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In a world … full … of microphones …

When I type that sentence I hear famed voice-over guy Don LaFontaine saying the words with his golden tones.

Although the world seems full of mics — and new ones coming all the time in the age of the podcast — not all mics are created equal. One size rarely fits all.

With podcasts flourishing and home studios proliferating, a lot of new mics are marketed as “voice mics” or as intended for “podcasting and broadcasting.” Some are very good, others may disappoint radio people who have come to expect certain quality.

[Related: “Today’s Microphones Offer a Buffet of Choices”]

In recent decades radio, or at least commercial U.S. radio, has tended to gravitate to a few very good models for studio work. For instance, the Electro-Voice RE20 (and its siblings the RE27ND and RE320) are common, as is the Shure SM7 and its variants, Sennheiser MD421-II, Heil Sound PR40 and a few others. You sometimes see Neumanns in radio studios and production rooms as well.

For voice work, it’s not uncommon to see a shotgun mic like Sennheiser’s MKH 416 being used, despite the original intention of that style for capturing distant sound. A user must know what they’re doing to use it for proximity voiceover situations.

Recently, decent USB microphones have hit the streets, and some are variations of mics we know and like, such as the USB version of the Shure SM7, called the MV7.

I’ve used a few other USB mics along the way for traveling (when a last-minute voice job comes in), and they work well in a pinch. Examples are Samson mics like the Satellite, the numerous Blue mic models and Audio-Technica’s 2020 USB.

Though it’s not common, a few manufacturers have combined USB and XLR connections into one microphone such as Audio-Technica’s ATR-2100 handheld.

The Audio-Technica ATR2100 is a dual USB/XLR microphone.

As I’ve explored these mics for my own voiceover work, I tend to go back to two mics depending on the job: the EV RE320 and the Sennheiser MKE 600 shotgun, which is more affordable than its cousin the MKH 416.

These are not USB, they have standard XLR connections. If you are married to XLR favorites, carry a XLR/USB adapter with you.

One important consideration is that USB connections are not nearly as durable or “repairable” as an XLR connection.

A different approach is to use a utility XLR-input mixer with a USB port, such as a Mackie ProFX, to get audio into your computer. The biggest advantage of this over an adapter or cable is the ability to take multiple mics (or outboard equipment) into the computer over one connection. The disadvantage is that this system is far less portable if your idea is to make the system portable and/or very simple to connect.

Rode Podcaster Pro

If you have the budget, there are excellent feature-packed dedicated mixers designed to be USB interfaces. A notable example is the Rode Podcaster Pro with multiple XLR inputs, mic processing, built-in recorder, quick-player pad and multiple headset jacks.

Not to be forgotten are the desktop audio interfaces for getting XLR-sourced audio into a computer. As with microphones, there has been a wave of desktop digital audio converters at all sorts of price and feature points on the retail market. An examination of those would be an article in of itself.

Making Choices

As always, it’s advisable to demo a mic before buying. To narrow prospects, the internet can provide a wealth of information and helpful videos.

The website Podcastage, for example, has a video in which the host compares no fewer than 14 dynamic broadcast mics from EV, Shure, Rode, Audio-Technica, MXL, Golden Age, Heil, Neumann, Aston, Telefunken and ART.

It’s comprehensive (though the way he stacks the mics in his arms at the beginning made me cringe).

Keep in mind that asking someone which mic is best is a pretty subjective question. Voices, rooms, hardware and any processing vary so if you are tailoring the mic for one particular person or situation, that will have an impact on which one to choose.

[Read more of our Microphone Month coverage.]

>>>

Mic Sampler

Here’s a list of mics on the market for podcasting and radio work; by no means is this a complete list. Prices are MSRP. Important: Veteran shoppers know that most popular mic models are usually sold at a good discount from dealers, so shop around.

ART D7 — $269

Aston Stealth — $379

Audio-Technica AT2020 — $99

Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ — $149

Audio-Technica BP40 — $349

Blue BluebirdSL — $299

Blue Snowball iCE — $49.99

Blue Yeti — $129.99

Electro-Voice RE20 — $609

Electro-Voice RE27N/D — $700

Electro-Voice RE320 — $337

Golden Age Project D2 — $150

Heil Sound PR40 — $329

M-Audio Nova — $35

MXL V87 — $199.95

MXL 990 — $99.95

MXL BCD-1 — $149.95

Neumann BCM 705 — $849

Neumann TLM 103 — $1,349

Neumann U 87 Ai — $3,999

PreSonus PD-70 — $169.95

Rode PodMic — $150

Rode Procaster — $369

Rode NT1 Kit — $395

Samson Satellite — $148.99

SE Electronics V7 — $129

Sennheiser MD 421-II — $399.95

Sennheiser MD 441-U — $999

Shure SM58 — $124

Shure SM7B — $499

Shure MV7 USB — $311

Telefunken M82 — $459

Zoom ZDM-1 — $79.99

>>>

XLR to USB XLR-to-USB adapters from Polsen, Shure, Roland and Senai.

