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The FCC Media Bureau has okayed a petition from iHeartMedia regarding foreign investors that hold its stock.

iHeart had asked the bureau to approve foreign interests held by Global Media & Entertainment Investments Ltd. and related entities totaling 6.8% equity and 8% voting interests in iHeart. It also asked for advance approval for GMEI and its entities to increase those interests up to 14.99%.

In an earlier 2020 ruling, the bureau had authorized up to 100% overall foreign investment in iHeart; at the time it approved two groups to hold more than the usual limit of 5%. The PIMCO Group could hold up to 32.99% of equity and 19.99% of voting interests while the Invesco Group could hold up to 19.99% of equity and voting. In making those rulings the FCC said iHeart would need its approval for any further foreign investment above 5%.

But then iHeart said it learned last February that GMEI — formerly called Honeycomb Investments Ltd. and based in the Bahamas — had independently acquired about 9.6 million shares of its stock on the NASDAQ exchange, about 6.6% of equity and 8.7% of voting interests.

iHeart notified the FCC and sought approval for those percentages, plus advance approval for GMEI to go up to 14.99%. (GMEI itself asked for approval to go up to 49.99% but later withdrew that request and fell back to the 14.99% figure.) iHeart said this ruling would incentivize foreign investment and benefit U.S. trade policy by encouraging reciprocal investment opportunities for U.S. companies abroad. It also said GMEI represents no national security or law enforcement concerns.

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So in short the latest FCC ruling grants approval for GMEI and its related entities to hold more than 5% of iHeart’s equity and/or voting interest as well as advance approval to increase its interests up to 14.99%. The previous approvals also remain in place: aggregate direct and/or indirect foreign ownership of iHeart above the usual 25% benchmark is allowed up to 100%; (2) approval for the PIMCO Group to hold up to 32.99% of equity and 19.99% of voting interests in the company; and (3) approval for the Invesco Group to hold up to 19.99% of the equity and voting interests.

The Media Bureau took input from a federal advisory committee on foreign participation, which found no concerns. iHeart will still have to obtain approval for additional foreign investors to hold more than 5% (or 10% for certain institutional investors).

iHeart estimated that following the FCC’s approval, direct and indirect foreign ownership of its capital stock would be “at a minimum, approximately 30% as to voting and 40% as to equity.” But that would not be an issue given the FCC’s previous ruling permitting iHeart aggregate foreign ownership up to 100%.

Read the ruling and the commission’s in-depth explanation of the case.

Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post FCC Grants iHeart Petition on GMEI Foreign Investment appeared first on Radio World.

An effort by iHeartMedia to cap the FCC’s advance approval of any investment in the audio content and distribution giant by Michael Tabor-controlled Global Media & Entertainment at just under 15% has proven successful.

As such, GMEI, which bankrolls some of Great Britain’s biggest radio brands, will not get pre-approval from the Media Bureau to hold up to 49.99% nonvoting interest in iHeart.

But, GMEI withdrew that request in some six weeks ago.

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SANTA CLARITA, CALIF. — The Station Resource Group (SRG) has announced that a 37-year veteran of public radio will succeed long-term co-CEOs Tom Thomas and Terry Clifford, who have led the organization since its inception.

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What does Wall Street think of the late Monday announcement that the current CEO of Salem Media Group will step aside on January 1 and transition to the newly created role of Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors?

Investors seem to be pleased with the succession plan, as Salem stock soared by nearly 13% in midday trading on Nasdaq.

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The Independent Broadcasters Association (IBA) has elected four new members its Board of Directors.

The new Board members are Tom Burns, the owner Technicom & Sauk Valley Broadcasting; Gary Berkowitz, President of Berkowitz Broadcast Consulting; Steve Clendenin, the owner and GM of WHGM-AM & FM in Havre de Grace, Md.; and Jim Jacobs, President of Radio Richmond LLC.

The election took place between November and December. The new board members will serve beginning January 1, 2020, for a three-year term.

Outgoing board members are David Stephens, Owner of Stephens Media Group; Michael J. Flood, Owner of Flood Communications; Deborah Barrera of R Communications LLC; and Cindy Taylor Chesson, GM of River Radio Network/Bridge Media/Ohio Midland Newsgroup.

Jacobs commented, “In an incredibly short period of time, the hard work of the Independent Broadcasters Association has shown remarkable growth. I am looking forward to working with the IBA Board and being a part of what promises to be an even brighter future.”

From our Who’s Buying What page: Triton Digital said radio group Fresh Media Bulgaria is using its audio streaming technology and services.

“Fresh Media Bulgaria will be able to provide Triton Digital’s cutting-edge Dynamic Ad Insertion technology to its publishers to effortlessly control and monetize content through precision-targeted audio ads,” the supplier said.

