Industry News

The author is general manager of Radio Rioja.

LOGROÑO, Spain — On Feb. 25, 1933, the Spanish General Telecommunications Administration issued a broadcast license for the area of Logroño for a radio station with the call sign EAJ 18 and the name “Radio Rioja” to Ismael Palacio.

Today, the station is still active in Logroño, the capital of the province of “La Rioja,” and now has two sisters in other cities in the Rioja province. It is an independent broadcaster affiliated to the Cadena SER Networks, broadcasting the general programming of that group in AM and FM.

Depending on the time of day, it provides its audience with the signals from the networks of SER and SER+, Los Cuarenta Principales and Cadena Dial.

Throughout its long history, it has been committed to regional sports and politics, with a very active news operation. For decades, public figures and groups from Logroño and La Rioja have passed through the main studio to appear on programs.

Thousands of interviews and local and regional reports have been produced from its recording studio as well as national news stories in contribution to the SER Network headquarters in Madrid.

The newsroom dedicates most of its time to providing content for the regional and local slots as well as contributions for Madrid. However, apart from the conventional SER and SER+ radio programming, there are other important sources of income with low production costs for content such as musical products centrally produced at the company headquarters.

A highly automated operation along with other applications allows Radio Rioja to cover expenses and continue being the news station that Riojans demand.

Automation Needs

Radio Rioja has paid attention to its automation systems, valuing reliability, availability and good operation. When renewal of its legacy system was due, they opened up to evaluate the most common systems used in Spain.

During the presentation and evaluation of AEQ AudioPlus, we found that its performance was outstanding and easy to learn and use. We obtained references from other radio stations about compatibility with work practices and requirements for daily SER servicing along with a standard compatible scheduling and billing system.

Then Radio Rioja made one of the most difficult decisions that broadcast technicians and engineers can be faced with: installing and integrating a new and different automation system.

AEQ has been developing and installing radio automation for more than 30 years, with experience of the requirements and demands of thousands of customers. AudioPlus is its third-generation system, developed after Mar System and Mar4win. It’s designed to run on Windows operating systems and with SQL Server databases. It includes a self-installation wizard.

It is compatible with professional, low-cost, USB and virtual AoIP soundcards and provides a set of complementary editing and management tools, as well as links to all kinds of external software applications.

AudioPlus also offers a remotely controlled playout module compatible with Cadena SER commands, and a module for exchange with external management software applications, both for advertisement traffic and musical programming.

Finally, it has a file import module that is adapted to database formats used by various manufacturers. In particular, the format used by Dalet had been used by Radio Rioja and debugged in previous migrations. It worked like a charm, moving the audio files in a few hours while each file’s ancillary information was migrated to AEQ format.

Thanks to its intuitive user interface, the transition to the new system hasn’t really needed additional effort. The person who traveled there to perform the migration trained users on the system’s operation in a few days. During this period, AEQ AudioPlus scheduling was done in parallel with the earlier system’s scheduling

The system includes four recording/playout workstations: one for each control or automatic playout station, one for programming, and a high-availability server with a RAID disk system. Everything was connected over an IP network.

System preconfiguration and installation was done by AEQ personnel, as there were some specific tasks that required special treatment for this “on the fly” migration.

Raquel Cortés of AEQ Technical Assistance Service was on site; she installed the system, transferred the audio files and data, and provided a training course to Radio Rioja staff. Support was carried out by AEQ Sales Area Manager Eduardo Guerrero.

During the installation, the audio codecs for external retransmissions and program transportation were upgraded to IP technology, so four AEQ Phoenix Mercury units and an AEQ Phoenix Venus also were installed.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

For information in the U.S., contact Peter Howarth at AEQ Broadcast International in Florida at 1-800-728-0536 or visit www.aeqbroadcast.com. For international queries, contact AEQ in Spain at +34-91-686-1300 or visit www.aeq.eu.

The post User Report: Radio Rioja Chooses AEQ Automation appeared first on Radio World.

CEntrance describes the PortCaster as a “handheld device [that] fills an important gap for podcasters and radio program hosts who need to add music, effects, and either a local or a remote call-in guest to their ‘talk radio’ -style show.”

