The author is executive director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.
In the coming weeks, the White House will launch a national vaccine promotional campaign. Traditionally, these monies have largely gone to commercial radio and television. However, there are many reasons why the Biden administration should turn to public media, especially community radio.
According to CNN, the forthcoming advertising push is aimed at addressing fears of Americans hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine. Misinformation and delays in vaccine access are among the reasons that polls suggest people are skittish. Although many states have been slow to immunize residents, Pres. Biden has pledged to see vaccines will be more available to all Americans, 18 years of age and up, by May. Promoting the benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 is now on top of the nation’s agenda.
[Read: Community Broadcaster: Off Road]
The Department of Health and Human Services is taking the lead on educating the public about vaccination as part of a $250 million campaign. President Biden has said on several occasions that he’s willing to commit much more, however, to ensure the American people have the knowledge they need to make an informed choice.
Television, radio and digital media will be valuable players in these campaigns, as they have been historically. In this year, federal leaders would serve communities well by giving more attention to the United States’ community radio stations in presenting these crucial messages.
In a forthcoming study from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, more than 90% of stations are broadcasting public service announcements related to the coronavirus. Seventy-five percent of broadcasters are airing PSAs daily. The overwhelming majority of these announcements are produced in collaboration with local agencies and nonprofits. Clearly, community radio has seen the need for COVID-19 education and is fulfilling the need. They’re ready to make and broadcast locally relevant content now.
Community radio stations are also producing on-air and online programming to talk to their listeners about the coronavirus. For example, Hoopa Valley, Calif.’s KIDE has been jumping on Facebook Live to educate its tribal audience about the fight against COVID-19 on the reservation. Several other stations are engaged in similar initiatives.
Community radio is a lifeline in many areas, which the Department of Health and Human Services must take notice of. Rural community radio stations are situated in communities which are, at many turns, not served by other area outlets broadcasting locally relevant content. In a few cases, it may be even hard to get TV. Yet there is community radio, crowdsourcing questions, vetting guidance with regional nonprofits, and doing crucial work to save lives.
The question about advertising dollars must be about more than simplistic equations of audience size. Who has trust? Is it the station I can rely on to play Kane Brown twice an hour, or the station broadcasting daily the latest area infection rates and talks with city leaders on how to stop the spread, like Oregon’s KPOV? I’d put forward a station like Santa Barbara’s KCSB, which produces a newsletter by staff and students four times a week on COVID-19 for its University of California campus and the city at large, is far more critical in getting out these messages than a station whose morning show many may be in the habit of listening to.
During a pandemic, the comfort of habit is meaningful, of course, but community radio’s responsiveness today is worthy of Pres. Biden’s attention and that of federal leadership.
The post Community Broadcaster: Vaccines and Impact appeared first on Radio World.
The author of this commentary is head of Digital, Platforms & Transformation for the EBU, an alliance of public service media with 115 member organizations in 56 countries. Read about its mission here.
“One, two, three, four. Is it snowing where you are, Mr. Thiessen?”
The very first radio transmission of a voice in 1900 by Reginald Fessenden was little more than a casual question about the weather.
His name is now long forgotten by most people, but that initial conversational aspect of broadcast radio seems to be more alive than ever.
Digital, distributed, in spontaneous organized rooms, audio conversations are taking the internet by storm. Of course, I’m talking about Clubhouse and various other social audio apps that are currently seeing a steady rise in popularity.
Hype? Perhaps. The ecosystem is still new and fragile and the business model as yet unclear. But the map is expanding and as the world is locked in we all seem to crave more intimate digital experiences. Where video can quickly feel too much, audio has a lower threshold for spontaneous socializing.
So is this the next step in the great unbundling of radio?
How radio evolvesIf Radio 1.0 is live, linear terrestrial radio with all its magic: connecting people, ideas and music in a schedule that guides listeners across the day then Radio 2.0 can be considered the moment when users got control through interactivity and on-demand content. Very much anything that happened after the invention of the iPod.
