Radio World

A century after its famous election night broadcast, KDKA will now be heard on the FM dial as well as its familiar 1020 kHz AM frequency.

Entercom, owner of the station in Pittsburgh, said, “News Radio 1020 KDKA will simulcast on FM for the first time ever and be heard on 100.1 FM as ‘100.1 FM and 1020 AM KDKA,’ effective Nov. 2.”

The new frequency is an FM translator, W261AX. The hip-hop format that had occupied that slot, WAMO, moves to 107.3 MHz.

[Read: What, Exactly, Was First About KDKA?]

There is already a station licensed with a KDKA(FM) call sign and owned by Entercom, but it carries sports programming.

The announcement that the news format would expand to FM was made by Michael Spacciapolli, senior vice president and market manager of Entercom Pittsburgh. “After serving Pittsburghers on our AM dial for the last 100 years, we are thrilled to expand the reach of historic KDKA on FM,” he was quoted in the announcement.

The station famously aired presidential election results on Nov. 2, 1920, and KDKA has been celebrating the anniversary throughout this year.

 

The post KDKA Adds FM Signal appeared first on Radio World.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks addressed the Hispanic Radio Conference on Oct. 15. In a section of his talk he singled out GeoBroadcast Solutions for favorable comments.

He drew attention to the company’s localized broadcasting technology. “The use of this geo-targeted content holds promise as a way for stations to provide hyperlocalized content including alternative language news, weather, emergency alerts, and advertising periodically during the broadcast day. It could provide a way for minority-owned stations to better serve their communities, and open up opportunities for small businesses looking to more cost-effectively advertise to a targeted audience and for FM stations owned by people of color to increase advertising revenue.”

[Read: Should Translators Originate Content? FCC Is Taking Comments]

Starks noted that the FCC can do to promote this. “One proposal before the FCC holds promise to do just that.  GeoBroadcast Solutions LLC has petitioned the FCC to revise the FM booster rule to allow, on a limited basis, geo-targeted content to originate from FM booster stations.”

He added that GeoBroadcast Solutions “has developed an ad revenue sharing model that would help smaller stations install boosters and new technology necessary to use the system without having to come up with up front capital and operational expenses.”

GeoBroadcast Solutions CTO Bill Hieatt said, “We appreciate the commissioner’s remarks and note that our development of a geo-targeting solution for the broadcast radio industry was due in part to help reach underserved minority sub-markets within a station’s signal range.”

He explained, “We believe our technology will level the playing field across consumer media in ways that cannot be done today but can begin quickly to support moves the radio industry in line with today’s technology while also improving the consumer experience in the most widely-used source of news, entertainment, and information.”

 

The post FCC’s Starks Points to GeoBroadcast Solutions at Conference appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World congratulates our friend and contributor Mark Persons, who this fall received the Society of Broadcast Engineering’s John H. Battison Award for Lifetime Achievement!

Studio of KRJM with STL mast adjacent.

It started at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2019, with a thunderstorm. KA-BOOM!

People in the small northern Minnesota town of Mahnomen reported hearing the loudest thunder they could remember. Sean Bjerk, KRJM Radio’s manager/morning man, lives three miles away. He was jolted out of bed and left wondering, “What happened?”

A quick check showed the station was silent. Upon entering the studio building, Sean found thick smoke. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and investigated but found no fire.

The power was out. All circuit breakers had tripped. Resetting them brought on only some lights, but no audio.

The thunder concussion had been so great that two studio clocks were knocked off the wall and onto the floor.

The evidence was clear. Lightning had hit a station-owned utility pole with an STL dish.

Fig. 1 shows that lightning chewed through the top of the pole to get to the STL dish and transmission line.

Fig. 1: Lightning struck the pole, cutting a deep gouge.

Fig. 2 shows the 1/2 inch Andrew Heliax STL coaxial cable. It was burned as lightning jumped from the cable to the metal siding of the studio building at the point where the line entered.

Fig. 2: Lightning ate into the STL cable

What to do now? Contract engineer Jim Offerdahl was 110 miles away. He set out immediately and on arrival found that virtually every piece of electronic equipment in the studio facility was damaged beyond repair.

The KRJM 101.5 FM 25 kW transmitter site, some 12 miles away, was fine. It just needed audio.

Jim used internet streaming audio from KRJB(FM), Ada, Minn., to restore temporary programming by early afternoon. Audio was from one of the dozen stations of R & J Broadcasting, Inc. in northern Minnesota. The format was country, instead of the oldies that Mahnomen area listeners were accustomed to hearing. KRJB added KRJM commercials and IDs to keep the station legal while continuing to make money.

Damage
Fig. 3 shows the wall outlet where the main equipment rack was plugged in. Totally blackened, it was useless.

Fig. 3: A blackened wall outlet.

Fig. 4 shows the wall where an electrician cut into a wall to check wiring to the outlet. After seeing the damage, Jim installed a new outlet elsewhere with new wiring.

Fig. 4: Opening the wall to examine power wiring.

You’ll see a green light on the telephone system. It was lit but the system and its phones were fried as seen in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Even the telephone wiring was damaged.

The main computer network switch was history. With that kind of damage, Jim strung new network cables to ensure reliability.

Fig. 6: The network switch was damaged beyond repair.

The automation system at KRJM also was toast except for one of the three hard drives, the only component that survived the disaster. This allowed the automation to be rebuilt and the station to be back to normal programming in two days. Part of the delay was to install a new STL dish and feed line, along with an STL transmitter and audio processing.

All of the studios were down so a temporary one needed to be rigged.

The network connector on a studio computer and a black spot on the wall (Fig. 7) are evidence of fire and smoke created by the event.

Fig. 7: This studio computer was one of the victims

Fig. 8 is where an unterminated computer network cable blackened a wall where lightning was seeking ground.

Fig. 8: A loose network cable blackened a wall.

An insurance claims adjuster shook his head saying, “This is the worst damage I have ever seen.” The insurance claim was paid.

Fig. 9: Station manager Sean-Bjeck showed off some of the damaged equipment

Follow the Lightning
The KRJM studio facility had been constructed in a typical manner and enjoyed 20 years of normal service. There was a ground rod at the base of the STL pole for protection.

You’ll remember I wrote a Radio World article about grounding in the fall of 2017. It discussed how lightning will usually take the easiest path to ground. What we often forget is that ground rods, a standard approach to grounding, are imperfect.

Forensic Analysis

Lightning traveled down the STL pole and ignored the ground rod. Instead, it followed the STL transmission line to an equipment rack in the building.

From there, the lightning found ground through the rack’s 120 VAC power circuit, supplied by the building’s electrical load distribution center (circuit breaker panel). A lot of sensitive equipment was damaged along this path. Think of your broadcast equipment as a “fuse” in a series circuit between the lightning and ground. Poof!

In the final analysis, what was missing was a heavy wire link between the STL pole ground rod and the studio ground. To say it another way, the pole and the studio had two different grounds. They were likely thousands of volts apart during the lightning strike. Almost everything in the middle was damaged.

Lightning protection

The ideal setup is one in which the STL and all other cables enter the building near the electrical power panel. All cable grounds tie to the electrical panel ground and ground rods. It is a “common point” for all facility grounds. This “star ground” has a heavy wire from that point to each studio and equipment rack.

The idea is that studios and racks are “stubs” from the common ground point. Lightning has no reason to travel to a studio if there is no ground at that end to go to. That same thinking applies to transmitter sites, which are even more vulnerable to lightning damage.

Also, I recommend a flexible #12 wire from each piece of equipment to the rack it is mounted in. Don’t be fooled into believing there is a good electrical connection from rack to equipment because they are screwed together. Paint gets in the way of a good electrical connection.

Static Dissipaters
It is a well-known fact that sharp points, directed at the sky, are a good way to dissipate/bleed off static charges, i.e. reduce voltage between the ground and the sky. It happens continuously as storms pass by.

The result is either no lightning strike or less energy in a strike because the voltage is less than it would have been without dissipators.

Static dissipators are typically made of stainless steel to avoid corrosion. The one shown in Fig. 10 is suitable for the wooden pole or any tower under 100 feet. Two dissipaters are even better.

Fig. 10: Nott GS-2-Static Dissipater

Dissipaters go as high as possible on a tower, building or a wooden pole like the one in this article, and need a ground wire directly connected to a common point ground. No wire is required on a steel tower because steel is an electrical conductor. Learn more at www.nottltd.com/lightning.html.

