Radio World

Iona. Photo: Herman IJsseling

From the Who’s Buying What page: ENCO said its DAD automated playout system is being used to run the onboard radio station on the new Carnival Corp. vessel Iona.

The big ship sailed from Southampton, England, on its first voyage in August. The 1,130-foot-line vessel is driven with liquefied natural gas and has 17 guest decks. And it can carry a pretty good sized radio audience — it accommodates up to 5,200 guests and 1,800 crew. It is operated by Carnival’s P&O Cruises subsidiary.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

The ENCO system is used for the Cruise Radio service on the ship. Useful Media Company out of the U.K. provides the radio equipment and automated programming. Music scheduling is through ENCO DAD’s Ensemble music scheduling system; other elements such as on-ship promotions use rotating cuts. New content is sent to onboard operators on disc once a month.

“Cruise Radio is the only ‘as-live’ radio service at sea, and is unique to each of the P&O Cruises ships,” ENCO wrote in a press release. “Played over video from the bow camera and streamed to every cabin on each ship, Cruise Radio combines music with radio elements including imaging, jingles and bespoke commercial packages advertising onboard services, shows and activities.”

The service also provides documentary music programming, historical retrospectives and ship information.

Useful Media also runs Cunard Radio aboard the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, owned by Cunard Line.

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For those married to the smartphone, Shure has a toy for you, the MV88+.

A stereo/figure 8 condenser microphone of petite size, the MV88+ is designed for smartphone use, providing an upgrade in audio performance. It features Lightning and 1/8-inch/3.5 mm connectors on the rear.

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

The MV88+ is available alone or in a video kit with a Manfrotto PIXI tripod, phone clamp, and mount, as well as iOS and USB-C cables.

Shure says that the free ShurePlus Motiv audio and video apps can control the MV88+’s pick-up patterns, as well as set gain and control the limiter, compression, EQ, and monitor mix. Price: $199 for the mic alone, or $249 with the video kit.

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Info: www.shure.com

 

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From an earlier show.

The 2021 Midwest Broadcast & Multimedia Technology Conference has been postponed until next year.

It had been set for Nov. 17, produced by a partnership of state broadcast associations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

[For News on This and Other Shows See Our Show News Page]

“It has become apparent that we cannot host an in-person event that delivers an outstanding experience for our attendees, our exhibitors, and our speakers,” the Ohio Association of Broadcasters wrote in an email to its community.

“The challenges of the current environment have left us with too many uncertainties to present a meaningful in-person event. While we are disappointed not to be able to conduct this year’s conference, we would be more disappointed about an event that falls short of what our participants have come to expect.”

The OAB decided not to convert it to a virtual event and instead plans to hold the event in 2022 on a date to be announced.

[Check Out More Events on Radio World’s Calendar]

Registration charges for both exhibitors and attendees are in the process of being refunded.

Approximately 180 engineers and broadcasters attended the conference in 2019, which drew 50 exhibitors.

Submit news about your event to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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The Consumer Technology Association is knocking a proposal from the National Association of Broadcasters asking the FCC to impose new regulatory fees on unlicensed spectrum users. CTA argues the NAB proposal is contrary to current law, would stifle innovation and have a sweeping impact on the consumer technology market.

NAB has been aggressively pushing for an update to the regulatory fee categories so that unlicensed spectrum users, especially large tech companies, pay an annual regulatory fee similar to those already paid by broadcasters. CTA says the fees would defy precedent and hurt consumers, app developers, device makers and small businesses that rely on unlicensed spectrum.

The FCC this fall scrapped a plan to hike this year’s radio regulatory fees and instead set those fees equal to those collected in 2020. The FCC’s original proposal would have raised radio’s annual regulatory fees on average of 8% this year. NAB and all 50 state broadcast associations balked at the proposed rate hike.

[Read: Rosenworcel Calls for 6G Initiative]

As part of the FCC’s Report and Order setting the 2021 regulatory fees for broadcasters in August, the commission released a companion Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The NPRM asked for comment on adopting new regulatory fee categories and the legal basis for assessing regulatory fees on unlicensed spectrum users.

CTA says it believes the NAB proposal is contrary to commission precedent. “It also would raise serious administrability concerns, be impossible to implement in a nonarbitrary manner, and have significant implications for regulatory fees in contexts beyond unlicensed spectrum,” the CTA wrote in comments filed this week with the FCC. “Further, NAB’s proposal would undermine the enormous innovation made possible by the commission’s long-running and successful approach to unlicensed spectrum.”

The group, which represents a wide variety of consumer technology companies and is led by CEO Gary Shapiro, says NAB’s proposal overlooks that companies using unlicensed spectrum already defray commission costs in important ways.

Identifying those unlicensed spectrum users and determining the regulatory fees they should pay would be difficult, according to CTA. “Unlicensed spectrum users include consumers, state and local governments, corporations, nonprofit organizations, schools, libraries, and many more groups. Those unlicensed spectrum users do not impose discrete and well-understood duties on the Commission as licensees and other regulated parties do.”

CTA continues: “Potential beneficiaries of unlicensed spectrum subject to NAB’s proposed regulatory fees share little in common other than their use of unlicensed spectrum.”

In addition, unlicensed spectrum users receive no rights or protections from the FCC, CTA commented. “Wireless spectrum licensees receive exclusive rights to particular spectrum frequencies, which they monetize by offering services using that exclusive spectrum.”

Because of the differences between entities currently subject to regulatory fees and unlicensed users, NAB’s proposal raises a host of administrability concerns, CTA concludes in its comments.

Acting FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel specifically asked at the time of the NPRM “how if changes were made, can they be done in an administrative way?”

Reply comments on the NPRM (MD Docket No. 21-190) are due Nov. 5.

