Radio World

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

This week, ethical breaches at the New York Times’ radio offerings came to a head. The lessons of how content and errors in judgment related to it can impact a station’s visibility in the community are matters worthy of reflection.

On Jan. 11, the Public Radio Program Directors association sent a letter to the New York Times, raising concerns from nearly 30 stations about ethical failures involving many parties. One of the Times’ recognized names, Michael Barbaro, host of “The Daily,” is at the center of the scandal.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Making Sense of Chaos]

The Times lays out the criticisms, which include Barbaro allegedly pressuring reporters around coverage and failure to disclose his romantic relationship with Lisa Tobin, the executive producer of the now discredited “Caliphate” podcast. Andy Mills, implicated in past controversies at WNYC, is also among the names raised amid these issues.

At least one station, Houston Public Media, has dropped “The Daily,” which became a syndicated radio offering last year. Tobin, Mills and Barbaro have yet to issue their own statements, though the Times has noted Barbaro regrets some of his actions.

The signatories of PRPD’s letter take a very clear position on programming that should be instructive to every station. “[M]illions of Americans rely on our news organizations every day as one of their most trusted sources of information and we are accountable for all the programming that we provide to them,” they write. “That trust, and our responsibility in upholding that trust, is the very foundation on which we operate; it is the most important and sacred bond that ties us together. When that trust is called into question, we must respond. We must make our very best decisions about the programming we deliver and ensure it meets the high standards that our listeners expect and demand from us, while also staying committed to the standards by which our newsrooms operate.”

Photo: Jonathan Farber

In brief, when programming does not live up to the trust listeners put in it, such stumbles put the station in a position where its credibility and trust as a whole are put into question. In economically challenging times, no station can really afford to have audiences feel like the outlet can’t be trusted with its programming, because that cascades into every relationship including giving.

For many years, community radio stations took a laissez faire approach to programming, believing that individual statements of paid and volunteer producers on air were up to them. Sometimes this could result in creative radio, such as the freeform radio movement of the 1970s and 1980s. At other times, it could result in broadcasting random opinion and conspiracy theories. In the last 10 years or so, however, more stations realized what larger outlets did before — the listener generally believes that the medium is responsible for what it puts on the air.

Today, it is common for community radio to ensure producers get training about what language is legally and ethically permissible. Plenty of stations still adhere to an open-ended approach that relies on producers to handle the airwaves well. Yet no station is immune from weighing out the interests of an individual producer and the station’s status in the city.

Community radio has come a long way in appreciating the art of radio requires an audience to make it magical. Trust is key to such a bond.

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Cumulus has failed to convince the Federal Communications Commission to reduce a $233,000 fine for violating sponsorship identification rules. The FCC also scolded the company for violating terms of a consent decree.

Broadcasters are required to disclose information about sponsors of paid-for programming. The commission decided last summer that various arms of Cumulus had aired paid programming without sponsorship ID announcements 26 times, and failed to notify the FCC about 13 of them as required by a 2016 consent decree that resolved earlier violations.

[Read: Broadcaster to Pay $125,000 as Part of Civil Penalty and Consent Decree]

Cumulus didn’t contest the findings in August but wanted the penalty reduced to the base penalty of $104,000. It said that the higher fine is excessive and argued that earlier incidents should not be used to justify a higher penalty because Cumulus had subsequently been reorganized, went through a transfer of control and now had a different board.

But in this week’s order the FCC wrote, among other things: “The respondent’s implication that it is a drastically different organization post-transfer is belied by the fact that its core senior management remained unchanged by the transfer of control.” And it stated: “The commission expects parties to honor agreements made in consent decrees, and when parties fail to do so, it is a very serious matter.”

Cumulus also had argued that its overall record of rule compliance is “as good as or better than any other large broadcaster in the industry,” that it has a “stellar” reputation, that management has focused on adherence to FCC rules, and that out of approximately 135 million ads during the three-year period covered by the consent decree, there were only two occasions of sponsorship ID noncompliance.

The commission dismissed those arguments too, saying, among other things, that it doesn’t take a company’s overall size into account as a mitigating factor. “To the contrary, if a corporate entity chooses to acquire many stations, it must ensure that it scales up its compliance efforts accordingly.”

Read the order.

The post FCC Confirms Cumulus Sponsor ID Penalty appeared first on Radio World.

Jessica Rosenworcel, lower left, speaks during the commission’s January meeting.

The violence at the U.S. Capitol prompted some poetic words from Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel when the Federal Communications Commission met this week.

She made time in her remarks during the online meeting to talk about her feelings after the insurrection.

“The images of that day linger. They are hard to shake,” said Rosenworcel, who prior to the FCC was senior communications counsel for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

[Read: Newest Commissioner Urges Cooperation, Peaceful Transfer]

“I worked for many years in the Capitol. I know its towering heights, secluded corners and labyrinth hallways. But it’s not the loftiness of those spaces that I find most compelling. It’s what’s down below on the floors,” she said.

“I’ve traversed them too many times to count, heading back and forth, clicking on the tiles in less-than-sensible work shoes. I think the most beautiful floor tiles in the Capitol are the mid-19th century encaustic mosaics. The clay is inlaid, so the colors in the tiles are especially vibrant and diverse. It’s like the metaphor for our union is right there on the ground. Even where these mosaic floors are uneven and worn, what strikes you most is the durability. They have survived so much in our history.

“History, of course, is always being written. The violence done to the Capitol last week is an especially ugly chapter. To see those sacred spaces desecrated stings. To see those gorgeous floors smeared with feces and hate hurts. To see the Confederate flag paraded across those tiles sears and burns. And to watch those disowning the hatred that brought us here when for too long they walked too casually alongside it is difficult.”

“It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.’ Now we have an opportunity to lean into the light.”

Wednesday’s FCC meeting also was the last for Chairman Ajit Pai and the first for Commissioner Nathan Simington.

Rosenworcel, a Democrat considered to be in the running as the next FCC chair, thanked Pai, a Republican, “for his years of public service” and praised him “for the work he has done to help keep those who work here safe during this pandemic. He went above and beyond to keep the staff of this agency informed and engaged in a time of real crisis.”

 

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Any given enthusiast on any given subject has his or her favorite “make” and “model.” Fishermen can rattle off their preferred rod and reel combinations in an instant. The same is true with home theatre junkies. And bicyclists. And gardeners.

If, however, you want to engage in a fiery, passionate debate for the ages, get an engineer riled up about microphones!

Radio engineers have a well-established pallet of large-diaphragm studio microphones from which to choose. Over the years a few players have darted on and off the scene in their efforts to provide some sort of nuance or cost-effective solution.

One of the more recent contributions comes from PreSonus. Known mostly for their audio interfaces and mixing consoles, the Louisiana-based manufacturer does have a microphone selection. They offer drum kit mics, matched-pair condensers, an RTA mic, large-diaphragm side address, and very recently, a USB voiceover mic option.

Adding to that growing catalog, PreSonus entered the hardcore radio broadcaster arena with the new PD-70, which retails for $129.95.

What is it? Read on!

Bulletproof Ruggedness

A radio studio is the most unforgiving environment for a microphone. Energetic on-air talent are physical and loud, and the first recipient of that energy is the mic. It’s why studio microphones are heavy and robust. The PreSonus PD-70 holds its own in that regard.

