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A slew of historic radio programs from a well-known public radio station in New York City are now available to stream.

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) has released a collection of historic radio programs from WRVR(FM), the public radio station once owned by The Riverside Church in New York. This collection includes speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, award-winning documentary coverage of the civil rights movement in Birmingham in 1963, coverage of the Cold War, and material from leaders like Pres. John. F. Kennedy and Indira Gandhi.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Be Thankful for Community Radio]

“Making the Riverside Church/WRVR collection accessible through the American Archive of Public Broadcasting website will aid students, teachers, scholars and everyday citizens in exploring contemporaneous perspectives from religious leaders, political figures, artists and thinkers of the day, especially those trying to inform and influence the politics of the period,” said Alan Gevinson, Ph.D., AAPB project director at the Library of Congress.

The archive is searchable by genre, topic, date, asset type as well as contributing/producing organization. A search of the performance subcategory, for example, brings up a 1966 recording of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of Red Death,” while a search of event coverage pulls up a 1962 speech by FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow.

It was 1961 when The Riverside Church first put WRVR on the air, playing religious programming and coverage of cultural and higher-education events. The station shifted to an all-news format — along with a single jazz program called “Just Jazz with Ed Beach” — from September 1971 until 1976, when the station was sold.

The station was known for its role as a center of activism and social justice. In 2018, a grant was bestowed by the Council on Library and Information Resources to The Riverside Church and the AAPB to begin the process of digitizing the broadcasts of WRVR. Additional assistance came from the New York City and the AAPB, which is a collaboration between Boston public media producer GBH (formerly WGBH) and the Library of Congress. The project involves the digitization of more than 3,500 audio tapes from the WRVR collection.

The station was awarded a Peabody Award for its entire scope of programming, due in part to its documentary coverage of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Materials in the collection are in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, Hebrew, French, Indonesian, German and Gaelic.

More items are expected to be added to the AAPB archive over the next year as items are digitized.

 

The post Glimpsing History Through New Digitized Radio Programs appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page:

Calrec said that South African community  station Bosveld Stereo is using its Type R for Radio IP audio system.

The installation was done by the manufacturer’s  partner Wild and Marr.

Bosveld Stereo broadcasts in Afrikaans in the North West Province.

The company said it is the first station in South Africa to use the Type R.

The system consists of a core, two hardware fader panels and one large soft panel. Dante AoIP carries the audio to the RF site.

Wild and Marr Technical Director Anton van Wyk and Broadcast Systems Engineer Dwaine Schreuder pre-commissioned the system off-site.

Send info for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Bosveld Stereo Deploys Calrec System appeared first on Radio World.

Project schematic (click to enlarge in PDF)

Our recent contribution to the Workbench column in Radio World about our home-brew construction of an XLR-3 cable tester produced a notable, positive reader reaction.

It seems almost all of us in the profession possess that “maker instinct.”

Although I’d promised in our next article to jump cold into a complex follow-up project of a step oscillator, our distinguished editors thought something as useful as the cable tester but slightly more complicated might be a better next step … sort of an organic progression.

Advancing somewhat by inculcating some simple active circuitry would also be apropos. Staying in the universe of audio, our project in these pages is an elegantly straightforward unbalanced-to-balanced audio converter.

As is often said, the beauty and joy of technical standards is that there are so many to choose from!

This dilemma holds true for the world of audio as well. We often need to make a marriage in our stations between the near-universal broadcast impedances and signal levels with the ubiquitous “consumer” output levels.

Handheld digital recorders, air tuners, computer sound cards etc. need to be taken into the broadcast plant. The situation is complicated by differences in impedances between devices, not to mention the unique characteristics of odd sources such as “pro” audio signals with their slightly higher levels.

On With the Show

We’ve attempted to accomplish several goals here. In our example unit, we’ll use a similar enclosure to the one from our cable tester article so that, at least on our workbench, our new tools will have that matching look.

We’ll provide some flexibility in uses and setup. We’ll keep complexity and fabrication to a minimum and consequently, minimize the cost, especially as we may be making many of these.

We’ll provide enough design description and suggestions for changes and customization so you can make the project truly your own and as you need the device to work in your plant

Let’s get oriented. A parts list for this project is at the bottom of the story.

First take a look at the schematic at top.