Fresh Media Bulgaria will also use Triton’s Supply Side platform Yield-Op to maximize revenue opportunities through programmatic ad buys.

Triton said Fresh Media Bulgaria is the largest radio group in the country. Its brands include BG Radio, Radio 1, NRJ, Radio City, Radio1 Rock, Veronika, Radio Nova and City TV.

The announcement was made by Fresh Media Bulgaria General Manager Nikolay Yanchovichin and Triton Digital Head of Global Revenue Stephanie Donovan.

Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Fresh Media Bulgaria Deploys Triton Services appeared first on Radio World.

On June 21, 2007, a group of AM and FM radio stations were placed into the Aloha Station Trust. Originally overseen by the late Jeanette Tully, the trustee later became former Backyard Broadcasting head Barry Drake.

In May, the final FM properties in the trust were donated to the Delmarva Educational Association. This left an AM in the Huntington, W. Va. market as the last remaining property under Drake’s care.

An asset sale agreement has just been filed for FCC approval.

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On July 1, 2020, a management and programming agreement was reached that allowed a Class A Classic Hits station serving the tiny towns of Twisp and Winthrop to greatly expand its reach in Eastern Washington.

Now, the station that has been the simulcast partner is seeing a change in control within its ownership, FCC documents show.

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Manufacturer AEQ has named its distributors of the year.

Tommex is a an integrator in Poland that works in broadcast, corporate and multimedia AV environments. “It has been part of AEQ’s commercial network since 2019, and in the last 12 months its work has resulted in numerous installations of intercom systems in the country, both in production centers and in theaters or sports halls,” AEQ wrote in the announcement.

AEQ Distributors of the Year Tommex of Poland (left) and Jamiro Broadcast of Kenya. Falcon Technologies of India was also honored.

Falcon Technologies in India, broadcast division of the Eagle Group, has been an AEQ distributor for more than 20 years. Among its recent work are two large projects for the national radio television of India, which involved installations in 33 cities.

Jamiro Broadcast in Kenya is a recent addition to the AEQ distribution network. The company focuses on design, installation and launch of radio studios.

AEQ said that the work of its distributors and integrators has been particularly challenging because of the global pandemic. “But radio and television in the world have not stopped, they cannot stop, they are the source of information and entertainment for a very important part of the society.”

The post AEQ Names 2021 Distributors of the Year appeared first on Radio World.

Jeff Winemiller and his Lowcountry 34 Media has been divesting low-power television stations in various locales across the U.S. for more than a year. Among those transactions is the June 2020 sale of W26DT-Din Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Now, Lowcountry 34 Media is engaging in another deal involving the same buyer of that Grand Strand property. This time the locale is Music City USA.

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Updated at 11:30am Eastern

On February 11, 2020, RBR+TVBR offered its first coverage of the COVID-19’s impact on the global broadcast media world. At the time, the report on how the owner of KHTS-FM in Santa Clarita, Calif., Carl Goldman, and his wife and travel companions were among the thousands of quarantined passengers aboard the Diamond Princess in Yokohama, Japan, was questioned by some readers as being too peripheral to the business of broadcast media in the U.S. The pandemic, to these industry figures, was seen as a largely Asian concern.

Nearly two years later, COVID-19 remains a global threat, thanks largely to the Omicron variant. And, with days until CES 2022 commences in Las Vegas, COVID-19 is now placing that mega-conference’s attendees on high alert — especially now that several high-profile companies have withdrawn, including the biggest audio content and distribution company in the U.S.

According to the New York Post, CES 2022 is not in danger of a full-blown cancellation, at least as of Tuesday evening (12/21). The report came just hours after RBR+TVBR reported that NAGRA is adding virtual meetings to its CES 2022 action plan. “As many people are not attending CES, NAGRA is scheduling virtual meetings to share their news,” the portable audio recorder company based in Switzerland said.

By Wednesday morning, the “On The Money” columnists at the newspaper learned that Nvidia, JPMorgan, and PepsiCo are each withdrawing from CES. The cancellation of Nvidia from CES is particularly unsettling, given their traditionally major presence at the technology conference and expo.

For broadcast media, iHeartMedia told the New York Post columnists they, too, will not attend CES 2022.

It is now known that the company’s iHeartRadio “Live @CES” in partnership with Medialink has been scrubbed. In a statement, iHeartRadio said, “We were looking forward to seeing you at our iHeartRadio Live at CES party at Area 15 on Thursday, January 6, 2022 to share a special performance by Swedish House Mafia — but to keep our friends and partners safe during this unpredictable time, we’ve made the decision to cancel the event.”