Here is a snippet of the questions being asked by the FCC:

• What would be the proposed methodology for assessing regulatory fees on unlicensed spectrum users, noting that unlicensed spectrum users include a significant number of equipment manufacturers, such as appliance and other home goods equipment, many of which neither apply for nor require authorization by the commission?
• Alternatively, should the commission assess regulatory fees on large technology companies based on a different basis, such as any advantages they receive because of the commission’s universal service or other activities?
• Are there other categories that should be added, deleted, or reclassified?

 

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CPB now has an executive whose job is to assure diversity and inclusion in its HR process.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting named Dr. Stephen Wilkins as senior vice president of human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion, what has become known as DEI in organizational circles. He will start Dec. 6.

“In this new position, he will be responsible for the development and implementation of a human resources strategy that builds on CPB’s commitment to diversity and inclusion,” the organization stated.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

He will report to President/CEO Patricia Harrison. She praised Wilkins for his “organizational leadership, academic training and operational skills that will enable him to work with leaders and staff across the organization to advance a culture grounded in CPB’s commitment to collaboration, teamwork and DEI.”

Wilkins was chief human resources officer and then chief of staff at Alexandria City Public Schools in Alexandria, Va. “During the pandemic, he served on the senior leadership team that restructured the organization, recruited diverse leaders for schools and departments, and developed the division’s five-year strategic plan focused on equity and inclusion.”

Earlier he was on the Pentagon staff and served on the faculty at West Point as an assistant professor of political science. CPB said he “speaks fluent Spanish and has worked in Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Canada.”

He has degrees from West Point, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the senior service college at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., as well as a doctorate in administration and leadership from the Richard W. Riley College of Education at Walden University.

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell debuted a five-minute radio show on WNJ in Newark by early 1930.

In radio’s formative years, most stations were only on the air for several hours in the evening, and the majority of what they broadcast was music. There were a few stations that provided news headlines and sports scores, but listeners did not expect breaking news coverage, nor live play-by-play broadcasts of their favorite teams.

Throughout the early 1920s, as the programming day gradually expanded, so did what was on the air. By the mid-1920s, radio was covering important news events, and many stations began broadcasting major league baseball games, much to the delight of the fans.

But there was one group of fans whose favorite teams never got on the air. If you followed the Chicago American Giants, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Indianapolis ABCs or the other teams in the Negro Leagues, radio ignored you.

In fact, the only way to find out how your team did was to either go to the game or read about it in the Black press. Because America was segregated, it was mainly sportswriters at Black newspapers like the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and Baltimore Afro-American that offered extensive coverage of Negro Leagues teams.

Jocko

No matter how well-attended Negro Leagues games were or how much talent the players displayed, radio stations weren’t interested.

Perhaps that wasn’t surprising: In the 1920s, all station owners were white, and they seemed convinced that white listeners wouldn’t care about Negro Leagues baseball — even though newspaper accounts noted that many white people went to the games.

It wasn’t until late 1929 or early 1930 (the exact date is uncertain) when the first Black sportscaster went on the air: Sherman “Jocko” Maxwell was a former semipro baseball player and manager from Newark, N.J. He debuted a five-minute radio show on WNJ (later WNJR) in Newark.

At first, he mainly read sports headlines, but his show went over well with local fans and by 1932, Maxwell was hosting a 15-minute program. By 1933, he was on the air in New York City at WRNY, and then at WHOM, where he hosted his increasingly popular sports show several nights a week.

By 1937, Maxwell was on the air at WWRL, where he was named the station’s sports director in 1942 — the only Black sports director in radio at that time.

Sportswriter and broadcaster Sam Lacy in an undated photo. Courtesy National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Maxwell had an audience of both Black and white listeners, and he had so much credibility that Major League players would often stop by his show for a chat.

He was also a correspondent for the Sporting News, and during the 1930s, he covered some of the Newark Eagles’ Negro Leagues games. This gave him an opportunity to discuss the games on his radio shows, where he sometimes compared certain Black players to their major league counterparts, something most other sports commentators were not doing.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., another Black sportscaster went on the air in the mid-1930s.

Sam Lacy was already a sportswriter for the Washington Tribune who would go on to have a long career with the Baltimore Afro-American.

Hal Jackson, shown in a 1970s photo, was mentored by Sam Lacy.

In the autumn of 1935, he began doing a sports show for WOL. Like Jocko Maxwell, Lacy was a big fan of the Negro Leagues, and both men had served as public address announcers at their team’s ballparks.

After Lacy returned to his sportswriting job, he mentored a young man named Harold Jackson, later better known as Hal Jackson and a major force in Black radio.

Jackson wanted to be a sportscaster, but no station owner in the D.C. area would hire him. He finally got on the air in 1939 at WINX, hosting a music and interview program, and thanks to Lacy, he also was hired as the public address announcer for the Homestead Grays games at Washington’s Griffith Stadium.

Grays vs. Elite Giants

But it wasn’t until Aug. 9, 1942, 22 years after the Negro Leagues had been founded, that the first play-by-play broadcasts of Negro Leagues games finally occurred, with Jackson as one of the announcers.

Sponsored by the Baltimore Afro-American, Washington station WWDC broadcast the series featuring the Homestead Grays and the Baltimore Elite Giants. WWDC also agreed to broadcast several other Homestead Grays games, including one against the Kansas City Monarchs in September.

No Negro Leagues games seem to have been broadcast during the next several years. Meanwhile, Sam Lacy and Harold Jackson collaborated on a once-weekly sports show on WINX in 1944, during which they interviewed Negro Leagues players and recapped the games from that week.

Contrary to some internet claims, there is little evidence of any regular play-by-play broadcasts until 1948, when the Cleveland Buckeyes got on the air at station WSRS; the station’s sportscaster Danny Landau did the play-by-play, assisted by sportswriter A.S. “Doc” Young, who covered the Negro Leagues for the Cleveland Call and Post.

