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Some of the Federal Communications Commission’s more arcanely worded documents are reminiscent of that Dr. Seuss book, “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky Your Are?”, wherein a bee watcher is watched by a watcher, who in turn gets watched by a watch-watcher and a watch-watch-watcher, and so on.

So it went for a pair of broadcast licensees who traded amendments, curative amendments and supplements to the curative amendment as they sought a ruling from the Media Bureau about a new construction permit for a new FM translator station in New Jersey.

In 2018 Clear Communications filed an application to build a new cross-service FM translator on Channel 293 in Vineland, N.J. Soon after a petition to deny was filed by the licensee Press Communications, who said the translator would cause interference to listeners of its co-channel station WTHJ(FM) in Bass River Township, N.J.

[Read: LPFM Station Allowed to Resume Operations]

In September 2019, the bureau concluded that Press had adequately proven its claims of predicted interference to WTHJ listeners. The Media Bureau granted Press’ petition to deny and dismissed Clear’s construction application.

Clear then filed a petition for reconsideration and reinstatement — specifically a nunc pro tunc opposition (Latin for “now for then”) that is used to retroactively correct an earlier ruling. Clear also submitted a minor curative amendment to the application that would modify the translator’s directional antenna pattern to eliminate predicted interference to Press’ FM station. Clear urged the Media Bureau to grant its reconsideration and reinstate the application, arguing that a reconsideration was justified because the bureau had failed to follow its own notification procedures that were revised in a 2019 order clarifying the FCC’s FM translator interference process.

Specifically, Clear said it had been waiting for a letter from the commission saying that the interference claims from Press were properly submitted and that a deadline had been set by which Clear had to resolve any complaints.

More back and forth began from there. Press argued that the nunc pro tunc policy did not apply and even with some curative amendments that Clear made, the application should still be deemed unacceptable due to predicted interference to WTHJ listeners. Clear disagreed, asserting that the nunc pro tunc policy applied and that nothing in the new FM translator interference order suggested otherwise.

Press then alleged that listeners within WTHJ’s 45 dBu contour would still experience interference from the translator, even with the curative amendment changes. Plus, Clear’s requests should be denied, Press said, because the filing of the amendment is unacceptable under the commission’s clarified translator rules.

In response, Clear filed a supplement and amendment document, arguing that it should be allowed to make an additional curative amendment to the first amendment because Press submitted new evidence of predicted interference to additional listeners. Clear was not aware of those listeners when Clear redesigned its proposal to protect the previously identified listeners, the licensee said. And the amendment to the curative amendment should be permitted under the nunc pro tunc policy because the petition remains pending.

Despite the wordiness of some language (and Dr. Seuss watch-watcher references aside), FCC procedural rules are clear in several areas. Petitions for reconsideration and any supplements are required to be filed within 30 days of public notice of the actions taken, a timeline that Clear met.

However, said Press, the second supplement itself was filed after the 30-day window had passed. But Clear retorted that the commission should accept this late-filed supplement because it responds to new evidence submitted by Press itself (even though that new evidence was filed after the 30-day deadline).

And the Media Bureau agreed.  When it came to more substantive issues, another thing is clear about Clear: the commission’s nunc pro tunc policy does apply here, the bureau said, and it can accept Clear’s amendment to the curative amendment that accompanied the supplement. That’s because Clear did file its reconsideration request within 30 days and — given the limited nature of the cross-service FM translator filing window — denying this reconsideration request would preclude Clear from an opportunity to obtain a fill-in AM translator, the bureau said.

Even though the bureau acknowledged that there are previous commission decisions that suggest an applicant may file only one curative amendment (here, Clear submitted two) that rule doesn’t apply here. In this case, the bureau only technically dismissed the application once back in September 2020. It was only after Press submitted new information about potential interference — after the 30-day deadline had passed — which thereby rendered Clear’s first curative amendment defective. And having determined that the bureau should accept the amendment to the curative amendment, the bureau said that the proposed facilities and amended application are acceptable for filing.

After the twists and turns, the bureau moved to accept the amendment to the curative amendment, which revised the antenna contour to be directional in nature and also granted a construction permit on Channel 225 (instead of the original Channel 293 to address interference issues).