While unconfirmed, RBR+TVBR hears key iHeartMedia executives will still be in attendance at CES 2022 and that only this event has been cancelled. It marks the second time a radio industry event featuring Swedish House Mafia has been impacted, as it had been the closing performer at the Audacy Beach Festival on December 5 in Fort Lauderdale, only to be removed from the bill less than 24 hours before showtime due to COVID-19 exposure among members of the act or its tour team.

Meanwhile, the “On The Money” team says journalists from CNN, Forbes, TechCrunch, Engadget, MarketWatch, The Verge and The New York Times’ Wirecutter feature are also not planning to attend CES 2022.

The Post report coincides with a CNET story noting that T-Mobile, Twitter and Meta are also withdrawing from CES 2022.

While these high-profile withdrawals are generating headlines, CES 2022 remains a go. As such, the Jacobs Media Strategies “VIP Private Tour” is on schedule for Thursday, January 6 at 2:30pm Pacific at varying costs for clients and non-clients. “Our 90-minute private tours are limited to 15 guests and led by an expert employed by the CTA,” Jacobs Media says.

From 5-7pm Pacific on January 6 is the CES 2022 Radio Reception, located at the Bellagio Las Vegas Resort & Casino. The invitation-only event is co-presented by Radio Ink and Radio + Television Business Report in partnership with Beasley Media Group, QUU, Xperi, Benztown and vCreative.

CES requires proof of vacination.

Kenya’s Communications Authority is beginning the process of reclaiming unused frequencies across the country. CA Director-General Ezra Chioba made the announcement Dec. 22., saying the applicants and license holders have 30 days to bring their operations into compliance or their license would be cancelled.

According to The Standard newspaper in Nairobi, Chioba, who was appointed director-general in September 2021, came into office with an eye towards reforming Kenya’s regulatory framework for broadcasting. As part of this, he said the CA would begin repossessing unused broadcast licenses with the intent of redistributing them to new investors.

“We have in the last few weeks we reviewed and identified those culpable. Accordingly, we have decided to revoke target licenses. This will allow us to re-plan and re-allocate these resources to investors who demonstrate commitment to establish and offer viable broadcasting services,” Chioba said, according to The Standard.

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In the notice posted to the CA website, six groups of revocations are outlined, including the cancellation of license offers and revocation of FM frequencies for 60 broadcasters. That list includes large commercial stations like Capital FM, NRG Radio, and Mbaitu FM.

The frequencies in question, in some cases, are for additional transmitters, so the revocation does not mean that all the stations will leave the airways entirely.

In its report on the revocation, Capital FM’s owners stated: “We wish to assure our loyal listeners, clients and other stakeholders that the Management of Capital Group Limited is seized of the matter for total compliance,” using a legal phrase to say they were looking to ensure compliance.

In addition to the 60 license offers, the CA announced the revocation of four frequency assignments to license holders and 18 FM frequencies assignments to non-permit holders who had yet to apply for broadcasting licenses, as well as the rejection of 24 applications for commercial and community radio services who had yet to comply with licensing requirements including paying regulatory fees. Nineteen television licenses and three subscription-based broadcasting services were also marked for revocation of license offers for failure to act within the CA’s prescribed timeline.

Last year, Kenyan authorities announced plans to crackdown on “absentee” license holders and transfers of licenses without prior regulatory approval.

The post Kenyan Authorities Begin Reclaiming Frequencies appeared first on Radio World.

Gifts to yourself to start a new year right! John Bisset heads over to Ace Hardware with a few bucks in his pocket.

Also in this issue:

The FCC weighs the idea of EAS on the internet.

Buyer’s Guide looks at interesting applications of antennas and RF support products including a custom diplexed AM antenna system for CKSP.

And we feature winners of the Best in Market Awards for 2021.

Read it here.

The post Read the Dec. 22, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

The Dec. 22 issue of Radio World features our Buyer’s Guide for antennas, RF support and power products. Buyer’s Guide features application stories like this one. 

CKNW(AM), a 50 kW station at 980 kHz, is an existing four-tower directional array located near Surrey, to the southeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

CKSP, a 600 kHz, 50 kW DA-D, 20 kW DA-N station operated by Sher-E-Punjab, a broadcaster specializing in South Asian news/talk content, was added to the site making use of two of the four towers. It required a diplexed directional antenna system designed and fabricated by Kintronic Labs to facilitate the simultaneous operation of both stations from the CKNW transmitter site.

According to Tom King, president/CEO of Kintronic Labs, project management of the diplexed AM directional antenna system project was conducted by Richard Sondermeyer of G.S.Broadcast Technical Services Ltd. of Mississauga, Ontario. Final commissioning was conducted by Rob Elder, the Kintronic Labs field engineer.