Addressing just levels, consumer audio from something like a CD player is expected to peak at 0.447 volts with an RMS (Root Mean Square) value of 0.316 volts, which is well within the handling capability of an operational amplifier (op-amp).

If our audio is headed to a typical 600-ohm standard broadcast mixer input of +4 dBm, the level at that point will need to be a peak of 1.736 volts or 1.228 volts RMS. As such, the RMS voltage gain will need to be about 3.9, or 11.8 dBV.

Circuit Details

Like most electronic circuits, one can generally divide the beast into main activity and support sections. The main in this case is the signal flow area; the support is essentially the power supply, connectors and enclosure.

Start with main. In our circuit, the unbalanced signal enters the converter and encounters a 10k ohm shunt resistor to ground, which is included as the industry-suggested load impedance that provides the flattest signal response transfer. The 220 uF series capacitor isolates the audio, stabilizing the gain of the first active stage to follow.

The op-amp sections in this device are configured in the inverting format, providing great flexibility and stability.

Breadboarding the circuit.

Many readers will remember that most of my previous audio processing work in these pages used the classic 1458 op-amp, as I had been given and used over 100 of them. Now that I’ve been given an even larger number of the similar but higher performing 5532 op-amps, we’ll start using this new group to a similar depletion.

The 5532 is a self-compensated, dual-section unit. The first op-amp section provides two functions for us. The first is gain, and with that in mind, our required gain might be that voltage gain of 4 noted above to achieve line level output, but could also be a negative gain to help us get down to mic level.

To Invert or Not to Invert

A fundamental facet of a non-inverting op-amp (the alternative arrangement of the inverting circuit configuration used herein) is that one cannot achieve negative gain, which is gain less than 1. The inverting configuration, used here, can accomplish negative gain similar to an attenuator.

The second purpose of this stage is to create one of the two output lines of our active balanced output. As our op-amp is inverting the input signal, the AC audio voltage here would be the inverse polarity of the input. So, we have marked the line – (negative).

The complimentary output line (+) is generated by the second of the IC sections configured once again as an inverter.

We need the mirror imagine of the other line, so we invert with a gain of one. A gain of one is achieved by using the same value of resistors in all positions. Incidentally, the value annotated on our schematic of three 3.3k was determined by the circumstance of being given over 100 3.3k resistors via the largess of a generous friend and that these 3.3k’s were 1% tolerance. This close resistance matching is quite helpful in achieving that perfect gain of one if you’re a real op-amp purist.

One can use three of just about any value, but something between 1k and 10k, at least in my experience, seems to work best.

As noted, we have created a very usable balanced output with the two op-amp sections.

A fundamental characteristic of all op-amps is a very low output impedance such that these active devices approach being a perfect current source.

Coming together …

The author has been blessed with a great number of knowledgeable and generous instructors, and I’ve honored them often in these pages. From the wisdom of my mentors has come a world of wise words. One of my favorite quips, on this very subject, is: “Because of that low impedance, an op-amp can almost drive anything right down to a short … if there is even a little bit of resistance in that short.”

With this in mind, to create a source impedance for best and flattest power transfer, we insert resistors in each of the output of these op-amps to match the impedance of the input to follow, hence, the 300 ohm resistors in the + and – sides, which provide a 600 ohm source. Shunting these individual resistors with 100 ohms results in 75 ohms on each side, dropping the source impedance to 150 ohms and mimicking a mic output.

Flexibility

The changing of the output resistance between these two choices is accomplished by a DIP switch on each resistor. Another DIP switch changes the gain from a nominal 10 dB to –40 dB, bringing the output level down to about microphone level.

The gain of an inverting op-amp is set by the relationship of the input and feedback resistors. The 10k 20-turn trimmer fine adjusts this relationship, pretty much allowing you to land the gain (and maybe even the fader position) exactly where you want it.

Final assembly.

Bench testing indicates that my finished version has a remarkably flat frequency response. The value of the input cap was chosen to improve/maximize low frequency coupling. THD was excellent with the worst case no higher than 0.4%.

The abundance of 0.01 uF caps are just good engineering practice and, once again, enabled by being given a big bag of beautiful 50-volt mylars. (Buc, don’t you ever have to buy anything?)

If full isolation of the output is needed, a transformer can be connected to this balanced output, and a typical transformer with nominal 600 ohm impedance on each side is listed at the end of the parts list.

