From the town of Spring Harbor, Mich., a Class A FM serves the cities of Jackson and Albion with a student-run Christian music format. Until now, it has reached the Ann Arbor area via a FM translator outside of the city that’s home to the University of Michigan.
Soon, that will end, as the school that owns the FM translator is selling it to another religious broadcaster.
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The use of a low-power TV signal to reach communities that may not have access to a full-power station’s signal due to distance is one that’s increasingly common, especially in an era of “cord cutting.”
Perhaps that’s why The E.W. Scripps Co. is agreeing to purchase a LPTV construction permit in the Southernmost City in the U.S.
At the same time, Scripps is adding a LPTV in a swath of Southern California it presently has no presence in. Could this point to an expansion of Scripps’ digital multicast networks?
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The radio technology marketplace is hit by the global shortage of chips. Mark Lapidus talks about why you should reach out to friends right now. Michael Saffran thinks radio is guilty of virtue signaling.
Also, the wireless mic industry debates WMAS technology; the NAB and SBE have raised some caution flags.
And in Workbench, a noise-cancelling mic for sports remotes that would make MacGyver proud.
The post Inside the Aug. 18, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.
While linear TV vehicles have long been a mainstay of political ad spending, viewer consumption habits have changed drastically in the last year alone. Now, new findings suggest that in the next election cycle, 17% of political ad spend will to shift to streaming.
That’s a whopping $1.5 billion not going to broadcast or cable television.
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Quite a few devices in my broadcast technical environment report alerting information by email. I and others have come to depend on these alerts as what my Ops Manager Eric Thomas refers to as “the rhythm of life” as far as the radio station is concerned: pattern changes, tower lights on, like that.
In many cases these alerts come from old-school email origination clients without the ability to authenticate themselves.
These devices need a mail transfer agent or MTA that simply trusts and forwards, something you would never expose to the open internet. In addition, providers like Gmail and vtext have a variety of ways to detect and reject emails that are suspicious. It’d be nice if my mail was accepted without complaint or being bounced.
Like many firms of size, our company email has been SaaS outsourced to Microsoft 365, which requires meaningful email client authentication. The various broadcast devices I need to serve would never play nicely with an MS or Gmail directly. The system I want must live inside the private address, protective firewall environment of the corporate IT department. And it would be nice if it didn’t cost much.
This article takes you through the build process step-by-step for a send-only MTA. All it does is route alerts from your various non-authenticating devices to real-world email providers on the outside. It will not and should not receive mail.
Almost Anything Will WorkTo begin the project, I found an old mid-tower Dell box in the recycling bin at the office. So my core system was free. So far so good. My application is low stress and almost any x86 castoff will work.
I updated the BIOS using the Dell tool and installed a 250-gigabyte flash drive. It could easily have been smaller, but it’s what I had. The box already sported a mighty 4 gigabytes of RAM. When this machine shipped it had Windows 7 Pro on it. It still had the hologram license sticker. Vintage 2013, Intel Core i3. Old, unsuited for office use, but more than good enough for this.
The next step was to load Ubuntu Linux 20.04 Desktop on it. Download a copy at ubuntu.com. The 2.7 GB download is an .iso file for which you’ll use your favorite DVD burner application to copy onto writable disk media or a thumb drive. Connect the box to a network segment that provides DHCP. Boot your boneyard PC from the media you created and install. If you see the choice, elect the “minimal” install. This skips the usual office desktop applications which aren’t needed for this.
Write down your username and password choices (because if you don’t, you’ll be repeating the install). Then open a terminal with CTRL-ALT-T key combination and make your first use of “sudo” which means, more or less, “super user do.” From the terminal you can invoke administrative privileges this way, needed for installation and configuration.
From now on, things you are expected to type will be bold, like… sudo apt upgrade, which will install the latest patches in case they aren’t in the .iso you downloaded. You might as well start from the latest and greatest. Everything is lower-case and yes, case matters. Do not type any punctuation marks. Answer “Y” when prompted and watch the process.
Next is the utility for remote terminal access… sudo apt install ssh, giving you the same terminal functions by IP address using an app like putty.exe. Check from another machine to confirm access via SSH. You can discover the machine’s DHCP assigned address with… sudo ifconfig which will probably complain that you need net-tools. Might as well add those using… sudo apt install net-tools.
You now have a generic Ubuntu Linux install. And for the record, this could probably be a Raspberry Pi just as easily as the scrap pile Dell I am using.
