Industry News

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

With Election Day just six weeks away, radio’s attention will be squarely on the many federal, state and local contests our audiences are watching. Racial equity, COVID-19 and the economy are front and center, and interest seems high. It is time to let our coverage roll.

However, there are some key issues that stations should be aware of, especially if you are in the noncommercial media space.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Mask Off]

The first of the election matters every noncommercial station needs to pay attention to is documenting your election engagements. From candidate appearances on the air to interview requests to station decisions on said interview requests, your records should be meticulous. You’ll want to make note of dates and times, issues covered, and why requests were rejected. The exact terms of the recordkeeping are spelled out by the FCC, but Cornell’s Legal Information Institute has a readable explanation online.

For a full-power station, you will need to upload those within a day or so to your Electronic Public Inspection File. While noncommercial low-power FM stations do not have the same requirements as far as EPIF is concerned, LPFMs are still required to keep a political file on paper. Records need to be retained for two years.

The second big issue is related: underwriting. Many noncommercial stations rely on underwriting. This is the season when stations are approached by interest groups, candidates and unions to make underwriting buys. The FCC’s underwriting rules give stations discretion to decide from whom they will accept underwriting, and what rates they will charge. Someone being a candidate for public office does not automatically disqualify him or her from being acknowledged in an underwriting spot. However, the rules are strict related to opportunity. NFCB’s Underwriting Guide spells out some of these instances.

A third discussion point is about equal opportunity. A common question from stations is whether they must give equal time to all candidates, even write-in candidates. To be clear, equal time rules are a relic of the Fairness Doctrine, a policy eliminated in 1987. The policy around now is focused on equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is a right to reach the same size and type of audience, rather than a right for “equal time” on the same program. Judgments against stations tend to be the result of failures by the stations to extend invitations to matters like debates, or excluding those running for office.

And finally, there are the lines that supersede the FCC. Regardless of your broadcast license, IRS rules prohibit 501(c)(3) organizations from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign, either in support of or opposition to any candidate for elective political office. Federal Election Commission rules prohibit corporate contributions (including free air time) and regulate political debates and selection of debate participants.

Elections are an exciting time for radio, but it is critical to stay within regulations. In addition to avoiding possible enforcement actions, these policies helps us maintain trust and integrity with our communities.

The post Community Broadcaster: Four Election Day Issues to Avoid appeared first on Radio World.

Dear Editor:

I totally agree with Jeff Keith of Wheatstone that most broadcasters have an issue with processing for their streams vs. on-air chains. He makes excellent points.

My question is, what’s his advice for resolving these level and quality issues?

Most broadcasters put a lot of work into perfecting their on-air sound, but ignore the obvious issues with streams.

Given that premise, what are his recommendations to address these issues? What equipment does he recommend? Are there any easy solutions that don’t require a complete overhaul of the main studio to transmitter audio chain?

— Joel Widdows, Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

We invited Jeff Keith to reply; he wrote:  One of the messages that short article was trying to get across is that on-air processing is unsuitable for streaming, even though our experience has shown that many stations have chosen to use their main on-air processor, or a retired one, for processing audio for their web streams.

The best streaming audio quality always results from using purpose-built processing designed for that very specialized task, whether that processing is based in software or hardware.

When Wheatstone set out to develop our dedicated streaming product, Streamblade, we designed what we believe is the ideal combination of algorithms for streaming.

They accomplish the multiband gain-riding and spectral balance management of an on-air processor, but instead of pre-emphasis and heavy clipping for final peak control, Streamblade is equipped with extremely sophisticated final limiting and stereo width and bass management tools to ensure codecs always see ‘codec-friendly’ audio.

User feedback about Streamblade’s audio quality has been extremely positive, even when operating with streams at very low bitrates.

You can take a peek at Streamblade and read about its capabilities here: https://bit.ly/32Dw30h

[Related: “Audio Streaming Quality Matters” by David Bialik]

The post Letter: Processing Streaming vs. On-Air appeared first on Radio World.