The existing CKNW four-tower array is in the shape of a parallelogram, with two diagonally opposing towers oriented along a north–south line, and the other diagonally opposing towers oriented along a line rotated roughly 50 degrees clockwise from the center of the north–south line.

The NW tower is also the closest to the transmitter building, and its ATU building houses the CKNW power division/phasing networks as well as the tower matching network for this tower. The two towers on the north side of the array are those used for the new 600 kHz system, with the towers on the south side of the array detuned for 600 kHz.

The 600 kHz phasing and matching system was installed in a separate container located south of the CKNW transmitter building. The CKSP matching, filter and detune cabinets were installed in weatherproof housings and mounted on wooden platforms at the base of each of the towers.

The post CKSP Initiates Service via Diplexed AM Directional System appeared first on Radio World.

The following are in response to the Mark Persons article “Alike but Not Alike: Broadcast vs. Ham Radio.”

Well said

Having been an amateur radio operator for more than 67 years (and an occasional contributor to Radio World), I want to compliment Mark Persons on his article in the Oct. 27 issue.

It is the best explanation of the amateur radio hobby that I have ever read. There is nothing more that I could add to describe “hamming” to both the technical and non-technical, and I will rely on it to explain and recruit more hams to our hobby. 73.

John Seibels, K4AXV

 

Remembering the magic

I was a broadcaster first for a number of years and didn’t get licensed in amateur radio until 1990. In the early years, it seemed that many of the engineers I worked with were hams. Maybe not so much anymore. But one of them proved a worthy “Elmer” to me and got me up and running on ham over 30 years ago.

There are indeed many similarities, at least in the technical aspects. When I started in broadcasting, a Third Class License was required. Every person overseeing an air shift needed to take transmitter readings to ensure compliance in power output. Other “off-air” duties included making sure we powered down or up at the appropriate times to sunrise or sunset, check the tower lights and other similar tasks.

As time went on, the Third Class requirement was dropped, as were the requirements of the broadcasters to be knowledgeable of power readings, and such.

They were fun years: two turntables, three cart decks and a microphone staring you in the face. No automation, no computers. Even having time to use the bathroom on a six-hour shift was pretty much limited to the 4½-minute UPI news feed at the top of the hour.

My last years in broadcasting were distilled down to recording cuts and saving them with specified file names.

Of course, ham radio is more recreational. The content is not controlled by a station log but by the person on the other end of the QSO.

But there was still the magic of being on the other side of a microphone. If conditions were good, it was not unusual for me to work a number of QSOs before and after being on the air as a broadcaster.

I am grateful for the broadcast engineers I’ve known over the years, keeping us on the air with our broadcast stations as well as helping me get into ham radio. 73.

Scott McIntire, K7DXT

 

On the same frequency

I live in the Washington area and have been a pro broadcaster since 1979, but I didn’t jump into amateur radio until 2009. When I did it was with both feet. I even changed my ringtone on my cellphone to the Morse characters CQ, which hams use to call out over the air to talk to other hams.

As a frequent commuter bus rider, I often have to transfer at the Pentagon bus depot. Many of my fellow passengers are military folks who disembark there for their day of duties.

One morning my phone rang — “dah-dit-dah-dit, dah-dah-dit dah.”

I heard a loud guffaw went up from the back of the bus. One of the other passengers — either a ham or part of the Signal Corps — recognized the pattern and got my joke.

Broadcast radio and ham radio. Love ’em both.

Alan Peterson, KJ4IVD
National Production Director & Second Engineer
Radio America Network

The post Readers Celebrate Ham Radio appeared first on Radio World.

John Schmidt, P.E., is principal of John Schmidt Audio Video Systems Design in Hempstead, N.Y. For 36 years until retirement, he worked for ABC Television in New York as a senior audio video systems engineer, designing and supervising the installation of audio systems.

After reading a recent Workbench column, John offered a few suggestions to help the uninitiated create more problems than they solve when working with microphone cable shields.

Individuals involved in connecting analog audio equipment should familiarize themselves with two Audio Engineering Society standards: AES 48 and AES 54. These describe best practices in dealing with cable shields.

John’s first suggestion based on the guidelines is that the microphone cable shields need to be connected — typically to Pin 1 of an XLR connector, as seen in Fig. 1 — in a continuous, preferably isolated path from the mic to the input of the mic preamp.

Pin 1 is considered ground on a three-pin XLR.

Keep in mind that mics that utilize phantom power will not work without a shield (Pin 1) connection, as the cable shield provides a return path for the phantom power that operates the electronics inside the microphone.

Even if the mic does not use phantom power, failure to connect the shield may leave the mic circuit subject to hum or buzz due to capacitive coupling to one or the other of the active conductors, or interference due to RF pickup.

