Industry News

All hail to the Georgia Association of Broadcasters for its program to salute dedicated engineers in the state.

Here at Radio World, we celebrate efforts to elevate awareness of the role of our industry engineers. One such program is the GAB’s Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Award. Nominations are now open.

I wanted to learn more about it so I reached out to Bob Houghton, president of the association.

“In 2012, the state of Georgia revised the state Emergency Alert System plan,” he said.

“The GAB worked closely with the state on this project and received tremendous support from four engineers. Later that year the GAB decided to honor those four at the annual GAB convention, GABCON.”

From then on, engineers have been honored every year.

It was named the Angelo Ditty Engineering Award after the association’s longtime ABIP Inspector. Then, “In 2016, our much respected and beloved ABIP Inspector, Frank McLemore was killed in an automobile accident.” Now the name honors both.

“The great part about this award is that the recipients are nominated by their peers,” Houghton told me. “This could be other engineers, station management or on-air- talent.” Recipients are selected by the GAB board.

Criteria include dedication, professionalism and willingness to help other engineers.

“Engineers are often the unsung heroes of the broadcast industry,” Houghton said. “Most people don’t realize what all goes on behind the scenes to keep a newsroom running and to get content on the air. This literally could not happen without the minds and talent of broadcasting engineers. They are a very active and close-knit community as well.”

Nominations are invited; email mlewis@gab.org by the end of this month. Qualified nominees must have 20 or more years as a broadcast engineer, with the majority of that time spent in Georgia. The awards will be presented in October during the GAB’s Virtual GABBY Awards.

While I had him, I asked Houghton how Georgia stations are doing at coping with the pandemic, and working to get back to some kind of normal operations.

“Since broadcasting is an essential industry, it’s been very important that all of our stations stay on the air in times of crisis,” he replied. Local radio and television often provide crucial, life-saving information to members of their community.

“While it’s true that revenue is down, morale remains high. Local broadcasting continues to donate PSA airtime while raising money and building awareness to our communities. We are so proud of the ways our stations have overcome challenges and established new ways of communicating with their audiences.”

The association asks that you check the list of past winners first; the list is below.

Recipients of the GAB Angelo Ditty–Frank McLemore Award

2013

Dick Boekeloo

Robert Butler

Daniel L. Davis

Frank McLemore

2014

Marty Foglia

Michael Lawing

2015

David Williams

Jeff Brock

2016

LaVaughn Thompson

Randy Mullinax

Perley Eppley

2017

Bill Williams

Stu Graham

Knox Carreker

2018

John York

Dick Byrd

Vic Lester

2019

James Gay

Tom Giglio

Bob Helbush

The post The Story Behind GAB’s Ditty–McLemore Award appeared first on Radio World.

The author is regional director of engineering for Curtis Media.

NEW BERN, N.C. — Hurricanes are common occurrences in the Carolinas at this time of year.

Two years ago, a big one even by Carolina standards hit. Water from the Neuse River spilled into Curtis Media’s facility in New Bern, depositing 36 inches inside our studios. The consoles, the equipment, the furniture, all the wiring was completely awash in soot, debris and floodwater pushed inland by Hurricane Florence. Even the backup generator was lost to the flood.

Then the water receded and the real nightmare began.

The entire building four feet up needed to be stripped to the studs and miles of wiring needed to come out.

Very little was salvageable, except the server containing music and automation that I had placed high on a shelf as an afterthought some time ago.

I set up folding tables along the facility’s only concrete wall, found a generator nearby and grabbed a few spare consoles from the Wheatstone plant a few miles inland. These temporary arrangements would keep WMGV(FM) 103.3 MHz, WIKS(FM) 101.9 MHz, WSFL(FM) 106.5 MHz and WXNR(FM) 99.5 MHz The New Hot 99.5 afloat. I then began to plan new studios.

I quickly realized that we didn’t have the manpower to replicate the studios even if we wanted to. The wiring for our analog studios alone would have taken weeks. Getting contractors in and scheduled to do the work when others were also dealing with their own cleanup and renovation after Hurricane Florence was another problem.

All of this convinced us to go with ready-made Quickline furniture for the three production rooms and four on-air studios. Quickline is made by Wheatstone and is extremely modular. There are essentially five modular components that can be configured 32 different ways. Plus, because it’s built by a broadcast equipment manufacturer, it has things like removable rear access doors and adequate rack space.