Summary
It is experiences like this that get the adrenaline flowing in an engineer’s blood. Jim Offedahl will be telling his grandchildren this story someday from the comfort of his rocking chair.

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

Visit the author’s website at www.mwpersons.com.

The post What Happens When Lightning Hits? A Case Study appeared first on Radio World.

Logos of a few of the stations on the NCE reserved band.

There may soon be more signals on the lower part of the FM band in the United States.

While 5G seems to be the recent focus of Federal Communications Commission spectrum allocation, a new filing window for the noncommercial educational service is expected as soon as early next year.

Over a decade has passed since the FCC accepted applications for new full-power NCE construction permits.

A window would allow non-profit organizations, schools and native tribes to apply for original CPs in the NCE reserved band, 88.1–91.9 MHz. Individuals cannot apply for NCEs.

A filing window would probably also allow existing NCE stations to seek major changes. And observers expect that a window for additional low-power FM stations could follow (see sidebar at bottom of this story).

Chairman Ajit Pai, responding to a congressional inquiry about LPFM this summer, signaled the commission’s intent to open a full-power NCE window in early 2021.

“Staff anticipates that the new NCE FM window will be opened after our new processing rules for this service are effective later this year,” Pai wrote in a letter to Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.)

Asked for comment about possible expansion in the number of stations at the left end of the band, National Public Radio said it is always “supportive of opportunities to expand station services when they are presented.”

Observers say most opportunities for new NCE stations would be in less populous parts of the country, considering the number of signals already squeezed into the band where there are more potential listeners.

By the numbers

The number of FM educational stations has almost doubled in two decades, from 2,140 in the year 2000 to just under 4,200 at the most recent FCC count.

The number of commercial FMs increased at a much slower rate, from roughly 5,900 to about 6,700. The category of FM translators and boosters grew prodigiously, from about 3,250 to 8,300; and LPFMs, which didn’t exist before the beginning of this century, now total 2,146 licenses.

The NCE service has not had a window for new applications since 2010, according to the FCC, and that one involved a limited number of existing vacant allotments.

A 2007 NCE window yielded approximately 3,600 applications, of which about 2,700 were mutually exclusive, meaning applications involved geographic or spectral overlap. The FCC in that round granted approximately 1,330 CPs for new NCE service, according to commission data.

There’s no way to know yet how many new NCE licenses the commission might eventually award since it does not identify potential slots. Typically, an applicant identifies a spectrum opening on a certain frequency and names a transmitter site, power and antenna height to fit that spectrum availability.

New processing rules

The commission in late 2019 revised certain rules for processing NCE applications; the measures are intended to simplify and improve selection and licensing and clarify procedures for choosing among mutually exclusive applications.

The changes dealt with specifics such as divestiture pledges and amendments to the governing documents of applicants who claim certain MX point classifications. The FCC also will revise the application form to require each applicant to certify that it has reasonable assurance of availability of its proposed transmitter site.

“We are hopeful that Office of Management and Budget can finalize its approval of those rule changes in mid-October,” a spokesperson told Radio World in September. “After that approval, the commission will be able to announce more details about a new NCE window in 2021.”

The FCC included all of the changes to the NCE and LPFM processing rules, including rules governing major tie-breakers for mutually exclusive applications, in a Report and Order in MB Docket No. 19-3 issued last December.

The resolution of competing claims is an important part of the process whenever a new station window opens.

The commission places conflicting applications into MX groups before applying internal processing; it then selects one application for grant from each separate MX group. A point system is applied to each application based on public interest criteria (such as diversity of ownership, localism or technical superiority) and the application with the most points in an MX group is the tentative selectee.

The commission recently dismissed a challenge to the NCE MX process. Law firm Discount Legal had argued that the FCC should set up a secondary grant policy for MX groups, essentially naming “runner-up” applications, but it was unsuccessful.

“No new additional changes to the NCE processing rules are expected before opening a window next year,” the FCC spokesperson said.

Nitty gritty

Applicants in the filing window must propose a facility that meets at least the minimum for a Class A FM station, which is 100 watts (0.1 kW) at 30 meters height above average terrain. Facilities proposed may be up to 50 kW for a Class B or 100 kW for a Class C depending on the proposed station location.

Noncommercial educational FM stations protect all other reserved band full-service stations using contour overlap on co-, first-, second- and third-adjacent channels. However, reserved band stations are not required to protect existing LPFM and FM translator stations.

The FCC expects any new NCE window would be open for one week.

As for when that might be, the commission typically gives several months’ notice of any filing window for new station applications.

One observer, communications law attorney Dan Alpert, said the timing of the filing window is discretionary on the part of the FCC but guided by the winds of political pressure. But he said the window is likely to come while there are still economic unknowns caused by the pandemic.

“There may be fewer parties out there who can afford the time and expense to develop engineering proposals that would be necessary for an NCE filing,” Alpert said.

These filings would not involve a filing fee, he said, since these are for non-commercial facilities in the non-commercial reserved band. “However, there will be substantial costs involved pertaining to engineering and legal analysis.”

The 2007 NCE window limited applicants to a total of 10 applications nationwide; the FCC could again place a cap to avoid huge numbers of applications that would be difficult to process and could lead to daisy chains of competing applicants.

“To the extent the commission intends to explore imposing similar limitations this time around, it will first seek public comment and input on such an approach,” the FCC spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that many applicants are disqualified because they didn’t pay sufficient attention to the filing requirements.

“Our rules spell out in detail our procedures for processing applications for new NCE stations. Those rules provide potential applicants with guidance about what factors will be taken into account to resolve any mutual exclusivity among applicants, and how to resolve mutual exclusivity.”

“Incredibly Crowded”

While the FM band has become quite busy in the 21st century, congestion and interference are generally viewed as greater issues higher up the dial. But that doesn’t mean there are a lot of tasty NCE market opportunities waiting to be discovered, either.

John Garziglia, communications law attorney for Womble Bond Dickinson, expects most new full service NCE licenses will be awarded outside major urban areas.

“The FM band in most areas of the country is already incredibly crowded. It is unlikely that applicants will find either full-power NCE or LPFM opportunities in most non-rural areas. In rural areas, there will be significant availabilities for both new NCE and LPFM stations,” Garziglia said.

Garziglia expects the application processing would take at least a year, which could delay the opening of the LPFM filing window.

“If the FCC opens an LPFM window prior to the almost-complete processing of NCE applications, there is the risk that spectrum space specified by NCE applications that will later be dismissed or denied will foreclose availabilities of LPFM spectrum,” Garziglia said.

“So, there may be a significant detriment to LPFM applicants if the FCC does not await a full processing of NCE applications prior to opening an LPFM window.”

Matt McCormick, co-managing member of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, said groups hoping to apply for an NCE license should use the next few months to select knowledgeable consulting engineers and a communications attorney familiar with the NCE selection process.

“There are too many traps for the unwary for an applicant to try to weave its way through the process without a lawyer,” he said.

“The third step is to make sure the applicant’s corporate paperwork in up to date with the appropriate state office, which is the secretary of state’s office in most states.”

McCormick said applicants need to submit the strongest application possible and assume that mutually exclusive applications will be filed; and they should propose technical facilities serving populations that currently have no or only one NCE radio service.

Should interested parties wait for the expected LPFM opportunity?

“Frankly, I think that any non-profit group that wants to get into radio should file in this window,” he said. “If it wants to reach a relatively large geographic area, it can do so with a full-service NCE FM, whereas the coverage of an LPFM is limited to the area it can reach with 100 watts at 30 meters above average terrain.”

In addition, even if a non-profit plans to operate with a low power level at first, a full-service NCE license may allow it to increase power later.

“Moreover, if the group is not successful in getting a full-service NCE FM through this window, it can always file for an LPFM during the window that will follow.”

For those selected to receive new full-service NCE construction permits, the costs involved in building and operating a radio station can be substantial.

REC Networks, a consultancy that is active in the non-profit and LPFM sector, estimates $3,000 to $30,000 for a transmitter to get started, depending on the situation. Antenna size and cost also will vary based on power level, with a simple non-directional antenna at lower power (250 watts or less) around $700 to start, but higher-power and directional antennas, especially those with a custom design, can be far more costly.

New NCE stations are also required to install an Emergency Alert System encoder/decoder, REC notes.

 

Sidebar: What About LPFM?

Scott Flick

An entity eager to apply for a low-power FM license may get an opportunity to apply for one once the FCC completes work on its NCE filing window. LPFMs operate under noncommercial educational broadcasting rules as well.