DNS StuffThe process beyond this point requires two prerequisites:
Start with the prerequisites by choosing a name for your newly configured box. I suggest mail.your_domain_name.com. Obviously, replace “your_domain_name” with your domain name. If you chose some other name during OS install, don’t panic. Use the inbuilt nano Linux text editor to change it: sudo nano /etc/hostname. Replace the text as appropriate with the new hostname. Do the same with /etc/hosts: sudo nano /etc/hosts.
Commands are along the bottom edge of the little nano text editor. CTRL-O to write, RETURN, then reboot.
Using the config tool provided by your domain DNS host, create an A record using the full hostname you gave the mail server. Associate it with the public, registered IP address you will use temporarily. Create an MX record pointing to the same hostname.
Keep in mind that DNS records may take a bit of time to propagate across the internet. I suggest leaving the records you create permanently in place, even though they won’t point to the eventual resulting system anymore. Some mail providers check to see if your hostname is a real box.
Now let’s install the MTA software: sudo apt install mailutils.
When you eventually get a choice dialogue box, choose “Internet Site,” which is the default. Then tab to OK. If it asks for a system mail name, it’s the same name you gave the server you are installing on.
To do what we want, Postfix will require a bit more configuration. Proceed to the text file /etc/postfix/main.cf: sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf.
You’ll need to locate a few lines of the file for editing, so this would be a good time to test out the CTRL-W command in nano to find, first: mydestination = $myhostname, your_domain_name, localhost.com, localhost.
Substitute your domain name as indicated. $myhostname is a variable set earlier in the file by a “myhostname =” statement. Might be good to check that info is correct, but Postfix usually gets this right on install.
Then find… mynetworks = and change it to read mynetworks = 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/12 192.168.0.0/16 to allow all the ranges of non-routable private addresses. These are the mail originating devices allowed to use your MTA for outbound messages.
The example config I show gets the whole universe of private IPv4 addresses. If you wish, you can restrict down to the individual device by using a complete address and /32 as the CIDR mask. Or anything in between. This is your gatekeeper. Let paranoia be your guide.
At this point save your changes to main.cf and restart postfix to allow the software to read the changes: sudo systemctl restart postfix.
Testing, testing…Let’s test your server from the terminal (CTRL-ALT-T) with… echo “This is a test of email” | mail -s ” This is the subject line of the test” your_email_address.
Some receiving domains will probably accept the mail. Outlook.com (MS 365) might, but it’ll probably show up in junk or clutter. Vtext.com (Verizon email to text conversion) probably will as well and display in cellular text. Google Gmail won’t accept it at all; it’ll get bounced. So there is more to do. Time to enable encryption, certificate validation and transport layer security (TLS).
Meanwhile, take a look at the logging that Postfix provides, as it will tell you exactly what happened in the interaction with any outside service. Linux provides a nice utility to look at the last few lines of a log file and even monitor it as lines are added: sudo tail -f /var/log/mail.log (note: your install may name this log file differently, but it will be in the folder /var/log). Also notice that the -f argument makes the utility display new lines as they are appended in real time. You can have more than one terminal instance open at a time, allowing you to watch what happens with the gmails of the world in real time.
Next up is the authentication piece that real email services will be looking for from your MTA.
Let’s get the needed credentials from the free Let’s Encrypt folks. Consider making a contribution to their efforts. sudo apt install certbot. As always, press “Y.”
Then sudo ufw allow 80. This tells the UFW firewall to open a port for HTTP. The command should answer with confirmation that it opened the port. Certbot’s process will reach out and “Let’s Encrypt” will reach back over port 80 to confirm the host presence at the address claimed, using the DNS records you created. But certificate information doesn’t include IP address directly, so a later move to a private address inside the firewall shouldn’t break anything.
Now let’s create a certificate that identifies this server as within the domain you’ve placed it in and provide a public key to go with the private key that’ll be stored on this host. sudo certbot certonly –standalone –rsa-key-size 4096 –agree-tos –preferred-challenges http -d your_domain_name (those are double dashes, by the way).
When complete, you should see this:
If it doesn’t work, check your DNS configuration, or maybe just wait a while and try again. When it completes, pay attention to certificate expiration.
Now let’s tell our server where the keys are kept. Back to the postfix config file we go:
sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf.
Under # TLS parameters find:
smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
and change it to:
smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain_name/fullchain.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/letsencrypt/live/your_domain_name/privkey.pem
Finally, to further satisfy Gmail, add the line: “always_add_missing_headers = yes”.
Save, exit nano then restart postfix: sudo systemctl restart postfix.
If all went as described (it should have), then you have a mail transfer agent. Any mails from your devices, pointed to the private address the server has, will be forwarded to whatever mail service is indicated.
Finally, you can disconnect from the public internet (the registered static IP), bring this server inside the firewall and give it a private address.