We dropped into the furniture Wheatstone’s IP-12 control surface with mixing engine, M4IP-USB mic processor Blades and a VoxPro audio recorder/editor for seven studios, all identical. I had to rewire the entire building, but when it came to the studios, all I had to do was run shielded Cat-5 and a patch panel.

Within no time, the studios had new furniture, new boards and new routing, and they were fully functional.

I don’t expect to have to repeat the process anytime soon. But we do keep an eye on the weather around here.

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

For information, contact Jay Tyler at Wheatstone in North Carolina 1-252-639-7000 or visit www.wheatstone.com.

The post User Report: Wheatstone Quickline Counters Florence’s Flood appeared first on Radio World.

Studio console-maker AMS Neve has unveiled its latest console, the Neve 8424, a small-format desk based on the 80-series console range that is being aimed at project studios, educational facilities and small pro audios.

Intended for hybrid studios centered around an in-the-box workflow, the desk provides a center point between analog tools such as outboard gear, analog synths and the like, and the digital world of DAW workflows, software plugins and session recall.

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

The 8424’s dual-input channel strip allows for switching between recording and mixing inputs without additional patching, providing connectivity via 24 line-level inputs, dual 1073 preamps, and dual instrument DI channels, allowing users to record directly in the control room. The desk sports a dual cue mix system with talkback/return talkback capability and dual headphone amplifiers.

As an analog mixing platform, the 8424 offers 24 DAW returns across 24 channel faders or, for larger DAW sessions, a 48-Mix mode that allows a total of 48 mono inputs with individual level and pan controls to be mixed through the 8424’s Marinair transformer-coupled stereo mix bus. Engineers can use the 8424’s mono and stereo aux busses to connect to outboard FX units and route them back into the console’s two dedicated stereo reverb returns. Also onboard are four mono groups with two-band shelving EQ, inserts, and direct outs. The 8424 has an onboard recall system, allowing the console to save, load, and recall all settings, faders and pot positions for on a session by session basis.

Harkening back to the Neve 80-series console of years past, the 8424 stereo mix bus provides true voltage mixing into Marinair transformers, while additional features such as stereo insert, two-band shelving EQ and Neve’s proprietary Stereo Width control give users additional tools with which to work.

Each channel, group and stereo mix bus has its own switchable insert point, while dual onboard 500 series slots allow engineers to customize their signal chain and build a modular hybrid recording system, all connected and centralized through the 8424 console.

The Neve 8424 console is shipping, with an MSRP of $24,950.

Info: www.ams-neve.com

The post AMS Neve Launches Neve 8424 Console appeared first on Radio World.

Hunt down potential points of failure in your station’s power provision. Rethink how entertainment content gets to the car. Track EAS across your state. Plus a story about diversity in radio engineering and a special facility profile

Read it online here.

Prefer to do your reading offline? No problem! Simply click on the digital edition, go to the left corner and choose the download button to get a PDF version.

Radio Hiring

Blacks Are Few in U.S. Radio Engineering

We reached out to a number of African-American technical professionals who hold positions in radio and allied businesses to ask about their experiences in their engineering careers.

Facility Profile

They Built New Studios During COVID

Come inside Bonneville’s open-concept, interactive, AoIP broadcast facility in Daly City, Calif.

Also in this issue:

• How Alabama Monitors the EAS System
• Inside “Overheard at National Geographic”
• Don’t Dump on WWV (and Other Letters)

The post Inside the September 3 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

A new survey by iHeartMedia revealed that when it comes to the issue of trust, radio continues to rank among the most trustworthy media platforms around.

The new survey revealed that radio is ranked number one in terms of trust. Not only that, but radio was ranked by the respondents to be two times more trustworthy than social media.

[Read: New Audio Campaign Aims to Reinforce Radio’s Role as Trusted Partner]

The survey said that listeners found radio to be 79% more or just as trustworthy versus a year ago. Comparatively, social media was seen to be 50% less trustworthy than during the same time period. Similar sentiments were in store for other social media sites. In particular, the survey found that sentiment for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter has fallen in recent months, with Facebook down 56%, Instagram down 38% and Twitter down 140%.

When it comes specifically to trust the survey revealed that:

• 75% of those surveyed trust radio
• 66% of those surveyed trust television
• 57% of those surveyed trust websites
• 38% of those surveyed trust Twitter
• 37% of those surveyed trust Facebook

The survey also revealed that listeners believe that radio delivers tangible benefits to them, with an overwhelming majority of respondents citing that it improves their mood, helps them feel less isolated and allows them to feel more connected to their community. The survey revealed that listener connection with radio personalities is strong, with 77% saying that they trusting the information they receive from their favorite on-air hosts.

