Industry News

Larger radio companies in the United States are not the only ones that have run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission in its investigations of online political files.

The FCC Media Bureau has announced that it reached consent decrees with four more companies: Center Hill Broadcasting Corp., Cookeville Communications, North Shore Broadcasting Co. and W & V Broadcasting.

In each case the company filed applications for one or more station renewals but was unable to certify past compliance with the rules for political record keeping.

The FCC then put those applications on hold — a total of 19 stations across the four companies — so it could investigate.

Now, with these consent decrees, the investigations are ended.

[Related: “Big Radio Companies Settle With FCC on Political Files”]

Just as it did in announcing consent decrees with big “name brand” radio companies recently, the Media Bureau said the pandemic “has caused a dramatic reduction in advertising revenues which, in turn, has placed the radio broadcast industry … under significant financial stress.” It said disclosures by these four companies combined with the “exceptional circumstances” of a pandemic led it to the consent decrees rather than other action.

Each company agrees to appoint a compliance officer; develop a compliance plan, including a manual and training program; and submit reports to the commission’s Political Programming staff. The FCC now will release the “hold” on the pending license renewal applications.

The post More Radio Owners Agree to Public File Compliance Plans appeared first on Radio World.

The impact of the pandemic can be seen in the latest financial numbers from SiriusXM, as with most U.S. media companies.

It said revenue for the most recent quarter was $1.9 billion, down 5% compared to the same period a year before, and net income was also down, though its adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was roughly unchanged.

CEO Jim Meyer called its business “resilient” with “improving results and visibility into the remainder of the year.”

The audio company saw ad revenue fall 34% in the quarter, though it said it compensated for this through “substantial” expense savings.

“Despite the incredible economic stresses brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, our self-pay net subscriber additions grew by nearly 200,000 over the first quarter of the year, and we reported improved churn of just 1.6% per month with rising ARPU,” said Meyer.

[Read: Stitcher’s Flexible New Facility in Manhattan]

Among other recent actions, he said, “We opened up our SiriusXM service for free during a time when people needed news, information and entertainment and we saw millions of new listeners take advantage of it.”

Looking ahead, he noted the pending rollout of the company’s hybrid radio platform 360L in cars from Audi, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Buick, Cadillac, Chevy, GMC brands and Volkswagen.

The company also has been in acquisition mode, and it pointed out that it has committed $428 million to acquire Simplecast and Stitcher and a minority investment in Soundcloud.

It says the Stitcher transaction announced this month will substantially advance its position in podcasting. Senior EVP and CFO David Frear said, “We are excited to offer advertisers an attractive path for audience-based buys, including to over 150 million North American listeners across our platforms.”

In the company’s Pandora business, ad revenue fell 31% to $211 million, and gross profit fell 55%. “Numerous categories of advertisers cancelled or paused orders during the second quarter in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, revenue declines moderated throughout the quarter.” Monthly Active Users and total ad supported listener hours for Pandora were down while average monthly listening hours per active ad-supported user increased compared to a year earlier.

SiriusXM has about 34.3 million total subscribers, of which 30.3 million are “self-pay” subscribers (the company also has paid promotional subscribers). Total Pandora subscribers at the end of the period were 6.3 million.

The post SiriusXM Revenue Is Down; Meyer Calls Company “Resilient” appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is a veteran engineer and Radio World contributor. Opinions are his own.

I’ve been attending webinars about ATSC 3.0 with interest. Not just because of the potential impact for TV, but as a reflection to what radio is or isn’t doing with technology.

I’m not sure ATSC3 is the savior to OTA TV, but at least they are trying some things.

They’re pushing the notion that it could be “more internet-like,” which might be like saying “the horse and buggy wrapped itself with a car body so it looks like a car.”

ATSC3 does offer more channels and a better compression method, and that is a benefit.

I’ve been contributing ideas in these webinars and have had personal contact from one of the moderators, who reached out to discuss some ideas.

For instance, I do think ATSC could be much more “effective” if the technology included “store & forward,” meaning content is being uploaded to devices (TVs, etc.) by the transmitter delivering packets to individual’s personal devices based on MAC address.

This way, maybe commercials could actually be “custom tailored” to individuals. Maybe initially a viewer who is a vegetarian might not see a McDonalds spot about a Big Mac, but they only see one about the salads. Maybe someday the spot actually is customized to even reach out to the individual even saying “Dan, this weekend the Museum of Discovery and Science is hosting a history fair,” where the ad truly is for you.