But an effort to broadcast the Atlanta Black Crackers games over WEAS in Decatur, Georgia in mid-May 1948 was not as well-received: After one game between the Black Crackers and the Nashville Cubs got on the air, a subsequent broadcast had to be canceled after complaints from what one Black newspaper referred to as “Southern bigots.”

Ironically, by the time more games were about to be broadcast, the Negro Leagues were in decline. Major League Baseball had finally begun to integrate in 1947 with the arrival of Jackie Robinson, and soon, there were questions about whether the Negro Leagues would survive.

The Negro National League disbanded in 1948; the Negro American League struggled on, in weakened form, through the 1950s.

As a media historian and a baseball fan, I am saddened that most radio stations ignored the Negro Leagues when they were at their best. Because so few stations broadcast any of their games — and not until the 1940s — baseball fans were deprived of the chance to follow the exploits of talented (and record-breaking) 1930s players like slugger Josh Gibson and speedster “Cool Papa” Bell or hear about how pitcher Satchel Paige’s legendary career developed.

It was a loss for the fans. But it was a missed opportunity for radio.

Donna Halper is an associate professor of communication and media studies at Lesley University, former broadcaster and radio consultant. She also writes for the Society for American Baseball Research.

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Tascam has released a new, free application for audio editing — Tascam Podcast Editor.

Intended for the production of voice content such as podcasts, internet radio, audiobooks and voice logs, it is a standalone application available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and in a future update, Android OS. The Podcast Editor software integrates with Tascam’s Mixcast 4 podcast mixer hardware, and supports various functions necessary to publish a program with straight-forward, easy operation.

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

Users can cut and paste voice snippets, record to each track, insert background music and jingles, insert sound effects, and control the level of individual tracks. The software is equipped with multiple “voice content export options” that correspond to the desired application, such as internet radio, podcast, and YouTube. Tascam Podcast Editor export files with MP3 and WAV format, but it also has a function to export an image along with audio, aiding users who publish files on YouTube. After exporting the contents, users launch a web browser with the shortcut button of each preferred media hosting site to access the desired upload screen.

Since the Podcast Editor interfaces with the Tascam Mixcast 4 Podcast Station, users can record directly without complicated track routing and assignments using the Mixcast 4. Users can read the data recorded on the SD card of the Mixcast 4 by pressing the Read Mixcast File button, and other options are also available.

The software supports editing with a maximum of 12 tracks/20 channels that can be switched between mono and stereo. VST-plug-ins are supported, enabling users to utilize available VST plug-ins from their own library in addition to the Mixcast 4’s internal effects library.

The Tascam Podcast Editor supports 2Mix, multitrack with WAV, and export with Poly file — enabling one to choose a file format that is easy to use in other editing software. Further, the application is equipped with a “time adjust function” that enables one to adjust the speed of playback without changing the pitch of the voice, along with an “automatic cleanup tool” that makes it easy to remove noise and normalize the recorded voice all at once.

The Tascam Podcast Editor does not require a driver when used with the Mixcast 4, though Windows 10, Version 1909 (Fall 2019 Update) or later is required.

The Podcast Editor can be downloaded from tascam.com.

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Info: http://tascam.com

 

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International Sales Team said it signed an agreement to sell 2wcom broadcast products in the United States.

Founded earlier this year, International Sales Team offers what it calls “sales teams as a service,” or STaaS. It is based in Australia but services any country.

It quoted Werner Drews, managing director of 2wcom, saying, “International Sales Team represents a cost-effective way for us to get our range of professional broadcast products to a market that is complicated and difficult for us to address from our offices in Germany.”

The announcement was made by Charlie Day, partner manager for International Sales Team.

2wcom makes hardware and software audio broadcast equipment including the recently introduced 4audio series.

IST launched in March from Australia, targeting OEMs to help them with their sales. It describes itself as a “worldwide network of highly experienced broadcast and media industry sales professionals for hire and deployment.”

Director Darren Frearson said in the earlier launch announcement, “We’re all familiar with the concept and implementation of SaaS, PaaS [Platform as a Service] and IaaS [Infrastructure as a Service] as beneficial outgrowths of ever-advancing technology. … STaaS offers broadcast and media manufacturers a cost-effective and culturally appropriate means of expanding globally.”

He said at the time that IST was actively recruiting to expand its network, particularly in North America.

 

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GeoBroadcast Solutions said Bonneville International is deploying its SFN technology in San Francisco.

A concept image from the GBS website.

A five-node single-frequency MaxxCasting network is scheduled to be completed in March, serving FMs KOIT (96.5 MHz), KMVQ (99.7 MHz) and KBLX (102.9 MHz).

Each station will share antenna infrastructure through a multiplex system. GBS said the improved signal should also increase penetration with Nielsen PPM Portable People Meters.

“The three stations were acquired by Bonneville from Entercom in 2018,” the supplier noted in a project summary.

“A particular challenge to all stations in the region is the terrain of the East Bay hills. By implementing a MaxxCasting SFN system, the technology provides a solid, interference-free signal, sound, and HD Radio in the East Bay for all three Bonneville stations. Bonneville will use the MaxxCasting system to simulcast the main signal for the three stations to provide greater coverage in the East Bay.”

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

Partners working on the project include GatesAir, supplier of Flexiva transmitters; Goldman Engineering Management for the project architecture; Jampro Antennas; SCMS for equipment sales and staging; Covington & Burling, LLP and partner Gerard J. Waldron for legal advice; Rich Redmond, managing partner at Strativa Advisors; and Gary Krantz, CEO of Krantz Media Group.

GBS says its MaxxCasting SFN system expands the coverage area of a FM signal and allows for potential geographic targeting and fencing of text advertising and messaging, though the latter applications are not currently authorized by the commission. The synchronized transmitter infrastructure uses cellular network design broadcast, and SFN software tools that incorporate high-resolution terrain data, analysis of vehicular traffic and other parameters.

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

 

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The Federal Communications Commission is questioning whether a licensee of a station in Pennsylvania is qualified to retain his license — or if it should be revoked after he pled guilty to felony use of a communication facility and several related misdemeanors.