Read about the early days of WWJ, which just celebrated its 100 anniversary; Ben Hill’s perspectives on being Black in radio engineering; and an experiment with dismal sounding audio featuring Michael Bolton.

Read it online here.

Prefer to do your reading offline? No problem! Simply click on the digital edition, go to the left corner and choose the download button to get a PDF version.

News Maker

“I Saw That I Could Build Something … Anything”

Zipporah Mondy talks about her TAP technology apprenticeship and her perspectives on the role of engineering today.

Do It Yourself

My Vacuum Tube Headphone Amp Project

Curt Yengst rummages in his discard stash and finds he can build something interesting.

Also in this issue:

• Codecs Offer Redundancy, Backup and Failover
• How Michael Bolton Can Be 300 Times Worse
• WWJ in Detroit: A Centennial Station

The post Inside the September 16 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

We’ve been touching base with various technology suppliers about the pending end of support for Flash.

Here’s what Radio World heard back from GatesAir; the reply is from Ted Lantz, vice president and general manager, radio and Intraplex Products:

“GatesAir has never operated in the Flash world, and that has long been a key differentiator of our transmission and codec products,” he said.

“HTML has been the primary language supported within the portfolio, which has been developed over the years to evolve and scale with the needs of the broadcaster as a whole.

“Today, HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript are all core parts of a standardized, brand-agnostic web infrastructure available on virtually every browser and web-capable device. It has proven to be a wise path for GatesAir to follow both from a product development standpoint, and for our customers that demand secure and reliable systems.”

[Related: “Broadcast Devices Preps for End of Flash Support”]

The post At GatesAir, No Worries About Flash appeared first on Radio World.

The author is technical manager of National FM. This article is part of our recent Buyer’s Guide series on codecs and STLs.

BUCHAREST, Romania — National FM is a Romanian national FM radio network consisting of 40 frequencies covering most of the nation.

In 2007, at my yearly visit to the IBC show I met Simon Daniels from APT, a company that I knew nothing about.

At the time, we were using a software solution from another company to broadcast a morning show from one city to another. Simon told me that they had a hardware solution for “every now and then” audio transmissions.

One of APT’s tech wizards, I believe it was Willie Woodside, warned me that he wouldn’t recommend a 24/7 transmission via plain internet but that I should still try out a pair of their encoders. A couple of months later I received a message saying that a pair of APT Horizon codecs (renamed as APT IP Codec) were on their way to me for testing purposes … no strings attached.

After a few days of indoor testing I decided to put them on the air so I sent one of the units to another city 500 kilometers/300 miles away from the main studio.

Even knowing that the internet in Romania is one of the best in the world, I still had my doubts about the stability of the connection during a three-hour show. Remember that this was happening in 2008!

After a buffer increase, creating bigger delay but better stability, the Horizons became the main signal transport between our studios and we kept the software solution as a backup.

A few years later APT became part of WorldCast Systems and I was delighted to see that Simon and Willie were still there … answering my occasional emails.

In the meantime, we bought more encoders for our infrastructure. We are now using a pair of APT IP Codecs with MPX over AES to transport music from the main audio processor to our Bucharest transmitter site. The transmitter there is an Ecreso Helios FM 2000 (now named Ecreso FM 2000W).

Another pair of APT IP Codecs connect Bucharest and Oradea via the public internet.

Our sister network, Favorit FM, uses the APT Silver “simplex — one-way solution” to bring the signal from the studio to the satellite uplink site.

And … the big surprise … the pair of APT IP Codecs that started it all are still in service.

In this pandemic time, we built a mobile studio in our off-road Rover. It is able to broadcast from anywhere where there is an LTE (4G) signal. We are currently doing the morning show from outside, in a natural environment, until the situation stabilizes or winter comes.

The old Horizons are still doing an excellent job, over 4G or public internet, depending on what’s available in different locations.