It weighs 1.4 pounds and is nothing but steel. A built-in pop filter and outer foam windscreen foster a sleek design and more importantly, excellent plosive rejection. It has a hard-mount design, but handling noise is minimal due to the sheer weight and solid inner construction.

The most interesting rugged feature is the XLR jack construction. It is built firmly into the back end of the PD-70 and it’s not going anywhere. If ever a microphone could be called a “brick,” the PD-70 is it.

Tech Specs

The PD-70, from a performance perspective, wasn’t designed to reproduce or accentuate warmth and tone. Its sole purpose is to accentuate clarity.

The frequency response is a full 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but the HP rolloff happens at nearly 100 Hz and falls off fairly rapidly. The upper frequencies are accented beginning at 1 kHz, leveling off at +5 dB around 4 kHz and then rolling off at 11 kHz. This translates into a microphone that keeps voices out of the mud. It’s that simple.

When conducting A/B comparisons to other legacy “radio mics,” the PD-70 coloration lends itself to aiding in situations where vocal clarity and microphone technique are poor. The proximity effect is greatly reduced by the early 100 Hz high-pass rolloff. Additionally, the PD-70 exhibits some sort of magic as it pertains to the higher frequency response, in that “S” sounds are very detailed and clean.

The dynamic nature of the PD-70 and its aggressive off-axis rejection makes it very forgiving in less-than-perfect acoustic environments. Unlike some dynamic microphones, the PD-70 noise floor is virtually nonexistent. It has a very clean output and performs smoothly, using any preamp.

At Home

So where should the PD-70 go?

As the price of $129.95 suggests, PreSonus introduced it as an entry-level, budget-friendly studio mic solution. In testing and comparisons, however, it is competitive against long-standing industry stalwarts.

The PD-70 would stand out where novice voice talent is present. It is forgiving to poor mic technique, accommodating to untrained vocal talent (who generally don’t know how to project properly), friendly to bad acoustical environments and it can absorb physical abuse.

For voice talent who have deeper, warm voices and need a microphone that will reproduce that warmth, the PD-70 may not be what he or she is looking for. For everyone else, who needs clarity and accurate voice reproduction, the PD-70 is a top-notch, affordable choice.

Large-diaphragm dynamic microphones frequently are used on kick drums and guitar cabinets. The PD-70 may not necessarily be a kick drum mic. It would, however, perform well as a guitar microphone. Its frequency response rejects the “boomy” tones produced by guitar soundholes and accurately reproduces string sounds with clarity. When a soloist arrives in a studio to do a guitar performance, the PD-70 is an excellent choice.

As for me, my voice can be muddy for two reasons. It’s fairly deep, but also very asymmetrical. The asymmetry demonstrated itself using the PD-70, but it wasn’t as pronounced. Plus, the PD-70’s focus on clarity overcame the asymmetry effects very nicely.

Finally, for this review I asked a production director to spend some time with the PD-70. He conducted an A/B comparison against a very expensive industry standard. After the comparison, he immediately ordered a PD-70.

For information, contact PreSonus in Louisiana at +1-225-216-7887 or visit www.presonus.com.

The post PreSonus PD-70: A Little Different Flavor appeared first on Radio World.

Yamaha has updated its MSP3 studio monitor with the introduction of the new MSP3A powered monitor speaker. Cosmetically, the new offering has a similar use of multiple input connectors, controls and compatibility with optional brackets, but Yamaha states the new monitor provides higher SPLs, lighter cabinet design and reportedly better audio quality — move intended to improve its appropriateness for users whose workflows include content from digital instruments and portable devices.

The MSP3A is the first Yamaha reference monitor to include the company’s Twisted Flare Port technology, intended to provide clearer and tighter low-end frequencies. The sound control technology applies aerodynamic sound analysis and flow visualization measurement to pinpoint and control noise-generating issues. Noise-generating air flow turbulence at both ends of the speaker port is reduced by changing how the port widens from input to output, adding a twist to it. According to Yamaha, suppressing turbulence reduces muddiness, lowering distortion in the low bass region, in turn aiding transition to the full range drivers.

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

A built-in 22 W power amplifier is optimized for the speaker unit, comprising a 4-inch woofer and a 0.8-inch tweeter. The cabinet weighs just under 8 pounds, improving portability and making it easier to reposition the unit in different room configurations.

“Clear and natural sound are the keys to creating immersive and memorable experiences when creating music or video content,” said Preston Gray, marketing director, Pro Audio at Yamaha. “The expanded capabilities of this new reference monitor give audio engineers the right tool for accurately matching audio with video in a range of production applications.”

With an MSRP of $250, the MSP3A is currently street-priced at $199 per monitor.

Info: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/proaudio

 

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It’s clear from two recent reports that podcast listeners love audio and want to hear more.

That’s the consensus from the new Westwood One 2021 Audioscape report, which looked at podcast consumer trends using data from Q3 2020 Share of Ear report by Edison Research.

While AM/FM radio continues to dominate much of the audio landscape, podcasting is one area that continues to see significant growth. According to the Audioscape survey, podcast listeners are dedicated audiophiles. On a typical day podcast listeners spend 41% more time listening to audio during the day as compared to the average U.S. consumer, which spends a little more than three and a half hours with all forms of audio on a daily basis.

[Read: Share of Listening to Podcasting Hits All-Time High]

When people listen to podcasts, they remain a devoted bunch, the Westwood One report said. Among those that listen to the podcast format, podcasting becomes the listener’s number one platform. Once people become regular podcasts customers, nearly one-third of their daily total spent with audio is devoted to podcasts.

The surveys also found that the podcast audience is significantly younger than the listeners of other media. The median age of the podcast audience is 34. According to the Westwood One survey, the current median age of podcast listeners is 13 years younger than AM/FM radio and two decades younger than broadcast television network audiences.

The Edison survey also found that most podcast listening occurs at home throughout the day, with a 60% share as compared to podcast listening in the car (21%), at work (15%) or at some other locale (4%).

The Edison Research report also looked at how much time is spent with four audio content types: music, sports, news and talk/personality. The Edison survey found that podcast listeners are twice as likely to listen to news and three times as likely to listen to personalities and sports formats when compared to nonpodcast consumers. “It is not surprising to see podcasting’s share of time spent soaring over time among those who use spoken word formats such as talk/personality, news, and sports,” wrote Brittany Faison, the insights manager at Cumulus Media/Westwood One in a blog about the two surveys.

The post Reports Offer Insights on the Podcast Listener appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page: Dielectric reported the installation of an antenna for Educational Media Foundation in Puerto Rico, and pointed out some unusual aspects.

EMF installed a broadband model DCR-M antenna for noncommercial WJKL(FM) in San Juan, to serve WJKL on 105.7 MHz and a second station at 104.7 FM) in the future.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

“The center-fed DCR-M accommodates both frequencies (with 1 MHz separation) through a special reduced bay-spacing design that eliminates the need for future field tuning,” the manufacturer stated in an announcement.

“EMF also added a new, specially designed two-station branch combiner to serve both transmission frequencies, and prevent intermodulation issues from signal mixing inside the transmitters.”

The antenna is side-mounted to a mountaintop tower with a center of radiation at 118 feet above ground level. Its design was developed with storms in mind, including hurricanes.

“The project was in fact delayed due to several harsh storms including Hurricane Maria in 2017, which caused widespread devastation to the island,” Dielectric stated. “The project was revived once power was returned to the remote site and the general infrastructure was restored.”