In the end, the Media Bureau granted the amended the application to Clear for the new FM translator. No bee watchers needed after all.

 

The post Licensees Finally Get Clear Answer on FM Translator Construction Permit appeared first on Radio World.

One of the great things about having equipment with network capability is the ease with which you can get to that equipment and configure it, and the dramatic increase in the amount of diagnostic and performance data you can receive from it.

Of course, with so much data at your fingertips, the hard part for broadcast engineers is trying to find a way to filter that information into something that is concise and meaningful and that allows them see their operation at a glance.

The best way to do that is by using the Simple Network Management Protocol, or SNMP.

For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to wrap my gray matter around SNMP. “Real” IT folks have been using it for decades to keep track of network speeds, operating systems, hard drive capacities and a host of other metrics around their data centers.

It may have just been me, but I wasn’t finding real how-to-do-it kind of articles. It seemed most writers just wanted to keep the secret to themselves and dazzle you with sharp terminology.

After several failed attempts, I found a solution that made sense to me. It’s called Paessler PRTG network monitoring, and it allows me to monitor all of the devices I have set up (up to 100 for free).

It also gives me a mobile device app that provides notifications when something is not behaving correctly on our network.

In preparation

Before we set up any solution, let’s talk about how SNMP works.

Device manufacturers that want their equipment to talk on a network develop a Management Information Base (MIB) file. The file is a reference database of structured definitions and Object Identifiers (OIDs) that numerically represent any kind of data possibility that you may want to pull from the equipment.

SNMP allows polling of equipment, but also has traps designed into the protocol as well so that certain datum can initiate messages back to the monitoring software (i.e. a threshold has been surpassed).

I won’t address traps here, but it is important to know that they exist and can be used as part of your solution as well.

So not only will we need the monitoring software, but we need some software to help us sift through all the OIDs available and only use those that we really want information about.

In preparation, we’ll need to download the necessary software. Both the Paessler software for network monitoring and the Ireasoning MIB Browser for parsing MIB files are freely available.

The other downloads that will be necessary at some point are the MIB files for your equipment. You can generally download the files from the manufacturer, but pay attention to the hardware models, as an MIB may vary from one device to another.

The Paessler software requires a Windows machine and sets up the network monitoring on that machine. It almost goes without saying that the machine should be a part of the network that you are trying to monitor.

Note that network monitoring isn’t a resource intense activity on simpler networks, so an older machine will do fine for this purpose.

Setting up

PRTG configures a web server as well so that you have access to the information gathered locally on the network. But to harness its real power, you’ll want to forward a network port (any port, like 23333 as an example) on your router or firewall to that local machine’s web server (secure https-port 443) so that you can have access to that data from the outside world via another machine or the mobile app.

Installing PRTG is pretty straightforward. After choosing a strong password, you can immediately begin putting in device information.

Even without any knowledge of MIBs and OIDs, you can begin to configure PRTG to send network pings to devices so you know that they are online on your network.

Simply choose to add a device, fill in the appropriate name and IP information, and choose an icon that makes sense to you. See Fig. 1. Once that is done, you’ll see it show up in your “Network Infrastructure” list under the name you gave it.

Fig. 1: Adding a device in PRTG.

Next, choose to add a “sensor,” like a network ping. It might seem daunting, but once you add a device you can also choose “auto discovery” for the device.

Of course, it will find a number of things that you may not want to monitor, and you may quickly push the 100-sensor limit of the free software. Any sensors in the auto discovery that you don’t find useful can be removed with a right click of the mouse and choosing to delete that monitor information.

I have found it useful in PRTG to go ahead and create groups by location and then to add devices inside of that group. As a for-instance, we have four tower sites on our network, so I have identified each in a group and then added the related transmitter and devices such as STL IP radios and codecs inside of that group. In this way, my notifications tell me immediately which site is having an issue.

The auto discovery isn’t going to find all of the information that a broadcast engineer really wants to know, such as a transmitter’s forward and reflected power indications, STL path RSL voltage levels or any of a host of other polled information. Before we really get started adding those parameters, you’ll need to jot down some SNMP information that is available for each monitored device.

