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The novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic have created unique challenges for radio. However, broadcasters have risen to the challenge, proving time and again that they are agile and creative.

Radio World has reached out to broadcast engineers, consultants, associations and others are innovating during this crisis, and they have shared insights and ideas that others in the industry may be able to implement or adopt.

• Digital Alert Systems’ Ed Czarnecki told RW how governments and broadcasters are using emergency alerts to ensure listeners are informed about local COVID-19 concerns.
• Learn about London-based Health Info Radio and its mission to ensure listeners get the facts about COVID-19, as well as interviews intended to help listeners through the quarantine.
• Spanish broadcaster COPE says most it staff have been working from home and are using AEQ products to “keep calm and carry on.”
• E2 Technical Services’ Ed Bukont talks about how the industry is responding to technical challenges posed by unplanned work-from-home situations.
• WestStar decided early on to send home most of its “Kim Komando Show” staff, but they adapted quickly.
• D.C. public radio station WAMU(FM) decided to go “100% virtual.” Learn about their game plan from Rob Bertrand.
• In Denmark, Nordjyske Media has been proactive about setting its staff up to work from home.  Learn how and why.
• Gary Kline shared what he’s hearing from colleagues about how COVID-19 has changed the broadcast industry and best practices for keeping stations on the air.
• NAB CTO Sam Matheny told RW about the association’s coronavirus resources and how member stations were responding in the early days of the pandemic’s ingress to the U.S.

Are you especially proud of how your station is reacting to coronavirus-related restraints? Radio World wants to hear from you. We may feature your station in a how-to-do-it profile or Q&A.

The post Coping With Coronavirus: How Tos and Best Practices for Radio appeared first on Radio World.

The following is a letter sent to RW from reader Gary Shriver, who is station manager for KVHH(LP), “Christian Hits FM.” He responded to our call to learn how radio stations are serving their community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tell us about your own efforts; email Radio World.

Greetings for KVHH(LP) in Turlock, Calif.

Just a short story about how we have been able to help during these “tuff” times of COVID-19.

We here in California have been ordered to “shelter in place,” meaning no groups of over 10. All local non-essential businesses, schools and churches have been shuttered. It’s a ghost town out there.  Unless of course you go to Costco first thing in the morning to stand in line and make a run on toilet paper! LOL.

Being a contemporary Christian format, our hearts go out to the local congregations that are forced to no longer meet. I came into contact with a local pastor with a pretty creative idea. He called me looking for a spare transmitter he could borrow because he wanted to have a “drive-in” church service where he could set up the worship service in the parking lot and all could come to church on Sunday, but stay in their cars at a safe distance.

Of course, I couldn’t offer a transmitter, but we did one better. We cobbled together an AoIP set-up and ran last Sunday’s service live over “Christian Hits FM.” It was a screaming success. Everybody loved it!

You should have heard the broadcast. During his sermon, whenever he made an uplifting statement of hope (where normally you would hear an “amen” from the congregation,) everyone in their cars started honking their horns. It was awesome and hilarious at the same time! The ambient mic picked up everything.

Makes me smile just thinking about it. We plan on doing this every Sunday morning until things get back to normal.

It has been an honor and a blessing to help our community in this way.

The post Honk Your Horn Means “Amen” for KVHH(LP)’s Drive-In Church appeared first on Radio World.

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Angry Audio says that radio’s favorite wiring system is back. The company has acquired the intellectual property and returned to product production.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

Off the shelf Cat-5 cables connect the studio’s audio gear. Everything uses the familiar StudioHub+ pinout, a radio standard for audio over Cat-5.

StudioHub offers the complete line of adapters, cables, panels, match jacks, breakout boxes, patch panels, hubs, power inserters and more.

Info: https://angryaudio.com/studiohub/

 

The post StudioHub Returns to Radio appeared first on Radio World.

V-Soft Communications says that RFHAZ 4 is a serious update of its longstanding RF hazard program.

It considers the FCC’s five new categories for FM EPA antennas and it graphs multiple antennas on a given tower.