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

The company says that the PortCaster uses the company’s Jasmine mic preamps. Features include 48 V phantom power, smartphone input, limiters, monitor controls and an aluminum case. Very useful for radio stations is the mix-minus function. It will work with Android, iOS, Mac, Windows laptops, phones and tablets.

There will be three models with different optional features such as an SD card-based 24-bit/48 kHz digital recorder and an onboard rechargeable battery.

Info: https://centrance.com

 

The post PortCaster Makes a Nice Radio Tool appeared first on Radio World.

A new ebook from Radio World explores one of the most pressing topics in radio technology: What will the future air chain look like?

The concepts of virtualization and putting parts of the air chain in the cloud were already on the minds of forward-looking managers; and the 2020 health crisis has accelerated the trend even over the past few months. New products, new software and new partnerships are helping bring the future closer.

We sat down with five leading industry technologists for a roundtable discussion.

Find out what Roz Clark, Alan Jurison, Shane Toven, Philipp Schmid and Greg Shay had to say when we asked about the implications of virtual; the shift from a cap-ex to an op-ex model; what parts of the air chain are or will be virtualized; and what will virtualization bring to the “back end” of the airchain.

Read it here.

 

The post Virtualizing the Air Chain: Next-Gen Radio Architecture appeared first on Radio World.

In radio project news: Kintronic Labs said it completed the installation and commissioning of a two-tower, 100 kW medium-wave directional antenna system for Far East Broadcasting Co. on an offshore island in South Korea.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

“The transmission system involving Nautel NX100 main and standby transmitters, and the Kintronic Labs antenna system is designed to broadcast in wideband analog, single-channel DRM or DRM simulcast modes via two separate directional patterns,” the company stated.

It provided the photo below. Send news of radio technical projects to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post FEBC Has New 100 kW DA System appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has decided to adopt a consent decree and grant a translator construction permit application despite a series of objections filed by two separate entities.

Back in February 2016, the FCC issued a construction permit license to Rocket Radio Corp. (RRC) for translator K246CH in Tuba City, Ariz., a town of 8,600 within Arizona’s picturesque Painted Desert. The new translator was to serve as a fill-in translator for KIKO(AM), a country music station serving Apache Junction, Ariz.

After the license was granted, an informal objection was raised by Linda C. Corso, owner of KRDE(FM), a country music station in nearby San Carlos, Ariz.

[Read: Licensee Agrees to $8,000 Consent Agreement on Unauthorized License Transfer]

In the midst of all this, RRC filed an application to make minor changes to the translator’s licensed facilities, a move that prompted another entity — this time Mountain Community Translators (MCT) — to file an informal objection.

The FCC agreed with some of the assertions filed by these two licensees. But it dismissed other claims and said the Media Bureau would enter into a consent decree with RRC to resolve issues that were raised during the FCC’s review of the applications.

But there’s a hefty penalty that comes with this consent decree in the form of a $15,000 civil penalty. The FCC also said that not only must RRC pay the civil penalty in a timely manner but must also submit to probationary oversight if it applied to build any other facilities over the next three years.

All this began when the FCC approved RRC’s request to change its translator’s channel to Channel 275 during a 2016 filing window for FM translator modification applications. In April of that year RRC filed a license application and submitted a program test letter saying that it had begun program tests with the translator at the station.

Soon after an objection was filed by Corso who said that RRC broke several rules: It did not construct the facilities authorized in the permit, it violated the commission’s rules governing station identification, and it made false certifications and statements in its license application and the program test letter.

In response, RRC revised its certifications in an amended license application in July 2017 to reflect that the facilities constructed did vary from those authorized in the permit. RRC said it was unaware that the translator’s facilities had not been constructed as authorized and it assured the FCC that the translator has been operating with authorized parameters since October 2016.

Corso fired back again. In another objection she accused RRC and several of its employees of witness intimidation and harassment, and said RRC deliberately concealed facts from the commission. She also asked several questions: why was the translator not constructed as authorized? And how could RCC be unaware of this?

In June 2018, RRC filed a minor change application asking to increase the translator’s power and change its channel. Soon after, another objection arose from MCT which alleged that RRC made a false certification in its application. In July of that year, RRC filed an application to modify the permit to specify the same power increase and channel change proposed in the minor change application. MCT objected to that application too.