Power Supply and Other Support Items

Most audio sources in one’s radio station in 2020 are stereo, and so for that reason, our constructed box has two channels.

We’ve chosen to use a wall-wart from the salvaged/harvested box of about 8 volts DC output as our power source. Anything between 8 and 24 volts should work. This DC could be applied directly to the 5-volt three-terminal regulator, but since the power might come from an AC or reverse polarity source in the future, a bridge rectifier was included. If away from hard power, one could even use the DC from a 9-volt battery as a power source. Using this scheme, one has infinite options.

Power supply schematic. Click to enlarge in PDF.

If you’re permanentizing your converters, a transformer with simple regulator circuit is located in an isolation box at the lower corner of the schematic as an alternative to the above concept.

A DC to DC converter follows and that takes the regulated 5 volts in and converts this to + and – 15 volts for use by the op-amps. The particular converter chosen has 33 mA capability for each rail, which is more than adequate. In development, the worst-case current demand noted was about 8 mA for each 5532.

The + and – 15-volt operating point is a foible of the author as it seems to me to produce a slight but measurable improvement in S/N. Further, this 30-volt differential easily allows a +10 output if needed.

The abundance of 0.01 caps are for RF elimination. They also reduce any penchant for oscillation along the power supply rails.

RCA (phono) connectors were used on the unbalanced side as this is the industry standard. XLR-3 males were used on the output in anticipation that we will be using high-level broadcast inputs primarily.

The finished product.

The parts list is below; click on it to download in a Word doc.

Now that you have the “big picture,” it’s up to you to build one that is flexible, custom, useful and reflective of your own genius.

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

Parts List for Unbalanced to Balanced Converter Project (click for text version)

The post Build an Unbalanced-to-Balanced Adaptor appeared first on Radio World.

Veritone is offering “content monetization and licensing services” aimed specifically at audio creators.

The company already provides visual digital content licensing for sports entities, news organizations and user-generated content networks; it has a big library of news and sports content and said that it license images and video to brands like CBS News and Bloomberg.

The new announcement targets audio users specifically.

Jay Bailey, VP of entertainment licensing, was quoted saying, “As podcasting continues to grow as an exciting and popular medium, expanding our licensing offerings to include audio content is a natural next step to better meet both creator and consumer demand.”

Veritone has an operating system for artificial intelligence called aiWARE. AI is used in its archival search platform. The licensing service also includes audio consulting and research to help creators find the right audio content.

[Related commentary: “AI Will Help the Industry Reinvent Itself”]

“In addition to giving podcasters, broadcasters and other audio creators access to premium audio clips for their programs, this new audio offering will also provide them with opportunities to monetize their own audio archives through Veritone,” it stated in a release, adding that Stitcher and Audible are among podcast entities using this new service.

[Read Radio World’s ebook “AI Comes to Radio”]

The post Veritone Extends Licensing to Audio appeared first on Radio World.

The author is production manager at 99.3 FM KTIA in Des Moines, Iowa

Hi Radio World, I read the Dan Slentz commentary about overly compressed audio (“A Quality Audio Crisis in the Music Industry”), which included a suggestion on how to “help/tweak” the audio file so it would be less compressed.

I stumbled upon something that works quite well for me.

Using Audition, or any DAW that has this option, try out the Multiband Compressor. I start with a preset, or one I’ve came up with, comparing the file with the plugin applied and then without it. You want to make the least noticeable change to the file, leaving it still acceptable in quality overall.

Once you find that point, process the file, even if the change is barely noticeable.

In my experience I end up with a file that is less compressed, even dramatically less compressed, than the original.

You can then adjust levels so you retain the dynamics and still meet a –1 dBTP point.

This has improved many overly compressed files for me with only a couple minutes of work on the file in question.

 

The post Letter: A Tip for Tweaking Audio Files appeared first on Radio World.

Visit the new studios of Seattle’s KING-FM; read the conclusion of our year-long Radio@100 series; discover a Bluetooth Gadget; learn about podcast workflow at “The Dave Ramsey Show”‘ and celebrate 30 years of Radio World’s Workbench!

Read it here.

 

 

 

 

 

The post Inside the Nov. 11, 2020 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

Phillystran is highlighting the selection of its products for a new two-tower AM installation in South Korea.