When it comes to advertising, the survey revealed that heavy radio listeners wield significant word-of-mouth power for advertisers. Those listeners had more brand conversations and more influence, the survey found, than heavy internet users or TV viewers.

According to Gayle Troberman, chief marketing officer for iHeartMedia, the pandemic has made it more important than ever for Americans to get information they trust and to find ways to connect with people. “These findings show that radio continues to deliver a much-needed and sought-out trusted companionship during this historic and uncertain time,” she said.

The survey was conducted by Engagement Labs during the timeframe of July 27–29. The findings released by iHeartMedia also include data from Engagement Labs TotalSocial survey, which was fielded between July 2019 and July 2020.

The post Radio Ranks As Most Trustworthy Source in New iHeartMedia Poll appeared first on Radio World.

The Sunflower State will recognize five individuals who represent the best that Kansas broadcasting has to offer.

The Kansas Association of Broadcasters will induct three new members into its hall of fame. That list includes Kent Cornish, who has served for more than 40 years as a Kansas broadcaster. Starting as an intern at WIBW(TV) in Topeka in 1975, Kent served as a news anchor, assistant news director and operations manager at WIBW for 12 years, as general manager for 10 years at KTKA(TV) in Topeka, and then spent seven years at KSAS/KMTW(TV) in Wichita. He served as president of the National Alliance of State Broadcast Associations in 2015 and will conclude his career later this year as president of the KAB.

A posthumous induction will honor “Dancin’ Don Hall,” an energetic radio personality who spent nearly 45 years on air in Wichita before he lost his life in an auto accident this past spring. Don began his career at KSEK(FM) in Pittsburgh while in college. He spent two years at KWBW(AM/FM) in Hutchinson, before moving to KEYN(FM) in 1974. He later joined Clear Channel Radio in Wichita before returning to KEYN in 2009. For 36 years Don served as the PA announcer for Wichita State Basketball and in 2019 was inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame.

Another posthumous induction will be made to Ralph Titus, well-known by many in Kansas as the “Voice of Kansas State University” for nearly 40 years. Ralph helped establish KSAC(AM)/KKSU(AM) radio as one of the premiere university-owned stations in the country. Ralph, a 1955 graduate of Kansas State, worked at KSAC during the four years he was a student. After serving in the Air Force, he had news and public affairs stints at WIBW(AM/TV) and KWTV(TV) in Oklahoma City. He returned to Manhattan, Kan., in 1961 as assistant manager and program director at KSAC. Ralph was instrumental in helping to develop the programming format for National Public Radio, which started in 1976. At KSAC/KKSU he was known by listeners for his erudite style and love for the arts. He is remembered for the many interviews he conducted with U.S. presidents, world leaders and listeners across the state of Kansas. Ralph retired as manager of KKSU in 1994. He passed away in October 2018.

KAB is also honoring two other Kansas broadcasting professionals.

Amy Jo Williams-Wintz — known as AJ to many — has been a KWCH(TV) sales rep in Hutchinson for 23 years. In addition to her role in advertising sales, AJ serves as a marketing consultant, able to advise her clients on all aspects of their business. Over the years AJ has given back to her community by volunteering her time and marketing talents to local schools, colleges, various non-profits, organizations and businesses in the communities where she has resided. She will be honored with the Mike Oatman Award For Broadcast Sales Excellence.

Working behind the scenes in Topeka television for more than 40 years, Bob Thibault is being honored

with the Sonny Slater Award for Service to Community and Station. Bob is currently the managing editor at the television stations KSNT/KTMJ/KTKA in Topeka and has served in several capacities in his 20-plus years there. Prior to his current position, he worked at WIBW(TV) for nearly 15 years as a photographer, producer and assignment editor. He’s a lifelong Kansan and a graduate of Colby Community Junior College and Fort Hays State University.

Due to the cancellation of the 2020 KAB convention, these honorees will be honored in person at the 2021 award ceremony.

The post Kansas Broadcasting to Honor Its Own appeared first on Radio World.

Entercom is taking another step toward automotive connectivity as it joins forces with an interactive technology manufacturer to integrate the Radio.com platform into a fleet of connected rental vehicles.

Entercom said its Radio.com audio platform will be made available through the Avis Budget Group Travel Assistant developed by Edison Interactive. Radio.com, a broadcast and internet platform that serves as the digital home for Entercom’s content across its stations and affiliates, was launched 10 years ago by CBS Radio and is now owned by Entercom.