Today web and mobile streaming services also emulate radio-like flows, letting you cue up music, talk and more. Spotify and Deezer come to mind as obvious examples, but the range is endless and even video services like YouTube and Vimeo can now be considered as alternative radio stations.
What is left is the less developed area of live episodes: in the moment — spontaneous — and social but also highly tailored or customizable, the third wave: Radio 3.0.
A third waveThe new wave of audio apps have a distinctive social layer. They are either extensions of existing social networks allowing people to chat and send audio messages. (e.g., Twitter launching audio tweets)
Or they are whole new social ecosystems that have audio at the center like Clubhouse, Space or Voicehub. These last ones can be quite overwhelming with hundreds of people in “rooms” in the hands of a skilled or unskilled moderator.
But even here you start seeing well-produced and executed talk shows. With great guests, clear rules of engagement and schedules you can add to your agenda so you don’t miss any upcoming talks.
A second and equally important evolution that is part of Radio 3.0 is the advent of personalized and customizable radio with object-based media, allowing users to mix and match their live radio streams with the music they like, fast forward, save, skip and any other smart or chosen interaction.
One radio show becomes a million individual experiences — while keeping a shared live backbone.
The great unbundlingThis third wave further unbundles the traditional radio stream of morning shows, news briefings, hit shows and intimate interviews. Every part of the schedule now can be experienced in isolation.
Reinventing radio
Rather than a threat, this could be an opportunity for traditional radio broadcasters. Never before has there been such a rich landscape for audio experiences.
From my European vantage point at the EBU, I see many public broadcasters rising to the occasion.
These are just a few examples of how radio and audio is evolving. We are just at the start of the third wave. A lot of the new opportunities will have to be tested and tried. Not everything will stick; but experimentation is key and doesn’t need to be complex.
Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post The Great Unbundling of Radio appeared first on Radio World.
The author is operations manager of KQAL(FM) in Winona, Minn.
The campus radio station at Winona State University has always led the way in technology among broadcasters in Winona, Minn.
KQAL(FM) was the first radio station in the area with a website; it was the first to do online streaming; the first with a mobile app, and the first to broadcast RDS song/artist metadata. So being the first to broadcast in HD Radio was a logical step for KQAL.
Our upgrade to HD Radio operation went on air in October 2020 with a new Nautel VS2.5 HD transmitter and the new HD Multicast+ Importer/Exporter.
We have been using Nautel for a long time. KQAL’s first venture with Nautel was a M50/V1 exciter/transmitter combo, we then moved up to the VS1, and when we decided to go HD it was a no brainer to stay with Nautel. The customer support, reliability and AUI are unparalleled. And our rep, Jeff Welton, guided us along every step of the way.
The HD MultiCast+ made our transition to HD easy and installation was a breeze. It is basically the standards-based version of Xperi’s HD Radio software implemented on a device that uses an embedded Windows site server. This is a proven, well-supported industrial-quality OS that is used for high-availability applications ranging from bank machines to audio processors.
To put it simply, AES digital audio goes into the onboard sound card and HD Radio comes out, ready to be fed into the Nautel HD exciter. The installation manual is comprehensive yet easy to follow. The only tech support I needed y was to resolve a question about what port to use for song/artist metadata.
Before Nautel can ship any equipment, stations must have a license agreement with Xperi. Being a state university station, KQAL had to receive contract approval from the system office in St. Paul, Minn., and that process delayed us for several weeks.
But when that was resolved, things moved fast. Xperi notified Nautel of the consummated deal on a Thursday, Nautel shipped Friday and it was on-site Monday.
KQAL is an Axia Livewire plant; all sources are digital with no analog conversions at any point, including a digital STL. The 2 RU HD MultiCast+ has everything we needed for managing our signal. It works flawlessly with Livewire; it encodes our digital channel along with data services, and it supports the Artist Experience information that we hope to use soon. The exporter brings together the digital version of the main audio stream plus the HD content and feeds it all to the VS2.5.
