Industry News

The Federal Communications Commission has officially opened an NPRM aimed at changing certain technical rules covering broadcast radio.

This was expected; as we reported earlier, a draft notice of proposed rulemaking had been released. The commissioners have now approved it, which means the FCC will take public comment on the proposed changes for final action later. Comment deadlines are not yet set.

Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has said the changes are intended to fix rules that are “redundant, outdated or in conflict with other rules.”

The commission wants to change section 73.1665(b) to remove the maximum rated transmitter power limit for AM stations.

It also wants to change two rule sections that were adopted in 1997 to “harmonize” with the NCE FM community coverage standard in another section, which was adopted later.

A third change would eliminate section 73.316(d), “which we tentatively conclude is an unnecessary burden on applicants.” This involves FM transmitter interference to nearby antennas.

Also, the FCC wants to change a section that sets out signal strength contour overlap requirements for NCE FM Class D stations, “to harmonize the requirements with the more permissive standard applied to all other NCE-FM stations.” It said it wants to be consistent across different NCE FM station classes.

It also wants to delete a requirement that radio stations in the 76–100 MHz band protect common carrier services in Alaska. It said there are no such services remaining. Earlier, existing common carrier operations had been grandfathered in with the understanding that they would gradually move to other parts of the spectrum

The FCC also wants to tweak the definition of “AM fill-in area” in one part of the rules to conform to the requirement in another part. The goal is consistency across the rules for fill-in translator transmitter siting.

Last, the commission wants to amend the allocation and power limitations for broadcast stations within 320 kilometers of the Mexican and Canadian borders to comply with current treaty provisions.

The full proposal is posted on the Radio World website.

The post Changes to Radio Technical Rules Advance appeared first on Radio World.

Steve Kirsch is president of Silver Lake Audio, which produces multi-station radio remotes including renting the equipment and providing tech support. This interview is from the 2021 Radio World ebook “Remote Radio Phase II: What We’ve Learned During a Pandemic.”

RW: How did the pandemic change workflow for you and your clients? 

Steve Kirsch: A lot of my smaller clients called in March 2020 as they were beginning to figure out how to have their morning show do their thing from their house. “Look, I’d like to rent a Comrex. We’re going to feed the audio back to the studio, but they’re not going to be there.” 

At the beginning they’d say, “Well, we need this for two weeks.” You remember? It seems crazy now to think about, but in the beginning we thought all this would be over. In March last year, you had [events] on the books for June that you knew were still going to happen. “By then, we’ll have this all sorted out.” 

A year later I had some clients who still have the equipment. I said, “Look, just keep this stuff until the pandemic’s over.” We shut the meter off, they’re not renting it any longer. They’re just borrowing it at this point. 

We were supposed to do a job in April 2020 for the Academy of Country Music Awards. They kicked that down the road from April to September, and they moved the venue from Las Vegas to Nashville; but they still wanted to do this radio multi-station broadcast. 

Now in a typical year, we would build a booth for each radio station on the floor of the convention center or wherever they were basing the show. We would set up the equipment in every booth, and the DJs would just show up and sit in the booth. We’d have a small crew. We’d show the guys how to use the equipment that we put out there; and then the artists, Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum, would move through from one booth to another.

So keeping that format in mind, [the ACM] decided that they were going to go ahead and do this virtually last fall. They decided that as opposed to having the talent from the radio stations fly in, they would set up video monitors in each booth. The artists would move through the booth, but they would look at a video screen, and they would see the DJ back in their home studio. So they came to us and said, “How are we going to do this?”

By September, everybody was familiar with doing Zoom calls and Microsoft meetings. Whatever platform the radio station was accustomed to, we adapted that booth for their format, for their platform. 

We brought in computer monitors and put Focusrite Scarlet sound cards on those things, so you didn’t sound like those CNN interviews where the guy sounds like he’s in a garbage can, using the microphone that’s built into the computer. The Focusrite Scarlet is pro level in and USB out, and they interface with the computer. 

Then we used our regular setup, Mackie 1202s and headphone amps, and interfaced everything into the Zoom call. 

I would say half the stations still wanted Comrex or Tieline audio going back. The Zoom audio is pretty good. We never expected to use the Zoom audio, because most of the things that you’ve seen on TV have sounded so bad. We were surprised with these sound cards and how good the audio with the Zoom call actually was. 