We are very pleased also with WorldCast Systems’ Ecreso family of transmitters. We have in service more than 10 units, 100W, 300W, 750W, 1000W, 2000W and 3000W models. The web interface works like a charm and the options can be very helpful (sound processor or Smart FM option).

The company’s only products that we haven’t used so far are the Audemat monitoring equipment that look to be quite exquisite. But the Ecreso transmitters have great onboard monitoring tools for modulation, audio and other parameters.

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 Tony Peterle at WorldCast Systems in Florida at 1-305-249-3110 or Christophe Poulain in France at +33-5-57-92-89-28 or visit www.worldcastsystems.com.

The post User Report: WorldCast Secures National FM appeared first on Radio World.

The MultiCam Airbridge+ is a hardware-based video controller, call-in manager, character generator and streaming engine. The company calls it a complete “all-in-one” video package.

According to MultiCam it can handle four live feeds and manage up to 12 guests in the waiting queue. Programming can be live or recorded for later use.

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

Airbridge+ provides operators scale and picture position controls of guests along with mix-minus and audio delay. There are also PTZ camera remote controls.

Would-be participants are sent an exclusive link for entering the system. MultiCam visual radio systems are compatible with audio consoles made by Axia, DHD, Lawo and Wheatstone and software automation from companies such as ENCO, RCS, WideOrbit and WinMedia. It works with video platforms and social media such as Dailymotion, Facebook Live Kaltura and YouTube.

Info: www.multicam-systems.com

The post MultiCam Releases Airbridge+ appeared first on Radio World.

iHeartRadio is highlighting its participation in an Alexa offering that lets users automate certain common operations.

The media company is one of four initial launch partners for Alexa Routines, which bundles several things that an Alexa user wants to do regularly, and points to partner content.

[Read: Smart Speakers Continue Home Invasion]

iHeart wrote about it this way in an announcement: “Starting today, you can use the iHeartRadio Routine to kick off your morning with “Stuff You Should Know.” When you dismiss your alarm, Alexa will turn on your smart lights, start your compatible smart coffee maker (no worries if you don’t have one — the Routine will still work without them), and start to stream Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant’s “Stuff You Should Know” podcast.”

Routines can be turned into shareable URL links so users can share them.

An Amazon blog post explains this in more detail and notes other routines such as one for NPR; read it here.

The post iHeart, NPR Are Part of New Alexa Routines appeared first on Radio World.

Pilot, an initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters, will continue its Media Technology and Innovation Scholarships program by offering up to four scholarships of $2,500 each in 2021. Students eligible to apply include current college sophomores, juniors, seniors entering graduate school and graduate students, for pursuit of studies related to broadcast engineering, media technology and innovation. The scholarships will be administered in partnership with the Broadcast Education Association.

“Pilot continues to stress the importance of attracting and educating top technologists to the broadcast industry,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s executive vice president and chief technology officer. “These scholarships expand awareness of broadcast technology in the academic world, and can assist those students with interest in the technical elements of media to pursue their goals.”

BEA Executive Director Heather Birks added, “On behalf of BEA’s board of directors and membership, we are grateful for Pilot’s continued support. With the constantly changing environment, it’s more important than ever to assist students interested in media technology and innovation. We appreciate Pilot’s ongoing dedication to this crucial sector of academia.”

Inaugurated in 2018, the scholarship program targets academic areas that include broadcast television or radio engineering and technology as well as broadcast content creation, including sports and news production, web and online media, mobile media, media-related information technology, multiplatform audience measurement and media technology research.

The deadline for application is October 15, and scholarship winners will be announced in February 2021. Click here for further information and to apply.

The post Pilot Offers Media Technology and Innovation Scholarships appeared first on Radio World.

The list of rules affecting U.S. radio stations that have been eliminated or modified under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has gotten quite long.

Pai released an update to his rolling list of commission accomplishments since he took the chair in 2017. His latest summary is posted here.

He updates this list periodically, and it covers many industry sectors. Certainly it is not an impartial report card; and certainly some of the accomplishments are the result of work that started before Pai took the chair.

