Industry News

Is your radio station’s online political file in order? If not, don’t expect the FCC to believe later that you didn’t see enforcement coming.

The Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau has just cranked out yet more consent decree agreements with owners of seven stations whose license renewal applications have been held up because of investigations into management of their online political files.

This continues a recent broad campaign by the FCC that seems intended to raise awareness of the rules without yet imposing financial penalties.

The spate of consent decrees, which comes in a national election year, could also be read to suggest that many broadcasters had been out of compliance in the past before new online systems made it easier for the FCC to keep track.

The consent decrees all involve owners acknowledging that their stations were not in compliance and promising to implement programs and to report to the FCC about them over a limited period of time. The FCC in turn removes its “hold” from the license renewal applications.

Roughly 30 such announcements have been made. The FCC began last month by announcing six “big name” companies that had numerous station renewals in process. The most recent have involved companies with one or a handful of current renewals.

This batch includes Third Partner Broadcasting, Acadia Broadcast Partners, Stannard Broadcasting, Radio Hendersonville, and Dr. Pepper Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Dyersburg.

[Updated: As of Aug. 24 the FCC has also announced settlements with licensees Mitchell Community Broadcast, Rose Ann Marx, Ad-Venture Media, Lafayette Broadcasting, Fleur De Lis Broadcasting, Midwest Communications and Princeton Broadcasting.]

The post Yet More Settlements in Political File “Derelictions” appeared first on Radio World.

The author is chief engineer of Monadnock Broadcasting Group and Saga Communications in Keene, N.H.

Mark Johnson is a good source for information about the C-Band repack [“Lump Sum Option May Not Be Best for All”].

That said, most of the radio syndication providers on SES-11 are staying put or changing frequencies to another transponder of same polarity. So it’ll be a no brainer.

For those in the biggest urban centers who will see 5G turned up the soonest, installing the 5G waveguide mounted filter Is a rather trivial matter.

For those not in the hottest urban areas, there will be lots more time for future filter installation.

Tweaking cross polarization and nudging aim to maximize signal quality can be done using one of the satellite receivers brought to the dish or a spectrum analyzer if an experienced engineer is on staff, but likely won’t be needed.

That said, a “Ma and Pa” station might want to not take the money and rather get full carefree service.

Comment on this or any letter. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

The post Letter: Lump Sum Decision a “No Brainer” for Most Stations appeared first on Radio World.

The author is president of Tom Ray Broadcast Consulting.

In 2018, it was coming time for a new main transmitter at WJMJ(FM) Radio in Hartford, Conn., owned by the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Father John Gatzak wanted to further the message of WJMJ to the community and wanted to go HD Radio. Looking at the situation, we looked to see if we could move WJMJ’s transmitter because the signal skimmed the top of Avon Mountain, causing a shadow in the city of license, and the HD coverage would have been poor, at best.

We found that not only could we move the transmitter to Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Conn., but we would be able to go from a Class B1 to a full Class B.

While this was good news, we were now presented with an issue. We needed to transport three stereo channels of audio up to Rattlesnake, preferably via microwave STL. And I wanted to have an IP backup in the event of a failure of the RF side. We knew we had a shot to Rattlesnake because we had a Moseley Starlink STL repeater at the site, as we could not see the old main site from the studios in Prospect, Conn.

Linear Stereo

Looking at the systems available, we chose to go with the Moseley Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN. There were many reasons, not the least of which was Moseley’s reputation for building rock-solid products.

WJMJ, while being a religious station, runs a ’70s, ’80s and ’90s format, with many other genres of music mixed in including a classical block, in addition to religious programming on Sundays. So the main analog channel and the HD1 audio quality were of prime concern.

The Starlink would allow us to have a linear stereo channel with no data compression for the main channel audio — perfect.

Doing so would allow running the other two stereo channels at 192 kHz data rate, AAC audio. From experience, I know that the AAC algorithm plays nicely with the HD Radio codec. The plan would be to put Eternal World Network in Spanish on the HD2, which would be evolved into a local Hispanic channel in the near future, and to put Eternal World Radio Network on the HD3.