Dielectric worked with Sabre to develop a custom mounting system that could support the antenna’s unusual bay-spacing design.

“This included a standoff pole for the tapered tower architecture, and a bracket design that eliminated complex anti-rotation elements for the antenna bays,” it said. “Dielectric also added its ‘funky elbow’ design to reduce ground radiation from the DCR-M, through a robust inter-bay feed system that optimizes signal coverage without directing radiation downward from the tower.”

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

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“The Kojo Nnamdi Show” will end production on April 1, WAMU announced.

The magazine-style radio program is a Washington and regionally focused program well regarded in public radio circles. Nnamdi is a native of Guyana who immigrated to the United States in 1968. He joined WAMU in 1998 and hosted “Public Interest.” The show was renamed for its host in 2002.

Prior to WAMU Nnamdi had worked as a news editor and director, and hosted a TV public affairs show.

He’ll continue to host “The Politics Hour” on Fridays and “continue to serve as an ambassador for the station through his revamped ‘Kojo In Our Community’ event series,” the station announced.

Nnamdi thanked his producers and also mentioned colleagues Diane Rehm, Mark Plotkin and Steve Martin for helping him along the way.

He said his role “owed a great deal to WAMU’s commitments to understanding the Washington region across racial lines — the lines which too often divide us. That commitment continues.”

WAMU plans a new regionally focused show that is yet to be announced.

 

The post Kojo Nnamdi Show to End in April appeared first on Radio World.

Fig. 1: This genset recently kept WNIS running for 38 hours.

David Morgan, CBRE, is the director of engineering for Sinclair TeleCable-Norfolk in Virginia. He enjoys the generator tips we share.

Inspect not only radiator hoses but also the belts on the engine pulleys.

He sent pictures of the emergency generator at WNIS(AM) 790 in Norfolk. It is a G.M. Diesel (from Detroit) Model 4-71. The gray electrical generator portion was replaced in 2003 after the old one self-destructed during Hurricane Isabel.

David reminds us of the importance of checking radiator hoses, seen at the upper end of Fig. 2, and to inspect the belts that interconnect the engine pulleys.

First disable the generator so it won’t start while you are inspecting it. Then gently squeeze the hoses. They should flex, and there should be no visible cracks in the rubber during flexing.

Before turning the generator back on, conduct a visual inspection of the belts. (A strong trouble light will help in this inspection.)

Locate the longest unsupported section of belt and inspect it for abnormal wear, such as glazing on the side of the belt or missing chunks of the belt. The latter can be caused by high temperatures from the heat of the engine or friction due to belt slippage.

Next, start the generator up and listen. Noise is the first indication of belt (and possibly pulley) problems. Belt squeal during start-up signifies slippage. Check for glazed sides of the belt. Also listen for squeals during a load test as the station’s electrical load is transferred to the generator. Under normal conditions, changes in RPM should not cause the belt to slip.

As the engine runs, watch for erratic movement or flutter in the belt as it turns. Either warrants further inspection by a generator technician.

As with a car tire, friction between the belt and pulleys will wear the belt away. The most common area of wear is on the tops and walls of the belt ribs. Eventually, this friction causes the grooves of the pulleys to bottom out on the grooves of the belt, with belt slippage as the result.

Poor alignment with the belt and pulleys is the biggest cause of noise. This condition can also cause belt fraying and premature wear.

The best way to inspect for this condition is to sight down the side of the belt to make sure the belt edge doesn’t make any bends away or toward the engine. Any deviation you can spot with your eye is excessive.

One other maintenance tip concerns care when adding oil or coolant to the generator engine. If either comes in contact with the belt, slippage can increase, and the slippage can cause even higher friction temperatures, resulting in more belt damage. Also inspect the seals around the water pump and the engine oil seals; leaks can contaminate the belt surface.

These tips about squealing belts also apply to air conditioning air handlers. If you hear a squeal, investigate!

Slow-leak finder

David wraps up his comments by noting that this generator recently powered the station for about 38 hours after Tropical Storm Isaias blew through the Norfolk area. Even older generators, when properly maintained, can provide long and reliable service.

David adds a comment about using soapy water to detect leaks in transmission lines and the associated manifolds and nitrogen tank fittings.

To spot difficult or very slow leaks, he has found it easier to use blue leak detector spray, such as Cal-Blue Plus brand from Nu-Calgon (www.nucalgon.com), which was developed for HVAC technicians to spot refrigerant leaks.

Fig. 3: Cal-Blue Plus stays really gooey for some time after spraying. This makes it easier to spot difficult or very slow leaks.

Unlike soapy bubble water, this spray stays really gooey for some time after spraying; the adhesion allows time for slow leaking nitrogen to bubble out. And because of its high viscosity, the bubbles are last a long time. The viscosity also enables the product to remain in contact with the applied surface for an extended period, making slow leaks easier to spot.

Cal-Blue Plus is non-corrosive to metal, meaning fittings and copper tubing will not be damaged by the compound.You can find it at places like Grainger and Home Depot, or via Amazon.

John Bisset has spent more than 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He holds CPBE certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Workbench submissions are encouraged, qualify for SBE Recertification, and can be emailed to johnpbisset@gmail.com.

The post Maintain Equipment for Long Life Spans   appeared first on Radio World.

Uncle Sam and Procter & Gamble were the two most frequent advertisers on U.S. radio in 2020.

Media Monitors issued rankings of the top advertisers for the year as measured by the number of spots they ran. (See charts at bottom; the first ranks the top parent companies, the second shows the top specific brands.)

It said the federal government ran about 5.9 million radio spots in measured markets, including ads promoting the census, while P+G ran about 5.3 million. Those two organizations also held the top spots last year.

But Progressive Insurance doubled its number of instances, airing about 2.7 million spots in 2020, rising from No. 9 to No. 3.

“Several new brands entered the top 10, including Babbel, which entered the top 100 at number five,” Media Monitors stated. “In September, the company reported its app had been downloaded more than 10 million times. Allstate jumped to number six from number 57, while Quicken Loans entered at number eight, up from number 18.”

Home Depot slipped in the rankings to No. 3 after being first last year; Lowe’s climbed to No. 4. Companies shooting way up the ranks from last year include T-Mobile and Allstate.

Falling out of the top 10 from last year’s parent rankings are former No.3 Live Nation Worldwide, which presumably reflects the loss of events during a pandemic, as well as Indeed Inc. and McDonalds.

 

 

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The National Association of Broadcasters now is taking entries for its Crystal Radio Awards.

The awards honor community service efforts by radio stations in 2020.

Stations should submit entries via NAB’s new member platform, My NAB, describing their community service efforts for the past calendar year.

The deadline for submissions is Jan. 31; finalists will be announced in February.

Entry information is available here.

Last year’s recipients were AM station WSGW in Saginaw, Mich., and FM stations KRMG Tulsa, KUBL Salt Lake City, WDNS Bowling Green, WKRQ Cincinnati, KRWM Seattle, KVTY Lewiston, WHUR Washington, WREW Cincinnati and WSUN Tampa Bay.

The post NAB Crystal Radio Entries Are Open appeared first on Radio World.

A Florida AM radio station is now on the air full-time with all-digital transmission, committing its 1470 signal strictly to listeners who have digital receivers.

