Industry News

Russell M. Perry will receive the NAB National Radio Award during the 2020 Radio Show.

He is described by the National Association of Broadcasters as “a trailblazing media entrepreneur, a champion of journalism and a celebrated humanitarian in his community,” according to NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith in the announcement.

The association noted that Perry began his radio career in 1993 with the founding of Perry Publishing & Broadcasting Co. and the purchase of an AM station in Oklahoma City, Okla.

[Read: Radio Show Announces Virtual Lineup]

“Since then, he has grown the company into the largest independently owned African-American broadcasting company in the nation, with 22 radio stations across the southeast United States.”

Earlier he was co-publisher of The Black Dispatch, and in 1979, became the owner and publisher of The Black Chronicle, a paid weekly newspaper serving Oklahoma.

Perry has also held high posts in Oklahoma state government as the secretary of commerce and secretary of economic development and special affairs. He’s active in efforts to promote and restore African-American-owned commerce in Oklahoma City.

Past honors include induction into the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame and American Urban Radio Network Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

The Radio Show will be held virtually this year over a full week in early October; it is produced by the NAB and the Radio Advertising Bureau. Info is at the Radio Show website.

The post NAB Will Honor Russell M. Perry appeared first on Radio World.

Increasing staff diversity is a priority for leaders of the Federal Communications Commission. That resolution led to the creation of the Early Career Staff Diversity Initiative, a joint effort by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to advance equitable opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate, graduate and law school students.

During the commission’s monthly meetings, FCC commissioners regularly welcome a cadre of college-age students as interns to the FCC, where an internship offers valuable real-world experience, industry connections and often leads to employment in the communications sector. For the last several years, however, the commission has only offered voluntary, unpaid internships. According to the commission, otherwise-qualified students may not have the opportunity to pursue these opportunities, including students from underrepresented communities.

[Read: NAB Foundation Launches Diversity Resource]

Since the communications sector impacts every American’s ability to access affordable and reliable communications, the FCC said, its employees should reflect the nation’s diversity. As a result the Early Career Staff Diversity Initiative laid out the following new components:

• Starting in January, 2021, the FCC will provide a select number of paid internships to law, graduate or undergraduate students each semester and summer. These internships should create opportunities for students who may otherwise be financially unable to participate in unpaid internships at the FCC.
• The FCC will invest additional resources to recruit students from historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions to increase the diversity of the applicant pool for the commission’s internship, Attorney Honors and Honors Engineering programs.
• The FCC said it will increase recruitment efforts with affinity groups such as chapters of the National Black Law Students Association and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers to increase awareness about available internship and career opportunities.

In all, these efforts seek to diversify the talent among commission staff at the earliest stages of their careers and ultimately increase diversity in the communications sector overall, the chairman and commissioner said in a statement. With this initiative, the FCC joins other public and private institutions that have committed resources to create a more diverse workforce.

“Throughout my time at the commission, I have been committed to advocating for equity in the policies we implement,” said Commissioner Starks, who brought the idea for a new diversity initiative at the FCC to Chairman Pai. “And in the wake of the larger movement for racial justice, it is especially important for the commission to do its part to advance policies that center our most marginalized and create opportunities internally for our agency to ensure we have more diverse voices at the table.”

Chairman Pai said that promoting diversity in the tech and telecom sectors has been an important priority for him as FCC chairman.

“Establishing a paid internship program will help students who would otherwise have to forego an internship due to financial constraints,” he said. “And targeted outreach will ensure that more students from diverse backgrounds can participate, which benefits the FCC and the communications sector as a whole.”

The move was applauded by the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), which said the group was pleased to support the FCC in this bipartisan effort to address diversity challenges in the media, tech and telecom sectors.

“Since 1969, the FCC has expected its licensees to undertake similar steps to expand their employment pipeline to include minorities and women,” said MMTC Chair and Treasurer Ronald Johnson. “Our hope is that this leadership by Chairman Pai and Commissioner Starks will encourage those the FCC regulates — and others in the industry — to do their part to achieve a diverse pipeline in terms of talent, ownership and in the supply chain.”

Additional details, including how to apply, will be made available this fall.

The post FCC Introduces Plan to Increase Staff Diversity appeared first on Radio World.

Like most of us during what advertisers like to call “this difficult time,” I was compelled to spend a fair amount of it “working” from home.

Truth be told, I hadn’t worked so hard in years. My wife kept me so busy with household projects that I was begging to go back to work just to get some rest!

