Radio World

In an effort to support students that are seeking careers in telecommunications and broadcast engineering, the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the National Translator Association have selected nine students across the country to receive their spring 2020 scholarships.

Here are the nine recipients:

• Maurice Compton, University of Dallas
• Nathan Ellsworth, University of Texas at Dallas
• Andrew Heller, University of Minnesota
• Md. Tajul Islam, University of Missouri at Kansas City
• Daniel Klawson, University of Maryland at College Park
• Obagaeli Ngene-Igwe, University of Cincinnati
• Prosanta Paul, Old Dominion University
• Dylan Stewart, Old Dominion University
• Rafida Zaman, University of Missouri at Kansas City

The scholarships all range between $1,000 and $5,000, with $29,000 being awarded in total between the nine students.

Andrew Heller is the inaugural recipient of NTA’s Byron W. St. Clair Memorial Scholarship, which is given to promising students that plan to pursue a career in broadcast engineering.

“NTA congratulates Mr. Heller,” said John Terrill, president of NTA. “This scholarship is a good first step in the tradition of Byron St. Clair to enlighten young minds and encourage more interest in broadcast engineering, especially in the areas of translator and low power television.”

Ellsworth, Islam, Klawson and Stewart, meanwhile, were awarded IEEE BTS/AFCCE’s Jules Cohen Memorial Scholarships, which awards up to $10,000 to promising undergraduate or graduate students pursuing broadcast engineering.

Also of note, Zaman was the recipient of the E. Noel Luddy Scholarship, which was sponsored by Dielectric Communications.

In total, AFCCE says that these scholarships represented the groups’ largest ever award to students that they hope “will help shape the future,” said John George, AFCCE president.

AFCCE also announced dates to submit applications for its fall 2020 scholarships, which will begin March 1 and go until April 30. More information is available through AFCCE and IEEE BTS’ websites.

 

The post AFCCE, IEEE-BTS and NTA Dole Out Spring 2020 Scholarships appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC is seeking recent or upcoming college graduates with an engineering degree to take part in its Honors Engineer Program, which is accepting applications from now until Feb. 20.

The Honors Engineer Program, which the FCC launched in 2018, is a one-year career development program that offers public sector experience for new/recent graduates and allows them to work on current issues in the communications and technology industries.

Some of the areas that participants may work on include 5G; the Internet of Things; next-gen TV broadcasting; new broadband satellite systems; facilitating the deployment of broadband services; identifying technologies to improve access to communications services, particularly those with disabilities; supporting the introduction of communications technologies designed for public safety, homeland security, health care, energy, education and more; and developing policies that will support the innovation and investment in new communication devices and services.

“Engineers play a critical and essential role in the work of the FCC, and our recent Honors Engineers, in particular, have already made an important contribution to the agency’s mission,” said Ajit Pai, FCC chairman. “Most of the high-profile issues on the FCC’s plate require the input of engineers, so there is no better time for new engineers to embark on careers here that promise to be tremendously rewarding.”

At the end of the program, participants will be eligible for consideration for continued employment with the FCC.

In reviewing potential candidates, the FCC will look at academic achievement, technical skills, engineering and extracurricular activities and whether they have a demonstrated interest in government service and/or the communications sector.

Interested applicants can apply online.

 

The post FCC Accepting Applicants for Honors Engineer Program appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters will have a new chief operating officer come Feb. 1.

Chris Ornelas

Chris Ornelas, who has been with NAB for a decade, will depart to join Beasley Media Group, where he’ll oversee legal matters for the media company as its general counsel.

He will be replaced by Curtis LeGeyt, NAB’s executive vice president of government relations.

Ornelas joined NAB in 2010 as executive vice president and chief strategy officer and was promoted to COO the next year. Prior he had been the chief counsel on communications and technology for then-Senator Gordon Smith, now NAB’s president/CEO.

Curtis LeGeyt

LeGeyt has been with NAB since 2011 as senior vice president and legislative counsel, and then senior vice president, public policy before being promoted to his current role in 2015. He also is a former senior counsel to then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy.

In the announcement, Smith saluted both men and noted LeGeyt for his “superb management skills, the victories that NAB Government Relations has delivered on Capitol Hill, and his dedication to the mission of NAB and local broadcasting.”

[Related: NAB EVP Newberry Plans Exit]

Also, NAB has promoted three senior VPs — April Carty-Sipp, Shawn Donilon and Trish Johnson — to executive vice president.

April Carty-Sipp was promoted to EVP of Industry Affairs, succeeding Steve Newberry, who had announced earlier that he will be leaving to become CEO at technology company Quu.

Shawn Donilon was promoted to EVP of Government Relations, replaces LeGeyt.

Trish Johnson becomes EVP of Finance/Chief Financial Officer.

 

The post Ornelas Leaves NAB for Beasley appeared first on Radio World.

The author is chairman of Digital Radio Mondiale.

The image of a lonely kangaroo against the orange sky of the burning Australian bush must have been seen by billions of people over the last few weeks. Yet, this is just one of the many disasters ushering in the new year. Let us not forget about the floods and earthquakes in Indonesia, the earthquakes in Puerto Rico, the first cyclones in Asia.

Ruxandra Obreja

The increasing number of these disasters can challenge governments and authorities more often and for longer everywhere not just in Asia. And when a disaster strikes communication is of the essence.

Australian public broadcaster ABC has been rightly praised for its national emergency broadcasts these last few weeks. ABC’s “excellent job” in providing emergency information (as mentioned by the Minister of Communications) raises issues many public broadcasters and some commercial station are facing the world over.

How do they maintain proper and frequent disaster warnings that are able to reach everyone, even citizens in rural and less populated areas, and sometimes over many days and nights? And how can they fund all this “extra effort”? These broadcasts seem essential during emergencies but then they quickly drop to the bottom of the priorities’ list when the rain returns or the last cameraman has packed and gone to cover another more urgent story.

COVERING LARGE, TARGETED AREAS

Photo credit: Radu Obreja

Using analog broadcasting in emergencies is an old but often “alert-all” blunt instrument. If medium wave or shortwave are used in local or regional emergencies, the broadcast messages might also reach and alarm people in faraway regions who do not need to worry (yet). When disasters strike, cell towers, internet provision and FM transmitters are often immediately affected. Cell, radio or TV towers are often mounted on the highest location to give largest coverage. Electricity might be also impacted at transmission and sometimes at studio level, even if a generator is used.