Now the issue moves to the line-level interconnects. Here there is a conflict between the practicality of the interconnecting equipment — which may not have been designed with best practice for grounding the shield connection (Pin 1 on the XLR) at the equipment interface — and requirements for RF immunity.

If all equipment was designed with proper termination of the shield connections for both its inputs and outputs, in accordance with AES 48, one would be advised to connect the shields of all input and output cables where they interface with the equipment at both ends. But as many of us have learned, this sometimes creates hum in the form of a ground loop.

At the expense of losing some RF immunity, connect the shield at only one end.

[Check Out More of Workbench Here]

If breaking the shield at one end solves your hum/buzz issue but leaves the equipment RF susceptible, try connecting the unterminated end of the shield to the metal case of the equipment through a small capacitor.

Transformer boxes can be useful, but John recommends specifying transformers with internal shields between the windings. Otherwise the capacitive coupling between the windings can pass interference.

Also keep in mind that some transformers have very poor frequency response when fed from a low-impedance source. If your circuitry is unbalanced, with the shield grounded at both the output and the input, and is carrying the return side of the audio signal, all bets are off, and you may really have a ground loop.

Finally, regarding analog video: Yes, the coax is fed with an unbalanced signal; however, most professional video equipment uses differential receive amplifiers, where the shield of the input is not grounded. The same is true for the unbalanced “composite” input of many FM exciters.

As readers can see, this is not a trivial issue.

John Schmidt’s website is www.john.schmidt.audio/main/.

A better way to model

On Oct. 29, Radio World reported on a proposal by Dielectric and other antenna manufacturers to allow computer modeling of FM directional antennas.

The FCC has opened a notice of proposed rulemaking to take industry comments about this. It says more than 2,000 full-service FM stations, more than 20 percent of them, use directional antennas. The change would allow any of them that replace existing antennas to avoid the expense of field measurements. It would apply not only to applicants for new FM facilities but to FM licensees applying for facility modifications.

An image from the Dielectric presentation to the Broadcasters Clinic about computational modeling of FM directional antennas.

John L. Schadler, a friend and former co-worker of mine when I was at Dielectric, outlined the studies that support this proposal in a presentation for the Broadcasters Clinic in October.

John’s presentation is available online and is fascinating. Of particular interest are the computer simulations John shows of FM coverage. Adjustment of parasitics or spacing yields nearly instantaneous display of the FM coverage pattern. These measurements, done physically on a range or in an anechoic chamber, currently take hours or days. In just a few minutes, patterns can be reliably modeled, modified or adjusted to meet coverage restrictions.

Final thought

Kuala Lumpur engineer Paul Sagi has followed our discussion of converting to LED lighting. He writes that heat is not the only enemy of LEDs; the wrong type of power supply can also shorten their life. LEDs work best on a constant current supply, rather than a constant voltage supply, which can also reduce their service time.

Got a great ideas? Share it! Tips for Workbench qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

John Bisset, CPBE, is in his 31st year of sharing reader tips in Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.

The post Workbench: The importance of microphone cable shields appeared first on Radio World.

The author is assistant chief engineer for Radio One Dallas.

When our station KSOC became the first in Texas to broadcast in HD Radio, we knew that we needed to be on top of our audio quality in order to best take advantage of the new technology. But like many stations we really had no idea where much of our music came from.

We knew that, although the songs in our playout system were all stored as uncompressed WAV files, at least some had originated as MP3 files. We wanted to find a way to identify those songs so that they could be replaced with pristine, uncompressed audio files.

It’s important to use the best-quality source material for on-air broadcast, but especially so when you are broadcasting in HD. The GIGO principle applies: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Kirk Harnack, senior solutions consultant at Telos Alliance, had this to say about broadcasting previously compressed source audio on an HD Radio station: “Audio that’s been psychoacoustically encoded and decoded is now missing the ‘low-hanging fruit’ that the original encoder identified and eliminated or modified. If we cascade another psychoacoustic audio encoding algorithm after the first one, the second encoder will not have the benefit of the natural audio’s content that was easy to eliminate.”

So it’s in our interest and that of our listeners to ensure that the audio we broadcast, which will be processed by the HD Radio encoder, hasn’t already been subjected to a lossy compression algorithm. With hard drive space as abundant and affordable as it is today, storage space is no longer a reason to obtain our music in a compressed format such as MP3.

But short of listening to every song in the library with a critical ear in a studio, how could we determine which songs had once been psychoacoustically compressed? All of our songs are now stored as WAV files so just looking at the file extension or the file size gives no hint whatsoever.

It turns out that there are certain clues visible in the spectrogram of an audio file that can help identify the formerly compressed songs. The most obvious one is the cutoff frequency used by the encoder.