RFHAZ 4 also follows the FCC’s current practice of graphically identifying the point of the highest power density at perpendicular distances from the tower. Also, RFHAZ 4 provides for graphical examination of multiple antennas at numerous RF density scales from a minute observation with maximums not exceeding 50 µw/cm² centimeter to a maximum scale level of 3000 µw/cm². The user can choose to display the graph as either “Power Density” or as a “Percent Maximum” of the FCC levels for controlled or uncontrolled areas.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

For FM calculations, the user can select one of the five new antenna classifications, then, with the inputs of power and antenna height above ground, RFHAZ 4 uses the EPA studied antenna patterns to show power density. These vertical elevation patterns are included with the data files supplied with the program or the user type in and save a manufacturer’s pattern from disk file. The user can select RF emissions calculations to consider the effect of a mix of array elements and element spacings (in wavelengths).

In addition to graphs, RFHAZ 4 will print a tabulation of both the vertical and horizontal power density levels and, when multiple antennas are used their sums in µw/cm² from the tower to user’s selected distances from the base will be shown. The program considers the impact of antenna arrays having from 1–16 bays as well as those with less than full-wave spacings.

RFHAZ 4 also handles LPTV and DTV duties. s

Info: www.v-soft.com

The post V-Soft Updates RFHaz appeared first on Radio World.

I have been in the radio business nearly 40 years. In these grave times I am proud to see radio hunkering down and preparing to do its best to aid the public. It’s a proud tradition, and I know there are many hard at work to make sure that stations will stay on the air, and have the ability to produce and deliver programming over the weeks to come.

However, I would like to mention the dark side of broadcast that I believe, while we speak, is actually endangering lives. If radio and television are to serve the public interest we must purge from the airwaves antifactual misinformation, from any source, that serves to lesson the severity of the threat from the current COVID-19 crisis.

The simplest analysis of what is going on in China and Italy is enough to demonstrate that Americans must curtail their activities for the safety of everyone. Even were there a group that was guaranteed to suffer zero effects from the virus, that group must still avoid spreading the virus for the public good.

Once the health care system becomes overburdened many will die. Not just those that are afflicted by COVID-19, but those that happen to have a heart attack, and find the health care system no longer able to care for them.

Therefore, I call on the FCC to immediately offer advice to licensees as follows:

• A general advisement that the commission considers deliberate misinformation on health-related matters to be against the public interest and that it will fine licensees for airing such information;
• Opinion shows, commenting on health-related matters, must be clearly conveyed as “Opinion Only” at the beginning, end, and every 15 minutes during, each opinion show or editorial.

The FCC must act now. Lives are at stake.

Rolf Taylor
Rocket Engineering and Consulting

The post Reader’s Forum: Purge the Airwaves of Misinformation appeared first on Radio World.

The NAB Show might have been cancelled but the products and services that would have been announced at that show are real; many of them play an even more important role right now in keeping the radio industry on the air.

To address that and keep readers in touch with new offerings from our industry’s suppliers, Radio World and its sibling technology brands have announced resumption of the spring Best of Show Award program, now reoriented to these new circumstances.

The Best of Show Special Edition will honor and help promote outstanding new, recently introduced and pending products and services. It will showcase all of the entrants to 95,000 broadcast and media readers across Future’s media brands.

As in the past, winners will be selected by panels of professional users and magazine and site editors. Selections will be based on the descriptions provided by the companies via the official nomination form. Companies pay a fee to participate. Not all entries are chosen. All are featured in a Program Guide that is distributed after the winners are announced.

The deadline is April 17. The program website has more information about the Best of Show Awards Special Edition.

 

 

The post 2020 “Best of Show Special Edition” Is Announced appeared first on Radio World.

Five radio stations and two translators have become one of many COVID-19 casualties. Maine’s Gleason Media Services is shutting down its operations this Sunday at 7 p.m., the Sun Journal reports. 

The group, founded by late Auburn Mayor Dick Gleason in 1975, includes WOXO(FM), WEZR(FM) and WTME(AM), and has been run by his widow Kathy and WOXO manager Vic Hodgkins’ for the past year, while Gleason sought a buyer for the stations. But now time and money have run out.

“The coronavirus was kind of like the last straw as far as finances go,” Kathy Gleason told the Sun Journal, which cited existing problems such as “low receivables and slow payments,” in addition to the “projected drop in advertising” due to the pandemic. However, she noted that the stations are still for sale, so this may not be the final chapter.

Read the full article and learn more about WOXO here.

The post COVID-19 Is “Last Straw” for Maine Radio Group appeared first on Radio World.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets $75 million in emergency funds in the $2 trillion coronavirus bill that passed the Senate late Wednesday night but still needs to be approved by the House and signed by the president.