A neater solution is to use a transmitter, a digital AM one, situated outside the danger area. One such AM transmitter could  have helped the Australians. A DRM AM transmitter can support long-distance Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) coverage from outside the disaster area being received just in the concerned area.

In emergency situations an explicit alarm signal is sent to receivers indicating where to find the actual emergency program and, if the rightly equipped receiver is used, the receiver will be even “woken up” if in standby mode (but not switched off). Does this sound so fanciful? Not more than talking to your smart speaker.

Then the DRM receiver becomes a smart radio activated not by the listener’s voice but by the transmitter, which has received the right information or files from the broadcaster linked to the emergency authority along a well-established path.

It’s possible to insert the emergency message for the target area quickly, while, for other unaffected regions, the regular programs continue unchanged. In other words, the technology exists for EWF localization but the planning and setting up of the transmission chain from the first message, map, telephone number to the listener needs human intervention that links the relevant authorities to the broadcaster etc. DRM has demonstrated how this can work (e.g. India, Bangladesh etc.), showing how inserting the necessary files alongside or instead of the audio file can be quickly implemented in a normal newsroom on a laptop.

The DRM AM digital audio broadcasting standard provides flexibility and also carries extra information that can be displayed on the car radio or standalone screens without flattening batteries as quickly as with cellular phones.

A map or an address, a clear instruction in your mother tongue or in several can save lives. And what is useful for many can become vital for people with hearing impairments, for example.

How about the thousands of FM transmitters in emergencies, if they are still up? Just turning them into emergency loudspeakers (no maps, or written instructions in analog) can be quite daunting, especially if the task needs to be completed fast and by staff who might not always be available.

All major digital radio standards have some disaster warning feature provision. Using one content server, one box, to feed several DRM for FM transmitters can be a quick solution and Indonesia is imaginatively trying to implement this very solution this year.

According to the Technology and New Media director of RRI, the Indonesian public radio, Mr. R. Ginging, “RRI is currently installing five DRM-FM transmitters in five cities. The five transmitters are equipped with an early warning system. If this technology runs well, we hope that in the future Indonesia can establish DRM as the national digital broadcasting standard.”

BUDGETS FOR EMERGENCIES

Emergency broadcasting is seldom a line in any broadcaster’s annual plan and it comes out of the base funding, as is the case with ABC in Australia. And when budgets are being cut, asking for potential emergency broadcasting money can sound extravagant.

Therefore, turning to digital radio is not just about being “on trend” about more channels or pop princesses’ pictures on screen. It’s not even about getting significant electricity and spectrum savings (in DRM of up to 80%). It’s about building emergency warning capability that is always available, at no extra cost (once properly planned and installed and with the receiver industry on board). This also delivers the extra benefit of localization, whether of regular content or of emergency warnings.

The Emergency Warning Functionality is one of the great benefits of digital radio like DRM. But we need to continue to demonstrate this potential and bring it to the attention of governments and accountants — digital radio can save lives and money, leaving nobody behind.

The post The Power of Digital Radio in Emergencies appeared first on Radio World.

Codec specialist Comrex has announced a new firmware version available for its Access and BRIC-Link lines of codecs.

Version 4.5p2’s main thrust is to provide multi-instance capability to the line in the wake of the launching of the Access MultiRack codec. A release says, “This new firmware simplifies CrossLock connections between

the new Access MultiRack and legacy Comrex IP audio codecs.”

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

In addition, the new version will replace the resident Adobe Flash-based GUI with and HTML5-based user interface. Flash security has been suspect for some time.

Firmware V4.5p2 is available for Access Rackmount, Access Portable 2USB, Access NX Portable, BRIC-Link, BRIC-Link II, Access MultiRack and Access NX Rack. Comrex warns that codecs with firmware numbered 2.7.1 or earlier will need to be handled specially, requiring a call to Comrex Support.

 

The post New Firmware for Comrex Access Codecs appeared first on Radio World.

Axia iQx

The Telos Alliance has announced a new software update for its Axia iQx AoIP mixer.

Version 1.3.2 should make talk show producers and hosts happy with an automix function as a new feature. The function should balance open mics where there is more than one mic hot. Using algorithms it can prioritize microphones dominance and silence those of quiet guests to eliminate room, background and system noise along with bleed.

V1.3.2 is now available for download on the iQx product page.

 

The post Axia iQx AoIP Gets Automix appeared first on Radio World.

The Inovonics Sofia 568 HD Radio SiteStreamer+ digital audio stream monitor has received a Product Innovation Award, presented by Future Publishing.

Product Innovation Awards are evaluated by a panel of engineers and industry experts, and are selected based on innovation, feature set, cost efficiency and performance in serving the industry.

Winners and nominees appear in the recently released 2019 Product Innovation Awards Program Guide.

 

The post Inovonics Sofia Secures Product Innovation Award appeared first on Radio World.

iHeartMedia’s decision to reshuffle its organization and technology infrastructure has led to job losses, a major reallocation of internal duties and a new emphasis on artificial intelligence in its operations. But the announcement has had much of the industry coming up with more questions than answers.

Tuesday, iHeartMedia announced major changes nationwide, saying a new decade called for the company to make changes.

The restructuring led to a wave of job cuts. According to a media representative at iHeart, those losses would be relatively small given iHeart’s overall employee base of 12,500. Some news outlets used the term “dozens,” but the website Radio Insight has posted a list of people cut and has been updating it; as of Wednesday afternoon, there were about 130 names, mostly programmers, air talent and producers but other job titles too (see more below).

iHeart has created separate groups to better share resources and experiences. These three new divisions — the Region Division, the Metro Division and the Community Division — will be overseen by Greg Ashlock, president of the iHeartMedia Markets Group, with a separate president leading each division. Another new division that cuts across all markets, the Multi-Market Partnerships Division headed by Julie Donohue.

[Read: iHeart Taps Nashville for Digital HQ2]

Practically, the shakeout has the Region Division overseeing the company’s largest markets such as New York and Los Angeles. The Metro Division will cover mid-size markets that have multiple communities, and the Community Division will include markets that focus on the shared needs of one community/area as well as small markets that are culturally similar or geographically close. Nine senior executives will be named as division presidents of these newly minted iHeartMedia Markets Groups.

iHeart said this structure will allow it to maximize the performance of each of its markets and take better advantage of the technology investments it has made in selling advertising and expanding new businesses like its podcast platform. In a statement, iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman said that “iHeart is the rare example of a major traditional media company that has made the successful transformation into a 21st century media company.”