SNMP requires network ports 161 and 162 to be open (they generally are), a “Read Community” string and a “Write Community” string (usually “public” or “community”), and you’ll need to know the SNMP version the device is set up to use (normally V1, V2c or V3, each increasing in security level). We’ll need all of this information in the Ireasoning MIB browser.

Once the MIB browser is installed, go into the “File” menu and import the MIB files that you’ve downloaded from each vendor. See Fig. 2. You’ll see a directory structure populate in the window that contains the data options available for the equipment that you have.

Fig. 2: Selecting the parameters to monitor.

With that done, we’ll enter the IP address of the device we want to get data from, and then click the “advanced” button to make sure our read and write community strings are accurate and the SNMP version is correct.

Next, we’ll browse the MIB folder structure to find the OID (data) that we need.

Now that we’ve found the OID we’re looking for, we simply click the “Go” button on the right. The browser will query the device for the data and display it in the window on the right. The most important part of that whole operation is getting the OID number that you need to use in PRTG to poll that data automatically.

If you are feeling really brave and want to see just how much information is really available to you via SNMP from that device, click the down arrow in front of the “Go” button and choose “walk” and then click “Go.” Then go refresh your coffee.

Obviously you won’t need every piece of data that you’ll see from that operation, but isn’t it nice to know that you could have it if you did?

In Fig. 2, you can see that I’ve imported our Nautel GV40 MIB file and have found the OID numbers for the transmitter’s RMS forward power, its FM power and the IBOC power.

Once we have the actual OID number for each piece of data, we can hop back into PRTG and add a sensor to the equipment we have already added. When we choose to “Add Sensor,” we’re taken to a page where we’re asked what type of sensor. For our purposes, our answer will almost always be to click SNMP and then choose the SNMP Custom. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3: Choosing the sensor type.

From there, similar to adding a device, we can name the sensor and put the OID number, the value, and unit. As you can see in the MIB browser image in Fig. 2, the value you get may need to multiplied or divided the value by a multiple of 10 for it to be correct, which you’re given the option to do in this sensor screen.

Once the sensor is created, it will take a minute or two to get its value, and you’ll be able to see if everything looks satisfactory.  If you are anything like me, you may need to go back and edit several times to get the value to display the way you want it to.

Going forward, it is simply a matter of repeating this procedure until you have all the equipment you want to monitor in place and grouped together the way you want them.

Is it worth the effort?

Obviously, you can devote a whole lot of time to this, and you might begin to question if it is worth the effort.

There are two powerful aspects to installing something like this that you might consider. The first is that if you choose to port forward through your firewall to the web page that PRTG establishes, you can have web access to the page from anywhere and can evaluate the data in that way or via your cellphone and the PRTG app available in either Android or IOS store (including Apple watch) that allow you to get notifications when any sensor that you have setup doesn’t respond. See Fig. 4 for an example.

Fig. 4: The PRTG app provides a wealth of information at a glance.

At a glance, can see a load of valuable information about network speed via pings, where the failure point is in a STL path via receive dBm levels, and your transmitter’s forward and reflected power indications. During an emergency, you’ll immediately be able to direct your attention (and vehicle) to the location of the cause of the problem.

The other power comes through the graphical histories that PRTG can provide for each device. You can see historical values for each sensor. If you want to know exactly when you went off the air and when things were restored, you can check any of the histories to find out.

You’ll also have notifications and emails that you can reference. PRTG really helps to aggregate all of this data so that you can manage the increasing amount of detail that is necessary to keep stations running at their best.

So far, here in our market, we’re only using about 47 sensors to monitor four of our five transmitter sites and their associated IP radio STL paths (one site doesn’t have network data access). I plan to add our audio codecs for each location into the system as well, which will put us at around 65 sensors.

Certainly, there will be users who need to manage bigger systems, and 100 sensors might have them pushing the limit of the sites they could manage. There are also a number of cases where an engineer might never use all of the data options that the free version of PRTG offers them.

