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The article “Fires, Your Station and You” by Buc Fitch was a great reminder to take a look around and introduce some common sense into planning for something we hope never happens — a fire.

As the chief of a volunteer fire department, I see lots of foolish and sometimes even borderline criminal things. Our mantra, unfortunately, is “You can’t fix stupid.”

Here are a couple of quick items to add to the sensible fire safety suggestions in that article:

1. All of that wiring and plastic in your station gives off nasty gases when it burns; and though the smoke from plenum rated cable is supposed to be “less toxic,” they stop short of calling it “non-toxic.” Even if the smoke is not obscuring your vision, there’s a good chance you are breathing stuff that your life insurance carrier would prefer you do not. If you can’t knock down a fire quickly with a single extinguisher, consider backing out; and make sure you close the door to limit the oxygen supply to the fire. That last part is very important. As you plan your fire escape strategy with staff, make sure they understand that exiting the building and leaving every door wide open is a great way to provide all the oxygen that a fire needs to spread.
2. Call the fire department — not when your station is already on fire, but before anything happens. Most fire departments are happy to do a “pre-plan” walk-through with you, which may also buy you some good will when they point out that you have code violations. Keep in mind that should those violations be discovered after you have a fire and someone is seriously hurt, the consequences will be significantly more unpleasant than the embarrassment of discovering them as you walk through with the fire department.
3. A pre-plan will not only be informative for you and management but will also give the fire department an opportunity to see the layout of your facility and identify any hazards that might lurk there when they do respond with your building full of smoke and time is of the essence.
4. Fire extinguishers need to be checked and recharged. Since you are going to pay someone to do so, consider having your staff practice with them as part of your ongoing maintenance cycle. The time to learn how to use one correctly is NOT when you actually need to use one.

While on the subject of not learning things when you need to use them, consider bringing in a CPR instructor to do a class for your staff. One of your fellow employees might save your life, and they will certainly be grateful if they save a family member using training you forced them to take.

Ron Kumetz N1WT

Director of Engineering, Broadcast Devices Inc.

Alburgh, Vt.

The post You Can’t Fix Stoopid: Fire Safety Suggestions for Radio appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that IPAWS-OPEN release 3.10 went live on Dec. 18, offering several new enhancements, including support for 360-character alerts.

WEA, or Wireless Emergency Alerts, is used to send warnings about dangerous weather, missing children and other emergency situations to the public via their wireless phones and mobile devices.

The latest version of WEA also supports Spanish-language alerts, the ability to reach 100% of a targeted area without an overshoot of more than 1/10 of a mile as well as enhancements to the WEA test and public safety categories.

However, leveraging the enhancements requires more than an update to IPAWS, FEMA said. Wireless provides will need to update their networks nationwide, their customers’ phones and the software authorities rely upon to send alerts.

While the IPAWS Program Management Office (PMO) has tested and confirmed wireless providers can receive enhanced WEA messages from IPAWS, it will take time for wireless customers around the country to receive enhanced WEA on their phones, FEMA said.

IPAWS PMO also has confirmed that most of the software used by alerting authorities around the country has been upgraded and tested by FEMA; however, it is possible that not all of the alerting authorities are ready to write alerts taking advantage of the new WEA enhancements, FEMA said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued his own statement about the WEA update:

“One of my key public safety priorities has been to ensure that America’s emergency alerting system meets the needs of public safety officials and the communities they serve. With these improvements, Wireless Emergency Alerts are now an even more powerful tool for emergency managers to warn and protect the public. These improvements respond to input we’ve received from the public safety community and will help save lives.”

This is expansion of mobile services is part of the architecture for delivery information during emergencies that broadcasters also take part in.

More information is available by emailing FEMA IPAWS PMO.

 

The post Latest Enhancements For Wireless Emergency Alerts Go Live appeared first on Radio World.

An important note for all TV and radio broadcasters — if you aren’t keeping up your online public file, penalties may be headed your way.