“We are now using our considerable investments in technology to modernize our operations and infrastructure, further setting us apart from traditional media companies; improving our services to our consumers and advertising partners; and enhancing the work environment for our employees.”

Among the questions observers are asking is whether this new structure will bring new ways of managing local stations, and the role of a new Centers of Excellence venture. iHeart said in a statement that it will use new technology and this new venture to deliver products and services to market, “enabling each to take advantage of the company’s scale and shared resources across programming, marketing, digital, podcasts, sales and sales support.” iHeart noted that it has made several recent acquisitions including Jelli, a programmatic ad platform; RadioJar, a cloud audio playout company; and Stuff Media, a podcasting firm. Its RCS automation arm also has been active in cloud product development this past year.

Online reaction to the news on social media included speculation that iHeart would take advantage of the FCC’s recent elimination of the main studio rule to dramatically cut back on local physical presence in some markets.

iHeartMedia declined a Radio World request for an interview about the technology aspects of the changes and its plans for technical infrastructure management.

The publication Billboard quoted one laid-off employee saying, “Their focus is going to be on their app and podcasting and not as much on local markets and terrestrial.”

In the announcement, the company described itself as “the number one audio company in America” and emphasized its “successful transformation as a technology powered 21st century media company.” It referred to its scale, its multiple platforms, and its “expertise in consumers, monetization and data,” saying that iHeart has made recent significant technology investments “to change everything from how it sells advertising to how it utilizes data and builds new businesses like its digital platform, podcast platform and robust data platform — all of which have given it an undisputed leadership position in the audio world.”

A sampling of the job cuts:

It is being reported that radio personalities are being let go as part of the shakeup. Longtime radio personality Dave Conrad, a 27-year veteran with WBCT(FM) in Grand Rapids, Mich., was told that he was being released, according to the news outlet MLive. Conrad started at B-93 in September 1992, just after the station was launched, and said he couldn’t think of a better place to work.

“I just feel really blessed to work for the people I worked for,” he told MLive, adding that his general manager teared up when he gave him the news.

Long-term iHeart radio personality Chris Warren said he was let go from WTRY(FM) in Rotterdam, N.Y. after 18 years. “I’m saddened to report that my 18-year stint with iHeartMedia/Albany, N.Y. came to an end about an hour ago,” said the DJ, whose given name is Warren Garling, in a statement on Facebook. “I’ve counted myself lucky to have been heard for more than 50 years on some great radio stations in the great Northeast.”

While the reports are still rolling in, other job losses across the country include:

• Radio personality Leland Conway from WLAP(AM) in Lexington, Ky., who said he’s “not sure what’s next but can’t wait to see what the future holds. [My time at the company has] “truly been one of the most awesome experiences in my life,” as was reported by the Lexington Harold Leader.
• Longtime host Jim Fisher with WOC(AM) in Davenport, Iowa; host Todd Alan with KUUL(FM) also in Davenport; host Ron Evans from KMXG(FM) in Clinton, Iowa; and employee Aaron Thompson, who worked at several stations. “Great people let go today including the legendary Jim Fisher,” Dan Kennedy, formerly of WOC, posted on Facebook Tuesday. “You all made radio better and you will be missed!”
• Pat McMahon, morning show host on WYYY(FM) in Syracuse, N.Y. After McMahon wrote on Facebook that Tuesday was his last day, a listener expressed frustration with iHeart, calling it “not a nice place to work for.” McMahon said he didn’t blame his station management. “The world is hard, cruel and full of setbacks. It’s also exciting, uplifting and full of opportunity. Chaos is a ladder. I plan to climb it.”

An iHeart media representative said, “During a transition like this it’s reasonable to expect that there will be some shifts in jobs — some by location and some by function,” she said. “That said, we recognize that the loss of any job is significant; we take that responsibility seriously and have been thoughtful in the process.”

As one industry insider said, there may be one silver lining: the opportunity for competitors to acquire newly available, top-level talent. Radio personality Conrad from WBCT is one who said that he’s already had conversations that could lead to new employment.

 

The post Job Losses and Questions Come in the Wake of iHeart Reshuffling appeared first on Radio World.

Companies that plan to exhibit at the NAB Show have been invited to submit their nominations in the seventh annual Best of Show Awards program.

Radio World is among the Future trade publications participating. The award program is intended to help readers become aware of new technology offerings, and help exhibitors highlight and promote outstanding their product introductions. Companies pay a fee to nominate; and winners are chosen by panels of engineers and editors for each brand. Winners are announced at the convention.

After the show, readers receive an online guide to all the nominees, which becomes a handy and deep overview of new products that were shown on the floor. (Read last year’s Guide here.)

Nominate a product or find answers to common questions here.

 

The post Best of Show Awards Are Open for Nominations appeared first on Radio World.

Allow me to express appreciation for three interesting articles on the international radio scene in Radio World’s Sept. 1 issue. 

“U.S.-Based Shortwave Broadcasters Eye Digital” [discussed] the need for an appropriately priced, mass-production digital shortwave radio. A second article drew attention to the production of a Voice of America program beamed to Asia on shortwave and medium-wave in the Rohingya language for the benefit of refugees who have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh. 

Then there was the fascinating historic article on the AFRS (American Forces Radio Service) Mosquito Network during the devastating Pacific War.  

Back during the middle of the last century, there were usually only two medium-wave stations in Australia on the air late at night, 2UW in Sydney and 3AK in Melbourne, and consequently the band was wide open for late-night listening to the American AFRS stations throughout the Pacific. Over a period of time, we as listeners in both Australia and New Zealand heard all of these exotic little radio stations. 

A photo with the story [right] shows the entrance noticeboard of an AFRS station in the Mosquito Network without location and without call sign. However, the operating frequency 670 kHz provides a valuable clue. 

It is known that only one AFRS Mosquito Network station operated on 670 kHz, and that was for only a short period of time, before a frequency change to 690 kHz. That station was located on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, and the photo was taken before the station adopted the unofficial and irregular callsign WSSO.  

American AFRS stations in the Pacific were generally allocated four-letter call signs beginning with WV or WX. We would suggest that the photograph of the Bougainville station was taken in very late 1943 or very early 1944, before the informal call sign WSSO was adopted. This information would also agree with the other photograph in your article that promoted WSSO programming in February
1944. 