While both are primarily talk oriented, the HD subs are currently being run in mono — but the stereo capability of the Starlink would allow us to take those channels stereo in the future. Even at 192 kB AAC from the STL, the HD subchannels, running at 32 kB each, sound surprisingly good.

The Starlink is capable of transporting four stereo audio channels in the RF channel (or eight mono audio channels), and four stereo IP channels from one end to the other.

From the factory, the Starlink came configured with the RF channels the way I wanted them. The hard part was configuring the IP channels.

Word of warning — make sure you put the IP side of the Starlink behind a good firewall router, and open only the ports necessary. I initially was given an IP link to the outside world — naked — which worked for about 20 minutes, then the entire unit on the transmit side started rebooting, including the RF side.

Working with the Moseley tech support crew showed that our connection was being attacked with people trying to break in. The resultant overload of the IP side was causing the unit to reboot on a regular basis — we’re talking roughly every 30 seconds. Once it was behind a firewall, everything has been fine.

The audio side of the Starlink is based on Moseley Rincon technology.

My pet peeve with the system is that you need to read multiple manuals — including the Rincon manual — to learn to set up the IP streams correctly. Each stream requires setting up a profile describing the codec and data rate to be used, so you need to understand your available IP bandwidth before you start. Each stream requires its own separate IP port from transmit to receive side, so you will need to open up the necessary ports in your router to the receiver — in our case, we opened three.

Robust

Once the unit was correctly set up — and it took a little trial and error to do so — the IP streams have been solid. In fact, I put them on the air recently when we had the antennas realigned after the TV repack, as there are five TV stations on the tower we are on and there was much activity near our antenna. The streams were solid and sounded good on the air during the realignment.

The RF side of the Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN features 5 W of output, as opposed to the 1 W of output featured in the older versions of the Starlink system. This adds robustness to the digital signal at the receiver — in our case, the shot is approximately 16 miles.

It has been on the air almost two years now, and I can count the data errors on one hand. This is through thunderstorms, ice storms, snow and heavy rain. I haven’t gotten that panic call yet where the digital STL audio quits.

The Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN can be accessed through a web browser and through SNMP. The disappointing part of this is that you can only access the Rincon (audio) part of the system. You cannot control the RF side nor see the RF parameters. Moseley really needs to address this, as having this information available via web browser would be quite helpful when trouble arises.

It would also be nice if the Starlink allowed automatic switching to the IP streams, but alas, this is not the case, so we have external switching in place to do so.

A nice feature of the Starlink is that you can set up any output to be whatever audio source you desire  — IP or radio. We use the AES outputs for the analog/HD1, the HD2 and the HD3 and I feed the main channel audio AES to the Starlink transmitter feeding the backup site. I have the analog audio ports set up so that the main channel audio feeds a backup audio processor, and the HD subs feed the analog input ports on the HD subchannel processors as backup.

Overall, the value and quality we received for the money we paid, and the reputation of Moseley products and support, have given us a reliable STL that does exactly what we need. Now, if Moseley could just give us a full manual with all the answers in one place, I’ll be a very happy camper.

The Moseley Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN is an excellent choice for your multichannel HD operation or to just feed audio to more than one station.

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 Bill Gould at 805-968-9621 ext. 785, email sales@moseleysb.com or visit www.moseleysb.com.

The post User Report: Starlink Digital STL Solves Problem for WJMJ appeared first on Radio World.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing for the foreseeable future, creating clean and safe work spaces for audio pros of all professions will be a key concern for broadcast and recording studios, live music venues, houses of worship and other common spaces that use microphones and other pro audio gear that is used by multiple people. With that in mind, On-Stage has introduced its new DSA8000 Microphone Cleanser and the DSA3200 Multi-Surface Cleanser Refill.

The DSA8000 Microphone Cleanser is said to feature a formula that is both alcohol- and fragrance-free, and reportedly helps reduce the spread of bacteria and germs. Designed for safe use on essentially all gear, the cleanser does not leave behind a scent or sticky residue.

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

Packed into an 8-ounce fine mist spray bottle, the solution can be sprayed directly on surfaces or applied to a cloth and wiped on more fragile gear items, such as microphones, mixers and other electronics.