But there were the inevitable frequent bouts of boredom. I often found myself at my workbench, staring at the various boxes and bins of parts, wondering what I could do with them.

Fortunately, my wife had given me a copy of “Designing High-Fidelity Tube Preamps” last Christmas. (Yep, she’s a keeper!) The book is by Merlin Blencowe, known on the internet as The Valve Wizard (www.valvewizard.co.uk). It’s a rather ponderous tome for a guy like me who barely passed Algebra; but it’s loaded with lots of great design ideas.

One chapter toward the back discusses a transformerless headphone amplifier built around a White cathode follower tube stage.

As I rummaged through my parts stash, I came across some spare tubes and decided to issue myself a challenge: Could I build a working vacuum tube headphone amp with only the parts I had on hand?

Breaking the Rules

With Blencowe’s text as a starting point, I then stumbled across a similar design by Pete Millett (www.pmillett.com). His design was a bit more complex and included some high-end output transformers. It had been reworked by another fellow DIYer, Ian Thompson-Bell (www.customtubeconsoles.com), for use in his tube console.

Ian has been very helpful to me with past tube projects, so I had a good look at that.

Eventually, I came up with a schematic, shown small in Schematic 1. You can obtain the schematics for this story by emailing radioworld@futurenet.com, with “Curt’s schematics, please” in the subject line.

When you look at the schematic you’ll see that it breaks a few design rules. Remember, it’s based on what I had, not what I wanted!

Normally, no one in their right mind would build such a thing using 12AX7s, which are normally used as high-gain preamps (especially guitar amps). Obviously, the high impedance of the output would have a hard time driving a typical pair of headphones.

Still, I soldiered on, slapping it together with a power supply I managed to assemble. See Picture 1.

I was amazed it actually passed audio, but not surprisingly, the output was anemic at best.

I went ahead and added an input stage based around two halves of another 12AX7, one for each channel. (I have no idea how I acquired so many spare 12AX7s. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they were breeding!) See Schematic 2.

The input stage is a very common design, seen in numerous mic and instrument preamp stages. The plate resistors could stand to be larger, but I happened to have a pair of large 56 kohm resistors. What I didn’t have was a stereo pot for the volume control, so I had to substitute two regular 10 kohm pots and adjust each channel separately. The coupling capacitors on the inputs are an oddball value, because, again, they’re what I had. Other designers vary the value of the cathode resistors on the output stages anywhere from 160 ohms to 470 ohms. I had a few 330 ohm resistors on hand, so we land somewhere in the middle. I found a couple solder lug strips to make the point-to-point wiring a little neater. See Picture 2.

This version passed much more signal, owing to its nearly 60 dB of gain. That’s clearly overkill for a headphone amp, but it was able to drive a pair of AKG K240 headphones. This was likely due to sheer brute force, as the impedance mismatch would make any proper designer’s hair stand on end!

A colleague suggested much larger electrolytic capacitors for output coupling to handle that a little better. The closest thing I had was a pair of huge 470 µF/200 V power supply caps. The 12AX7s on the output certainly gave it some “crunch” at higher volumes. If you’re going for a “tube” sound, I suppose it would work.

The power supply was put together using some parts I had stripped from an old tube project I was no longer using. The supply design is lifted directly from that project.

It’s fairly simple as tube supplies go. I suppose I could have gotten away without the TL783 regulator for the plate supply, but it was handy. In fact, it was already bolted to a heat sink with a 78S12 regulator that I could use for a nice, clean, DC filament supply. I mounted the other components to a piece of perf board. I didn’t have a 100 ohm 2 W resistor, though; so I had to connect a 47 ohm and a 56 ohm in series. Close enough for rock and roll.

See Schematic 3.

Ideally, the output tubes would be 12BH7s, which are common in this setting.

Wouldn’t you know it? I came across a box of old radio tubes, and buried under the pile were two 12BH7s! Amazingly, they both still worked! They also happen to have the same exact pinout as a 12AX7, so no rewiring was necessary.

Granted, they were mismatched, which led to one channel being slightly louder than the other. I also found out the hard way that those tubes get HOT when working. I’m told this is normal.

So now I had a working device, but it was a terrifying looking pile of parts on the workbench.

I set about constructing a proper enclosure for it. I had recently built an equipment rack for my studio using a sheet of cabinet-grade birch plywood. I used some scraps to assemble a small box. Digging through a storage bin, I found a few square metal plates someone had given me years ago. Hated to just toss them … (I swear, I’m not a hoarder!) One of these plates would be perfect for a top panel for the jacks, tube sockets, and such. See Picture 3.