By the way, we have drawn attention to these Radio World articles in our weekly half-hour program “Wavescan,” broadcast on shortwave in the Americas and worldwide 35 times each week.The program is researched and written in Indianapolis, voiced by Jeff White (Radio Miami International WRMI) and Ray Robinson (Voice of Hope KVOH, Los Angeles). In the United States, “Wavescan” is broadcast by shortwave WRMI and KVOH, as well as by WWCR in Nashville. In Africa, the program is on the air from the Voice of Hope in Zambia, and for Europe, Asia and the Pacific via KSDA on the island of Guam, and additional shortwave relay stations. 

The post Reader Letter: Mosquito Network appeared first on Radio World.

With the installation of Lawo mixing consoles and I/O equipment, China’s Fuzhou Radio and Television has upgraded its radio channels to AES67-compliant Ravenna AoIP, per an announcement from Lawo.

Fuzhou Radio built two identical on-air studios, each equipped with a 12-fader ruby mixing console that features Lawo’s Power Core AoIP mixing engine. Power Core comes with multiple MADI and AES67 interfaces for access to up to 384 channels of stereo audio.

The Power Core also has eight I/O plug-in slots for mic, line, AES3, HD MADI and Dante expansion cards. When paired with the ruby console, Power Core can provide up to 96 DSP channels, 80 summing busses, multiple AutoMix groups and compression/expansion/de-essing tools.

The studios were also equipped with Electro-Voice RE27 and Shure MX 418 microphones, Genelec 8030 monitor speakers, Eventide BD600+ broadcast delay systems and Infomedia AOIPBox terminals.

 

 

The post China’s Fuzhou Radio Modernizes With Lawo AoIP Gear appeared first on Radio World.

Even the Federal Communications Commission makes a mistake once in a while. And in the case of a potential financial liability, that can be good news for the stations concerned.

The commission cancelled several Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture that had been issued to three radio stations in North Carolina — Radio Hatteras, CTC Media Group and Pirate Media Group.

[Read: Out-of-Date Online Files Being Investigated by FCC]

In the case of Radio Hatteras, the FCC said that station WHDZ(FM) in Buxton, N.C., had failed to file a timely license renewal application for the station, which was due Aug. 1, 2019. The FCC said the license renewal application was not filed on time — the FCC said it was filed Oct. 25, 2019 — but in reality Radio Hatteras filed the application on July 30, 2019. In reality, the filing made on Oct. 25, 2019, was an amendment to the application. Since the application was timely filed, the FCC cancelled the NAL.

The same was the case for CTC Media Group, which is licensee of FM translator station W282CQ in Bridgeton, N.C., for the same alleged offense: failing to timely file a license renewal application for the station. The background is the same as it was for Radio Hatteras — the FCC said the station failed its renewal by Aug. 1, 2019. In this case, however,  the commission had actually issued the initial license for the station on Aug. 12. 2019, therefore there was no need for CTC to file a renewal application.

The commission also cancelled a Notice of Apparent Liability for a Forfeiture issued to Pirate Media Group, licensee of FM translator station W281CH in Washington, N.C., for the same alleged violations. But in this case, too, the commission had already issued a license for the station on Sept.11, 2019, so it was impossible for Pirate to file an application to renew the station’s license.

In all three cases, the FCC has cancelled all of the forfeitures.

 

The post FCC Moves to Cancel Forfeitures After Catching its Own Errors appeared first on Radio World.

Streaming service tools provider StreamGuys has reworked its native media player, SGplayer.

Version 3.0 has a new GUI along with “greater continuity between desktop and mobile experiences; and additional GDPR- and CCPA- compliance tools for media enterprises leveraging targeted advertising,” according to a release.

“SGplayer 3.0’s new interface puts the visual focus more heavily on the branding and artwork of the broadcast station or podcast while more cleanly integrating additional elements such as song metadata and advertising. Supplemental functionality such as stream or episode selection — always visible on-screen in earlier versions — has been moved into collapsible menus to minimize distractions and streamline the user experience,” a release details among a number of user experience improvements.

Content search functionality has also been improved and expanded. 

Additionally, there has been added compliance features, “Of particular interest to media companies serving; European and Californian listeners, new tools for GDPR and CCPA compliance allow SGplayer’s targeted advertising to be disabled based on user preferences.”

Other new goodies include: support for both HLS and ICY protocols for HTTP-based delivery; automatic fallback from AAC to MP3 live audio streams for compatibility with older devices; authentication of tokenized streams to ensure user entitlement; Nielsen SDK integration for enhanced online audience measurement; Google Analytics tracking; and a customer-hosted persistent player option for enterprise clients wishing to combine SGplayer even more closely with their own custom development.

SGplayer is now available.

The post StreamGuys Revamps SGplayer appeared first on Radio World.

Frequent Workbench contributor and consultant Frank Hertel of Newman-Kees is not one to brag, but he has quite a bit of experience in dealing with mice. After 50+ years of servicing some really bad transmitter sites, he has a number of tips to share with readers.

Getty/anuwat_meereewee

1. Inspect the seals of all doors and windows and cable entries to the outside world, to ensure they fit tight.
2. Screen all fan openings and air exits with 1/4-inch galvanized hardware mesh, to keep critters out.
3. Make sure to plus the main electrical service entry conduits with stainless steel wool or copper wool and caulk. (Mice will eat through caulk alone.)
4. Resist the temptation to “dress up” your site by adding dropped ceilings; they provide an ideal location for nesting of mice.
5. Never take food or soft drinks into the building. Even a few crumbs or an empty soda can and will invite mice.
6. The same is true for any food-scented wrappers or containers. Keep them out of the transmitter building. Also use a trash can with a tight seal to dispose of everything. Better yet, always take your trash with you as you leave a transmitter building.
7. Realize that food scents in the building can entice mice. They will gnaw through some types of exterior wall surfaces if they get even the slightest scent of food.
8. Don’t use rodent bait; it actually attracts mice! And although it works, many times the mice often crawl off into some secluded space to die and make the building smell. Furthermore, most rodent bait will decompose over time and turn to dust — which you end up breathing. If you ever go to a transmitter site and find they have used mouse bait, don’t ever sweep or vacuum the floor without a respirator.
9. Instead of rodent bait, use something safe like “Peppermint Oil” to repel mice. It works! Here’s a video example showing its effectiveness.
10. On visits to infested sites, be sure to take a change of clothes and a bag to put your dirty clothes in! Otherwise you are infesting your vehicle with all the nasty stuff from the transmitter building.
11. Carry a jug of water, a bar of soap, a roll of paper towels and a bottle of alcohol, and clean yourself when leaving and before getting into your vehicle. This is especially helpful if you take a break to eat.

