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The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

The last 10 days have seen fears escalate dramatically as news of the spread of coronavirus took center stage. The U.S. stock market tumbled. Japanese schools and industries came to a standstill. International diplomacy was tested in countries with travel to and from Asia. Coronavirus fears even entered the Democratic debates and the impending U.S. national election. To get a sense of the tensions worldwide, the New York Times set up a page of rolling updates.

While coronavirus has yet to strike the United States, many officials have said the illness’ arrival is only a matter of time. Such fears should only prompt federal, state and county leaders nationwide to ensure their area noncommercial media, including community radio, is at the table.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Looking Up]

As I have written in past columns, community radio plays a crucial role in emergency preparedness. In rural areas, we are at times the only live, local media available. When there is misinformation and uncertainty, trusted local voices can make a huge difference and avert further tragedy.

With more attention squarely on emergency preparedness, now is the time to clearly state the necessity of noncommercial media.

America’s Public Television Stations President Pat Butler made the case for noncommercial media as an important partner in federal efforts to protect the public. His remarks came amid news that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be seeking support from the Department of Homeland Security for the first time.

“After 10 years of making do or doing without, that situation needs to change,” Butler said, according to Current. Given the rise in potential health emergencies, along with the earthquakes, fires and other calamities nonprofit media outlets inform the public about, funding for radio appears overdue.

The Federal Communications Commission has done regular check-ups on the nationwide Emergency Alert System. While the latest FCC analysis indicates compliance improvements, the General Accounting Office says more must be done. Moreover we can’t pretend everyone’s mobile phones will do the trick. Radio remains central to people globally, and America must fast-track community media in its emergency preparedness planning.

By the way, the 10 years Butler is referring to is the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, which Congress eliminated in 2010. PTFP helped many stations make tremendous infrastructure strides. Many stations need federal investment to make sure their communities are safe.

Some states are already on the move related to this matter. California Gov. Gavin Newsom stated radio is a big part of preparedness in his state as those travelling overseas return. New York State is also including radio as part of its response and education endeavors.

However, station leaders should not wait to be called. Touch base with county and state leaders. Reach out to members of Congress in your region. There is no greater service you can provide than stepping up in a time of need.

 

The post Community Broadcaster: Coronavirus Education appeared first on Radio World.

There was a lot of talk about “deleveraging balance sheets” and “improving capital structure,” but iHeartMedia’s fourth quarter 2019 earnings call on Thursday gave little new insight into the transformative shift in business operations the broadcaster announced in January.

iHeartMedia, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2019, said its modernization initiatives will take advantage of new technologies in order to create operating efficiencies, according to the company’s earnings statement. iHeartMedia let go over 1,000 employees last month and said it will create what company executives call “AI-enabled Centers of Excellence” located in select cities. According to the company’s 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it still has 11,400 employees.

[Read: iHeart Defends Painful Change]

Those modernization initiatives at iHeartMedia, which operates 856 radio stations in approximately 160 markets, are expected to deliver $100 million in cost savings for the company by the middle of 2021, according to Thursday’s financial release.

Analysts during Thursday’s earnings call raised the issue of localism and whether iHeartMedia’s ratings could be hurt following all the staff cuts.

“We don’t think the quality will go down, but rather it will go up. We want the best programming in each market. Distance is no longer an issue in our business and our ability to project the best talent we have to any location any time is a substantial advantage for us,” said Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.

iHeartMedia did disclose it anticipates seeing its real estate expenses jumping this year as it consolidates some broadcast facilities and downsizes others.

“Our investments in these modernization initiatives are expected to result in an increase in incremental capital expenditures related to real estate optimization of approximately $40 to $50 million in 2020. While we expect some additional capital expenditures impact from our modernization in 2021, the majority of this investment in capital expenditures is expected to impact 2020 and to be weighted to the second-half of the year.”

He added, “Additionally, we anticipate approximately $45 to $55 million of restructuring costs related to achieving our cost savings,” the company said in its financial statement.”

