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In early December 2023, RBR+TVBR was first to share with readers full details surrounding the sale of KVRR-15 in Fargo and full-time satellites KJRR-7 in Jamestown, N.D. and KBRR-10 in Thief River Falls, Minn.; and FOX-affiliated sibling KQDS-21 in Duluth, Minn.-Superior, Wisc., to Coastal Television.

It was a fresh deal, brokered by Kalil & Co., that replaced the station’s failed spin to Forum Communications Company, which the FCC did not approve after 18 months over local ownership concentration concerns.

There was no such worry on Take Two for the seller.

Coastal Television Broadcasting Group LLC officially closed Monday on its purchase of the TV properties from Red River Broadcast Co. and KQDS-TV Corp. Those entities are owned by Curtis Squire Inc., a Minnesota-based family holding company headed by John Exline that has held the stations for the past several decades.

With the sale, Red River and KQDS-TV are no longer owners of broadcast media properties.

And, it brings bigger opportunities for Georgia-based Coastal Television, owned and operated by founder and CEO Bill Fielder. Coastal owns and/or provides advertising sales and other services to 19 television stations, including properties in Mississippi, Alaska,
Tennessee, New York, Arkansas, Indiana, Nebraska, Wyoming, North Dakota and Minnesota.

 

Radio World is checking in with business and technology leaders about the state of the industry as radio prepares for the NAB Show this weekend.

Rhonda Lapham is market president of iHeartMedia Cape Cod and Providence. She will be among the speakers at the NAB Small and Medium Market Forum at the NAB Show.

Radio World: As we are heading into the NAB Show, what do you consider to be the most important business issue or challenge for radio broadcast owners and executives right now?

Rhonda Lapham: There are industry lobby groups who are focused on issues like taking free over-the-air broadcast radio out of cars. This would make it harder for us to serve our communities, which is our mission, as well as harder for FEMA to reach people with critical lifesaving information. Broadcast radio is the only medium licensed by the federal government to serve America communities — it’s our most important priority. Anything that would make that harder, or make it harder for our communities to easily access free, over-the-air broadcast radio, is a concern for me.

RW: What technologies or new media platforms are you watching closely, for their potential impact on how radio organizations do business?

Lapham: We are always looking for new technologies and media platforms that will enhance our listener’s experience. Our goal is to be everywhere our listeners are with the products and services they expect. For example, with the iHeartRadio app, listeners can stream live broadcast radio, podcasts, music playlists, custom Artist Radio stations and on demand music on more than 250 platforms and over 2,000 different connected devices — including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, televisions and gaming consoles.

Additionally, take a look at podcasting — 64% of the U.S. has listened to a podcast and monthly reach is 42% with weekly reach at 31%. In a matter of a few years, iHeart has become the largest publisher of podcasts with 206 million downloads, with over 100 of our podcasts seeing 1 million-plus monthly downloads.

Then there is iHeartland. Our iHeartland destinations in the metaverse lead the industry in terms of engagement with over 15 million visits. Among all the games in Roblox, iHeartland is among the top 1% based on daily active players and total daily playtime. iHeart continues to evolve so that it can offer products that are serving the community, when and how they want it. 

RW: Generative artificial intelligence was last year’s big buzz topic. Has it met expectations for its impact in radio?

Lapham: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an important new platform that has and will continue to add great value to our industry in many ways, both for our products and how we operate. This new technology will help us improve and streamline day-to-day activities, from prospecting for new clients to researching and preparing for pitches, scanning and summarizing documents. We’ll be rolling out our own iHeart-specific AI solutions to help our internal teams use AI effectively.  

RW: Over the next three years, what will be the most important change or evolution in how radio companies are run?

Lapham: I feel that radio will continue to evolve and discover new ways to be where consumers are. Delivering information and entertainment when and where consumers want it and how they want it. Not knowing what the future has in store in terms of technology, I do know that our industry can pivot and evolve right along with it — it always has. Look at the role digital has played for us. Digital has substantially added further radio listening, it’s additive listening for us. We are agnostic as to which device listeners want to receive our content on.

RW: What else will you be watching for at NAB, or what else should radio managers be thinking about?

Lapham: I always enjoy viewing new ways our talent can speak to the community and unique ways our sellers can identify and work with advertisers. As radio managers, we need to stay relevant to our listeners. We need to be up to date with the new trends and fads for our listeners. We need to meet the needs of our advertisers and agencies and deliver the most exciting media campaigns.