ATSC3 has the potential to do this, but is that not technology that HD Radio could also have integrated?

Zoning & Personalization

If it’s simply about adding “more channels” (like HD), how much further do we fragment the audience? If the eight Albuquerque iHeart FMs add three sub channels in HD, do they really make 24 times the revenue — or instead of getting $24 per spot, do they now get $3?

ATSC3 also could allow “zoning” of spots, the same as a group of FM translator guys want to do. But is changing the spot on a transmitter the best way to do this; or would be using digital technology to “silently” upload content into players be a much better way to target the audience (not just within “zones,” but even for customer taste and preference)?

Since GPS tied to digital radio (like ATSC3) could actually play a spot based on a restaurant coming up in the next few miles, wouldn’t that make a lot more sense?

What if you are a “steak lover” driving down a busy road with 20 restaurants, and your food preference was known “to your radio,” and the “store & forward” of the audio spot in conjunction with GPS information meant that when the stop-set occurred, your radio played you a spot for Outback, Texas Roadhouse or Ruth’s Chris Steak House. …

Better yet, what if that car radio used Wi-Fi for additional metadata or positioning and could report back to the radio station when it played that spot and to whom it played it (including date and time)?

[Related: “Hybrid Radio Picks Up Momentum”]

Anyhow, maybe someday this will be the future. Right now, it seems that digital TV’s new ATSC3 is getting a lot of “tire kicks,” and the innovators seem to be hearing ideas and considering. Once again, we’ll require TV manufacturers to also incorporate the technology.

And radio is very fortunate that it does not have to deal with cable companies. The cable companies will want to compress the data and minimize the bandwidth, and they’ll want to rent the consumer a “box” (at a month charge) to benefit from any new ATSC3 innovation, and that may be the nail in that coffin!

Radio, unlike TV, doesn’t have “the middleman” kicking the crap out of us on every turn like the cable guys, and what we put out is what lands in the radio. So if our own digital innovation (even with tighter FM bandwidth) can come up with new ideas, we could see radio re-invented (or re-innovated).

I’d like to see an analog/digital radio with an IP-based back-haul to/from the station and with digital storage. If this could happen, each radio to every listener could be customized, and radio could still be the “content provider.”

What Only We Can Do

I do think certain large companies continue to destroy radio because the innovation of technology MUST include strong localism or radio WILL be wiped out for internet.

Where my MP3 can never beat radio is with local info. Tell me that “Third Street is closed because of a house fire” or “there’s a big pot hole in Walnut Avenue” or that there’s going to be a great “antique festival this weekend in downtown Strasburg”— those are things my MP3 cannot do.

To me, that is radio … and that brings us together to do what only WE can do!

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

The post What Can ATSC 3.0 Teach Radio? appeared first on Radio World.

Commissioner Michael O’Rielly says rules created by the Federal Communication Commission to promote diversity in media have been a “complete failure.”

Speaking virtually to a luncheon audience of the Media Institute, the Republican commissioner said the “dearth” of African American ownership of local broadcast properties “is beyond embarrassing, resting in the low single digits.”

But he noted that the current state of affairs has occurred with FCC ownership limitations in place for decades.

“A very compelling case can be made that removing our limitations, in fact, would set the stage for more minority investment and ownership. Consider radio ownership, where allowing bigger clusters within a market could help stabilize, and alternately, enhance minority-owned stations in that market. Similarly, the same outcome could occur if the newspaper-broadcast limitations were struck as well, something the courts have approved numerous times, only to be foiled by claims of missing analysis.”

He credited Chairman Ajit Pai for leading an effort to adopt a radio incubator program that would entice broadcast owners to partner with minority small business entrepreneurs. “While supporting this initiative, I was unfortunately unsuccessful in my effort to extend the program to television as well,” he said.

“Alas, the entire effort was upended by a few squabbling industry participants and then captured by the legal morass that is the quadrennial [review]. Now, we effectively have returned to the broken status quo. Absent Supreme Court intervention, it will be years before any action is even considered again at the commission.”

O’Rielly said this outcome “represents a huge disappointment for the agency and a lost opportunity for society.”