An FCC spokesperson says the commission doesn’t have a specific date “but we anticipate that will be a priority” once the next window for full-power NCEs is done.

“We want to avoid the situation where we issue new LPFM permits that are subsequently knocked out by new primary NCE stations.”

Some observers think an LPFM filing window could come in late 2021 or early 2022.

The LPFM service was launched in January 2000. LPFM stations are limited to 100 watts effective radiated power. There are 2,146 licenses as of the most recent FCC count. New LPFM applicants would be allowed to apply for one license, according to the FCC.

Scott Flick, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, answered questions from Radio World.

Radio World:  How should non-profit groups prepare for the next LPFM filing window?

Scott Flick: In terms of preparation, there is no substitute for reviewing the application form used for this purpose by the FCC (Form 318) to see if the applicant can supply the requested information and make the required certifications, or needs to take further steps to be able to do so.

And of course, the applicant needs to make sure that it is the type of entity that can even qualify to apply for an LPFM authorization in the first place. The requirements are narrower than most people realize, and can be found in Section 73.853 of the FCC’s rules. The applicant must also be local to the station service area and, with some exceptions, can’t have an interest in other broadcast stations.

RW: What kinds of things often trip up LPFM hopefuls?

Flick: Common problems LPFM applicants have in the planning process include failing to secure the rights to their proposed antenna site — lease negotiations fall through — or discovering that they need to deal with local zoning authorities to be able to use their proposed site.

There is also a pretty long list of FCC rules applicable to LPFM, which can be found in Section 73.801, and applicants should ensure they are familiar with all of them. They also need to be thinking about how they will supply a continuous stream of content to feed the station, as, for example, LPFM stations are prohibited from retransmitting the signal of a full-power station, along with other types of content.

RW: How about the finances?

Flick: Of course the biggest issue is having a viable business plan in place. Since LPFM stations have to be operated non-commercially, it’s particularly important to have worked through how the station will cover the costs of its operation and what those costs will be. Many people underestimate the costs involved and then struggle to stay on air. Operating an LPFM successfully means being able to deal with occasional unexpected expenses.

For example, since LPFM stations are subject to interference objections from full-power stations, an LPFM operator may suddenly find itself having to modify its engineering operations to eliminate interference, or even having to locate a new channel to operate on in extreme cases. Having a budget in place that can withstand the costs of equipment modifications or replacement is a wise move.

RW: Any final tips for potential LPFM licensees?

Flick: It’s worth noting that applying for an LPFM station and getting an authorization to operate one are not the same thing. If the application is incomplete or incorrect, the FCC may reject it out of hand. If the application is perfect in every way, the applicant may still not get a license because other applicants applied during the same filing window for facilities that are mutually exclusive with that application.

In that case, the FCC has processes in place to decide who gets the license, and in some cases, may encourage parties to share the license. As a result, parties should be careful about spending money or making commitments for leases or the like until they know they have a construction permit in hand.

Of course, they need to make sure all equipment meets FCC requirements, as there are plenty of FCC enforcement actions out there against stations that tried to use whatever equipment they could lay their hands on rather than what is required by their FCC authorization, particularly after an equipment failure.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

The post NCE Filing Window Likely in Early 2021 appeared first on Radio World.

While Mackie first launched its EleMent Series of microphones in January this year, the manufacturer is now expanding the line with five new additions — three new mics, a boom and pop screen. Additionally, the company’s MC-100 headphones, originally only available as part of bundles, are being spun out as a standalone product. All of the products are aimed at content creation such as podcasting, as well as recording and remote meeting use.

Key to the new offerings are three new microphones — the EM-91CU USB condenser microphone, Carbon USB condenser microphone, and Chromium USB condenser microphone.

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

The plug-and-play EM-91CU USB condenser microphone ($49) sports a cardioid polar pattern, includes a USB cable and shockmount, and has a sample rate of 16-bit/48 kHz. Meanwhile, the Carbon USB mic ($149) features Mackie’s Onyx mic preamp circuitry and five selectable polar patterns — stereo, cardioid, bidirectional, supercardioid and omni. It, too, offers a sample rate of 16-bit/48 kHz and comes with a mic stand and USB-C cable.

As the line’s flagship, the Chromium USB condenser microphone ($199) features a built-in two-channel mixer with instrument and stereo 1/8-inch inputs, as well as four polar patterns — stereo, cardioid, bidirectional and omnidirectional. Equipped with a built-in mixer stand, USB-C cable and a sample rate of 16-bit/48 kHz, the Chromium is intended for recording music, podcasts, live streams and online content creation.

Accessorizing the new microphones, the DB-100 Desktop Microphone Boom Arm ($79) and PF-100 Pop Screen for EleMent Series mics ($14) are also now available. The MC-100 professional closed-back headphones are $29.99.

Info: https://mackie.com

 

The post Mackie Debuts New EleMent Microphones appeared first on Radio World.

Christian Winter

The author of this commentary is with The Car.SW Org, a software subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. He is a former radio and media development engineer at Audi AG and is a steering board member for hybrid radio standardization organization RadioDNS.

Three years after the successful launch of hybrid radio in Europe, Audi is offering this new feature in most of its 2021 vehicles, including models available in North America.

Innovation — what Audi calls “Vorsprung durch Technik” — is an ongoing part of development in the automotive industry. The challenge is always to keep pace with trends and technological advances.

However, it’s unusual that such innovations involve the car radio, which many drivers take for granted — a feature that is “just there,” like the steering wheel.

Hybrid radio is a new innovative feature that is helping radio to stay relevant in the highly competitive entertainment world in the connected car.

In 2012, I wrote my master thesis about hybrid radio for Audi Electronics Venture GmbH, the pre-development department for Audi AG. I spent a whole chapter defining what hybrid radio is.

The term is often used the wrong way — for example to sell kitchen radios that have more than one reception method. Is it a hybrid radio because it is equipped with an FM and DAB tuner and you have to press a source button to switch between modes? To me, hybrid means that both reception methods need to work together somehow. With just two modules inside this is not the case; the kitchen radios in question did not even manage to provide a shared preset list.

Therefore, I argue that hybrid radio is about merging at least two worlds in order to create a better user experience. Back in 2012, the fundamental idea was to combine a conventional broadcast radio with the upcoming internet connectivity in connected cars. This was the next logical step after my colleagues had developed a unified station list with the combination of FM radio and DAB radio together.

The use case of switching seamlessly from broadcast radio to the online stream when the car leaves the reception area evolved into the main feature of hybrid radio.

Metadata is key

In recent years, display resolutions of in-car infotainment systems and the screen itself increased in size. While an FM radio usually shows a frequency and an eight-character RDS name, the hybrid radio uses the whole screen area to display station metadata, e.g. station logos, that it receives via online connection.

In recent years, display resolutions of in-car infotainment systems and the screen itself increased in size.

In this way hybrid radio got a more modern, contemporary and appealing look. RadioDNS standardizes how to receive station metadata, and this helps developers to get an easier access to longer station names and online logos (see https://radiodns.org/technical/documentation/ for more about this).

The key to a good hybrid radio experience is metadata. Audi, as a longtime member of RadioDNS, regards the latter’s open approach as the easiest way to support hybrid radio.

Together with RadioDNS, Radioplayer and a few German broadcasters, we wanted to solve the so-called chicken–and-egg problem. They made sure that we can receive the data via RadioDNS or the Worldwide Radioplayer API (WRAPI), while Audi, for its part, developed the first in-car hybrid radio for the European version of the Audi A8 in 2017.

The main feature of the Audi MMI infotainment system is “hybrid radio seamless linking,” which enables the radio to switch from broadcast radio to the internet stream and vice versa whenever necessary, using Fraunhofer Sonamic time scaling technology . Seamless switching works best when the delay between the broadcast radio signal and the online stream is below 15 seconds. The majority of stations in Europe are even below 10 seconds. Support of up-to-date online station logos is an additional feature.

With the premiere of the Audi A7 in 2018, we introduced the feature “automatic radio song identification” to Audi customers, providing answers to the recurring question, “What’s that song?”

Now, the artist and song title of the currently playing song appear on the display along with album art. Needless to say, that process happens in the background so that customers do not even have to press a button to identify a song.

Our automotive partner Gracenote helped us to develop the technology behind it.

After launching, we received very positive feedback from the industry as well as major European markets, extending their coverage of RadioDNS metadata from almost zero to 80% in only three years.

The biggest driving force that enables many stations for hybrid radio is Radioplayer Worldwide. Almost all car lines from the Audi A1 to A8 and the Audi Q3 to Q8 followed the pioneers A8 and A7 and eventually introduced hybrid radio.