The chief of the Media Bureau has begun a hearing proceeding to determine whether 70-year-old Roger Wahl, licensee of WQZS(FM) in Meyersdale, Pa., should be allowed to keep his broadcasting license.

In July 2020, Wahl pleaded guilty to criminal use of a communications facility (the station is located in his home) and four related misdemeanors after he admitted to recklessly endangering another person, unlawfully disseminating intimate images and tampering with evidence.

At the time of his sentencing in November 2020, the judge decided against jail time for Wahl due to his age and underlying health conditions that put him at risk for the coronavirus, according a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Wahl, the station owner as well as a disc jockey, pled guilty to secretly taking nude photographs of a woman inside her home using a concealed camera that had been installed in her bathroom. According to court documents, he also impersonated the woman on an online dating site, sent nude photos of the woman to at least one man whom he connected with through that site and solicited that man to have sexual relations with the woman without her consent. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one man from the dating site came to the woman’s address and was met by Wahl who solicited the man to rape the woman, according to authorities quoted by the Post-Gazette.

Once he learned an investigation was underway by the Pennsylvania State Police, Wahl was accused of tampering with evidence by deleting the nude photos from his mobile device and erasing the communications he made at the online dating site.

Initially, Wahl also pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy; after learning that that charge would require him to register as a sex offender, however, he withdrew that guilty plea and instead pled guilty to identity theft. He was sentenced to three years of probation, four months of electronic monitoring, and was required to pay $600 in fines as well as the costs of his prosecution and supervision.

Local sources also reported that Wahl was prohibited from hosting his morning show on WQZS for the duration of the electronic monitoring but has since returned to the airwaves.

Charges of this type — which in Wahl’s case include a third-degree felony, first-degree misdemeanor and several second-degree misdemeanors — raise the question of whether the holder of a broadcast license possesses the character qualities to remain a licensee. Following guidelines under the FCC’s Character Qualifications Policy Statement, the Media Bureau instigated a hearing proceeding in which an administrative law judge will serve as a presiding officer.

The commission has the authority to revoke a license when the character of an applicant is called into question, according to language within Section 312(a)(2) of the Communications Act. The Media Bureau started a hearing proceeding in this case because it considers any felony to be a serious crime. In some cases, certain misdemeanors may also be relevant when it comes to determining the character of a licensee. In this case, the bureau said it was necessary to evaluate Wahl’s character in light of the felony and multiple misdemeanor convictions.

[Read: FCC Hands Down Decision on Four St. Louis AM Stations]

“Furthermore, the fundamental purpose of the commission’s character inquiry is to make predictive judgments about an applicant’s truthfulness and propensity to comply with the [Communications] Act and [FCC] Rules,” wrote Media Bureau Chief Michelle M. Carey. “For this reason, we find that Wahl’s misdemeanor convictions directly implicate his character qualifications.”

If he chooses, Wahl has the opportunity to be heard by the administrative judge as part of the hearing proceedings. To do so, a written request must be filed within 20 days of the Notice of Opportunity for Hearing he received.

A hearing will commence from there to determine if Wahl has the qualifications to be a commission licensee and whether or not the license for station WQZS should be revoked.

 

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Nautel has introduced an online Factory Acceptance Testing program for new transmitters.

“A FAT is a set of predefined tests that many customers must witness being completed in real-time as part of project specifications,” the company stated in an announcement.

[Read: Transmitters Prepped for Turkey]

Test Supervisor Charles Andrews said restrictions on travel because of the pandemic have made it harder for clients to come to the factory.

Nautel said the test team can use online meeting platforms paired with virtual communications interfaces such as Teams or Team Viewer, to allow customers to witness transmitter testing in real time as part of their acceptance process.

“The Nautel AUI and multiple pieces of measurement equipment are employed along with a suite of cameras, wireless microphones and personnel to conduct the tests. Customers are able to communicate with their transmitter(s) via the AUI and view performance measurements throughout the final testing process,” it stated.

The company posted the video below to explain the process.

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Gordon Smith, president/CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, is one of nine people being honored as “giants of broadcasting” by the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation.

Its list of giants was begun in 2003 and now consists of more than 200 broadcasters. The foundation will salute the new additions in an online ceremony on Nov. 9. (The nine additions are shown at bottom.)

“The Giants of Broadcasting celebration was created by LABF, a charity dedicated to preserving the past, reflecting the present, and informing the future,” the organization stated. “It was created to honor the remarkable creators, innovators, leaders, performers and journalists who have brought the electronics arts to the prominence they occupy today.”

Gordon Smith has led the NAB for the past 12 years. He will step down at the end of this year.

[Related: “The Broadcasters Foundation Honors Gordon Smith”]

Proceeds from the November online luncheon support the work of the LABF, including the Library of American Broadcasting, which is housed at the University of Maryland. It will also support student training and diversity initiatives of the International Radio and Television Society Foundation.

For event information email joyce@giantsofbroadcasting.com.

The 2021 Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts honorees:

Emily Barr
President and CEO
Graham Media Group

Frank Boyle
President & CEO
Frank Boyle & Co.

Bob Costas
Hall of Fame sports broadcaster

Russell Perry
Founder & President
Perry Publishing & Broadcasting Co.

Robin Roberts
Co-anchor, “Good Morning America”
President, Rock’n Robin Productions

Marion Ross
Emmy, Golden Globe nominated Film and TV Actress
Cast member Marion Cunningham. “Happy Days”

Neal Shapiro
President & CEO
The WNET Group

Sen. Gordon H. Smith
President & CEO
National Association of Broadcasters

Jordan Wertlieb
Senior vice president, Hearst Communications
President, Hearst Television

 

The post Gordon Smith Is Among the New Broadcasting “Giants” appeared first on Radio World.

Sean Edwards

The author is director, RF engineering at Shively Labs.