RW: Did it work out well?

Kirsch: It worked great. 

We always provide Sony 7506 headphones as studio monitors for those events; the artist comes in and put the headphones on, they can listen to questions from the studio or whatever. [But] the academy didn’t want that look. 

They knew that the DJs in the studio were going to see the artists. They didn’t want the artists wearing headphones; and they were worried that the women wouldn’t put them on because it would mess up their hair. These are some of the things that we had to deal with. 

We debated going to IFB type earpieces like they use on TV. But then we just ended up looking for the least obtrusive earbuds that we could find, and they really loved those. I don’t know that we’re ever going back to the headphones because even though it’s radio, there’s so much of this stuff gets put on the social media platform now, with video streaming. 

RW: What about hygienic considerations, where you’ve got talent going from booth to booth.

Kirsch: We threw out all of our windscreens. We were using WindTech, they’re like six bucks a windscreen instead of 50 cents that you could get at B&H Photo if you buy 20 of them. We took all our WindTech windscreens off and bought new windscreens with the idea of throwing them out. 

We also bought those earbuds, and used alcohol wipes and put new tips on for the next event. 

We washed down the mics, we put new windscreens on; and we have a Seal-a-Meal heat sealer for bags. We heat sealed these mics, these windscreens and these earbuds in a bag; and we put a label on the outside. We knew the artist lineup so we’d write the artist’s name on the outside of the bag; and when they checked in to do the interviews, we handed them this bag.

Also my guys, in addition to being tested every day, they had to wear a plastic shield as well as a mask to sit in the booth and do the engineering.

The post Lessons of Radio Row at the ACM Awards appeared first on Radio World.

The AFCCE is urging the White House to nominate a fifth FCC commissioner — and to make it a person with a technical background.

The Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers is made up of engineers who serve clients with matters under the purview of the FCC. They provide comments, guidance and recommendations on rule interpretation, technical collaboration and FCC technical policy.

The group has sent a letter to the Biden administration and to Senators Maria Cantwell and Roger Wicker of the Commerce Committee, recommending that President Biden appoint a fifth FCC commissioner to help resolve anticipated deadlocks on pending matters. It also urges that the president to consider appointing a commissioner with technical, scientific or engineering background.

“At the FCC’s origin, commissioners were appointed based as much on their technical merit as other factors,” wrote AFCCE President John George.

“In recent decades, however, commissioners have relied upon the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology and the FCC’s staff engineers for technical advice, but those technical resources have suffered massive attrition over the past two decades with few positions backfilled. As the FCC itself has reduced its technological depth, the technology inherent in the industries regulated by the FCC — including broadcasting and multicast, personal wireless, and Wi-Fi — have become infinitely more complex.”

George wrote that having at least one FCC commissioner with a substantial technical background and a fundamental understanding of RF and communications technologies “would be in the greater public interest and would provide an additional measure of balance and robustness to the FCC’s overall decision-making process.”

The FCC currently has four members, two Democrats and two Republicans, and is led by acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

[Related: “Radio Technical Rules to Be Cleaned Up”]

The post FCC Needs a Tech-Savvy Commissioner, AFCCE Says appeared first on Radio World.

iHeartMedia named Kevin LeGrett as president of iHeartMedia Sports.

The portfolio includes the iHeartSports Network, which provides sports content and updates on 500+ stations; the Fox Sports Network, with syndicated names like Colin Cowherd and Dan Patrick; and 80 sports talk stations. It also crosses over into the iHeartPodcast Network, with 40 national and 100 local sports podcasts and a recently announced podcast deal with the NFL.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

LeGrett currently is division president and president of the L.A. region for iHeartMedia.

The announcement was made by Greg Ashlock, CEO of the Multi-Platform Group at iHeartMedia.

Alexis Ginas becomes president for Los Angeles, its largest revenue region, and will report to LeGrett, who retains his role of division president for the Markets Group. Ginas was involved with two IPO leadership teams and most recently was at Madison Valley, a media and technology consulting practice that she founded.

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

The post iHeart Names LeGrett President of Sports appeared first on Radio World.