It said Kintronic Labs Inc. installed these towers for Far East Broadcasting Co. (FEBC) to extend the reach of its Christian programming in the area. FEBC Korea broadcasts to 13 cities in South Korea.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

“The two 210-foot, 250 W AM towers each use four Phillystran HPTG cable guys with four guy levels on each tower,” the company wrote in a press release.

“The guy configuration on both towers is the same. Located close to the sea, the towers are designed to withstand a wind speed of 220 kmph/137 mph. Each cable guy features vibration dampeners and steel pigtails to terminate and tension the lines.”

It quoted Kintronic President/CEO Tom King saying the Phillystran synthetic cable guys are a suitable choice where the sea winds would corrode steel cable guys. He highlighted the system’s polyurethane extruded jacket, saying it provides UV resistance and good weathering and dielectric properties.

Phillystran is based in Philadelphia and is part of steel wire rope manufacturer WireCo WorldGroup.

Send info for our Who’s Buying What column to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post FEBC Project Uses Phillystran Guy System appeared first on Radio World.

A slide from Jurison’s presentation addresses EAS aspects of the topic.

A webinar next week will explain the latest generation of HD Radio hardware. It’s free to members of the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

The instructor is Alan Jurison, senior operations engineer for iHeartMedia.

“A new generation of HD Radio hardware combines the Importer and Exporter into a single appliance and simplifies operation while providing integrated time alignment,” the society’s website states.

“Other features include more flexible HD2/HD3/HD4 software- and hardware-based capture client encoding options, and integrated EAS features for multicast channels. Gen4 also offers the advanced extended hybrid mode MP11, which adds an additional 24 kilobits for a total data capacity of 144 kbps.”

Jurison said the fourth-generation platform also includes an HTML5 GUI.

The 90-minute webcast streams on Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. Eastern time. It’s sponsored by Xperi, parent of HD Radio.

The post Webinar Explores Gen-4 HD Radio Platform appeared first on Radio World.

Radio.com, the digital platform owned by Entercom, has a new content distribution deal with Beasley Media Group.

Beasley will add live-stream channels for its 64 stations to Radio.com, along with its on-demand audio and podcasts.

[Read: Entercom Filing Shows Ad Revenue Trending Up]

The announcement was made by Entercom VP of Business Development Corey Podolsky and Beasley Chief Content Officer Justin Chase.

Podolsky said the partnership “will give Beasley’s 20 million weekly listeners a new destination to consume their favorite audio content, while providing our existing consumers more options to satisfy their listening habits.”

 

The post Entercom’s Radio.com Adds Beasley Streams appeared first on Radio World.

The author is communications manager, WorldDAB.

The WorldDAB General Assembly 2020 took place last week, marking the first time the event dedicated to DAB digital radio was held virtually. The conference attracted some 200 attendees, and featured over 50 speakers delivering the latest news and developments on DAB+ from around the globe.

Here are some key highlights.

[Read: WorldDAB Puts Spotlight on Visual Experience]

WorldDAB President Patrick Hannon gave an update on the key DAB+ developments in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, highlighting three of the organization’s priorities: providing clear messages about the benefits of DAB+; ensuring DAB+ is included in automotive and consumer receivers; and driving DAB+ adoption across new markets.

A session dedicated to the energy consumption and distribution of DAB+ generated significant interest and several questions, as the BBC presented their recent study indicating that DAB has the lowest energy footprint per device per hour compared to AM, FM, DTV and IP.

Interesting DAB+ network case studies were given for a national rollout (Germany), regional (Australia) and local or community radio (U.K.), while 5G’s potential to support radio was also considered in a presentation from the EBU.

We took a closer at the rollout status of DAB+ across a number of key markets. In Germany, a second national multiplex reaching 83% of the population has just launched, offering more choice for listeners and increased opportunities for advertisers.

Switzerland has confirmed its plans to switch off analog services, starting with public broadcaster SRG SSR in summer 2022, followed by private stations by January 2023 — stakeholders are now working together to get everyone on board through cross-platform marketing campaigns featuring Dabsy, DAB’s national mascot.

France has confirmed its plans to launch national DAB+ in 2021 — 100 years after its first ever radio emissions. Regional launches across the country will continue alongside the national rollout, starting with Bordeaux and Toulouse in the south of the country.

