Industry News

The National Association of Broadcasters is expressing concern about the threat to local journalism from a handful of digital technology platforms.

In a filing submitted to the House Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith said a handful of powerful digital technology platforms — including Google, YouTube and Facebook  — are placing local broadcast radio and TV stations at a serious competitive disadvantage and hampering their mandate to serve the public interest.

“Local journalism is now at risk due to the overwhelming competitive position of a handful of technology companies in today’s digital marketplace,” the NAB said in its filing.

[Read: Techsurvey Reflects Consumer Dynamics]

Broadcast stations must use digital platforms to effectively reach their audience but stations have little leverage when dealing with the digital giants that control access to content, Smith said in a statement about the NAB filing. He contends that because of the tech platforms’ dominant role as content gatekeepers, their unilateral decision-making and ranking algorithms are negatively impacting broadcast radio and TV stations’ ability to deliver local news and information to communities.

This is particularly troubling because those algorithms consistently favor national sources over local sources, favor controversial and polarizing content and opinion sources over high-quality journalism, and can make it difficult for smaller, local publishers to reach audiences at all, Smith said.

“The massive shift in advertising to other platforms has profoundly affected local broadcasters,” Smith said. “Stations in mid-sized and small markets with limited economic bases have been disproportionately impacted because any significant loss of revenue has an outsized effect on their ability to pay the largely fixed costs required to operate and to produce or acquire news and other programming.”

Today only a slight majority of TV stations report profitable local news operations with many radio stations in markets of all sizes are struggling to make local news programming financially viable.

Smith also called out the lack of transparency over these digital platforms, which impose advertising limits and policies that impede stations’ ability to effectively monetize their own content online. “These platforms’ technologies and unilaterally set policies hurt local providers of quality journalism … . Receiving cents on the dollar does not enable TV and radio stations to recover the considerable costs of producing local content in the first place.”

The NAB said it supports legislation to address these issues, including the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act that would allow broadcasters and other news publishers to collectively negotiate with digital platforms regarding the terms on which their content may be distributed online. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

“[W]e emphasize our support for laws and policies that adequately address the unique role of free and local OTA broadcasting and its value in a democratic society,” the NAB said in its filing.

The post NAB: Local Journalism Under Threat From Dominant Digital Platforms appeared first on Radio World.

Lest you had any doubt, the “visual experience” that consumers get from radio in their car dashboards is of growing importance.

Now WorldDAB has launched a campaign to encourage broadcasters to use visual assets to keep digital radio prominent there. It’ll certainly be of interest to European broadcasters given the European Electronic Communications Code directive that mandates digital radio in new car radios across Europe starting this December.

[Read: Broadcasters Must Be at the Heart of Radio’s Dashboard Development]

“The campaign underlines the important role visual information now plays in providing a positive digital radio experience for drivers,” the group stated, “and it offers guidance to broadcasters on how to use information they already have in the form of metadata to provide a richer experience for the driver.”

The organization is providing an animated video, an information sheet for managers and other resources.

WorldDAB is an industry forum that promotes DAB digital radio; its dedicated Automotive User Experience (UX) Group is involved in this campaign. It noted that metadata enables visual information, text and graphics including station name and logo, air talent name, song title and album artwork to be displayed.

It said metadata also is taking on increasing importance as hybrid radio — meaning OTA radio plus streamed versions of the same content, working in-sync — becomes more common.

The chairman of the WorldDAB Automotive Working Group is Laurence Harrison; he is quoted in the announcement saying car manufacturers need confidence that broadcasters will provide metadata. “That in turn will ensure that they prioritize the radio user experience in their cars.”

He added that as screens in cars get even better, metadata and visual components become even more important.

The post WorldDAB Puts Spotlight on Visual Experience appeared first on Radio World.

Ecosystems in support of hybrid radio continue to be built.

From RadioDNS today comes news of two more developments; and we can expect to hear more about these as concepts of hybrid radio take on a larger role in our radio marketplace.