A little punching and drilling, a coat of Testor’s model paint, and some lettering, and the panel was done. Some stain and a coat or two of polyurethane, and the box was completed. See Picture 4.

I managed to fit everything inside, which was a surprise, considering I simply based the size of the box on the dimensions of the metal plate (about 7 1/2 inches square), and how much scrap wood I had.

I decided to mount the tubes on the outside, mainly for the coolness factor; but also for the other coolness factor, as in keeping the 12BH7s cool. This definitely gives it an antique vibe.

The finishing touch was a Bakelite knob from a stash of old radio knobs an even older friend gave me years ago. See Picture 6.

So, it works, if only barely.

What improvements can be made to the design without breaking the bank and reinventing the wheel in the process?

For starters, I will likely order a matched pair of 12BH7s. Some of the output transformers I researched gave me sticker shock, but Ian Thompson-Bell suggested a pair of Edcor XSM Series transformers. They are very reasonably priced, just under $20 each, and could be bolted to the top of the enclosure, behind the tubes. They would eliminate the giant coupling caps, which would then be replaced with much smaller 1 µF polyesters.

I’d also replace one power transformer with a toroidal type, to match the other one. Then, in the interest of neatness, I might go to the trouble of designing a PCB for the rest of the circuit. See Schematic 4.

But, for something thrown together with what was on hand, it was a fun and interesting project and a great conversation piece.

Curt Yengst, CSRE, is engineer for Lighthouse TV in Allentown, Pa., and a longtime RW contributor.

Email us with your own DIY ideas at radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post My Vacuum Tube Headphone Amp Project appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World has announced the recipients of the 2020 Best of Show Award Virtual Edition program.

The recipients are:

RCS Revma

Telos Alliance Omnia Enterprise 9s High-Density Virtual Audio Processing Software

Wheatstone Blade-4 for WheatNet-IP Audio Network

“We give a special tip of the hat to all of our entrants this year,” said Radio World Editor in Chief Paul McLane. “These companies have been working hard to keep advancing the state of our industry’s technology despite the very real physical and economic challenges caused by the pandemic.”

All winners and nominees will be featured in a Program Guide distributed to readers of four Future publications involved in the program: Radio World, PSN, TVBEurope and TV Technology.

Manufacturers nominate products for a fee. Winners are chosen by each brand’s editorial staff or technical contributors. Not all entries win.

This award program is normally conducted at this time of year in conjunction with the annual IBC show (it is separate from the Best of Show Awards given during the annual NAB Show).

It is intended to honor outstanding products and help raise awareness for the new products and services, this year honoring products launched or featured around a virtual IBC Showcase.

The post Radio World Announces Fall Best of Show Recipients appeared first on Radio World.

Todd Schlekeway is the president and CEO of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association. Jim Goldwater serves as the NATE director of legislative and regulatory affairs.

NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association has collaborated with key industry association colleagues for many years on a wide range of issues that have significantly advanced the nation’s critical communications capabilities. This month these telecom organizations partnered again to advocate Congressional action to help address the substantial workforce shortage in the industry that jeopardizes the national communications goals of expanding broadband and closing the digital divide while enhancing public safety, advancing next generation technologies and maintaining the hundreds of thousands of communications towers already in place.

NATE is a nonprofit trade organization whose membership encompasses all layers of the communications infrastructure ecosystem, and now includes over 1,000 member companies that construct, service and maintain hundreds of thousands of communications towers (broadcast and wireless), distributed antenna systems, small cell networks and broadband throughout all 50 states and 13 other countries.

[Read: Prepping a New Master Antenna for Charm City]

NATE, joined by the National Association of Broadcasters, the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, the Government Wireless Technology and Communications Association, the National Wireless Safety Alliance, the Rural Wireless Association and the Wireless Infrastructure Association, wrote to key Congressional committee leaders in support of legislation that would help the industry attract, recruit and train tower workers.

Our coalition cautioned that efforts to advance major telecommunications legislation during the 116th Congress, which expires at the end of this calendar year, had not yet addressed the workforce shortage. Without a commitment to ensure that there will be an adequate supply of workers, the nation’s technology development and deployment challenges will not be addressed.

Moreover, we wrote that “The ongoing pandemic illustrates so clearly how essential our industry and our workforce are, with so many Americans forced to work, study and play remotely.” Communications infrastructure is of course critical to our capacity to conduct business, engage in telehealth and ensure that radio and television stations can continue to inform our communities, while we work toward closing the digital divide and deploying 5G wireless technology and broadcast Next-Gen television in the future. These are priorities that our letter conveyed, and we are both pleased and proud to have collaborated with our very good friends at NAB on it.

