartphone as a phone and put calls on the air. Plus, you could use other communications apps such as Skype, FaceTime, SIP clients, Zoom and even some social media apps like LINE and Facebook Messenger.

“Once we started development, we added some new ideas like the high-fidelity audio codecs, the split analog and digital outputs and the wired smartphone connection.”

The Bluetooth Gadget gives great flexibility, for instance, if a program is being transmitted to one source on a wired connection, and a second, studio quality feed (backup or second destination) becomes necessary. Connection through an app like Cleanfeed or Luci Live Lite, etc. makes that possible. So mission-critical audio transmission becomes less stressful.

The Bluetooth Gadget has a suggested retail price of $349. An optional rack mount is $39. Online documentation from https://angryaudio.com is straightforward and answers the questions engineers and technologists ask when installing devices.

Paul Kaminski, CBT, is host of msrpk.com’s “Radio-Road-Test,” and has been a Radio World contributor since 1997. Reach him on Twitter: msrpk_com. Facebook: PKaminski2468

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The recently formed Independent Broadcasters Association said it is taking note of the “massive terminations” in radio recently and has a new program to help.

IBA is partnering with Vipology in what they described as a rapid response opportunity for radio people losing their jobs.

[Read: New Association Tackles the Needs of Independent Radio Stations]

President and Executive Director Ron Stone was quoted in a press release: “We are living in the most challenging economic times since the great depression 100 years ago, literally since radio began. To see so many broadcast professionals terminated during the worst of times is hard to digest.”

IBA did not mention iHeartMedia. Recent headlines have focused on staff reductions at that company.

Vipology is the company that manages IBA’s website. Stone said the site is being tweaked “to provide opportunities for those impacted to ‘meet up’ with potential broadcasters that may either be searching for new talent or perhaps be interested in engaging these folks for tracking positions.”

Look for the Talent Available page on the site. The service is free and is not limited to IBA’s 1,300 members.

As we have reported, IBA launched recently with a focus on independent broadcasters that Stone feels tend to get left behind by large-scale industry initiatives and events that target large publicly held companies.

The post IBA Launches “Talent Available” Page appeared first on Radio World.

Baby steps at this time but early December may bring an early Christmas for college basketball fans if AdLarge and the National Sports Network have their way.

AdLarge signed a deal to be the exclusive sales partner for NCAA college basketball games appearing on the National Sports Network for the 2020–2021 season.

The first game, Dec. 8, is a high-profile contest between the Creighton Bluejays and the perennial power Kansas Jayhawks.

Other teams scheduled to play through the season, depending on COVID pandemic interference are Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas and UCLA.

The post AdLarge and NSN Prep for College Basketball Season appeared first on Radio World.

Radio broadcasters that also stream audio are one of the business segments targeted by an alliance of StreamS and StreamGuys.

They said they’re working together to provide “next-generation, high-performance live audio streaming using fully compliant standards-based CMAF HLS for low-latency, adaptive-bitrate HTTP Live Streaming (HLS).”

They said they can offer a reliable and scalable streaming solution with remarkable audio quality, noting that CMAF HLS is the technology used by video providers for OTT and other direct-to-consumer services. StreamS provides encoder software, systems and pro audio processing. StreamGuys provides server infrastructure for content delivery as well as business analytics; reporting software for logging, compliance and audience measurement; and eventual ad insertion options.

[Read: WWOZ Used StreamGuys CDN for “Jazz Festing in Place”]

They said that the standardized container of the Common Media Application Format (CMAF) allows content providers to reach more types of devices with a single file set. This, they say, results in more efficient content delivery, reduces streaming costs and increases audience. They said they’re partnering to bring these benefits to audio providers including radio broadcasters that want to expand their streaming presence.

They said that CMAF HLS allows users to scale with greater strength and cost efficiency than with older protocols and “leverage the latest high-efficiency codecs, such as xHE-AAC and the broader AAC family, to cover everything from high-quality voice to high-quality 7.1 surround. The ability to stream real-time extensible metadata alongside pristine audio adds greater value for content providers and audiences.”

Kiriki Delany, president of StreamGuys, was quoted in the announcement saying, “HLS is getting a whole lot better with CMAF. We are excited to support ultra-low latency and simplify deploying HLS.” (The press release contains more detailed comments from Delany on the technical benefits.)

Greg Ogonowski is president of StreamS-Modulation Index.

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A slew of historic radio programs from a well-known public radio station in New York City are now available to stream.

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) has released a collection of historic radio programs from WRVR(FM), the public radio station once owned by The Riverside Church in New York. This collection includes speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, award-winning documentary coverage of the civil rights movement in Birmingham in 1963, coverage of the Cold War, and material from leaders like Pres. John. F. Kennedy and Indira Gandhi.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Be Thankful for Community Radio]

“Making the Riverside Church/WRVR collection accessible through the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website will aid students, teachers, scholars and everyday citizens in exploring contemporaneous perspectives from religious leaders, political figures, artists and thinkers of the day, especially those trying to inform and influence the politics of the period,” said Alan Gevinson, Ph.D., AAPB project director at the Library of Congress.

The archive is searchable by genre, topic, date, asset type as well as contributing/producing organization. A search of the performance subcategory, for example, brings up a 1966 recording of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of Red Death,” while a search of event coverage pulls up a 1962 speech by FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow.

It was 1961 when The Riverside Church first put WRVR on the air, playing religious programming and coverage of cultural and higher-education events. The station shifted to an all-news format — along with a single jazz program called “Just Jazz with Ed Beach” — from September 1971 until 1976, when the station was sold.

The station was known for its role as a center of activism and social justice. In 2018, a grant was bestowed by the Council on Library and Information Resources to The Riverside Church and the AAPB to begin the process of digitizing the broadcasts of WRVR. Additional assistance came from the New York City and the AAPB, which is a collaboration between Boston public media producer GBH (formerly WGBH) and the Library of Congress. The project involves the digitization of more than 3,500 audio tapes from the WRVR collection.

The station was awarded a Peabody Award for its entire scope of programming, due in part to its documentary coverage of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Materials in the collection are in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, Hebrew, French, Indonesian, German and Gaelic.

More items are expected to be added to the AAPB archive over the next year as items are digitized.

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