The opportunity to brainstorm with other radio managers on ways they are reaching their community and listeners is always so motivating. I like to “borrow” successful ideas and bring them back to my teams and execute them.

RW: In a sentence or two, what does your company do?

Lapham: iHeartMedia is the #1 media company in the U.S. with a reach of 276 million, reaching 90% of all U.S. adults each month. iHeart is the largest podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more downloads than the next two podcast publishers combined and has the number one social footprint among audio players, with seven times more followers than the next audio media brand, and the only fully integrated audio ad tech solution across broadcast, streaming and podcasts. The company continues to leverage its strong audience connection and unparalleled consumer reach to build new platforms, products and services.

[For More News on the NAB Show See Our NAB Show News Page]

The post Lapham: Radio Must Find New Ways to Be Where Consumers Are appeared first on Radio World.

In one week, the Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) will again host a breakfast during the NAB Show. This year, it will feature a panel discussion on “The Business of Multiplatform Sports,” and among those appearing are a Beasley Media Group Market Manager, Skyview Networks’ Chief Revenue Officer, two Audacy leaders and the co-CEO/President of Gray Television.

Confirmed presenters include Skyview President of Network Partnerships and CRO Jeanne-Marie Condo, Gray Television’s Pat LaPlatney, Beasley/Boston VP/Market Manager Mary Menna, and Audacy’s VP/Digital Business Operations Carlson Mozdiez and Chief Technology Officer Sarah Foss, respectively.

AWM says they’ll participate in “a candid conversation exploring the evolving landscape of sports business and the significant role women play in shaping its future.” The panel, AWM adds, will dive deep into the emergence of multiplatform sports coverage and how it has
reshaped the business landscape of the sports industry, and how media professionals have leveraged multiplatform sports to enhance audience engagement and reach a diverse set of viewers.

The ticketed event will be held in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center from 8am-9am Pacific on Monday (4/15).

 

With reports from RBR+TVBR in Dallas, Toronto, Los Angeles and Boca Raton, Fla.

Across Monday, April 8, from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Dallas and onward to the northeast to locales such as Dayton, Ohio, and Niagara Falls, millions of Americans were witness to one of the most brilliant total eclipses seen in a generation.

Broadcast and cable television did their part to cover the historic event, while over-the-air radio stations did their part, too, across the nation, to share coverage of the eclipse with their respective audiences.

From the 9am hour onward in Los Angeles, Novena Carmel, host of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, crafted a playlist largely focused on eclipse-themed selections. Across town, Audacy’s all-News KNX-AM & FM was airing live cut-ins from a public event attended by local political leaders. As this was transpiring, a full eclipse, free of clouds and other obstructions, was seen in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlán.

While Noticias Univision and Telemundo’s newscasts were devoted to what was being seen there, and Univision star journalist Jorge Ramos was stationed in Mexico City at the Monument to the Revolution, Scripps News was also sharing the scene in Mazatlán as part special coverage seen across the company’s owned-and-operated broadcast TV stations, including WPTV-5 in West Palm Beach.

The Scripps News coverage preempted NBC’s coverage of the eclipse in the West Palm Beach DMA, as network coverage from CBS News aired on Sinclair Inc.’s WPEC-12 and ABC News/National Geographic joint coverage appeared on Hearst Television’s WPBF-25.  At Scripps-run and Gray Television-owned FOX affiliate WFLX-29, a “FOX Weather” feed supplied to FOX Television Network affiliates allowed the FOX News Channel to offer its own, unique coverage of the eclipse.

Cable television all-news networks were also heavily focused on the eclipse, perhaps taking a break from political talk, as CNN and CNN en Español joined One America News, Nexstar Media Group-owned NewsNation and NewsMax with coverage. NASA TV coverage could be seen on the Palm Beach County local access channel in the 2pm hour.

Interestingly, in the Miami Valley area that’s home to Dayton, Cox Media Group’s WHIO-7 was sticking with CBS’s national feed as Nexstar-owned WDTN-2 offered locally produced special coverage. Down in Dallas, where “totality” was happening at 2:40pm Eastern, WFAA-8, a Scripps station, went a step further than offering Scripps News coverage by going live with its own North Texas coverage.

