Industry News

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

The noncommercial media industry groups Public Radio Program Directors and Public Media Journalists Association hosted a joint conference virtually. One showcase featured a powerful initiative in public radio’s search for new audiences.

In 2015, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting launched its support of efforts to develop a new music format for noncommercial radio. What emerged was urban alternative, aimed at drawing a younger, multicultural audience to public media.

The graying of public radio has been a concern for many years, though podcasting, led by NPR in the public media sphere, has changed many of these perceptions. Diversity has been an ongoing concern, however. Urban alternative’s potential in this regard is tremendous.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Four Election Day Issues to Avoid]

While noncommercial radio has many successful music formatted stations — think KEXP, WXPN and KCRW — none are explicitly focused on making noncommercial media a draw to multicultural audiences. Thanks to champions like Mike Henry and CPB Vice President for Radio Jacquie Gales Webb, you can now tune in to one of a handful of urban alternative stations and hear one of public media’s boldest experiments in decades.

Turn on The Drop, featured on HD at Denver’s KUVO, and you’ll catch emerging mainstream hip-hop blended with classics, cutting-edge soul and lively conversation. Houston KTSU has just unveiled the Vibe as its digital channel. To ensure success, the Texas Southern University station has introduced Ben Thompson as content director. Thompson is best-known as Madd Hatta, a Houston hip-hop radio luminary who was program director and morning show host at KBXX, the city’s top-rated station for nearly his whole 20+-year run. Elsewhere, urban alternative endeavors are showing promise, too.

The next great chapter for urban alternative will be securing commitments for FM broadcast. Thus far, HD and other secondary bands have been its home. Considering the a new full-power noncommercial license window is on the way, could there be a possibility for an urban alternative-born terrestrial broadcaster? Many media groups, including the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, are stepping up to educate aspiring station operators about their options.

The positive growth of urban alternative is a crucial opening for those of us in noncommercial radio to have some needed discussion about audience engagement. For more than a generation, public media’s story has been, implicitly as well as openly, about “super serving” its core audience — mostly educated, mostly white, mostly older, mostly middle class to wealthy. The suggestion has been that, by providing quality content to this listener, a station was by extension serving listeners who were younger and less white and wealthy.

But, as we are seeing from controversies across public media, such as the recent implosions at Minnesota Public Radio and St. Louis Public Radio, the generic approach is getting internal and external pushback. Super service does not necessarily mean inclusive service. CPB’s recognition that stations should foster relationships with nontraditional audiences is gratifying. One can hope that such innovative approaches empower others to have discussions about engagement, and about acting for our future.

The post Community Broadcaster: Inclusive Service Is the Future appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is a career broadcaster and a consultant to Widelity Corp. The company recently launched an outsource service to help stations maintain compliance with FCC Online Public Information Files requirements.

College students have a habit of graduating and moving on.

So, this year’s student manager at the campus radio station is gone next year and someone else is in charge for one school year.

Widelity’s informal survey of student-run radio stations shows that they are more likely to be in violation of FCC rules requiring online filings than are other non-commercial or commercial stations. It appears that the managers just don’t know to pay attention to the posting rules.

In most of these cases, nothing has been posted in their Issues and Programs folder since the requirement to post online started almost three years ago.

[Related: “Big Companies Settle With FCC on Online Public Files”]

Why would Widelity Corp., a company that derives its operating revenue by representing commercial radio and television stations, take on helping these chronically underfunded non-commercial stations to get current with their online responsibilities?

Widelity’s joint project with College Broadcasters Inc. seeks to educate these station leaders and to help them create systems so that the knowledge is passed on from year to year.

We have had success consulting radio and TV stations and MPVDs in the television repack, in the C-Band repack and in the online filing process, and this is an opportunity to help educate the next generation of broadcasters about their responsibilities.

Widelity and CBI believe that there is the possibility of finding an underwriting sponsor, so that the student-run stations can receive services paid for in exchange for on-air announcements.

COVID-19 changed everyone’s daily life, and the same is true for student-run radio stations. Station staff had to relocate, and most student-run stations were scrambling just to keep programming on the air. The Online Public Inspection Files process wasn’t on everyone’s “to do” list.

Widelity services will provide board members who oversee student-run stations the confidence that FCC compliance standards are being met as required.