Neal Ardman told Radio World that WMGG switched on its new Nautel transmitter, purchased for this purpose, on Tuesday morning. The station has an FM translator that continues to serve analog listeners at 96.1. The station airs Spanish-language programming.

If all-digital HD Radio technology for AM takes off in the United States, WMGG’s move would be seen as an important milestone.

Until now — beyond various test projects involving the National Association of Broadcasters and others — only one AM station in the country, Hubbard’s WWFD outside of Washington, D.C., has been using the technology consistently. It did so under special temporary authority while expressing the intent to retain it permanently. A second in Indiana, WIOE, experimented with it for several months last year but then turned it off for the time being.

But WMGG is believed to be the first station to take the step since the Federal Communications Commission said it would allow AM owners to deploy all-digital under normal operational rules rather than under an STA.

WMGG is a Class B station in Egypt Lake, near Tampa, airing a directional signal via a diplexed array. It has 2.8 kW power by day and 800 watts at night.

Ardman said the station had been testing the all-digital mode at night until throwing the switch this morning full-time. He expressed excitement about the digital quality and the lack of noise in areas where the signal usually fights noise sources.

The station has changed its legal IDs but so far has not done additional marketing or branding.

Among reasons for making the switch, he said, is the receiver penetration of HD Radio in cars in the market, which he said was in the 30% range and growing. Ardman said he expects that over time, major broadcast groups in the country will come to embrace the all-digital format.

A Radio World interview with Ardman will be featured in a ebook later this month about what’s next with all-digital on AM in the United States.

Under the recent FCC order, all-digital operation is allowed both day and night. There’s a 30-day waiting period before converting to all-digital “so that transitioning AM stations can provide adequate notice to the commission, consumers and other potentially affected stations.”

Digital stations still must participate in the national Emergency Alert System.

[Read more “Takeaways From the Digital Radio Order,” October 2020]

 

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Southern California Public Radio has received a half-million-dollar boost for its LAist Studios division.

LAist Studios is SCPR’s podcast development and production arm. The money is a two-year grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to advance the growth of the division and its “mission of addressing the content needs of young and underserved audiences.”

[Visit the Radio World Calendar]

LAist Studios launched in 2019 and aims to “go beyond the surface to reflect the rich cultural landscape of Los Angeles and embrace the diverse voices of the region’s community.” Its shows include “The Big One,” “Servant of Pod,” “Hollywood, the Sequel,” “California City,” “California Love,” and “Norco ’80.”

SCPR noted that “California Love” made Apple’s Favorite Podcasts of 2020 list, and Spotify named it one of the Top Podcasts of 2020. “California Love” has also garnered several awards from Adweek and Bello Collective.

CPB and SCPR said Latino audiences make up nearly half of the Southern California region. “The funding will support staffing and help LAist Studios empower up-and-coming content creators by giving them the tools to develop shows and engage diverse young audiences,” according to a press release.

The announcement was made by CPB Senior Vice President, Radio, Journalism and CSG Services Kathy Merritt and SCPR Chief Content Officer Kristen Muller.

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Bullet holes on an entrance of the U.S. Capitol January 7, 2021 (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

For reporters and stations covering civil unrest, the Minnesota Broadcasters Association shared links to several helpful resources.

“It goes without saying that journalists and broadcasters are in the front line,” the association wrote in an email to members. “Tensions are expected to rise leading up to and through the inauguration.”

Most if not all of the resources below were published prior to the events of last week.

-Poynter published “23 guidelines for journalists to safely cover protests” last June as demonstrators protested police brutality and the death of George Floyd. Sample advice: Your attitude is crucial; clearly identify yourself; have a constantly updated escape route; and consider hiring your own security.

-Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press offers tips for both before and during protests, including researching riot control tactics for the area ahead of time; having a plan in case you get “kettled” along with protestors; avoid breaking the law yourself; and how to handle police seizures of equipment.

-The RTDNA offers guidelines for journalistic best practices, such as being skeptical of crowd estimates and not using words like protester and rioter interchangeably. “Protest can be legal or not. Rioting is by definition a crime.”

-The National Association of Broadcasters said last summer that it was “gravely concerned about recent violence against journalists who are legally covering the protests taking place across the nation.” The NAB posted a lengthy list of relevant resources that touch on topics like best practices for covering crises on Twitter;  guidelines for journalist arrests; a protest curfew order tracker; and a verification handbook for covering user-generated content during emergencies.

[Related: “How WTOP Covered the Assault on the Capitol”]

 

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The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation has announced that it is now accepting entries for the 2021 Celebration of Service to America Awards, recognizing outstanding community service by local broadcasters.

Eight Service to Community Awards will be presented, with one radio and one television honoree in each of the following categories: Large/Major Market (TV DMAs 1–50, radio markets 1–50); Medium Market (TV DMAs 51–100, radio markets 51­150); and Small Market (TV DMAs 101­210, radio markets 151–300).

The event won’t be a traditional ceremony at a location but rather a produced one hour program with “celebrity guests, past honorees and D.C. policymakers commending local radio and television stations from across the country for their exceptional commitment to public service and the extraordinary measures taken throughout 2020 to keep communities informed, supported and safe.” Award winners and finalist will also be honored during the event, to be available in the summer.

NAB members and nonmembers are eligible to enter. Entries must be submitted by March 5, at 11:59 p.m. PST. More specific details can be found here.

 

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The crowd overruns and adapts barriers at the U.S. Capitol in this photo by WTOP’s Alejandro Alvarez.

Even before pro-Trump protestors gathered at Washington’s Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, journalists at WTOP, Hubbard Radio’s highly rated all-news radio station, were aware that it would be no ordinary political rally.

“We knew that there were going to be a lot of people in attendance,” said Director of News and Programming Julia Ziegler. “We knew which groups had permits to be there — there were many of them — and we knew that the president would be speaking. So you had all the makings of a very large event.”

Still, it was shocking when the election protest and rally turned into violent attacks in and around the Capitol building. When it did, the three WTOP reporters on site and the entire WTOP news team kept Washington informed.

Ready for trouble

There were signs that the rally would be emotionally charged. The president had spent two months fanning political division with unfounded assertions about a rigged election. Even the name of the event, the “Save America Rally,” was designed to stoke fury as the joint houses of Congress were ratifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory down the street.

Still, there have been emotionally-charged political rallies in Washington over the last year. WTOP field reporters Alejandro Alvarez and Ken Duffy knew to keep a low profile by using their consumer smartphones to file reports and capture/file photos, audio and video back to the station.

“In these kind of tense situations, you always have to think about what makes you a target as a reporter,” said Ziegler.

“So if you’re a journalist out there recording on your phone, you can mix into the crowd where everyone else is using their phones.”

Given the subsequent events — with protestors painting “Murder the Media” and smashing an Associated Press camera position, and with subsequent videos emerging of crowd confrontations with other journalists — their caution seems prudent.

“We always tell our reporters to pull back as need to stay safe,” she added. “At certain points during that day, they had to.”

Getting news to the station

The downside of using smartphones at public events is that wireless networks are prone to slowing down due to traffic.

WTOP’s reporters relied on WhatsApp to get their audio and text messages back to the station. They have found WhatsApp to be pretty reliable even when cell service starts to fail. They also use Skype and Slack as well. For video, WTOP uses Slack or pulls videos from Twitter.