Use the desktop “settings” tool to change the IP. So long as port 25 is open through the firewall, you are all set. Just point your various reporting devices to that same private address and watch the alerts flow.
If it doesn’t work, check your DNS configuration or maybe just wait a while and try again. When it completes, pay attention to certificate expiration. In my case, using GoDaddy DNS, I had to assign the IP address to my machine that is associated with the your_domain_name DNS entry. Your DNS provider may work differently. The error messages that certbot sends are helpful for Googling.
Now let’s tell our server where the keys are kept. Back to the postfix config file we go.
# Raspberry Pi differences:
It doesn’t take a lot to create a functioning MTA out of equipment already on hand. Having that functionality will ensure that important status and warning messages get through, which will make the engineer’s job easier and provide for faster responses to anomalies.
The post A DIY Mail Transfer Agent appeared first on Radio World.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — For years, Sirius XM has turned to its customer retention department to keep its churn level as low as possible by offering existing customers deep discounts off the “rack rate” for an annual subscription. There are also free trials for new users of the satellite radio service.
For one California man, those promotional rates are unfair, as they don’t justify the “regular” pricing structure at Sirius XM. As such, he’s suing the New York-based company in Federal court.
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On August 30, the Construction Permit for a 250-watt FM translator serving a city in northern Louisiana expires.
Rather than rush to put it on the air, or risk losing the license, the mini-station’s owner has opted to sell it by hiring Kalil & Co. as its broker. The buyer? The nation’s second-largest licensee of radio stations.
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Dear Radio World,
The advice that appeared at the end of a March Workbench column about resetting a generator fault remotely is something I discourage strongly.
Besides clearing the fault and possibly the run-time and error logs, cycling the DC power to the controller may also clear the real-time clock and reset the exercise timer, and may leave the generator in an offline state until the clock and timer are manually set.
As stated in the tip, you have no idea why it faulted in the first place. Attempting a restart without an inspection or a person present could result in catastrophic damage to the genset, a fire (if there was a fuel leak), or even harm to a technician who might be working on the unit and could have even been the cause of the fault or shutdown.
If there was a mechanical failure, running the engine without repairing the damage first could make things even worse.
I bet a generator technician reading the tip would cringe. Of course your local generator sales person would love to take this opportunity to sell you a new generator.
My own home standby generator, a Kohler 14RESA, resets just the clock and exercise timer if the battery is disconnected; the run-time and error logs are maintained in nonvolatile memory. But it won’t run until those two items are set. For safety reasons they tell you to disconnect the incoming AC power as well as the battery whenever you service the unit, but I find it more convenient to do neither of those things but just press the OFF button when doing the annual maintenance (oil, spark plugs, and filter changes).
Radio World welcomes letters to the editor about any article or relevant radio industry issue. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.
The post Letter to the Editor: A Genset Reset Rethink appeared first on Radio World.
From Disco Duck and ruling Memphis’ morning show ratings in the mid-1970s to his long run across the 1980s and 1990s as the wakeup host at KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, Rick Dees is one of the most successful air personalities of his generation.
While Dees has largely focused on his syndicated Weekly Top 40 program in recent years, he’s about to get a new career boost that has nothing to do with radio.
Thank the nation’s No. 1 licensee of broadcast TV stations for its desire to rewind the clock with a segment of the viewing audience.
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He was an engineer and loved electronics and technology. That passion helped fuel a career as a cable television pioneer in Southwest Missouri, and the co-founding in 1993 with Stan Searle of the “Small Cable Business Association.”
That association is now known as ACA Connects, and it is being joined by others across the cable TV industry in mourning the passing of Alvin “Dean” Peterson.
Peterson died on August 8, two days shy of his 81st birthday.
His family built and owned cable and radio systems across the Springfield, Mo., region, while also serving in an advocacy role in Washington, D.C., to help advance cable TV industry issues at the FCC and on Capitol Hill.
Peterson served as president of Southwest Missouri Cable TV in Carthage, Mo., until its sale in 1999. At that time, Peterson stepped down from the board of what had become the American Cable Association (ACA).
“Everyone at ACA Connects is deeply saddened to hear the news of Dean Petersen’s passing,” ACA Connects President/CEO Matthew Polka said. “ACA Connects simply would not be here today without Dean’s vision and wisdom.”
Peterson and Searle created the Small Cable Business Association to create a voice in Washington, D.C., for independent, smaller providers in reaction to passage of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 and the FCC’s implementation of the rules associated with the legislation.
Services were held August 12 at at Knell Mortuary in Carthage, Mo., with a private burial following a service.
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