In March 2018, radio and television stations were required to transition their public inspection files to an online public inspection file system, or OPIF. The Federal Communications Commission told the National Association of Broadcasters that not only have some broadcasters failed to keep their files up to date but some broadcasters have not even started the process by activating their online public file.

While the FCC has apparently emailed warning notices to some stations, the NAB is strongly advising stations to take action now by confirming that they are correctly complying with current public file rules, according to a blog post by the Alabama Broadcasters Association.

[Read: AM Station Hit with $15,000 Forfeiture After Public File Lapse]

According to the ABA, FCC staff are now in the process of reviewing the online public file system for those still lacking an online public file, checking for dormant online public files, and looking for required items that are missing or late-filed.

It’s important to note that materials entered into the OPIF system are time- and date-stamped, so timely filing is essential. According to ABA, those out of compliance should expect to incur a fine.

“Significantly, the license renewal cycle is well underway for radio stations, and failure to properly maintain the public file takes on additional importance because stations must certify that their public file has been complete and up-to-date at all times during the license term, or disclose violations,” the ABA said in a newsletter to its member stations. “The FCC considers a lack of candor in renewal applications an extremely serious violation.”

In addition to fines, an incomplete online public file can lead to delays in the license renewal process.

Broadcasters should also closely focus on uploading their Quarterly Issues/Program lists, which show exactly how a station has addressed the needs and interests of its community. These lists must track issues and programs starting with the very first year in a station’s typical eight-year license term. “Failure to comply can be extremely costly,” the ABA said.

Stations should also promptly upload other required materials including their annual EEO Public File Reports and children’s television reports.

Keep in mind too that attempting to avoid enforcement by uploading the lists after their due date — without disclosure this the FCC — may increase the enforcement liability. The public can track online which stations have most recently uploaded public files on the FCC’s database.

The first place to start if you don’t know where to begin? Talk to your station’s legal counsel.

 

The post Out-of-Date Online Files Being Investigated by FCC appeared first on Radio World.

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Synthax has hired Michael Descoteau to serve in the new broadcast sales manager position, effective Jan. 2. He will report to Managing Director Mathias von Heydekampf.

Prior to this role, Descoteau served as director of broadcast sales for Dale Pro Audio. He focused on developing and implementing IP networking, including Dante, AoIP and VoIP.

Von Heydekampf called Descoteau’s appointment “opportune” in a press release, as the company works to scale up its broadcast offerings. He said, “Michael brings an impressive set of capabilities and experience to his new role having worked in top sales capacities as well as alongside systems integrators and others in the broadcasting field.”

In the announcement, Descoteau said, “The broadcast market is already highly dependent on IP technology. Synthax’s diverse lineup of products are able to help companies accelerate their success in a range of broadcast verticals, including sports, entertainment, government and more.”

Synthax currently distributes RME, Ferrofish, myMix, Appsys Pro Audio and Digigram products.

 

The post Synthax Hires Michael Descoteau appeared first on Radio World.

If you’re not feeling festive, the performance space at Bonneville International’s Sacramento cluster will definitely put you in the holiday spirit.

Director of Engineering Jason Ornellas and his engineering and IT teams set up a Christmas display that would be the envy of any engineer and might even get you craving some eggnog and cookies, along with Christmas carols.

Ornellas shared photos of the decorations on LinkedIn, where he wrote that the “Engineering & IT Department got into the holiday spirit with our throwback tree with a fog machine and all. I get to work with the best team everyday and looking forward to what 2020 brings us.”

According to Ornellas, the tree is outfitted with “mic flags, inner transmission line bullet, heliax cable with N connector, Serial cable, Cat 6 cable, surge protector, CDs, terminal strips” and more. Nearby, they set up “a fog machine feeding into the JBL speaker so smokes comes through the tweeter,” he added. 