For more broad applications, the new DSA3200 Multi-Surface Cleanser Refill is intended for use in studios and venues as a bulk refill option for smaller fine mist spray bottles. The cleanser safely reduces the spread of common bacteria and germs on most surfaces.

“Studio owners, venue operators, DJs, and anyone else operating a business where microphones are regularly used, now have cleanliness front of mind,” said Jason Joyal, product line manager for On-Stage. “Our new range of cleansers is an easy way to help them stay on top of their cleaning needs and make sure everyone at their establishment stays safe.”

A longtime manufacturer of solutions for professional musicians, audio engineers, music producers, touring professionals, DJs and educational institutions, On-Stage is a division of The Music People Inc.

Info: www.on-stage.com

The post On-Stage Launches New Microphone Cleansers appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page comes this look into a new Lawo installation for Brazilian broadcaster Rádio Itatiaia.

The supplier says the broadcaster installed a new routing system to switch, process and distribute programming from its headquarters in Belo Horizonte. Rádio Itatiaia supports a network of 52 affiliate stations in the state of Minas Gerais.

The new system uses Lawo’s Power Core mixing engines, Nova17 routing frames and custom touchscreen controls that were designed with Lawo VisTool Unlimited graphical control software. Rádio Partes did the integration.

“Project planning began in 2018, with the goal of replacing an aging digital router with a true AES67 system that could work with AoIP equipment from a variety of manufacturers, and be easily expanded to accommodate future needs,” Lawo stated in a press release. The system uses the Ravenna networking protocol.

“Itatiaia also wanted a system with DSP capabilities to enable audio shaping of sources on-the-fly, and, being a network content provider, operational redundancy at every level.”

Redundancy is provided by two Lawo Power Core engines, each paired with a Nova17 routing frame with dual redundant master control/interface cards that are interconnected via mirrored MADI backbones, with automatic failover from the primary to the secondary system in case of a fault. Control also is redundant, with physical controls via rack-mounted KSC controller panels and then touchscreen PCs with VisTool graphical control software.

A PTP grand master handles synchronization, with a Lawo A__mic8 unit providing backup clocking.

Rádio Itatiaia’s Vice President Cláudio Carneiro was quoted in the announcement saying, “The ability to integrate with our existing AoIP mixing desks as well as Dante devices using Ravenna with AES67 is unprecedented.”

Lawo posted a case study on the Rádio Itatiaia project at its website.

See more Who’s Buying What stories here. Radio World welcomes news about recent installations including studios, RF and all other technical operations; email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Brazil’s Rádio Itatiaia Has New Lawo System appeared first on Radio World.

Webcasting platform Live365 recently hosted a “World Audio Day 2020” conference, a virtual event about a range of audio topics and trends.

Here’s a sampling, with info on how to find the full archive online:

Future of podcasting: A panel discussion explored impediments to increasing podcast audiences These include the need for Android smartphone users to install podcasting client software on their handsets before they can access this content, a problem akin to buying a software-based radio with AM reception standard but where FM tuning has to be downloaded.

“When you buy an Android device off the shelf, there’s isn’t a podcast client on it,” said Rob Walch, VP of podcaster relations at Libsyn.

Having a native podcasting app matters: “The last big inflection point in podcasting was 2014 when Apple’s iOS 8 came out with a native podcast player app. That really helped podcasting get to where it is today.”

Language barrier: Attracting listeners to the Live365 Latin music stream “The Sounds of Brazil” is an ongoing challenge for station Creative Director Scott Adams. Since the songs generally are in Portuguese, selling this content globally based on the lyrics is out.

To solve this marketing problem, Adams promotes his internet radio station using tags such as Smooth Jazz, Latin Jazz and Contemporary Jazz. They give non-Portuguese speaking listeners many reasons to tune in.

“It’s all about crossover and outreach,” Adams said during a station marketing panel. “Everything has to be relatable to the listener … (They) may not be able to relate to songs sung in Portuguese, but they can certainly relate to Rio’s sun-kissed beaches.”