TORONTO — Telestream, the provider of workflow automation, media processing, quality monitoring and test and measurement products for the production and distribution of video, has announced a new integration of the Vantage Media Processing Platform within BroadView’s OnDemand software to provide advanced transcoding and automated media workflows.

Based in Toronto, BroadView Software supplies a comprehensive broadcast management system which includes fully integrated tools for programming, scheduling, VOD, traffic and sales.

“Built for broadcasters and content providers who are making their content available to either traditional cable set top VOD partners or TV everywhere partners, the integration with Vantage streamlines the operation with workflow automation, reducing manpower and the potential for errors,” the company says.

BroadView can now create sequences based on VOD schedules and send them automatically to Vantage for transcoding, it adds.

“Vantage has an excellent API which has allowed us to create an improved media workflow that BroadView can leverage to provide tools for our clients without having to re-engineer that ourselves,” said Geoff Holden, Product Manager of OnDemand at BroadView. “This is an exciting first step in tighter integration with Vantage that will make our customer workflows more efficient and more cost effective when delivering VOD.”

The integrated solution is currently in use at Blue Ant Media, a Toronto-based media company. Everything is controlled from BroadView including the ability to monitor jobs in Vantage in real time. Prior to BroadView, many media workflows at Blue Ant were manual in nature.

Holden added, “We are also able to provide our clients with a graphical user interface to monitor the state of jobs within Vantage as they relate to the BroadView items without leaving our interface.”

— Carina Newton

TEL AVIV — OOONA, a global provider of professional management and production tools for the localization industry, has signed an API partnership with broadcast channel management service provider Evrideo.

The agreement gives Evrideo customers access to OOONA’s complete product range.

“Localization has always been an important element of the broadcast industry,” says Nir Gilad, Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Sales at Evrideo. “It became even more so when the world rediscovered its cultural and geographical roots during the Covid-19 pandemic. OOONA products closely complement the facilities we offer our customers around the world. This agreement extends the feature set we are able to provide, allowing clients to concentrate on their professional skills without operational distractions.”

“This is the latest in an ongoing series of technical conformance agreements designed to make our localization platform as widely accessible as possible,” adds OOONA co-founder and CEO Wayne Garb. “OOONA’s platform can be integrated with the Evrideo workflow to become a seamless part an existing operating environment. One of the important features is the ability to prevent human error and save time.”

— David Kirk

Technical Services Group (TSG), a broadcast engineering and commercial AV solutions provider, has completed its move to its new facility in Baton Rouge. With 36,000 square feet of interior floor space, the building is almost six times larger than the company’s previous headquarters.

The new building’s 25,000-square-foot warehouse and staging area, complete with tractor trailer loading zones and multiple forklifts, can accommodate equipment needs for larger projects. There are also dedicated, climate controlled areas for fabrication, integration and training. Instead of being limited to working on one project at a time due to space constraints, TSG teams can use the separate areas to work on multiple projects concurrently.

C-TAP compliance for international shipments and staging is an important milestone for the new facility, as TSG continues to grow with global partners. Other facility features include CCTV security, emergency power, a 10G IT fiber infrastructure, Creston presentation and collaboration technologies, and a Fishbowl inventory management system with wireless Zebra barcode scanners. TSG is also planning to add RFID technology for improved warehousing.

“Both our commercial AV and broadcast integration, RF, and field services teams are busier than ever. The transmission business continues to grow, too, even as we draw closer to the end of the FCC Repack,” said Bo Hoover, CEO of TSG. “This new facility is an important move forward for TSG and our clients. Now, we have more space to stage, store, and prepare equipment in order to respond faster to what our clients demand. We’ve also incorporated advanced technologies to manage inventories and provide better facility-wide communications. Plus, our addition of a dedicated 24-hour network and technical operations center will be extremely important to supporting our clients’ mission-critical facilities and customer operations.”

TSG’s new address is: 7000 Exchequer Dr., Baton Rouge, La. 70809.

NTP Technology has made a “major addition” to its global sales network by appointing CIS Group as a sales partner in Brazil and North America.

The partnership includes the NTP Technology Penta and DAD product lines with a focus on Broadcast and Entertainment.

CIS is headquartered in Florida, with offices and field presences in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; New York; Boston,; and Charlotte.

CIS Group’s U.S. team will work closely with the NTP Technology distributor for North America, plus24. Based in Los Angeles, plus24 works with integrators and dealers to develop system designs and timely procurement.

