Industry News

LOS ANGELES — The owner of The Weather Channel and a growing collection of broadcast TV stations including the ABC affiliate for the Hawaiian Islands has just launched a free streaming ad-supported service steeped in local news.

It’s available on most major platforms, bringing information on demand through another “over the top” offering.

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He’s enjoyed a 53-year career in radio that saw him break through the sales management ranks by taking the General Manager role for a heritage Class A AM in Des Moines and its FM sibling.

In 2004, he joined Salem Media Group, and today oversees its AM/FM combo in Houston.

On April 30, Chuck Jewell will bid farewell to Salem, and to the radio industry.

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iHeartMedia has snared a huge sports brand for its latest podcast partnership: the National Football League.

The two organizations announced an “exclusive” partnership to launch the NFL’s podcast network; it will include distribution of NFL Media’s current podcasts plus co-production and distribution of two dozen more.

The announcement was made by NFL Senior Vice President, Media Strategy and Business Development Kevin LaForce, iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group CEO Conal Byrne and iHeartMedia President of Entertainment Enterprises John Sykes.

LaForce was quoted in the announcement, “Podcasts are an increasingly important way to reach fans and a compelling way to tell NFL stories.”

The partnership will have access to NFL Films archival content. Tbe NFL podcasts will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network.

Byrne called the deal “an incredible moment for iHeart and the podcast industry, period.”

The post NFL, iHeartMedia Launch NFL’s Podcast Network appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. Highway 160 traverses the Navajo Nation, from northern Arizona through the “Four Corners” region and onward to Interstate 25 on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. It’s one of the most picturesque routes in North America, and along the way one can tune to a New Mexico-based FM with a trio of translators in key southwest Colorado cities where Native Americans reside.

This explains why Vertical Radio, the first Christian radio station serving the region, was born. Now, the station’s Navajo operators are yielding the 40-year old facility to the fastest-growing non-secular broadcaster on the continent.

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Some 19 years ago, a Class C AM serving a coastal North Carolina community began simulcasting an FM Talk station with a signal best heard in Morehead City, New Bern and points east. This gave the Talker better coverage of Jacksonville, N.C.

Now, “The Talk Station” is saying goodbye to its AM component.

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Due south of Shreveport is the city of Mansfield, La. It’s home to a Class A station licensed to Leon Hunt and his Hunt Broadcasting.

Soon, it will be licensed to a new owner.

Classic Country KJVC-FM 92.7 is being spun to Sputnik Media LLC.

To be clear, this isn’t the controversial “Sputnik” operation tied to the Russian government. Rather, it is a Louisiana operation led by Quinn Echols.

A $100,000 purchase price has been agreed upon, with a 10% earnest money deposit made to Hunt.

As a separate transaction, Sputnik, for a period ending three months after the date of Closing, gains the exclusive option to acquire from Hunt Broadcasting a Broadcast Electronics STX LP-2 2 kW FM Transmitter for a purchase price of $15,000 cash.

The author is sound technician for Nicklas Strömberg Produktion AB.

TRELLEBORG, Sweden — The last bit of the sound chain has sometimes been the most awkward.

Long distances, humming copper wires, external interference, heavy rain, lightning and hard-to-reach towers can be challenging. Not to mention the expensive sound processors that have to be placed at the transmitter out in the woods or up on the mountain!

Now, with the technology that transmits a complete MPX signal from the studio-side audio processor to the transmitter, it has become so much easier.

In a recent project for a customer, we replaced seven AoIP codecs, seven sound processors and seven RDS encoders with a single Omnia.9 processor and seven Omnia MPX Nodes.

Having the Omnia.9 in-studio also means that the customer’s Livewire production environment now delivers a completely unbroken digital audio chain from playout server to transmitter, and each transmitter gets fed the same great Omnia.9 sound.

The connections from the studio to the seven sites are of different classes. Point-to-point fiber, radio link and internet via ADSL. Since the MPX Node only requires a 320 kbps data stream, there are no problems with buffering. In an emergency, 4G mobile data also works well, but there can be problems with that, for example, longer latency.

It came as an unpleasant surprise to another client when their old internet-connected AoIP equipment was hacked and destroyed, with dead air as a result. Luckily they already had an Omnia.9 in the studio.

When they called me for help, I quickly ordered an Omnia Audio µMPX FM composite license for their Omnia.9 (basically turning it into an STL), and took my spare MPX Node to their transmitter. Only a short while later, they were on air again, and now they no longer have to worry about data intrusion because the MPX node has a built-in secure firewall.

There are several methods of implementation. In some cases, the customer already has an audio processor but it does not support µMPX. The Omnia MPX Node is also available as an encoder providing an easy end-to-end connection by simply adding two to the workflow. The MPX node encoder can even send redundant streams to multiple MPX Node decoders for multiple transmitter sites.

The easiest implementation is if the sound processor is an Omnia.9, which has the secure µMPX function built in. It can send up to 16 simultaneous streams (or more on a private network that permits multicast), so if it is a large station with 16  transmitters, it can save a lot of money as the air chain no longer needs expensive sound processors at each transmitter. One Omnia.9 in the studio and 16 MPX Nodes is enough. This reduction in technology investment means there will be more money left over for content and staff.

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 contact Cam Eicher at The Telos Alliance in Ohio at 1-216-241-7225 or visit www.telosalliance.com.

The post User Report: Telos Keeps It All in the Family appeared first on Radio World.

Haven’t had much luck locating the Estrella Media-owned Spanish-language broadcast TV network on your MVPD’s channel lineup?

Here’s another way to view it — one that may work for you, or TV viewers in your market.

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CBS Radio News has been using Jutel’s RadioMan 6 radio automation for making work-from-home viable for its continued pandemic operations

The news programming provider effectively shuttered its New York-based operation in March 2020. It had recently been auditioning and testing the latest version of the automation system.

[Read: Jutel RadioMan Gets New Architecture]

CBS News Radio Digital Media Manager Dustin Gervais said, “The timing of the release of RadioMan 6 couldn’t have been better. Just as we needed to evacuate our broadcast center due to COVID, RadioMan 6 became just the tool we needed to allow anchors at home to broadcast hourly newscasts without expensive codec equipment.” RadioMan handled clips, interviews and voice segments along with providing timing framework from CBS News Radio staffers, on-air talent and contributors from across the country.

Amazon Web Services was used as a production and marshaling node. Jutel’s Olli-Pekka Lukkarinen said, “Final distribution of news was then streamed to the delivery point, where it could be delivered to listeners via Skyview satellite system.”

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

The post CBS News Radio Remotes With RadioMan appeared first on Radio World.

Augmenting its NT-USB Mini USB microphones, released last year for content creators, podcasters and the like, Røde Microphones has introduced a free recording software package that works solely with the mic — Røde Connect.

Intended for podcasting and streaming use with the NT-USB Mini microphone, which was first introduced at NAMM 2020, the software allows users to connect up to four NT-USB Minis to a single computer, offering additional integration with video call and streaming applications, and more.

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

Available in versions for Mac and PC, Røde Connect provides a virtual recording interface offering faders, level metering, mute buttons and more. The software includes DSP tools such as a noise gate, compressor and Aphex Aural Exciter and Big Bottom effects.

Users can incorporate audio from remote guests, integrate streaming applications, add music beds and other external audio via virtual channels, and the software additionally provides automatic mix-minus on every channel. There are also dedicated output controls for streaming apps like OBS or Xsplit.

Røde Connect can be downloaded for free at the company’s website.

Info: www.rode.com

The post Røde Connect Software Augments NT-USB Mini Mics appeared first on Radio World.