Upon review of the objections, the FCC rejected several of Corso’s allegations. The commission did not find that the translator was operating with a different antenna and at a different power than specified in its permit. The commission also found no merit to Corso’s allegation that the translator violated the commission’s rules governing station identification or her allegations that RRC made misrepresentations to the commission.

The commission did find, though, that the facilities constructed were not those authorized in the permit and that RRC violated sections of the commission’s rules.

Specifically, the commission found that for six months in 2016, the translator’s antenna was mounted at the wrong height and oriented in the wrong direction. By starting program tests with nonconforming facilities, RRC also violated the Communications Act and FCC Rules. Plus, the commission found that that RRC further violated the rules by failing to amend its license application in a timely manner and failed to correct the program test letter to reflect that the facilities constructed were not those specified in the permit.

The FCC also rejected MCT’s assessment that RRC made a false claim that it did not have an authorization for an FM translator station that served the same area and was rebroadcasting the same signal as the translator. While MCT correctly noted that RRC is the licensee of another FM translator — K247CF in Payson, Ariz. — that serves substantially the same area as the facilities authorized in the permit, the two translators have not rebroadcast the signal of the same primary station at the same time. K247CF only began rebroadcasting the translator’s primary station when the translator went off the air in May 2018. The FCC also concluded that RCC did not make misrepresentations or false statements to the commission.

As a result of its findings, the Media Bureau entered into a consent decree with RRC based on its unauthorized construction of the translator and its violations of FCC rules. RRC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $15,000. The consent decree also stipulates that RRC will have an outside broadcast engineer come and examine any facilities that RRC constructs or operates and that this engineer will review technical parameters of any future facilities that RRC constructs over the next three years.

 

The post Arizona Licensee Gets Green Light on License After Agreeing to $15K Consent Decree appeared first on Radio World.

When The Infinite Dial’s P1 survey respondents aren’t listening to radio or online media, they’re listening to podcasts. But how often do they listen, and what types of podcasts do they listen to? The researchers searched for answers, and here’s what they found.

As with most of the other conclusions in the data, research suggests considerable differences in level of interest in podcasts among P1 listeners as a function of their preferred format. Listeners of alternative rock appear to be in the lead, with 81% claiming they listen to podcasts. At the midpoint are the 61% of classic rock listeners. The trailing edge is represented by classic hits with  a listenership of 38%.

[Read: Report Says Stations Struggle to Build Online Listenership]

The data for weekly listenership among P1 respondents does not track with those who claim to listen. While alternative rock’s P1 listeners continue to lead with 51%, the middle ground is held by R&B with 32%. Those who listen least on a weekly basis, according to the survey, are the contemporary Christian demographic, at just 17%.

Perhaps more interesting than how often the different P1 groups listen to podcasts, is what the survey suggests are their favorite topics. Not surprisingly, music is named by the survey among many respondents. Beyond that, responses vary considerably. Classic rock listeners name history, news/info and food as their top picks. Country’s P1 listeners picked true crime, wellness/self-improvement and music as their top three. Music, entertainment/celebrity gossip and food were favorites for hip-hop/rap listeners.

One of the biggest surprises in podcast data might be the results for P1 listeners in the sports and contemporary Christian groups. While they are on opposite ends of the spectrum in The Infinite Dial’s sex/age positioning nomograph, both groups have named sports, technology and history as the top topics for podcasts they listen to.

 

The post Infinite Dial Research Suggests a Variety of Topics Attract Podcast Listeners appeared first on Radio World.

New videos hosted by the DRM Consortium showcase new receiver models like this version from RF2Digital.

The DRM Consortium is inviting industry stakeholders to view a series of new video productions to get more information on the basic principles of DRM and benefits of to implementing this all-band digital radio system.

On the heels of its participation at the Virtual IBC event held earlier in September, the DRM Consortium created a series of videos that offer everything from basic information on DRM to more complex technical details. The videos offer details on addressing transmission issues over large disparate geographic areas, how to provide adequate disaster warning transmissions with DRM and how to improve local radio services to geographically disparate communities with less power — including how to provide three different radio broadcasts from a signal transmitter.