We specifically identified a few pending bills that would help address workforce development in our industry.  NATE actually assisted in the development of one of them, the “Communications Jobs Training Act,” which would provide funds for job training to enhance communications tower service. It would authorize grants to community colleges, vocational institutions and military organizations to establish or expand job training programs for communications tower service, construction and maintenance.

Our letter also cited legislation designed to develop recommendations on how to address communications workforce needs. It also highlighted the utilization and coordination of apprenticeship programs.

In January, NATE Chairman Jimmy Miller testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation at a hearing entitled, “The 5G Workforce and Obstacles to Broadband Deployment.” He stressed that “the most significant challenge with which our industry and contractor firms like mine are dealing … is the shortage of a properly trained and qualified workforce that is expected to possess the diverse skill set necessary to produce the expansion of universal broadband, public safety and ubiquitous 5G coverage across North America, while completing the broadcast repack. If we are to win the hypercompetitive global race to build and deploy 5G, which will enable our national, state and local economies to leverage technologies based on the Internet of Things, smart cities, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, we must ensure that we have enough trained workers. We simply cannot meet these national goals without doing so.”

Radio World readers may be interested in hearing more about the workforce issues as it relates to the broadcast industry, and specifically the repack transition. Although the repack was scheduled to wrap up in early July, there are still a number of stations that have not completed the transition.

The broadcast repack transition helped shine a spotlight on the fact that there are a finite number of crews in the United States capable of working on tall towers. Broadcast tower work is a different animal altogether given the complex techniques, skill-sets and equipment associated with the work, not to mention working on towers ranging 1,000–2,000 feet tall.

NATE estimates that there are only approximately 40 crews (typically consisting of 5–6 tower technicians per crew) in the country that are truly trained to perform work on broadcast towers. Of these 40 crews, only about 30 are capable of performing the most complex large broadcast and arbor stick tall tower work. The other broadcast crews are equipped to perform activities such as non-arbor stick work up to 1,000 feet, small stack and crane work or helicopter work. Many of these companies have been in the industry a long time and have an experienced, but aging workforce.

These factors served to exacerbate these issues in the broadcast industry and led to some companies having to supplement their tower technician workforce by bringing in crews from select countries in Europe for this specialized, tall-tower repack work.

NATE is committed to investing heavily in workforce development initiatives that we believe, over time, can help alleviate some of the technician labor challenges both the wireless and broadcast sectors continue to face, but there is no magic wand. It is abundantly clear, however, that addressing our communications infrastructure needs is good for our nation’s economy and competitiveness, today and tomorrow. Congress could play a role in shaping the industry’s future by passing the communications workforce development legislation that has been introduced in bi-partisan fashion.

The post Telecom and Workforce Development: Why It Matters to the Broadcast Industry appeared first on Radio World.

For many readers, cold weather will be here before we know it; and that is inevitably when we find ourselves working outside around a tower. (Troubleshooting an AM antenna tuning unit after midnight comes to mind.)

Fig. 1 shows a really neat portable propane heat lamp to keep you warm outside this winter.

Cumulus Regional Engineer Justin “J.T.” Tucker found these dual propane tank-mounted heaters at a camping supply store; they are also available online. Search “portable tank-mount propane heater.”

Single units are under $50, the dual element versions pictured are around $100.

Remember, even though they are equipped with a safety shut-off valve and tip-over switch, do not use these inside your transmitter building or any enclosed spaces.

Useful videos

We received a nice note from David Mathews, who created the “Moseley 6000 Series Frequency Change” video on YouTube that we described in July. Even if you don’t have to change frequencies on that pair of STLs, David offers a number of useful tips should you ever need to get inside the boxes.

In his note, David reports a lot of “likes,” so thank you, readers!

David tells us that he’s a “sort of” retired assistant chief engineer with North American Broadcasting in Columbus. He plans on putting together future videos on other equipment.

Okay, Workbench readers: Any specific boxes you’d like to learn more about? And for the more seasoned engineers, here’s a challenge to share your knowledge with others using YouTube. If you put something together, let me know.

Swag

Workbench contributor Marc Mann writes in to thank us for letting readers know about Inovonics and their really useful Radio Hero Swag Bag. The secret’s out; Fig. 2 shows what Marc received.

If you missed the offer, there are still a few left. To request one drop an email to sales@inovonicsbroadcast.com.