Outsourcing these time-sensitive requirements to Widelity should provide peace of mind not only to the directors, but to the staff administrators as well. As students rotate in and out due to churn, Widelity is a constant that can be depended on to assist the new student staff with information about how to properly handle their station OPIF requirements, including the Issues and Programs quarterly reports.

It certainly is not in an educational institution’s best interest to have its station noncompliant and subject to an FCC fine. It also makes for bad public relations.

Our informal survey shows that FCC OPIF compliance is not part of many student-run stations’ curriculums. We are answering that need by creating a webinar that, in conjunction with College Broadcasters, Inc, will be available to student-run stations.

Because sometimes FCC rules change, we plan to be a continuous, reliable source of FCC compliance information to our client schools.

College broadcast leaders, whether student, staff and faculty, can reach out to us at Widelity for more information.

Radio World welcomes other points of view at radioworld@futurenet.com.

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What do sports radio listeners have in common with top 40 listeners? Not much, really. That’s according to the latest report from Edison Research The Infinite Dial series. It profiles listeners of 11 U.S. radio formats. The report goes on to give some granularity to these different listening audio behaviors.

Titled “Radio Listener Profiles,” this report focuses on weekly AM/FM radio listeners who reported listening most often to a radio station with one of the following formats: alternative rock, classic hits, classic rock, contemporary Christian, country, hard rock/heavy metal, hip-hop/rap, news/talk, R&B, sports and top 40.

[Read: Radio Listening Audiences Rebound Despite Pandemic Impact]

The thesis of Edison Research and Triton Digital’s report is that while formats are usually classified by the age and sex of their listeners, not all audio and audio device behaviors can be inferred along those lines. The report refers to the survey participants as P1 listeners.

Ownership of an in-home AM/FM radio continues to be a challenge for the industry, according to the report. Formats whose listeners are most likely to have a radio at home include classic hits, classic rock, country, hard rock/heavy metal, news/talk and sports. Those listeners likely lacking this appliance regularly tune in to alternative rock, contemporary Christian, hip-hop/rap and top 40. Positioned exactly between these two in terms of radio ownership are R&B listeners, representing the overall average.

According to the report, this loss of traditional home radio receivers is partially offset by the influx of smart speakers. Again, the report claims, the utilization of these new devices is not consistent across the board. Not surprisingly, it suggests that smart speaker adoption tracks pretty consistently with the formats which attract younger listeners. Those most likely to own a smart speaker tune in to alternative rock, hard rock/heavy metal, hip-hop/rap, R&B, sports and top 40. On the other hand, the report says, those holding on to their AM/FM radio prefer country, classic hits, classic rock, contemporary Christian and news/talk.

The post Is the Smart Speaker Like a New Age Home Radio? appeared first on Radio World.

Only nine people had received the lifetime achievement award from the Society of Broadcast Engineers, until this week. Mark Persons becomes the 10th.

It was presented to Persons during an SBE online membership meeting and award ceremony.

Radio World is proud to share this news in part because Mark is a longtime contributor and valued member of the RW family. (You can read many of his recent tech tips and commentaries here.)

“The SBE John H. Battison Award for Lifetime Achievement recognizes and pays tribute to individuals for their dedication, lifelong achievement and outstanding contribution to broadcast engineering,” the SBE wrote in its announcement.

Prior recipients are Benjamin Wolfe and James Wulliman (1995), Philo and Elma Farnsworth (1997), Morris Blum (1998), Richard Rudman (2002), Richard Burden (2005), John Battison (2006) and Terry Baun (2010).

Persons told SBE: “I never had a Plan B. I was always going to be a broadcast engineer, and that’s exactly how it came out.”

The event planners had to get clever to plan the presentation. They secretly contacted Paula Persons via the Brainerd, Minn., VFW to ship the plaque to her via a friend.

To ensure Mark Persons was online for the ceremonies, they then invited him as 2018 recipient of the SBE Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year award, to be present for a cameo with other past winners. And during the online ceremony, Paula came into his office with the award.

[Related: “SBE Names Its New Executive Director”]

SBE provided this summary of his career:

“Mark, a life-long resident of Minnesota, followed in the footstep of his father, who was also a radio broadcast engineer. Mark started turning transmitter knobs more than 60 years ago. While reaching the rank of sergeant in the United States Army from 1967 to 1969, Mark was in charge of an avionics repair shop for the OV-1 Mohawk high-tech surveillance aircraft in Vietnam.