We all want to get the most value out of money spent.

RF system repair can be costly. However, a well-implemented maintenance program can greatly reduce the need for repairs — and when there is damage or degradation to a system, that program can detect and address the issue early, when repair costs are low.

One very useful tool in RF system maintenance is baseline measurements.

Taken at the time of acquisition or system commissioning, these provide a snapshot of the condition of the RF system. They can then be compared to later measurements and reveal trends in performance.

These measurements might include transmission line sweeps, transmitter operating parameters, forward and reflected power samples, thermal readings of filters, transmission line and connections, current and resistance measurements of deicer systems, RF spectrum measurements, pressurization and signal coverage.

The hardware between the transmitter output and the antenna radiator is the final stage of the FM transmission system. This part of the transmission system can contain RF switches; directional couplers; elbow complexes; band-pass, band-stop and notch filters; long transmission line runs; power splitters; “T”s; matching networks; feeder cables, etc.

It’s crucial to the delivery of signal to your coverage area to take the time to get this section right and then keep it right.

During antenna installation, the tower crew and site manager rely on manufacturers to show clearly the antenna position and orientation on the tower.

I’ve seen this exchange break down, resulting in antenna parasitic elements mounted in the wrong position, causing both high VSWR and poor coverage. Fortunately, it was a quick fix to correct the VSWR and signal coverage. Unfortunately, it required a tower crew and two engineers to visit the site.

If care is taken with the details during installation and the system is optimized, it’s at its best and should provide years of service.

(I left the “trouble free” part out intentionally. RF system maintenance … what can break? It’s just bent pieces of metal, right?)

Proactive mindset

Just about anything can happen to cause failure in an RF system.

Installing coax hangers.

Antenna damage from wind, falling ice, lightning, tower work, vandalism, loose connections and aging components are just a few. When an engineer has multiple systems to take care of, something always seems to be in need of attention.

One way we have some control over such failures is regular system maintenance.

Have you ever checked site parameters after a significant weather event and found that some parameter had changed — not to the point of failure, but enough to prompt an investigation? Then upon a closer look you found damage that needed repair?

Or perhaps on a routine site visit, you discovered excessive heat on one or more components, and upon further investigation found an elbow that was nearly kaput — it would have failed catastrophically within weeks or days.

This is proactive maintenance and repair. If these near-misses haven’t happened to you, they likely will.

Had you been unable to check those readings after that storm and thus could not notice increasing VSWR, or had you not visited that site and noticed the hot elbow, the condition would have persisted, worsened and eventually failed, taking your station off the air.

That call usually comes at midnight on Super Bowl weekend.

Burns are visible where wire had been used to secure a flexible 3-inch line.

Checking sites that have suffered through extreme weather events is a prudent practice. So are regular visits, even to sites that may be considered trouble-free. The periodicity will vary — more frequent for trouble sites, perhaps quarterly or even semiannually for more reliable sites.

Annual tower climbs are great if it’s in the budget, but when they are not possible, we come back to intimate knowledge of system performance and those baselines, and running history logs that allow us to review for any indication that a problem has started and at what rate it is changing.

This can be useful information when determining if you need to scramble to make a maintenance visit immediately or can schedule for a later date.

Sample issues

Some things to look for when inspecting for damage in the antenna:

• Loss of dry air pressure, whether entirely or through a slow leak.
• Missing or damaged radiators. Pay close attention to the ends of the radiator and the feed points.
• Kinked, compressed or burned cables.
• Broken or unsealed radomes and/or plugged drains that cause water to collect.
• Parasitic elements in place and undamaged.

These damaged components are an example of the “outside in” sort of burn that can occur when lines pass too close or touch other coax or tower members.

In more complex systems, the power dividers and coaxial lines should be installed without undue mechanical stress on the components.

The coax should have the appropriate hangers and fasteners where they cross tower members or other antenna feed components. Consult the manufacturer for specific recommendations and best practices.

Antennas that have deicers systems usually have an external wiring harness to distribute AC power to each heating element within each radiator. The manufacturer will have the resistive values for each element and current draw to expect.

An ammeter measurement of each leg of the circuit, including the neutral, will give the first clues to the condition of the deicer system.

If the wiring harness was not installed correctly or fasteners have fallen away over time, the harness can hang in the high RF environment. This can cause reflected power issues at the transmitter and changes in coverage; it can cause currents to be induced into the wiring harness, and voltages large enough to cause arcing between the conductors of the wiring harness and tower members or other cables that pass in close proximity.

Visual documentation

Finally, take lots of photos, photos, photos.

This is a great way to document how the antenna was installed and its current state. When you share photographs with the antenna manufacturer, they have very useful information to inform their recommendations.

With a single-radiator antenna it will be obvious when something is not quite right. On panel antennas, the multiple bays, multiple radiators per bay and numerous feeder cables can really mask a problem.

This article is from a Radio World ebook. Click image to read more on this subject.

This brings to mind a recent incident where a station engineer noticed a slight increase in VSWR from 1.05 to 1.15. This occurred right after a tower crew had been working above the antenna, removing old TV equipment.

The engineer noticed the change and hired a crew to climb and inspect the antenna. They found that a cable had been caught at some point during the rigging and pulled sideways until it caused a severe kink at the point where it attached to the radiator input.

If the indications had not been heeded and the cable replaced, the next indication would have been loss of pressure, resulting from a coax burn. And we know what happens when we let the magic smoke out.

Ultimately, having an intimate knowledge of your system’s performance, both within the RF system and in the coverage area, will serve you well. This knowledge will allow you to prioritize your maintenance schedule by need, effecting maintenance to correct small problems before they become big expensive ones.

The post Tips for RF System Installation and Maintenance appeared first on Radio World.

Audacy Inc. said it has acquired “an exclusive, perpetual license” to WideOrbit’s digital audio streaming technology and the related assets and operations of WO Streaming.

It will operate the business under the name Amperwave.

