Industry News

The author writes, “Pretzel patterns are becoming more and more common in metro areas where FX openings are tight.” Getty Images/Jen Pollack Bianco/EyeEm

 

The job of a consulting engineer is to do everything possible to maximize the facilities of a client within the constraints of FCC regulations, the laws of physics and the budget of the applicant.

In the case of a full-power FM that needs a directional antenna system, the FCC demands strict conditions before the License to Cover application is granted. 

These include detailed paperwork from the applicant showing the antenna was designed by a reputable manufacturer using a test range with full-size or modeled antennas that take into account the tower design, other antennas mounted to the tower, cables, conduits and anything else that could cause pattern distortion. 

The commission wants to see sketches, notes and test results from the maker of the antenna. It further requires you to use a licensed surveyor to certify that the antenna was mounted at the correct azimuth as called for by the manufacturer. Lastly the commission requires an affidavit from a qualified engineer that everything was done by the book and the resulting pattern is good based on a proof of performance. 

All of this can be required of the simplest of directional systems for full-power FMs.

CURIOUS PATTERNS

With consultants now being asked to shoe-horn translators into the tightest of places, we are seeing some rather curious antenna patterns in FX applications. Some stretch physics to the absolute limit! 

Again, understand, just because the consultant can specify a complex contour that requires a composite antenna design, it does not mean that the antenna company can make it happen for less than a king’s ransom. 

What is shocking is that for translator directionals, the FCC demands only a checkbox that promises that the antenna meets the required contours as shown in the CP. Talk about faith and trust. 

I will admit that for some “off-the-shelf” directionals and omni antennas that are side-mounted with a predictable pattern, just the antenna sheet and a promise that it was put up pointing the correct direction are probably enough. 

But let’s take the case of the antenna pattern granted on a Chicago translator. It is a real head-scratcher. Fig. 1 shows a pattern that is obviously protecting more than three co-channel translators and full-power FM stations. These pretzel patterns are becoming more and more common in metro areas where FX openings are tight. In this case, the CP application specifies a two-bay “penetrator” style antenna with parasitic elements to get this very complex and non-symmetrical pattern in both the horizontal and vertical planes. 

If this pattern can be done with this type antenna, it would take a lot of range testing and a big box of parasitics installed with great precision and care to pull it off. The price tag for that would be in the thousands. 

TEMPTATION TO CHEAT

I have seen more than a few installations that demand such complex antennas that are simply built with an omni and no attempt to follow the one-of-a-kind design in the app. The temptation to cheat here is just too great, and the results are a mess when there is an interference complaint and the commission relies on these sometimes fantasy patterns to be accurate. 

I cannot blame the consultants, they just show what needs to be done. And often the person signing the License to Cover app is just one of the owners just checking the box, with no idea as to what pattern they really have. The License to Cover app should require that an actual engineer certifies the installation.

There are other cases where the commission is just plain wrong by its own mistakes on issuing a license. I know of a Chicago-area translator with a detailed application on how the system would take care of second-adjacency interference by using a multi-bay antenna to attenuate downward signal. The details were part of a waiver request. But when they put in the License to Cover application they specified a single-bay omni … and guess what? The commission granted the license anyway. Obviously this one slipped through the cracks. 

With AM it’s pretty easy to check on a directional antenna system, just drag out the Potomac and find the monitor points. But trying to do a field proof on a 250 watt translator DA with a meter to check on an installation after the fact will drive you crazy and tell you very little, especially if the antenna is mounted in close proximity to other antennas.  

[Is the FCC Dropping the Ball on Directional Translators?]

The FCC must tighten up regulations to make sure these exotic patterns drawn to get a CP are in fact built to get the License to Cover. 

Since the commission requires detailed proof that a directional was actually built and installed correctly for a commercial FM, why not at least some documentation that shows that a composite directional FX antenna for the requested CP was actually built and tested on a range with proper proof of performance? 

The commission would never accept the “word” of an AM operator that his multi-tower array was good without paperwork, so why allow translators to be put in with these very difficult patterns on just a wink and a promise that there is no cheating? 

While some old and outdated rules are being tossed out, here is one that needs to be revised for more, not less, paperwork. 

 Larry Langford is the owner of WGTO(AM) in Cassopolis, Mich. and W246DV, South Bend, Ind. His opinions on AM radio and other issues are a recurring feature in Radio World. 

Comment on this or any story to radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field. 

The post A Problem With FX Pretzel Patterns appeared first on Radio World.

Discussion of all-digital on the AM band has moved from the theoretical to the real with the recent announcement that the FCC tentatively plans to allow U.S. AM band stations to turn off their analog and broadcast in all-digital HD Radio.