If you just can’t leave your XLR microphone behind try an XLR-to-USB adapter:

Polsen XLR-USB-48 XLR to SUB adapter — $51.95

Roland Black Series USB to XLR Cable — $35.99

Senal XU-1648 XLR to USB adapter — $123.95

Shure X2u XLR to USB adapter — $99

 

The post Pondering Microphone Choices in 2021 appeared first on Radio World.

I’m tired of thinking about hackers. I’m tired of maintaining a sophisticated stateful proxy firewall at home. This is almost surely on top of whatever threat mitigation is employed by my internet service provider Comcast.

Even basic firewalls (including the one on your computer) limit the connectivity to a handful of well-known ports and protocols for inbound traffic. That’s a lot of barbed wire fences to climb over.

My firewall (pfSense — free for non-com use, runs on Berkeley Linux) even blocks DNS resolution from URLs on several lists like www.spamhaus.org, feds.dshield.org and a list of lists at www.iblocklist.com. Makes loading exploit code harder. I presume most consolidated IT departments employ similar tools.

Still, stuff happens.

Easy pickings

The reason this keeps happening is that the rewards for successful hacking and the ease with which thousands of exposed attack surfaces can be scanned quickly makes it trivial to pick the low-hanging fruit of misconfiguration. If only 2% of victims pay the ransom, so what? It’s still a bonanza.

Users at home might pay a hundred bucks or so to restore their files. A hospital might be good for a hundred thousand. Meanwhile the software tools to make this mischief are available for sale or rent.

Literally, there’s malware software as a service. Bitcoin makes collecting ransom anonymous.

So, lacking any true bulletproof software solution, I’m now exploring the kinds of firewall hardware that no amount of probing can circumvent. I’ve arrived at a solution that I think gets the job done, at least as far as the truly malicious software offerings are concerned.

For online banking, where I do not enjoy the protection of the $50 limit on credit card fraud, it’s now a machine that is connected only when I am online. Literally, the first order of business is to enable the wired IP interface. It gets disabled when I’m done. Any old hunk of junk will do for this application.

This strategy relies on the presumption that network mapping is a prerequisite to successful attacks, and a machine they can’t see is unlikely to be vulnerable.

Elsewhere, whole machine backups made to a USB-connected drive pass through an external USB hub. One of my Raspberry Pi timers (described in an earlier column) connects and disconnects the USB hub power on a schedule.

Yes, exploring the machine that is backed up using this scheme will reveal a Windows backup schedule and the path to the actual backup but no access. Let ’em wonder how that can be.

K.I.S.S.

And so that’s where I’m headed for low-cost, low-tech solutions for the automation network at the radio station.

Like most places, we require internet connectivity to pull down paid content, news, weather and such. There’s no avoiding exposure. But I think a custom “jump box” will solve the problem.

It’ll be built as an FTP device, reaching out via scripting to harvest needed files, placing them in a quarantine, running them through anti-whatever, then dropping them into an “outbox” for pickup by the automation system’s loading tools.

Finally, once the key features are up and working, I’ll burn the entire boot partition to a DVD and boot from that. Reboot every 24 hours.

For script storage and the anti-whatever database, a thumb drive with an external write protect switch seems obvious; maybe something like this. You get the idea.

Think like a hacker. Create impenetrable physical barriers for him. Presume you’ll be infected and flush their effort before it is productive. Given the target-rich environment, I believe it’ll work like those alarm company stickers on your window. The bad guys will just move on.

Finally, I am no longer a fan of unified, company-wide systems for authentication like Active Directory.

The recent zerologon attack put a lot of AD users in the ditch. Essentially, one try in 256 would authenticate a password of all zeros. A glitch in the code, it seems.

These systems are robust until they aren’t and, unfortunately, can be bought and set up by anybody. De-compilers allow a view into the binaries, and any vulnerabilities will be found by bad guys.

Sadly, response from software vendors to even hacks they’ve been made aware of can be slow. Understandable, I suppose, since hundreds of supposed vulnerabilities are reported for every one that is actually viable. Everybody wants to be a hero. But sorting the real problem from all the chaff reported is time consuming.