This new platform by Edison will offer rental car customers a digital experience that includes talk and text capabilities, streaming media apps, media and gaming applications as well as audio through Radio.com. The Travel Assistant will be available to rent at locations throughout the U.S. and in Canada.

[Read: Entercom Places Radio.com Native App in GM Vehicles]

The goal, said Entercom and Edison, is to effectively digitally captivate customers from the beginning to the end of their rental car journey. For Entercom, partnering with Edison gives the media company the ability to further expand the reach of its audio content on a local and national scale as it attempts to redefine what a connected vehicle listening experience looks like.

“We want our listeners to be able stay connected to their favorite stations and podcasts regardless of the type of vehicle they may be in,” said David Rosenbloom, vice president of Corporate Business Development at Entercom. “We are excited to reach customers out of home in new and exciting ways in the transportation landscape.”

The radio industry has long been experimenting with different ways to heighten the customer automobile experience by connecting drivers to premium audio content. Recently Entercom launched its first native automotive application on nearly 7 million General Motors vehicles. Drivers with compatible vehicles will be able to access the Radio.com digital audio and content platform beginning Sept. 15.

Rosenbloom said this new native auto application will give drivers another way to connect with stations and talent “regardless of the market they live in.”

In addition to its Travel Assistant, Edison has also stepped into another four-wheel vehicle (the golf cart) with Shark Experience, a connected platform built into more than 23,000 golf carts across the U.S.

“We are heavily invested to develop solutions that amplify the customer experience,” said Jeremy Ostermiller, CEO of Edison Interactive. “By integrating Radio.com into our connected vehicle platform, we not only give end-users unprecedented access to hundreds of stations and thousands of podcasts, but they can also now enjoy the music and personalities they love.”

The post Entercom’s Radio.com Platform to Be Integrated in Expanded Range of Vehicles appeared first on Radio World.

James Careless’ article in the Aug. 19 issue of Radio World about WWV and the MARS system being a last line of defense in case of another Carrington event was interesting and useful.

However, it should be pointed out that many of us have already lived through a Carrington-event-sized solar flare.

In August of 1972 there were a number of large flares that caused severe geomagnetic storms, causing AM station engineers to wonder what was causing their spark gaps to arc over seemingly at random.

The geomagnetic disturbance was enough to set off magnetic mines in Haiphong harbor, much to the dismay of the U.S. Navy. Auroras were seen as far south as Spain and there were serious ground fault currents generated in telephone and power distribution systems. Phone lines went out and power line protective relays tripped.

There have been some debates about what the actual strength of the Carrington event was, but the 1972 solar storm was in the same basic order of magnitude and was sufficiently well-measured to be a useful reference for people preparing for solar storms today.

Send Letters to the Editor to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Read more opinions n the Radio World Columns & Views section of the RW website.

The post Letter: We Already Had a Carrington-Style Event appeared first on Radio World.

Bonneville International Corp. currently operates 22 radio stations, four of which are now broadcasting from its new facility in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bonneville Bay Area consists of four FM radio stations, each of which holds a special place in the community. They are 96.5 KOIT, 99.7 NOW, KBLX 102.9 and 98.5 KFOX.

Building a brand-new facility during COVID-19 is one for the books. Bonneville has since debuted this new open concept, fully interactive, audio over IP broadcast media plant in Daly City, Calif.

It is a showcase, with high-quality construction, from the beautiful design in architecture to the technology deployment of Bonneville’s engineering team.

While this move from the SOMA District meant no more penthouse views of downtown San Francisco, we left behind a dated facility and layout. The new design was well thought out prior to construction and creates an experience for our listeners and clients, as well as a collaborative space for our employees.

Blank canvas

At the start of the project, the new suite, formerly used by Avid Technology, still had edit bays but the rest of the existing space was completely gutted back to concrete.

We brought in V-Three Studios as the design and architects to create our vision on a blank canvas. V-Three Studios specializes in spaces that meet technical and functional demands while maximizing aesthetic appeal and respecting environmental and civic contexts and achieving their client’s unique goals.

Our contractor GCI Inc. is a premier Bay Area commercial general contracting firm specializing in building and site renovation, infrastructure, labs and tenant improvement with a focus on sustainability and LEED.

Bonneville’s construction and design team was led by Scott Jones, senior VP of engineering and technology (corporate); Carl Gardner, SVP and market manager for San Francisco; Chuck Bullett, director of engineering for the market; and myself, the director of engineering for Bonneville Sacramento.