[Read: DRM Advanced Radio for All]

“Content can be richer, more varied and in the regional languages or dialects [of those areas],” according to the introductory video. “More content in more languages on flexible DRM for all.”

Additional benefits for DRM — or Digital Radio Mondiale — include the delivery of data along with the audio broadcasts. In the video “From Broadcaster to the Listener,” the narrator gives viewers a look at what opportunities DRM can provide to an imaginary country, one with large cities with millions of people, smaller township areas as well as vast forest region that divides a country in two and causes significant geographical broadcast challenges to traditional radio broadcasts.

 

 

Using DRM gives this fictional nation the opportunity to reach more of its citizens with clear, crisp audio as well as connect with them via video/data images. DRM radios have a screen and can provide consumers with text, pictures, maps, math lessons, live sports results, emergency warnings and other educational information, creating an “opportunity for digital radio station managers to use this data channel to create a new revenue stream,” the video says. “Visible adverts can be broadcast alongside traditional audio advertising. DRM is flexible, green and delivers universal access to information so the whole country can be connected.”

Philipp Schmid, CTO of Nautel, a maker of DRM transmitters, explains in another video how six independent DRM signals can be emitted from a single Nautel GV family transmitter, in effect combining signals to be broadcast from a single amplifier, a single antenna and a single location.

“In this way we can of course get a lot more data capacity for our transmitter but we can also use white space that was unable to be allocated in analog FM,” he said. An analog FM channel would have prevented the other adjacent channels to be utilized, he said. But in digital transmission we can make sure that all of these modulated signals are emitted at the same time. “By doing so, we can eliminate interchannel interference and in this way a receiver can pick up its own independent sideband and all the audio services on it.”

The technology may revolution digital radio broadcasting, Schmid said. “It allows us to pack more signals into a smaller frequency spectrum, enabling more broadcast transmission, more radio stations, more services [and] better utilize our spectrum that is available for radio broadcasting,” he said.

Another video demonstrates how DRM is able to deliver distance learning material over large, remote geographic areas where IP is not available.

New DRM receiver options — including standalone models, DRM-capable smartphone receivers and automotive models — have been released from companies like Avion Electronics, Gospell, Inntot, Starwaves and RF2Digital.

 

The post DRM Consortium Updates Industry with New Video Productions appeared first on Radio World.

Lawo released a statement on the death of Michael Mueller. He passed away surrounded by loved ones on Sept. 26 after a brief, but severe illness.

The company said, “We mourn the premature passing of our colleague, team member and friend Michael Mueller, 66; a truly unique colleague, with whom we at Lawo had the pleasure to work together for more than a decade. … Known for his witty sense of humor and kind-hearted personality, we will remember Michael as a key member of the global sales organization, skilled bass player in the Lawo band, a renowned face of the audio industry as a whole and a true gentleman and friend. He will be missed. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife, family and friends at this difficult time.

[Read: Brazil’s Rádio Itatiaia Has New Lawo System]

Mueller brought a wealth of experience to his positions as U.S. sales and marketing manager in 2008, and later as vice president of sales, with Lawo North America. He was responsible for the further development of the Lawo brand identity throughout the United States and was also charged with increasing sales of the company’s numerous products.

Prior to joining Lawo North America, Mueller was vice-president, sales and marketing for MediaGear Inc. He also held positions with Audio Techniques, Scharff Weisberg Associates, Siemens Audio Inc./AMS-Neve Inc., Solid State Logic and Fairlight USA.

 

The post Lawo’s Michael Mueller Passes Away at 66 appeared first on Radio World.

A technical session in the upcoming virtual Radio Show will focus on a topic of growing importance to U.S. broadcasters: hybrid radio.

As Radio World readers know, the term refers to in-car radio radios that can receive analog AM/FM or HD Radio over the air but also connect to the wireless internet to download station graphics, song information and station identifications.

Hybrid radios also support interactivity between the listener and the station. And they can switch seamlessly from a station’s broadcast signal to its audio stream whenever the vehicle drives out of the station’s broadcast coverage area.

