Industry News

The Federal Communications Commission has put the kibosh on a request to revamp its noncommercial educational (NCE) licensing rules.

In this case, the firm Discount Legal asked the commission to reconsider the way the commission licenses mutually exclusive (MX) FM radio noncommercial educational groups. Discount Legal, Bay Area-based lawyers that specialize in community radio, argued that the FCC should set up a secondary grant policy for MX groups, saying that this would foster a more efficient nationwide radio communication service and generally encourage more effective use of radio.

[Read: FCC Eliminates Radio Duplication Rule for Both AM and FM Bands]

As it stands today, when a filing window for NCE stations is opened, the commission places conflicting applications into MX groups before applying internal processing. It then selects one application for grant from each separate MX group. A point system is given to each application based on public-interest criteria (such as diversity of ownership, localism or technical superiority) and that the application with the most points in an MX group is the tentative selectee.

But when it comes to the idea of naming runner-up applications, the commission dismissed the idea for two main reasons: One, it would be burdensome to FCC staff to create and implement a secondary grant procedure and two, it would potentially give a green light to inferior applications.

Discount Legal countered by saying that nearly all the work to determine secondary grants has been done already. “The fruit of all that work remains available for secondary analysis,” the firm said in its petition for reconsideration. “Once the first selectee becomes final, the group can be re-scanned at a glance for applicants not in MX conflict with the winner. Free-standing applicants can be selected secondarily. Others, in subconflict, can be readily compared under the point system from work previously done.”

But the FCC disagreed. The commission has repeatedly stressed that the goal of the NCE licensing process is to maximize the quality of grantees, not simply to grant the maximum number of applications.

“The commission’s one-grant policy is designed to encourage the best possible application submissions in every filing window,” the commission said. “By having only one grantee per MX group, but allowing all non-selectees to reapply in the next window, the commission creates virtuous incentives, which yield a higher-quality result than a policy of granting as many applications as possible, regardless of quality.”

As a result, the commission dismissed and denied the petition of Discount Legal.

The post FCC Nixes Call to Revamp NCE Licensing Rules appeared first on Radio World.

Attendees can expect things to look a bit different at the first all-virtual 2020 Radio Show, even as some familiar features of this annual event will remain — from keynote addresses and townhall speeches to in-depth discussions on audio, advertising and podcasting.

The five-day show will kick off with a CEO Townhall on Monday Oct. 5, moderated by NBC News Senior Business Correspondent and MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle. She will be joined by Mary Berner, president and CEO of Cumulus Media; David Field, chairman, president and CEO of Entercom Communications; and Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.

[Read: Fall Radio Show in Nashville Is Cancelled; Online Event Set Instead]

The National Association of Broadcasters also recently announced new speakers for its leadership and business sessions. Author and business leader Rishad Tobaccowala will head the Oct. 6 session “Reinventing Leadership with Heart and Soul” while radio host and author Dave Ramsey will speak at the Oct. 9 session “Leadership 2021 — Inspiring and Building Successful Teams.”

Two key tracks will run concurrently throughout the convention. The Channel A sessions will address issues like inclusivity, local sales tactics and ideas for resurrecting businesses in 2020 and beyond. The series of Channel B sessions will dive into the technical side of the radio business including a behind-the-scenes look at the nation’s first all-digital AM station, an update on radio and the connected car, and a look at the evolution of broadcast equipment, including advances in hardware and software in the cloud.

Other highlights during the Oct. 5–9 show — which the NAB announced is now open for registration — include a series of award presentations and technology demonstrations.

The post Virtual Radio Show Announces Latest Speaker, Session Lineup appeared first on Radio World.

The author is director of engineering services for the Alabama Broadcasters Association and chair of the Alabama State Emergency Communications Committee.

Broadcast engineers have a lot to look after, even before COVID-19. A successful station operation depends almost entirely on proper technical operation. From the studio to the antenna, there is a lot of “stuff” that must be installed and maintained.

One important item in the chain is your Emergency Alert System equipment. As with any type of technical system, it is important to have some type of monitoring system to ensure that every section is working properly. This also includes working with all the end users to clear up any problems.