Additional brands within the Volkswagen Group added hybrid radio to their models as well. For example, VW brought it onto the market with the Touareg in 2018 and Porsche with the Cayenne and Taycan.

Coming to America

It has always been one of our priorities to launch hybrid radio in the U.S. and Canadian markets.

From a technical point of view, many of the challenges were solved with the European release; we only needed to adapt our seamless linking engine to cooperate with HD Radio.

However, we needed support from the U.S. and Canadian radio industry. Without them offering station data in the RadioDNS service information format, hybrid radio would not be possible.

We presented hybrid radio to the industry at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in 2018 and 2019, as well as at the fall Radio Show in 2018. This year, I participated at the NAB Show 2020 Express and showed radio stations how important hybrid radio is for them.

On this display WILD is being received online, as indicated by a small box to the right labeled “Web.” It’s a small visual that indicates, among other things, a dramatic expansion of a station’s ability to reach listeners beyond its OTA footprint

The connected car offers many entertainment options beyond broadcast radio, such as streaming, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or SiriusXM with 360L. In the past, these entertainment options were difficult to use and not as convenient as radio; they were not even the standard equipment.

Today, the connected car makes it easier to use these entertainment options. It allows an app-like experience with additional features, such as voice input. Over the radio, customers can select from a variety of streaming audio services that provide unlimited content.

Hybrid radio is helping to create new business opportunities for broadcasters because it ensures that radio has its place in the connected car of the future.

Here is a list of reasons why broadcasters should use hybrid radio, excerpted from my presentation for the NAB Show Express 2020:

• Extending the coverage area for your station
  • Listeners stay longer on the station, even if they leave the reception area
  • Seamless linking experience helps when the FM signal is distorted

• Analytics from streaming radio sessions
  • By tracking the user agent during hybrid radio streaming, the session lengths can be a good index of how good the broadcast coverage is
  • For example, short sessions can indicate that the core reception may have issues in some areas where the signal is not strong enough, the consequence being that a customer would most likely switch the station

• Shaping the radio brand in the dashboard of the car
  • Radio can be visually on par with streaming services again
  • Metadata is an enabler of possible future functionalities such as easy access to the podcasts of the playing station

I am delighted to note that upcoming 2021 Audi models with hybrid radio are on sale now in the U.S. and Canada. iHeartMedia will provide RadioDNS support for hybrid radio in Audi cars. In addition, Radioplayer Canada supports us with data from more than 350 Canadian radio stations.

I am looking forward to seeing more stations offer hybrid radio data in the RadioDNS service information format so that customers can enjoy a great radio experience in their new Audi vehicles.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Audi AG Launches Hybrid Radio in U.S. and Canada appeared first on Radio World.

Poe fans, unite: The Library of Congress has informed The National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre that it will begin archiving all “Poe Theatre on the Air” podcast episodes both onsite at the library and through its website.

For nearly 18 months, “Poe Theatre on the Air” has been producing original radio drama adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe on Baltimore National Public Radio affiliate WYPR(FM), as well as on NPR.org and other streaming platforms.

[Read: Listen to These on a Midnight Dreary]

The announcement by the Library of Congress was welcome news to Alex Zavistovich, founder and artistic director of The National Edgar Allan Poe Theatre and a former editor of Radio World. “We’re very happy the Library of Congress has recognized the significance of what ‘Poe Theatre on the Air’ is doing,” he said. “The theatre sees itself as a preservationist organization, so to have the library preserve our own work speaks highly of the value of ‘Poe Theatre on the Air’ for future scholars, researchers and the general public.”

An official letter by the manager of the Library of Congress’ Podcast Preservation Project informed the Poe podcast team that it considered the podcast to be an important part of the cultural and historical record. “With your permission, the library would like to acquire the podcast, add it to library collections, preserve it, and provide public access to it, including online,” the letter said.

Audio files of the “Poe Theatre on the Air” episodes will be available to users of the Library of Congress’ collection through its proprietary audio file player. Offsite users can access “Poe Theatre on the Air” episodes through the library’s website. The programs will be discoverable to users searching the library’s online catalog, which would include a link to The National Edgar Allan Poe website as well.

Each episode of “Poe Theatre on the Air” guides listeners through a mental hospital, where every cell houses Poe protagonists waiting to thrill audiences with dramatic accounts of familiar stories, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Cask of Amontillado” and the well-known “The Raven,” with musical underscore and sound effects to add suspense to the retellings. “The Raven,” one of Poe’s most well-loved tales, is a 1845 poem that tells of the anguish of a distraught lover who is plagued by a raven foretelling that his anguish will be distinguished “nevermore.”

It has been exciting to watch the group as they have honed their production skills and created some terrific podcast episodes, said LaFontaine E. Oliver, WYPR president and general manager. “We look forward to seeing the continued growth of this old time radio production in a modern day podcast offering.”

 

The post Library of Congress to Archive “Poe Theatre on the Air” appeared first on Radio World.

Photo: SmithGroup

Update your address books, the FCC has a new home. The commission has announced that it has officially moved its headquarters from 445 12th St. SW to its new location: 45 L Street NE in Washington.

The new space is likely to remain empty for the time being, as most FCC staffers are continuing to work from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The address change also does not impact the FCC’s current prohibition on delivery of hand-carried documents to FCC headquarters, again because of COVID-19. Nor does it change other ongoing COVID-19 restrictions or instructions regarding access to FCC facilities. Filers are encouraged to keep using the FCC’s electronic comment filing system.

With its new address, the FCC is now closer to Congress, the headquarters of NCTA–The Internet & Television Association and NPR. The move is expected to save more than $100 million over the lifetime of the lease compared to its previous location, according to reports.

The FCC announced that it was planning on moving its headquarters in 2015 when the lease at 445 12th St. SW expired.

 

The post FCC Officially Moves into New Headquarters appeared first on Radio World.

Getty Image/ Leo Patrizi

Life goes by in a f-l-a-s-h. One minute, I’m changing diapers … the next, my daughter is getting married! The June wedding, planned pre-pandemic, was moved to September with some hope for safer conditions. Of course, now we truly understand that we can’t predict when the virus will be vanquished.

We have our own new life partner and it is spelled Z-o-o-m.

Okay, maybe you prefer Go To Meeting, Google Meetings, or Skype; but whichever brand platform you prefer, video conferencing/webcasting has had a massive impact on our lives and is here to stay as part of our daily landscape.

As if sitting at my dining room table for hours every day for Zoom calls weren’t enough to convince me, I am now completely certain of Zoom’s ubiquity; many more people watched my daughter’s wedding online than were able to attend in person. And they loved it, really feeling the spirit and joy of it all.

Suddenly it occurred to me that even if there weren’t a pandemic going on, it still makes sense to have a Zoom feed available for those who can’t attend personal events. Then I started thinking about other Zoom uses for a station to boost relationships, engagement and ratings.

Focus Zoom

How do listeners feel about your station? Traditional focus groups are expensive, time-consuming and not always conclusive because it’s impossible to do enough sessions to detect trends.

What if you started doing them in a format people are now accustomed to using, like Zoom? You could solicit volunteers with a simple message: “We’d like to hear your thoughts about our ‘Joe in the Morning Show.’ The first 20 people who Zoom with us tonight at 7 p.m. get free pizza from Jerry’s. To sign up, just text your email address to 004445.”

While it may be a challenge to host focus groups on your own, it can be done well. Like anything else, it takes practice.

Come up with 10 questions you want answered. Ask the same questions of each group. Encourage everyone to participate.

Record five sessions. Compare the answers. If each unconnected group says the same thing, you’re onto something to explore further.

Happy Hour Zoom

Want to build relationships face-to-face with your listeners? How about a Zoom happy hour once a week?

Be prepared to join with topics, music videos to share on screen, maybe movie clips — fun things to kick around. Most importantly, let your listeners talk and get to know you as a real person; they’ll feel like they’re getting to know others on the call as well.

Remember that you can mute your group and set it up so that you call on people when they want to speak. Word will spread fast, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you had to start limiting attendance.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Got a special live or pre-recorded performance to share? A special one-time-only premiere on Zoom will be remembered.

Run a contest for a “backstage pass” to hang on Zoom with a band in your format, or to meet a newsmaker or celebrity.

A word to the wise: Be sure to invest in a Zoom paid account. It’s not that pricy to increase time and attendance limits.