Our General Manager Doug Westerman teaches a “Fundamentals of Radio” course at WSU. It’s a great entry to try broadcasting, putting students into the KQAL environment to learn the basics of radio at an actual station. Adding the HD capability to KQAL ensures that our students are staying on the cutting edge of radio technologies, programming and operation. It’s just another “first” for a university that has been leading the way since 1858.
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 Nautel in Nova Scotia at 1-902-823-5131 or visit www.nautel.
The post User Report: KQAL Move to HD Simplified With Nautel appeared first on Radio World.
If the Federal Communications Commission decides to allow FM boosters to originate programming anytime soon, it will do so against the wishes of some of the largest U.S. radio groups.
The company pushing the change says its technology would allow broadcasters to use boosters to “geo-target” parts of their signal areas with hyper-localized content.
But the National Association of Broadcasters in February came out strongly against the idea in comments to the FCC.
Cumulus, Entercom, Beasley and iHeartMedia also questioned the technical soundness of geo-targeting; they urge further field testing to answer questions about possible interference.
Even some supporters of the idea now are using more cautious language and urging further testing.
No doubt aware of these critical reactions, GeoBroadcast Solutions issued a statement saying that it views the current phase of FCC vetting as “the beginning of an active debate on innovation in the radio industry.”
Willing earsFM broadcasters use on-frequency boosters to help fill gaps in coverage often caused by terrain shielding. Current rules require a booster simply to retransmit the signal of the originating station.
GBS wants to give FM stations the ability to air very localized ads, news and other content for a few minutes per hour using synchronized boosters. GBS and other proponents say such geo-targeting would bring numerous benefits to stations and advertisers.
GBS has lobbied the FCC for approval; and its proprietary system, trademarked as ZoneCasting, has been tested in Milwaukee, Wis., on WIIL(FM) under experimental operation. The FCC recently approved a field test at KSJO(FM) in San Jose, Calif.
The idea has found some willing ears at the commission, with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks voicing support for the idea. The commission has an open Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; the comments quoted in this story were filed in that NPRM.
That comment period drew support from smaller stations, many of which filed nearly identical comments, vs. the more cautionary tone of some large groups who worry the proposal offers no great benefit and could become a detriment.
At the first filing deadline, GeoBroadcast Solutions said in a statement: “Some parties oppose new technologies and innovation, and that is a familiar story for those who have watched broadcast media evolve over the decades. However, a broad range of large and small stations and broadcast groups, the advertising community and minority coalitions, have indicated their desire to embrace innovation and the future by using broadcast airwaves for a more personal and localized experience.”
Emergency benefitsDockins Broadcast Group, which operates FM stations in several small markets in Florida and Missouri, told the FCC the ability to geo-target weather warnings and road closures would be invaluable.
“Emergency alerts would be more impactful. Zoned coverage would make radio much more attractive to small businesses, who would be able to reach targeted audiences more effectively and efficiently,” Dockins wrote.
Keyhole Broadcasting, licensee of three FM stations in Wyoming, commented: “Keyhole would be able to utilize zoned broadcast coverage to provide targeted emergency alerts, local news and public interest programming and live local events of interest to small portions of the main service area.”
Some believe geo-targeting would benefit underserved populations, according to Emmis Communications.
“We agree with the MMTC [Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council] that by creating the availability to geo-target content, the proposed rule could increase the amount of content targeting minority communities, such as second-language programming,” Emmis wrote.
Opponents have focused on potential interference to the primary and adjacent stations, but they voice economic concerns, too.
The NAB’s opposition is likely to be influential, given that potential benefits to broadcasters are among the selling points of the concept.
The association says it “strongly opposes” revising the rules. It says geo-targeting via boosters pose potentially seismic risks to the FM band: “A close review of the notice suggests that rather than bolster the industry’s economic outlook, GBS’s proposal would instead undermine the industry’s fundamental business model.”
The association believes program origination on boosters “will almost certainly drive both advertising rates and revenues down as advertisers push to purchase geo-targeted ads.”
And it said potential interference remains a concern for its members.
“Broadcasters are extremely concerned that the interference caused by geo-targeting where the boundary of a primary station meets a booster airing different programming will spur listeners to change to an alternative platform and reflect poorly on the reputation of FM radio service,” NAB asserted.