Often, posting actual exploit code as a proof of concept is the only way to get a vendor’s attention. That’s what it took for the zerologon hack. And the bad guys have plenty of money to buy a version of every software product and every appliance out there, then reverse engineer it all. So it’s a losing battle.

On the other hand, a machine that is unplugged is a pretty tough hacking target. And a machine that boots fresh daily from read only media is going to be pretty challenging for a hacker, too.

Finally, when machines need updates, let ’em access the public internet for only the time required, then cut them off.

Turns out old ideas can apply to new environments. Want to prevent a mishap? Turn off the power, disengage, disconnect.

The author is chief engineer of Salem Communications’ Chicago cluster and president of the consultancy FM and Co.

The post Old Ideas for a New Threat Environment appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters has presented its 2021 Radio Engineering Achievement Award to David Hershberger. The veteran engineer retired as senior scientist with Continental Electronics in 2017.

NAB describes Hershberger as a “true renaissance broadcast engineer” with over four decades of experience.

Hershberger, a graduate of University of Illinois with a master’s in electrical engineering, joined the broadcast group at Harris Broadcast in 1975 designing and refining broadcast transmission products. In addition, he served in various engineering roles at Grass Valley Group and Axcera.

[Read: NAB Foundation Will Honor Lin-Manuel Miranda]

Hershberger focused primarily on exciters and modulators for FM transmitters, and low-level signal processing, and is credited with co-developing the world’s first digital FM exciter as an experimental prototype, according to a NAB press release announcing the award. He holds 21 U.S. patents.

“Among many people who have helped me along the way I want to thank Geoff Mendenhall (a former co-worker at Harris), who showed me how to turn ideas in products. And Dan Dickey (president of Continental Electronics) gave me the best advice of my career, and that was to learn math lab. I’m glad I did,” Hershberger said during today’s online awards presentation.

NAB engineering award winners are nominated by their peers for significant contributions for advancing the state of the art in broadcast engineering. Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer of NAB, hosted the NAB Amplify streaming event, which also featured keynote conversation with Mike Chapman, a partner and Americas Media Lead at Kearney, a management consulting firm specializing in corporate and growth strategy and business transformation.

NAB presents two engineering achievement awards each year — one for achievements in radio and the other for television. Dave Folsom of Pearl TV was named recipient of the 2021 NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Television.

The NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering Award is presented periodically to individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the industry. Today NAB announced Grady Dreasler, corporate director of engineering and technology at Quincy Media, as recipient of its 2021 service award recipient.

In addition, the broadcaster association also presented its Digital Leadership Award during today’s Amplify presentation to Adam Wiener, executive VP and GM of CBS Local Digital Media.

 

The post Hershberger Honored With 2021 NAB Engineering Award appeared first on Radio World.

Want to take your coaching game to the next level?

This column from expert sales trainer Barrett Riddleberger is worth six minutes of your time.

Here, he provides a list of “proven” techniques that effective sales managers use to improve sales performance.

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When it comes to long-term investments, the company’s stock is still a big winner. Still, Urban One shares trading as “UONE” have been as up and down of late as a rollercoaster at Kings Dominion.

On heavier-than-average volume, Urban One stock was down sharply in midday trading on Friday — continuing a plunge that began on Tuesday (6/15). Why are shares down, following a sharp rise at the start of June?

Some are pointing to the registration of 2,928,906 Class A shares — a $58,373,097 offering for Urban One — made this week by the African American-centric media company and casino gaming operator.

The move allows Urban One to sell, from time to time, up to that amount of stock. There’s no guarantee that Urban One will execute a sale anytime soon. But, the mere possibility spooked those looking for a quick payout from a stock that shot up in value after months of tepid, uninspiring activity in the wake of social justice protests and a newly stated commitment from big companies to invest in Black-owned media with their advertising budgets.

That was exactly 12 months ago, when Urban One soared from prices in the $1.30 range to $36.30 as of June 15, 2020. By September 7, UONE was down to the mid-$3 range. For long-term investors, gains were threefold. For day traders, the pain was severe.

Then came mid-May. In the last month, UONE moved from $5.43 to $9.56 on May 20, only to dip to $7.35 on May 28. Then came a big burst of buying activity, as investors learned of Urban One’s coming casino operation in Richmond. Shares shot up to $18.57 by June 8 and climbed to $20.95 on Monday, June 14.

