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The author of this commentary is chair of Digital Radio Mondiale.

As widely expected and now reported, the FCC has adopted rules to allow AM radio stations in the United States to broadcast an all-digital signal using the HD Radio in-band on-channel MA3 mode.

At the same time, as a small nod to those who either object or would like FCC to consider DRM as well, the commission noted the interest in “alternative technologies,” aka DRM.

All the arguments in favor of DRM — audio quality, coverage, flexibility, extra services, lack of interference or link to one single proprietary company and the extensive proven record — were not enough for the FCC. They considered that looking at other technologies was beyond the scope of the 11-month consultation.

Some might argue that this was more about endorsing one technology rather than examining in detail what can be done to save AM proper. A fuller DRM dossier was required with laboratory and field results, and this request seems reasonable.

There is one snag though: DRM for mediumwave has been tested and documented about two decades ago. It has been recommended by ITU in 2005 and all the tests carried out all over the world are available openly and freely for anyone to see.

Moreover, 35 stations, soon to be increased to 41, in India, are on the air every single day Their coverage is about 800 million people, and this is slightly more than the one and a half station proving the advantages of MA-3.

The DRM Consortium can monitor every second of these live transmissions every day and this can be checked by FCC whenever they want.

These are facts and not more assertions by DRM proponents. A U.S. lab and real test of DRM in the country, as mentioned by the FCC, would be useful but would not change the laws of physics. With FCC support and that of North American broadcasters and broadcasting bodies this could be easily achieved.

In conclusion we feel that, for now, FCC has taken a positive step and sent a good sign about mediumwave revitalization and not only in the U.S.

We know that confrontation has never helped any technology assert itself. Cooperation and fairness have. And DRM is ready to prove its advantages using the opportunity offered by the FCC in their statement.

The DRM consortium remains ready to assist bodies in the USA keen to adopt the system that is finding success in many other countries around the world. This will allow radio on the AM bands to thrive in the digital age using an open competitive system.

 

The post Who’s Afraid of DRM? appeared first on Radio World.

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GeoBroadcast Solutions is welcoming news that the Federal Communications Commission is taking a close look at its geo-targeting proposal.

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks this week announced that Chairman Ajit Pai is circulating a draft of a notice of proposed rulemaking.

Bill Hieatt, CTO of GeoBroadcast Solutions, called this encouraging news.

“We look forward to working closely with the commission and other stakeholders during the upcoming comment period on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to provide any additional information or modeling on the effectiveness and implementation of this technology.”

The National Association of Broadcasters and Xperi have backed the idea of an NPRM. But four of the most prominent radio groups in the United States said earlier this year that more research is necessary before the FCC can seriously consider allowing zoned FM broadcasting.

GBS argues that radio is the only medium that lacks the ability to geo-target content. “This rule change would put radio on par with television, which now has that ability due to the 2017 FCC decision that allowed television broadcasters to use the Next Generation TV standard (also known as ATSC 3.0), one of the many features of which is geo-targeted programming.”

[Read more stories about the GBS ZoneCasting proposal.]

The post GBS Welcomes FCC Progress appeared first on Radio World.

Pathfinder panels and logic flows at WAMU.

 

The author is assistant director of integrated broadcast systems for WAMU 88.5.

WAMU is an NPR public news/talk station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

I came here a little over three and a half years ago from an all-Axia plant in Atlanta. When I arrived, they already had Telos Alliance gear and legacy Pathfinder, which made my transition smooth.

Over time, as I settled into the organization and assessed its workflows, we began to look at its Pathfinder system, which was a bit out of date and needed some love. We put together a grand plan to build a whole new Axia network with Pathfinder Core PRO to freshen everything up, clean everything out and get all the systems nice and neat.

Just as we were about to begin our switchover and start making changes — in fact, only about a week before — the pandemic shutdowns began across the country. This, of course, blew all of our plans out of the water.

Ambitious remote operations

Our station decided very early on to transition to a full remote workflow, and having Pathfinder Core was a big part of reacting accordingly.