Whatever size operation you find yourself managing, the best time to begin harnessing the power of using SNMP network accessible devices is today, and you can get into it on no budget at all using PRTG network monitoring and the Ireasoning MIB browser.

The author is engineer for Crawford Broadcasting’s Birmingham region.

Got an idea for a great technical story with tips or best practices? Email Cris Alexander at mailto:rweetech@gmail.com

The post Network Monitoring on a Budget appeared first on Radio World.

An AEQ Talent compact codec is seen in operation at the lower right at FM Quiero.

The author is general manager of CNC Medios.

CNC Medios is the leading communications company in northern Chile, headquartered in the city of Antofagasta. It includes two television channels and three radio stations: Canal95, FM Plus and FM Quiero. We are also members of ARCHI, the Chilean Radio Association, where we are very active with new ideas and projects.

For a long time CNC Medios has been a daring company, unafraid to bet on the latest technologies available on the market to improve the way we create our content.

A few years ago we purchased several AEQ Capitol IP digital consoles. Their digital technology offers us a significant improvement in the audio quality of our broadcasts, and their IP technology allows remote control that we had never been able to enjoy until now.

 

Great Timing

In 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic situation forced broadcasters like us to look at new ways of working remotely, we already had that path in place thanks to the IP connectivity. But we realized that we needed to strengthen our ability to generate dynamic, quality programs, even if the constraints of teleworking didn’t make it particularly easy.

That’s when AEQ launched its Talent portable audio codec, at the perfect time for our plans.

CNC Medios already had AEQ audio codecs such as the Mercury or Venus units in our studios, but they were not the ideal solution for a journalist to operate from home, but the new Talent seemed to offer the optimum solution: small, easy to use, digital quality with IP connection and robust.

In addition, AEQ technicians remotely helped us during the first days to discover all the options and to set them up in the most suitable way for our particular operation.

Currently all of our top journalists have one in their homes, and they have been connecting to the central studio for some time now thanks to them. The control surface of the Talent is simple, and with just a couple of button pushes our journalists, even the less experienced ones, can easily connect.

In addition, Pilot mobile phone app gives them the option to operate the Talent directly from their own smartphones. What’s even better is that the journalist can carry out live interviews with guests or contributors using Skype or WhatsApp, for example. AEQ’s Talent is a gem — such a small thing can do so much.

Finally, at the CNC Medios group’s technical center we have a PC where we have installed the AEQ Control Phoenix Multi application. This allows our technicians to supervise the status of all our AEQ audio codecs in real time and, if necessary, intervene to modify any configuration or solve connectivity issues.

This application displays images of all the devices that are switched on and, even better, the exact connection status, including VU meters monitoring the audio signals that are being transmitted through them.

All the AEQ audio codecs we work with include Opus encoding algorithms and also free registration on AEQ’s SIP server. This is great since it saves us from having to complicate the deployment of these great codecs and having to set up our own SIP Server.

Info: In the U.S., contact AEQ at 1-800-728-0536 or visit www.aeqbroadcast.com. For international queries, +34-916-861-300 or visit www.aeq.eu.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

 

The post User Report: AEQ Codecs Bring Talent to CNC Medios appeared first on Radio World.

Mike Palmer is shown in the Arrakis booth at the NAB Show in 2019.

Michael Palmer, the founder of Arrakis Systems Inc., has died.

He passed away unexpectedly on Monday. He suffered congestive heart failure while preparing to go scuba diving with his wife Gloria in Hawaii. He was 69.

Arrakis has been a family business since its start.

Palmer, having grown up reading science fiction and physics texts for fun,  earned a bachelor’s degree in physics with a minor in electronic engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He then taught electronics classes in San Francisco.

That’s where he met Gloria Vader, his student who became his wife. They married in 1974 and soon moved to Missouri, where Mike worked as VP and electronic engineer at Woodson Electronics, and where Gloria was hired as the chief engineer of KMSU, Southwest Missouri State’s 10 kW FM in Springfield.

“KMSU was in desperate need of new studio consoles, with a budget of only $7,500,” according to an obituary from the Palmer family. “Gloria told Mike that he could design and build a better console than anything that was on the market. So he did.”