Overall revenue for the company came in flat for the fourth quarter of 2019 at $1.0261 billion compared to $1.0263 billion in Q4 2018. Broadcast revenue declined 2.7% in the last quarter to $611.79 million compared to Q4 2018, according to financial statements. Part of that drop is attributable to less political ad revenue in 2019, company executives said. Broadcast remains the company’s largest source of revenue.

For the year in 2019 overall revenue for iHeartMedia was $3.6 billion, up 2.0% from the previous year. Broadcast revenue for the year dipped overall by 1.4% to $2.2 billion.

“As the number one audio company in the U.S. based on reach, we look forward to expanding our unequaled multiplatform leadership position and leveraging the investments that we have made to modernize our infrastructure and become more efficient, effective and competitive,” Pittman said.

Premiere Networks and Total Traffic & Weather, both owned by iHeartMedia, generated revenue of $614.7 million in 2019 compare to $582.3 million in 2018, according to the company’s financials.

The broadcaster, which also owns online music service iHeartRadio, has seen its stock price drop this week right along with most of the market. Thursday’s price closed at $14.96, a slide of 6.1% for the day. It’s carrying $5.3 billion in debt even after emerging from bankruptcy protection just last year.

Pittman said the “audio environment has never been more exciting,” and at least part of his excitement can be traced to podcasting. The company did see gains in digital revenue, which were driven mainly by podcasting. iHeartMedia is the largest commercial podcast publisher, according to Podtrac, a third-party download service. Digital topped $376 million in revenue for the year, which is an increase of 32.2% over 2018.

 

The post iHeartMedia Gives Few Details on Modernization Plan appeared first on Radio World.

Play-by-play announcer Greg Wrubell, pregame and postgame show host Ben Bagley and color analyst Riley Nelson team up with the Tieline ViA.

The author is senior broadcast radio engineer for BYU Broadcasting.

PROVO, Utah — In the fall of 2016, as a senior broadcast engineer, I was given the engineering responsibility for studio and transmission functions for the radio stations at BYU Broadcasting, which is located on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah. The radio stations consist of KBYU(FM) 89.1 MHz HD, BYU Radio HD2, and KUMT(FM) 107.9 KHz. 

At the broadcast center, BYU Radio, in concert with the BYU Athletics department, produce and provide play-by-play and game analysis, for football, basketball, soccer and baseball games live over air, including webstreams. In 2018, we also assumed responsibility for the distribution of our live sporting events to our radio affiliates. 

With this new responsibility added to the mix of our radio sports operation, there was a separate request to increase the number of live sporting events. This means we can air two, occasionally three, different sporting events simultaneously. However, we can’t hire four or five remote engineers and send them jet setting across the USA — that cost was not an option for us. But there was another way. 

With the exception of football, our sports announcers are required to travel with the remote mixing gear, and then mix/engineer their own shows.

Of course, that is a double-edged sword! Doing this reduces the amount of engineers needed to travel, but then you are relying on your talent to have at least some basic audio mixing skills.

SOLUTION

To perform this miracle, I needed to find a magical box. A remote unit that would be ridiculously easy to use, insanely versatile and, last of all, be intrinsically redundant like never before. 

When I attended the NAB Show last year, I visited the Tieline booth. I had previously purchased a Tieline product called Merlin. What a great name for a product that comes from a company that I consider to be the wizards of remote connectivity.

I was so impressed with this unit, I wanted to give Tieline the first crack at this unknown magic box I had conjured up, a Swiss Army Knife of radio remote codec units. I was not expecting to get all of the requirements on my list checked off. Well, to my amazement Tieline did have one such unit in its arsenal of remote weaponry: the ViA. 

I have no idea why it’s called the ViA, but after my demo, ViA stands for Very Intelligent Apparatus. My magic box was a reality. 

ViA is a compact unit that can handle a three-headset mix, plus one aux bus that can have analog, digital, or USB sources routed to it. It features a beautiful touchscreen display that makes navigating menus a breeze and is equipped with a good size rechargeable battery, which will keep you on the air and running when the power goes out. (Trust me I know.) It includes AGC, compression, gating, filters, EQ on each channel. Also, there’s a built-in SD card stereo/mono recorder and playback device with full library recall, custom playlist option, mixing ability and a full blown matrix and cue routing control. 