“Mind-Boggling”

About media rules more broadly, O’Rielly thinks the entire federal media regulatory model “needs to be shredded.”

“The level of overregulation is mind-boggling. Ask yourself: Why does the FCC regulate where a broadcast tower is placed so long as it doesn’t cause interference with an adjacent market? Or, why does the FCC prescribe how a station should maximize OTA listeners or viewers when it is already in the broadcaster’s best interest to do so?”

Many of his remarks were about TV but overlapped with radio concerns.

“For example, in reviewing mergers, the Department of Justice has repeatedly and inexplicably failed to properly identify relevant advertising market participants,” O’Rielly said.

“We have seen the data. There is no question that in DMAs across the country, urban and rural, certain high-tech companies are taking an increasing share of local advertising. Yet, when, God forbid, two television or two radio stations in a market seek to combine, DOJ absolutely refuses to consider the existence of non-broadcast ad sales in its overall analysis.”

And he opined on the First Amendment, criticizing “certain opportunists” who claim to advocate for the amendment “but who are only willing to defend it when convenient and constantly shift its meaning to fit their current political objectives.”

He said, “We should all reject demands, in the name of the First Amendment, for private actors to curate or publish speech in a certain way. I shudder to think of a day in which the Fairness Doctrine could be reincarnated by some other name, especially at the ironic behest of so-called speech ‘defenders.’”

And he said the amendment’s protections apply to corporate entities, “especially when they engage in editorial decision making. It is time to stop allowing purveyors of First Amendment gibberish to claim they support more speech, when their actions make clear that they would actually curtail it through government action.”

O’Rielly’s nomination was recently approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and is awaiting action by the Senate. He is one of three Republicans on the five-member commission.

[Read O’Rielly’s text on the FCC website.]

The post O’Rielly Deems FCC Diversity Rules “a Complete Failure” appeared first on Radio World.

Codecs — and the remote, distribution and STL applications they serve — have seen a great deal of change in the last decade … or, perhaps more accurately, several waves of change.

Radio World’s new ebook explores this topic. In putting it together we sought input from equipment manufacturers and users in the field, asking them to describe recent trends, discuss how the technologies are being used and predict where they’re going next.

How are today’s technologies solving problems in new ways? How has the pandemic changed these trends further? What should someone know if they haven’t bought a codec or STL system in some time?

The experts we interviewed bring perspectives from organizations including 2wcom, AEQ, Barix, Comrex, Cumulus, Educational Media Foundation, Entercom, GatesAir, In: Quality, Multitech Consulting, SCA, the Telos Alliance and Tieline.

The transportation of high-quality digital audio has never been easier.

Read it here.

The post Trends in Codecs and STLs for 2020 appeared first on Radio World.

Radio companies are moving with caution when it comes to reopening their facilities; we checked in with a bunch of them. Also, Robbie Green shares lessons about station resiliency from his experiences in Houston. Switzerland moves closer to its FM shutdown. Buyer’s Guide looks at consoles and routers. And we present more “Radio at 100” history coverage: Tom Vernon recalls two classic Gates products, while John Schneider surveys the role of women in the early years of U.S. radio.

Read it online 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.

New Gear

Summer of Products

Nine new or recent introductions you won’t want to miss, from Tieline, Henry Engineering, Wheatstone, Telos Alliance, Marketron, Lawo, Burk, StreamGuys and Digital Alerting Systems.

Metadata

Digital Radio Has Expanded Community Messaging

Xperi highlights the ways that broadcasters have used HD Radio metadata to convey information related to the virus.

Also in this issue:

• Remembering the Gates Sta Level and SA-39B
• Switzerland Inches Closer to FM Switch-Off
• “COVID Virginia” Was a Volunteer Miracle 

The post Inside the July 22 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

The author is the former chairman and chief executive of Greater Media.

The COVID-19 crisis has been devastating across multiple sectors of the U.S. economy — and the renewed threat posed by resurging rates of infection is troubling.

In the broadcast industry, where I’ve spent most of my professional career, big challenges are hitting radio markets and station groups all over the U.S., including in San Diego, America’s 16th largest radio market.

Total radio listenership in San Diego has been down by 40 percent, with commercial revenue plummeting and operating budgets slashed as a result. You’ve seen significant layoffs at radio stations and the disappearance of beloved on-air personalities with decades of listener engagement in San Diego.