Simple Setup

While there may be various ways for your State Emergency Communications Committee (see sidebar at bottom) to monitor an entire system, in Alabama we chose to take advantage of the ability built into most EAS units to export to an FTP server in real time.

It is a simple system to create and maintain:

• Set up an FTP server; most state broadcast associations have one running;
• Create a folder in the root directory of the server to receive the data;
• Have stations load the log-in information in their units.

Fig. 1 shows information loaded into the EAS unit. Every time the station unit has any EAS activity, it will transmit a report to the server.

We found an easy way to create a database to check the “health of the entire system.” The data from the FTP server is copied into Microsoft Word; using the Find tab, the data can be separated by type of alert/test.

Currently we fill out the database manually; we haven’t found any software yet that will do this. However, it only takes a few minutes each morning over your first cup of coffee.

Fig. 2 shows a partial database.

If you see that a station has been missing a certain test for several weeks, contact its engineer to check on the problem. The data received also include an audio file of tests, so it is easy to listen to the quality.

Audio Quality

The FCC recently issued a report on last year’s national test, reporting that one of the main problems was quality of the audio. If a station is having a problem receiving quality audio from a source, the committee can work with the station engineer to correct the problem and, if need be, assign a different source.

The beauty of this system is that there is no cost to set it up, either to the station or or the state broadcast association, plus the speed of the response.

We recently had an agency issue an Amber Alert. After notification of the alert, we looked at the log and discovered that the text of the alert was missing. After a simple phone call to the origination agency, the alert was retransmitted, this time with the text.

If a station has EAS equipment that cannot export data to an FTP server, simply have them add a dedicated email in the unit. That way the committee can still get the report from that station.

Note that this monitor service is only for the state committee use in maintaining the system. It does not replace the legal requirement that the station chief operator review the station log on a weekly basis. That log is required to be retained for a period of two years.

sidebar:

EAS Coordination Is Essential

Not only is EAS participation required by the FCC, but it is a major community service for your listeners and viewers. At the station level, approved equipment must be installed and configured correctly. The commission requires that proper operation of the EAS system is checked once a week and logged in the station log.

As most readers know, a committee in each state, often named the State Emergency Communications Committee or SECC, is tasked with setting up a secure and reliable origination/distribution system to ensure your equipment receives the correct alerts and test. That leads to the creation of an EAS state plan, which all broadcasters and cable systems should follow.

The committee plans and oversees the entire EAS origination/distribution, plus closely works with FEMA and other state and national agencies.It’s important to have representatives of all stakeholders participate. This includes your state emergency management agency, the National Weather Service, state broadcast association, state cable association and of course engineers from radio and television.

Here is a list of SECC chairs and links to state plans on the FCC website.

The author is a recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award. Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post How Alabama Monitors the EAS System appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters is expressing concern about the threat to local journalism from a handful of digital technology platforms.

In a filing submitted to the House Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith said a handful of powerful digital technology platforms — including Google, YouTube and Facebook  — are placing local broadcast radio and TV stations at a serious competitive disadvantage and hampering their mandate to serve the public interest.

“Local journalism is now at risk due to the overwhelming competitive position of a handful of technology companies in today’s digital marketplace,” the NAB said in its filing.

[Read: Techsurvey Reflects Consumer Dynamics]

Broadcast stations must use digital platforms to effectively reach their audience but stations have little leverage when dealing with the digital giants that control access to content, Smith said in a statement about the NAB filing. He contends that because of the tech platforms’ dominant role as content gatekeepers, their unilateral decision-making and ranking algorithms are negatively impacting broadcast radio and TV stations’ ability to deliver local news and information to communities.

This is particularly troubling because those algorithms consistently favor national sources over local sources, favor controversial and polarizing content and opinion sources over high-quality journalism, and can make it difficult for smaller, local publishers to reach audiences at all, Smith said.

“The massive shift in advertising to other platforms has profoundly affected local broadcasters,” Smith said. “Stations in mid-sized and small markets with limited economic bases have been disproportionately impacted because any significant loss of revenue has an outsized effect on their ability to pay the largely fixed costs required to operate and to produce or acquire news and other programming.”

Today only a slight majority of TV stations report profitable local news operations with many radio stations in markets of all sizes are struggling to make local news programming financially viable.