Mike Palmer, standing, and Alan Farrington in KSMU’s Production studio in 1979.

His employer was struggling financially and closed its doors around that time.

To test the waters of the radio broadcast market, the Palmers decided that he would do an initial product design, build a mockup, print a brochure and mail it to 1,000 stations. “The response was astonishing. They received $30,000 in cash orders in the mail.”

The couple returned that money, telling their new clients that the product would be ready in six months. “The first Arrakis product, the 1,000 series radio console, was designed and built in the basement of their humble home. It was completed on time, and the first console installed at KMSU.”

Arrakis officially opened in 1977 and was named for a planet in the sci-fi novel “Dune.”

Melissa, Mike, Aaron, Gloria and Ben Palmer in 1984.

The Arrakis product line has since grown to including numerous console lines, digital automation systems and hardware.

The couple has three children, all of whom work at the company, as well as five grandchildren. While easing into retirement, Mike Palmer remained involved as the children took up responsibility for the various aspects of the business. Gloria Palmer also continued to be involved in product design, assembly and PCB work.

“Arrakis Systems was started as a family-owned and -operated business, has continued to be and will continue to be family-owned –operated,” the family wrote. “Mike’s children were raised in radio and have each been blessed to have worked with him for almost 20 years apiece — learning from him, developing groundbreaking software and hardware together, sharing a passion for radio, technology and the amazing people they feel privileged to serve in the radio broadcast industry.”

“His advice, experience, knowledge and creativity will be missed and remembered. However, it is his example, kindness, wisdom, loving heart and desire to serve and uplift everyone around him that will be missed the most.”

Funeral or memorial details have yet been announced.

The post Mike Palmer, the Founder of Arrakis, Dies at 69 appeared first on Radio World.

Salem Media Group’s podcast network on Thursday revealed that it will add former Trump Campaign Attorney Jenna Ellis to the lineup, starting January 13.

It seems that has some merit among investors as Salem’s stock was on the rise across Friday’s trading session.

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As the competition for consumer attention heats up with traditional, big-tent broadcasters continuing to launch their own streaming services — i.e. Peacock, Paramount+, and Discovery+ — one big question arises. How can local TV broadcast networks stay competitive with streaming apps of their own?

JW Player, the platform used to play videos by the likes of Fox, Univision and Vice, recently conducted a survey across their network of broadcasters to reveal opportunities for them to capitalize on the continuous growth in digital video.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The NAB; Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC); and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) have filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a FCC order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming.

In the petition, the organizations argue that the FCC adopted unnecessary and overly burdensome rules that impose on every broadcaster onerous requirements to make specified inquiries of, and conduct independent research on, all the entities with whom broadcasters currently or will in the future have lease agreements. The requirements would be particularly burdensome for smaller broadcasters, including stations owned by women and people of color and new entrants seeking to gain experience through leasing arrangements.

In the FCC order, broadcasters — which collectively have many thousands of contracts for the lease of time to air programming — would need to determine and announce whether the sponsor of programming is a foreign governmental entity or its agent. These determinations would be required even if the leased programming (such as an infomercial or local religious broadcast) poses no colorable risk of foreign sponsorship.

Broadcasters would also need to conduct inquiries and investigations at the time any lease is initially entered into and repeat them every time that same lease (with the same, already-investigated party) is renewed. Stations also must memorialize those inquiries and investigations and maintain that documentation.

The new regulations authorized by the FCC’s order are imposed only upon broadcasters, even though the problem that the Commission purports to address — the failure to identify a foreign government entity that is the source of the programming — is almost entirely associated with satellite and cable channels and, above all, with social media and the Internet.

In a joint statement, the NAB, MMTC and NABOB said they are “deeply concerned with the FCC’s misguided attempt to develop uniform rules for disclosing foreign government-sponsored programming. The Commission’s decision to require broadcasters in all circumstances to investigate the source of leased programming exceeds its statutory authority, is arbitrary and capricious and violates the First Amendment. Broadcasters strongly oppose foreign interference in American elections, but the Commission’s order fails to even address this core objective. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”

“Transmission Talk Tuesday” Host Jeff Welton

Transmitter maker Nautel has released its August schedule of “Transmission Talk Tuesday” webinars.