AUDIO INTELLIGENCE

As many were watching television or going outside to view the eclipse themselves, WLW-AM 700 in Cincinnati midday host Bill Cunningham was discussing the event and its impact on traffic with listeners of the top-rated station.

In Toronto, CHBM “Boom 97.3” went with an eclipse-themed playlist timed to coincide with totality.

As one would expect, Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 chart-topper “Total Eclipse of the Heart” aired precisely at 2:24pm Eastern, immediately followed by “Here Comes The Sun”

The Stingray-owned Adult Hits station that can be heard in Niagara Falls, which had a huge crowd of tourists on the Ontario side of the river awaiting the eclipse. And, it heavily promoted its special eclipse-themed playlist across social media channels leading up to Monday afternoon.

At 3:19pm Eastern, crosstown CIND “Indie 88” interrupted programming as the eclipse reached its totality in the GTA with The Dirty Nil’s cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Lastly, Cumulus Media gained national recognition for a solar eclipse promotion at its WZYP-FM in Huntsville, Ala.

For the past two weeks, the Top 40 station gave away roughly 1,000 solar eclipse glasses. But, before WZYP had the glasses made, the station held a listener contest to come up with clever sayings to print on the glasses. The winner? “I’m getting mooned with WZYP.”

Cumulus/Huntsville Operations Manager Steve Smith, who also serves as WZYP Program Director and Afternoon Host, said, “It’s been so amazing to bond with listeners who are as excited about the eclipse as I am. I’ve loved seeing all of the families and kids show up to get them. Personally, I’ve been waiting for this since I saw the last eclipse in 2017. I’m so into the eclipse that I’m traveling to the path of totality. Huntsville will only have around 90% totality, so I’m heading to whatever sunny location I can find in the direct path.”

CityNews Toronto was offering this image to viewers at 3:10pm Eastern

Troy A. Miller is the president and CEO of the NRB, National Religious Broadcasters.

On March 29, the Wall Street Journal editorial board published a piece titled “Coming Soon: An AM Radio Mandate.”

In its negative evaluation of the AM For Every Vehicle Act, the editorial board skims over key details.

Troy Miller

The board writes: “Some auto makers have dropped AM radio from EV models because their components can interfere with signals. The companies can mitigate electromagnetic interference with cables, filters and other materials… But these involve engineering trade-offs that can increase manufacturing costs.”

Sounds scary, but the federal number crunchers at the Congressional Budget Office concluded that “the unit costs of those updates are small” and noted that while the Department of Transportation would be authorized to assess civil penalties for noncompliance, it would likely collect very little.

The board further writes that AM is one of “multiple, redundant communication modes” that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) uses to send out public alerts in times of emergency, and that the chance is “miniscule” that drivers wouldn’t be able to access vital safety information.

Ex-FEMA chiefs who have advocated for this legislation would beg to differ. In a Feb. 24 op-ed, former FEMA head Pete Gaynor warned Americans to consider the possibility of a future attack on U.S. communications infrastructure.

“It would be malpractice for the government to allow a few companies to take away its most effective means of keeping the public informed,” Gaynor wrote.

The editorial board contends that “Congress’s AM radio mandate will increase the cost of EVs, which auto makers will offset by raising prices on gas-powered cars.”

What does the editorial board believe automakers are planning to do with the valuable dashboard real estate they reclaim from radio? Keep prices down and load up the dash with other free services? Certainly not. The future of the auto dash is a buffet of monetized subscription services at best—and serious consumer disadvantages at worst.

In a video feature called “Apple, Google, GM and the $1.5 Trillion Battle for the Car Dashboard,” WSJ video correspondent George Downs reported, “Traditional automakers plan on using this space to sell a suite of features and services in a market that some analysts estimate will be worth $1.5 trillion by 2030.”

Whether or not you want a more connected experience with your car through such features and services, your car wants a more connected experience with you. “Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies,” the New York Times revealed in March 2024. Automakers are selling driver behavior data through opaque programs that many drivers had no idea they had opted into, resulting in skyrocketing insurance fees among other privacy intrusions.

Let’s be clear: Opposition to the AM For Every Vehicle Act isn’t about keeping dollars in drivers’ wallets. It’s about driving those dollars to the dashboard. If you think automakers’ goal is to yank AM radio, blame it on a subpar listening experience, and go no further, think again.

[Read more stories about the future of AM radio in cars]

The post NRB Denounces WSJ’s Evaluation of the AM for Every Vehicle Act appeared first on Radio World.