“The record lacks any real-world testing of GBS’s system under certain critical circumstances sufficient to allow stakeholders to reasonably assess the technical impact of GBS’s proposal.”
“Transition areas”The joint filing by Cumulus, Entercom, Beasley and iHeartMedia went into more detail: “While ZoneCasting is being promoted as causing merely ‘manageable’ co-channel interference (or self-interference), the test results and study placed in the record by GBS fail to substantiate that claim.”
The group continues expounded on GeoBroadcast’s WIIL(FM) test report: “Delving into the fine print of the WIIL/Milwaukee Report, GBS identifies ‘Transition Areas’ — clearly a euphemism for ‘Interference Areas’ — along three parallel drive routes (of unspecified vehicle speed) ranging from 12 to 23 seconds, 22 to 24 seconds, and 23 to 30 seconds. This significant degree of conceded interference is hardly the ‘negligible amount’ of interference promoted by GBS.”
In addition, experimental testing of Zonecasting, they said, has ignored the impact of booster origination on HD Radio and the Emergency Alert System.
Moreover, the four groups raised the possibility of ZoneCasting creating the risk of advertisers flocking to “population clusters deemed more valuable” or “Gold Coast neighborhoods” at a slight increase in dollars per capita but leaving areas seen as less desirable unsold.
“Not only would this cherry-picking undermine GBS’s promise of higher premiums from ZoneCasting, it would further broaden the fragmentation already seen with advertisers buying a few top radio stations, while completely ignoring other stations, including those owned by minority, woman and small-business broadcasters,” the broadcasters wrote.
NAB and others also expressed concern about possible degradation in the public’s perception of FM quality.
Cromwell Group, which owns stations in medium and small markets, said interference between primary stations and FM boosters is already common.
“If geo-targeting grows, radio listeners may begin to perceive radio as a service that is garbled and unreliable. That perception is unlikely to be limited to only the stations that are using GBS technology and could affect audience perception of radio generally, negatively impacting the entire industry.” Cromwell supports further testing instead.
“Growing concerns”Support from minority interest groups has been an important part of this story recently.
But Urban One, which initially backed the idea because of its potential to increase business and ownership opportunities for minorities and women, expressed “growing concerns that the proposal might have significant unintended negative consequences to our diversity initiatives.”
In particular, it said, “we fear the adoption of geo-targeted technology within the radio industry operation will only result to drive down advertising revenues necessary for stations to thrive and continue to serve their communities.”
Urban One continued: “This comes precisely at a time when the radio industry is already under significant pressure from new advertising competitors and the ongoing stresses of the novel coronavirus pandemic.” It asked the FCC not to adopt the proposed changes.
The former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, had been vocal about the value of geo-targeting via radio in times of emergencies. But now Fugate urges a more patient approach.
“I respectfully urge that changes to the FCC’s FM booster rules not be adopted before the proposed system is tested and shown to work reliably with the EAS system,” he commented.
FEMA itself contributed thoughts on the proposal and its possible impact on the Emergency Alert System: “FEMA finds that there is little assurance in the record that EAS performance in and around such booster zones will not be negatively affected. FEMA’s concerns are in two distinct transitional areas — geographic and temporal — along with an EAS operational concern.”
FEMA is operator of the national-level EAS system and is directed to ensure the president has the ability to alert and warn the civilian population in times of emergency.
Writing in favor of the proposal, manufacturer GatesAir noted that it worked with GeoBroadcast solutions to introduce the MaxxCasting system that forms the basis for ZoneCasting. The latter uses the Synchrocast feature of GatesAir Intraplex codecs.
GatesAir said that interference concerns behind the longstanding restriction on booster origination are no longer present.
“(MaxxCasting) uses a network topology and GatesAir’s Flexiva transmitters and Intraplex SynchroCast systems to provide targeted, over-the-air radio broadcasting that expands market coverage in a more effective manner than traditional signal booster technologies. MaxxCasting minimizes or eliminates interference with both a station’s primary, co-channel, signal and with the signals of boosters associated with other stations operating near the FM booster station.”