For Aug. 17 Kirk Harnack will join TTT regular host Jeff Welton to talk about the various forms of MPX delivery and will feature practical examples of implementation in the field, including microMPX.

The Aug. 24 session gets into Raspberry Pi. Joining Welton will be Nautel’s Alex Hartman. He will present some of the designs he has done using Raspberry Pi and Arduino technology. Hartman explains, “Mini computers seem to be taking over the world. For well under $100 you can get a full blown computer on a tiny circuit board, with peripherals. You can do some great things with these devices.”

Ending the month, on Aug. 31, Welton will be joined by the NAB’s VP of Advanced Engineering David Layer along with Radioplayer Worldwide General Manager Lawrence Galkoff for a discussion centered on RDS. According to Welton they’ll discuss “how what you put on your RDS can make a big difference in the appearance on the dashboard — and going forward, it will make a significant impact on your stations’ ability to work with hybrid radio.”

The Transmission Talk Tuesday webinars start at noon (ET) and are free though they require preregistration. Sessions are posted for those who can’t make the live performance. Attendance can earn one-half of an SBE recertification point.

 

The post Nautel Releases August TTT Webinar Schedule appeared first on Radio World.

Several leading U.S. media organizations are bringing suit against the FCC for requiring disclosures of programming sponsored by foreign governments.

“The National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters today filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging a Federal Communications Commission order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming,” they announced.

As we reported in April, the FCC unanimously enacted this new rule in April. When a broadcaster leases time, it now needs to ask the “lessee” if they or their programming are from a foreign governmental entity.

“If the answer is yes, a sponsorship identification will need to be placed on air and documented in the station’s public file,” Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel explained in April. “If the answer is no, a broadcaster will need to independently verify the lessee using the Foreign Agent Registration Act website from the Department of Justice and the FCC’s semi-annual foreign media outlet reports.”

The FCC believes that foreign governmental entities are increasingly purchasing time on domestic broadcast stations. “We know that foreign entities are purchasing time on broadcast stations in markets across the country, including Chinese government-sponsored programming and Russian government-sponsored programming right here in our nation’s capital,” Rosenworcel has said. She credited Rep. Anna Eshoo for pushing the FCC to take this action, which Rosenworcel said is “about national security and the preservation of our democratic values.”

But the three media organizations say they are “deeply concerned with the FCC’s misguided attempt to develop uniform rules for disclosing foreign government-sponsored programming.”

They said the decision to require broadcasters to investigate the source of leased programming “exceeds its statutory authority, is arbitrary and capricious and violates the First Amendment.”

They said broadcasters strongly oppose foreign interference in U.S. elections “but the commission’s order fails to even address this core objective. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”

NAB had already told the commission that the rule is overly burdensome because it requires every broadcaster to conduct research on all the entities with whom they have or want to have lease agreements.

The groups say the rule will particularly hit smaller broadcasters “including stations owned by women and people of color, and new entrants seeking to gain experience through leasing arrangements.” And they said these new determinations would be required even if the programming, “such as an infomercial or local religious broadcast, poses no colorable risk of foreign sponsorship.”

“Broadcasters would also need to conduct inquiries and investigations at the time any lease is initially entered into and repeat them every time that same lease (with the same, already-investigated party) is renewed. Stations also must memorialize those inquiries and investigations and maintain that documentation,” they argue.

And, they added, these regulations affect only broadcasters, even though failure to identify a foreign government source of programming “is almost entirely associated with satellite and cable channels and, above all, with social media and the internet.”

[Read the petition from NAB, MMTC and NABOB.]

The post NAB and Others Sue FCC Over Foreign ID appeared first on Radio World.

Among the big gainers on the NYSE in Friday’s trading is Audacy Inc., the audio content and distribution company formerly known as Entercom. As of 12:48pm Eastern, AUD was trading at $3.40, up 13.3% after sequential dips came following the result of a lackluster Q2 2021 earnings report.

While that’s good for shareholders, a high-profile departure from the company’s executive leadership team is generating greater industry chatter.

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