MESA, ARIZ. — Between the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan areas sits Pinal County, one of the nation’s fastest-growing municipalities. While it includes the San Tan Valley and Apache Junction due east of sprawling Maricopa County, it also includes Casa Grande, the Ak-Chin Indian Community, Oracle Junction and the county seat of Florence.

Aside from Apache Junction and San Tan Valley, the majority of the county sees itself more closely aligned to Tucson than Phoenix. That’s why the county, with community support, petitioned the FCC to modify the local satellite markets of four Tucson TV stations.

The Commission has said yes to their plan.

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In 2023, on average and based on the aggregation of the consumption in 86 countries in the world, viewers devoted an average of 2 hours 21 minutes per day to television. That’s according to France’s “Glance” Global Audience & Content Evolution Report courtesy of Médiamétrie.

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The FCC has granted a construction permit for a new LPFM station on 107.3 FM in Union City, Pa. to Community Media of Union City. 

The commission ruled in the group’s favor following an informal objection from a crosstown LPFM operator.

Community Media’s application was part of the 2023 LPFM filing window. Union City Family Support Center (UCFSC), which owns 96.7 WWUC(LP), filed an objection in January, believing the application should be denied due to the involvement of technical consultant Brian Silvis.

Silvis is also the manager for Canadohta Community Radio Group’s 105.7 WUUK(LP) and a consultant for Corry Area Radio Service’s 98.9 WHYP(LP). In its objection, UCFSC charged that Silvis was creating a “radio network” across northwest Pennsylvania and that his affiliation with the three stations was “outside the original intentions of the FCC” regarding LPFM operation.

Following the objection, Community Media removed Silvis from its application in February. It also said he had no attributable interests in the non-profit.

The FCC now has denied the objection. It said the presence of a consultant like Silvis across multiple applications does not result in “common control or attributable interests” among the stations. It said that UCFSC presented no concrete evidence that Silvis’ involvement was beyond that of a technical consultant.

UCFSC’s concern originally had been filed as a petition to deny but was dismissed by the Media Bureau as procedurally flawed and was instead treated as an objection.

So Community Media has been awarded a CP for the new LPFM that will broadcast from a tower a few miles south of Union City.

The organization was incorporated in Pennsylvania in November and aims to use its signal to broadcast community-oriented features, such as programming with Union City High School students, interviews with local government officials and music programs by local artists.

(Read the decision.)

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The post Community Media of Union City (Pa.) Wins LPFM CP appeared first on Radio World.

Comments on proposed rules designed to make it easier for emergency managers to send alerts to those who do not understand English over the nation’s broadcast airwaves are due by the end of Monday (4/8).

On Friday, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) chimed in, and it likes what it sees.

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She has a Master’s Degree in French Studies from New York University and has been in the U.S. broadcast news industry for 35 years. Now, this former ABC News VP of Newsgathering is taking a key weather leadership role at CBS News & Stations.

Fisher will helm a newly formed national weather unit that will work closely across all CBS news programs and the 60+ meteorologists and weather production teams across both CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. “This central weather team will be the coordinating force behind bringing our local and national teams together, using state-of-the-art augmented and virtual reality to tell the critical weather stories each day,” CBS News & Stations said in a release distributed Monday morning.

Fisher starts her new role on April 22 and will be based in New York.

“Wendy Fisher knows how to cover stories with impact and how to lead teams to become reporting centers for excellence,” said Adrienne Roark, President of Content Development and Integration for CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. “Every piece of research we’ve seen for decades points to weather as one of the biggest drivers in audience engagement. From life-impacting to life-threatening weather, audiences turn to us for community connection, context and clarity during these extreme events. Wendy is exceptionally well positioned to help build our new unified weather leadership team as we move to transform the coverage and super-serve audiences with this essential and urgent reporting every day.”

With Fisher in control, CBS News and Stations’ weather unit is poised to “transform” its on-air look by utilizing augmented reality and other new technology pioneered in San Francisco at KPIX-5.

In fact, Fisher will work with KPIX President/GM Scott Warren as new features debut that are designed to provide “deeper and more comprehensive reporting” across all CBS News and Stations programs and platforms, the company says.

“Weather is one of the top stories audiences look for on a daily basis and I am excited to join an organization investing in bringing together the strongest reporting teams, storytellers and technology to bring depth and innovation to weather coverage,” Fisher said.