It continued: “The MaxxCasting system has a proven track record of allowing radio stations to expand their signals without causing interference previously associated with FM boosters, and thereby solving the technical concerns underlying the prohibition on independent programming.”
BIA Advisory Services said its own research on the radio industry concluded that geo-targeted ads can increase radio’s revenue. The research company also cited data from Edison Research showing consumers prefer listening to more localized content, including localized commercials.
When this article was written, GBS declined further comment ahead of an FCC reply deadline. You can read our coverage of the company’s subsequent reply comments here. Also subsequently, two major minority advocacy groups called for an industry pilot program in light of the opposition comments.
You can see all the publicly filed comments on this issue at www.fcc.gov/ecfs/. Type “20-401” in the “Specify Proceeding” field.
The post Geo-Targeting Proposal Hits Headwinds appeared first on Radio World.
Following on news of virtualizing the VX VoIP phone system, The Telos Alliance has announced the virtualization of its Infinity IP intercom platform.
The company says that the Infinity VIP allows clients to purchase only the amount of hardware needed while keeping deployment locations flexible and limited.
[Read: Telos Alliance Virtualizes VX VoIP System]
Several deployment options are available for VIP, scaling to suit users’ particular needs and requirements — from a few remote smartphone VIP instances to an enterprise-level solution requiring hundreds of instances. They are:
The system GUI is available for computer, smartphone and tablet. Users can also install systems of any size as cloud services, both On-Prem and on platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud.
“This opens up a whole new world of virtual comm workflows, responds to customer demand for remote workflows, and aligns with Telos Alliance’s larger push toward virtualization across product lines,” says Martin Dyster, VP of Business Development for Telos Alliance.
Info: www.telosalliance.com
The post Telos Offers Virtual Intercom appeared first on Radio World.
A 70-year old owner of a radio station serving a rural portion of Western Pennsylvania to the southeast of Pittsburgh on November 16, 2020 was placed on a three-year “restricted probation” for a series of criminal sexual acts at a sentencing hearing that could save him from a FCC license revocation hearing.
This included wearing an electronic monitor for a four-month period, per the judgment, which left the plaintiff in the case upset and less than satisfied with the verdict.
Now, the radio station owner and morning host of this FM has returned to the airwaves of this Keystone State property, generating new controversy in the region.
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LOS ANGELES — The News Director for TEGNA-owned KING-5 in Seattle-Tacoma, who spent 11 years in news at KPIX-5 in San Francisco before moving to Washington state in 2018, is heading to Nexstar Media Group‘s L.A. giant — a cornerstone of the former Tribune Broadcasting.
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Roberts Radio Broadcasting in Mississippi supports the idea of FM geo-targeting, and said it will ask the Federal Communications Commission to let it demo the technology.
Geo-targeting via FM boosters is being pushed by technology company GeoBroadcast Solutions, which has asked for an FCC rule change to allow it but has come up against opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters and several large radio groups.
Coming to the aid of GBS, Roberts Radio said it wants to demo the technology on its station WRBJ at 97.7 MHz. The station is in Brandon and serves Jackson.
Steven C. RobertsIts participation is notable in part because it is an urban-formatted station led by African American entrepreneur Steven C. Roberts, board member of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters.
Those two organizations have expressed support for geo-targeting and have said it will help minority- and women-owned groups.
“WRBJ reaches the African-American community, with many small businesses that cannot currently afford to pay for an entire metro signal but desire to hyper-target zones within the station’s signal coverage,” the company stated in a press release.
“This will be the fifth Experimental Permit requested to demonstrate the technology and the third Experimental Permit request using the same booster configuration. The requested demo will build and operate up to five new on-channel FM boosters, and to originate limited programming on these boosters for 90 days.”
It said it wants to try targeting broadcasts “to appeal to specific diverse audiences encompassed within the boosters’ service areas without creating harmful interference to any broadcaster.”
The debate over the technology has been playing out in publicly filed comments in an FCC open proceeding.