[Read about another unconventional — but awesome — radio station decoration]

If your station’s decorated for the holiday season, we’d love to see photos and may even feature them on our website or social media. Send pics to radioworld@futurenet.com or DM us via @radioworld_news on Twitter and @RadioWorldMagazine on Facebook.

The post Check Out How Bonneville Sacramento Celebrates Christmas appeared first on Radio World.

As a loyal Radio World reader you are entitled to something more than the mere rantings of a third-tier ex-disc jockey. Thus I’m going to share with you the coolest Christmas event we ever ran during my so-called radio career. Feel free to steal it!

Today, many stations might be tempted to tie this promotion in with some politically correct charity such as the free shoes program for underprivileged Albanians. Some stations will try to share it with the other 300 stations in their chain and together give away one trip to watch Leonardo DiCaprio’s jet spew carbon emissions all over the world. None of that is necessary. The beauty of this idea is its simplicity.

In the ’60s and ’70s you may remember an inexpensive device called a color organ. You could buy one in kit form from Radio Shack for about $12. The basic part was a frequency splitter, though it was often installed inside a speaker-like box with a fogged plastic front and multicolored lights on the inside which lit at select frequencies, creating a light show on the plastic panel.

With a little patience you could connect it to a radio under your Christmas tree and drive a string of holiday lights, watching the bulbs respond to the different frequencies in the music. In our case bass tones triggered blue lights, mid-tones caused the green lights to pulse and high notes made the red lights blink. Now I don’t know anything about this first-hand but I heard that if one were stoned this was a very special treat to watch.

Far out, man!

At WOHO(AM), Toledo, Ohio, we had a gifted engineer, Bob Sowers, who did this on a larger scale. He connected a color organ to a radio, and ran the audio into a string of 150 large outdoor display lights.

[Read: Adventures in 1970s Radio: How Desperate Was I?]

Once he got it to work, we could put our plan into action. After receiving permission from a local strip mall we erected a 40-foot blue spruce tree in its parking lot about two weeks before Christmas, and hired a cherry picker to drape our lights over the entire tree. At the base of the spruce was a locked box that contained a radio that was hard-wired to receive our station. Our air signal was sent to the lights via the color organ. We also blasted WOHO through some PA speakers near the tree. Every night we sent someone over to turn on what we dubbed “The WOHO Carol Tree” at sunset.

It was magic.

The public turned out by the thousands to sit in the dark, listen to our station on their car radios in the parking lot and watch the colorful pulsing lights with fascination. Guys took their girlfriends there to make out; parents took their kids because it was cheaper than a drive-in movie. Every evening from sundown until about midnight, for several winters in a row, ours was the hottest ticket in town.

One song in particular, “Green Tambourine” by the Lemon Pipers, had a pulsing drumbeat that was memorable to witness in living color. Our jocks were aware of this and played the song every hour because it drove the crowds wild. Even commercials were fun to “watch.”

I think the tree cost the station about $400. The crane rental and construction of the lights (which could be stored and used again) was about $450. Permission from the shopping center: free.

It was a groovy way to celebrate the season so I shout: on, Donder, on Sneezy, on Zeppo! And a free-range, gluten-free Christmas to you all!

Ken Deutsch was a DJ in the days of three Bs: bubblegum, Beach Boys and Beatles. He is now a closed-caption transcriber and advocate for the deaf/hard of hearing.

 

The post Adventures in 1970s Radio: The WOHO Carol Tree appeared first on Radio World.

TiVo and Xperi are entering into a happy new union, with the two companies announcing that that have agreed to combine in an all-stock merger that values at $3 billion. Together, they say they will create a “leading consumer and entertainment technology business and one of the industry’s largest intellectual property licensing platforms with a diverse portfolio of entertainment and semiconductor intellectual property.”

With this merger, TiVo is expected to provide its content aggregation, discovery and recommendation capabilities with Xperi’s product capabilities in the home, automotive and mobile device ecosystems, helping consumers enjoy content anywhere, anytime, the two sides said.