(RadioDNS is a non-for-profit that promotes technical standards for combining broadcast radio and internet technologies that enable interoperability. Its website says the goal is that “content from one radio station can reach a multitude of devices, and devices can get content from a multitude of radio stations.”)

First, the organization has published an update to its Service and Program Standard to add controls for listening based on location, or geo-fencing.

“This was a function requested by some U.S. broadcasters to minimize use of streaming within areas where there’s good FM radio coverage,” said Project Director Nick Piggott.

“As rights to content, particularly music and sports rights, get more complex (and more expensive), constraining access to known areas and platforms gets more important,” he wrote on the RadioDNS website.

He gave these examples of where stations would want to control listening based on location:

• A station prefers listeners not to stream where there is good FM coverage, because streaming is more expensive (technical and rights costs). They define their FM coverage area and “deny” access to streaming within that area. Now streaming should only happen outside the good coverage area.
• The same station may have a known “hole” in their FM coverage, so they can “allow” streaming within the coverage hole, within the good coverage area. So their geo-fencing can contain nested areas.
• A different station may have rights to a sports event but only within their country. They can “allow” streaming within their country, and “deny” it everywhere else. If they’re clever, they can have an alternate stream with different content that is provided outside their country instead.

Piggott said these controls are not just applicable to streaming but can be applied to any analog, digital or streaming distribution platform, and to a whole service or to individual programs. “We’ll be working to help everyone understand what a good implementation looks like.”

The details of that development are here.

Second, RadioDNS has now published its Radio Metadata Terms of Use.

“We’re really hoping this provides the template for the global industry to come to a common understanding of ‘fair use,’ which removes some of the uncertainties on using metadata to enhance broadcast radio,” said Piggott.

This document is an attempt to codify acceptable use of content made available by radio stations for radio devices. It’s a template that broadcasters can adopt if they think it describes how they’d like their metadata and content to be used by device manufacturers.

Piggott wrote about this recently on the Radio World website (read that here.) “We think a standard is valuable because it dramatically reduces the complexity of working out what ‘OK’ looks like, and establishes a consistency that allows manufacturers to make a radio that works for the majority of radio stations globally,” he wrote then.

The RadioDNS website describes this document as a “simple, passive, implied agreement” that will help manufacturers and broadcasters both. “If a manufacturer knows they are using metadata and content as described in these terms, they can use it from every broadcaster who adopts the terms with no further checks. If a broadcaster is happy for their metadata and content to be used as described in the Terms, they can adopt them just by linking to them,’ the site states.

Read more about it on the RadioDNS website.

Piggott noted that the Automotive User Experience Working Group of WorldDAB has just published its recommendations on metadata, and that the National Association of Broadcasters is helping U.S. broadcasters to understand hybrid radio and how it may affect them.

The post RadioDNS Adds Geo-Fencing to Its Standard appeared first on Radio World.

Public media biggie WGBH is dropping the “W” in its name that long identified it as a broadcaster based east of the Mississippi.

Where some organizations might make such a branding tweak without calling attention to it right away, GBH went big.

“While its local TV and radio broadcast stations will always be important, the new branding recognizes GBH’s commitment to on-demand and digital-first content for audiences nationwide through streaming, apps, podcasts, social media, educational curricula and virtual events,” the organization stated.

It reported that more than half of its audience impressions come via digital platforms, so it dropped the “W” to “better reflect its leadership in the new media environment.” Affiliate WCAI becomes  justCAI. WCRB will become CRB Classical 99.5. WGBX Channel 44 becomes GBH 44.

The organization is a multiplatform creator for public media, producing content for PBS and partnering with NPR and PRX. Its studios and newsroom are in Boston.

The announcement was made by Jon Abbott, president and CEO, and Tina Cassidy, chief marketing officer. They noted that the new logo still uses a “drop shadow” design that dates to the 1970s, created by Chermayeff & Geismar.

And when you’re a really big public media entity, you can get away with delving into the fine details of how you updated your logos.

