Industry News

The lone radio stations within a 30-mile radius of a small Mitchell County, Tex., town have just been sold.

It’s an “Extreme” transaction — one that involves the owner of a Tejano station serving the Abilene market and the seller, Linda Baum, who owned the station with her late husband, Jim Baum (pictured, at left).

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SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — The COVID-19 health crisis has fundamentally impacted the lifestyles and routines of all consumers. Shelter-in-place orders are back in Southern California, along with a new 10-day quarantine for any out-of-area visitors to Los Angeles County. Work-at-home mandates are largely intact nine months later. This, a Parks Research/Applicaster study shows, has driven in-home video consumption to unprecedented levels.

Their research found that nearly 3 in 10 U.S. broadband households saw a usage increase of online video services. Furthermore, nearly 1 in 5 reported an increased use of pay-TV services.

Can this momentum continue into 2021?

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Subscription-free sports betting audio content is poised to reach more listeners on more devices.

That’s the promise VSiN and iHeartMedia are sharing, as the nation’s No. 1 audio media company has expanded its partnership with the Las Vegas-based sports information network dedicated to bettors and wagering statistics.

“Building on our success with podcasting and betcasting partnerships, VSiN will move its dedicated streaming radio station to iHeartRadio beginning on January 1,” iHeart and VSiN said in a joint release.

That will happen “just as the ball drops” at Midnight Eastern.

“Until then, the network will continue to air as a subscription service of SiriusXM, which has been VSiN’s live audio home since February 2017, more than 15 months before the Supreme Court ruling allowing states to legalize sports betting,” the companies said.

As of today, VSiN has offered multiple sports betting podcasts available for download on all podcasting platforms via the iHeart Podcast Network.

The agreement does not impact the select programming from VSiN that is syndicated for use on terrestrial radio stations across the U.S. via The Bet R Network. In its home market of Las Vegas, VSiN’s affiliate is Lotus Communications-owned KRLV-AM 920.

“We’re thrilled to build on the success we’ve had with iHeart on the podcasting and betcasting front to announce an expanded partnership that will help us offer a better product to a broader audience for free,” said Brian Musburger, founder and CEO of VSiN.

He was also upfront about the biggest concern regarding its dedicated audio channel’s presence on Sirius XM.

“We believe that removing the subscription hurdle on audio platforms will launch the critical next chapter for us on a technologically ubiquitous platform and set us up for 24/7 live programming in the very near term,” he said. “This not only allows VSiN to get to more listeners on more devices but also to capture more advertising revenue as legalized sports betting continues its rapid spread across the U.S.”

The new, expanded deal also sees iHeartRadio and VSiN collaborating on the development of new upcoming sports betting podcasts, while a “betcasting” product focused on English Premier League football (soccer) offers wagering content plus one live match to listeners each week.

As RBR+TVBR first reported on Monday (12/29), a $200 million “blank check” company with a forthcoming stock to be traded on the Nasdaq market will see two key figures at Emmis Communications in lead roles. Its board includes three others — an ex-Indianapolis mayor, an individual tied with Shamrock Communications in the early 1990s, and a “retired” ESPN Audio chief.

The SPAC, Monument Circle, seeks to merge with a media company focused on sports gaming news and information and content focused on the bettor, although investment in broader areas is possible. With so much attention on audio programming devoted to sports fans who wager on teams and their respective players, RBR+TVBR revisits a recent InFOCUS Podcast interview with Bill Adee.

Adee is the Principal and COO of VSiN, formally known as the Vegas Sports Information Network. It’s grown quickly since the spring of 2017, when Adee joined the Musbergers to launch VSiN, and he shares the latest on how things continue to roll — even through the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Listen to “RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast: Bill Adee, VSiN” on Spreaker.

Across December, stories of discord and disconnect dominated the headlines, as disgruntled MVPD customers were left to bemoan the loss of local TV stations due to two big retransmission consent fee impasses.

