Radio World

Gary Kline

As part of our ebook “Trends in Audio Processing for Radio,” we asked veteran engineer and consultant Gary Kline to create a list of key topics to consider.

I think the processor may be one of the most discussed pieces of equipment that a station owns. Everyone you meet in any country will be glad to give you their opinion on which is the best for a particular market, format or budget. If you put 10 PDs or engineers in a room, it would be rare that they agree on the “best processor out there.”

That said, there are points most processing gurus will agree on. Here are some based on my travels and experience.

1 – Know the market, know your competitors. Get to know everything you can about your competitors and their technical setup.

This goes beyond listening to every station on the dial carefully (you should), but also objectively. Don’t be reluctant to admit that another station sounds — in your opinion — better than yours.  Do your research, which may require intelligence gathering. Get to know everyone’s transmission path including console, STL, transmitter, age of equipment, and, of course, the processing they use. Don’t forget to listen to HD or DAB channels too.

You should know your equipment; once you know what the competition is using, you can balance your objectiveness.

For example, say you think the CHR competitor sounds better than you. Is that because they have a cleaner transmission path? Stronger/newer processing? Better source material? Greater RF over the coverage area? If any of those is true, your processing concerns may expand to fixing other things too.

Whether you have a direct competitor in the market or not, still get to know each station’s particular sound. This will help you rate the market overall and help you in designing your custom audio signature sound. Some markets are softer. Some are loud and very competitive with high MPX density levels. Some just sound poor across the dial.

2 – Know your goals. Too often there is a desire to purchase a new processor without a clear reason. Understanding your reasons and budget constraints will go a long way in making an informed choice.

Is your processor older and not as competitive or clean-sounding? Do you need to feed a new DAB or HD channel, and your processor does not support that? Did your current unit die of old age or a lightning strike? Is it time to standardize processing or stereo generators across the network? Are ratings slipping That’s a common reason given, but a processor is not always a ratings cure.

What’s the budget? How much processing can you afford? Or better yet, do you need to buy the top-level box when something less costly might do?

I frequently get into a discussion about goals and budget with an operator only to find out that what they already have meets their goals; in other cases, I may determine that while an operator thought they could make do with what they already own, it becomes clear they cannot. Each situation is unique.

3 – Know the landscape of current products. If you are going to make a purchasing decision you should know what your choices are.

Sure, most of us in the radio business know the top brands and may even know the current model(s). But do you know about processors designed, manufactured and sold around the world? Processing philosophies and design various around the world; perhaps there is a “sound” you can import that your listeners will gravitate to.

Do you know how each brand sounds or the benefit of one versus another? Do you know “street price” for every model? Do you know which features require an additional fee for extra outputs like one for HD or an internet stream? Do you know if there are forthcoming firmware updates which may add improvements which could influence your decision? Do you have contacts at the manufacturer or their reps who can explain these things or set up a demo?

4 – Consider hiring a seasoned audio expert if you are not comfortable designing your audio signature.

I visit broadcast facilities that have PDs or engineers who are adept at processing and know how to install and tune a box. I also run into places where outside expertise can add considerable value.

There are many important and critical steps in setting up a new processor. There are the technical transmission settings such as input, output, pilot injection, sample rates, input switching, network IP parameters, and other interfaces. Then there are the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of individual processing settings to tailor the audio to your preferences.

Even in situations where a station has in-house processing expertise, it can help to get an objective opinion from individual who has a toolkit of presets and starting points to speed the adjustment process. It is also good insurance to have a consultant to ensure the transmission parameters are set correctly and legally.

Many newer processors have non-expert modes that make the tailoring of the sound easier with fewer settings. However, in some instances, such as very competitive situations, “expert” mode may be the best way to achieve that perfect signature sound.

A consultant can help with the selection process as well as performing a full technical review of the plant.

5 – Understand the feature sets of modern processing. Local stations may need one set of features while network, enterprise or state-owned broadcasters may require a different set. Here’s a series of questions you might consider, and topics to research.

Do you know what MPX over IP is? (Hint, it is one the latest techniques for sending your composite MPX over IP to your transmitter.) Do you know who offers that and in what configuration(s)?

Do you know what composite EQ is? What is pilot protection? What is SSB and DSB and why might that matter to you?

How many digital and analog inputs and outputs do you need? Which boxes offer how many of each?

Do you want a box that can generate dynamic RDS? How many bands of AGC and limiting would work best for your format and desired sound?

Do you want dual power supplies or some form of additional redundancy? Are you interested in processors that can run in a virtual environment and is that something you should be interested in?

Do you need GPS sync for your stereo generator, say for an SFN? Did you know that many processors sold today have hard-drive storage to hold music and imaging so that if your studio playout system (or studio altogether) goes offline, you’ll still be on the air?

Do you need SNMP monitoring? Do you know what de-clipping is? Phase correction? Do you want to feed your analog transmitter, digital transmitter and internet stream simultaneously? Do you need ratings encoding or a ratings encoder patch-point?

I could fill pages with features you might consider. Do your research and get to know what features matter and why they matter, then overlay that with your market research.

6 – Know your air chain. Understand you air chain from microphone to speaker. Literally.

I visit many stations whose managers complain about their sound and ask for processing adjustments or a processor to “fix” it. I almost always find weak links in their audio path that contribute to the quality issue.