Haters will say that driving people to Zoom instead of listening to radio won’t do a thing to increase ratings. I am not at all suggesting you’ll be driving tens of thousands to Zoom. You won’t be that lucky.

The purpose is to create memories and loyalty that will spread gradually and consistently over time. Creating personal connections both during and after COVID is something stations of all sizes can accomplish.

Virtual relationships aren’t exactly like those that happen in person, but “being there” from a distance will still create many smiles — just like a wedding!

Reach the author at marklapidus1@gmail.com. Read more great promotion and management articles from Mark Lapidus.

 

The post Zoom as a Radio Research and Promo Tool appeared first on Radio World.

PreSonus has launched its new PD-70 Dynamic Broadcast Microphone, intended for podcasters, radio broadcasters, YouTubers and live streaming.

As a dynamic end-address mic with a cardioid polar pattern, the PD-70 offers a 20 Hz to 20 kHz (±3 dB) frequency range. Onboard features include an integrated windscreen to reduce plosives, and an integrated hard mount.

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

Designed with an aim to reduce mechanical noise and breathiness, the mic is claimed to offer solid off-axis rejection, allowing mic owners to use it as a part of portable recording setups.

The mic is available now at a U.S. street price of $129.95.

Info: www.presonus.com

 

The post PreSonus Launches PD-70 Broadcast Microphone appeared first on Radio World.

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

Radio World has recently hopped in at the right time by leading some important conversations related to radio. In covering the strains that stations face in diversifying their workforces as well as tensions in noncommercial media over dozens of diversity scandals, fresh discussions with readers like you are starting.

Hiring and leadership development among early-career and diverse voices we want to bring in to our stations is one of the more perplexing matters. One reader said it best: we tried, but had a hard time finding the right person with the right skills. This leg of the journey stymies many well-meaning managers. How do we overcome the obstacle?

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Inclusive Service Is the Future]

It is important to approach recruitment with an eye to what you want to see. If you are looking to expand your pool of candidates, you may need to expand your methods for finding them. While personal references, traditional networks and ads in the usual places can be helpful, keep in mind that the people you’re looking for may not have access to the contacts you have, or know yet about the networks you do. A new college graduate, a person of color fresh to the industry or someone whose skills could strengthen your station may simply not have access to the colleague networks we do.

Here’s one idea: have you thought about circulating job postings to groups like the University Station Alliance or College Broadcasters Inc., or reached out to a local university or community radio station? Many university licensees and student-run college radio stations have a steady stream of students who get radio training in many facets of the organization. Those campuses hand out diplomas to seniors each year, and those seniors go into an uncertain workforce. Having talked to many students at CBI’s conferences, I can tell you a lot of them would love to have a career in radio. They just do not realize it is a possibility, so they look elsewhere.

Finding early career and diverse talent for your station may also require you to think deeply about your organization’s needs and screening. Each applicant should get the same questions about the role and be asked to perform tasks required for the position. You might want to be open to skills that translate well to jobs you’re hiring for. In addition, for entry- and mid-level positions, you may be open to more on-the-job training.

Similarly, leadership development is as much about who the candidate is, as it is about the manager identifying an employee’s strengths and helping them cultivate leadership abilities with appropriate mentorship. Those not traditionally associated with radio may not understand the nuances we do, and it takes an astute manager to see how a candidate or new employee’s talents translate to our work. That may not be simple, but it is rewarding.

Of course, some of the big-picture issues may be out of our hands. Owners and our own bosses need to give attention to recruitment and retention organization-wide, as well as helping staff as a whole to be culturally competent in our ever-changing workplace, where five generations now meet. We as well-intentioned managers play a role in being advocates and sounding boards to the higher ups on diversity as well.

Evolving our stations to meet the needs of our communities is exciting work. Those of you thinking about diversity and the cultural shifts we are seeing deserve praise. Just as someone long before took a chance on us, we are in a position to change someone’s life by creating opportunities.

The post Community Broadcaster: Taking Chances appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is CEO and co-founder of On-Hertz.

As Radio World has reported, the pandemic has caused many radio organizations to pause cap-ex spending and to rethink their facility planning and workflows.

On-Hertz thinks that the industry, in general, is going to need to move more actively towards more agile workflows and operations to survive in the new media landscape.

Concretely, that means accelerating the transition to a fully digital, software-based, live production ecosystem.

We must stay humble: No one could have anticipated a global crisis like the one we are facing. The impact on our industry is severe and, unfortunately, there is no magic bullet.

At the same time, COVID-19 has put in full light some of the challenges that broadcasters have already been facing for some time:

• How to compete with the new on-demand and over-the-internet players?
• How to do it while maintaining the levels of quality and reliability that the audience has come to trust?
• How to stay relevant to our audience and embrace the new ways people consume content?
• How to address the changes in our organizations and production teams when budgets are going down but the demand for content explodes?
• How to shape our operations to stay (become?) profitable while we know that the speed of change is only going to increase from here?

Once again, COVID-19 has highlighted a key element: legacy dedicated hardware infrastructures are just not flexible enough. Worse: They play(ed) against us when trying to ensure business continuity!

The Adaptable Survive

It is not surprising that codec suppliers have seen a large increase in demand for their equipment: Suddenly, distributed operations are the norm rather than the exception.

It is not surprising either that we have all seen and heard many shows trying to carry on using publicly available applications like Skype, Zoom and the likes — often at the expense of quality, unfortunately.

On the other hand, shipping codecs to everyone at the start of the pandemic and trying to replicate the hardware-based infrastructure of the studio have proved to be logistically impossible, not to mention eye-wateringly expensive.

So, are there alternatives?

Evolution is not “survival of the fittest,” it’s “survival of the most adaptable.” At On-Hertz, we believe that involves a shift from legacy hardware-based infrastructures to modern virtualized ones.

We don’t want to “simply” swap out hardware for software, though; we believe the shift towards software-defined infrastructures will bring us three significant advantages: modularity, interoperability and better user interfaces. Combined, these characteristics open the way to better workflows.

This evolution needs to come with a few mandatory pre-requisites like maintaining or even improving the level of reliability, quality and functionality that our industry demands.

We must also capitalize on the tremendous amount of expertise and knowledge that we have collectively built over the last decades. Virtualization isn’t about turning everyone into IT geniuses but offering more opportunities to capture our audience’s imagination.

Modularity will then help us deal with the changing world: It doesn’t matter anymore if you have an X-channel mixers or Z number of codecs. With software, you can simply select the number of channels you need at any moment. If you need more or fewer channels the week after, you can scale accordingly. Likewise, find out what works and what doesn’t much faster than ever before.

Hitting two birds with one stone, modularity also comes with a cost advantage. You don’t need to scale your infrastructure for peak demand anymore. You can scale for the content you want to produce and make sure your cost structure follows your revenue.

The UX is paramount

Interoperability remains one of the major pain points of technical teams today. Who hasn’t heard a story or two full of dongles and converters?

There is no good reason for it. Outdated, insecure, proprietary algorithms and protocols should be things of the past. Instead, offering open (web) APIs allows for easier interconnection between solutions, less customer lock-down for a manufacturer and a lot less unnecessary support for your teams.

In other words, we can rely on technology that is already used at a massive scale by many other resilient industries to provide much greater convenience.

Finally, users, and therefore user interfaces, are of paramount importance. If teams are being reduced, if the speed of change increases, if the complexity of operations increases, shouldn’t we make sure that we focus on getting the best out of the tools we use to produce the best content?

Can we hide complexity in some cases? Can we automate operations that only have low added-value, that are tedious and potentially error-prone? Are we bound to physical interfaces for every input on the system or only by some of them? How do we embrace distributed operations?

Our philosophy is that engineers engineer, developers develop and producers produce, and that’s how it should be. So let’s make sure our user interfaces reflect that reality.

The pandemic has caused many radio organizations to pause cap-ex spending and to rethink their facility planning and workflows. These emergency measures might well be their safety board for the future too, thanks to the opportunities opened by software-defined infrastructures!

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

For more on this topic, see the new Radio World ebook “Virtualizing the Air Chain”.

The post The Advantages of Software-Defined Infrastructure appeared first on Radio World.

Financial news service Bloomberg Radio announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement with Key Networks to manage all of Bloomberg’s network advertising sales, affiliate sales and marketing for the radio company’s global 24-hour business radio network.

Key Networks is a syndication company focused on radio programming, syndication and marketing that will work on growing Bloomberg’s radio business and work to create new opportunities to benefit listeners, advertisers and stations, a release said.