MOVs and GDTs

Steven Karty saw the suggestion we shared from Paul Sagi to change out gas discharge tubes with metal oxide varistors inside your surge protection devices.

Steven reminds us to weigh the application and the equipment before making a wholesale change; although MOVs do respond more quickly than GDTs, the much higher capacitance of MOVs limits their use, especially on audio circuits.

There’s no problem if loading up the lines being protected with lots of capacitors connected to ground doesn’t degrade the signal. But many signals will be adversely affected by the extra capacitance, so MOVs are mainly used where the capacitance isn’t a problem, like inside AC powerline surge protection devices, as Paul suggested.

Because MOVs and GDTs wear out with use, Steven suggests they be replaced periodically for continued protection. The failure mode of most MOVs is shorting and (if there’s sufficient power available) melting. Although some GDTs may short, the failure mode of most GDTs is that their firing increases, so that they aren’t providing any protection.

Thanks, Steven. All good points to consider.

Gas discharge tubes are sealed devices with a gas mixture between two electrodes. When a high voltage surge is detected, the gas ionizes, providing a short circuit to ground for the surge.

The metal oxide varistor performs a similar function. The resistance of the MOV changes with voltage, becoming a short circuit when a voltage surge is detected.

Both are shunt devices, “shunting” the high-voltage transient to ground, and hopefully protecting the circuit to which it is connected.

GDT memories

In addition to surge protectors, GDTs were used in several RCA transmitters to prevent surges from damaging components.

Tucked out of the way, this little glass tube, about the size of your finger, could sometimes short to ground, depending on the intensity of the surge. The resulting permanent short circuit certainly protected the transmitter, but also meant it would not run.

Kudos to RCA design engineers (Buc Fitch?) who mounted the GDT on a snap-in bracket so (like a fuse) it could be pulled out of the circuit and easily replaced. If you have one of these older transmitters, look for it; I’ve seen instances where some engineers would remove the shorted GDT, leaving no protection.

This only invites more damage, should another surge come along.

Put it in the dryer …

Louis Bornwasser, now retired, was an FM chief engineer in the 1960s and ’70s. Later in his career he serviced and manufactured equipment for motion picture theaters, “in the days before digital.”

Louis writes to tell us that he has cleaned power cords, mic cords and air and garden hoses for 40 years using the kitchen dishwasher, though he admits that the idea we shared recently would not have occurred to him, though circuit board cleaners that he used in the manufacturing process are similar.

Louis adds: Do it without dishes.

… Or put it in the wash 

Louis brings up a good point. Although I’ve never personally done it, I have heard stories of engineers using a car wash to clean an old transmitter before moving it to a new location or frequency.

One fellow laid the transmitter in the bed of his truck and took it through. Then, he turned the transmitter over and repeated the process. He told me he supported the transmitter on a few 4×4 blocks of wood, allowing the water to drain. He removed things like doors and relays and tubes, but it apparently worked.

Another took the transmitter to a do-it-yourself car wash. Using the hand-held spray nozzle, he could reach into all the nooks and crannies to get years of grime out.  I’m hoping that one or more of our readers who have done this can write in, and maybe include a picture or two.

My concern would be things like transformers, especially the high-voltage type!  That’s the last thing you want to compromise with water and soap! Leaving the equipment to dry in the sun for a week is probably “good engineering practice.”

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

The post GDTs vs. MOVs: Choose Carefully appeared first on Radio World.

Nautel and Telos Alliance say it is possible to move the entire HD Radio air chain into a virtual environment; and they offered a “concept demonstration” this week to support the idea.

During a webinar, the technology firms showed what they describe as “the world’s first cloud-based, time-locked FM+HD Radio air chain.” Their demo included two “failover” events to show that program continuity can be maintained in the case of a problem.

The companies say their work on this project anticipates easier and more flexible digital radio deployments via virtualized audio processing and software-based Gen4 HD Radio importer/exporters. You can view the webinar at www.nautel.com/resources/webinars/.

Nautel makes FM and AM radio broadcast transmitters. Telos Alliance is an audio technology company whose brands for radio include Axia Audio, Omnia Audio, Telos Systems and 25-Seven Systems.

Their announcement was made by Marty Sacks, EVP of sales, support and marketing at Telos Alliance; Philipp Schmid, Nautel’s CTO; and Kevin Rodgers, Nautel’s president and CEO.

Rodgers said broadcasters would benefit through potential cost savings and because virtualization would make operation of multiple stations easier and allow “near-instantaneous” upgrading of services with little downtime.