When a file is compressed to MP3 format, the algorithm attempts to remove parts of the audio that the designers of the standard felt wouldn’t be missed by the human ear in an attempt to reduce file size.

Part of this is the cutoff of all audio content above a certain frequency. That frequency varies according to the bitrate of the MP3 compression scheme.

From my tests, it seems that a bitrate of 192 kbps results in a cutoff of audio above about 18 kHz. A rate of 128 kbps cuts off above 16–17 kHz. This is easy to see when looking at the spectrogram of an MP3 song.

See Fig. 1. Notice that at 17 kHz, the audio levels of this file are already in the noise floor.

Fig. 1: Spectrogram of “Crystal Ball” by Styx as MP3

Looking at the uncompressed version of the same song in Fig. 2, we don’t get to the –67 dB level until we reach the 21 kHz frequency range.

Fig. 2: The same song, linear uncompressed.

Put on your SoX
This finding allows us an opportunity to examine our library programatically. There is a command-line audio utility called “SoX” (for “sound exchange”) that we can use along with a scripting language to open files and examine their frequency content.

I decided to see if I could figure out how to use this utility to check out all our audio. The hope was that it would identify the songs that may have once been compressed so that we could examine these more closely and replace them if necessary.

I ended up with a Python script that loops through a folder with the audio files, opening each and using SoX to create a temporary file from the song after applying a high-pass filter at, say, 17 kHz. Then a second process takes the RMS amplitude value from this temporary file and compares it to a value previously discovered by experimentation. If below this nominal value, the file is flagged as a potential candidate for replacement.

These files can be examined manually with a program such as Audacity or Adobe Audition that offers a spectrogram view. The spectrogram can be examined and the file can be played in a controlled studio environment so that a determination can be made as to the need for replacement of the audio.

The line that creates the temporary high-pass-filtered audio file (filtered at 17 kHz) looks like this:

sox [original_filename] [output_file_name] sinc 17k

The code that does rest of the heavy lifting (determining the RMS value of the high-pass-filtered audio file) is a little scary looking:

sox output.wav -n stat 2>&1 | sed -n 's|^RMS amplitude:[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\)$|\\1|p' >>../rms.txt

All this really does is take a look at the temp file (output.wav) and call up the stats of the file. Then the sed program searches the resulting statistical output for the phrase “RMS amplitude” and writes the numerical value of that stat to a file called rms.txt. The rest of the code, not shown here, inserts the name of the song or audio file alongside the RMS value of that file. We end up with a list that looks something like Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

In this case, any song with a value below 0.001 is suspect. Subsequent inspection of those songs’ spectrograms confirmed that they had a “flat top” at about 17 kHz, thus we know that, although they are WAV files now, they have likely been compressed at some point in the past. Those songs should be replaced with known linear audio.

It should be noted that at high bitrates such as 320 kbps, this method won’t work as well because the frequency cutoff is close to 20 kHz.

If you’d like the complete Python script, email me at swalker@radio-one.comand I will send it along.
Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post What’s in Your Audio Library? appeared first on Radio World.

(Getty Images/Pias Rahman)

The author is vice president and secretary of Seven Ranges Radio in St. Mary’s, W.Va.

The FCC is discussing adding requirements for backup power at radio stations and other key communications providers, in order to maintain service during emergencies.

A worthwhile idea — but it’s not going to happen without federal money.

In 2012 a “derecho” hit our market of some 20 stations. This straight-line wind event shut down power for a wide area. The next morning, only my suburban B-1 FM and an AM station in town were on the air carrying emergency information.

For most small to medium-market stations, the proposal is not going to happen unless the government pays for generator installation. Even for a small plant, generator installation can start at $7,000 and go up from there. And these small systems need continual, annual maintenance.

And that’s in “fly-over” country. In the East and West, infested with bureaucrats, installation costs may be double or triple that in order to satisfy all the government agencies.

I own three stations in Market No. 242, two FMs and a full-time AM, plus a fourth Class A FM at a small town some 40 miles out of the market. Also in this market are another five AM stations, five non-com FMs and seven commercial FM signals.

In town we have a full-time AM and a Class A FM. The AM tower is at the AM/FM’s studios. Our suburban B-1 is at a combined studio/transmitter site 20 minutes from downtown. Our fourth FM is programmed from there. Both studios have generators, and  that out-of-town FM has one at the transmitter site.

We installed our first generator some 25 years ago at our suburban B-1, not specifically for emergency broadcast but because the local public utility was so unreliable. It proved its value in 2012 when the “derecho” toppled several transmission towers at the local power plant. We were on generator power for a week.

But the transmitter site for our in-town FM has no backup. We’ve talked about installing a generator, but between COVID slowing sales and a certain government agency sucking up around $7,000 each year in “fees,” that’s been put off again this year. On our same tower at that site are a local non-com plus translators for four of the six AM stations in town.