[Read: How Bloomberg Radio Put Remote Mixing Into Action]

As a provider of radio business news in the United States, Bloomberg Radio’s “Daybreak” shows cover the morning hours of each part of the world from Bloomberg’s studios in New York, San Francisco, London and Hong Kong. Bloomberg Radio also delivers in-depth coverage of the financial markets throughout the day coupled with interviews with newsmakers, analysts and company executives. Bloomberg says its shows and short form reports are heard on more than 300 top radio stations across the United States. It can also be heard on SiriusXM satellite radio, via the Bloomberg Radio+ mobile app and through live streaming.

“Bloomberg is undeniably the gold standard in business news, and we are thrilled to deliver access to Bloomberg’s unmatched global business news resources to radio stations across the U.S,” said Rob Koblasz, CEO of Key Networks.

 

The post Bloomberg Radio to Work With Key Networks appeared first on Radio World.

The author is communications manager for WorldDAB.

This year’s WorldDAB General Assembly will be fully virtual, making it easier than ever before for industry stakeholders to attend the event on Nov. 3. The live-streamed event, which will be held in a condensed format over one day — as opposed to the usual two — will address all the latest and upcoming developments related to DAB+, both from Europe and beyond.

Last week saw the launch of Germany’s second national DAB+ multiplex, marking the beginning of a new era. Joe Pawlas, CEO of Antenne Deutschland — the company that is operating the multiplex —will highlight how this launch will positively impact Germany’s radio landscape and give new impetus to the advertising market.

[Read: WorldDAB Highlights Its Advances]

In 2021, France will be holding a double celebration — 100 years of radio on the one hand, and the launch of national DAB+ on the other. Nicolas Curien and François-Xavier Bergot from the French regulator CSA will explain why DAB+ is at the heart of France’s radio strategy and provide more detail on France’s long-term plans for DAB+, with a particular focus on listeners in cars.

The Swiss radio industry has agreed to switchover from FM to DAB+ during 2022–2023. Iso Rechsteiner from Switzerland’s Digital Migration Working Group will present an overview of the DSO process; Bernard Maissen, Director of OFCOM, will outline the ways in which the Swiss confederation is supporting the radio industry in the FM switch-off; and Jessica Allemann from the Swiss Broadcasting Corp. will highlight the latest usage figures from the Swiss market.

Norway was the first country to switch off national FM in 2017 — but how does the radio listening landscape look today? Ole Jørgen Torvmark, who oversaw the DSO process, will catch up with NRK’s Radio Manager Cathinka Rondan and Director of P4 Group Kenneth Andresen to find out how healthy the radio industry is looking three years down the line.

The U.K. was one of the pioneering DAB markets. Today, almost 60% of all listening is digital, which has prompted the government to launch a review of digital radio and audio. Digital Radio UK’s Yvette Dore will provide an overview of the U.K. radio market and Ian O’Neill from the U.K. government will share an update on the progress of the review.

The WorldDAB General Assembly will also highlight the latest updates from other parts of Europe including Spain and the Czech Republic, as well as status updates from Australia, the Arab states and parts of Africa.

A session dedicated to digital radio in the car will feature an update on the EECC directive from WorldDAB Pres. Patrick Hannon, as well as discussions around metadata, service following and the future of audio in the car.

The last session of the day will be dedicated to the distribution of DAB+, looking at DAB’s place within a multichannel distribution strategy, the energy consumption of DAB compared to other transmissions forms, as well as small-scale, regional and national DAB.

Don’t miss the only industry event dedicated to DAB digital radio — register now and confirm your place at this year’s virtual general assembly.

 

The post WorldDAB’s First Virtual General Assembly Approaches appeared first on Radio World.

This is the first time I’ve reviewed a piece of equipment that I knew I loved — and had heard countless times before it showed up on my doorstep to review.

It’s likely you have heard it as well. When New York City went into lockdown and voice actors couldn’t go to studios to do their job, the scramble was on for them to get set up at home. A decent number of them already had home studios, but the vast majority had only ever needed a cheap USB mic to record auditions in a pinch.

The game changed overnight though, as post facilities and their clients suddenly needed actors to provide “broadcast quality from home.”

For many facing an uncertain financial future, the idea of dropping thousands on gear was scary. My message via webinars and consults with voice actors has been that you can pull off a truly impressive sound without breaking the bank.

There was such a run on affordable large diaphragm condenser mics across the industry that each time I prepared a presentation, I needed to vet sources to make sure actors could actually buy the mics I was suggesting.

“Delicious”

It was in one of these moments that I stumbled upon a YouTube video comparing the TZ Audio Stellar X2 to a Neumann U87AI.

I found that hard to believe until I listened. It seemed a hidden gem that cost a mere $199.99. I reached out to TZ Audio via their website to make sure they had inventory and were still open for business.

In the weeks that followed, I would spend time working with dozens of actors to get them connected so that we could all continue to work together. Once their mic was connected, we’d either go live over the Source-Connect platform or they’d send me files to make sure they were sounding solid.

[Related: Read other recent microphone product coverage from Radio World.]

Time after time I was floored by how good the Stellar X2 sounded.

Affordable cardioid condenser mics are not a new thing. I recall an actor boasting about a $300 mic in the mid-1990s, calling it an “overseas knock-off.” I was pretty dismissive at the time, but there have been some remarkable improvements over the years.

What I hadn’t seen or heard, however, is a mic that holds its own against the big boys while breaking the $200 price barrier.

The mic comes neatly boxed with all of the testing documentation. Inside the box is a solid carrying case that holds the mic, its shockmount, wind screen (not a pop filter) and pouch.

When I got my hands on the Stellar X2, it was smaller than I imagined it would be, given its big sound. It was like someone had used a shrink ray on a classic large mic and case.

But when you lift the mic, you know you’re holding quality. It is solid. TZ Audio’s documentation describes the care taken to build the mic, and you can feel it.

The shock mount squeezes open, and in the mic goes, safe and secure.

I connected it to my home rig as I was preparing for a session with a well-known actor coming to my home studio for a national TV spot. I’d been using a shotgun mic on him and decided to compare it to the Stellar X2 while I was getting things set up. It sounded really close to a ubiquitous studio mic that costs five times as much.

Later that night, I ran a webinar to a group of about 90 voice actors, and they all wanted to know what mic I was using. One actor said it “sounds delicious.”

A criticism from voice actors and engineers about mics in the $200–$300 price range is that they often have a notorious “harsh” bump in the upper mid range. Personally, I think that depends largely on the actor’s voice. Truth be told, when I mix voice actors into spots, I’m always bumping up the upper mids and highs to cut through anyway, so I don’t see it as an issue.

However, the Stellar X2 doesn’t add any exaggerated brightness.

Sure, you can see what they’re claiming in the graph they send, but I’ve never been one to trust that stuff. I rely on my ears, and my ears are happy with this mic.

It also doesn’t have an over-the-top proximity effect, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the actor. Some actors working at home with some of the similarly priced competitors are struggling with extra mouth noise, no doubt related to that upper-mid boost. During my webinars, I had been using a different mic that had me cringing at my own mouth noise. Once I switched over to the X2, I noticed quickly that it was gone.

Cardioid Only

Next, I wanted to do some musical testing with what I had on hand at my home studio.

First up was putting it in front of my Hirade Model 5 classical guitar. I recorded it flat into my Pro Tools rig — and it was, in fact, delicious. It didn’t improve my playing, but it made the guitar come alive. It picked up everything from my fingers to the strings, as well as all of the resonance of the instrument. I couldn’t resist putting some concert hall reverb on it, and with no processing at all, I was getting a clean, crisp sound.

The next test was to see how it handled a guitar amp. I fired up my Gibson SG with an old distortion pedal and turned it up to a responsible level because my rock and roll days are long behind me, and I live with my family who doesn’t need to hear that kind of noise.

It’s worth noting that the Stellar X2 doesn’t have a pad or a roll-off built in, but it took a solid blast effortlessly, capturing what I was hearing in the room perfectly. I should also note that it is a cardioid pattern so there is no polar pattern switching on this mic. Keep that in mind if it is something you need.

For a mic priced under $200 (by a penny!), the Stellar X2 is a must-have. It competes effortlessly with mics costing five or even 10 times the price. It continues to be my strong recommendation for voice actors, and is a worthwhile addition to any mic locker. Whether you’re a voice actor, podcaster or a musician, this mic is well worth a listen.

Frank Verderosa is a 30-year veteran of the New York audio industry, fighting the good fight for film studios, ad agencies and production companies, but secretly loves mixing music most of all. These days, he plies his trade at Digital Arts and also is a podcast engineer.