Create your persona: Radio station imaging was front and center in a content creation and production libraries session; specifically how effective imaging can create an alluring station persona in the listeners’ minds.

To make this happen, “you need to look at your radio station as its own person,” said Matthew Anderson, director of custom imaging at Benztown.

“The voiceover that you choose and the creative copy that you write is the voice of that person,” he explained. “So who do you want to be?”

It’s like Christmas every day: The year-round popularity of seasonal music was explored in a station formats session, as explained by panelist Bud Kress. He is the owner/operator of Live365’s “That Christmas Channel,” which plays holiday music 24/7.

“We’re constantly playing the biggest hits of Christmas and more,” said Kress. Even in the “off season” between January through August, “we’re still maintaining a nice audience. There are people listening to Christmas all year long.”

Mutual harm: RealNetworks Founder Paul Glaser mused on the music industry’s inability to find common ground on content streaming, and the money-making opportunities they missed as a result, during a discussion of the history of internet radio.

“The music industry resembles nothing more than a circular firing squad in terms of how it works,” Glaser said. “What we saw play out over a 15-year process was a very Darwinian process.”

How to Watch

The event was held not long after the pandemic hit the United States hard. Its goal was to bring together voices from internet radio and AM/FM broadcasting, podcasting, monetization to legality, programming and marketing.

Live365 said thousands of people tuned in. Justin Ruoff, vice president of operations, said, “We set out to try to plan a full teleconference in just three weeks time due to the circumstances going on right now in the world. To see dozens of organizations and industry leaders, as well as thousands of webcasters and fans, pull together for an amazing day of information sharing goes to show just how special this community is.”

The panel discussions are available on YouTube. The content is broken down into topics such as Content Creation & Production Libraries; Station Formats; Station Marketing; History of Internet Radio; Ad Tech; and SoundExchange Overview.

The post Snippets From “World Audio Day” appeared first on Radio World.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers has tallied the votes and determined that sitting President Wayne Pecena has been re-elected to serve a second term as the society’s president.

Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE, is the associate director of educational broadcast services at Texas A&M University, which operates the KAMU(FM/TV) public broadcast stations. He is a member of SBE Chapter 99 in College Station, Texas.

[Read: SBE Takes Its National Meeting Online]

“I look to my second term as our industry and our personal lives have experienced change and challenge like never before,” Pecena said. “I want to ensure the society brings a sense of normalcy to our members. This uniformity is accomplished through our professional development continuing education, certification and frequency coordination programs, while making the right decisions for change in the future to insure continued value to our members.”

Other results from the election included Andrea Cummis, CBT, CTO of Chapter 15 New York, Roseland, N.J., being elected as vice president; Kevin Trueblood, CBRE, CBNT of Chapter 90 Southwest Fla., Ft. Myers, Fla., as secretary; and Ted Hand, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB of Chapter 45 Charlotte, Charlotte, N.C., as treasurer. All were elected to one-year terms that will start on Sept. 23.

Jim Leifer, CPBE, of Andover, Md., continues as immediate past president.

The following individuals were elected to two-year terms on the SBE Board of Directors, also starting Sept. 23:

• Stephen Brown, CPBE, CBNT; Chapter 80 Fox Valley, Appleton, Wis.;
• Roswell “Roz” Clark, CPBE, CBNT; Chapter 39 Tampa Bay Area, Clearwater, Fla.;
• Kirk Harnack, CBRE, CBNE; Chapter 103 Nashville, Nashville, Tenn.;
• Thomas McGinley, CPBE, AMD, CBNT; Chapter 16 Seattle, Missoula, Mont.;
• Shane Toven, CBRE, CBNT; Chapter 43 Sacramento, Antelope, Calif.;
• Fred Willard, CPBE, 8-VSB, CBNT; Chapter 37 District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.

The national board of directors for SBE is responsible for the development of policy and determines the programs and services the society provides to its members.

The post Wayne Pecena Re-Elected SBE President appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission is giving U.S. broadcasters (and other earth station operators) a couple of extra weeks to figure out whether to take lump-sum payments for moving their satellite dishes.