That finish was the best for UONE since that June 2020 rise-and-recede activity.

But, another rise-and-recede story is underway. At 1:40pm Eastern, UONE was priced at $10.81. This reflects a 48.5% share value slide for the week, should UONE close June 18’s trading session at that level.

Urban One’s “UONEK” shares are also down, but not as significantly, and were trading at $4.64 in midday trading Friday. On June 7, a $6.45 closing price was seen; UONEK was trading in the mid-$1 range through late April 2021.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — With 100 watts from a small broadcast tower on city-owned property, Morro Bay, Calif.-based KEBF-FM serves this bucolic Central Coast community as low-power locally focused “The Rock.” It simulcasts on a 9-watt signal overlooking Paso Robles, famed for its vineyars.

It’s just one of many LPFMs that could benefit from a rule change brought forth by the FCC this week.

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He’s the President of Carroll County Broadcasting and of related entity Bunyard Northwest Properties.

Now, Jay Bunyard is adding an additional Arkansas radio property to his stable of stations.

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The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), in partnership with the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) and presented by Univision, will host a weeklong virtual summit next week that provides “a virtual stage for new voices and candid conversations, featuring video advertising industry professionals whose experiences can inspire real shifts in mindset and offer practical guidance.”

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One month ago, a licensee headed by Matthew Davidge and Julie Huang agreed to purchase a trio of yet-to-be-constructed low-power TV stations serving small communities in Illinois, New Mexico and North Dakota, respectively.

They’ve now struck a series of bigger deals with the entity that in May agreed to spin those three unbuilt LPTVs — HC2 Broadcasting.

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A former U.S. Surgeon General has agreed to join the medical reporting team of the CW Network affiliate serving Indianapolis owned by African American broadcast station owner DuJuan McCoy.

BE SURE TO FOLLOW RBR+TVBR ON TWITTER!

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Clyde Scott, a broadcast engineer and consultant, has died at age 70.

According to his obituary, he passed away Tuesday in Georgia.

Scott was the owner-operator of technical consulting firm EME Communications. “He was well-known throughout the southeastern United States for troubleshooting radio transmitter issues,” the obituary states. “He was sought after to research and file new applications and worked closely with the FCC attorneys in Washington, D.C.”

He also was active in amateur radio (W4CCS) and established the online station Bluegrassradio.org as well as low-power FM station WLOV, Colquitt Community Radio, in Moultrie, Ga.

His friend Robert Combs, director of engineering at Cumulus Media, told Radio World that Clyde Scott graduated from the University of Tennessee with an electrical engineering degree. His first job was as a transmitter site engineer at WSB(AM) in Atlanta.

“Besides working in radio, he worked at a Procter & Gamble plant in the engineering department on the third shift so he could work on radio stations during the day,” Combs said.

“Clyde was the go-to engineer in southern Georgia and northern Florida when you needed help with filing paperwork with the FCC or if you need some troubleshooting help that required heavy equipment. He was the guy with all the test gear that was always willing to help,” Combs said.

“He was an avid ham operator and had three towers, a long-wire and satellite dish in his back yard for his hobby. He also enjoyed rebuilding 1940-era John Deere tractors.”

Combs called him a mentor and friend to many engineers who began their careers in the Southeast.

“Clyde took me, an overnight DJ in Bainbridge, Ga., under his wing and helped me with my career every step for the last 32 years,” Combs recalled.

“The funniest story he ever told me was of the time he and some fellow college students ‘accidentally’ connected the ground system of a small Tennessee AM station to a railroad track one Sunday morning and had the citizens of that town thinking it was God’s voice talking to them through every appliance, radio and TV in their house.”

 

The post Clyde Scott Dies, Well-Known Engineer in Southeast appeared first on Radio World.

In late May, the head of sales for Fox Television Stations’ owned-and-operated station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, who added SVP/Market Manager duties in December 2014, packed her bags and relocated to the company’s Seattle-Tacoma operations.

Now, her successor has been chosen, and it is a promotion from within.

Marian Davey, the VP/News Director for KMSP-9 and MyNetwork TV sibling WFTC (KMSP-9.2), has risen to SVP/GM of the Twin Cities siblings.

Davey succeeds Sheila Oliver, who took the Seattle SVP/GM post, overseeing KCPQ-TV “Q13,” and “Joe TV” KZJO-TV.

Davey reports directly to FOX Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy, who called out Davey for “a stellar job in leading the KMSP-FOX 9 news team for the past eight years. Her past success and understanding of the market, coupled with her local news expertise and results-driven attitude, make her the natural choice to lead our Minneapolis duopolies.”