“The font will change to the clean and modern Red Hat, which functions better digitally,” it announced. “The iconic audio mark, also known as the sting, or the sound that audiences hear at the end of GBH-produced content, will not change.” And they chose purple as a new primary brand color, calling it “vibrant” and “digital first,” and because “equality, wisdom, empathy, creativity and resilience are all associated with purple and align with GBH’s core brand values.”

The station released a brand launch video, watch here.

The post Public Media Biggie WGBH Drops the “W” appeared first on Radio World.

Following up on an earlier story — after evacuating the company premises in Felton, Calif., as fires raged nearby, Inovonics reports that things are returning to the previous normal.

The factory is open, processing and shipping orders while tech support is up and running.

[Read: Inovonics Factory Affected by Evacuation Zone]

A relieved Inovonics CEO and President Ben Barber said, “Inovonics was untouched by the fires and though many of us had to evacuate the valley, no employees’ homes were harmed.”

The company says that if anything fell through the cracks during the closure, customers can contact them at sales@inovonicsbroadcast.com or tech@inovonicsbroadcast.com.

The post Inovonics Back From Fire Threat appeared first on Radio World.

This year has provided such unusual challenges to the radio industry. Yet the day-to-day needs of keeping a station on the air have not disappeared in the COVID-19 haze.

Those needs don’t go away. Meanwhile, the pandemic has created windows for some facility managers to proceed on projects with less interruption and to contemplate different ways of building future facilities while incorporating more remote workflows.

So we have collected in one package a cornucopia of new and recently introduced products, large and small, for the radio broadcast professional.

Read it here.

The post 2020 Fall Product Planner appeared first on Radio World.

This story is excerpted from the free Radio World ebook “Plan B: Ensuring RF Readiness.” 

A transmitter site is the narrow neck of a bottle — the departure point before the audience receives our product. At most stations, the site is remote from the program source and is unmanned.

“Hardening” the site must involve more than fencing and signs. If you’re serious about your business and your signal, your plant must be robust, durable and capable of self-healing.

Generally speaking we have three areas of concern: security, functionality and provision. Each requires that you identify potential points of failure (PPoF); develop the best solution or methodology to strengthen or eliminate the weak points; and implement those changes.

Of the three, I am most involved in provisioning: Does the site have everything needed to operate properly, optimally and continually?

The list of items that could take you off the air is endless. PPoFs that might be found in any plant include poor system design or layout; equipment inappropriate or insufficient for the task; poor maintenance; and insufficient spares for items that wear and can fail without warning. Then are the many potential points of failure specific to a particular installation.

I have written it so often that we should use an acronym for it, but: You cannot afford anything less than the best when that item is in the mainstream of your business. One can skimp on office trashcans and amenities or client lunches. But if a piece of gear is in the air chain, it has to be the best and operating at peak. The audience knows a station by what it hears on the air; the signal and sound had better be terrific.

Ask Yourself

Some nuts and bolts of power provision:

Is your site getting its power from the best feed — not just the one that is most convenient for the utility?

Is your power tap on the neighborhood feed, or the area feed? The former can add thousands of additional feet of wire and dozens of poles to your circuit — not to mention that your plant may be on a common primary and secondary distribution, which means that your supply is very communistic; every fault and suffering on the system you will get as well, including noise, poor regulation, uneven phases.

Sometimes the solution is just to move your transformer feed to the top conductors on a multi-circuit pole. If your power quality (PQ) is truly poor, you may need a separate feed from a cleaner, more reliable supply point.

How about your supply transformers? Properly grounded? If on a pole, properly supported? Properly GEP wired, or a mess of 14 neutral splices under a single wire nut? Phases balanced? Clean sine wave, or showing artifacts of square wave issues from overloading? Can you fry eggs on the top of your pad-mounted transformer when all the users have their HVAC running wide open?

Each of these defects indicates a potential point of failure.

Gensets

Generators are the next line of power defense and involve their own maintenance requirements.

Periodic maintenance is a must. This is more than punching the date card on the attached tag.

Generators must be tested under load … all the loads! If one generator supplies all site users, all loads on that generator should be operated simultaneously on the generator for at least half-hour, every month.