Its Wireless Bureau on Thursday extended the deadline to Sept. 14, responding to a request from the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

SBE had asked for a one-month extension, citing the pandemic but more importantly the complexity of this decision for broadcasters. Earth station operators, it said, have to gather extensive information about their operations, perform “complex analyses,” and secure internal corporate approval.

[Related: “Lump Sum Decision Causes Engineers Headaches”]

But Donald Stockdale, chief of the Wireless Bureau, wrote in today’s order that Auction 107 is scheduled to begin Dec. 8; that’s the big auction that the commission will conduct to facilitate the rollout of 5G. He said applicants for 3.7 GHz licenses face an application deadline of their own in late September. Meanwhile satellite operators need to know which stations will select lump-sum payments as they prepare to transition their operations to 4.0-4.2 GHz.

He wrote that the extension to Sept. 14 “best balances” the needs of the various industries.

John Joslin of satellite services company Dawnco said this is good news.

“We can ramp up our efforts to tell many hundred more stations. The magazine articles will be given more time to reach people. Word of mouth will be given more time to reach people. Stations will actually be able to make an informed decision. This changes things a lot.”

U.S. stations have been asking questions of their attorneys and infrastructure providers about the about lump sum decision, trying to figure out the right choice for their individual situations. For receive-only earth stations with a single-feed antenna, the lump amount would be about $9,000, and with a multi-feed antenna it would be just under $17,000.

The post Lump-Sum Decision Deadline Extended Two Weeks appeared first on Radio World.

A new report by Nielsen, “La Oportunidad Latinx,” reveals that radio is a powerful tool for reaching the loyal and savvy Latinx consumer.

Nielsen says it uses the term Latinx as a gender-neutral term, a more inclusive alternative to Latino.

The report found that radio is the medium that the Latinx market continues to gravitate toward. According to the Nielsen report, radio has the highest weekly reach among adult Hispanics, at 96% versus 92% for the total population. The survey also found that regardless of the media channel — be it audio, video or digital — the use of smartphone devices outreaches the use of PCs or tablets by large margins.

In understanding this market, it’s key to understand this market’s interest in music, the report found. Hispanic adults have the highest share of time spent on audio/video, at 69%. In contrast to the total U.S. population, adults report spending only 54% of their online time consuming audio/video.

[Read: Keeping Afloat in the Age of the Coronavirus]

With nearly 100% of Hispanics listening to some form of audio on a weekly basis — either on radio, smartphones or tablet — the report found that music/audio platforms should be a centerpiece of messages aiming to reach Latinx consumers.

Diving down deeper into smartphone usage, the report found that Latinx consumers are 51% more likely than the general population to have used their phone to listen to a local radio station, and 41% more likely to have used it to listen to internet radio. They are also 29% more likely to have listened to an online music service like Pandora or Spotify.

The report also found that users of voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home are among music’s fastest-growing consumer bases. Hispanics make up 23% of those consumers that trend to early tech adoption, which is greater than their share of the total population.

The Nielsen report shares an example of how radio can be used to maximize reach within the Hispanic market. One advertiser, which had previously only advertised on TV, shifted 60% of its ad budget to radio. The move led to a 77% incremental increase in reaching Latinx listeners.

The report cites another local campaign in which another TV-only advertiser added Spanish radio to their media mix. Even without spending additional budget on their ad campaign, the move increased their reach to consumers by 57%, the report found.

The Latinx market is a powerful one, according to Nielsen. By 2023, the buying power of the United States Latinx population is expected to top $1.9 trillion. The 60 million Hispanics living in the United States constitute nearly a fifth of the total U.S. population. And Latinx consumers — the youngest minority group, with a median age of just 28 — are swiftly approaching their peak earning years, accounting for 75% of all U.S. labor force growth over the last six years, the report said.

A blog entry by Westwood One on the Nielsen survey noted that allocating 10% of an English-only buy to Spanish AM/FM radio generated a +41% reach increase among Spanish speakers.

“AM/FM radio makes your TV better,” wrote Pierre Bouvard, chief insights officer at Westwood One, part of radio station group owner Cumulus Media. “On average, allocating 20% of TV buy to AM/FM radio causes a massive +29% increase in Hispanic reach.”