But a perusal of the 14-page document with an eye on radio interests offers a reminder of just how many processes touching broadcasters have been killed or revised under Pai, who considers such elimination and streamlining to be a major part of his mission.

His tally now includes the elimination of rules about: paper filing of contracts, keeping paper copies of FCC rules, public inspection of paper files, license display, EOO mid-term reports, radio duplication, common antenna siting, broadcast application public notices, and the biggie for station owners, the requirement to maintain a main studio in a station’s city of license.

Also making Pai’s list are updates or streamlining to FM translator interference processes, low-power FM technical rules, NCE FM comparative selection procedures, and third-party fundraising for non-profit broadcasters.

And he lists actions involving pirate radio, EAS improvements and the creation of Blue Alerts.

Pai is a Republican who was appointed by President Obama and designated chairman by President Trump.

He updated his list in connection with Thursday testimony to an FCC oversight hearing of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

He doesn’t mention radio in the prepared testimony but, speaking more broadly, he highlighted commission efforts on “prioritizing bridging the digital divide, promoting innovation and investment, protecting consumers and enforcing the law, eliminating and modernizing outdated regulations, enhancing public safety, and addressing transparency and process reforms.”

He said that at 44 open meetings, the FCC has voted and adopted 260 items, “more than double the previous administration over the same time period.”

And he mentions the C Band migration, saying the FCC is “on track to commence an auction of 280 megahertz of mid-band spectrum from 3.7–3.98 GHz beginning Dec.8. Our efforts to make this critical spectrum available for 5G have been going very well. … Getting this essential spectrum out years ahead of schedule will promote American leadership in 5G, faster and more reliable wireless broadband connectivity for consumers, and the creation of millions of jobs, billions of dollars in investment, and stronger economic growth.”

The post Pai’s List of Radio Rule Changes Has Grown Long appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is a consultant and co-chair of the Audio Engineering Society’s Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery.

Many broadcasters want to deliver their content by stream as well as by traditional terrestrial broadcast. They care very much how the over-the-air sounds and want to deliver the best product. Over the stream — not so much.

Streaming has different parameters than over-the-air.

Can streaming sound good? Yes.

Can it sound great? If you want it to.

Should it sound the same as your air product? No!

[Read: Come on, Stream Providers, Do the Right Thing!]

Streaming is a different delivery medium with different requirements and results. While most radio broadcasters will maximize their efforts to sound good in the car for the coveted drive time ratings, streaming is the inverse. Listenership on streams tend to be during the times when people are at work. They may be listening on their smart speakers, computer or even their phone.

A broadcaster that is streaming should think about the audio processing. This should be different from broadcast and maximized for your streaming audience. A good CDN should be able to tell you what type of devices are listening to the stream. Yes, you can find out if your audience favors iPhone over Android, Google over Amazon. Try to sound appealing for that audience.

Cue points are very important. Listeners get annoyed when the “Now Playing” information is wrong, locked, or delayed. If you are covering ads whether for the whole audience or delivering Direct Ad Insertion, these cue points will tell the ads to play. Tune your cue point delay correctly so you do not hear what it is covering without cutting off the talent. Educate the talent about this. Can this be done? Absolutely! Is it being done? No!

I have been told by station management that stream quality doesn’t matter. I have been told that the streaming audience is too small! I have been told that over the air is what matters now.

My answer to all of these statements is that the stream matters. Yes, it is the conveyance for the future, but to quote others — the future is now! Make the investment. Large radio companies have created aggregators allowing their competitors to stream alongside of their stations. Are they doing this altruistically? No! They are inserting their own ads and promoting their streams, podcasts or websites. Wake up, radio!

Streaming should be a way of delivery and be the best presentation of the content. Streaming is not an “also ran” and anyone that refers to it that way is not respecting the content.

I apologize for the harshness of this, but it is past due.

The post Audio Streaming Quality Matters appeared first on Radio World.