[Don’t Let Mice Kill Your Transmitter]

Frank adds that he has a personal reason for helping you to manage your exposure to rodents. 

For a long time, he suffered from an unusual medical condition. Whenever he at something sweet or drank a sugary drink, he would get an extreme pain where his esophagus entered his stomach. He tolerated this for 25 years, and had a number of tests during those 25 years; nothing was diagnosed.

One Thanksgiving, after eating a couple of those miniature Hershey bars, Frank was in deep distress and was taken to the hospital. Initially, the doctors thought it was a heart attack. Among the tests they performed was a “bore scope” down Frank’s throat. When Frank awoke from the anesthesia, the doctor had identified the problem: five small bacterial-based ulcers. Frank asked whether exposure to mouse bacteria, from contact with urine and droppings dust, could have caused the problem. The doctor’s reply was an emphatic “YES!”  

A 20-day treatment with Amoxicillin worked. But Frank no longer views mouse-infested transmitter sites the same way. His business does not provide routine service/maintenance; he is usually called in just for an emergency, and too many facilities have not had routine cleaning. 

He now carries a face mask and respirator in his vehicle. Mice are not to be taken lightly. More than just your equipment is at risk.

* * *

Wiring maven Steve Lampen attended a recent tips webinar sponsored by Telos. From our discussion of AoIP installations and the tons of analog wiring that is usually removed, Steve suggested that engineers Google “copper scrap reclamation” for information on turning your old wire into money. 

A recent Bloomberg headline stated, “Copper Tapped as the Next Big Metals Trade of 2020.” 

* * *  Fig. 1: A compact recorder and mixer from CEntrance.

I was commiserating with an engineer about remote broadcasts of the 1960s and ’70s and how they’ve changed.  Many stations load their jocks up with a tablet or a smartphone, and it’s show time! Even the gear required for news interviews has been simplified thanks to several codec manufacturers.

Using a smartphone for an interview is fine, but there are times where you’d like to mix two signals. That’s where CEntrance comes in.  

The MixerFace R4, pictured in Fig. 1, is a high-quality mixer, recorder and USB interface. The rugged metal enclosure is about the size of a smartphone, and can record to an SD card or the phone.

Fig. 2: This is not some kind of science fiction monster; it’s two people holding a MixerFace. Identify the hands and maybe you’ll win a prize.

In addition to gain and monitor controls, each channel has a switchable high-pass filter (to reduce on-location wind noise) as well as a Hi-Z/Low-Z selector switch for each channel. Longer recording sessions are assured with an 8 hour battery.

The MixerFace R4 is available through broadcast distributor Broadcasters General Store, which is sponsoring a fun contest. Look at Fig. 2. The first person identifying the hands holding the MixerFace R4 will win a $25 coffee card. Send your entry to my email and maybe include a tip or a picture of something to share from your gallery (not required). Only one winner, and the time/date stamp on your email will be the determining factor. 

Earn recertification credit when you share a tip published in Workbench. Thank you for sharing your tips and high-resolution photos by sending them to  johnpbisset@gmail.com.

John Bisset has spent 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is still learning. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He holds CPBE certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.

The post Frank Hertel’s 11 Tips for Dealing With Mice appeared first on Radio World.

The Adam Hall Group has unveiled its Palmer brand’s new active studio monitor, the Studimon 5.

The Studimon 5 comes in compact bass reflex housing with wooden sidewalls. It has a 5-inch ferrite custom subwoofer, 0.75-inch neodymium silk diaphragm tweeter, and a frequency response of 70 Hz to 20 kHz.

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

The two-way monitor, with an output power of two 30 W (RMS) amplifiers is intended for home studios as well as professional audio environments.

The back of the Studimon 5 features a 1/4-inch jack and XLR inputs, and a volume controller for tuning stereo balance.

The Studiomon 5 is priced at $269 each.

Info: www.palmer-germany.com/en/

The post Palmer Releases Studiomon 5 Studio Monitor appeared first on Radio World.

Steve Newberry

Steve Newberry will step down from his role as executive vice president for industry affairs and strategic planning at the National Association of Broadcasters this spring. 

Newberry is leaving the broadcast advocacy association to serve as CEO for ad sync technology company Quu Inc. He will remain with NAB through March 31.

“While we hate to see him leave, we’re delighted Steve will be with us through the completion of our move to a new headquarters this spring. We’re also pleased that Steve will be fulfilling his entrepreneurial passion with QUU, an auto dashboard initiative that uses technology to improve the listener experience and drive higher radio station revenue,” NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith said in the announcement. 

Smith added, “I will miss Steve’s daily presence at NAB and will always be grateful for his friendship and many contributions to the success of broadcasting.”

Newberry became a station owner at 21 years old and went on to serve as a NAB Radio Board chair and NAB Joint Board chair. He also served as president of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association and chairman of the Authority for Kentucky Educational Television, as well as a national board member for America’s Public Television Station. 

Quu was founded in 2007 by Joe Harb, who also serves as chief innovation officer. According to the announcement, Quu’s “technology enables radio stations to take full control of the RDS/HD in-car stereo display with the ability to monetize through ad augmentation.”

The company is based in Mercer Island, Wash., but Newberry will remain in D.C. He will also continue to serve as chairman for Commonwealth Broadcasting of Glasgow, Ky.

The post NAB EVP Newberry Plans Exit appeared first on Radio World.

The author is CEO, Digital Radio UK.

LONDON — It looks like 2020 is going to be another milestone year for digital radio in the United Kingdom with digital listening expected to increase to over 60% of all radio listening.

Ford Ennals

The growth in digital listening is being driven by the continued expansion of national commercial digital stations, with nine new national digital stations added in the last year, the fitting of DAB in just about all new cars, and the rise in online listening in homes driven by the strong take-up of smart speakers.

EXPANSION

This is also the year when the U.K. government will play a key role working with the radio industry on a Radio and Audio Review supporting the long-term health of the radio sector, announced by the Digital Minister in May 2019, and by determining the future of the U.K.’s national and local commercial radio station analog licenses.

The consultation document on analog license renewal published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on Dec. 23 confirms government support for digital radio and the intent to sustain progress. The U.K. government has been a long-term supporter of digital radio dating back to the 2010 Digital Radio Action Plan and the passage of the Digital Economy Act.