Radio World is hosting a webcast Feb. 19 to explore the potential benefits, challenges and costs of such a transition. 

Whether you’ve been following developments closely or you are new to the idea, “Digital Sunrise for AM Radio” will help prepare attendees for what’s next. The content is intended not just for engineers, but also for owners and managers.

Editor in Chief Paul McLane interviewed Hubbard Radio’s Joel Oxley and Dave Kolesar, NAB’s David Layer, Xperi’s Mike Raide, DRM’s Ruxandra Obreja and Bryan Broadcasting’s Ben Downs. 

[Dates Set for Comments on Digital AM Proposal]

He asked: What would it cost to convert a station? What are the interference implications? What kind of user experience will listeners have? What important lessons can be learned from the only station so far to operate in all-digital full-time? What are the coverage and interference considerations that experts are exploring? How many stations might switch, and when? 

Learn more about the webinar and the featured speakers via the registration page.

The post Radio World Webcast to Explore “Digital Sunrise for AM Radio”  appeared first on Radio World.

From Radio World’s Who’s Buying What page:

The Minnesota Twins have drafted Skyview Networks’ AdView inventory management and live read capture software for a multi-year contract effective in March. 

The Minneapolis-based Major League Baseball team will deploy the customized software in order to schedule and report ads via its broadcast team and front office.

According to Minnesota Twins Senior Broadcast Manager Andrew Halverson, quoted in a press release, the new system will create “efficiencies in our reporting processes.”

Among other features, AdView’s Player Controller enables the Twins’ board operator to pair audio files with the current game scenario, even as the software can be used to schedule ads for the season. It also provides assurance that inventory is maximized and offers live read capture for proof of performance. AdView’s online catalog sorts ads by advertiser, date and time for quick downloads and simplified billing, according to Skyview.

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

The post Twins Pair Up With Skyview Networks appeared first on Radio World.

Ten startups have been tapped as the first batch of companies that will participate in Sprockit’s program at the 2020 NAB Show.

Sprockit is a global marketplace that aims to help connect top startups and Fortune 500 companies in media, entertainment and technology. As part of the 2020 edition of Sprockit, the selected companies will exhibit at the 2020 NAB Show in the Sprockit Pavilion, located in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Here are the first 10 announced startups:

• Bellwethr – Automates the ideal customer experience throughout the customer lifecycle (Kansas City, MO)
• Bixy – Improves monetization for publishers by leveraging consumer-controlled, opt-in data to power ad campaigns, email marketing, eCommerce and more (Kansas City, MO)
• Chartbeat – Empowers content creators to build loyal audiences with real-time and historical analytics across desktop, mobile, and social platforms (New York)
• Cross Screen Media – Offers marketing analytics and software solutions to build the next generation convergent TV platform (Alexandria, Va.)
• Envision – Analyzes image and video content to automatize video curation and editing (Montreal, Canada)
• ignifai – Provides a video analysis platform that uses AI technology to maximize content exposure, increase monetization and optimize production workflows (Paris)
• nēdl – Solves the content discovery problem for audio creators with Real-Time Transcription Search and a unique end-to-end distribution platform (Santa Monica, Calif.)
• Never.no – Makes TV interactive and advertising dynamic, helping broadcasters, advertisers and producers personalize content, increase audiences, engage viewers and grow revenues (Manchester, England)
• Tetavi – Perfects volumetric capture for immersive media enabling faster, accurate and portable XR, film and gaming productions (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• ZenSports – Allows anyone to create and accept sports bets with anyone else in the world, without the need for a centralized bookmaker (San Francisco)

In addition to presenting at the NAB Show, Sprockit participants are able to join in Sprockit Sync private network meetings that take place throughout the year. These Sync meetings include industry executives and Sprockit corporate partners, like Comcast, Fox, Google, Hearst Television, Public Media Venture Group, Samsung NEXT, Univision and Verizon.

Since its founding in 2013, Sprockit says that it has helped raise more than $1 billion in funding for its startups.

The application window for interested startups is still open, with the deadline to apply to participate in the 2020 NAB Show set for March 1. Applications can be completed online.

The 2020 NAB Show takes place from April 18-22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

The post Sprockit Reveals First Group of Startups for 2020 NAB Show appeared first on Radio World.

The author is WorldDAB France representative

Jean-Marc Dubreuil

PARIS — Held in Paris at the end of January, the European Radio and Digital Audio Show brought together stakeholders from across the French radio industry and beyond to discuss the future of radio in France, Europe and around the world. It also served as a platform to highlight the opportunities DAB+ digital radio brings for the radio, manufacturing, retail and automotive sectors.

NEW ROADMAP

During a session dedicated to the development of DAB+ in France, Nicolas Curien from French regulator Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel joined me on stage. As did representatives from commercial and community radio, GfK and public service broadcaster Radio France.