“The flexibility and ease of transitioning to HD Radio become simpler than ever, allowing broadcasters to scale their operational requirements up and down as needed and offering new revenue opportunities,” he said in the announcement.

In reviewing context of this work, Nautel and Telos noted that cloud operation is well established at IT and business firms that manage large amounts of data. And Sacks said interest among broadcasters was already growing before the pandemic and has only increased since spring, when virtualization techniques enabled air talent to work from home.

“The combination of AoIP, networkable products and servers, either in house or cloud, made it possible to continue operating regular programming, both locally and on a network level, despite a forced decentralization of staff,” he said.

Prior to this week, Nautel and Telos Alliance demonstrated a way to eliminate time alignment drift by locking the FM and HD1 signals using software-implemented audio processing and a Nautel Gen4 HD MultiCast+.

This week’s demonstration, they said, built on that, showing how this time-locked air-chain “could be hosted in the cloud, utilizing the Telos Alliance Omnia Enterprise 9s high-density audio processor, a software-based Gen4 Importer/Exporter, and Nautel technology all running on the Amazon Web Services platform.”

The companies emphasized that further development work and the release of additional products will be needed prior to full deployment.

Schmid of Nautel also emphasized the importance of “failover” in a robust virtual network, referring to a system’s ability to switch to backup paths when there’s a problem.

“Our demonstration clearly showed the inherent availability of backups in a cloud-hosted air-chain. We included two failover events, switching our air-chain from Ohio to Brazil, then to a Nautel HD MultiCast+ acting as a physical resilient node. In all cases, the program flow was only briefly interrupted.”

The post Nautel and Telos Alliance Explore Cloud-Based Air Chain appeared first on Radio World.

With fires consuming towns on the West Coast and hurricanes damaging communities in the east, the issue of preparing for natural disasters has never seemed more essential.

That issue is clear to the head of the safety and security bureau at the Federal Communications Commission who released a statement as part of September’s National Preparedness Month to recap the latest developments in the nation’s Wireless Emergency Alert plans. Lisa M. Fowlkes, chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, also detailed how emergency managers and the public can best go about taking advantage of this tool.

[Read: FEMA Says No National Alert Test This Year]

One of the most significant improvements to the system is enhanced geo-targeting options for Wireless Emergency Alerts. Starting in December 2019, participating wireless providers must provide the ability to deliver alerts on a mobile device to a specific area targeted by emergency management officials — no longer just blanket the entire county — with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot.

The commission also recently requested that the CTIA, the trade association representing the communications industry, provide to the FCC an annual report with estimates of current and projected market penetration rates of mobile devices supporting enhanced WEA geo-targeting starting in July 2021. A similar request was sent to the standards organization Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions as well as to Qualcomm to confirm the chip manufacturer’s support for enhanced geo-targeting.

Fowlkes also highlighted the ability for public health officials to send Wireless Emergency Alerts with enhanced information — up to 360 characters from the original limit of 90 characters — and the capability for officials to send alerts in Spanish. She also touted a new class of alerts called Public Safety Messages to convey information such as the location of emergency shelters after a disaster.

In addition, Fowlkes said, as of December emergency managers can conduct state and local WEA tests that reach only consumers who choose to participate, noting that these tests do not require a waiver from the FCC.

In addition to releasing a set of tips for using the new Wireless Emergency Alert enhancements and for issuing multilingual alerts, Fowlkes also urged consumers themselves to take an important step: keep Wireless Emergency Alerts enabled on their phones.

“While it’s possible to turn most of these alerts off, they are proven life savers — so please keep them on,” she said.

The post FCC Releases Guidance on Using WEA Alerts appeared first on Radio World.

In the attack on New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, the radio and TV broadcast infrastructure was devastated. The World Trade Center was the locus and the loss downed radio and TV stations.

Broadcast engineers immediately moved into action to reinvigorate the Empire State Building broadcast facilities and relocate stations to other facilities. In addition plans for rebuilding were started.

Take a listen to this important session from Oct. 10, 2003, at an AES Show on “Rebuilding of New York Broadcasting” to see how today’s renewed New York airwaves came about. It features many of those most closely involved, including Howard Price of ABC, John Lyons of the Durst Organization, Steve Shultis of WNYC and many others.

The post Remembering Sept. 11 appeared first on Radio World.

It was shortly after World War I that Clarence Thompson, a partner of Lee de Forest, formed a new company Radio News & Music Inc. in New York. His goal was to encourage newspapers to broadcast their news reports by wireless, using de Forest transmitters.