As 2020 comes to a close, Gray Television can rejoice in its signing of a carriage agreement with the fifth-largest cable TV services provider in the U.S.

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Getty Images/Manuel Breva Colmeiro

In the summer of 1983, I was working as the chief (and only) engineer of a startup UHF TV station in the panhandle of Texas.

It was a shoestring operation, a spinoff of a more established TV station in a nearby market. The transmitter was a 1970s-vintage RCA, installed in the room adjacent to master control and visible through the large window separating master control from the transmitter room.

Just about everything that aired on that station was on 3/4-inch U-Matic videotape; as I recall, Panasonic machines were used for playout of recorded material.

The transmitter was interesting in that the aural AFC did not work for some reason, and a frequency counter was kept on top of the transmitter cabinet showing the aural carrier frequency.

Several times a day, the operator on duty would have to go in the transmitter room and tweak the aural exciter while watching that counter to keep the frequency within the FCC tolerance.

Guess what we’re doing today

There was, however, a much bigger problem at the station.

From time to time, RFI would cause the videotape machines to behave unpredictably. An operator walking through master control would sometimes put the playout machine into fast-forward. That played havoc with the program schedule and occasionally resulted in missed or botched spots.

The director of engineering and his sidekick from the other market had spent a lot of time trying to cure the problem before I came aboard. Their efforts included covering the roof of the building with copper screen in an effort to create a Faraday cage of sorts. I think the effort actually made things worse, as we’ll see.

Much of my effort in my short tenure there was spent shielding the videotape machines themselves, lining the cabinets with foil and taking other RFI mitigation measures. While this did help, marginally, it didn’t cure the problem, much to my frustration.

One Friday morning, I got to the station to find a handyman, someone the owner used for site maintenance, framing in the garage door. I asked what he was doing, and he told me that we were moving master control into the garage that weekend.

What!? Nobody had said a word to me about it, and I had not done any planning for such a project. Anyone who knows anything about NTSC television knows that it takes a lot of BNC connectors, video cable, audio cable, audio connectors and planning to relocate an entire master control facility, at least if you expect it to work right. And we had none of that.

I called the director of engineering and got confirmation of the project, asking him how we were going to do this. The answer was that we were just going to wing it.

That did not sit well with me. I could see disaster coming and I wanted no part of it.

We had a parting of the ways that day. I have no idea what happened with the master control move or whether it happened at all that weekend.

(The cause of the RFI, by the way, was very likely cabinet leakage from the transmitter, which was just a few feet through the glass from the videotape machines and switcher in master control. By screening the roof, the issue was made worse by reflecting RF back into the building.)

Do your thinking ahead of time

The point of this story is that even as young and inexperienced as I was at the time, I knew that embarking on a big technical project without a good plan was a recipe for disaster.

I’m glad I didn’t stick around. I’m sure I would have been at least partially blamed for the inevitable outcome.

Prior to that episode and following, I was involved in all kinds of projects, from simple studio builds or rebuilds to construction of huge towers and antenna sites, and in each case, there was a plan in place.

With each project, I learned something, usually the hard way. Some omission or something forgotten or not accounted for would result in delays. Something not thought through carefully required a last-minute revision of the plan.

It was always something. And with each completed project, I got a little bit better at planning and thinking things through.

In my company, there is no shortage of projects underway at any given time. As I write this, in the last quarter of 2020, we have several omnibus studio projects in the late planning stages, with equipment scheduled to be on site very shortly.

These projects will be challenging, as we’re replacing cluster infrastructure while having to keep all the stations on the air and generating revenue … at one of the busiest times of the year! (We’re doing this now because we were delayed by several months by the pandemic.)

As I was discussing these projects with our CFO, he made the observation that it sounded like we were going to be changing the tires on a car while it’s moving. Exactly! So how will we pull it off without affecting the on-air product and revenue?

The answer, if you hadn’t guessed already, is to have a very detailed plan that will take us through the entire project.