The WorldDAB booth at the European Digital Radio and Audio Show featured a wide range of DAB+ receivers.

Together we outlined the progress of DAB+ digital radio throughout Europe and elsewhere, and touched on the EECC directive, the EU regulation that mandates digital radio in cars across Europe from Dec. 21, 2020, which has already been transposed into national legislation in a number of countries, including France.

On a national level, the CSA, published a new DAB+ roadmap highlighting DAB+ developments plans for the 2020–2023 period. According to the new roadmap, calls for applications will be launched for 50 local allotments in that period of time — these primarily concern the cities of Dijon, Lyon, Marseille, Rennes, Caen, Nancy, Paris, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Poitiers and Toulouse.

[U.K. Government Restates Support for Digital Radio]

As for France’s national multiplexes, a call for applications will be launched for the remaining spot available on Mux 1, while the last spot on Mux 2 will be dedicated to data broadcasting services such as traffic information.

The CSA’s newly launched DAB+ interactive map.

As outlined by the CSA, DAB+ experimentation and trials may take place in France’s overseas territories in coming years, though this will largely depend on interest expressed by local players.

At the show, the French media regulator also announced the launch of a new interactive map giving listeners the opportunity to see what DAB+ services are available in their respective areas. The service, available here, also includes planned DAB+ rollouts across France.

IN-DASH ADVANCES

Industry professionals also widely discussed the future of radio in the car during the three-day event, with the likes of Audi, Radioplayer, RadioDNS, Xperi, Radioline and TDF in attendance to voice their opinions on hybrid radio. The solutions to access metadata exist, and it is up to the radios and receiver manufacturers to make the most of them.

Ultimately, the goal is to access quality, reliable and affordable information in order to provide an improved experience for users, and according to Audi and other innovative players, having one single standard that is used globally will most definitely help achieve that.

The post DAB+ Progress in France and Beyond appeared first on Radio World.

Talk radio kingpin Rush Limbaugh made a surprise announcement today to his audience — he has “advanced” lung cancer and will be stepping away for treatments.

News rapidly spread across the media.

Here is the announcement:

http://www.radioworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Rush-Cancer-Announcement.mp3

 

 

More can be found at this sampling here:

Rush Limbaugh’s Shocking Cancer Diagnosis Spurs Support, Well Wishes (Fox News)

Rush Limbaugh Says He Has Advanced Lung Cancer, Will Continue Radio Program While He Undergoes Treatment (Washington Post)

Talk-Radio Host Rush Limbaugh Says He Has Advanced Lung Cancer (Bloomberg)

 

The post Rush Limbaugh Announces Cancer Diagnosis appeared first on Radio World.

Today Rush Limbaugh announced he has cancer.

http://www.radioworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Rush-Cancer-Announcement.mp3

 

The post Audio Experiment appeared first on Radio World.

ORVIETO, Italy — Delta Meccanica has developed the Star Point combiner, which is capable of combining six medium- or high-power frequencies.

Previously the company offered combiners able to associate six frequencies for powers limited to 2 kW per transmitter.

Combining greater powers (i.e. 6 x 5 kW and 6 x 10 kW), the company says, is more challenging due to the size of the filters. “But the design flexibility of our cavities allowed us to design and create — with only slight configuration tweaks — a device capable of providing optimal RF performance in a cost effective way.”

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

The firm adds that due to the above development, it no longer needed to design a “manifold” combiner, a configuration that it considers no longer valid for FM.

Delta Meccanica is also studying the possibility of implementing a compact version of the Star Point combiner.

 For information, contact Delta Meccanica in Italy at +39-07-6331-6222 or visit www.deltameccanica.com.

The post Delta Meccanica Introduces Star Point Combiner appeared first on Radio World.

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

One of my favorite memories as a student was discovering John Coltrane. Like generations before mine, I was dazzled by his virtuoso stylings on “My Favorite Things.” Tales of his all-night jam sessions and one-of-a-kind life were bits of music history likely to never be repeated. Just as his jazz contemporaries blazed bold trails, so Coltrane too proved to be a standard bearer. He, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and others undoubtedly have introduced many people to the timeless sound of jazz.

However, every classic song comes to a close. And there is more than a little indication that jazz’s days on radio are numbered.