The NAB expressed its opposition citing both technical and business concerns. GBS countered that it has solid technical data and that there’s no reason to think its proposal would cause a huge drop in ad rates or a rise in “redlining” certain parts of a given market.
According to the press release, Steven Roberts has told the FCC, “As a station owner and minority broadcaster in a market filled with stations owned by media conglomerates, my business is at a constant disadvantage” and that he “totally disagreed” with NAB’s concerns about “unintended consequences” for minority broadcasters. “I find NAB’s naked speculation disturbing.”
FM boosters in the United States are currently required to broadcast nothing but the signal of their associated primary stations. GBS wants to offer stations the ability to use custom FM booster networks to carry three minutes of unique content of specific interest to subsections of a given station’s coverage area, including unique commercials, news and weather.
The post Mississippi Station Wants to Demo ZoneCasting appeared first on Radio World.
A key advertising theme has emerged in the first two months of 2021: household cleaning supplies.
That’s why the parent company of such brands as Tide, Charmin, Crest, Bounty and Always is again the No. 1 parent advertiser on local cable, radio and broadcast TV, Media Monitors data show.
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Podcasting began in the early 2000s as a grassroots movement driven by alternative content, often produced in makeshift studios.
Since 2006, The Infinite Dial has tracked its growth and maturation into a mainstream media. The infinite Dial is based on research from Edison Research and Triton Digital.
[Read: Pandora, Spotify and iHeart Radio Lead in Brand Awareness]
Their most recent data suggest upticks in both numbers and diversity.
In 2006, The Infinite Dial’s data indicated 22% of the U.S. population 12+ were familiar with podcasting. That number has grown steadily to the estimated 78%, or 222 million who are aware today. Awareness and use are two different things however, but those numbers are up as well.
Podcast listening inched up from 55% to an estimated 57% for 2021, and monthly figures show an increase for both men and women, and the gender split is pretty evenly divided 50–50.
When broken down by demographics, the monthly data suggests that the 12–34 age group shows continued growth and leads with 56%. A slight drop in listenership from 40% to 39% was indicated in the 35 to 54 demographic, while those 55+ saw their numbers increase from 22% to 26%.
When comparing the ethnicity of monthly podcast listeners starting in 2011 through today, the data suggests that while they are still predominately white, there have been strong gains with Hispanic/Latino and Black listeners. These trends bring the overall podcast listenership more in line with the diversity of the American population.
When looking at the age of monthly podcast listeners from 2011 until today, the data shows growth in the 12–34 segment from 46% to 50%, while there was significant shrinkage in the 35 to 54 group from 40% to 29%. The 55+ demographic grew from 14% to 21%.
When asked how many podcasts they listened to in the last week, the answers ranged from one to 11 or more, but the average reported was eight.
The post Survey Says Podcast Demographics Continue to Diversify appeared first on Radio World.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prominent telecommunications, media, and technology law firm Fletcher Heald & Hildreth has elected a new Member of the firm. It’s an active litigator who first joined the firm in January 2020 and continued to have a substantial hearing and deposition schedule — remotely — through the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The future of television arrived Thursday in Western New York, as five local television stations, owned by The E.W. Scripps Co., TEGNA, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Nexstar Media Group, are the latest in the U.S. to begin broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV.
For those across Lake Ontario in Toronto, a taste of ATSC 3.0-powered television is that much closer to fruition.
With a promise of improved audio and video for consumers and the benefit of data services for TV station licensees, the stations saw planning and rollout of NEXTGEN TV coordinated by BitPath.
While competitors, the participating stations worked together to ensure that current programming remains available to all viewers, regardless of whether their television service is provided over-the air or by a cable or satellite company.
The stations now using NEXTGEN TV delivery are WGRZ-2, WIVB-4, WKBW-7, and Sinclair dup WUTV-29 and WNYO-49.
Those stations, with the exception of WNYO, can be viewed across much of Southern Ontario, including the GTA, where Rogers includes WGRZ, WIVB, WKBW and WUTV as part of its local channel lineup.
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