“After his military service, he spent the next 10 years with KVBR radio in Brainerd, MN, where he became chief engineer. In 1977, he opened his own radio engineering consulting business, which he operated for the next 40 years. He married his wife Paula in 1978, and she became instrumental in running the business side of the business out of their home.

“Mark has been a respected engineer in Minnesota and the upper Midwest his entire career. He built 12 commercial AM and FM radio stations, and rebuilt, upgraded, maintained and repaired countless other radio stations for clients. He has endeavored to share his knowledge and experience with others in the field. He has written more than 140 articles that have appeared in industry magazines and made more than 25 speeches and presentations at industry conventions, conferences and meetings.”

Nominees are SBE members and have been active for 40 years or more in broadcast engineering or an allied field. Persons joined the SBE in 1981 and is now a life member. He holds three life certifications from the society.

Persons retired several years ago but is active in the SBE Mentor Program. He’s also a ham and a member of the American Legion, The VFW and Disabled American Veterans.

You can watch the replay of the membership meeting and awards ceremonies on the SBE YouTube channel.

As previously announced, RJ Russell received the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year award. Fred Baumgartner and Roland Robinson received the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year award. New SBE Fellows Ralph Beaver and Jim Leifer were saluted.

[Related: “RJ Russell Is SBE’s Engineer of the Year”]

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The “Next Best Thing Media Tour” is rolling onward, having visited almost two dozen markets so far, and with a long list to go before it concludes around Thanksgiving time.

It’s a traveling outdoor equipment expo intended to help engineers and others see equipment or talk to vendors in person, in this year without an NAB Show. In some cases the visits coincide with SBE chapter meetings.

Stops for the week of Sept. 28 are Philadelphia, Baltimore, Raleigh and Charlotte. Major markets on the list and yet to be visited include Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Atlanta.

Prime movers in the effort include Greg Dahl of Second Opinion Communication, Dave Kerstin of Broadcasters General Store and Jeff Williams of Yellowtec.

Companies with product and/or people taking part are American Recorders, Angry Audio, BDI, Broadcast Bionics, Broadcast Tools Inc., CANARE Corp. of America, CircuitWerkes, Comrex, DJB, ENCO Systems Inc., Graham Studios, Henry Engineering, Inovonics Inc., Kathrein Broadcast USA, Kintronic Labs, Masterclock, Inc, Myat, NotaBotYet, Radio Design Labs, Shoreview Distribution, Shure Incorporated, Sprite Media, Summit Technologies Group, Telos Alliance, Vclock, and WorldCast Group.

Dahl has said that the idea was inspired in part by the “Taste of NAB” tour that Larry Bloomfield conducted over several years.

The tour stops in four communities each week. The group photo above was taken this week in Cleveland.

Masks and hand sanitizer are available at each location. The organizers said equipment and surfaces are sanitized between interactions.

A link to the schedule is available at the Second Opinion Facebook page.

The post “Next Best Thing” Tour on Mid-Atlantic Swing appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters is standing behind the Federal Communications Commission decision not to create a new class of low-power FM stations.

In a Report and Order issued earlier this year, the FCC concluded that it would not move to create a new class of 250-watt LPFM stations, known as the LP-250 service. The NAB agreed with the FCC in recently submitted comments, arguing that there is no reason for the FCC to create another class of service, governed by a different set of rules. Moreover, the association said, if an LPFM applicant or station wants to operate a 250-watt radio station, it can apply for a Class A license just like any other entity.

[Read: LPFM Stations Seek Technical Upgrades]

A formal Petition for Reconsideration was filed by a group of LPFM/NCE community radio engineer advocates as part of an FCC Report and Order on modernizing media regulations (formally known as Amendment of Parts 73 and 74 to Improve the Low Power FM Radio Service Technical Rules, Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, MB Docket Nos. 19-193 and 17-105). Those commenters included Todd Urick with Common Frequency, Paul Bame with the Prometheus Radio Project and five other LPFM operators and engineers.