“This acquisition gives Audacy control of its product roadmap to deliver enhanced consumer-facing streaming features for its 170 million monthly listeners,” the media company stated in the announcement, which was made by Chairman/President/CEO David Field.

WO Streaming is a cloud-based distribution and monetization platform for live and on-demand audio streams. Field said the acquisition is a complement to Audacy’s existing investments in digital audio.

In this deal, Audacy is purchasing technology and the assets and operations of WO Streaming, which is a separate business unit within WideOrbit. WO has other products including radio automation, traffic, business intelligence and sales services that are not involved in this transaction.

Audacy will operate WO Streaming under the name AmperWave.

“The entire WO Streaming team, led by John Morris, SVP Streaming, has joined Audacy,” it stated. A spokesperson declined to say how many people that entails.

The post Audacy Acquires WideOrbit’s Streaming Business appeared first on Radio World.

A user screen on BE’s AudioVAULT V11.

Broadcast Electronics introduced its first AudioVAULT automation system in 1989. The company is now part of the Elenos Group.

Bob Demuth is business development manager, studio systems. 

RW: What trends in automation stand out for you?

Demuth: Automation suppliers have two kinds of clients: larger enterprise clients and smaller, more mom-and-pop clients. Both want the ability to do more with fewer people, to empower the staff they have to do as much as they can and from anywhere. 

Even mom-and-pops might have a station in Keokuk, Iowa, and a station in Moline, Ill. They aren’t iHeart or Beasley but they still have multisite operations, and they’re looking to maximize their efficiency and labor force. 

Our development is geared as much as possible to provide remote voicetrack capability, remote production capability, remote scheduling capability, which might be from home or another location. 

RW: When you’re sitting down with somebody who’s considering a system and they say “Well, I hear I need to be thinking about the cloud,” how does that conversation go?

Demuth: I’m in development and I also run international sales for BE, so I get both sides of this. 

Nobody wants all their eggs in a cloud basket. That’s the overwhelming response that I get.

They’re happy to have the cloud as a backup, as a storage or transfer point for audio, but nobody wants their final playout audio coming from the cloud at this point.

This is a personal opinion, but the next war is not going to be bombs and missiles, it’s going to be an attack on infrastructure. And the major infrastructure that we all use every minute of every day is the internet. 

Playout from the cloud is only as good as that connectivity. If that goes away, what do you do? 

So most of my customers look at the cloud as more of a backup and a transfer medium rather than a primary playout source.

I’m an old-school radio engineer, I would rather invest my time and money with a playout system at my transmitter site that’s fully linked. If I lose my connectivity, whether it’s IP connectivity or traditional microwave, at least I have something that’s still running on its own. 

We’re working now on one of the largest AudioVAULT projects BE has ever done, a major customer that runs a couple of dozen networks. They’re uplinked, streamed and delivered via set-top boxes around the world.

One of their design criteria was that we did not depend on their corporate VPN for the distribution of the audio. This is a large company with a lot of resources and some of the best connectivity, but they are not prepared to make their primary, or even backup, broadcast functions dependent on that connectivity.

This article is excerpted from the ebook “Automation: The Next Phase.” Click the cover to read it.

I know National Radio Systems Committee working groups are looking for a cloud-based solution for HD Radio, a solution that takes the hardware out of it and puts the software on the cloud for encoding of HD1, HD2 etc., and centralizing it. But it seems to be driven by the larger corporate broadcaster companies more than the average broadcaster.

Currently our cloud offering is about transferring assets via the cloud, with automatic or on-demand uploading, storing and transferring, making those assets available across an organization’ s locations. We will be coming out with a cloud-based playout system for backup use later this year. There is no technical reason this couldn’t be used for on-air if there is enough internet bandwidth available for the desired audio quality. But I do not see many people looking for that as their primary cloud source.

RW: Do you see more joint projects happening, for instance between automation and the AoIP network?

Demuth: Absolutely. We need to be doing more than just pumping out automation over AoIP, meaning playing audio over a WheatNet, Livewire or Dante audio driver. We need more of an integrated functionality with console providers.

Why don’t we see more joint development? Some of us try to cooperate, but if a company like Telos Alliance decides to do joint development with BE, how do they deal with RCS or with WideOrbit? Will Wheatstone continue to cooperate and develop with BE?  

Pick one and you alienate the other. That’s the biggest block to all working together is our natural, competitive nature. That, and how do we deal with proprietary information and “trade secrets.”

Yet there is more going on than some engineers might realize. For instance, we offer complete remote control capability with both Axia Livewire and WheatNet, we’re doing more than just sending AoIP out of our playout system and plugging it into an Ethernet switch. We’re also able to send control commands to control surfaces, whether they’re virtual or hardware consoles, whether it’s Axia or Wheatstone or Lawo.

RW: Engineers need to know about a supplier’s tech support.

Demuth: We have a team of experienced customer service people, some who’ve worked there since the beginning of AudioVAULT. As a customer I bought my first AudioVAULT around 1995. We have had some people working since 1990. There’s experience, accessibility, knowledge, also IT skills. 

We all depend on the operating system, and if the operating system has issues, or if the local installation has issues, we have to be able to identify those and point the engineer in the right direction and not just kiss it off and say, “Hey, that’s your network switch, you’ve got too much traffic.” We have to be able to help them troubleshoot it without fixing their IT issues for them.

We are fully manned in Quincy, Ill., 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central time. Outside of those hours, we have a callback system and try to respond to any emergency call after-hours within 15 minutes. Our average callback is between 15 and 30 minutes. 

I used to run engineering for Beasley Broadcast Group from 1990 to 2007. I chose AudioVAULT back in 1990 and I never regretted it.

RW: What other factors should buyers be considering?

Demuth: If I take my sales and development hats off and go back to my engineering hat, the question is reliability and redundancy. 

Is your audio stored in multiple places? What happens if you lose one of those places? Can you get seamless continuity of broadcast operations from this system? 