With all loads present, is the voltage solid on spec, and not sagging when motors such as AC compressors start? Is the output frequency 60 Hz? Will it operate automatically in the event of any of the five critical failures (loss of phase; phase reversal; high or low line voltage; and total loss of power)? Are the block heaters running? If the unit is thermostat-controlled, is the thermostat functional and set at the appropriate coolant and ambient temperature?

No matter what, every generator should be exercised on a weekly basis for at least 20 minutes.

Batteries should be maintained on an appropriate trickle charger. The batteries themselves should be replaced on the recommended schedule of the generator manufacturer. If none is given, the batteries should be replaced on a three-year increment, but sooner if exposed to extreme temperatures.

Calculate the run time provided by fuel stored on site. Extensive backup generation may not be much help if you need it for days and only have fuel for a few hours.

For many reasons, keep fuel tanks as full as possible. Emulate cellular operators who place sensors on tanks to signal that a tank needs a fill. This level signal is usually a DC analog; your remote control can use this value as an alarm limit. When the tank is, for example, three-quarters full, you can call the fuel service to top off. A second value could be one-quarter full, so that you will be kept aware of how much longer the site can run during a long-term outage. One of my clients has a remote control with an action program that calls the fuel service automatically when either of these limits is reached.

All tanks should be protected from such dangers as falling ice, and secured firmly with fences and spill sumps. Locks on fills are a good idea, especially during times when diesel is expensive and liable to be siphoned from remote unsecured fuel tanks.

We mentioned spare parts. For to the generator, you should have at least two oil and two air filters on the shelf, as well as a set of fan belts and a complete change of oil plus a quart. You do not want to go hunting for these parts at 3 in the morning or when off the air.

Read the author’s series “The Big Picture of the Small End of Power Generation,” about how to choose and install a generator:

Part 1: The Good, the Bad & the Noisy

Part 2: Sizing and Selection

Part 3: Pragmatics 101

Part 4: Putting It All Together

The post Hunt Down Those PPoFs in Your Power Provision appeared first on Radio World.

Content creator hardware specialist Elgato has launched its first microphones, Wave 1 and Wave 3, aimed at podcasters, recordists, YouTubers and streamers, developed in partnership with Austrian microphone manufacturer Lewitt.

Both mics feature a cardioid condenser capsule and an onboard A/D converter (24-bit/48 kHz for Wave 1 and 96 kHz for Wave 3). They also sport a proprietary Clipguard “anti-distortion” technology that Lewitt developed for the mics. This reportedly analyzes input in real time and automatically provides the additional headroom that is needed before sending signal on to the computer.

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

The mics each have a steel grille for protecting the capsule, as well as a centralized control dial/button for adjusting headphone volume. On the Wave 1, a push of the dial will mute the mic, while the dial on Wave 3 allows users to also adjust input gain a mic/PC monitor crossfade.

The mics connect via a USB Type-C port on the back, located next to a standard 1/4-inch headphone jack.

Accessories sold separately for the mics include a dual-layer metal mesh pop filter, and a specialized shockmount with multi-adaptor to fit most boom arms.

Both microphones ship with Elgato’s Wave Link app, a basic mixer for tackling multiple channels going into a project, whether a podcast, game audio streaming, or something else. The software handles up to nine channels and can output two separate mixes simultaneously.

The Wave 1 microphone runs $120, while Wave 3 runs $160.

Info: www.elgato.com

The post Elgato and Lewitt Team for Wave Podcasting Mics appeared first on Radio World.

Logitek has added Dante digital networking as an option for its Jet67 multiformat AoIP engine.

Designed for radio applications, the company says that the Jet67 provides an option for broadcasters who need access to various forms of audio networking at an affordable price.

It carries onboard AES67, Ravenna, Livewire and Logitek JetNet networking to enable interconnectivity with most other equipment in the studio. Stations that also operate Dante-enabled equipment can also communicate with the Jet67.