Fisher joins CBS News and Stations after a more than 30-year career in newsgathering at ABC News. From 2020 to 2023, Fisher served as SVP/Global Newsgathering, where she managed coverage of local, national and international news stories, such as the war in Ukraine, mass shootings, major weather events and natural disasters. Fisher was also integral to ABC News’ coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, protests following the murder of George Floyd, political campaigns and terrorist attacks.

Fisher began her career at ABC News in 1989. She has served as VP of Newsgathering, Executive Editor, National Editor and Assignment Editor.

Fisher also currently serves as a lecturer in advanced reporting in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at Rutgers University.

Townsquare Media has successfully purchased and retired some 3 million options held by various members of the management team and board of directors, including Local Media COO Erik Hellum, as RBR+TVBR previously reported.

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The owner of a Country FM, a Classic Hits FM translator fed by that station’s HD2 signal, and a Class D AM offering a News/Talk that benefits from an FM translator of his own has been taken to court by the federal government for its failure to pay regulatory fees to the FCC.

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The developer of a proprietary AI-powered platform that includes the subscription ad-deletion streaming service for radio branded as faidr has been awarded a U.S. patent for the core technology powering the smartphone app.

The news sent the company’s stock soaring in pre-market trading on Monday.

Auddia Inc., which trades on the Nasdaq market as “AUUD,” has been awarded “U.S. Patent 11,935,520” for its faidr-focused technology, which delivers ad-free broadcast radio via streaming audio to paid subscribers.

That news immediately triggered a buying spree for Auddia shares, which as of 8:48am Eastern were up by some $2.08 per share, to $3.51, on highly active trading.

That’s a welcome upward tick for a company whose shares have been in a free-fall since the third quarter of 2021, when trading was largely over $60 per share and late June 2021 saw a short run-up on share value to $185.

The last year has seen AUUD finish under $11 per share since late June 2023 — after another brief rally that took the stock from $9.50 on June 8 to $30.50 on June 12, only to drop back to $11.25 on June 22.

Thus, while shares were up 144% before the opening bell, there’s a long way to go for Auddia to bring long-term investors back to their initial dollar input level.

Speaking of the patent, Auddia Executive Chairman Jeff Thramann shared, “Although we have believed we were leading the AI space with important and patentable technology when we began the process of training our algorithm to deliver a premium ad-free AM/FM listening experience, there is a big difference between filing a patent application and having the application approved. Issuance of this patent validates our innovation and secures our AI for Audio technology as a proprietary platform we look forward to building upon to drive new innovations in support of additional industry first premium audio listening experiences.”

In addition to an issuance of the patent, Auddia has taken the next step in advancing the provisional patent application it filed last year related to leveraging AI to improve large language model (LLM) prompts and the domain specific knowledge of proprietary GPTs.

Auddia says that in February it converted the previously filed provisional application to a non-provisional application. This conversion initiates the process for the patent office to review the application as the next step in pursuing patent protection, the company said.

And, As Auddia noted last year when filing the provisional application, the non-provisional patent application introduces two significant improvements to the LLM space. First, the company says, the proposed patent claims cover the development of new machine learning algorithms that use the rich data inherent in chat conversations to learn how to optimize prompts to more efficiently extract the best results from LLMs. Second, the patent covers capturing the AI generated prompt improvements and the enriched outputs of the LLMs to create new GPTs with industry specific domain expertise.

Auddia intends to use this technology to create focused domain specific language models to introduce new B2B and B2C audio experiences.

“As the technology landscape continues to accelerate, we continue to evaluate new technologies to determine how we can use them to introduce unique capabilities and experiences for creators and consumers within the audio space,” Auddia CEO Michael Lawless said. “We look forward to continued validation from the USPTO as we continue to innovate and invent.”

The patent comes just days after Auddia Inc. closed on $3.5 million of new financing by selling 1.3 million common shares from its previously announced equity line. And, it arrives roughly one month after the company withdrew a S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission designed to secure financing for the acquisition of Radio FM.

In most weeks, there’s a disparity between the use of Spot Cable and Spot Television when reviewing who the top advertisers are at each form of media, based on play count. For the week ending April 8, that was far from the case.

And, that’s thanks to a key product tied to Tax Day in the U.S.