I was tasked as the project manager to oversee the cutting-edge renovation of a floor in an existing building in the Daly City area, as well as the integration.

Having worked with all the vendors in the past on numerous other projects made for a smooth transition from San Francisco to Daly City, given the circumstances Bonneville was up against.

The new 18,000-square-foot facility is exactly what Bonneville was looking to achieve with a high-tech performance space, a multipurpose break room, a roof deck and the latest technology and digital integration for both broadcast and employee workspaces.

Beyond the visual elements throughout the suite, with both graphics and branding on video displays, the work area for non-programming employees features flexible seating arrangements known as a huddle space, as well as a mesh corporate Wi-Fi network to allow seamless flexibility. Studios were assembled in record time and the office furniture delivery and assembly went off without a hitch.

“In recent years, we have had numerous studio projects with Bonneville San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and Seattle in 2011,” said David Holland, the chief design officer at Omnirax.

“This project really was the confluence of the dream team — V-Three Studios and Bonneville Construction Team — and everyone involved was committed to make this facility a showplace collaboration. Scott visited Omnirax a couple of years ago at our showroom in Sausalito. Seeing our curved open plan and private office furniture, he immediately ‘got’ what we have been doing with our WeDesk line. This provided the entrée to allow Omnirax to bid on and then furnish the entire facility for Bonneville.”

Natural wood, neutral colors

As guests enter the facility, views of a “showcase” on-air studio for 99.7 NOW greet them, as well as a display of the technical operation center for which engineering is responsible.

Also visible from the lobby is a performance space fitted with a stage and truss with lighting, a sound system, a movable front-of-house station, and adjacent audio and video control rooms. This gives visitors a sense of what goes into making modern day media and shows off the new digs.

Glass blankets the suite to allow natural light throughout, and the interior is set against the exposed concrete floors and finished with natural woods. A neutral color scheme was designed to enhance the LED cloud lighting for color to flow throughout ceiling grid of the suite.

The enhanced finishes, flow, continuity and efficiency now rival that of any modern office and multimedia facility.

“This facility is built for the future, with its planned flexibility in the technology infrastructure and the office/studio environments,” said Kurt Kerns, principal at V-Three Studios, LLC.

“As the broadcast industry continues to evolve in the digital age, the facility will be ready to adapt to the changing needs of the business model.”

Moving away from traditional office design and having less square footage, the open office layout dramatically improves the openness and visibility of the facility with a focus of huddle areas to promote collaboration and inter-department interaction.

End of May or Bust

Completion had been targeted for spring, with business commencing on April 13. Then the world got hit with a pandemic.

The project had been proceeding seamlessly and on schedule when the virus hit, right after delivery of the studio furniture. The project was just three weeks away from completion when lockdown went into place. A waiting game began for of all parties trying to find a solution to proceed cautiously.

Bonneville faced an additional challenge of its lease ending at its prior facility, which needed to be fully demised by the end of May.

The company was prepared to reopen the job site and resume construction with multiple shifts, subject to GCI’s site-specific plan for COVID-19 prevention and remediation. Kudos to GCI for a detailed plan and a full decontamination team to sanitize the site before remobilizing.

As GCI got back on site, we saw requirements for more additional notification, site signage and other added protocols. GCI’s safety and field teams, along with the industrial hygienist, walked the site with no indications that there would be any problems.

Visual inspections and site practice demonstrations went extremely well. They went through every process of the competent person training, site deliveries, subcontractor management and work procedures. Bonneville had a team of engineers from Salt Lake City, Seattle and Sacramento, waiting to fulfill the integration needs.

It is a testament to the trust amongst all the stakeholders, including GCI, that all were all able to weather the extended break and resume the project once the authorities deemed it safe to return to work.

AOIP Flexibility

The team of Bonneville engineers built 11 studios, four on air, with adjacent support rooms, a main production studio, and two voice-tracking booths.

The backbone of Bonneville Bay Area now runs off Wheatstone, with its WheatNet-IP architecture, allowing any studio to be utilized for any function of the business. All four on-air studios feature the LXE consoles, and the eight production, support and voice tracking booths are equipped with L-8 consoles.

Various flavors of I/O WheatNet Blades plus multiple M4 and M1 microphone processors, Yellowtec mounting systems, KRK Rokit 7 Gen 4 monitors, and Telos VX enterprise studio phone system round out the broadcast infrastructure.