The money is to keep up facilities of noncommercial TV and radio stations and to help stations, particularly rural ones, keep the lights on and the transmitters going in what is expected to be a lean time for pledges and corporate sponsorships, which constitute about 85% of noncom budgets.

The money goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the independent agency that hands out the government portion of noncom funding, and remains available through Sept. 30, 2021, though hopefully the pandemic has been resolved before that.

Here is the specific bill language.

For an additional amount for “Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $75,000,000, to remain available through September 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, including for fiscal stabilization grants to public telecommunications entities, with no deduction for administrative or other costs of the Corporation, to maintain programming and services and preserve small and rural stations threatened by declines in non-Federal revenues: Provided, that such amount is designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement pursuant to section 16 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

It was not clear from the bill language how the funds would be divided among TV and radio stations if there is more need than money.

“While even $75 million only begins to address these unprecedented needs while private revenues are plummeting, we are grateful for the broad support for this emergency funding for public media among both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate,” said Americas Public Television Stations President Patrick Butler. “We will do our best with the resources we have to serve our country and our fellow citizens in this time of shared crisis.”

 

The post CPB Gets $75 Million in Emergency Funds appeared first on Radio World.

Here’s your Thursday edition of RW’s coronavirus roundup. We share examples of how the radio industry is reacting to the pandemic and helping communities stay in-the-know. Tell us what you’re doing, and we may feature you in a future article or Q&A.

— Creativity and humor will get us through. Here’s an excellent example of both from Canadian station K97, a promotional billboard/PSA that explains the concept of social distancing. This image was shared by international programming consultant Ken Benson via Facebook.

— The Georgia Association of Broadcasters is calling on radio stations to broadcast Gov. Brian Kemp’s Town Hall scheduled for tonight (March 26) at 8 p.m. Email the GAB if you need assistance to air the event, or download promos here.

The event, which will focus on COVID-19, will feature Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Georgia National Guard General and Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King and Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency Director Homer Bryson.

— RW friend and frequent contributor Dan Slentz shares this update about how Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio’s WDNP(LP) is handling the coronavirus crisis. First, he reports, the station is now providing hourly three-minute updates about the local affects of COVID-19, including information from nonprofits that are helping the community. Their social media presence also reflects this commitment to local coronavirus coverage.

The LPFM is also limiting the number of volunteers allowed at the station to two at a time. Dan says the board has also stocked up on disinfectants and hand sanitizer and invested in windscreens for each on-air talent.

WDNP has also made a few financial adjustments related to the outbreak. First, it will run extend current underwriting announcements for at least 30 more days in order to support these local organizations. Second, the station has frozen plans to grow or improve the station in order to preserve funding; Dan says these measures should help WDNP stay on the air for 16 months, even if they don’t receive additional donations or underwriters.

— In the United Kingdom at 8 p.m. (Greenwich Mean Time), the radio industry will applaud those fighting the coronavirus as part of the #clapforourcarers campaign to support the National Health System and its workers.

— Industry suppliers have had to consider whether and how to react to orders from local jurisdictions about closing non-essential businesses.

RF supplier ERI published a statement Tuesday: “ERI is recognized as part of the U.S. critical infrastructure communications industry and as such will maintain primary operations.” It cited guidance from President Trump regarding critical infrastructure industries as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. “Consistent with this guidance, Electronics Research Inc. will remain open and operating at a capacity level necessary to make currently scheduled shipments, to respond to new orders and customer support requests,” ERI stated. “This exception for Critical Infrastructure businesses, which includes ERI, is included in Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s Stay at Home Order.” That order kicked in Tuesday and runs at least until April 7.

“Some of our workers are operating remotely but those working from home have access to the tools needed to perform their normal duties and ERI’s facilities are staffed and remain open to fill the needs of the radio and television stations that are performing the vital functions of delivering news, important safety information and providing entertainment to the audiences and communities they serve.”

— iHeartRadio Honolulu has rolled out Support808.com, a new website featuring local Oahu businesses that are still operational during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as ones that are hiring or looking for volunteers. Support808.com will also host a virtual food drive for the Hawaii Foodbank, according to the launch announcement.

The post COVID-19: Broadcasters Keep Communities Healthy, Informed appeared first on Radio World.

WEST SUSSEX, England — The world is awash in inaccurate and downright misleading information about Covid-19. Taking a stand against this confusion is the mission of Health Info Radio; a fact-based voice broadcaster on DAB and the internet.