There are more features on this box that I could write about, but consider this: A person can take this little unit, add the new dual LTE module and three headsets on the road, set up in the middle of nowhere with no power, connect up with dual bonded LTE SIM cards and broadcast for two hours without a hitch. You’ll quickly become a believer in Tieline. ViA is the real deal. 

CCC 

Let me finish by commenting on a Tieline product that works with their remote gear line, which of course includes the ViA. This product is the Cloud Codec Controller. 

No matter where the ViA is located in the U.S., as long as it is turned on with an internet connection (LAN, LTE or wireless) and assigned an IP address, I will be able to connect to the unit via the CCC software and have complete control of it. And I really mean complete control, just as if I were standing right in front of the unit itself. 

That was the feature that won my full allegiance to the Tieline company. It gave me the peace of mind and confidence that sending the ViA on the road with no engineer, is not only doable, but is now the active protocol. In reality, there really is an engineer with the unit; he just happens to be sitting at his desk computer back at the station, making any necessary adjustments. 

The Tieline ViA was a golden find. As for Tieline, they are the Swiss Army Knife of remote radio broadcasting.

For information, contact Dawn Shewmaker at Tieline U.S. in Indiana at 1-888-211-6989 or visit www.tieline.com.

The post User Report: Tieline ViA Is a “Magical Box” appeared first on Radio World.

The term “automation” has come to mean so much more in 2020.

Radio World asked the sponsors of our new automation trends ebook to share their views on the state of their sector. We invited them to comment on what they are thinking about now and for systems in the future.

How far along is our industry in moving automation to the cloud, and what are next emerging steps?  What are the new most relevant features and capabilities that these systems are bringing to radio operations? How can you reduce your risk from ransomware? How are systems from various ecosystems working together? Will “the cloud” replace brick and mortar studios?

Read how they answered inside.

The post Trends in Automation for Radio: 2020 appeared first on Radio World.

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MB has unveiled the COALS and OPIF changes that will allow broadcasters, cable and OVS operators, and DBS providers to provide and update their carriage election contact information

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Heil Sound has launched its new PR 37 vocal microphone.

Aimed towards professional vocalists, the new microphone is said to have an upper mid-range response designed to cut through a mix. It features a 1.5-inch diameter dynamic element and has a frequency response from 50 Hz to 18 kHz and output level of -51 dB @ 1000 Hz.

The company worked with several FOH mix engineers, both with the initial design and subsequent field testing of the new microphone. John Hopkins, FOH for the bands Sleep, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, stated, “The PR 37 immediately moved to the top of the list for my go-to vocal mic. It’s a super transparent mic and the rejection of stage noise is incredible.”

Adam Pike, working with Red Fang noted, “The Heil PR 37 is a beast. Very rich and smooth low-mids along with the pristine high-mids that Heil is known for. The extremely sturdy casing is also a great added bonus.”

The PR 37 is expected to begin shipping in July, retailing at $269.

NAB Show Booth: C2956

Info: www.heilsound.com

 

The post NAB Sneak Peek: Heil Sound Debuts PR 37 Vocal Mic appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters has narrowed down the entries in this year’s NAB Crystal Radio Awards program to 50 finalists.

The finalists are:

• KBFB(FM) Dallas
• KCLY(FM) Clay Center, Kan.
• KKZY(FM) Bemidji, Minn.
• KMVP(FM) Phoenix
• KPWJ(FM) College Station, Texas
• KRMG(FM) Tulsa, Okla.
• KRSP(FM) Salt Lake City
• KRWM(FM) Bellevue, Wash.
• KSFI(FM) Salt Lake City
• KSL(FM) Salt Lake City
• KSTP(FM) St. Paul
• KTAR(FM) Phoenix
• KTMY(FM) St. Paul, Minn.
• KUBL(FM) Salt Lake City
• KUPD(FM) Phoenix
• KVTY(FM) Lewiston, Idaho
• KWHL(FM) Anchorage, Alaska
• KWLM(AM) Willmar, Minn.
• KXKT(FM) Omaha
• KZFN(FM) Moscow, Idaho
• KZKX(FM) Lincoln, Nebraska
• WBUL(FM) Lexington, Ky.
• WBYT(FM) South Bend, Ind.
• WBZZ(FM) Pittsburgh
• WCCO(AM) Minneapolis
• WDNS(FM) Bowling Green, Ky.
• WDRM(FM) Huntsville, Ala.
• WDSY(FM) Pittsburgh
• WFEZ(FM) Hollywood, Fla.
• WHPT(FM) St. Petersburg, Fla.
• WHUB(FM) Cookeville, Tenn.
• WHUR(FM) Washington, D.C.
• WIL(FM) St. Louis, Mo.
• WJJY(FM) Baxter, Minn.
• WKQI(FM) Detroit, Mich.
• WKRQ(FM) Cincinnati
• WLBC(FM) Muncie, Ind.
• WMCI(FM) Mattoon, Ill.
• WQNZ(FM) Natchez, Miss.
• WRBR(FM) South Bend, Ind.
• WREW(FM) Cincinnati, Ohio
• WSGW(AM) Saginaw, Mich.
• WSUN(FM) St. Petersburg, Fla.
• WTAW(AM) College Station, Texas
• WTFX(FM) Louisville, Ky.
• WTMJ(AM) Milwaukee
• WUBE(FM) Cincinnati
• WUSL(FM) Philadelphia
• WUSQ(FM) Winchester, Va.
• WWJ(AM) Detroit

Finalists and winners will be recognized Tuesday, April 21, at the We Are Broadcasters Celebration on the main stage at the 2020 NAB Show.

[Learn about the 2019 Crystal Radio Award winners]

Last month, NAB announced that Cedar Falls, Iowa’s KCVM(FM) will be honored with the Crystal Heritage Award.

The NAB Crystal Radio Awards were introduced in 1987 to highlight radio stations’ community service efforts.

The post 2020 Crystal Radio Awards: Finalists Announced appeared first on Radio World.

This article is updated periodically. We will add information as we learn more about the 2020 NAB Show and colocated events.

The 2020 NAB Show is scheduled for April 18–22 and will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The annual trade show is expected to draw some 90,000 attendees and more than 1,600 exhibitors to the Nevada desert to learn about broadcast and entertainment industry trends, experience new technology and research gear to purchase. 

BROADCAST ENGINEERING & IT CONFERENCE

The Broadcast Engineering & Information Technology Conference track begins Saturday, April 18 and runs through Wednesday, April 22. Sessions will be held in the North Hall Meeting Rooms of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

According to the NAB Show website, this year’s BEITC has a “decidedly forward-looking focus” due to technical presentations with an “emphasis on next-generation systems throughout the media-delivery ecosystem.”

BEITC education partners include IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, Society of Broadcast Engineers and the North American Broadcasters Association.

Find information about the agenda and speakers as the program is filled in on the BEITC page at the NAB Show website. 

KEYNOTES

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is scheduled to speak with NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith during the NAB Show Welcome event on Monday, April 20. According to the announcement, they will discuss communications policy issues currently on the FCC’s docket, including spectrum policy and media ownership.

ACHIEVEMENT IN BROADCASTING DINNER

The Achievement in Broadcasting Dinner is scheduled for Monday, April 20, at the Encore in Las Vegas. The evening will feature Broadcasting Hall of Fame Award inductions and presentation of the NAB Digital Leadership Award to Entercom Chief Digital Officer J.D. Crowley.

The event is by invitation only, according to the NAB Show website.

EXHIBITOR INFORMATION

NAB Show says the 2020 show floor will feature more than 1,600 exhibitors and several pavilions of “exhibitor communities” and subject-specific theatres.

PRODUCT PREVIEWS

Every year, we highlight notable product introductions as we learn about them. Here are those we’ve covered so far:

• 2wcom Debuts HDR-CC
• Dielectric Releasing Switch Controller

SBE ENNES WORKSHOP

The Society of Broadcast Engineer’s annual Ennes Workshop is scheduled to kickoff Saturday, April 18, at 9 a.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

To attend, you must register for the NAB Show, selecting either a Conference Pass, Session Three-Pack or BEITC Pass, all of which are available to SBE members for a discounted price.