The franchise offer — available to only one newspaper in each city — offered the rental of a de Forest 50-watt transmitter and accessories for $750. Just one newspaper signed up for the deal; it was the Detroit News, led by publisher William E. Scripp.

He had been interested in wireless since investing in Detroit experimenter Thomas E. Clark’s wireless company in 1904. Scripp’s son, William J. “Little Bill,” was an active ham radio operator, operating a station in the Scripps home.

People might laugh

Scripp proposed accepting the Radio News & Music offer and building a Detroit News radio station in 1919, but he met resistance from his board of directors. It was not until March of 1920 that he was given the go-ahead to sign a contract.

The de Forest transmitter was shipped to Detroit on May 28, 1920, but was lost in transit; a second transmitter was constructed and sent on July 15. This delayed the installation of the station until August.

Radio News & Music hired a Detroit ham operator, 19-year-old Michael Lyons, to install the transmitter on the second floor of the News building and to erect a rooftop antenna. A license was needed, but broadcasting in 1920 was just an experimental activity, and broadcast licenses did not yet exist.

The handful of pioneer broadcasters were operating under a variety of license classes, including amateur, experimental and “commercial land station.” The News decided that an amateur license was the most expedient option, and a license was quickly obtained with the call sign 8MK.

Scripps initially worried about the optics of a newspaper giving away its news reports for free over the air, and so he wanted the appearance of an arms-length relationship with the station. For this reason, the 8MK license was registered in Lyons’ name.

In a 1973 letter, Lyons recalled:

I’ll never forget the Tuesday we started broadcasting, and the reporters would not publish the fact, because they were afraid people would laugh at the Detroit newspaper. Besides, I was told, there was a chance the radio news would deter people from buying newspapers to get the news.

8MK made its first transmission on Aug. 20, 1920, on a frequency of 200 meters (1500 kHz), the bottom of the amateur band. It was just a test of the new equipment, and so it was not publicized. It is estimated that no more than 30 people heard the broadcast that night.

Elton Plank, a 16-year-old office boy, was given the task of being the first announcer because of his pleasing voice. At 8:15 p.m., Plank placed a megaphone against the transmitter’s mouthpiece and announced, “This is 8MK calling, the radiophone of the Detroit News.”

He then signaled Howard Trumbo, operating a borrowed hand-crank Edison phonograph, to play two records: “Roses of Picardy” and “Annie Laurie.” Listeners were asked to telephone in their signal reports to the newspaper, and 8MK signed off the air.

Election bulletins, August 2020

After several more test transmissions verified the equipment was working properly, 8MK made its first publicized broadcast on Aug. 31, 1920, the night of the state’s primary election.

A front-page announcement in the News alerted the public to the upcoming broadcast: “Miscellaneous news and music will be transmitted from 8 until 9 o’clock so that operators may adjust their instruments. Election bulletins begin at 9 o’clock and will continue on the hour and half-hour until midnight.”

An estimated 500 listeners heard that night’s broadcast.

After that auspicious debut, 8MK began a schedule of two broadcasts per day, six days a week, featuring news and weather summaries from the pages of the Detroit News combined with entertainment from phonograph records.

Each day, the program schedule of the “Detroit News Radiophone” was published on the front page of the newspaper. Encouraged by the positive results of his radio experiment, Scripps transferred the 8MK license into the name of the newspaper and dedicated more resources towards his fledgling operation.

A staff of three was assigned — two engineers and a program manager. New program concepts were tried: in September, there was a remote broadcast of live dance music by the Paul Specht Orchestra, and the results of the Dempsey-Miske boxing match were announced. The Brooklyn-Cleveland World Series baseball play-by-play scores were sent out in October.

On Nov. 2, 8MK broadcast the Harding-Cox presidential election returns, the same night as KDKA’s famous first broadcast. Live Christmas carols were broadcast in December. Lectures, dramatic readings and poetry were added in 1921, and live music was increasingly being heard.

Although still operating under an amateur license, 8MK was a commercial broadcaster in all aspects, operating from a business establishment with a paid staff and professional content.

National coverage

In the fall of 1921, new government regulations were issued that prohibited amateurs from broadcasting news and entertainment.

This meant that the Detroit News, along with dozens of other pioneer broadcasters, were required to apply for a new class of license called “Limited Commercial.” Subsequently, in November, 1921, the “Detroit News Radiophone” received a new license with the randomly-assigned call letters WBL, and it moved to the new shared broadcasting frequency of 360 meters (833 kHz).

But when listeners had trouble hearing the call sign correctly, a new call sign was requested, and the Detroit News station became WWJ on March 3, 1922.