RadioDNS has updated its standard to add geo-fencing to prevent access to specific platforms based on physical location. Among other benefits, this would allow a station to define its FM coverage area and “deny” access to streaming within that area in favor of the OTA signal.

For radio broadcasters concerned about losing in-car listeners to non-radio streaming services, advocates say hybrid radio is a timely solution that marries broadcast radio’s strengths — free service, localism and wide coverage — with the power of streaming audio including global reach, rich multimedia content and interactivity.

The technology has been talked about at spring and fall broadcast conventions for years but is taking on more urgency as hybrid radio-equipped vehicles start appearing in the United States, and as AM and FM broadcasters watch SiriusXM roll out its own enhanced 360L platform, which includes personalization and on-demand features.

Benefits

The session “How Radio Broadcasters Can Support RadioDNS” will be presented on Monday Oct. 5 by Nick Piggott, project director of RadioDNS. It’s a not-for-profit membership organization that is promoting the adoption and deployment of hybrid radio globally using open standards.

David Layer, NAB’s vice president of advanced engineering, will moderate.

On one level, the presentation will bring session participants up to speed on hybrid radio’s progress.

“We’ll be talking about hybrid radio’s capabilities and what it can do for radio stations as we’re starting to see more hybrid radio-capable devices proliferate, particularly in cars,” said Skip Pizzi, NAB’s vice president of technology education and outreach.

Piggott also will explain how radio managers can move into this medium through their own efforts or by hiring a third-party contractor.

This Audi receiver shows the availability of a streamed version at right; note the small box “Web.”

“We’ll provide a simple step-by-step guide under the headline, ‘So you’ve decided you’d like to do hybrid radio,’” said Piggott.

“It will be reasonably but not impenetrably technical, so that somebody who has a basic understanding of technology within their radio station or radio group can walk away thinking, ‘I know how we’re going to do hybrid radio. I can see how we’re going to do this.’”

The session will include a discussion of the issue of restricting in-car streaming within a station’s main coverage area, so that broadcasters do not find themselves paying higher streaming music royalties for content that can be heard easily over the air. This is a software-configurable restriction based on constantly comparing the vehicle’s GPS location to the station’s core coverage area.

Tools for Broadcasters

As an open-standards advocacy group, RadioDNS exists to help stations understand and implement hybrid radio solutions.

The Technical Section of its website (https://radiodns.org/technical/) offers a range of downloadable “How To” documents detailing each stage of implementing RadioDNS hybrid radio, from creating station logos and other metadata to station registration, implementing high-definition visuals and setting program listening restrictions by time of day or to a specific program.

The website’s technical section includes a number of presentations on managing RadioDNS hybrid radio applications and support for stations doing this on their own.

By digging into the nuts-and-bolts of hybrid radio in a plainspoken manner, Piggott hopes to make the concept accessible to radio engineers and non-engineers alike. This is why he, NAB and RAB are putting this discussion forward.

“My goal is to demystify the technology and encourage broadcasters not to be apprehensive about trying it,” Piggott said. “That’s the headline: Taking the Fear Out of Hybrid Radio Through RadioDNS, So That Broadcasters Can Do It Themselves.”

For a deeper discussion, see the recent Radio World story “Hybrid Radio Picks Up Momentum” at https://tinyurl.com/rw-hybrid-2.

The post Taking the Fear Out of Hybrid Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Sarah Foss has joined Entercom as chief information officer.

Foss will “provide strategic direction and oversight for the design, development, acquisition, operation and support of the company’s enterprise technology systems and programs.”

Veteran Radio World readers may recall Foss from her tenures at Harris Corp. and Imagine Communications. More recently she was senior VP of strategic initiatives for FreeWheel Advertisers. She has also held management or executive positions at Yangaroo, Encompass Digital Media and VCI Solutions.

[Read: Codecs Offer Redundancy, Backup and Failover]

She is a co-founder of Tech Bae, a tech-focused organization for women in the media and advertising ecosystem.

Richard Schmaeling, EVP/CFO of Entercom, praised Foss for “her strong business acumen and enriched media technology intellect.” At Entercom her job also will include helping apply digital, data and analytic tools.

Send People News to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Sarah Foss Is New Entercom CIO appeared first on Radio World.