APRE PRE CONFERENCE

The Association of Public Radio Engineers will host its annual Public Radio Engineering Conference April 15–17 at the Tuscany Suites & Casino. 

Attendees are required to register and pay in full prior to the event. 

Contact Jobie Sprinkle via 877-887-2261 for more information.

CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

The National Association of Broadcasters “affirmed” its plans in a mid-February press release amid growing concerns over the potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, also known as coronavirus.

The announcement noted, “While the NAB stands firm in its commitment to hold the convention as planned, the health and safety of attendees and participants are NAB’s top priority.” However, the same release emphasized business as usual — or better — ahead of the event: “NAB Show has experienced an uptick in exhibit sales, attendee registration and hotel bookings in recent weeks, and conference program speakers are confirmed daily.”

NAB has created a COVID-19 resource page for NAB Show attendees and exhibitors, featuring updates related to the trade show as well as information about steps NAB and the LVCC are taking to ensure the health of all involved. 

Because the coronavirus disease 2019 was first identified in Wuhan, China, and is widely believed to be the epicenter of the outbreak, NAB Show organizers also indicated that they will continue to “evaluate options for those unable to attend due to travel restrictions.” However, they emphasized that fewer than 2% of 2019’s total registered attendees came from China.

The post 2020 NAB Show: Schedule, Exhibitor Info, Updates appeared first on Radio World.

PONTECCHIO MARCONI, Italy — The first time I saw Guglielmo Marconi’s childhood home, I felt as if I was entering hallowed ground.

Villa Griffone is the childhood home of Guglielmo Marconi.

After 30 minutes of driving from central Bologna, located in the Emilia-Romagna region northern Italy, the roads became smaller and the landscape of farms lined with pencil-shaped Cypress trees opened up. We were presented with a lush, rolling countryside accentuated with picturesque Italian villas, some of which are hundreds of years old.

Then we made a hard left turn off the small road in the village of Pontecchio Marconi, and carefully drove toward

Guglielmo Marconi’s house on an old bumpy road. Driving down the long driveway, we saw rising before us a magnificent buttery yellow house, with three floors, 17 front-facing windows and a circular driveway in front of its heavy, green doors.

MAKING HISTORY

These are the same doors that a young Marconi would have used thousands of times as a child growing up in his father Giuseppe’s house. The huge house, called “Villa Griffone,” is a remarkable place in its own right, but what has secured its place in history and as a national Italian monument is the fact that it was in this house that radio as we know it was invented. The successful experiments that young Marconi conducted, remarkably without having received a college degree or much formal education, would reverberate around the world and forever change wireless communications history.

I was here with a small team from William Paterson University, where I am professor and chair of the communication department, to create a moment, albeit small, of radio history. Our radio station, WPSC — Brave New Radio, was here to broadcast a live, three-hour show on World Radio Day (Feb. 13), as well as to launch a brand-new radio station called Outside Radio.

Rob Quicke (left) stands with Professor Giovanni Emanuele Corazza.

To make the event even more remarkable was the fact that it was also happening in the 125th anniversary year of Marconi’s first successful wireless transmissions from that very house in 1895. We would be broadcasting to the world in the very place that radio technology was invented. We would also be launching a radio station that we had somehow had a hand in inspiring from our own studios back at William Paterson University, New Jersey.

Back in August 2019, Giovanni Lenzi, an Italian student visiting us from Bologna, experienced two weeks at our radio station, Brave New Radio. That experience, as part of our Summer Youth program, proved to be a remarkable one. Under the guidance and training of one of our students at the station, Bridget Charlton, Giovanni was able to take to the mic at the end of the two weeks and have his own radio show.

Giovanni is autistic, and his ability to communicate so fluently and passionately on the radio astonished his family and friends. It was as if sitting in front of a microphone unlocked his ability to communicate. The radio station literally helped him to find his own voice.