In the U.K., DAB stations have continued to launch throughout the lockdown. Digital listening now accounts for 60% of all listening — 70% of which is on DAB, and a digital radio and audio review will help assess consumer habits and support radio in the wider audio market.

In the Czech Republic, coverage now reaches 95% of the population, and public broadcaster Czech Radio has announced the phasing out of long and medium-wave transmissions starting from 2021. In Italy, all receivers sold from January 2020 onward are required to include digital capabilities, and DAB+ consumer sales almost tripled in the first half of 2020.

In Africa and the Middle East, Tunisia is working on tax exemption for DAB+ receivers starting from 2021. In South Africa, a draft regulation for the licensing of digital radio is expected to be published by March 2021. In Australia, commercial broadcasters are successfully monetizing DAB+ by offering advertisers a wider audience and greater reach.

A whole session was dedicated to DAB+ in the car, and highlighted some of the countries that have already introduced national laws mirroring the EECC, including Germany, the U.K., Italy, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

As highlighted by Google during the session, radio continues to be one of the most used media applications in cars, but with growing interest and competition in the space of infotainment systems, its position in the dashboard needs to be reinforced, and broadcasters can help achieve that through appealing visual content in the form of metadata.

Presentations from all the sessions are available on the WorldDAB YouTube channel.

 

The post Assembly Highlights Advances for WorldDAB appeared first on Radio World.

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Gary Peterson makes great points about the history of AM modulation (Reader’s Forum, “Modulation Limits,” Sept. 16 issue).

I’d like to add to that by including a note about one of the most unique audio processors ever developed, the Frese Audio Pilot.

Audio Pilot. Courtesy Steven Allen

The Audio Pilot was invented by a consulting engineer in Washington state named George M. Frese. Its unique aspect was the RF control, which was a unit that demoded a sample from the transmitter to provide the control voltage for the second compressor stage in the Pilot.

With a robust modulation transformer the Audio Pilot could modulate the transmitter with positive peaks well over 150%!

I remember on a Class IV station in Monterey, Calif., we were able to modulate (at low power, 250 watts) the Gates BC-1T out to 185% on positive peaks. The Audio Pilot could make a small Class-IV station sound bigger than the 5 kW or even 50 kW stations in the same market.

All Audio Pilots were hand-built and only about 43 or so were ever built. Most were located at radio stations in the western United States.

When the FCC instituted the 125% positive peak limit, Frese stopped building new Audio Pilots. They were $2,500 new in 1968, which would be almost $30K in 2020 money.

Any history written about AM processing will be incomplete without an examination of the Frese Audio Pilot.

PS – It had a small pre-emphasis with about a +3 dB spike around 3.5 kHz. When I used the AP in 1982, we replaced that section of the unit with an Orban parametric equalizer. It gave the unit a much more modern sound. I think the AP was the first AM audio processing with any kind of pre-emphasis.

BTW, George also invented the parapanel antenna for AM broadcast use. He never patented it and didn’t make any money off of it. But there are several stations in the NW with parapanels that Mr. Frese designed and built late in his career.

YouTube has an interview with the late George Frese, done by his grandson. [See the notes under that video for time markers for various topics within that lengthy interview. — Ed.]

The post Letter: On Modulation Limits appeared first on Radio World.

In October, Wisconsin Public Radio and the state agency that manages stations that carry WPR programming announced they were reducing their use of HD Radio.

They posted an announcement explaining the decision. They noted that their use of HD Radio dated to 2007 and that WPR and the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board had installed 13 HD Radio transmitters carrying existing WPR content that also allowed WPR to broadcast its All Classical network on HD2 multicasts.

“Beginning Monday, Oct. 19 the ECB … will turn off HD Radio broadcasts on seven of WPR’s 13 HD-capable stations,” they announced. Those are licensed to the communities of Superior, Brule-Superior, Ashland, Park Falls, Menomonie-Eau Claire, Adams-Wisconsin Rapids and Sister Bay.

The organization will continue to operate HD Radio “for now” on stations serving Delafield-Milwaukee, Madison, Highland, La Crosse, Wausau and Green Bay.

“WPR and the ECB received federal grants to install HD Radio technology, but the costs of maintaining the service statewide are no longer justifiable based on audience use,” they wrote.