“The fact that WhatsApp sends out content as soon as you record it really helps,” said Ziegler. “You don’t have to upload or download it after recording: It just goes.”

Those incoming feeds turned up on a common channel that is shared among the WTOP newsroom staff so that everyone can see what’s coming in as it arrives.

Capitol Hill Correspondent Mitchell Miller was at his broadcast booth at the House of Representatives, keeping an eye on the joint session.

Equipped as it is with a suite of links back to WTOP, Miller was in place when doors and windows were smashed and people started breaking into the Capitol building. He provided a steady stream of reports about the invasion no matter what was going on.

“Mitch is fabulous. He’s been with WTOP for a very long time, and he’s just one of those reporters who gets it and understands what the audience needs to hear in that moment,” said Ziegler.

“Whether during the lockdown or afterwards when he was being evacuated along with the Capitol Hill staff, Mitch kept us fully informed with multiple reports per hour as the situation evolved.”

Miller wrote after the event: “When guns were drawn and furniture was moved to block an invasion of rioters from the U.S. House chamber, the danger here at the Capitol was very clear. My broadcast booth is located across the hall from the House chamber, and as the Capitol went into lockdown, the doors of the area where I work with other Capitol Hill reporters were locked for safety.

“Every door that shut loudly, along with the dull roar of people inside and outside of the Capitol, ratcheted up the tension.”

He continued: “When we found out that a woman had been shot inside the Capitol, concern for everyone’s safety continued to rise. I later learned that the shooting happened just a floor below us, in an area known as the Speaker’s Lobby, which is outside the House chamber. I was also alarmed when I saw all the protesters gathered on the steps of the east side of the Capitol. That never happens.”

Despite the danger around him, “I continued to report on the events in real time, all the while trying to remain fully aware of my surroundings, which were troubling, to say the least,” he wrote.

“Late Wednesday afternoon, we were told by the staff in the House Radio and TV Gallery that everyone in our area needed to evacuate … We quickly gathered up our broadcasting equipment and started moving through the maze of underground tunnels that connect the Capitol to the House and Senate buildings. We were escorted to a media room in the Rayburn Office Building. We were able to still report on what was happening as we essentially sheltered in place, as lawmakers and staff members were doing.”

WTOP field reporter Alejandro Alvarez was outside watching the angry crowd as the president’s incitements spurred the crowd to violence.

“There was one precise moment I can point to when I realized that something immeasurably terrible was underway,” wrote Alvarez afterwards.

“It was in the middle of President Donald Trump’s speech, shortly after he had urged his supporters to head for the Capitol … ‘Move forward, patriots, we’re taking the Capitol,’ was one of the first things I heard on arrival at the West Lawn, where the air stung from lingering mace … ‘We’ve been nice for too long,’ I heard someone yell. And another: ‘Where are the gallows?’”

Later in the day, Ziegler said, “There was one point where Ken Duffy was live when the police were repelling the protesters. He’s describing what’s happening to him in the moment and saying things like, ‘Stay with me, Shawn [WTOP anchor Shawn Anderson], give me just a second. I’m getting pushed back. I need to move over here.’ When you hear that, it’s just so captivating, and we had so many of those moments.”

Photo by Alejandro Alvarez of WTOP shows people on scaffolding intended for the upcoming inauguration. One sign reads, “We the people will bring DC to its knees. We have the power.” In the newsroom

As the afternoon’s chaotic events unfolded, news staff at the station’s broadcast facilities just across the District border in Chevy Chase, Md., worked to get the news to air.

The hub of the action took place in WTOP’s open newsroom, whose numbers had been depleted due to people working at home thanks to COVID-19.

“Normally we have everyone together in the same room — our broadcast, on-air, and web staff — so that there’s constant one-to-one yelling of information back-and-forth,” said Ziegler.

“To include at-home workers in this during the pandemic, we set up a open conference line and speakerphones so that everyone on shift can talk to and hear each other, whether they are in the newsroom or not.”

This open line of communications made it easy to share news from Capitol Hill as it came in. Meanwhile, whenever someone got swamped by the rush of information, other staff members stepped into help.

“It may sound corny, but we really work as a team,” said Ziegler. “It’s how we’re able to do what we do.”

During its wall-to-wall coverage of the insurrection, WTOP dropped commercial breaks from mid-afternoon Jan. 6 going into the next morning. “But we kept the other breaks built into the clock such as traffic and weather every 10 minutes, sports at :15 and :45, and business at :25 and :55,” Ziegler said.

“Maintaining the traffic reports was incredibly important, because the impact of the riot on traffic was a big part of the story. This said, the rest of the broadcast just flowed organically, as usually happens during a breaking news event.”

A couple of days after the assault, with additional images of Jan. 6 violence against both law enforcement and journalists emerging on social media, Alvarez wrote in a tweet, “I have plenty of colleagues on this beat who’ve been attacked or arrested. You know the risks but can’t help but wonder if your next assignment is the one you won’t get to walk away from safe and sound. It’s always at the back of my mind.”

More trouble to come?

Not long after the assault had ended and a curfew implemented, the building was protected by a seven-foot metal fence and the National Guard. Joe Biden had been confirmed as winner of the presidential election, and his inauguration was set to proceed on Jan. 20 — without President Trump in attendance.

The WTOP news team was pressing on to cover the aftermath, as the nation wondered how Trump’s last days in office would unfold, and reports surfaced of further threats against public officials and public buildings between now and the inauguration.

Ziegler expressed pride in WTOP’s team and how they have endured a year of crisis.

“We have gone through COVID, all the protests all throughout the summer/fall of 2020, and then the election. So we’ve been running a marathon and with the inauguration still to come, it’s still not over.

“Journalists are mission-driven people,” she said. “Our purpose is to help people, and our mission at WTOP News is to make sure that we are providing our community with everything they need to know about the biggest stories of the day. [Jan. 6] was huge from many different perspectives, but it’s not the only huge story we’ll be covering this year.”

 

The post How WTOP Covered the Assault on Congress appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has announced the deadline for public comments about its proposed rulemaking for FM boosters and geo-targeting.

Comments are due Feb. 10, 2021. Reply comments must be submitted by March 12. Comments can be filed via the commission’s online portal; refer to MB Dockets 20-401 and 17-105.

Comments must be submitted no later than Feb. 10, 2021. Reply comments must be submitted no later than March 12.

The commission proposes to let FM broadcasters use FM booster stations to air geo-targeted content independent of the signals of a primary station within different portions of the primary station’s protected service contour for a few minutes during each broadcast hour. The goal is to provide hyper-localized advertising, information and other content.

As we’re reported, this is a proposal being driven by GeoBroadcast Solutions, a company that has a proprietary technology called ZoneCasting that it wants to bring to market.

[Read: “FCC Asks for Comments on FM Geo-Targeting”]

Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr recently have worked together to bring the proposal to this point.

Then-Commissioner Michael O’Rielly expressed concern in November that the proposal was moving too fast, given the “substantial implications for reshaping FM radio policy and the radio advertising marketplace.”

The post FCC Sets Deadline for Geo-Targeting Comments appeared first on Radio World.

Developers and others involved in hybrid radio have been working to minimize the possible impact of royalty fees that U.S. broadcasters would pay for streamed audio content that is a popular function of hybrid systems for car manufacturers.