Deeply moved by this event, Giovanni’s father, Alberto, was inspired to create Outside Radio in Italy for his son, and others like him, who could present radio programming from their point of view and find inclusion for those who may struggle with special needs. It was a radio station for outsiders to create programming not heard anywhere else.

COINCIDENCE

The official promotional graphic for the event.

Shortly after Giovanni’s summer experience, Alberto flew over to see our radio station for himself. As he was about to leave, we passed our trophy cabinet, and I pointed out our Marconi Radio Award that the National Association of Broadcasters had awarded us in 2018 for Non-Commercial Radio Station of the Year. It’s an award that is considered the highest accolade possible in the radio industry, and we are very proud of it. Alberto responded with delight, “Wow! Did you know Marconi was born in the city where I live? Bologna.”

That seemed like an unbelievable coincidence. I suggested an idea: What if we could help launch his new radio station at the Marconi house and also coincide the launch to celebrate World Radio Day 2020? He enthusiastically agreed to contact the Marconi Foundation and propose the idea.

Soon after, we were thrilled to hear that the Marconi Foundation embraced the idea, as it was also the 125th anniversary of Marconi’s first successful wireless radio transmissions. It all seemed to come together in one, now potentially historic, event.

I contacted UNESCO, the organizers of World Radio Day, next. Alex Da Silva, at UNESCO’s department of Media Development and Society, responded positively and shared that UNESCO “want to highlight your initiative of a radio run by students with autism.” It seemed that our proposal resonated with their theme for WRD2020, which was “We Are Diversity Radio.”

The press conference at the University of Bologna. Pictured from left to right are Dr. Rob Quicke, Professor Corazza and Alberto Lenzi.

The project seemed absolutely compatible with this theme, as Outside Radio was giving a voice to those perhaps marginalized in society because of their special needs, and giving them an important outlet for their views and opinions.

SETTING THE STAGE

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12, the day before the main broadcast,  I took part in a press conference at the University of Bologna, along with Alberto Lenzi, Giovanni’s father and founder of Outside Radio, and the President of the Marconi Foundation, Professor Giovanni Emanuele Corazza. The University of Bologna is the world’s oldest university, founded in 1088, and home of over 85,000 students, who busily pass through the ancient corridors and lecture rooms.

I must be honest and admit that in the press conference I did not understand anything that the other two gentlemen were saying to the cameras, but a translation of Italian was not necessary when Alberto was very emotional talking about how his son Giovanni had found his voice on Brave New Radio and now was launching his own radio station. The next day we were on the Italian TV news as well as in several newspapers and websites.

The adrenaline of being at that press conference got my heart pumping but the next day, we found ourselves setting up our remote radio studio in a room full of Marconi’s wireless inventions and a life-size photo of Marconi, who seemed to be overlooking our efforts to make this broadcast happen. The combination of excitement, nerves, and adrenaline added urgency to our preparations, and it felt surreal that this was actually going to happen. We would go live at 2 p.m.

WPSC — Brave New Radio’s, Sebastian Escobar (center) co-hosts the radio show.

Villa Griffone is the site of the Marconi Museum, dedicated to the origins and development of radio communications. After Marconi died in 1937, the villa also became the home of the Marconi Foundation, set up in 1938, to keep alive the memory of the great inventor and to continue his work promoting innovation and creativity.

The foundation is closely tied to the University of Bologna. Its president, Giovanni Corazza, is also a professor at the university. We all felt honored by his participation in our broadcast.

INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION

One of the many inventions in Marconi’s Museum.

Now we were about to go live from the center of a room, which had Marconi’s inventions literally surrounding us in display cabinets and on the walls. The air was thick with history and that only put pressure on us to make sure our broadcast would be successful.

Precisely at 2 p.m. local time in Bologna (8 a.m. in New Jersey), our mics went live and our broadcast began. Much that happened in the three hours we were on the air, and those that regularly broadcast on the radio know that it feels like time goes by very quickly when you are on air. This broadcast was no exception.

Some highlights of our broadcast included greetings from all around the world, such as Hong Kong, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Oman, Spain, Italy, and other countries, all recorded specifically for our program.