Photo Courtesy of Teracom SE

This support was reiterated in the consultation document that highlights the department’s digital radio strategy and the potential options for analog station license renewals. The consultation has been prompted by the fact that the national and local commercial station analog licenses start to expire in 2022 and as government recognize that there “is little prospect of a radio switchover before the mid-2020s,” they will have to take action to support the continued stability of the commercial radio sector and the continued growth of digital radio.

The document details the progress made post the Digital Radio Action Plan and the set of government initiatives announced at the end of 2013. It highlights the development of a “competitive DAB network used by nearly 66% of adults; the expansion of both national and local DAB coverage; the launch of new services; the fitment of DAB in new cars,” and the growth of digital listening to nearly 57%.

DCMS emphasizes that while a “decisive shift to digital has started, progress is not uniform” and that analog still has an important role to play, accounting for more than 40% of radio listening, and with local stations still having the majority of listening on analog.

NEXT STEPS

Consequently government needs to consider what steps to take with regards to commercial analog station renewals and has proposed three options, which range from letting analog licenses expire to renewing licenses for 5–8 years. It is reluctant to support a “do nothing” approach, as it wants to maintain the stability of commercial radio and the incentives to support the further development of DAB in the U.K.

The consultation also looks forward to the launch of new ultra-local small-scale multiplexes, which media regulator Ofcom is planning to license in the U.K. later in 2020, and the potential prospect of some local commercial stations having the option to satisfy their DAB carriage license obligations through distribution on the new small-scale DAB multiplexes.

The outcome of the DCMS consultation on analog license renewal, which closes on Feb. 21 (responses to analoguelicence@culture.gov.uk) and the DCMS/Industry Radio and Audio Review are unknown at this point and will be shaped by industry and stakeholder response and feedback.

What is clear is that in 2020 the government is working to support the development of the radio sector and the long-term transition to a digital future for U.K. radio.

The post U.K. Government Restates Support for Digital Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Fig. 1: A 1960s phasor with commonpoint controls added.

Our previous article “Find Your Modulation Sweet Spot,” published in the Oct. 9, 2019, issue of Radio World, is still available online, just Google that headline. It sets the stage for a two-part discussion of AM directionals, beginning here.

As you surely know, fewer engineers are qualified to work on AM directional antenna systems today. Younger ones who maintain these marvels of engineering may not be as well versed as their predecessors.

If you are a member of the new breed, my advice is to be careful not to do the wrong thing when tackling a problem. Don’t make adjustments without analyzing a situation first.   

PROBLEMS

If you find antenna monitor phase and ratio readings are off more than a few degrees or a tower radio is off more than 5%, don’t start adjusting the phasor to compensate. Keep your cool. Write down all the phasor dial readings for future reference. Do a complete physical inspection, including eyeballing the inside of the phasor cabinet and antenna coupling networks. Look for broken connections everywhere and on lines running to the towers. Go out and measure the monitor points. You may find they are in spec and that your real problem is in the antenna monitor or other part of the sample system. 

Jumping to the wrong conclusion could result in chasing your tail to fix an antenna problem that you don’t have. 

TOO MANY KNOBS

An engineer maintaining a two-tower AM directional antenna station called me for advice recently. He is one of the engineers I am mentoring. 

A station’s commonpoint impedance (RF input to the phasor) was difficult to adjust because the variable commonpoint resistance coil was at one end of its travel. All had been well a few months before. Today’s solid-state transmitters want to see exactly 50 ohms with near zero reactance, as you know, so setting the commonpoint impedance correctly is very important. 

As it turns out, the phasor has phase and ratio controls for both towers. In this case, it was too many knobs.   

The ratio controls could be tweaked on either tower to keep the station in specs. This led to the commonpoint problem when he used both to get the correct antenna monitor phase and ratio numbers. The phasor’s input matching network was looking at a phasor “buss” impedance that was not according to the original plan. 

PHASOR DESIGNS

It’s important to understand how phasing systems are designed and built. A transmitter feeds RF power into a phasor cabinet, where there is a  three-coil impedance matching network. It feeds RF energy to a point called the “buss.” This is where power is rationed out to phase and ratio controls for each tower. The buss is rarely 50 ohms, and it is normal to have the impedance change a bit as an engineer tweaks phase and ratio controls to maintain FCC licensed specifications. The input matching network normally has enough operating range to compensate for these adjustments.    

Not all phasors have a front panel adjusted ratio control for the reference tower. That is for good reason. The reference tower normally gets more power than the other tower or towers. There is normally no need to adjust power to the reference tower after the station is initially tuned and licensed. It is the standard/reference that the other towers or towers are compared/referenced to. 

I told the engineer to carefully adjust the reference tower ratio control to full, or close to full on, while keeping the other tower ratio and phase correct. Then, don’t touch the reference tower radio control again. Mark it as “don’t adjust.” That solved his commonpoint problem. He then had good resistance and reactance control because the buss impedance was as expected in the design. Also, running both ratio controls down to their lower ends could cause some phasor components to run hot. 

DESIGN EVOLUTION Fig. 2: Commonpoint controls were added to this phasor.

Phasor systems did not typically have front-panel adjustable input matching networks years ago when tube transmitters were the norm. That changed when solid-state transmitters came along. Now input resistance and reactance controls are required to keep reflected power low and transmitters happy. 

Fig. 1 shows a 1967 vintage Gates three-tower phasor. It did not originally have an input matching network that is adjustable from the front panel. I added those knobs to help control the input impedance and transmitter power when switching from 5 kW non-directional day to 5.4 kW directional night. One control is for resistance, which is tweaked to keep the input at the licensed 50 ohms. The other is commonpoint reactance. Fig. 2 is the dial I normally adjusted to get the transmitter to make just the right amount of power at night. 

In this case, the day non-directional antenna coupling unit has clips on fixed coils for adjustments. Once set, it was good to go. The maintenance procedure is to get the transmitter running at the correct power level in the day mode, then switch to night and adjust the night commonpoint reactance control to get the correct directional antenna power. It is that simple.

You’ll also note there are FCC-required operating parameters listed on the front of the phasor and transmitter. They are right where needed most.     

Yes, that is a Gates BC-5H Transmitter next to the phasor. It has been in full service, running 5,000 watts day and 5,400 watts night since 1973. That’s 46 years! This transmitter is on its third high-voltage transformer, third set of AC contactors, fifth set of high-voltage rectifiers and the solid-state audio driver section has been rebuilt four times on site without sending it to a factory for repair. The transmitter lives on, but will likely be replaced by my engineering successor when the next serious failure occurs. Fortunately there is a Collins 5 kW AM to back it up. Both are excellent tube designs. 