The intellectual property licensing platform that will be offered by this newly formed company will reportedly serve markets in entertainment content, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and includes more than 10,000 patents and applications between TiVo and Xperi, TiVo said.

“There is more content, and more ways to enjoy that content, than ever before,” said David Shull, CEO of TiVo. “In a rapidly expanding and fragmenting digital universe, consumers want and need to be able to easily find and enjoy the content that matters to them. TiVo has always been the company that brings entertainment together. Now, we can significantly expand our mission. With Xperi’s annual licensing of more than 100 million connected TV units, and complementary relationships with major content providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and automotive OEMs, our combined company will transform the home, car and mobile entertainment experience for the consumer.”

The new parent company will take the Xperi name but will still provide entertainment services under the TiVo brand, alongside Xperi’s DTS, HD Radio and IMAX Enhanced brands.

This merger will take the place of TiVo’s plans announced earlier this year that it was going to separate its product and IP licensing business.

Jon Kirchner, Xperi’s CEO, will take on the same role in the new parent company, with Xperi CFO Robert Andersen also serving as the parent company’s CFO. Shull is tapped with continuing as a strategic advisor to help out with the transition.

The merger has been agreed to by the board of directors of both companies and is expected to close during the second quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals.

The post Xperi Announces $3B Merger With TiVo appeared first on Radio World.

SiriusXM with 360L — the “L” presumably stands for “Listening [experience]”? — is the rebranded and extended form of the satcaster’s user interface and platform. It “delivers content via both satellite and streaming” in and out of the car, SiriusXM says. (Both a Connected Access plan and a SiriusXM All Access or Select subscription are required.) 

Note that dash photos do show AM and FM radio buttons.

[Read about SiriusXM’s Pandora purchase] An excerpt from a tip sheet SiriusXM created for car dealers to promote the SiriusXM with 360L rollout.

“SiriusXM with 360L transforms the way we listen to audio in the car by marrying our satellite network to embedded connectivity in vehicles. This allows for significantly more channels and choices,” SiriusXM Sales and Automotive EVP Steve Cook said in a press release.

360L debuted with the 2019 Ram 1500, and is now poised to massively increase its footprint. General Motors says SiriusXM will be included in 13 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC 2020 model year vehicles, adding up to about 1 million automobiles.

Based on the platform and app’s capabilities, it seems SiriusXM has integrated technology and know-how it gained through its 2019 Pandora acquisition. In addition to the 200+ live SiriusXM channels, 360L features on-demand programming options, content recommendations, sports play-by-play and official game broadcasts. The platform also enables “multiple drivers and passengers to customize and maintain their own presets and favorites” through individual vehicle profiles. Profiles can be tweaked in-car or using the SiriusXM app, or U.S. customers with a Remote Access Plan can designate “favorites” through apps specific to their vehicle’s make, which will then sync to the linked infotainment system. 

The apps can also be used to manage SiriusXM subscriptions, and GM says it will offer a free three-month trial of SiriusXM with 360L to those who buy the equipped 2020 vehicles. 

360L also appears to be the next step to increasing SiriusXM’s automotive presence after the 2018 launch of its Automatic connectivity service for car dealers.

The post General Motors Adds SiriusXM With 360L to Some 2020 Models appeared first on Radio World.

WMMS’ Cleveland Buzzard hatched 45 years ago, the product of a rebrand idea from Program Director John Gorman and Music Director Denny Sanders, executed by artist David Helton. 

Helton hadn’t planned on creating this “rock star” for WMMS — he had originally sent in a complaint about the station’s programming — in the form of a cartoon.  The move caught John Gorman’s attention, and the rest is history. 