This unprecedented series of events will test broadcast company leadership like nothing we have seen — in San Diego and nationwide. The broadcast industry is pivoting dramatically before our very eyes. So too are the restaurant and hospitality business, transportation and common carrier travel, retail, personal services and many other fields.

Stay close with your people

The transformative effect of COVID-19 on our economy won’t just be felt for a set period of time. It will change some businesses forever, inspire or motivate creative ideas for managing this new reality, and sadly inflict damage enough to end many enterprises completely.

Whether it’s broadcasting, manufacturing, service industries or retail, you cannot manage what you don’t understand. And the only way to genuinely understand how transformative events impact your team is stay as close to them and communicate with them as much as possible. That means reaching out and connecting daily with the men and women that make your company work. It means being present for them and being counted alongside them.

I’ve seen a number of incredibly valuable information tools emerge in the roughly five-month period during which COVID-19 has altered our social, behavioral and economic landscape.

This April piece from Harvard Business Review by three ghSMART management consultants demonstrates that the most important goal of managing through a crisis event is taking good care of your team. Significantly, these experts suggest that acting definitively with speed over precision is often necessary to keep pace with fast-evolving and impactful events.

A similarly timed report from MIT’s Sloan Management Review notes the importance of team leaders or middle-tier managers as organizational figures that “set the tone and serve as the voice of reality.”

What these company figures say and share and how they lead can be more influential than the actual CEO or other top-tier leadership. “Support the organizational stance; if you bash the organization or its leadership, employees will lose trust,” writes consultant Amy Leschke-Kahle, the piece’s author. “They need to be able to rely on their immediate leader for honesty and stability.”

And finally, consultant Jack McGuiness writes in Chief Executive magazine that practicing “positive accountability” is the most effective method for supporting teams working through unusual or uncomfortable circumstances. Bottom line: if you need to get someone back on track, begin the conversation with the things they are doing well.

Company or workplace leaders should be staying connected both literally and emotionally with their employees. Hold weekly town halls via Zoom or other remote technology. Have informal meetups online and make unexpected calls to staff just to check in and see how they are doing.

And always, always, be honest and forthright about what is happening with the economy and your company. In good times and in bad. When the news is encouraging or when the news is devastating.
There will inevitably be tough decisions made during such a 100-year economic weather event. But always remember to treat your people as you would wish to be treated. Information is an asset, not a liability. Share it properly and your team will hang in there with you.

Peter H. Smyth is now a senior consultant to American Media and is a member of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Read more about radio and the pandemic. 

The post Smyth: Stay Connected With Your Employees appeared first on Radio World.

The author is support engineer at À Punt Radio.

VALENCIA, Spain — À Punt Radio is part of the Corporació Valenciana de Mitjans de Comunicació. In the recent past we have been supplied by AEQ with an IP audio network based on Dante technology.

We have worked really hard to define and implement a solution that is flexible, reliable, easy to use and maintain, and long-lasting all at the same time.

The Central Control Room

Though the system features automatic Dante redundancy, we are planning a parallel AES/EBU digital-audio network to provide for an emergency audio contingency that would allow operation and broadcasting to continue via some simple patch switching.

Routing is performed by an AEQ BC2000 digital audio matrix with TDM technology, IP connected with Dante to the studios. The destination is Forum Split digital mixers. Two of these studios, dedicated to live music and music editing, incorporate an additional Yamaha TF1 console connected through the Dante network.

In the central control room are two AEQ SysTel IP broadcast telephone systems, three audio codecs, two radio multi-receivers, two DVB-S2 (HD satellite) and DVB-C/T (cable and DVB-T, both in HD) receivers, and two TV sets, monitoring selector, two dual VU meters, two EBU monitors, two FM program and one streaming processors.

Also, there are two main monitors for central control room listening, the BC 2000D audio matrix and two Netbox 32 audio-over-IP interfaces. The audio matrix installed is a scalable AEQ BC2000D router. It mixes, distributes and processes audio using TDM technology, sized with a total of 352 inputs and 352 outputs, 256 of which are AoIP Dante, 64 are AES/EBU digital and 32 are analog.

Eight patch panels are the matrix and AoIP interface inputs and outputs from and to analog and AES/EBU digital equipment connected to the matrix and AoIP. Also, an AES/EBU input and output from each studio is connected, providing an emergency wiring path.