But we are in better shape than the rest of the market. The “big group” owner in town doesn’t have working backup at any of their three FMs, nor at their studio. The other group owner can power three of their four FMs if someone goes out to start the generator manually. But they have no backup power at the studio.

One AM — also locally owned by former NAB board member John Wharff — has backup power for his station and its associated translator. His was the only station on-air in town the day after the derecho. But that’s the roster.

Come another big storm, our two AMs and my suburban B-1 will be the only sources of emergency information.

Require backups?

Should the FCC require communications providers including broadcasters to have backup power provision? Comment to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post A Genset Mandate? Only if Uncle Sam Pays appeared first on Radio World.

Peter Skiera

From a radio station that streams from underwater to a station composed of stream-of-consciousness thoughts from a New Yorker calling exclusively from payphones, there is a wealth of unique, charming, niche and bizarre internet radio stations out there online.

Radio World spoke with Peter Skiera, the creator and author of the “Recommended Stations” website that uncovers and highlights stations that listeners might not be able to uncover on their own. “Given that there’s over 61,000 internet radio stations from around the world, people understandably get overwhelmed trying to find stations, and they never discover many really good stations,” he told Radio World. “I figured it was time somebody sifted through all of these stations and made recommendations.”

The interview has been edited slightly for length and clarity.

Radio World: For the uninitiated, can you tell me a bit about the Recommended Station list and what it offers listeners?

Peter Skiera: The point of my monthly Recommended Station list is to make radio and music enthusiasts aware of different, interesting, great radio stations they probably would never have discovered on their own. Last month I recommended a station that specializes in music from the early 20th century. This month I recommend two holiday stations, both very different from what one would normally expect from a holiday station. Next month’s Recommended and Hitchhiker Stations are associated with outer space.

Once someone joins the Patreon membership platform for $1, they get access to all of the stations I’ve recommended, as well as future recommendations and occasional blog content. I just want to try to recover my website and blog expenses since this endeavor is entirely self-funded. I don’t accept advertising on my website, no companies sponsor my articles, and I don’t earn a commission for recommending a station or a CD or LP.

RW: Before we get to an explanation of what a “hitchhiker station” is, could you share the backstory on the creation of this service?

Skiera: There are people who recommend audio equipment, books, movies, restaurants, cars so why not internet radio stations? Given that there’s over 61,000 internet radio stations from around the world, people understandably get overwhelmed trying to find stations, and they never discover many really good stations. I figured it was time somebody sifted through all of these stations and made recommendations.

So I started writing Recommended Station articles for an audio company’s blog about every six months, highlighting between six and nine standout internet radio stations, really going into great deal detail about them, including interviewing station founders or music directors to get the story behind the station.

A couple of readers emailed me suggesting I put out a monthly Recommended Stations newsletter rather than writing an article every six months. It was a good idea, but finding and vetting stations is a lengthy process and there was no way I could come up with six or nine stations every month for a newsletter. I got the idea to do one Recommend Station a month along with one Hitchhiker Station and linked my recommendations to Patreon to help support my music-related blog. As far as I know, I’m the only person in the world who recommends internet radio stations on a monthly basis and purposely seeks out bizarre stations.

RW: Tell us a bit about the unearthing of a Hitchhiker Station? What do these stations do?

Skiera: I call them “hitchhiker” stations because searching internet radio is akin to picking up hitchhikers on the highway. You don’t know if the person getting into your car is a college professor or a serial killer. Honestly, I think I get more excited when I find a Hitchhiker Station than I do a Recommended Station because they’re so rare. I love discovering bizarre stations that would not exist were it not for the internet. Granted, they’re not stations you’d probably listen to for an extended period of time, or perhaps not at all, but it’s fascinating to learn about them.

RW: It’s surprising to hear how many free internet radio stations are out there. Can you tell me a bit about some of the niche stations you’ve found?

Skiera: I’m also amazed at the number of stations, and the list keeps growing every day. Many people have no idea about all of this free content. I’d be very surprised if you couldn’t find at least one internet station streaming your favorite music.

Examples of some of the stranger stations I’ve uncovered: There’s a station in Washington state that streams live audio from a microphone that’s 23 feet underwater. Trying find that on your AM or FM dial. Then there’s the internet station that has outdoor weather instruments connected to an analog synthesizer, so when you tune in you hear the current weather conditions expressed as a continuously changing frequency.

In the U.K., there’s an internet station that plays nothing but radio station jingles. But I think my favorite Hitchhiker Stations is Payphone Radio Network. The New Yorker who started it calls in and records his thoughts about whatever happens to be on his mind at the time and then plays the recordings over his internet station. The kicker is, he calls in exclusively from public payphones! Yes, Virginia, there are still payphones.