We run a national talk show for two hours every day of the week and a local talk show for an hour after that. During these shows, we run through codecs quickly, and in the studio, we had a dedicated person to get people on, connected and checked. We realized that our remote codec position needed some custom help.

For that we turned to Pathfinder Core to build what are called “panels.” A panel is a graphical and functional representation of equipment, signal flows and other functions such as monitoring and internal communication.

We built a panel that allows our codec manager to work remotely and test all 30 to 40 codecs we’ve got, doing line checks and making sure everyone is good to go before show time, and to troubleshoot issues. This was a large panel that I built, and it was a massive help to our operations.

WAMU built a panel allowing codec manager to work remotely and test 30 to 40 codecs; this shows a portion of the screen.

We also built panels for our producers to remotely produce their shows, giving them a real-time feed of the show over a telephone hybrid and the ability to talk to the host, engineer or codec manager as they need to. The fact that Pathfinder Core allows you to do this with web panels makes distributing them to a ton of producers very easy.

We had 35 people “pitching” during our week of remote fundraising, and web panels allowed our pitch producers to speak to the pitchers to coordinate and cue their segments quickly. We turned our panels pages into a series of short links that make onboarding easier than before.

New way of thinking

The most powerful new feature in Pathfinder Core PRO is the relay combiner in Logic Flow events.

With the codec panel I built, we needed to update Logic Flows with new codec sources and destinations actively. When the codec manager opens a panel, they can choose their current codec, which gets written to the “Talk” button’s logic.

I could have accomplished this flow in the old system but with many more steps. When I started using the new system, it took me a little while to get used to the new way of thinking about Logic Flows, but once I got up and running, I was amazed at how much I enjoy using the system.

Right now, we are running a hybrid system of legacy Pathfinder and Pathfinder Core. Any new panels we need are built on Pathfinder Core, while the legacy system is still handling all of our studio switching and air chain events. We are getting close to the point where we will begin migrating over the rest of the systems, and I’m looking forward to having it all up to date.

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 Cam Eicher at The Telos Alliance in Ohio at 1-216-241-7225 or visit http://www.telosalliance.com.

 

The post User Report: Web Panels Make Virtual Studios a Breeze appeared first on Radio World.

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, for a period of three years, the information collection requirements associated with the Second Report and Order of the Commission's Rules Regarding Public Notice of the Filing of Applications; the Report and Order in Low Power FM Radio Service Technical Rules; the Report and Order in Reexamination of the Comparative Standards and Procedures for Licensing of Noncommercial Educational Broadcast Stations and Low Power FM Stations. This document is consistent with the Report and Orders, which stated that the Commission would publish a document in the Federal Register announcing OMB approval and the effective date of the information collection requirements.

The Commission has before it a petition for rulemaking filed by Sander Operating Co. III LLC (Sander), licensee of KGW, requesting the substitution of channel 26 for channel 8 at Portland in the DTV Table of Allotments. The Commission instituted a freeze on the acceptance of rulemaking petitions by full power television stations requesting channel substitutions in May 2011, and Sander asks that the Commission waive the freeze to permit KGW to change from a VHF to a UHF channel to better serve its over-the-air viewers. Sander states that the Commission has recognized that VHF channels have certain propagation characteristics which may cause reception issues for some viewers. While Sander acknowledges that VHF reception issues are not universal, it states that since the 2009 digital transition, when it began operating exclusively on digital channel 8, KGW has received a steady stream of complaints from viewers unable to receive the station's over-the-air signal, despite being able to receive signals from other local stations. Sander believes that waiver of the channel substitution freeze would serve the public interest.

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Commission adopts a Report and Order authorizing AM radio stations to transition to an all-digital signal on a voluntary basis

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It looks like the efforts of GeoBroadcast Solutions at the FCC are producing some movement.

According to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, Chairman Ajit Pai has circulated a draft notice of proposed rulemaking to revise the FM booster rules to allow geo-targeting of content via FM booster stations.

Starks is emphasizing the potential benefit to small, women and minority broadcasters. He put out a statement this week saying the proposal would allow the practice on a limited basis.