ANTENNA EFFICIENCY

Can you assume that all is well when the monitor points are below FCC limits? Not necessarily. You might have serious impedance mismatches and power divider mismatches, as described above. RF power could be turning to heat. 

You can get a readout on antenna efficiency by going to the original proof of performance documentation and making six or more measurements in the major lobe or lobes. The readings should agree, although there are seasonal variations. RF travels better over frozen ground so winter signals are inherently a bit higher. It is not a big deal in the first couple miles from the transmitter. Ground loss changes become more apparent the further out you go, especially at  20 miles and beyond.

OOS, OOM

Just because the phasor doesn’t have active components, that doesn’t mean it should be ignored. Rodents get in sometimes and need to be dealt with. Loose hardware is common on RF contactors because they are usually operated twice a day with plenty of vibration in the process. RF contacts wear and should be replaced before they fail completely. 

HEAT

Get one of those infrared temperature meters and go through the phasor, then antenna coupling networks looking for hot spots. Use it around electrical load centers too. You might be amazed to find hot electrical contracts and wires that are about to fail. Best to take care of the problem before it causes an off-air emergency at a bad time.      

PAPERWORK Fig. 3: Keep good records.

Keep good visit-to-visit documentation on an AM directional (Fig. 3). It is a history of how the system has been behaving. You don’t just log that everything is OK. AM directionals have many parameters to keep track of. That includes phase and ratio readings on each non-reference tower, dial settings on the phasor, transmitter PA readings, commonpoint current and monitor point readings. along with date and time. You’ll likely see seasonal changes on monitor point measurements.

Fig. 4 shows a phasor adjustment crank. Note that normal counter dial reading is labeled nearby for easy reference. This is one more way to prevent an “oops” from becoming a major problem.

You should keep accurate phasor schematic documentation on hand at the transmitter site. Designs and “as built” are often a bit different. I recommend you pencil any changes on the original schematic. Also, mark down the number of active turns on each coil in the system. As you know, silver-plated straps with clips are used to short out unused turns on fixed coils. They are set once and then normally not touched again. It won’t take but an hour to do the documentation and will save a lot of headaches in the future. Lightning can blow up a coil or capacitor beyond recognition. Having parts values and settings on a schematic diagram can be a life saver.

Fig. 4: Mark your normal dial settings for easy reference.

A nearby station was visited by vandals one night. Somehow they got into the antenna coupling networks and pulled clips off the fixed coils. No other damage, just mischief. It took the engineer only an hour to put the coil clips back in the right spots, plus do a little tweaking, to get the antenna system working properly again. Imagine trying to start from scratch to get the system operational without that knowledge. Ouch! 

By the way, spare parts and equipment manuals belong where the equipment is, not back at the studio. That includes books and programming information for remote control systems. 

The best is yet to come. Stay tuned for an upcoming issue, where you’ll find a real-life story about a 197-foot tower that came down in the parking lot at a directional AM station.

Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Mark Persons, WØMH, built four new AM directional systems, from the ground up, using only schematic diagrams and parts. He is an SBE Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer and was named SBE Engineer of the Year in 2018. Mark is now retired after more than 40 years in business. His website is www.mwpersons.com.

The post Best Practices for AM Directional Systems appeared first on Radio World.

Breadboarding the circuit.

Ever get a song stuck in your head that you don’t necessarily mind being there? My latest benign earworm happens to be “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winter Group; probably due to what’s been going on at my workbench lately. 

In our first installment, we walked through the audio circuit of “THAT Thing,” a mic preamp design built around THAT Corp. ICs.

POWER SUPPLY Gathering the parts.

In this “episode,” we start with the power supply. It’s a fairly common, straightforward design. The audio chips require bipolar DC power at a maximum of ±20 Volts. A +48VDC rail is needed for phantom power.

We start with an AC transformer that takes 120VAC from the wall and steps it down to 48VAC with a center tap, 24VAC for each side of the bipolar supply. 

Following rectification through BR1, we get two pulsing DC rails. From there, the pulsing DC goes through a set of electrolytic capacitors, C101-C104, to level out the bumps. Then, the actual regulation occurs with U101 and U102, positive and negative 18VDC regulators. Next, each rail gets another dose of filtering through C105-108 to take out any remaining ripples. 

Etched PCBs

C109 and C110, a pair of polyester capacitors, remove any RFI sneaking in through the power rails. D101 and D102 are there to ensure that the positive and negative rails stay that way. Any negative voltage appearing on the positive rail shunts to ground and vice versa. D103 and D104 protect the regulator ICs by ensuring that the output voltage never exceeds the input.

Finally, LEDs 101 and 102 in combination with their respective current limiting resistors, R104 and R105, indicate the presence of actual voltage on each rail to show that the supply is functioning correctly, a good aid in troubleshooting.

Power supply board

For the phantom power section, the entire 48VAC secondary winding of the transformer is used. After filtering and rectification through C111, C112 and BR2, we’re left with about 70VDC. Additional RF and ripple filtering is accomplished by C113 and C114. Regulation is performed by U103, a TL783 adjustable regulator. R101 and R102 determine the output voltage of the IC, and C116 filters out any output noise. 

Additional stability is provided by C115 and R103. 48VDC phantom power must be ruler flat to prevent any noise being introduced at the mic inputs, where the audio circuit is the most sensitive.

BREADBOARDING Curt etches the PCBs.

At this stage, I began breadboarding the circuit to test a few component choices and layout. Here’s where I found out firsthand the importance of filter caps C7-C10. 

Without those critical components in place, the circuit made a nice white noise generator, especially in the unprotected environment of the workbench! 

I also found that I had pretty wide latitude in my choice of C6, the high-pass filter capacitor. I settled on 1 µF because it offered, to my ears, the best balance between getting rid of rumble and being able to go high enough for extreme roll-off, if necessary. Anything — even as high as 47 µF — will work, as long as the gain is high enough.

Once I was through experimenting with circuit topology, I imported my schematic into ExpressPCB and worked on the circuit boards. In order to maximize flexibility, and to be able to possibly repurpose the design, I opted to keep the power supply and each audio channel on separate boards. 

Once I had all the correct parts together and etched the boards, I was able to bench test the finished power supply and one completed channel. Surprisingly, the only issue was that I had wired the phantom power LED on the audio board backwards! An easy fix for a change! It was only mounted directly to the PCB temporarily, anyway. Its intended location is the front panel with the other controls.