Smith also called out the lack of transparency over these digital platforms, which impose advertising limits and policies that impede stations’ ability to effectively monetize their own content online. “These platforms’ technologies and unilaterally set policies hurt local providers of quality journalism … . Receiving cents on the dollar does not enable TV and radio stations to recover the considerable costs of producing local content in the first place.”

The NAB said it supports legislation to address these issues, including the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act that would allow broadcasters and other news publishers to collectively negotiate with digital platforms regarding the terms on which their content may be distributed online. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

“[W]e emphasize our support for laws and policies that adequately address the unique role of free and local OTA broadcasting and its value in a democratic society,” the NAB said in its filing.

The post NAB: Local Journalism Under Threat From Dominant Digital Platforms appeared first on Radio World.

Lest you had any doubt, the “visual experience” that consumers get from radio in their car dashboards is of growing importance.

Now WorldDAB has launched a campaign to encourage broadcasters to use visual assets to keep digital radio prominent there. It’ll certainly be of interest to European broadcasters given the European Electronic Communications Code directive that mandates digital radio in new car radios across Europe starting this December.

[Read: Broadcasters Must Be at the Heart of Radio’s Dashboard Development]

“The campaign underlines the important role visual information now plays in providing a positive digital radio experience for drivers,” the group stated, “and it offers guidance to broadcasters on how to use information they already have in the form of metadata to provide a richer experience for the driver.”

The organization is providing an animated video, an information sheet for managers and other resources.

WorldDAB is an industry forum that promotes DAB digital radio; its dedicated Automotive User Experience (UX) Group is involved in this campaign. It noted that metadata enables visual information, text and graphics including station name and logo, air talent name, song title and album artwork to be displayed.

It said metadata also is taking on increasing importance as hybrid radio — meaning OTA radio plus streamed versions of the same content, working in-sync — becomes more common.

The chairman of the WorldDAB Automotive Working Group is Laurence Harrison; he is quoted in the announcement saying car manufacturers need confidence that broadcasters will provide metadata. “That in turn will ensure that they prioritize the radio user experience in their cars.”

He added that as screens in cars get even better, metadata and visual components become even more important.

The post WorldDAB Puts Spotlight on Visual Experience appeared first on Radio World.

Ecosystems in support of hybrid radio continue to be built.

From RadioDNS today comes news of two more developments; and we can expect to hear more about these as concepts of hybrid radio take on a larger role in our radio marketplace.

(RadioDNS is a non-for-profit that promotes technical standards for combining broadcast radio and internet technologies that enable interoperability. Its website says the goal is that “content from one radio station can reach a multitude of devices, and devices can get content from a multitude of radio stations.”)

First, the organization has published an update to its Service and Program Standard to add controls for listening based on location, or geo-fencing.

“This was a function requested by some U.S. broadcasters to minimize use of streaming within areas where there’s good FM radio coverage,” said Project Director Nick Piggott.

“As rights to content, particularly music and sports rights, get more complex (and more expensive), constraining access to known areas and platforms gets more important,” he wrote on the RadioDNS website.

He gave these examples of where stations would want to control listening based on location:

• A station prefers listeners not to stream where there is good FM coverage, because streaming is more expensive (technical and rights costs). They define their FM coverage area and “deny” access to streaming within that area. Now streaming should only happen outside the good coverage area.
• The same station may have a known “hole” in their FM coverage, so they can “allow” streaming within the coverage hole, within the good coverage area. So their geo-fencing can contain nested areas.
• A different station may have rights to a sports event but only within their country. They can “allow” streaming within their country, and “deny” it everywhere else. If they’re clever, they can have an alternate stream with different content that is provided outside their country instead.

Piggott said these controls are not just applicable to streaming but can be applied to any analog, digital or streaming distribution platform, and to a whole service or to individual programs. “We’ll be working to help everyone understand what a good implementation looks like.”

The details of that development are here.

Second, RadioDNS has now published its Radio Metadata Terms of Use.

“We’re really hoping this provides the template for the global industry to come to a common understanding of ‘fair use,’ which removes some of the uncertainties on using metadata to enhance broadcast radio,” said Piggott.