The group complained in its most recent filing that the FCC did not adequately acknowledge LPFM advocates’ concerns nor did it address numerous sentiments regarding the subject in the final FCC order. Specifically, the commenters argued that LP-250 is not in conflict with the Local Community Radio Act’s requirement regarding reducing minimum distance separations between LPFM and full-service stations. The commenters said that nothing in the commission’s reasoning within the order offer adequate enough rationale for denying the creation of an LP-250 service.

Rather, they said, the commission seemed to imply that the LP-250 issue required further study, which the commenters infer to mean that the commission intends to open a proceeding in the future to solicit various LP-250 proposals for stakeholders to contemplate. In addition, such a solicitation would also address LPFM operators’ concerns about low-power FM service deficiencies that curtail listener reception.

“There does not seem conclusive reasoning to not consider a LP-250 service,” the group said in its comments. “The commission has vastly assisted in relief concerning AM broadcasters failing coverage. Shouldn’t commensurate effort be extended to ameliorating LPFM coverage issues? [Plus,] there is certainly a demand for relief concerning LPFM interference/underpower concerns within the station’s 60 dBu contour of many LPFM stations.”

The NAB responded by saying the petitioners are only rehashing claims in support of LP-250 service that the FCC already fully considered. The petitioners also offer no new information about the burden on applicants of preparing contour studies and entirely ignore the impact on the FCC of having to review such studies, the NAB said. The association also said that although the text of the LCRA does not specifically cap LPFM power levels, the act does prohibit reduction of the minimum distance separations between LPFM and FM stations and that LP-250 supporters have not shown that LP250 service could be consistent with these spacing requirements.

“Petitioners urge the FCC to relitigate its view of the LCRA, but do not offer any additional facts or policy reasons,” the NAB said. “The FCC has repeatedly and consistently spoken on this matter, and while petitioners may disagree with the commission, the FCC’s approach is perfectly valid, thoughtful and requires deference.”

The NAB reminded the FCC that the group failed to provide new facts or new arguments in this subsequent round of comments, which is a necessary part of the process when the FCC considers reversing an earlier decision.

“As [the commenters are] well-aware, the act struck a careful balance between the interests of noncommercial entities for more licensing of LPFM stations with those of incumbent services for interference safeguards,” the NAB said in its comments. “Allowing LPFM stations to more than double their maximum power now, a decade later, would upend the careful balance that stakeholders forged at the time.”

Comments on the issue can be viewed within the FCC’s ECFS electronic database using Docket 17-105 or 19-193.

The post FCC Decision to Nix Creation of New LPFM Class Gets Reactions appeared first on Radio World.

DTS and its parent company Xperi said they’ve expanded DTS Connected Radio coverage in Italy by working with FM-world, a radio station streaming and aggregation platform.

DTS Connected Radio is a hybrid radio platform built around a database of broadcast metadata. Xperi says the platform is about to come to market in a number of 2021 vehicles. Hybrid systems combine over-the-air reception with internet connectivity to provide features like enhanced graphics, geo-targeting and data aggregation.

[Read: Xperi Highlights Its In-Cabin Monitoring Efforts]

FM-world — part of technology company Elenos, which also owns Broadcast Electronics — describes itself as “an ecosystem that lives around the radio.” Its activities include an online newspaper about radio and an app for radio listening that includes visual radio capabilities.

Under this agreement FM-world content will be integrated into the Xperi platform, feeding data and streams to the DTS Connected Radio system on behalf of its own Italian broadcast partners and other markets.

“The companies have completed and validated country-wide integration in Italy and will rapidly add more FM-world territories in other countries,” they announced.

The announcement was made by Gianluca Busi, CEO of FM-world, and Joe D’Angelo, senior vice president of radio at Xperi.

“FM-world will feed validated live, now-playing data, as well as station streaming services into DTS Connected Radio,” according to the announcement. “This collaboration will provide all FM-world’s broadcast clients with turnkey integration and presence in the DTS Connected Radio ecosystem.”

D’Angelo was quoted saying of FM-world: “Their unique position in Italy, and other markets, makes them an ideal partner as we work to revolutionize the in-car radio listening experience.”

Xperi recently completed its merger with Tivo. It is also the parent of HD Radio as well as DTS AutoSense, a line of car occupancy and driver monitoring systems.

The post Xperi Partners With FM-world in Italy appeared first on Radio World.