The National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation named the recipients of its Celebration of Service to America Awards over the weekend, recognizing community service by local broadcasters.

Below are the radio recipients of the Service to Community Awards for Radio, with details of their service campaigns and the announcement text from the NABLF describing them:

Ownership Group
Zimmer Radio of Mid-Missouri, “Miracles for Kids Radiothon“

For the Zimmer Radio & Marketing Group team, the annual Children’s Miracle Network radiothon is personal. Raising money and awareness for MU’s Children’s Hospital to help sick kids is the main reason “why we do the radiothon,” but this radiothon also happens because many staff members have needed this hospital for their own children at some point. As the self-proclaimed “crown jewel event for the company,” this radiothon showcases the power of radio and love for local communities. The 14th annual 2020 Miracle for Kids radiothon raised over $248,000 and awareness for the phenomenal work of the doctors, nurses and staff every single day at the local Children’s Hospital.

Major Market
KTMY(FM), St. Paul, Minn., “KTMY Rebuilds the Neighborhoods,” Hubbard Broadcasting

Minority-owned businesses in Minneapolis and St. Paul that were already disproportionately affected by COVID-19 restrictions were dealt a brutal blow during the uprising that took place in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. During the civil unrest across the cities, many of these places were vandalized, looted and burned to the ground. In partnership with the Neighborhood Development Center, KTMY launched “10 Stories in 10 Days” to tell the stories of these local businesses hurting and inspire the community to lend a hand. Their show hosts turned their mics over to these business owners, many of whom came to this country chasing the American dream, so they could share their stories with the audience. As a result of this partnership and campaign, KTMY raised over $145,000 for these businesses to rebuild and highlighted the local community’s power and small business owners’ resilience.

Medium Market
WYCT(FM), Pensacola, Fla., Hurricane Sally Relief Efforts, iHeartMedia Inc.

In September 2020, Hurricane Sally meandered into the Gulf of Mexico and 36 hours out, this slow-moving storm was forecast to make landfall 200 miles away from Pensacola. Instead, it took a slow right turn and became the first direct hit for Pensacola in 16 years. Following the devastation of this hurricane, the team at WYCT(FM) wanted to do something to help the community rebuild and recover from the storm. In partnership with United Way of West Florida and their TV partner WEAR(TV), this local station launched “Mission Restore Hope” to raise over $300,000 to help local organizations fund rebuilding efforts and help the community feel at home again.

Small Market
KNDE(FM), College Station, Texas, “136 Charities, $794,573, One Day and the KNDE Team,” Bryan Broadcasting Corp.

Amid canceled events and poorly attended virtual fundraisers, many local nonprofits found themselves on the brink of extinction. In partnership with the Community Foundation of the Brazos Valley, the KNDE team decided it was time to showcase local radio’s power. During the 18-hour virtual giving event held on Oct. 27, 2020, this local station educated its audience on the work of 136 charities and solicited donations to help keep the community members afloat. In one day, this team raised $794,573 and proved that local broadcasting does matter.

Television stations and groups were honored in similar categories. Recipients included the E.W. Scripps Company; WISN(TV), Milwaukee; WMC(TV), Memphis, Tenn.; and KTVB(TV), Boise, Idaho.

The post Broadcasters Honored for Community Service appeared first on Radio World.

The author is founder and VP digital technologies at All in Media, a supplier of radio station applications and part of Xperi.

 There are, more or less, 131 FM radio stations in New York. And only 75 AM stations.

That’s it — that’s the expanse of a content choice that is advertiser-supported and has a built-in limit to how broadly it can get its message out.

Now compare this to the wonderful, sometimes wild, world of apps.

In the iOS world, you can listen to 40,000 radio stations in your car, accessible through your phone or CarPlay. It’s hands-down the sector with the biggest growth — and has been for a long time.

This massive and noisy environment is, today, the cornerstone of a broadcaster’s digital strategy: The infrastructure that a radio station invests in to deploy mobile apps dictates its ability to innovate user experiences, leverage metadata and expand into new integrations such as Amazon Fire TV, Android Auto, Sonos, Bose and Amazon Alexa.

[Read: RadioFX Provides Apps to El Dorado]

Indeed, the right digital infrastructure helps to ensure an expanding and evolving experience across many digital ecosystems.