There will always be hardware failures; how does the automation system deal with those failures and provide the broadcaster with rock-solid, reliable playout no matter what happens?

Obviously we can’t control power, e can’t control connectivity; that’s the customer’s responsibility. But assuming they can provide continuous power and provide continuous connectivity, how do we keep continuous audio play?

AudioVAULT offers the ability to store audio on separate servers. So if Server A dies, Server B is reading ahead on that same, or the cloud engine is reading ahead on that Server B. And you can reboot Server A and there’s not even a pop or a click, when Server B picks up. 

That’s the kind of system you want. If your main playout engine fails, you want not to have to use a silence sensor to switch over to a backup playout engine that’s playing within a half a song of your main one. Ideally you want to go seamlessly to the backup playout system, without any interruption in programming, so that your listener wouldn’t even notice; that’s what AudioVAULT provides. 

You want tools to maintain and operate your system from anywhere. To do production, to do scheduling, to do cloud control, automation control and maintenance from anywhere.

This would be the same if I’m a mom-and-pop or if I’m iHeart.

I’m a very small part-owner of two little radio stations in Aspen, Colo., and I chose AudioVAULT back in in 2005. We have a main system in the studio room, a backup system in the studio room and a tertiary system at the transmitter site, which is at a 10,000-foot elevation.

In the winter, the only way to get there was with a Sno-Cat. I wanted a system that could give me that main, give me that backup and give me that tertiary system, and a transmitter in case I lose all connectivity and can’t get up there for 72 hours or whatever. As long as I can send my logs out 72 hours in advance or I could send them out seven days in advance and I’m still on the air. That’s what I want.

RW: One engineer said about automation, “If I can’t install it or fix it, maybe I shouldn’t have it.”

Demuth: That’s just guys who don’t understand their own limitations and the difference between hardware and IT, software-based, solutions. Hardware is easy to self-install, but software requires specific configuration and integration with IT infrastructure.  There is too much risk that an engineer will miss something that will compromise the reliability of the system. 

You want the automation supplier to install the system and configure it and teach you how to do it properly. You don’t want someone who’s not familiar with the software to be doing this on their own. 

You want them to be integrally involved with the installation, whether it’s done remotely or on-site; there’s no substitute for the on-site engineer and production people. But all of this stuff is too complex for someone to take a piece of software, run “install” and expect to use it and get the best results. 

RW: Virtualization?

Demuth: Virtualization is really important to larger customers because it allows them to reduce their hardware profile. For the larger systems that I’m putting in — I’m not going to say they’re exclusively virtual, but virtualization is the future of computing. 

It raises some challenges, because if you’ve got four virtual servers on one piece of hardware, you only have one video output. How do you deal with some of interface challenges? Your software has to work a little differently. But I believe it is not only the wave of the future, it is the current best practice for larger operations.

RW: Another engineer told me, “I don’t like it when suppliers go back to the well all the time with upsells.”

Demuth: AudioVAULT is all-inclusive software. You buy a license and you get all of our tools. 

There are some options that are add-ons, but we are upfront about them. An example is our remote access stuff. It requires a separate gateway server, because if you’re going to open up your automation system to the internet, which is what you have to do to remote voice track and remotely operate, you need an interface sitting on a firewall. 

So the internet traffic talks to the gateway server, and then the gateway server talks to the automation system, so the outside world can’t get to your automation system. 

Another example are our cloud-based tools. They are extras, because not everybody wants those functions, but that’s not an upsell. We’re straight about that from day one, we don’t hide anything.

But we don’t sell the production screen separate from the import screen, separate from the automation screen, etc. It’s a single, all-inclusive, license for all normal station functions. 

RW: And what about low-cost or free software that’s out there?

Demuth: What is your tolerance for being off the air? That’s the answer to these cheap automation systems. 

The post BE’s Demuth: Reliability and Redundancy Are Crucial appeared first on Radio World.

Larry Langford

A young chief engineer who knew a lot more about computers than transmitters and analog audio systems recently asked me for help in tracking down on-air distortion that had affected his mom-and-pop station for some time.

The station did have on-air distortion. It was not terrible, just bad enough to notice, though the longer you listened, the more it irritated — a real turnoff for Time Spent Listening.

It sounded to me a bit like the audio was going through an amp with bad power supply filters, and it had a raspy edge on voice. But identifying the source of the problem by ear was difficult.

This was an AM station that had an FM translator mounted on the hot tower, a situation that can present its own set of challenges. The distortion was evident on the FM. But a critical listen revealed that it was present on AM as well!

This pretty much ruled out my thought that high RF at the tower was being rectified on the audio input to the translator and showing up as audio distortion. So it was time to take a look at the audio chain.

Clamp!

Pretty straightforward: Program was being delivered from the studio miles away, with digital uncompressed audio sent over fiber. It sounded good going in, and it sounded good coming out. Yet the on-air product definitely was distorted.

The audio was fed to the FM via a buried 1,000-foot cable to the tower. That line was driven by a pair of old super-quality Western Electric 111C repeat coils set up for 600 ohms in and 600 ohm line out with center tap grounded — the perfect way to send audio in an RF field. This arrangement no doubt had been set up by a previous chief who knew the magic of repeat coils for long lines.

Audio from the codec was connected to a Broadcast Tools switcher, then to the program line that fed the AM processors and the FM line to the tower.

I grabbed a handheld oscilloscope — something the young chief had never seen — and pulled the output connector from the switcher. I gave it a look on the scope with a 600-ohm load, and it showed nice clean peaks at about +8 dBm — looked good, sounded good.

I plugged it back in and bridged the line with the scope. Aha! The scope showed clipping with the peak levels closer to +3 dBm and a definite ceiling.

There was trouble here, but why?

Audio level on the coils was well under the +30 dBm (1 watt) design limit for the rugged four-pound 111Cs.