WPSC — Brave New Radio, student broadcaster Alyssa Robbins takes the mic.

I was also deeply proud of our communication student from William Paterson University, Alyssa Robbins, who interviewed the  Marconi Foundation’s president live and asked him some great questions. My co-host was Brave New Radio Station Manager, Sebastian Escobar, who also did a brilliant interview with Barbara Valotti, the director of the Marconi Museum. She’s an expert on Marconi’s early years, and she gave some fascinating insights into the mind of a young Marconi in 1895.

In the second hour we officially launched Outside Radio, and we presented the team of eight students with an engraved trophy from the Brave New Radio team, congratulating them on launching their station. They were clearly delighted and surprised by the gesture.

GREAT CONTENT

The Outside Radio team had recorded some great content, which we played on the air, including an interview with Marconi’s surviving daughter Elettra Marconi, who gave extraordinary insight into how she experienced her father’s legacy firsthand. They also produced and played the “Impossible Interview with Guglielmo Marconi,” a piece that imagined an interview with Marconi if he were alive today, and his thoughts about how far we’ve come with the technologies he invented.

Presenting the Outside Radio team with medals celebrating their launch.

I was also pleased with my interview with Mirta Lourenço, chief of Media Development and Society at UNESCO. She was thrilled with our launch and congratulated the team on the event and the launch of Outside Radio. It felt that our efforts had been legitimated by our recognition from UNESCO and Mirta’s kind words to us: “Congratulations! What a nice story! … How important it is that these students will be able to access and express themselves and have their own radio station. I think Marconi would be proud!”

Similarly enthused, Alberto Lenzi was both moved and moving in his words, which paid tribute to his son Giovanni and the journey that Outside Radio was now embarking upon.

Then, just before the very end of the broadcast, we surprised everyone and presented them with specially engraved medals that recognized the historic event and also the launch of Outside Radio.

A job well done! The team assembles outside after the broadcast.

When we finally closed the mics at 5 p.m. We knew that all had gone smoothly and we had accomplished something special and memorable. In the birthplace of radio itself, a new radio station had been launched. We had paid tribute to Marconi and his enduring legacy, and radio stations around the world had taken the livestream on their own airwaves and contributed material to the broadcast.

MORSE CODE

It’s hard to know for sure how many countries participated, but we estimate at least 12 countries and more than 50 radio stations were a part of this historic broadcast. We were able to use the World College Radio Day network of stations that I had co-founded to share the news of our broadcast and encourage their participation in the event.

The Morse printer, still working more than 125 years after its invention.

As we packed away the last of the microphones and rolled up all the cables, I noticed something left on the table that we had used to broadcast from. It was something that had been given to us just before the broadcast began: A very thin strip of paper that could have easily been mistaken for trash and been thrown away.

The thin strip of paper had a series of dots and dashes on it, with letters written under each series of them, denoting their corresponding Morse code letter. It read “Brave New Radio.” Just before we went on the air, one of the tour guides had set up Marconi’s equipment, the same as he had in 1895, and had tapped out our radio station name wirelessly, which then came out on a paper feed from a Morse printer next to it. We all watched with amazement, as likely those 125 years before us also had. I now held the tiny strip of paper in my hand and marveled at how something so small had been, in fact, so revolutionary. It had changed the world. Now, isn’t that something?

Dr. Rob Quicke is professor of Communication, Chairperson of William Paterson University’s Communication Department, and general manager of WPSC Brave New Radio. Dr. Quicke would like to thank Alberto Lenzi and the Outside Radio team for their kind hosting of the team for this event. We thank the live producer of the radio program, Carlo Magistretti. Dr. Quicke would also like to thank the Marconi Museum and the Marconi Foundation for their kind support and participation of this broadcast event. Thanks also to UNESCO for participating and promoting the event to its global network of participating media. Finally, thanks to William Paterson University for making it possible for the team from Brave New Radio to travel to Italy and participate in this historic radio event.  

The post Brave New Radio Airs Live From Marconi’s Home appeared first on Radio World.

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