The audience in question is the one listening to multicasts. ECB Executive Director Marta Bechtol estimated that fewer than 500 listeners would be affected and noted that the classical network continues online and via apps and smart speakers. She also emphasized to the public that WPR service on “their usual FM and AM stations” would not be affected.

“HD Radio was launched nationally in 2002 with a promise to provide higher-quality, digital audio to radio listeners. Stations purchased new equipment to broadcast HD Radio and listeners were required to purchase new radios to pick up the signals,” the announcement continued.

“While many stations, like WPR, invested in the new technology, few consumers purchased the radios, which have become difficult to find. Despite some benefits, HD Radio has failed to attract enough listeners to offer a sustainable alternative to FM or even AM analog radio for many broadcasters.”

We reached out to Bechtol and Crane for more insight.

Radio World: Can you expand on the thinking that went into this decision, given the time and money that had been invested in it?

Marta Bechtol

Marta Bechtol: The Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, which holds the licenses for these stations, is an agency of the State of Wisconsin, and receives approximately 30% of its annual operating funds from the state. The agency has been issued a fiscal year budget lapse ($245,000) due to the economic effects of COVID-19, so tough decisions had to be made. This action will help keep future capital costs down as well.

RW: The seven stations are turning off HD-1 digital radio service and associated multicasts?

Bechtol: All of these are multicast services. The analog/digital mix of HD-1 and the all-digital HD-2 are being turned off.

Mike Crane: All had HD-2 signals delivering an All Classical feed. We do have several HD-3 services on the remaining transmitters, used either to deliver signal to another transmitter as a form of STL, or because limited local analog service for one of our two networks suggests that we should leave them on for the time being.

RW: The announcement quotes Mike saying “the resources we were spending to maintain HD Radio will be redirected to sustain other services that audiences clearly prefer.” Can you expand on which aspects of the operation created costs that can be saved?

Bechtol: We expect to see a reduction in utilities and maintenance costs, an extension of transmitter life, and ease in demands on our technical staff that travel good distances to maintain these facilities.

RW: Mike what specifically will now be turned off? 

Mike Crane

Crane: Importers and exporters that are external to the transmitters. Transmitter exciters were changed by internal setting of FM/HD to FM-only. HD2 audio streams are disconnected to save bandwidth at transmitter sites.

RW: How much do you expect to save?

Bechtol: We’ll see the bulk of savings in our transmitter replacement costs — size, tube life, HD-specific gear, etc. — which are on the immediate horizon. We expect to save around $65,000 in utilities, an estimated 20% decrease in our annual utility costs. (Our average analog-only efficiency is 72%, and our average HD-Hybrid efficiency is 57%, so we’ll see a 15% efficiency increase.) There will also be a small amount of savings related to HVAC/cooling. Additionally, this will save time and money in maintenance costs and relieve workload burdens on our technical staff.

RW: The announcement quotes Marta as saying, “It’s possible that some FM listeners will experience an improved signal quality due to reduced interference from our HD broadcasts.” How would you characterize any interference complaints?

Crane: These HD signals were activated a long time ago, and we don’t have a record of interference complaints from that time, nor have we received any notable complaints recently. The idea that some listeners may get better reception is just based on what we know about the effect of the HD sidebands on the analog signal.

RW: You estimated that fewer than 500 listeners will be affected; how do you determine that number? 

Crane: Based on the Nielsen ratings, we generally do not see any reported listening to the HD-2 signals in question. But anecdotal evidence from listener comments over the years suggests that we do have a few who tuned in.

RW: The announcement noted that radios have become difficult to find; but advocates for HD Radio cite a growing presence in cars. 

Crane: There are still a lot of cars that don’t have HD, and some implementations leave a lot to be desired. And with the current emphasis on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as on smart speaker listening, we believe focusing on our streams makes more sense.

RW: An argument made by advocates has been that HD Radio and other digital formats bring more capabilities for metadata including visual elements important in the dash. Does WPR deploy visuals like Artist Experience or other metadata-based services?

Crane: We do deliver some metadata, and are eager to add more as we upgrade our systems. We currently deliver RDS data on the FMs and remaining HDs through Center Stage, which we hope to retire someday in favor of something newer like Artist Experience. We are not currently using other platforms for expanded HD metadata.

RW: What would you tell an industry colleague who was thinking of exploring HD Radio at this point?