“The use of geo-targeted content could provide a way for minority-owned stations to better serve their communities by offering hyper-localized content including alternative language news, weather, emergency alerts and advertising periodically during the broadcast day,” Starks wrote.

“For small businesses, this option could enable them to more cost-effectively advertise to a targeted audience while enabling minority-owned FM stations to increase advertising revenue.”

[Read what the chief technology officer of GBS has said about the idea in his commentary “ZoneCasting Would Level the Playing Field for Radio.”]

Starks noted the support of this idea from 21 civil rights advocacy organizations including MMTC, the National Urban League, the Hispanic Federation, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the National Asian American Coalition.

“I am pleased to support this innovative proposal, which could offer a potential lifeline to small, women and minority broadcasters that are struggling to retain their listening audiences and earn advertising revenue at a time when consumers have multiple options for access to information, entertainment, education, and civic engagement.”

Some broadcasters have told the FCC that if it were to allow this practice, it should also allow translators to original content. 

 

The post GeoBroadcast Proposal Likely to Get a Look at FCC appeared first on Radio World.

Your latest issue of Radio World features a special report about remote control systems — how their designs and features have changed plus tips from the experts about maximizing this important component of your on-air infrastructure.

Also: Radio leaders look beyond the pandemic; John Bisset has tips for getting the best value out of your next tower re-lamping project; and we talk to the organizers of NRB 2021, which is slated to be held in person this winter.

Read it 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.

The post Inside the Oct. 28 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

The author is with the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Although today’s listening experience tends to be dominated by streaming services, radio remains a critical foundation for disseminating sound. Radio has evolved over the past century to expand its reach and its offerings. The portable transistor radio may exist more as a relic than as an everyday item, but in its place are options like satellite radio and smartphone-enabled apps that will still play your favorite stations.

Historically, there was a major boom in demand for radio access following World War I and then during and after World War II. In addition to newspapers, radio played a leading role as a source of trusted information for the public. As radios became more common among households, more family-oriented programming also developed and became a popular form of entertainment.

[Visit Radio World’s Radio@100 Page for Related Articles]

In the 1950s, radio stations were competing with the emergence of television and began expanding their musical broadcasts to include varieties like rock ‘n’ roll. Disc jockeys, or DJs, became a go-to source for many young people, leading to the rise of new music and genres that reached listeners everywhere.

While many of us are accustomed to radio as a common fixture, it took the creativity of people like National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) Inductees Edwin Howard Armstrong and William Lear to help us reach this point.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the invention of the radio this November, we invite you to read more about the lives of these remarkable innovators.

Edwin Howard Armstrong — FM Radio

Click image to enlarge.

From a young age, Armstrong often tinkered with inventions and quickly developed a strong interest in studying circuits. By his third year of college at Columbia University, he had invented the regenerative circuit. During World War I, Armstrong served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps laboratories in Paris, where he invented the superheterodyne circuit to amplify weak, high-frequency electromagnetic waves.

By 1933, Armstrong had developed a solution to the problem of eliminating radio static. His new system varied radio wave frequency over a wide band of frequency rather than a narrow band. This wide-band frequency modulation (FM) improved radio signals and allowed for newly static-free broadcasting.

William Lear — Car Radio

William Lear. Photo: National Inventors Hall of Fame

William “Bill” Lear had a prolific invention career. Though he only completed formal education until the eighth grade, Lear went on to join the U.S. Navy at age 16, where he would learn radio electronics. Following World War I, he used his training to launch his own company that sold and repaired radios. With his company he developed the first practical automobile radio, which included a non-battery home radio receiver with a built-in speaker.

In 1924, he sold the rights to the radio so that it could be produced on a larger scale. Galvin Manufacturing Corp., later called Motorola Inc., purchased the rights and the car radio became the company’s first major product. Lear continued to invent throughout his life, most notably founding Learjet, which became the leading supplier of corporate jets in the 1960s.

Thanks to the radio innovations developed by Armstrong and Lear, people everywhere have gained better access to information and entertainment.

 

The post Radio Pioneers: Edwin Howard Armstrong and William Lear appeared first on Radio World.