PRODUCT SUMMARY

TZ Audio Products Stellar X2 Microphone

Plusses

+ Large condenser capsule

+ Price

+ Performance

+ Deceptively small

+ Ships with case, shockmount, windscreen

Minus

– Only cardioid pattern

For information, contact TZ Audio Products in California at 1-424-337-0534 or visit https://techzoneaudioproducts.com.

 

The post TZ Audio Stellar X2 Microphone Shines appeared first on Radio World.

The author is chairman of Digital Radio Mondiale. Her commentaries appear regularly in Radio World.

After 11 months the FCC is to decide if, at the behest of the National Association of Broadcasters, it should allow AM radio stations to go all-digital with the in-band on-channel (IBOC) HD Radio. The hybrid (analog-digital HD) option never delivered, and interference was often seen as the main issue. To address this and other concerns a new all-digital HD Radio mode in medium-wave was developed and is not the subject of the impending FCC decision.

The U.S. is probably the largest AM market in the world, with about 4,570 licensed stations. More than half, 2,800, rebroadcast their content on FM translators licensed by FCC, but the content is the same in AM and FM. As to the AM stations with a hybrid analog-HD transmission, their number was probably to start with around 250 but many gave up the experiment.

[Read: NAB, DRM Spar Over AM Digital for U.S.]

Positive signals have come from the FCC ahead of the vote on Oct. 27. Al Shuldiner, now with the FCC but associated with IBOC in the past, noted “strong support” for the transition to voluntary all-digital AM. This might be so but the reality is that switching off the analog signal would make millions of analog radios redundant while only half of the cars on the road (about 60 million) have a digital receiver, even after 10 years of promotion.

Going all-digital in AM is not for the faint of heart, though there are countries which have done it successfully like India, China and Russia. And others, like Pakistan, are planning to do it.

It is notable that they all chose the all-band, open Digital Radio Mondiale standard. This has been tested under all conditions and on all continents. The same cannot be said about pure-digital HD Radio in medium-wave, only tested on one and a half American stations (one claimed success and another one gave up and reverted to analog). HD Radio, as a proprietary system, raises the issue of license fees and many large radio groups might be reluctant to take upon themselves such a financial burden in the middle of a pandemic crisis. (Xperi has offered AM stations a license for all-digital HD Radio in perpetuity without fees, though some see this more of a sweetener than a long-term and comprehensive commitment). And then there is the question of the receivers. It is the “chicken and egg” question we know so well. What comes first: the decision of the FCC, the regulator, and then the digital receiver, or the other way round?

Digital Radio Mondiale has faced this struggle and is noting success just now with 2.5 million car radio receivers on the Indian roads and receiver solutions for DRM and multistandard receivers powered by multistandard chipsets used both in the U.S., India and elsewhere. Recent developments have proven that DRM delivers excellent audio without interference, thanks to the adoption of the latest MPEG audio technology, xHE-AAC, superior to the old proprietary HDC codec used by HD Radio, lots of multimedia features and  emergency warning (as demonstrated in India and currently on air in Indonesia).

DRM is an excellent platform for making internet content available right at the radio set and even in remote or underserved areas. DRM can be an important tool for distance learning, an increasing advantage in these times. So, having waited so long to recommend a way for digitizing and saving AM in the U.S., why not perform some comparisons and choose the best?

One answer comes from NAB Associate General Counsel Larry Walke, “Before pulling the trigger on such a fundamental change to one’s operation, AM broadcasters need every confidence that HD Radio technology will remain the exclusive technical solution for all-digital transmission.”

According to Walke, moves to test or otherwise consider DRM as an alternative technology would undercut such confidence, discourage greater adoption of HD Radio and jeopardize the viability of all-digital AM. Regulatory certainty is a strong argument but it seems to work only one way, as Xperi is not averse at tentatively prospecting other markets, no matter what.

Therefore, we urge the FCC and Congress to take a robust and unbiased look at what is available globally rather than twist and turn to support a system because it is there but remains largely unknown and tested by the average American listener. A voluntary switch to a restricted digital AM would be the worst solution; neither eliminating AM and writing it off for good, nor revitalising it properly. The situation in 2020 is that multistandard receiver chipsets are available from big (and American) companies. FCC would prove its wisdom by allowing broadcasters to choose between a closed-source service with potential financial obligations and an international open standard adopted around the world for full digital and simulcast AM (supporting analog AM where required).

 

The post Digital AM — Revitalization or Annihilation? appeared first on Radio World.

How true is the adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same. That certainly seems to be the case in comparing the tumult and upheaval of the late 1960s to the tumult and upheaval of 2020 — when groups of impassioned young people decide to stand up for the rights of the unheard, to fight for justice for the underrepresented, to make a difference in their community.

But 60 years ago, without the buzz of social media to distract and divert, one medium regularly played a starring role in clarifying the noise and commotion of the late 1960s.

For the city of Boston, station WBCN(FM) was that place. Going on-air on analog 104.1 MHz in 1968, this community broadcaster became ground zero for passionate, talented, community-minded young people looking for like-minded voices willing to fight for civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights and against the use of police force at their city. Every caller, every staffer, every volunteer was met with the same mantra: At WBCN, you have a voice.

“The mission of the station was that every listener was important,” said Bill Lichtenstein, a former newscaster at WBCN and now a documentary filmmaker.

A long way away from the corporate-run morass of indistinguishable stations (which listeners here in 2020 often rail against) WBCN was a progressive rock station where the station’s DJs had latitude on the music they played and the causes they championed.

“There was just an intuitive sense during that period this [station] was an important place to be,” Lichtenstein said. “[It seemed that] almost anybody of note politically, socially, culturally, musically was there. If you crossed paths with Boston, you crossed path with WBCN.”

Bill Lichtenstein on air at WBCN. Photo: Don Sanford

Last year, the station and its impact on the community was memorialized in the award-winning documentary “WBCN and The American Revolution.” After a successful run on the film festival circuit, the film is being made available as a digital rental in partnership with the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) and radio and film organizations across the country, giving voice once again to a radio station that was willing to stand up and call for change.

“WBCN came to our attention [in regard to a] panel about community radios past, present and future,” said Ernesto Aguilar, the program director at the NFCB. “It was a beautiful and compelling story about a unique time in history.” Soon after Aguilar and Lichtenstein struck up a conversation about helping modern stations link into that history and draw parallels for what we’re seeing today. “And to remind people that radio connects into a point in our imagination,” Aguilar said. “Radio has this very special place in people’s hearts.”

Soon after it opened its doors, the new WBCN began to find its voice.

It supported alternative news coverage and underground investigative reporting, airing live concerts and covering novel topics like the hazards of street drugs. The station engendered legendary music industry stories too, like airing the first interview of a young Bruce Springsteen or snagging bootleg recordings from major artists such as The Beatles.

Bruce Springsteen performs at the Harvard Square Theatre on May 9, 1974, from “WBCN and The American Revolution.” Photo: Barry Schneier

“Radio was really the access point to rock and roll and youth culture,” said Lichtenstein, who found a part-time job at the station when he was 14.

Even after the station evolved from the underground/progressive format of the 1960s to more mainstream album rock later on, DJs on WBCN still had relative control over the music they played and the conversations they started. The result was a varied mix of rock music peppered in with local music and the introduction of new acts like The Cars, The Ramones, The Clash and The Police. One day you might hear an interview with Jerry Garcia. The next you might hear a live performance by Patti Smith.

Through it all, WBCN became a beloved institution in Boston because it affirmed the idea that if you speak out, you can change things.

“I can’t think of any other cultural institution that [makes] people just melt [other than radio,]” Lichtenstein said. “There was such an affection for that station. There was this idea that you can speak out and change things. That media can change the world.”

For Lichtenstein, the idea to create a retrospective on the station was 50 years in the making. In an interview with the Boston Herald in 2006, Lichtenstein asked for readers to contact him if they had tapes of broadcasts, photos and other documents from WBCN. Material started pouring in, an influx of fossilized remains of tape and photos that chronicled the life of the station. Many of those moments that might have been lost to the ages were actually be out there, Lichtenstein said, held on to by fans, former DJs and hidden in the station’s back rooms. All in all, more than 100,000 audio and visual items were donated to the project including never-before-exhibited film clips by Andy Warhol and memorable air check segments from on-air moments.

The documentary is now serving to start a conversation with community radio stations, to help them link into that 1960s history and draw parallels for what we’re seeing today.