RW: When it comes to curating a list, is there a catalogue of criteria that you are looking for before including them on your list? Does distinctiveness, listenership or other qualities come into play when making a recommendation?

Skiera: My stations have to sound good. Some stations stream at low bit rates or have audio problems like random noise or large gaps of silence. I won’t recommend those. They also must stream reliably. I’m not interested in the guy who streams out of his garage three days a week between midnight and 5 am for seven months out of the year.

The station’s format is the real key. There are a ton of internet stations with the same format, be it classic rock, oldies, country, classical, rap or what have you. Most of them play the same songs. The stations I write about have to do something different.

Perhaps they mix in other types of music not normally associated with the genre, or they have a really different format altogether, or maybe the station’s founder has an interesting backstory that motivated him or her to start their station. Just about anything that makes a station stand out from the other 60,000 radio stations usually gets my attention.

This month I’ve been listening a lot to a Canadian internet station I discovered called “Easy Listening Christmas,” playing artists like Percy Faith, Hollyridge Strings, Manheim Steamroller, Ray Conniff Singers, etc. It’s old-school holiday music for sure but it won’t put you in a coma for Christmas.

RW: How do find out about some of the more obscure radio stations hiding in various corners of the internet?

Skiera: Believe me, it’s not easy. There isn’t a “bizarre” station category one can search under. Most of the time I find my Hitchhiker Stations purely by accident. I will be searching for a particular station and up pops a list of stations in the search results. I scroll through them and see a station with a curious name and tune it. Bingo! I found myself a Hitchhiker Station. But they are few and far between. On average I sample 10 internet stations a day. Sometimes I can audition 100 internet stations and not find a single Hitchhiker Station among them.

RW: Can you share a bit about your music blog and the kind of music/stories you gravitate to?

Skiera: Ordinarily, I try to keep my blog articles (which are free) music-related. I devote a lot of time researching and crafting each one.

In October I traveled to Minneapolis to visit some Prince landmarks and wrote an article about it. In December I posted an article examining strange holiday music, including an album of Christmas music played on hand saws and a group of 80 harmonica players who recorded several Christmas songs in a garage!

I recently posted an article featuring Dean Martin’s backup singers, The Golddiggers. I tracked down five of the original members and interviewed them about the Christmas record they released in 1969 and about working with Martin. I also spoke with the producer of the record.

I also plan to post an exclusive, extensive interview I did with composer Paul Zaza who scored the soundtrack to A Christmas Story among many others.

I love music and radio. I love learning. I love painting pictures with words. And I love interviewing people. Everyone has a story to tell. It could be about anything. I enjoy telling people’s stories as it relates to the subject matter.

Case in point: A few months ago, I recommended a U.S. station called Crooner Radio and interviewed the station’s founder who I knew nothing about beforehand. In the course of my interview, I found out he knew Frank Sinatra and other big-name crooners, some of whom gave him previously unreleased recordings to play on his internet station. He is also a singer himself but never made any records. I love opening a door and finding a wonderful surprise.

RW: Can you been interested in music/radio for some time?

Skiera: I worked in radio broadcasting for almost seven years in various capacities throughout New England, including operations manager, DJ, promotion director, talk show producer, news announcer and board operator. I was a DJ at my college station, WERS(FM), I interned at WBCN(FM) in Boston, and my first radio job was with WPRO(AM) in Rhode Island. Radio is still very dear to my heart. I also worked in consumer audio at companies like B&W loudspeakers, Rotel, and Cambridge SoundWorks.

I took accordion lessons for a year when I was a teenager and piano lessons about 20 years ago, but I didn’t stick with either. I’m not gifted musically. I’m very jealous of people who have mastered a musical instrument. It’s truly a gift from God. Maybe when I retire 20 years from now, I’ll be able to dedicate the time necessary to learn an instrument.

RW: Is there anything else you’d like our readership to know about the kind of work you’re doing here?

Skiera: Internet radio is the new shortwave. You can tune stations a few miles away or from almost any part of the world without needing a shortwave radio and fiddling with an antenna. All you need is a stable Wi-Fi network and an internet radio or an app on your smartphone or computer. I live in an area with poor terrestrial radio reception, so internet radio is a godsend for me, and the sound quality is excellent.

There are so many music lovers who have no idea how much internet radio has to offer (and for free) or who are afraid of the technology. It’s my mission to make the medium less intimidating and expose great — and strange — internet stations for people to enjoy. As my website’s motto says: Stop Searching. Start Listening.

The post Delving into Quirky, Compelling Corners of the Internet Radio Universe appeared first on Radio World.

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