He also highlighted the Nielsen survey’s finding that in a local market, the ability to reach Hispanics aged 18–49 increases dramatically when a TV-only buy is remixed with 60% of the budget moved to Spanish AM/FM radio.

The post Highlighting Radio’s Role in the Latinx Market appeared first on Radio World.

[Update: The FCC on Thursday responded to the SBE request described below with a two-week extension; read about it here.]

“Give us more time.”

That’s what the SBE is asking the FCC on behalf of engineers and broadcast stations.

A lot of radio engineers are asking a lot of questions right now about those tempting lump sum payments for migrating their C-Band earth stations, trying to figure out the right choice for their individual situation by the end of August. The Society of Broadcast Engineers has asked the Federal Communications Commission to extend the Aug. 31 deadline by a month.

The discussion applies to owners of C-Band satellite earth stations who registered antennas earlier and are eligible for cost reimbursement; in an order in July they were given the option to submit actual costs for reimbursement or apply for a lump-sum reimbursement.

SBE says the deadline of Aug. 31 to decide is insufficient for broadcasters and their engineers.

The background: The FCC’s auction in the 3.7-4.0 GHz segment is set for December. The FCC is moving earth stations in the fixed satellite service to the 200 MHz at 4.0–4.2 GHz, requiring a repack of FSS earth stations. Under the program, new 5G commercial mobile licensees will reimburse “reasonable relocation costs” of eligible, incumbent operators including earth station operators, to move out of 3.7-4.0 and into the 4.0-4.2 GHz segment.

Earth station operators are reimbursed through the Wireless Bureau based on a published cost catalog.

Here is a link to the public notice of the final cost schedule. Here is a link to the appendix with costs.

But the SBE writes: “While the Report and Order was released March 3, 2020, neither the Public Notice announcing the process, nor the Cost Catalog, was released until July 30, 2020, almost four months later.

“Because the Public Notice specified 30 days for a large number of broadcasters and broadcast engineers to evaluate, prepare and submit their election for lump sum payments, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has kept many from their workplaces, the SBE made the motion for the filing extension.”

It said an extension shouldn’t affect the auction timetable.

Companies that work in satellite infrastructure are getting tons of questions.

“We have been slammed to calls from cable TV companies and broadcasters, all asking for advice on filing for the lump sum,” said John Joslin of Dawnco in an email to Radio World.

“We actually talk for 20 to 40 minutes with each caller, to help them understand the implications of choosing the Lump Sum option. We are referring our customers to a firm in Washington D.C. that provides expert help in filing for the FCC Lump Sum payment. They charge $1,250 plus $75 for each dish to make the filing.”

Joslin emphasized that barring an extension, there is little time left for stations to get their lump sums of roughly $9,000 or $17,000 per dish. “They have to talk to their FCC attorney, or use the firm in Washington that Dawnco recommends. They need to do this now. If they don’t register before August 31, they miss out on the lump sum.”

Separately, LinkUp Communications posted a discussion on its blog earlier this month. It described the lump sum amounts as “quite generous,” citing for example the compensation for opting out a receive-only single-feed antenna at $8,948 per antenna.

“If you have dozens of C-band downlinks in your network, it would be so tempting to accept the lump sum payment and worry about filters or repointing of the downlinks later,” the company wrote.

“But here’s the deal: If you take the cash, you are solely responsible for the installation of filters, upgrades, repoints and the like at your downlink sites.”

The company, which offers services in this area, said users who “hire a reliable, seasoned crew of satellite technicians to assist” will probably be OK; but it warned against traveling teams of technicians – “we called them satellite cowboys” – who may not have the necessary experience. (Read more comments from the company’s Mark Johnson.)

LinkUp’s advice: “If you don’t want the headache of dealing with the details associated with the C-band repack, let the satellite owners handle it. All updates to your downlinks will be covered at no expense to you. And you can be assured that the work will be completed correctly. But if you choose to collect the lump sum, don’t waste your time hiring a company that may not have the skill set to handle the work. Make sure you contract with experienced satellite professionals so the job is done right.”

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