Scripps now poured considerable resources in his radio operation. A new WWJ studio/office suite was built on the fourth floor of the building. A 290-foot antenna was stretched between the News building and the Fort Shelby Hotel in 1921, and a 500-watt Western Electric transmitter was installed in 1922, only the second factory-made broadcast transmitter in the country.

With these improvements, WWJ was now being heard across the country at night. By summer, there was a full-time staff of nine. Live broadcasts of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra began in February, and in May a new 16-piece WWJ Orchestra was organized, consisting mostly of symphony musicians. Regular church services were broadcast on Sundays.

Star performers appeared on the station, including Fanny Brice and Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. Nightly news reports with running commentary were delivered by Albert Weeks, billed as “The Town Crier.” Children’s bedtime stories were being read nightly.

As local live talent was hired to broadcast on WWJ, some refused to believe there was really an invisible audience hearing their performances. They were accustomed to the immediate feedback of a live audience, but the microphone offered only silence.

When future radio comedian Will Rogers made his first ever radio broadcast over WWJ in October, 1922, he didn’t believe that people were really listening: “I don’t think you can hear me,” he announced. “If this isn’t the bunk, let me know if you can hear me.”

To his great surprise, he received letters and postcards from all over the Midwest. Even Henry Ford had heard him, using a receiving set he had built himself.

Live remote play-by-play broadcasts on WWJ began in October, 1924, when Chief Announcer Edwin “Ty” Tyson called a University of Michigan football game from the stadium. The university allowed just this one broadcast because the stadium was already sold out, but when they were flooded with ticket requests for the next game they agreed to allow regular broadcasts.

In 1927, Tyson broadcast the entire season of Detroit Tigers home games over WWJ. He soon became one of the country’s foremost early sportscasters, and called both the 1935 and ’36 World Series games for NBC.

In 1923, WWJ moved to 517 meters (580 kHz), sharing the frequency with the new Detroit Free Press station WCX (now WJR), and then in 1925 it moved to 850 kHz, operating full-time with a new 1 kW transmitter. After the company’s new parking garage was completed across 3rd Avenue in 1926, the transmitter moved into the garage building, and two new towers suspended the antenna 265 feet above street level between the garage and the paper warehouse.

(WWJ was shifted to 920 kHz in 1928, and then to its current 950 kHz frequency in the NARBA Treaty realignment of 1941.)

Showcase station

As radio entered its “golden age” in the 1930s, backed by the ample resources of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, no expense was spared to make WWJ a first-class station.

When the NBC Red Network was organized in 1926, WWJ became its Detroit affiliate. In 1936, a new showplace five-story studio building was built for a cost of $1 million, and an opulent 5 kW transmitter building and new tall tower were inaugurated. Both structures were designed by the famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn.

Frequent remote broadcasts originated from a fleet of remote trucks and the Detroit News aircraft. “Radio Jake,” the WWJ Interference Engineer, prowled the city in his own vehicle, solving interference complaints for citizens as a free public service.

The Detroit News had operated WWJ entirely as a goodwill service to the public. By 1928, it had reportedly invested $466,000 in the station, despite earning not a penny in return.

There was no way knowing if WWJ benefited the company through increased newspaper sales. This was the conundrum of radio in the late 1920s — it was now an essential public service, but had no clear source of revenue. It was not until advertising was permitted in the early 1930’s that radio became a profitable medium.

WWJ was continually at the forefront experimenting with new broadcast technologies. In 1938, it transmitted a radio newspaper during overnight hours to facsimile printers in local residences. In 1936, it inaugurated an experimental “Apex” high-fidelity AM station, W8XWJ, broadcasting on 41,000 kHz from the top of the Penobscot Building skyscraper.

In 1940, this was converted to W45D, one of the nation’s first FM stations (now WXYT-FM). And in 1947, WWJ-TV took to the airwaves (now WDIV).

The 65-year relationship between WWJ and the Detroit News ended in 1985, when The Gannett Company bought the newspaper and spun off WWJ/WJOI to a group of local businessmen. Then in 1989, they were purchased by CBS Radio, who invested in a major power increase to 50 kW in 2000.

In 2017, CBS Radio merged with Entercom, today’s owner of WWJ, which coincidentally also owns pioneer stations KDKA and KNX. The original WWJ de Forest transmitter was donated to the Detroit History Museum in 1959, where it can be seen on display today.

For more of John Schneider’s history articles, including other centennial stations that were heard prior to the famous KDKA broadcast of 1920, visit www.radioworld.com/author/johnschneider.

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