Duncan Barkes uses his home studio based around a Sonifex Sovereign mixer to update the content on Health Info Radio. Credit: Lily Barkes.

Produced as a public service by Southdown Media in London, the station offers a mix of updates on Covid-19 symptoms, myths, and social isolation rules, plus interviews designed to help listeners through the shutdown and the pressure staying at home can put on their relationships.

“Health Info Radio is a non-profit rolling information service broadcasting nationally from Sussex, England and is funded and technically supported by Southdown Media, which owns and operates two small scale digital radio stations here in the United Kingdom,” said Simon Hardwick, director of Southdown Media.

Its creation was spurred by the fact that Hardwick “Personally felt frustrated that the important science-based prevention messages that could save lives were being lost in the background noise of speculation, discussion and opinion of other broadcast media.”

FROM IDEA TO REALITY, FAST

Of course, seeing a need for a Covid-19 information station is one thing. Actually launching one is another.

Simon Hardwick’s home studio, which features a Sonifex 2 mixer. Credit: Simon Hardwick

“As an existing small-scale DAB station operator, I already knew the benefits of small-scale DAB, but wondered if a simple information station would be possible,” Hardwick admitted.

“Thanks to the incredible generosity of radio industry colleagues and suppliers we’ve proved it is, and that the small-scale DAB platform here in the U.K. is flexible enough to launch a radio station on a number of multiplexes within two days of the original idea!” (Radio colleagues Duncan Barkes, Ash Elford and Dean Kavanagh helped Hardwick bring Health Info Radio came into being in just 48 hours.)

When it comes to informing the public about Covid-19, Health Info Radio sticks to the facts.

“Our content is deliberately simple,” said Hardwick. “It’s a looped information sequence of the latest virus prevention and spread advice, alongside background information about the virus, and advice on how to cope with self isolation, both physically and mentally.”

But simple does not mean simple-minded: “Our information is based on the official government medical advice with supplementary information from various medical experts with scripts overseen by Dr. Dean Kavanagh of the Institute of Biomedical Research at the University of Birmingham.”

NO NONSENSE ALLOWED

Health Info Radio’s content is produced and voiced by a team of professional broadcasters. They collectively share responsibility for what goes to air, and update their spoken-word segments whenever new information becomes available.

Health Info Radio’s listing on TuneIn.com Credit: Duncan Barkes

As for production? “Southdown Media have provided the DAB encoding infrastructure using the Open Digital Radio platform,” replied Hardwick. “We’ve had online support from web hosting company Aiir and extra script coding by Togglebit, which allows us to work entirely remotely.”

That’s right: In keeping with the dictates of social isolation, all of Health Info Radio’s people are working from their homes; uploading content via the web and using WhatsApp to coordinate the station’s programming schedule.

“Playout for the station is managed by Playout One and the airtime has been kindly donated by UK DAB platform operators,” Hardwick said. “All contributors and companies have very kindly donated their time and skills for free as they share our desire to get important, potentially life-saving messages out there to as wide an audience as possible.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Since launching on March 16, Health Info Radio has been catching on with U.K. listeners hungry for accurate Covid-19 information. “We’re not actively soliciting responses but we’ve had a considerable response from people saying they had learnt something from the station which makes it worthwhile, alongside an overwhelming number of help offers from the general public,” said Hardwick.

Health Info Radio is also eager for content providers around the world to copy its format and information to keep their own listeners safe.

“If other broadcasters and platform operators want to take our information and programming as syndicated content or to rebroadcast our live stream, we’d be happy for them to do so,” said Simon Hardwick. “They can get in touch with us via our website.”

[COVID-19 Advice: Communication, Patience, Trust Your Engineer]

To help radio broadcasters provide up-to-date Covid-19 news to their listeners, mobile app technology provider RadioMax is offering to supply them with free mobile apps.

“As more and more people stay at home, not spending as much time in their cars over the next several weeks, we want to give stations and their listeners an additional way to stay connected and informed via a mobile app,” said RadioMax CEO John Wanzung.

“The current situation is an opportunity for all of radio to rise to the occasion to inform and support our communities.”

The post Health Info Radio Cuts Through the Covid-19 Confusion appeared first on Radio World.

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Announces the postponement of Auction 106, information about refund of upfront payments, and dismissal of short-form applications

Adjustments Made in Light of COVID-19 Pandemic