Crane: There are certainly specific reasons to add HD service in some circumstances. But consumer uptake has been disappointing for a very long time, and we think streaming to smart speakers and to cars is the future. Additionally, few radio station owners invested in it, at least in Wisconsin: In some markets WPR has been the only HD signal for many years.

RW: Your announcement for the general public generally treats the reduction of service as being about the end of certain multicasts. Presumably some listeners were hearing the HD1 too. 

Bechtol: Multicast was always the most exciting part for us.

RW: What else should we know about your experience with HD Radio?

Crane: It has helped us develop our All Classical network (the NPR News & Music Network is a mix of news and classical). But in the absence of special funding like we received from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, HD has become less sustainable.

RW: On another topic, hybrid radio services seem to be on the uptick. What if anything is WPR planning in regard to hybrid radio?

Crane: We’re certainly intrigued, and are following the news as it develops.

 

The post Why WPR Cut Back on HD Radio appeared first on Radio World.

The economic damage inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic lessened in the third quarter for iHeartMedia as the company returned employees to the office in some markets.

The largest radio group owner in the United States reported Monday it generated revenue of $744 million across all of its business lines for the three months ending Sept. 30. That’s a decline of nearly 22% year-over-year, but a rebound of 53% compared to the previous quarter. July, August and September were down 27%, 21% and 18% year-over-year respectively.

Specifically, broadcast revenue in the quarter declined by 29.4%, while the network radio business sector dipped 25.7% compared to the same quarter in 2019. The company’s digital revenue was up 16.5% year-over-year with most of that growth attributable to podcasting, which grew revenue 73.6% compared to a year earlier.

Direct operating expenses in the third quarter 2020 decreased by 12.6% compared to 2019 and was driven primarily by lower employee compensation expenses resulting from cost-cutting initiatives and reduction in workforce, according to iHeartMedia’s financial report.

[Read: FCC Gives iHeart a Foreign Ownership Privilege]

Self-imposed cost cutting through modernization initiatives will result in operating expense savings of approximately $250 million in 2020, according to the broadcaster’s financial report. “Part of that is utilizing the studios of the future through cloud-based technologies, and really taking advantage of AI,” said Rich Bressler, president and COO of iHeartMedia. “We’ve created centers of excellence across the organization that consolidate key resources for the whole company that increase quality of our programming and reduce costs. The company has become wildly more efficient.”

The broadcaster continues to identify additional efficiencies, including opportunities to reduce its real estate footprint in response to changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Bressler said on the investor call the broadcaster has no plans for downsizing the company through asset sales.

iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman added: “We have learned a lot through COVID. We have had 10 years of technology learning through three or four months. As a result we envision operating differently in terms of operating our space. I think everyone will come to the office some, but we will not require the same amount of space. Employees will be doing more of their work outside the office.”

The broadcaster is slowly reopening facilities as local health safety criteria for doing so are met, Pittman said. In fact, employees in about half of iHeartMedia’s 160 markets have returned to the office.

iHeartMedia’s capital expenditures for the nine months ending Sept. 30 were $58.5 million compared to $82.5 million in the same nine months of 2019. iHeartMedia projects full-year cap-ex to be approximately $75 to $95 million. The broadcaster said it expects to continue to make key investments in its strategic initiatives related to smart audio and digital, including podcasting.

On Monday’s investor call Bressler called it the “best year for political advertising ever” for the broadcaster. iHeartMedia reported $40 million in political revenue in Q3 while another $55 million funneled in during October. “It will be significantly less in November but we will still get some benefit,” Bressler said. The company reported political revenue is expected to be up for the full year 67% compared to the 2016 presidential election cycle.

Pittman said he is optimistic about the company’s fourth quarter revenue, which continues to grow month over month but will “likely be down again but only in the mid-teens” compared to a year ago. A recent report of a possible COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough could calm advertiser fears, Pittman said, and stirs his optimism even further going forward. “A lot of our growth in Q3 came from sectors like food and beverage, auto, restaurants and retail. Those are categories that had been down a lot in the second quarter. But if we get a vaccine we could see the return of some big spenders like movies and concerts. And the rest of retail. We are watching those developments carefully,” he said.

The company, which emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization in early 2019, is still maneuvering to cut its debt, according to its report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. iHeartMedia reported debt of just over $6 billion at the end of September.

 

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