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The Media Bureau grants the application of Community Media of Union City for a construction permit for a new LPFM station at Union City, Pennsylvania

The Society of Broadcast Engineers will offer two days of sessions in its Ennes Workshop at the 2024 NAB Show. The workshop returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center after being held at the Westgate last year. It will feature tracks on “RF101” and “Media over IP Essentials.”

Among the sessions is “ROI and how to speak it,” delving into concepts of return on investment, cost of acquisition and similar terms. It will be presented by Kevin Trueblood, associate general manager for technology and operations at WGCU Public Media in Fort Myers, Fla. 

Radio World: Can you give us a sample of terms you’ll discuss?

Kevin Trueblood

Kevin Trueblood: We’ll go over things like depreciation and capital budgets, but the point of the presentation is to help engineers fit their projects into the overall scope of the business of broadcasting. 

Typically engineering is viewed as a cost center, and while those expenses are investments into the business, it’s important to be able to understand WHY these expenses benefit the business beyond just shiny new equipment and how to define the returns they can provide. 

RW: The term “total cost of ownership” has become familiar in the purchase of transmitters. How can that concept be applied across other parts of the radio station?

Trueblood: This is huge on the IT side of things, which for modern facilities is a big part of your air chain. More and more software and services have become subscription-based, so if you’re hosting a local server, you have to factor in not just hardware costs, but also the cost of software over time, the infrastructure to host the server such as HVAC, people to maintain the servers, administer backups and associated connectivity. 

RW: A related session is about “How to Talk Like a Manager,” where you’ll be joined by Cindy and Gary Cavell and which concludes the second day’s agenda. How is this discussion different from the above?

Trueblood: If your day is spent in the trenches, out in the field and putting out fires, you have a great working knowledge of the day-to-day operations of a facility. But to move up in your career and to help you understand why things are the way they are at your facility, it’s helpful to get an understanding from people whose job it is to make the decisions that impact those day-to-day operations. 

RW: Are there common problems or mistakes engineers tend to make when talking with corporate types? How can they avoid them?

Trueblood: Very often engineers think in logical terms and believe that something is impossible unless it fits into a specific framework. In reality, accomplishing a goal and doing your best work can take some creative thinking and challenging your ideals. 

RW: Looking across our industry, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing broadcast engineers and their profession broadly?

Trueblood: Technology is both our enemy and our friend. Modern technology enables us to do far more with far less, but at the same time personnel shortages and dwindling budgets means resources can be stretched too thin, making it a challenge to get ahead and accomplish goals. 

RW: What else should we know?

Trueblood: My hope is this provides some insight to professionals who are either new to the industry or looking to make a move upwards in their career. Being able to communicate effectively and understand how your work fits in to the bigger picture can allow both internal and external stakeholders to see a maximum return on their investments. 

Find the agenda for the two-day Ennes Workshop here.

[For More News on the NAB Show See Our NAB Show News Page]

The post Trueblood to Discuss “ROI and How to Speak It” appeared first on Radio World.

At the NAB Show Comrex will debut a major feature update for its Gagl remote contribution service called Hotline, as well as a new tier called Gagl Solo.

Gagl enables users to send and receive audio through common web browsers to Comrex hardware IP audio codecs. It supports up to five remote participants in one session.

“Hotline dramatically improves the quality of a standard cell phone call for on-air use,” Comrex said in its announcement.

“Gagl + Hotline provides a 10-digit telephone number with each Gagl + Hotline subscription. A guest or reporter can call the number using an AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon cell phone. The caller’s audio will be presented within the Gagl interface in HD Voice quality for clean, clear full fidelity for use on-air.”

The Gagl service doesn’t require specialized hardware or software on the remote end. With a computer or smartphone plus a headset, Comrex says, high-quality audio can be transmitted bidirectionally with minimal latency, to get anyone on the air.

Also new is Gagl Solo, which supports single guest connections and is suitable for users who don’t need to manage multiple participants, like a reporter in the field.

“Acquiring high-quality audio from remote locations is essential for creating compelling radio. Providing flexibility for guests who can’t come into the studio was a driving force behind Gagl’s creation. Gagl + Hotline creates more options for guest connectivity and makes it even more valuable for radio programming.”

NAB Show Booth: C2234

[For More News on the NAB Show See Our NAB Show News Page]

The post Comrex to Introduce Two New Gagl Features appeared first on Radio World.