Testing the preamp assembly with a microphone. Testing the power supply assembly.

Speaking of which, while thinking about how I was going to house this creation, I came across an abandoned 1RU chassis that was just right. I stripped out the guts and replaced the front panel with a 1RU blank that could be punched and drilled specifically for this project. I put the input XLR jacks on the front panel, taking a cue from a previously built kit in my studio. The output jacks are 1/4-inch TRS for easy interface with my 1/4-inch TRS patch bay.

CONSIDERING IMPROVEMENTS

Never one to leave anything alone if I think there’s room for “improvement,” I started thinking of potential modifications to this design. Looking at some of the design notes from THAT Corp., and discussing this project with other DIYers, I settled on two relatively simple things to try. 

The faceplate after drilling.

First up, an alternative to the gain pot is a rotary switch with several positions, each position providing a different fixed gain. The advantage here is better component matching between channels, which translates to more accurately repeatable settings between channels. High quality reverse log pots of this resistance value can be hard to find at reasonable prices. Besides, more precise adjustments can be made further down the signal chain, or in the mixing/editing stage.

The other modification I looked into was replacing the initial input stage with a transformer. While I suggested in the first installment that transformers are expensive compared to capacitive coupling stages, this is a case where the custom build aspect and its benefits perhaps outweigh the added cost. 

True, the concept behind chips like the THAT1512 is to obviate the need for a transformer, which is perfectly valid, if one is building numerous preamp stages or a 16-channel mixer. On the other hand, a transformer provides way better common mode rejection, kills RFI, eliminates hum loops and also mitigates against any phantom power faults possibly cooking the ICs. Placing a transformer on the input eliminates several other components: C3, C4, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and D1-D4 all go away.

VERSION 2 The version 2 preamp assembly with transformer installed.

In version 2 of THAT Thing, I went ahead with the input transformer and the rotary gain switch with six positions.

The transformer I used is OEP’s A262-A3E, which I borrowed from a tube mic preamp in my rack. It’s much less expensive than a Jensen or a Lundahl and, hey, it’s what I had! Good thing it was cheap because while desoldering it from the other preamp’s PCB, I somehow managed to fry the secondary winding. Oops! It had a good run. R.I.P.

Once the replacement arrived from www.Newark.com, I set about testing it within the circuit. It’s important to consider that the input transformer adds some gain of its own to the circuit, about 16 dB. It took some experimentation to settle on the gain levels for the rotary switch, but I ended up with a range between 19 dB and 50 dB.

Looking inside.

So, how did it sound? Super clean, and the transformer definitely adds some character. Either version works very well with just about every mic I tested, from a Shure SM58 to an MXL ribbo n mic, to an Audio Technica AT4040. Two to four channels of “THAT Thing” would nicely compliment a Mackie 1202 or 1402 mixer’s line inputs, should you find yourself running short of mic inputs. Or connect it straight to a PC’s sound card input.

TRY IT YOURSELF Inside closeup

For anyone willing to take a stab at this, I’m happy to provide the schematics, PCB layouts and other notes. 

“THAT” Thing in the rack.

You’ll need to download ExpressPCBPlus (free at www.expresspcb.com) to read and print them out. All parts except the input transformers are available from Mouser Electronics or most other suppliers. The transformers, as mentioned earlier, can be ordered from Newark.com.

Happy soldering!

Curt Yengst, CSRE, is a contributor to Radio World and an assistant engineer with WAWZ(FM) in Zarephath, N.J.

Email us with your own DIY ideas at radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Let’s Finish Our Solid-State Mic Preamp Project  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.

Amid tensions with Iran simmering, the ongoing impeachment impasse in the national consciousness, and the election season looming, radio listeners are turning to stations as never before. They want coverage from their trusted source: noncommercial radio.

New demands may create stress at stations, but this interest offers incredible opportunities as well.

How significant is all the attention? Radio Research Consortium, the nation’s purveyor of audience data for noncommercial radio, issued a study this week into impeachment broadcast listenership. RRC’s numbers show a spike in audience for stations airing impeachment hearings and analysis.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: The Last 2019 To-Dos]

“[F]or 50 full-time noncommercial news stations across 44 PPM metros, the six days containing special coverage saw more total AQH listening than any of the 14 days absent of special coverage,” the team notes. “Not only did the six days with special coverage outperform the 14 days without special coverage on a day-by-day basis, listening was higher for this set of stations on an hour-by-hour basis, as well.”

Off to the side, many stations are skittish about interrupting their regularly scheduled programs, especially their most popular ones, for what can seem like dry Robert’s Rules of Order procedurals or blatant grandstanding by lawmakers. Nothing could be further from the truth, it seems. Audiences love their regular programming but in times of urgency and uncertainty, the numbers indicate these listeners crave more the context and clarity your station can provide.

“All well and good,” you may say, “but how can a lightly staffed or an all-volunteer station compete with the giants in doing this breaking coverage?”

My encouragement to everyone in community radio in these moments is to stop thinking about competition and focus on, realistically, what you can provide to your community. That’s a hard pill to swallow for many of us, because we have been raised around the idea of outdoing others, beating others to whatever we’re racing toward, and with winning. Noncommercial radio should always assert itself, of course, but community service is really our goal. Unlike for-profit media, community radio does not need to chase whatever winds the markets are blowing in. In fact, no matter what you do, collectively or individually, you will discover someone is always bigger, better, more resourced and quicker. So why not instead place your energies in how your station can serve its listeners and signal area best?

Perhaps your station can collect voices in your community with area reactions to the issues of the day. Candidate forums or one-on-one visits with candidates in a given race might give your audience a chance to cast an informed vote, or even to find common ground with perceived opponents. How are your Congressional representatives responding to the matters facing the nation now? These are all avenues your station can take to deliver coverage that do not demand tons of resources.

Some nonprofit media organizations are seeing tremendous returns with partnerships that pool resources and deliver coverage jointly to everyone. Especially for thinly resourced stations, collaboration is a fantastic way of delivering what audiences want without undercutting the rest of your operations.

2020 is shaping up to be a tremendous year for radio. The presidential election, races for House and Senate seats marked by several prominent retirements, and natural disasters mean community radio still has a big role to play. We can make a real impact, but such will require fresh thinking and commitment.

 

The post Community Broadcaster: Community Radio Relevant as Ever appeared first on Radio World.