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

The power behind Logitek’s new mixIT touchscreen consoles, the 1 RU Jet67 provides multiple analog and digital inputs and outputs, mic inputs with phantom power, multiple mix-minus buses, and EQ/dynamics control along with routing functions. Logitek’s advanced touchscreen console, Helix, may also be operated with JET67 although some features such profanity delays are not available.

Logitek President Tag Borland said, “We designed Jet67 to take care of everything a small- to medium-market radio broadcaster will need, with no hidden surprises in the equipment costs. Other budget-minded mixing and routing engines require the purchase of external microphone processors, dynamics processing or even networking options. Jet67 has all of these and when paired with the mixIT surface, brings a highly versatile touchscreen console to even the smallest operation.”

Info: https://logitekaudio.com.

The post Logitek Adds Dante Module Option to Jet67 Engine appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has finalized the 2020 regulatory fees for U.S. broadcasters, and there’s little joy for radio. See the finalized new fee schedule at the bottom of this story.

The commission rejected arguments that radio regulatory fees should be frozen at prior levels. It wrote, “The radio broadcasters’ arguments … reflect an incomplete understanding of the methodology that the commission has used for years.”

The National Association of Broadcasters, among others, had mounted a particularly forceful effort in its public comments this year about the need for relief.

[Read: “NAB Again Goes to the Mat Over Fee Increases”]

But the FCC said freezing fees for one group would have to come at the expense of other regulated parties. And it said an unexpected drop in the number of radio broadcasters from 2019 to 2020 means the remaining ones have to bear more of the burden.

But it did put in place some steps to help broadcasters whose businesses have been whacked by the pandemic.

We asked attorney Francisco R. Montero, partner in Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, to break it down for us.

Radio World: Whom were you representing in this proceeding about regulatory fees? 

Francisco Montero: I was representing a consortium of state broadcast associations made up of the Colorado Broadcasters Association,  the Florida Association of Broadcasters, the Puerto Rico Broadcasters Association and the Oregon Association of Broadcasters.

RW: What is  your reaction to this outcome and to the FCC’s reasoning?  

Montero: I was very disappointed by the FCC’s response. Our group as well as the NAB and other broadcasters made very valid arguments as to why the broadcasting community needs relief from regulatory fees during the COVID pandemic.

Broadcasters are lifting a very heavy load in serving the public and communicating invaluable public service information on multiple crises occurring across the country all at the same time. Broadcasters are concurrently suffering massive losses as a result of a collapse of advertising revenue. The federal government is providing assistance to businesses and to individuals during the pandemic, tangible financial assistance through loans and tax filing extensions.

The FCC has provided some relief from regulatory filing obligations. But when it came to regulatory fees. No such relief was offered.

RW: The commission did respond to calls for more flexibility for payors (like radio stations) in light of the pandemic. You described these as “wins” for radio stations. Can you list those and briefly explain in a few sentences what each one means for radio stations. 

Montero:

1. Simplified filing procedures for financial hardship waivers and requests for deferments, to make it marginally easier to request every doctrine or waiver of the regulatory fees.
2. Simplified process with no hurdles for installment payment plans, to enable broadcasters to request the ability to pay regulatory fees over time rather than in a lump sum;
3. Reduction of the interest rate charged for installments plans and elimination of the large down payment requirement. That this would be considered a “win” is indicative of how low we’ve set the bar. But we’ll take whatever we can get;
4. Elimination of administrative fees charged for late payments and for installments plans;
5. A temporary lift of “red lights” to allow for filing of waiver requests. If a broadcaster owes money from previous years they are slapped with a “red light,” which freezes their ability to file applications or request other types of relief from the FCC.

RW: What happens next in regards to the mechanics of these processes, like the financial hardship waiver? 

Montero: The order directs the FCC’s Office of Managing Director to put out a public notice with more details on the financial hardship waiver,  as well as the installment payment option (presumably to spell out how many payments or the duration of the installment plans).

RW: What else should we know?   

Montero: We’re still waiting for the FCC to announce the date that regulatory fees will be due. But most speculations are that the filing deadline will likely be Friday, Sept. 25.

The post Radio Stations Get No Relief on FCC Fees appeared first on Radio World.