A hybrid radio receiver uses a station’s over-the-air signal within the listening area until it is no longer viable, then switches to the station’s online stream via cellular data networks, a feature called “service following” or “station following.” (The listener can choose whether that switchover happens automatically or with a prompt.)

It is an appealing selling point for hybrid radio: The listener stays on the same radio station in a situation when they normally would have switched away. Advocates call this an advantage for both listener and broadcaster — for the first time, terrestrial radio can provide “reception everywhere” akin to what satellite radio can offer.

The technology also can time-align the IP-delivered content to make a full seamless transition between the services, for the best user experience.

In the United States, radio broadcasters that stream their content on the internet or mobile apps must pay for music use on those digital channels; SoundExchange is the entity responsible for collecting digital music recording royalties and distributing them to copyright owners (see sidebar). When the hybrid radio platform is playing the stream, those royalties would kick in.

But broadcasters following these developments had expressed concern about possible additional “hidden” streaming fees if the implementation of hybrid radio samples the stream audio in the background in order to align it with broadcast — meaning broadcasters might incur rights fees even when no one is listening.

Developers like Audi and Xperi, which have separate implementations of hybrid radio, have been working on ways to minimize such royalty exposure.

One observer said he thinks anxiety about this particular potential problem will recede as hybrid becomes more established and the reality of usage becomes more apparent. “I think the bigger risk is that by reacting too adversely to the potential of this risk, it undermines hybrid and accelerates a move to an all-IP environment.”

“Increased engagement”

A number of large radio groups have expressed interest in hybrid radio, and the National Association of Broadcasters has been active in promoting its progress in the United States.

iHeartRadio is collaborating with Audi of America to bring the capability to drivers of connected cars in the United States. ​Meanwhile in December, Entercom said its Radio.com digital platform is now part of the DTS Connected Radio ecosystem, citing benefits of “increased engagement, expanded reach and turnkey management and control of content for each of our local broadcasters,” according to a press release.

Neither broadcast group commented for this story.

Advocates note that the royalty issue is less of a concern in markets like Germany where broadcast stations do not have to pay additional fees for an online stream if it is an exact simulcast.

But in the United States, a communications attorney familiar with digital media and hybrid radio said limiting exposure to any streaming royalties in connected cars is crucial to support the interest of radio entities.

“Obviously, (broadcasters) won’t want to pay more than necessary. They don’t want to pay for listeners that are not there on the stream. That would be a disincentive for the industry to support hybrid radio,” the attorney said.

“However, broadcasters pay fractions of a cent in streaming royalties, so unless its use becomes widespread, it might not be that much of a financial burden. Much of this will depend on the adoption of the technology and how many use it.”

Two sources involved in these developments emphasized that the time involved in alignment is only a couple of minutes of streaming in the background, and hoped the issue would not discourage other manufacturers from pursuing hybrid radio.

Location-aware

The discussion of sampling in the background to work out alignment for seamless switching is separate from whether streaming should be used at all where good broadcast signal exists.

Some broadcasters have worried that manufacturers would be tempted to put in poor quality radio receivers on the assumption they can freely fall back to streaming in bad reception.

In a 2020 Radio World article, David Layer, VP of advanced engineering for NAB, was quoted saying that a possible solution to such concerns is for broadcasters to provide geographic information to a receiver about where the station’s OTA signal should be strong enough to not require streaming audio.

“The receiver, which is ‘location-aware,’ would not use the streaming signal while within that strong signal area. This would help to reduce the amount of hidden streaming,” Layer said then.

One hybrid radio insider told Radio World that such a process would be like “geo-fencing, in a sense,” though the inverse of the typical application. “Such technology could prevent the stream from even being found within a station’s listening area, so there would be no threat of the hybrid radio receiver tapping into the audio stream unless it is outside the station’s listening area. It creates a barrier.”

However, the person continued, a geo-fencing system might not be able to take into consideration the varied nuances of hybrid receivers in a variety of connected vehicles. “That lack of a unilateral approach to solving the transition process is creating some concern among broadcasters.”

“Only when necessary”

On the alignment issue specifically, one way to limit fees is by maximizing the reception of a radio station’s over-the-air signal.

For instance, Audi — which has been in the forefront of hybrid radio deployment and introduced its first car model with the feature in 2017 — uses multiple FM antennas with the “latest broadcast radio receiver chipsets” to hold the signal stable as long as possible, minimizing situations where streaming is justified. Audi then utilizes an integrated 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot to maintain a station’s service when out of range of the signal.

Audi of America has introduced hybrid radio technology on some vehicles available in the United States with the new MIB 3 infotainment suite. With an annual subscription to Audi connect Prime ($365) or Plus ($499), listeners get hybrid radio along with features like Amazon Music integration and a WiFi hotspot.

According to one source, this system can compensate in most cases for up to around 10 seconds of delay in stream vs. the broadcast signal. “When it does not have the time for a perfect alignment, it will switch to stream when the broadcast signal is lost.”

Observers say hybrid receivers have their own unique characteristics and that, ultimately, auto manufacturers will be the ones deciding how seamless the transition from OTA to IP stream is going to be and how often the receivers sample the internet streams.

The amount of delay between OTA and the internet stream can vary, too, depending on connectivity variables built into the receivers. Different latency levels also will develop depending on the cellular network capabilities, such as the delivery speeds of 4G and 5G platforms. And then there is the application infrastructure used by broadcasters for their streams.

“The lower the delay an online stream has compared to the FM signal, the better seamless ‘station following’ works,” the observer said, noting that in the past, broadcasters generally haven’t had to worry about synchronizing the online stream with the OTA signal. “We’ve seen stations in Europe changing their delay to the better after they were introduced to hybrid radio. It’s about awareness.”

“Low-latency”

Xperi’s DTS Connected Radio platform is rolling out in a partnership with Daimler and its luxury Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles. The technology is part of the Daimler MB User Experience (MBUX) system. The carmaker is including hybrid radio on some Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2021 models that were set to arrive in the United States by the first of the year.

An Xperi official told Radio World some broadcasters supply the company with “custom audio streams” that are more tightly aligned to the over-the-air signal to minimize any streaming delays.

Joe D’Angelo, senior VP of radio at Xperi, said it’s not the company’s practice to use the audio stream in the background to create a seamless time alignment for the hybrid radio environment.

“It will not be totally seamless, but it will be a low-latency switch,” D’Angelo said. “A totally seamless transition could be a very expensive process for broadcasters. We are working with broadcasters to minimize their costs.”

D’Angelo said the issue affects the U.S. and Australian markets because of the structure of streaming royalties there, but that it is less of an issue in Europe.

“We are trying to maximize that radio broadcast signal usage and allow stream access only when it is in the broadcaster’s interest,” he said.

Hybrid radio is basically a collective term for technologies intended to enhance traditional broadcast with an internet connection; and “service following” is not the only benefit.

For instance DTS Connected Radio combines OTA radio with internet-delivered content and aggregates the metadata, such as on-air radio program and talent information and artist and song information. And hybrid radio will offer broadcasters real-time analytics on listening habits and crucial data for advertisers.

But radio broadcasters watch the cost of content closely, D’Angelo said, along with the cost of consumption.

“Those elements need to be considered when designing the system of over-the-air to streaming. With our platform we are very aware of this switch for broadcasters. We have done a lot of engineering work and implementation work to make sure we minimize the time spent streaming while still ensuring a great user experience.