Still searching for the problem, I spotted a couple of black boxes where the cable leaves the building. These were Grommes~Precision TLS lightning suppressors.

When I looked up their data sheet, things started to make sense.

The TLS contains multiple stages of lightning protection. This unit is designed for protection of audio paging circuits with an RMS audio level of 1 volt. On a 600-ohm line, 0 dBm (1 milliwatt) is .774 volts, so with a level of +8 dBm (1.94 volts) the line level was crossing the clamp point for the TLS.

While the spec sheet shows a switching to ground level of 25 volts, the unit starts clamping just over one volt.

Us old guys

While finding this problem was a bit of a challenge, fixing it was a snap. With the drive to the line reduced to –3 dBm (.5 volts) on the PPM meter, things sounded great.

Another solution would have been replacing the TLS units with LLS models that have a pass rating of 6 volts (17 dBm), which is better suited for broadcast levels. But we work with what we have.

Now you might ask, why did the AM sound bad if the problem was on the FM stereo pair?

The Broadcast Tools switcher derives its mono output (used by the AM) by passive combining of L+R internally from the stereo output. So if the stereo line gets clamped, so does the mono line!

I suggested and installed a set of 1000-ohm buildout resisters on the output of the switcher, the better to isolate the FM feed, just as a precaution. With the 111C coils set up for center tap ground, the TLS might not have been needed at all; but better too much protection than not enough.

With the elimination of the distortion, the station was able to process a bit harder, increasing the loudness while improving the sound quality — a win-win for sure.

While I was there I couldn’t resist teaching my young friend to reduce the AM modulation peaks from 130 percent positive (yikes!) 100 percent negative, to about 90 percent symmetrical. He heard the difference and agreed to keep it that way.

The takeaway here is simple: Read spec sheets, and know how adding devices will affect your overall sound.

My assist call also underlined a growing problem in broadcasting. “Us old guys” know analog audio and issues peculiar to AM. The new “engineers” are not getting that knowledge, learning only about digital and computer networks. I hate to say it, but institutional knowledge is dying as more of us become silent keys.

Solution? Us old guys need to take every opportunity to reach one, teach one.

The author is chief engineer and owner of WGTO Cassopolis, Mich., and W246DV South Bend, Ind. Read more of his past articles.

Share your own tech tips or stories about how you solved a problem. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Distortion Detective: The Case of the Irritating Audio appeared first on Radio World.

The pages of RW Engineering Extra are where the finest engineers hang out! Engineers like Stephen Lockwood, Cris Alexander, Jeff Keith and Jeff Welton, whose latest stories you’ll find here.

The FCC recently adopted new rules regarding RF human exposure limits. Lockwood, president of Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers, discusses what radio engineers should know about them.

Keith of Wheatstone writes that there are many tools available to help quantify the performance on your air chain. Good Engineering Practice doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

Alexander reminds us not to overlook the possible simple solution when we’re confronted with a problem. And Jeff Welton explains the beauties of ferrite toroids.

Read it here.

The post Inside the Oct. 20, 2021 Issue of RW Engineering Extra appeared first on Radio World.

From our People News page: Katz Media Group promoted Scott Porretti to president of Katz Digital Audio, a newly created position. He had been executive vice president.

“Porretti, a veteran of Katz, who is uniquely qualified for his expanded role, will continue to oversee all Katz Digital Audio offerings, manage relationships with an expansive roster of publishing and technology partners, and further the growth of podcasting and programmatic digital audio on behalf of current and new partners,” the organization announced.

Porretti has held several management positions there including senior vice president of Katz Radio Group and vice president manager of the Katz New York office.  In 2014, he was named senior vice president of Katz Digital and in 2018 was promoted to executive vice president of Katz Digital.

It said he led its digital team in making “substantial strides” to strengthen its internal technology and systems, and that he is spearheading the rollout of Katz Intelligence Manager, a proprietary audience system for the digital audio marketplace.

He will continue to report to Mark Gray, CEO of Katz Media Group.

Gray highlighted Porretti’s audio industry knowledge, team leadership style and “extraordinary vision in this marketplace.”

The post Porretti Is Named President of Katz Digital Audio appeared first on Radio World.

Spotify said its Megaphone podcasting platform is now up and running in Germany, Spain, Italy and France.

The company said podcast listening in Europe now reaches 20 to 30% of internet users in those markets. It cited a report from eMarketer. Further, it said Euro podcast ad spending is expected to grow more than 50% by 2023, according to IAB Europe.

[Related: “Spotify Expands Audience Network”]

Megaphone launched six years ago and was acquired by Spotify less than a year ago.

Spotify said about 30% of the top 200 shows on Spotify and on Apple are hosted on Megaphone.

The platform provides tools for creating, measuring and monetizing podcasts.

The post Spotify Megaphone Is Open in Four Euro Countries appeared first on Radio World.

There are several new social media accounts at the Federal Communications Commission. This is not in itself unusual, but these accounts have been set up by the FCC Office of Inspector General.

Its goal: “to aid in our mission of detecting and preventing fraud, waste and abuse, and promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the operations of the FCC.”

It now has a presence on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. The first tweets on the OIG Twitter account were sent in late July. The current inspector general is David Hunt.

In a statement, the FCC OIG noted that it is a small office with fewer than 50 full-time employees that “nonetheless is responsible for the oversight of FCC operations and billions of dollars in funds administered through various FCC programs.”

It said recent Covid-19 relief legislation provided additional billions of dollars in funding to the FCC.

“With the expectation that some of these emergency appropriations may become permanent, our need for assistance from the public to help us ensure this money is appropriately disbursed, is at an all-time high.”

The office said it hopes to increase its visibility of our office through social media, expecting that people or entities with helpful information “will come forward to assist us in furthering our mission.”

The OIG encourages people to call 888-863-2244 or 202-418-0473 or email hotline@fcc.gov if they suspect FCC-related fraud, waste or abuse.

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