It also makes clear how difficult things were in certain areas, Lichtenstein said. “Women were verboten to be on the radio or have a broadcast job. And it took courageous steps to shatter that wall. So how you go about creating change?”

WBCN air staff circa 1970 in record library at 312 Stuart Street studios in Boston Photo: Peter Simon

“Radio continues to serve an important role in that process,” he said. “It has a way of bringing people together that’s different from TV or print.”

What stood out to Aguilar about the documentary was that it showcased a station that was offering listeners in 1968 something they wouldn’t ordinarily hear or experience. There are also are obvious parallels to what’s happening today, he said. “[Radio is still] able to tap into people’s disaffection. To remind everyone that as a whole, we can come together about things we want to have a conversation about. Radio is never is going to go away as long as people want to have conversations,” Aguilar said.

According to Lichtenstein and the NFCB, the film has been successfully used as a fundraising platform by stations in up and down the East and West Coasts. Ultimately, Lichtenstein and the NFCB hope to support many more stations with this campaign.

Documentaries like this one are key to the work the NFCB is doing, Aguilar said. “What we’re seeing right now — with so many fluctuations in media, lots of layoffs and the FCC changing the main studio rule — is that these smaller organization depend on a variety of people in their communities to provide radio programming.”

When theaters around the country began closing one after another due to the pandemic, one of Lichtenstein’s first thoughts was to reach out to radio stations with this documentary.

“I do think public radio in a way is largely driven by national programs, agenda, discussions,” he said. “To me the tradition of WBCN lives on most in these communities.”

Screenings of the WBNC documentary “WBCN and the American Revolution” are ongoing. Public stations interested in participating in a screening of the film can contact Eliza Licht and Alice Quinlan of the film’s community outreach team at screenthefilm.com or Screenthefilm@LCMedia.com.

 

The post Honoring the Rollicking Radio Revolution Led by WBCN appeared first on Radio World.

The author is a contributor to Radio World who writes frequently about radio history. Opinions are his own.

Dear Editor:

In announcing a “#Radio100” celebration, the National Association of Broadcasters has chosen to declare Nov. 2 as the centennial of the day that radio was suddenly and magically born into this world. In doing so it is recognizing KDKA as the country’s pioneer station. But many early experimenters and broadcasters also contributed to the creation of radio broadcasting, and NAB does them a disservice by recognizing only KDKA as the “first” broadcaster.

[Visit Radio World’s Radio@100 Page for Related Articles]

In fact, WWJ in Detroit, KNX in Los Angeles and KJR in Seattle all trace their beginnings to dates that were earlier than KDKA, as I have written in the pages of Radio World; and many other stations that no longer exist also predated KDKA.

The first commercial broadcasting license did not go to KDKA; that honor went to WBZ in Boston in 1921. KDKA was licensed as a “Commercial Land Station,” a category that had existed for many years before, and on the night of its Nov. 2 election returns it was using the call sign 8ZZ. Licensing of broadcasting was not created until the art was well under way, and so it should not be used as a basis to single out one broadcaster.

In fact, in 1942, the NAB proclaimed that it was officially recognizing WWJ as being the true “first” broadcaster in the country. This announcement created a firestorm that resulted in Westinghouse Broadcasting withdrawing its NAB membership for eight years. Finally, in 1947, Kenneth Baker of the NAB stated that the organization was unable to take a position on which broadcaster was first.

It is accurate and appropriate to claim 1920 as the year that broadcasting was begun in the United States, and the NAB campaign is a wonderful celebration of that fact. But it is not appropriate for the NAB, which represents all broadcasters, to claim that just one date or one station deserves that honor. Many pioneers worked in parallel to develop what became radio broadcasting, and none of them deserves preferential treatment; they should all be considered “first.”

The post Letter to the Editor: KDKA Does Not Stand Alone appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page, Thum+Mahr has helped BBC Cymru Wales integrate a total IP workflow.

T+M installed a DHD Audio IP audio system. A release said, “DHD Audio will be the future platform

of the entire radio division of BBC Cymru Wales new Broadcasting Centre in Cardiff.”

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

Every workstation and work group has access to all audio and control signals in the network. In addition, all groups can operate autonomously.

Send news and photos of projects to Radio World at radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Thum+Mahr Aids BBC in Wales appeared first on Radio World.

While many organizations cheered the way in which the Federal Communications Commission revamped the rules for dealing with FM translator interference complaints, others are asking the commission to stop and reconsider some of its decisions.

Among those asking for reconsideration were a group of four — including the LPFM Coalition; Fellowship of the Earth/KGIG(LP) in Salida, Calif.; Skywaves Communications; and Charles M. Anderson — all of whom filed petitions in July 2019 asking the commission to reconsider parts of the order it released within “Amendment Part 74 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding FM Translator Interference.”

[Read: Latest U.S. Station Totals Reveal Boom in Translators]

Among the new rules were adopted were these three: FM translators causing or receiving interference with another station now have the flexibility to change channels using a minor modification application; interference claims must now follow a standardized process that sets a bar for a minimum number of listener complaints and sets a new undesired-to-desired (U/D) data ratio around signal strength; and a rule that says the only interference complaints that will be considered are those with an outer contour limit of 45 dBu signal strength.

A petition filed by two of the filers — the LPFM Coalition and Fellowship — stated that a low-power FM preclusion study should be included every time a translator files a modification application as dictated by the Local Community Radio Act. The FCC disagreed with this argument, though, saying that the LCRA refers to new FM translator stations not modification applications. “Requiring such preclusion studies would be contrary to the aim of this proceeding, namely, to streamline the translator interference rules and to expedite the translator complaint resolution process,” the FCC said in its response.

The FCC also fielded an argument by Fellowship that charged that the nonadjacent channel change rule for translators violates what is known as the Ashbacker doctrine. That doctrine held that grant of a waiver requesting that a single long-distance transmitter move as a minor modification could potentially violate a competing applicants’ rights. The Supreme Court ruled in this case that where two applications are mutually exclusive, the grant of one without considering the other violates the rights of the second applicant.

But the Ashbacker doctrine does not apply to prospective applicants, the FCC said, only to those who have filed timely, mutually exclusive applications. The goal of many of the changes made in the order is to simplify the process, not make it more complex, the FCC said. In this particular case, the goal is to allow FM translator stations to deal with interference by treating channel changes as minor.

“To treat these changes as major, and therefore subject to competing applications, would undermine our efforts to provide FM translator stations with an efficient means to remediate interference,” the FCC said.

The FCC also dismissed a number of other arguments, including one by Anderson who argued that the minimum number of listener complaints should be changed from three to six. The FCC declined to consider this, saying it already thoroughly considered this issue during the original proceeding.

The commission also denied an argument from the LPFM Coalition regarding how it should handle multiple complaints from a single building. The FCC ruled that any consistent interference problem must stem from listener evidence gathered from multiple, unique locations. The commission did agree, however, that an operator must address each valid interference complaint, even if they all originate from the same building.

The commission also rejected Skywaves’ suggestion to allow listeners complaints from anywhere within the complaining station’s protected contour — even if the listener location does not satisfy the ratio of undesired to desired signal strength (the U/D test).

The U/D data requirement serves as a threshold test to eliminate obvious instances where the translator could not be the source of the alleged interference, the FCC said. “For example, a listener could be located on the opposite side of the protected contour from the translator station, with the complaining station’s transmitter located in between,” the FCC wrote. “In this situation, the translator could not possibly be the source of the alleged interference, yet under Skywaves’ proposal, we would accept the listener complaint as valid.”

The FCC said it is also not persuaded that extending the range of potential listener complaints to include all of the complaining station’s protected contour area is necessary.

“If a ‘real and consistent’ interference problem caused by a translator should occur, we anticipate that the affected station will be able to readily obtain the required minimum number of listener complaints from within the zone of potential interference.”

The FCC also reaffirmed the establishment of an outer contour limit of 45 dBu signal strength of the complaining station. Outside of this limit, interference complaints will not be considered. The commission also reaffirmed that all of the newly adopted rules will be applicable to applications or complaints that are pending.

As with many of the arguments in the filings, the FCC reminded the petitioners that it has set rules on what it reviews: reconsideration is generally appropriate only when new information is raised or if the petitioner can show the FCC made a mistake.

More comments on the Report and Order can be found within the FCC’s ECFS database using Media Bureau Docket 18-119.

 

The post FCC Addresses Reconsideration Petitions on FM Translator Interference Rules appeared first on Radio World.