James Ragsdale, a former finance executive at Anderson University in Indiana, will be the new executive director of the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

When he comes on board in January, Ragsdale will be only the second full-time executive director of SBE.

He was chosen from a field of 28 candidates to succeed John Poray, who will step down at the end of 2020 after almost three decades. Poray gave the society a one-year heads up that he’d be leaving.

[Read: “SBE’s Poray to Retire in 2020”]

Ragsdale was the VP for finance at Anderson University, a private liberal arts school where he managed the operational budget; he was a member of the university president’s leadership team and oversaw the business office, human resources, physical plant, police and security, and auxiliary services.

Prior, Ragsdale was senior financial analyst at Ascension Technologies, where he managed the operational and capital budgets for Indiana Market and St. Vincent Health system. He also was treasurer and controller at Church of God Ministries and practice administrator at Anderson Family Practice Associates.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree in business management and public affairs at what was then called Anderson College; he has a masters of business administration in finance from Indiana University.

The SBE board approved the appointment following a meeting Tuesday.

Society President Wayne Pecena thanked the people involved in the search effort including Past President Joe Snelson, who led the search committee.

The non-profit professional society is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and has approximately 5,000 members and 114 local chapters.

John Poray was SBE’s first full-time executive director and has been with the society since 1992. He began his career in with the Boy Scouts of America’s Central Ohio Council and went on to work for Kiwanis International, The Apartment Association of Indiana and The Columbus Apartment Association.

The post SBE Names Its New Executive Director appeared first on Radio World.

Our First Amendment freedoms are an essential part of our democracy and the National Association of Broadcasters wants to celebrate that.

The NAB announced the launch of a campaign celebrating the First Amendment and its guarantee of free speech and the press. The campaign — which is being hosted at WeAreBroadcasters.com — provides a toolkit with on-air and digital resources to help media professionals, policymakers and the public celebrate the First Amendment.

[Read: NAB Ad Campaign Emphasizes Local Broadcasting]

“America’s founders, in their infinite wisdom, understood that our country could not long survive without a free press that could report the facts and deliver their opinions without fear or favor,” said NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith in a statement. “NAB celebrates this enduring principle that has kept our communities informed and engaged since our nation’s early days, and we honor the ongoing work of the press in preserving our democracy.”

The campaign coincides with the 231st anniversary of congressional passage of 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution that were sent to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments were eventually adopted as the Bill of Rights — the First Amendment provided the freedom of religion, speech, the press and the right of assembly.

The NAB created a series of radio and TV spots for broadcasters available in English and Spanish. The resources include an interactive timeline of key First Amendment moments in history, shareable video and social media posts, on-air talking points, and a listing of association, organizations and partners that defend and support the First Amendment.

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Axis Entertainment Inc., has released its latest NextKast Broadcast automation, Terrestrial License. The latest automation offering has evolved over the last few years as the software adds more terrestrial customers looking for an intuitive software with the power to run FM, AM, and HD radio stations at an affordable cost.

Some of the features include Natural Log, Marketron, and other traffic merging; Advanced Nexus Integration with Music Master; ability to import external logs from most other music scheduling programs; enhanced live assist screen with track search on second screen; current hour remote and in studio voice tracking; advanced playlist macros; and much more. TCP and cloud-based voice tracking is available for PC, and cloud-based voice tracking on MacOS.

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

The scheduler includes features like multipass scheduling (giving power categories artist separation bias), granular hourly mood/feature/gender flow, daypart sectioning for evenly distributing songs in different dayparts, date and time track restrictions, and more.

Hardware triggering is achieved using serial connection either USB or RS-232 using the Broadcast Tools relay boards like the SRC-16 Plus or SRC-4. The software can run well in a virtual server environment because of its minimal CPU and memory requirements. It has been time tested running in the Telos Alliance Axia IP-Audio Driver environment.

The new affiliate mode allows one main studio instance generating music and voice tracking, while affiliate stations have control of local commercials, imaging and station IDs. The end result is each affiliate’s imaging and commercials are unique to that station but voice tracks and music are shared, eliminating satellite or remote triggering scenarios. NextKast Broadcast version now also integrates closely with syndicated content providers such as local radio networks and others.

Info: www.nextkast.com

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