There are four deployed IP networks: main Dante audio-over-IP network; a secondary Dante network; voice/telephony IP network connected to the WAN provided by the telco; and the control network for all the devices.

The CPUs for all computers can be seen in the central control room: the ones providing service in the central control room and the ones serving the controls, studios and booths using KVM extenders.

Typical wiring between the central control room and each studio is composed of:

• Two video distribution cables (plus four more for the cameras in the Studios 1 and 3);
• 16 Ethernet cables for primary Dante AoIP; secondary Dante AoIP; IP telephony system’s handset; studio’s AES/EBU audio input/output; four KVM extensions; two cables for the device IP control network; one more for the audio matrix control panel; and five spare cables.

For journalist booths, wiring is simpler, with only eight Ethernet cables plus the two video ones.

A design criterion shared by AEQ and À Punt Radio is not to skimp on Ethernet wiring so the networks can be physically separated, greatly simplifying configuration and maintenance, reducing failures, providing physical redundancies and leaving available infrastructure left for future implementations.

Four radio studios have been installed around a Forum IP Split broadcast digital mixer, with 16 faders, and a separate audio engine. Forum Screen software application was added to help control, as well as an R128 loudness meter. The console communicates with the central control room using Dante, Netbox interfaces and other AoIP devices. It features analog microphone, line and headphone inputs/outputs and AES/EBU I/O to connect to the rest of equipment.

Also, two studios have been equipped with a camera automation system to produce visual radio by means of data command through the mixer’s Ethernet interface.

Communications management (including VoIP telephony and IP/ISDN audio codecs) is performed using their respective control software. SysTel IP management application was installed on a PC with touchscreen. Audio codecs are controlled using AEQ’s Control Phoenix, a dedicated piece of software.

All the required local devices (CD and USB media players, effects modules, active monitors, etc.) have also been included.

Journalist Booths

For radio journalists Capitol mixing consoles are installed.

A TV set connected to the console, allows for direct recording of radio and TV broadcasted signals. A Tascam playback/recording unit is used to insert and extract audio files. A broadcast telephone system terminal, allows interfacing calls with the automation system or sending them on air.

Besides the central control room matrix input and outputs, audio signals from any other location on the network can be requested for recording and/or editing. In the same way outgoing lines to the matrix allows the sharing of live work with any other studio or even putting it on air directly if required.

Installation of the equipment was by AEQ System Engineering Dept. under the coordination of Bernardo Saiz, supervised by Francisco Calabuig and the rest of engineers at À Punt Comunicació.

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 in the United States, contact AEQ Broadcast International in Florida at 1-800-728-0536 or visit www.aeqbroadcast.com. Elsewhere contact Gustavo Robles at AEQ in Spain at +34-91-686-1300 or visit www.aeq.eu.

The post User Report: À Punt Radio Relies on AEQ appeared first on Radio World.

Small group owner Adams Radio Group has announced a change at its Salisbury/Ocean City Md., cluster.

Market Director of Sales Johnette Cochran has been promoted to vice president/general manager of the market group.

[Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com]

Adams Radio Group CEO Ron Stone said, “ She walked into a market and found herself operating as the top management person on site in the most unusual

of circumstances. She has proven herself during these ‘worst of times’ to be not only a terrific sales leader but also a terrific leader in general. I could not be prouder of what she has accomplished in the past six months and cannot wait to see the results as she is now fully unleashed.”

Cochran has worked in the past for Townsquare Media, Alpha Media and Guaranty Media.

Adams Radio of Delmarva includes WGBG(FM), WOCQ(FM), WUSX(FM) and WZBH(FM).

The post Cochran Promoted at Adams Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World will participate in September’s “Best of Show Awards Virtual Edition,” which normally is conducted at this time around the annual IBC show.

The program is intended to honor outstanding products and help raise awareness for the new products and services, this year honoring products launched or featured around the virtual IBC Showcase event.

The awards are supported by Future’s media and entertainment technology brands TVBEurope, PSN, Radio World and TV Technology.

Until Sept. 2, manufacturers and retailers can nominate products that have launched since the 2019 awards.

For more information about the Best of Show 2020 Virtual Edition, visit the FAQ page. To nominate, visit the official website.

The post Nominations Open for Best of Show Virtual Edition, Fall 2020 appeared first on Radio World.