Jazz has seen such a turn of events since it ruled commercial radio in the 1940s into the 1950s. But by the mid-1950s, popular music tastes changed. Even with the rise of The Beatles, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, though, jazz enjoyed a sizable audience. Offshoots such as New Age music and smooth jazz kept the genre in the public consciousness just a few years ago. However, with its core audience aging and longtime jazz radio pioneers exploring other avenues, one has to openly ask how much longer noncommercial media will continue to lift up the genre.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Plant a Seed]

Although the news is not pointing to mass extinction just yet, indications are jazz on the tower is facing some challenges. Recently, Current highlighted the situation at veteran jazz outlet WUMR, which will be departing its 40-year history of jazz radio in favor of a mixed format. In 2018, three jazz stations — KUVO in Denver and Historically Black College and University licensees KPVU and WNSB — were approved to continue the urban alternative effort supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The new format gives stations at chance to connect with new audiences with R&B and hip-hop, though ostensibly their traditional jazz offerings will be (or are being) impacted, now and into the future.

While jazz education groups will tell you there is a growing younger demographic very interested in jazz, I can’t find anyone who says the public perception is one in which jazz is a young person’s primary musical choice. With pressures to increase listenership and grow the donor base, managers at public and community stations are thus going to find little traction with boards of directors or other stakeholders in favor of making jazz a centerpiece of programming. Without champions to expose new listeners to jazz, it is hard to say what jazz will be to broadcast in 20 years. The future does not look promising.

This is not to criticize the value of jazz to the nation, nor does this commentary impinge on any music genre largely vanished from commercial and noncommercial radio. Change is not anyone’s fault. If anything, the gradual disappearing of jazz radio may be the clarion call for its most ardent supporters to think creatively about community engagement and jazz education writ large.

WNCU is one of several jazz stations involved in educating students about jazz and the importance of these stations to their communities and to music history. KDHX is famed for its Folk School, where musical lessons introduce new generations to appreciate folk and bluegrass. Indubitably, a station could do the same with jazz.

Then, of course, there are the dozens of community radio jazz shows that bring you old and new music in the genre. These endeavors are wonderful. Whether that will be enough to save jazz from radio silence may be left to history.

The post Community Broadcaster: The End of Jazz appeared first on Radio World.

Insinuating a connection between Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, National Public Radio wants to see an end to low-power television Channel 6 stations using analog FM radio services and has asked the FCC to refuse future authorization of such use of what it calls “Franken FM” stations.

NPR filed its comments in response to the FCC Media Bureau’s request for feedback on whether analog LPTV stations should be able to continue to program an analog radio service—available on the FM dial (87.7)—after the final digital television conversion deadline.

NPR says that LPTVs’ use of radio airwaves can occupy 30x the spectrum a traditional FM station would use and would cause problems if permitted to continue to operate on analog.

“Franken FMs pose an ongoing threat of harmful interference to public radio stations operating in the immediately adjacent FM band reserved for noncommercial educational broadcast stations,” NPR’s comments to the FCC read. “Moreover, the grossly inefficient use of spectrum adjacent to the NCE reserved FM band ultimate prevents public radio stations from expanding their signal coverage or otherwise offering a multiplicity of additional public service programming for the American public.”

[Background: Media Bureau Continues FM6 Update Inquiry]

LPTVs believe that these concerns are exaggerated.

“There [are] currently over 20 LPTV stations transmitting analog audio carriers available on 87.7 FM, yet the LPTV-C is not aware of any outstanding (not resolved to satisfaction of the listener) complaints about actual interference between the audio signal transmitted by these analog LPTV stations and nearby FM stations on Channels 201 or 202,” the group told the FCC. “However, if the commission chooses to be overly cautious, it can adopt both contour overlap restrictions and prohibitions on actual interference that would eliminate any theoretical risk of interference between 87.7 FM audio carrier and nearby NCE FM stations. In everyday, real-world operating conditions, the current or proposed expanded 87.7 FM services will not cause impermissible interference to other broadcast licensees in their markets.”

LPTVs also have argued that their stations benefit unserved or under-served audiences, though NPR counters that these stations typically offer country, contemporary, Spanish language, religious and sports programming, areas that it says are well served by FM radio stations.

This can all be traced back to the digital conversion of 2009. At that time, full power stations were required to go all digital, but the FCC allowed LPTVs to continue to broadcast in analog until 12 months after the completion of the post-incentive auction repack. The auction is currently scheduled to be completed on July 3, 2020, giving LPTVs until July 3, 2021, to switch completely to digital.

[Is There an Afterlife for Franken FMs?]

NPR, in its argument, says that its position of ending operation of Franken FMs is supported by the Communications Act, FCC regulations and federal communications and spectrum policy. If LPTVs were allowed to continue Franken FM operations, “[the FCC] would have to develop additional rules to govern these Franken FM services to avoid interference to adjacent reserved band NCE FM stations and to assure reception of the LPTV’s primary video service by DTV receivers.”

NPR concludes the commission would better serve the public by reaffirming the DTV conversion deadline.

The post NPR Says LPTV Stations Are ‘Misusing’ FM Radio Services appeared first on Radio World.