Also, during this transition, the cluster had an automation transition to throw into the mix. Bonneville has committed to RCS as a standard for all markets, utilizing both G Selector and Zetta to handle the music playout and scheduling functions. The Field Tech Services team of RCS did a lot of work prior to arriving for the cutover and made it a smooth transition as the stations began to operate from their new spaces.

The Technical Operation Center at the previous facility housed 30 racks, and our new space has 14. We went with in-line CRAC (computer room air conditioning) units with an HVAC unit in each row creating a hot/cold aisle like a data center. A great amount of thought went into rack placement and layout, with a standard of color-coded cables all leading into a master patch panel that interconnects the whole facility, making it extremely versatile.

Bonneville wanted the glass-enclosed TOC to be on display with all the lights and meters visible from the lobby as people enter the suite. Bonneville’s integration team of engineers moved into the TOC and studios to receive and rack equipment and begun cabling the space from start to finish in record time.

Unified Look

The result of this collaborative design effort is a space that has a unified look that extends from reception, studios and conference spaces, out to groups of open-plan desks and private offices. We are excited to put this facility on display and ready to have it filled with our employees as soon as it is safe to do so.

“The leadership team at Bonneville dedicated a serious amount of time to work with V-Three Studios in the planning stage of the project,” said Kurt Kerns of V-Three. “That kind of early input makes for a well thought out facility and minimizes the potential damage further down the road while building such a complex technical facility.”

Bonneville wishes to thank all the vendors and partners that went above and beyond for this project, as well as the dedicated engineers from out of market who contributed a significant amount of time to the build. This is a huge technical success that accomplished Bonneville’s goals and exceeded all expectations.

Radio World welcomes proposals for facility profiles including studios, RF plans and other technical infrastructure. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post They Built New Studios During COVID appeared first on Radio World.

The author is director of engineering services for the Alabama Broadcasters Association.

Prince Hamlet spoke the words “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Today the question is “to lump sum or not.”

U.S. broadcasters and cable systems that utilize a C-Band satellite system to receive programming must each answer that question, and do so by Sept. 14.

As you probably know, these changes to your satellite system are due to a pending FCC auction of the lower half of the C-Band spectrum to broadband operators for 5G operation. And there have been many articles written over the last several months about this repack and the technical upgrades that will have to be completed to your satellite system.

But there’s still a lot of confusion over whether a user should take an FCC-authorized lump sum payment (about $8,900 for most people reading this), which is enticing but will require the owner then to pay for any upgrades needed to their satellite system or just let satellite operators do the necessary upgrade with no cost to the station.

Satellite operators will supply and install necessary equipment to have your system compliant (even if it means moving the dish or installing a new one). Changing your inside equipment such as receivers or decoders? That may be required by programmers and is not covered by the FCC payment plan.

During their changes, satellite operators will dual-feed programming to minimize interruption of service.

In a recent webinar from the Alabama Engineering Academy, available here for your viewing, Mark Johnson of Linkup Communications did a great job of untangling some of the confusion. (The discussion is not just for Alabama stations.)

He warned operators to do their homework on what upgrades will be needed before making the final decision. “Everybody doesn’t have the same situation.”

Unforeseen situations with your satellite system could exhaust the lump sum amount, leaving the operator paying the overage out of pocket. Older satellite equipment may not compliant; replacement parts may no longer be available.

“There’s a lot of antennas out there that are no longer manufactured,” he said during the webinar. “If for some reason there’s something wrong with your feed assembly, you take the lump sum you’re responsible for that.” And the FCC, he said, has been very clear: The lump sum irrevocably surrenders your right to ask for additional reimbursement.

Among the insights he shares is what happens next if you don’t take the lump sum, and how long he thinks it’ll take to receive reimbursement. That starts at about the 57 minute point of the video.

Should you decide to take the lump sum, stations are encouraged not to put the funds in the general operating budget. Put it in a separate account or shoe box under the bed. It would be too tempting to use it for current expenses, but then when the work is done, guess who has to come up the money?

In addition, if you decide to receive the lump sum, you must notify the FCC by the Sept. 14  deadline and answer a number of technical questions. Johnson covered the needed information during the webinar.

Finally, what if you failed to register your dish in 2018? Unfortunately  the FCC has not indicated that they will open a new window for stations that did not register their dish in 2018 to do so. That means you are not eligible for any reimbursement, including the lump sum.

Find more articles on this topic including information about other resources here.

The post ABA Webinar Offers C-Band Advice appeared first on Radio World.