Expanding the Ecosystem

About a decade ago, the drive for apps was arguably a curious “me too” trend, with little upside.

Since then, as it has morphed into a driver of affordable, scalable innovation, it has, frankly, become a survival imperative for broadcasters to stay ahead of a competitive and constantly evolving digital content landscape. And in the process it has changed the game.

But while good app infrastructure is critical to cost-efficient innovation, it can be a tall mountain to climb.

On the surface it looks easy: Apps are user-friendly and simple (that is the whole point of an app); but as seen in Fig. 1, behind the curtain is a complex set of systems and moving parts that must be integrated into a single API in order to open up that innovation efficiency for broadcasters.

A great example of how good app infrastructure opens up new opportunities is Commercial Radio Australia’s app, which brings together different radio stations into a single aggregator app, owned and operated by the radio industry.

At AIM, we worked for years with Australia’s big commercial and public service broadcasters, so we understood their specific needs and requirements. When the industry evolved and an app was needed, we were able to create an app and app infrastructure that enabled Commercial Radio Australia to have control of the platform.

This work also helped build support for new platforms, such as Google Home and Alexa.

For example, a key issue radio stations were having was with the accuracy of station matching on Alexa. Radio is one of the most used features on Alexa but, in Australia, Alexa would get the right station just 23% of the time. That could be because Alexa misunderstood the name, or a station had changed name, or there were multiple stations with the same name, and Alexa wasn’t matching.

Supported by the app infrastructure, AIM was able to work with Commercial Radio Australia and Amazon to enable a smarter, more sophisticated way of searching for radio stations and improved the accuracy to close to 100%.

Affordable Innovation

Any broadcaster can innovate, but innovation takes a lot longer and more resources without the kind of adaptable, end-to-end platform that a centralized digital app infrastructure offers: It can make innovation more time- and cost-efficient, and easily scaled, for example to allow the launch of an Alexa service, Siri, Sonos or any number of digital extensions.

But is it possible for broadcasters to DIY app infrastructure to reach this affordable innovation? Maybe — if they have the resources for a permanent team of developers to keep the apps fresh enough to engage listeners, to build infrastructure that can integrate multiple disparate elements — from scheduling to third-party content to live streams, podcasts, user login, ad systems, analytics, listening systems and more.

The reality? Most broadcasters don’t have the resources, time or focus to develop this infrastructure. “Buy vs. build” truly makes sense when it comes to app strategy.

At AIM, we do it for broadcast customers with RadioAPI, which enables simple distribution of content to platforms including broadcast, mobile, web, hybrid cars and smart speakers, while keeping content within the broadcaster’s control.

A Personalized App Experience

Online listening, mobile listening, listening via smart speakers is growing in popularity; and radio stations are at its heart. Not being available via app means missing out on an exponentially expanding audience through the sheer volume of listeners and through access to analytics.

Apps can track listener behavior, from listening times to played tracks. People often search for a local radio station in the App Store, presenting a golden opportunity: Broadcasters can surface additional content, including on-demand to podcasts, catch-up content or new stories.

Being in control of the gateway to listeners — because you own the app — means full control of the user experience. That’s when your listeners come to your app and start listening to your content.

A good example is Bauer, which rolled out its subscription service with two things: a strong base of mobile app listeners and access to analytics (Fig. 2).

The listener base helped Bauer monetize new options and features, while expanded analytics told them who, and when, users were consuming content — down to what tracks people were tuning into … and out of.

Revenue Opportunities and Control

This all opens up revenue opportunities. Subscription radio for an enhanced experience is one example, as is targeted audio advertising.

Ultimately, great content underpins it all. Good infrastructure and tools mean that content produced for the live broadcast stations can be easily repurposed for the app, then for a smart speaker or connected car platforms. You go into a system and do it once — and the content gets published across the range of platforms that matter to radio stations.

And because good app infrastructure gives the broadcasters complete control, and enables tight access management, their high-value content and unique intellectual property are protected from hijacking aggregators.

Ultimately, apps are a conduit to increased monetization, analytics, efficiency, content and interactivity. And that’s something that makes everyone happy, from listeners to broadcasters and technology providers.

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

The post Apps Are Your Conduit to Success appeared first on Radio World.