This document is an attempt to codify acceptable use of content made available by radio stations for radio devices. It’s a template that broadcasters can adopt if they think it describes how they’d like their metadata and content to be used by device manufacturers.

Piggott wrote about this recently on the Radio World website (read that here.) “We think a standard is valuable because it dramatically reduces the complexity of working out what ‘OK’ looks like, and establishes a consistency that allows manufacturers to make a radio that works for the majority of radio stations globally,” he wrote then.

The RadioDNS website describes this document as a “simple, passive, implied agreement” that will help manufacturers and broadcasters both. “If a manufacturer knows they are using metadata and content as described in these terms, they can use it from every broadcaster who adopts the terms with no further checks. If a broadcaster is happy for their metadata and content to be used as described in the Terms, they can adopt them just by linking to them,’ the site states.

Read more about it on the RadioDNS website.

Piggott noted that the Automotive User Experience Working Group of WorldDAB has just published its recommendations on metadata, and that the National Association of Broadcasters is helping U.S. broadcasters to understand hybrid radio and how it may affect them.

The post RadioDNS Adds Geo-Fencing to Its Standard appeared first on Radio World.

Public media biggie WGBH is dropping the “W” in its name that long identified it as a broadcaster based east of the Mississippi.

Where some organizations might make such a branding tweak without calling attention to it right away, GBH went big.

“While its local TV and radio broadcast stations will always be important, the new branding recognizes GBH’s commitment to on-demand and digital-first content for audiences nationwide through streaming, apps, podcasts, social media, educational curricula and virtual events,” the organization stated.

It reported that more than half of its audience impressions come via digital platforms, so it dropped the “W” to “better reflect its leadership in the new media environment.” Affiliate WCAI becomes  justCAI. WCRB will become CRB Classical 99.5. WGBX Channel 44 becomes GBH 44.

The organization is a multiplatform creator for public media, producing content for PBS and partnering with NPR and PRX. Its studios and newsroom are in Boston.

The announcement was made by Jon Abbott, president and CEO, and Tina Cassidy, chief marketing officer. They noted that the new logo still uses a “drop shadow” design that dates to the 1970s, created by Chermayeff & Geismar.

And when you’re a really big public media entity, you can get away with delving into the fine details of how you updated your logos.

“The font will change to the clean and modern Red Hat, which functions better digitally,” it announced. “The iconic audio mark, also known as the sting, or the sound that audiences hear at the end of GBH-produced content, will not change.” And they chose purple as a new primary brand color, calling it “vibrant” and “digital first,” and because “equality, wisdom, empathy, creativity and resilience are all associated with purple and align with GBH’s core brand values.”

The station released a brand launch video, watch here.

The post Public Media Biggie WGBH Drops the “W” appeared first on Radio World.

Following up on an earlier story — after evacuating the company premises in Felton, Calif., as fires raged nearby, Inovonics reports that things are returning to the previous normal.

The factory is open, processing and shipping orders while tech support is up and running.

[Read: Inovonics Factory Affected by Evacuation Zone]

A relieved Inovonics CEO and President Ben Barber said, “Inovonics was untouched by the fires and though many of us had to evacuate the valley, no employees’ homes were harmed.”

The company says that if anything fell through the cracks during the closure, customers can contact them at sales@inovonicsbroadcast.com or tech@inovonicsbroadcast.com.

The post Inovonics Back From Fire Threat appeared first on Radio World.

This year has provided such unusual challenges to the radio industry. Yet the day-to-day needs of keeping a station on the air have not disappeared in the COVID-19 haze.

Those needs don’t go away. Meanwhile, the pandemic has created windows for some facility managers to proceed on projects with less interruption and to contemplate different ways of building future facilities while incorporating more remote workflows.

So we have collected in one package a cornucopia of new and recently introduced products, large and small, for the radio broadcast professional.

Read it here.

The post 2020 Fall Product Planner appeared first on Radio World.

This story is excerpted from the free Radio World ebook “Plan B: Ensuring RF Readiness.” 

A transmitter site is the narrow neck of a bottle — the departure point before the audience receives our product. At most stations, the site is remote from the program source and is unmanned.

“Hardening” the site must involve more than fencing and signs. If you’re serious about your business and your signal, your plant must be robust, durable and capable of self-healing.