“Our platform is constantly looking at RF signal quality, and then we ensure the switch to streaming only happens when it is absolutely necessary, and we switch back to broadcast as soon as possible. In our system we are literally talking about seconds for the alignment process where it is sampling the IP stream.”

D’Angelo continued: “Car radios all have very different RF performance characteristics. It’s important to consider this nuance to allow you to constantly assess the on-air signal quality.”

He said Xperi research indicates listeners will accept audio in hybrid radio mode that is not totally synced up.

Period of uncertainty

RadioDNS is an open standards organization that promotes technical standards for hybrid systems and encourages sharing of information sharing between broadcasters and manufacturers “to lessen the uncertainty of implementing hybrid radio.” iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Entercom, Cox and NPR are among the members of RadioDNS.

Project Director Nick Piggott said the initial integration phase of hybrid radio does create a period uncertainty for broadcasters since they can’t estimate the amount of extra streaming it creates.

“What I think we can say at this point — taking into account the speed at which vehicles are coming to the market and the number that support seamless switching — [is that] it’s unlikely to have a material impact [on streaming fees] in the short term,” Piggott said.

He said there is “no requirement for auto manufacturers to make hybrid radio seamless,” even though “that seamlessness is a specific approach to the implementation, which of course makes it seem magical to the driver.”

But broadcasters should support manufacturers’ ambitions to provide the audio experience that drivers want, he said.

“The risk of reacting too quickly to this concern is that it pushes manufacturers and drivers towards an all-IP approach, which is certainly less appealing than a hybrid approach.”

sidebar: Royalty Talk

More than 20 years ago the Digital Millennium Copyright Act established the need for radio broadcasters to pay royalties to music performers and record labels for digitally transmitted music.

SoundExchange charges on a per-song, per-listener basis. For each song heard by one listener, radio stations pay $.0018. Broadcasters, which self-report streaming numbers to SoundExchange, pay a minimum fee of $500 per year per digital channel, according to an expert familiar with the royalty payments.

The U.S. Copyright Office announced in 2020 that it would not set 2021 webcasting rates for broadcasters that stream their non-interactive audio programming on the internet until April 15, 2021. Whenever that new rate is established, it is expected to be retroactive to the beginning of the year.

Most radio stations also pay royalties for music they broadcast to organizations like ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC, who reimburse songwriters and their publishers. SoundExchange, performers and record labels have long suggested that broadcasters should also pay royalties to the artists and labels, and have lobbied aggressively to that end.

 

The post Hybrid Radio and the Royalties Question appeared first on Radio World.

The complexities of the transition from the FCC Media Bureau’s online Consolidated Data Base System (CDBS) to the Licensing and Management System (LMS) have been well chronicled. But some of the major stakeholders who regularly use the new system told Radio World they generally find it to be more flexible than its predecessor despite some challenges.

LMS is the Media Bureau’s latest internet-based system to permit electronic filing of broadcast radio and television application forms with the Federal Communications Commission.

“I think broadcasters need to keep in mind that the transition to LMS is a work in progress and that some patience is needed as the FCC works out the kinks,” one veteran consulting engineer said.

“Significant” advance

The FCC launched its e-filing LMS forms system for TV licensees in late 2014. The LMS transition for radio broadcasters began in May 2019 with the transition of station renewal applications to the new platform. The FCC subsequently transitioned applications for new and modified FM, FM translator and booster, and LPFM stations to LMS.

In November, the FCC announced that applications for assignment and transfer of control of broadcast station licenses and construction permits would begin transitioning from the CDBS and become available in the LMS, though existing assignment/transfer applications will not be moved.

This latest phase “significantly advanced the LMS transition,” said a commission spokesperson. The renewal, assignment of license and transfer of control applications are the most heavily used of Media Bureau forms.

The spokesperson said the main items remaining to transition are AM applications and a number of informal filings and less commonly used forms.

“While no conversion is without its issues, we are pleased there have not been major disruptions during the transition,” the spokesperson said.

The EEO Program Report, Schedule 396, went to LMS as part of the transition of the renewal application, according to the FCC.

The Online Public Inspection File (OPIF) will remain a separate database. Information filed in LMS, where necessary, will link to OPIF the same way CDBS feeds information to OPIF.

Aiming to simplify

It’s important to note that information does not flow from LMS back to the CDBS database. For pending applications filed in CDBS and for legacy information, broadcasters should continue to check both LMS and CDBS to ensure they have complete information.

Also, “Although the FCC conducts extensive testing before we make public releases, there inevitably will be some bugs that we do not catch,” the spokesperson said.

The FCC describes the old CDBS database as “extremely complex,” containing decade’s worth of information that is highly customized. The gradual transition to LMS has been a deliberate process to avoid mistakes when possible, the spokesperson said.

“It also is important to note that the transition is not limited to the public-facing applications and database search features. We also are transitioning the engineering tools we use to analyze applications and the administrative tools we use to process applications. In many cases, transitioning those tools greatly complicates the process and leads to longer transition timelines.”

More elegant

Joe Davis, consulting broadcast engineer and president of Chesapeake RF Consultants, says LMS does present a new way of doing things but that it feels like a more elegant form of electronic filing.

“We’ve have had to learn what kinds of files could be uploaded, sizes allowed and the easiest way of searching for filings,” Davis said, “but it takes time to adapt to the differences.”

The commission has a web page to help with the new system,, click image to access.

Davis said one noticeable difference is the abandonment of the FCC’s decades-long use of file numbers and prefixes that reflect the nature of an application (for example, BP- for AM construction permit, BPH- for FM construction permit, BL- for AM license and so on), and the date filed of new applications.

“Now in LMS, that filing is just a sequential number given in order of all applications received. It just makes it much more difficult to search for applications because you just don’t know the date of an application without reading the file.”

There really isn’t much for station engineers to enter in LMS, Davis said.

“The typical scenario for a station-level engineer might be to query information from LMS. The public access part of LMS allows for people to cull readily available information on any station by entering a call sign,” he said. “CDBS had those same query features but they are a bit different now.”

The occasional PDF file gets corrupted during the uploading process in LMS, Davis said.

Bob Weller, vice president of spectrum policy for the National Association of Broadcasters, said the CDBS had a lot going for it but did have limitations such as fixed fields that couldn’t be easily changed. “Then when the FCC did change something it would break everyone’s software,” Weller said with a chuckle.

The initial migration was incremental but still “pretty disruptive,” he said, “because the underlying database structures that sophisticated law offices and consulting broadcast engineers use are very different from the FCC’s graphical user interface. So there were some hiccups with the LMS server, but those seem to have been worked out.”

Weller says many consulting engineers still complain about the lack of AM data available in CDBS and now LMS.

“Figures and graphical things unique to medium-wave broadcasting were never added to CDBS. And AM license applications Form 302 are still a paper filing exercise,” Weller said. “And in order to look at someone else’s AM application filing you need to send someone downtown — Washington — to retrieve all of the paper records from the Public Inspection Room. It’s unduly expensive because of it.”

The Media Bureau does plan to transition all AM filings to electronic submissions in LMS as part of the change to the LMS system. “Due to the complexities of AM engineering, we expect that to be a significant development effort,” the FCC spokesperson told Radio World.

Weller, who previously worked at the FCC, said the commission introduced an online database in 1979, called the Broadcast Application Processing System (BAPS), which processed applications and generated authorizations and Public Notices. BAPS was replaced by CDBS in 1999.