Marian Davey

Davey has been with the FOX-owned duopoly in Minneapolis for nearly 20 years. She ascended to her most recent role in August 2013, and previously served as Managing Editor and Assistant News Director for the stations. Prior to joining FOX, she spent fourteen years at WCCO-4 in Minneapolis, in various roles ranging from intern, to Producer, and Managing Editor at the CBS O&O.

“Getting the opportunity to lead these incredible stations, KMSP/WFTC is a dream come true,” Davey said. “I’m honored and excited to bring both stations continued growth and success.”

 

The parent company of FOX News Media, FOX Sports, FOX Entertainment and FOX Television Stations is moving forward with an authorization of incremental stock repurchases.

This could see FOX Corporation snap up hundreds of millions of its own Class A and Class B shares.

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In addition to owning a formidable portfolio of over-the-air television stations across the U.S., Atlanta-headquartered Gray Television is the parent of video production companies such as Raycom Sports, Tupelo Honey, and RTM Studios.

Now, Gray is seeking to better monetize its internal content production portfolio when presenting to CMO, brand managers and advertising agencies.

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An image from Sennheiser’s petition to the FCC, comparing traditional wireless mics and WMAS.

“When a new technology for wireless microphones comes along, it merits a close and careful look.”

That’s what Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said this spring in introducing a proposal to permit the use of Wireless Multi-Channel Audio Systems.

WMAS systems digitally combine multiple mic signals and use a more efficient operating protocol, which results in more mics being able to operate in the available spectrum. Sennheiser filed the original petition requesting the rule change, and other mic companies have given qualified support. Now the commission is taking comment via a notice of proposed rulemaking.

“These systems have the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of wireless microphone operations,” Rosenworcel wrote in April. “So much so, that under the rules we propose here, three times as many microphones may be able to operate while putting the same amount of power over the air as a single wireless microphone does under our rules today.”

She noted that wireless mics are “ubiquitous,” from Broadway productions and small-town theaters to film sets, churches, stadiums and schools. “These airwaves are shared with a range of other wireless services, including broadcasting, aeronautical activities, Wi-Fi and unlicensed operations that use white spaces to expand the availability of broadband. Making sure all of these services can function at the same time without interference is a significant task.”

In 2018 Sennheiser filed a petition asking the commission to allow this use. “WMAS approximately doubles the capacity of a 6 MHz channel for wireless microphones that deliver the best audio quality, and triples the capacity for intercom quality,” it told the FCC then. “Most productions use a mix of device types, and will see improvement between these extremes (and will occupy fewer channels overall).”

Shure subsequently weighed in with support for an NPRM and suggestions of its own for how to go about it, as did Alteros, part of Audio-Technica. Among points of difference are how many mics they think should be allowed per 6 MHz WMAS channel.

The NPRM asks for public comment on allowing WMAS on a licensed basis in frequency bands where wireless mics already are authorized, including the TV bands, the 600 MHz duplex gap and in portions of the 900 MHz, 1.4 GHz and 7 GHz bands. It also explores using the technology on an unlicensed basis under Part 15.

The FCC noted that the technology is permitted in Europe under European Telecommunications Standards Institute standards.

“We do not intend to alter the existing spectrum rights — or expectations regarding access and availability of spectrum — vis-à-vis all the various authorized users, whether broadcast licensees, white space device users, the wireless microphone users themselves, or others, that share frequency bands with wireless microphones,” the commission stated.

Comment deadlines have not yet been set in ET Docket 21-115; they await publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register.

[Read the NPRM text.]

 

The post FCC Explores More Efficient Wireless Mic Systems appeared first on Radio World.

Cumulus Media named Jeff Boden as vice president/market manager of its operation in Washington, D.C., which includes WMAL(FM) and WSBN(AM).

He succeeds the late Ken Roberts, who died in April.

Boden is the former VP and market manager for Alpha Media’s four-station group down I-95 in Fredericksburg, Va., and former president of Delmarva Broadcasting in Wilmington, Del.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

“The Cumulus appointment is a homecoming for Boden, who was president/general manager for Washington, D.C. stations WRQX, WMAL and WJZW from 2005 to 2012, when the stations were owned and operated by ABC Radio and later, Citadel Broadcasting,” the company stated. Boden has additional D.C. roots, having graduated from The American University.

The announcement was made by EVP Operations Dave Milner.

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Boden Will Run Cumulus D.C. Cluster appeared first on Radio World.

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