Generally speaking we have three areas of concern: security, functionality and provision. Each requires that you identify potential points of failure (PPoF); develop the best solution or methodology to strengthen or eliminate the weak points; and implement those changes.

Of the three, I am most involved in provisioning: Does the site have everything needed to operate properly, optimally and continually?

The list of items that could take you off the air is endless. PPoFs that might be found in any plant include poor system design or layout; equipment inappropriate or insufficient for the task; poor maintenance; and insufficient spares for items that wear and can fail without warning. Then are the many potential points of failure specific to a particular installation.

I have written it so often that we should use an acronym for it, but: You cannot afford anything less than the best when that item is in the mainstream of your business. One can skimp on office trashcans and amenities or client lunches. But if a piece of gear is in the air chain, it has to be the best and operating at peak. The audience knows a station by what it hears on the air; the signal and sound had better be terrific.

Ask Yourself

Some nuts and bolts of power provision:

Is your site getting its power from the best feed — not just the one that is most convenient for the utility?

Is your power tap on the neighborhood feed, or the area feed? The former can add thousands of additional feet of wire and dozens of poles to your circuit — not to mention that your plant may be on a common primary and secondary distribution, which means that your supply is very communistic; every fault and suffering on the system you will get as well, including noise, poor regulation, uneven phases.

Sometimes the solution is just to move your transformer feed to the top conductors on a multi-circuit pole. If your power quality (PQ) is truly poor, you may need a separate feed from a cleaner, more reliable supply point.

How about your supply transformers? Properly grounded? If on a pole, properly supported? Properly GEP wired, or a mess of 14 neutral splices under a single wire nut? Phases balanced? Clean sine wave, or showing artifacts of square wave issues from overloading? Can you fry eggs on the top of your pad-mounted transformer when all the users have their HVAC running wide open?

Each of these defects indicates a potential point of failure.

Gensets

Generators are the next line of power defense and involve their own maintenance requirements.

Periodic maintenance is a must. This is more than punching the date card on the attached tag.

Generators must be tested under load … all the loads! If one generator supplies all site users, all loads on that generator should be operated simultaneously on the generator for at least half-hour, every month.

With all loads present, is the voltage solid on spec, and not sagging when motors such as AC compressors start? Is the output frequency 60 Hz? Will it operate automatically in the event of any of the five critical failures (loss of phase; phase reversal; high or low line voltage; and total loss of power)? Are the block heaters running? If the unit is thermostat-controlled, is the thermostat functional and set at the appropriate coolant and ambient temperature?

No matter what, every generator should be exercised on a weekly basis for at least 20 minutes.

Batteries should be maintained on an appropriate trickle charger. The batteries themselves should be replaced on the recommended schedule of the generator manufacturer. If none is given, the batteries should be replaced on a three-year increment, but sooner if exposed to extreme temperatures.

Calculate the run time provided by fuel stored on site. Extensive backup generation may not be much help if you need it for days and only have fuel for a few hours.

For many reasons, keep fuel tanks as full as possible. Emulate cellular operators who place sensors on tanks to signal that a tank needs a fill. This level signal is usually a DC analog; your remote control can use this value as an alarm limit. When the tank is, for example, three-quarters full, you can call the fuel service to top off. A second value could be one-quarter full, so that you will be kept aware of how much longer the site can run during a long-term outage. One of my clients has a remote control with an action program that calls the fuel service automatically when either of these limits is reached.

All tanks should be protected from such dangers as falling ice, and secured firmly with fences and spill sumps. Locks on fills are a good idea, especially during times when diesel is expensive and liable to be siphoned from remote unsecured fuel tanks.

We mentioned spare parts. For to the generator, you should have at least two oil and two air filters on the shelf, as well as a set of fan belts and a complete change of oil plus a quart. You do not want to go hunting for these parts at 3 in the morning or when off the air.

Read the author’s series “The Big Picture of the Small End of Power Generation,” about how to choose and install a generator:

Part 1: The Good, the Bad & the Noisy

Part 2: Sizing and Selection

Part 3: Pragmatics 101

Part 4: Putting It All Together

The post Hunt Down Those PPoFs in Your Power Provision appeared first on Radio World.