The plan accounts for every piece of equipment, every wire and every signal in the facility. It really takes all the thinking out of the actual work.

Throughout the decades of my career, that’s the one of the most important things I have learned about project work: do the thinking ahead of time and avoid having to figure things out on the fly.

It’s much harder to think under pressure, and it’s especially hard when you’re tired. A good, well-thought-out plan takes all that out of the equation and makes the project much more of a “paint-by-number” affair.

Such a plan makes a project, big or small, a much more relaxed endeavor. It takes off a lot of the pressure, and while it cannot absolutely guarantee a good outcome, it does greatly increase the likelihood of such.

Stuff happens

So what’s the recipe for a good plan?

I start with a spreadsheet — a workbook, really, with multiple tabs for different parts of the project. In a studio project, every input and output (or source and destination in AoIP parlance) is accounted for and assigned.

All the tools for a project plan: stacks of spreadsheets, a wire labeler, Ethernet switches all configured up, and good coffee.

Self-laminating wire labels are printed and ready to install. IP addresses are printed on labels to be affixed to equipment as it is installed. Signal names are defined, and default routing is mapped out.

The layout of every equipment rack is planned, and port assignments on Ethernet switches are made. Nothing is left to be decided on the fly.

In a transmitter project, it’s much the same, although in addition to Ethernet and AES cables, there will be coaxial cables to deal with, both high-power and low, and there will undoubtedly be remote control connections as well, hopefully SNMP but maybe discrete control, status and telemetry signals. Think it all through, plan it out and label everything.

After the project, post your accurate documentation in a handy place for easy reference.

Obviously, the time to do all this planning is not on the eve of the actual project. It should be done far enough in advance that the time pressures of the project deadline don’t factor in.

Make allowances for material order and shipment, which means that you should check stock and delivery time on equipment, connectors, wire, etc. very early on and make adjustments as needed.

As with any project, build in contingencies. Stuff happens (with amazing regularity), and you have to be prepared for that.

Prussian Field Marshal Helmut Von Moltke is credited with saying, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” There is truth to that, but by controlling as many variables as possible, your plan has a much greater chance of success, and that means making allowances for the variables you cannot control.

In my experience, project work is one of the most enjoyable aspects of broadcast engineering — that is, if the pressures and stress are reduced. The way to do that is with thorough planning.

W.C. “Cris” Alexander, CPBE, AMD, DRB, is director of engineering for Crawford Broadcasting and tech editor of RW Engineering Extra.

The post A Good Plan Is Key to a Successful Project appeared first on Radio World.

The Dec. 23, 2020 issue includes Dan Slentz and John Bisset with tips about cleaning equipment in a pandemic. The RadioDNS Technical Group leads an effort to measure consumption across devices. WorldDAB advocates celebrate growth. Buyer’s Guide looks at antennas, RF support and power protection.

All this and our Excellence in Engineering Award recipient!

Read it here.

The post Inside the Dec. 23 2020 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

With a handful of exceptions, including Cumulus Media, radio and TV stocks were largely on the rise as the final trading week of 2020 kicked off on Monday.

Among the gainers: Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Dish, which just resolved its retransmission consent impasse with Nexstar Media Group.

 

RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

Travel around Manchester, England, and you’ll hear radio stations with the same branding — Radio X, Capital, Heart, Smooth Radio, and Greatest Hits Radio — as other stations across Great Britain.

In Australia, the Nova and KIIS brands can be found in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Now, Canada is swiftly becoming a nation where national branding of radio stations, while retaining their unique program offerings, is being employed to help attract more advertising.

Interestingly, it hasn’t exactly happened in the U.S. — yet.

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In just days, the much-anticipated — and heavily marketed — discovery + OTT platform bows. How is Discovery telling consumers about its pending debut? Ironically, it is using cable TV to push viewers away from MVPDs and toward its soon-to-debut streaming service.

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