The Buzzard was introduced in the alternative weekly, Zeppelin, in April 1974 (shown at left). The public embraced him, and the popularity of the rock radio station skyrocketed, with the Buzzard at the helm. Over the years, the Buzzard appeared on all manner of swag, large and small:  bumper stickers, shirts, glassware, mugs, and even vehicles. He represented WMMS in print and TV ads, billboards, parade floats and murals. He also had his own publication — The Buzzard News — an internal comic that tracked what was happening at the station in the 1970s. 

The Buzzard is still a WMMS, and Cleveland, icon even as the station celebrated its 50th birthday in 2018. The station is currently owned by iHeartMedia. 

Helton hasn’t been an employee of Malrite Communications, then owner of WMMS, since 1989, but he didn’t have to dig too deep to draw a special illustration for a feature story in the Cleveland Scene (left). The Buzzard may be older, but he’s not forgotten. 

For Buzzard fans who want to get a little nostalgic, Helton is selling some of his vintage swag online. Visit www.davidheltonillustration.com.

REFERENCES

Learn more by reading these articles:

• www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/08/16/a-brief-history-of-the-wmms-buzzard
• www.chattanoogapulse.com/buzzard-luck/
• https://buzzardbook.wordpress.com/

The post See the Evolution of the “WMMS Buzzard” appeared first on Radio World.

AMSTERDAM — Visitors to the main radio area of the recent IBC exhibition may have noticed a striking hand-drawn white cardboard stand in the adjacent “Future Zone.”

The hand-drawn cardboard Project MARCONI stand at IBC2019.

This was the home of Project MARCONI [Multimedia and Augmented Radio Creation: Online, iNteractive, Individual] and HRadio, both funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

The project consortium includes public broadcasters NPO in the Netherlands, and Belgium-based VRT, alongside technology companies and academic partners. Together, they aim to improve radio experiences by enabling fully interactive and personalized radio solutions, integrating broadcast radio with digital and social media.

Rik Bauwens is lead developer for VRT Innovation.

PERSONALIZED RADIO SOLUTIONS

In a live demonstration at IBC, MARCONI highlighted the technologies behind the project: different software tools integrated in a dashboard, using AI-powered chatbots and content analysis. The project showed engagement with listener content by replying to messages, dragging and dropping them into the radio program, and playing their footage on a screen on the other side of the stand.

Rik Bauwens, lead developer for VRT Innovation, describes how the project came about. “MARCONI was preceded by the ICoSOLE project, which focused on user-generated content during live events. For MARCONI, we narrowed this down to music events, such as festivals, in a radio context. Together with some of the ICoSOLE partners, additional technical companies, radio software provider Pluxbox, and radio teams from VRT and NPO, we drafted the MARCONI project.”

Bauwens explains that matching novel technological solutions such as face detection and chatbots to a contemporary radio workflow was the biggest challenge for the project.

“To address this, we started by organizing co-creation workshops with both radio content producers and their listeners. Subsequently, we held observations with radio teams at VRT and NPO to get to know their current tools. We adopted an agile development process with week-long sprints and a stand-up with project partners every Monday, to continually evaluate and adjust our prototypes.”

EXPERIMENTATION

The EU funding has also been helpful, he adds. “First, it allows us to experiment next to a live radio production; it gives us the freedom to start over very quickly if needed. Second, it allows us to organize open piloting with other radio stations in Europe, to get even more feedback.”

VRT is involved in both Project MARCONI and HRadio. “The use cases are different but complement each other very well,” explains Bauwens.

“MARCONI focuses on creating tools for radio-makers to handle novel ways of interaction with their audience. HRadio offers an end-user experience for radio listeners, such as rewinding live radio, participating in polls via DAB+ using a radio webview and so on.”

The aim for MARCONI is to offer a new toolset to radio stations by the end of the project in March 2020, with open pilots taking place until then. “Possibly, MARCONI gets a sequel in the years to come,” VRT’s Bauwens says. “Aside from interaction, visualization and extensive automation would be important topics for us.”

The post Project MARCONI Brings Stations Closer to Listeners appeared first on Radio World.