As services are moved into LMS, Weller said, communications attorneys and consulting broadcast engineers again are reminded there is “no backwards compatibility” between CDBS and LMS.

Some quirks

Some aspects of LMS are better, said Rajat Mathur, vice president of Hammett & Edison, Inc., a broadcast and wireless consulting firm.

“The LMS forms and schedules themselves have some auto fill and error checking capabilities, which is helpful. For example, when an antenna structure registration (ASR) number is entered in an LMS application it automatically fills in the appropriate data (ground elevation and tower heights) from the ASR database into the relevant field in the LMS form,” Mathur said.

Yet there are some quirks to LMS, Mathur said, usually related to starting an application.

“CDBS was straightforward in this regard. You just picked the appropriate form from a list and go. However, in LMS the FCC has transitioned from a form-based system to a largely schedule-based system, and sometimes it can be difficult to find and start the appropriate application,” he said.

Doug Vernier, president of V-Soft Communications, said the transition has added to the workload of consulting engineers and broadcast law attorneys who regularly use the online database.

“We download from the LMS very early each day to make it available to our users. All of our processing programs had to be rewritten to handle the new LMS data structure,” Vernier said.

He hopes the FCC makes some final additions before completing the transition to LMS. “The commission could finish the transition by including many useful items left out from the CDBS such as a link from the record to the primary station’s translator or translators,” Vernier said.

In addition, the LMS still does not have the comments that were posted with the records on the CDBS, Vernier said. “The comment file was particularly useful when it gave information on agreements with foreign stations about the maximum power that can be run in the direction of the foreign stations. This loss is really a big problem when we are working with a U.S. station near the U.S. international borders.”

“Far from perfect”

Michelle Bradley, president of REC Networks and REC Broadcast Services LLC, said radio broadcasters need to pay particular attention to previous assignments and transfer applications.

“Unlike what the FCC did with modification applications, the existing assignment/transfer applications will not be moved into LMS. Pre-November 18 applications filed in CDBS will not be able to be amended in either CDBS or LMS. The same goes for pleadings in those applications,” Bradley said.

REC, which provides advocacy and professional filing services, recommends broadcasters send an e-mail to FCC staff to request a manual amendment of those applications. “Consummation notices from granted CDBS assignment/transfer applications will continue to be allowed in CDBS,” Bradley said.

Lawyers often use the Media Bureau’s databases to complete the legal sections of forms that were started by consulting broadcast engineers, who provide the technical data. One veteran communications attorney told Radio World the new LMS system is “far from perfect.”

“The FCC’s adoption of LMS for its radio broadcast station application work is afflicted with similar shortcomings that affected the original adoption of CDBS several decades ago. That shortcoming is that the FCC’s staff did not invite public comment from its most prolific users of the system – the legal and engineering community – prior to putting the LMS foundational aspects in place,” this Washington-based attorney said.

“This lack of user input, and the deficiencies in LMS as a result of no input, will likely cripple the usability of LMS for years to come.”

He continued: “CDBS, as it has been modified through the years, is an extremely efficient and a quick way to search out just about any facility information or application filed regarding a broadcast station. Conversely, LMS is sluggish, and buries information behind multiple non-descript headings. I do not know whether it is pride, or simply bureaucratic intransigence, that kept the FCC staff from involving the public and prime users of LMS in the design of it.”

That does not seem to be the consensus view, however.

“We have not had any issues with the carrying over of databases, including call signs or FRNs [FCC Registration Number],” said Reid Avett, communications attorney with Womble Bond Dickinson in Washington.

“Some of the improvements, such as having the ability to create a special use FRN for ownership reports within the LMS form are very helpful. Generally, it’s more user-friendly for filers. For example, LMS can model an ownership report off of a prior ownership report, so it takes less time to complete.”

However, there are still nuances of varying degrees between CDBS and LMS, Avett noted.

“We find that some of the searching can be trickier. For example, a facility search will include the same information as an application search, but be formatted differently,” he said.

And Avett has one final request of the FCC: “A filer must search several sub-menus to find all of the reports that can be filed. For instance, we do not understand why a link to start an EEO report does not appear on the first or second page. Instead, a filer has to click on ‘facilities,’ then click on a facility ID, then click on ‘file a report’ and then select EEO report.”

The FCC says LMS users are encouraged to contact the Audio Division with feedback about problems they encounter and should remember they can consult the LMS Help Center for instructions and other assistance.

Sidebar: Some Data TBD

Users familiar with the database said that as of November, LMS data did not yet contain helpful items such as whether FM stations transmit in HD, the associated facility ID or a link from the record to the primary station’s translator or translators.

John Gray, vice president of V-Soft Communications, did a comparison for certain FM technical data in the LMS vs. the CDBS from around the time the transition began in late 2019.

Missing as of November were the “digital status” flag that indicates if a station is using HD Radio; an indication that a station is near a country border and the distance to that border; FM comments that were contained in the CDBS “fmcmnts.dat” table; STA records; and the electrical beam tilt indicator flag (though for this data point, Gray said the LMS field “aant_electrical_deg_ind” in the “APP_ANTENNA” table could indicate this, noting that it does contain some values. He said there was a “bt_ind” field in the old “fm_app_indicators” CDBS table).

“We continue working on improving the information flow from LMS and expect new information to be available as we enhance the database,” an FCC spokesperson said.

 

The post FCC Database Transition Nears Completion appeared first on Radio World.

Broadcasters are telling the Supreme Court that a lower court’s rejection of the FCC’s broadcast deregulation decision was a recipe for “judicial intervention run riot” and that diversity alone cannot be invoked to block deregulation of rules that marketplace changes have rendered unsupportable and no longer necessary in the public interest.

In a reply brief in advance of Jan. 19 oral argument, the National Association of Broadcasters told the High Court that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit “required the commission to treat a policy never mentioned in Section 202(h) as a mandatory and dispositive factor, fly-specked the commission’s analysis, ordered the Commission to collect additional data, entered a triply overbroad remedy, and finished up by reasserting perpetual jurisdiction,” it told the court.

NAB wants the Supremes to clear the way for the FCC finally to achieve the “regulatory reform” Congress set in motion 25 years ago. That is when it called on the FCC in the 1996 Telecommunications Act to eliminate regulations no longer necessary in light of competitive changes in the marketplace.

Broadcasters are appealing a Third Circuit Court of Appeals stay of FCC media ownership deregulation. That was the FCC’s November 2017 decision to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules; allow dual station ownership in markets with fewer than eight independent voices after the duopoly, creating an opportunity for ownership of two of the top four stations in a market on a case-by-case basis (the FCC is not calling it a waiver); eliminate attribution of joint sales agreements as ownership; and create an incubator program.

The court said the FCC had not sufficiently gauged the impact of those changes on minority and female ownership, as the court had told the FCC it must do the last time the circuit weighed in on the FCC’s long-standing attempts to loosen regulations on broadcasters.

But NAB, in its brief filed Friday (Jan. 8) reiterated that the assertion by those defending the Third Circuit decision that the FCC can keep its ownership limits “for the sole purpose of promoting minority and female ownership finds no support in the statute’s text …”

In fact, NAB said, the statute needs to be read in a proderegulatory context, not one in which the FCC can retain or even toughen ownership restrictions “based on any factor under the sun.”

 

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