Sure, they may need a new processor. Sure, they may need careful adjusting and tweaking. However, other things need to be addressed too. At the top of the list and most often is source material.

I still find plenty of MP3s on the playout system hard drive. I’ve been to stations with hundreds of MP3s (with bit rates between 96 and 192) and they wonder why their sound is not as clean or lush as the other stations in the market. I very rarely find a hard drive that doesn’t have at least a few MP3s.

Beware — several playout systems rename MP3 to WAV and increase the file size; that will fake you out. You need special tools to scan the library and find these fake files. More on source material below.

I also see STL paths that have issues. Does your feed to the transmitter use an uncompressed audio path or is it something lossy? Is your sample rate 44.1 kHz or 32 kHz? How many A/D and D/A conversions are in the path?

Also I still find digital consoles that use their analog output to feed a digital STL. I see playout systems using their analog outputs to feed a digital console. Even with AoIP systems — which you’d think by definition would be all-digital — it is possible to find analog ins/outs used for playout systems, emergency alerting interrupt boxes and feeds to the transmitter.

Each analog to digital conversion (or the other way around) is another point of degradation. These weak points between console and transmitter add up; while one thing alone might not be noticeable, several together can be.

The road to excellent sound is not just about the box, it’s about the entire system.

7 – Be a perfectionist on source material every step of the way. You know this saying but it certainly applies to processing: Garbage In = Garbage Out.

In over 90% of stations I visit, I find at least several source material violations: MP3s, low sample rates, recordings from imperfect masters, etc. This is what I tell every PD, MD, and APD I meet.

We all know MP3s are a no-no. Resist the urge to download material from YouTube or iTunes or some other source.

I often hear that a particular MP3 files is the result of not knowing where to find the older material. There are sources for CD quality (or better) versions of almost anything — many are online for download. There are companies that can provide a fully loaded hard drive with your specific music and in true PCM WAV uncompressed format. Do your research, put the effort in, and ensure you have the best material.

Sometimes the issue isn’t the file format but the actual source. There are plenty of forums online that discuss the best masters, greatest hit collections and top picks by audiophiles for various artists. Google is your friend.

Did you know that among several discs by ABBA, some are considered far better quality than others? Read this interesting discussion.

Use your ears. If you hear a song on your station that doesn’t sound quite right, go back and research the cut. If you can’t determine where it came from, get a copy of known quality.

If you run HD or DAB, you already know those digital signals use a codec. If you play an MP3 file — which already is a lossy format — over an HD/DAB channel, you end up with cascading codecs. In other words, the sound quality may even be worse when listened on the digital carrier.

8 – Don’t rush things. It takes time to perfect an audio signature. It can take days or weeks to get that perfect audio signature. Take your time.

Some of the best sounding stations around the world have taken their time to “dial in” their settings. It is rare to design a sophisticated, nuanced and consistent sound in one day.

Yes, processors come with presets that get you in the ballpark. And, yes, as a result you can have a decent sounding station quickly, assuming you don’t have other severe audio chain problems, very poor source material, etc. But, for that perfect market-leading sound, it takes time to “process beyond the preset.”

For example after a processor is adjusted, all parties should take a break, sleep and then listen again. Your ears get fatigued after hours of listening and adjusting. They can confuse you. Sleep on it and see how things sound when your ears are fresh. In some cases, as you get closer, it’s helpful to wait a week or two and listen afresh. The longer period also allows you to listen to various content samples to ensure that the sound is consistent across sources.

If you are an oldies or 80s station or play music across several decades, finding a balanced sound that works for every cut can be challenging. The way music was mastered and produced in the 1970s is different from how it was done in the 80s and way different then say, Dua Lipa in 2020.

And, yes, there are stations that play Madonna, Van Halen and Dua Lipa in the same hour. I worked on one recently and it required careful attention to detail to sound consistent throughout the day.

Fortunately, many of the modern processors have great toolsets to help with this issue.

9 – Understand the politics. The process of processing can be complicated by the need for more than one person to agree on the results.

You may be working alongside a PD, OM, GM, programming consultant or owner who “thinks” they know audio. And perhaps they do— but will they all agree on what good sound is? Chances are, no.

Audio processing is very subjective. What one person thinks is the perfect low-end or vocal mix might sound horrible to another.

If you are the person with fingers on the knobs, your bedside manner and maturity will become crucial in these situations.

Don’t be offended if someone says they don’t like the sound. Don’t be frustrated if it takes several iterations to get consensus. And you may never get 100% agreement.

To avoid problems I’ll ask, at the beginning, to know who makes the final call. It may be the PD of the brand or the PD plus the general manager. Sometimes, it’s the owner too. Try to limit decision-making team to very few people.

I’ve been asked as a processing consultant to be the one to make the final call. I inquire about the goals; for example, maybe everyone thinks the high-end needs to be cranked yet they’ve also said that TSL matters. In a situation like that, I may advise that too much high-end could risk tuneout and lower TSL.

10 – Listen to your product on several devices and in various types of vehicles. Listen in your car, your GM’s car, your PD’s car and your best friends’ cars. Listen on a clock radio (especially in mono), on different smart speakers, and through the type of headphones/earbuds typically worn by your listeners.

Your signature will sound different depending on where and what you are listening to. Ensure that the sound is acceptable across most devices and speakers. It’s OK to tweak based on what you hear. The goal is a nice balance so that the station sounds great on small speakers and big ones alike.

Be honest with yourself. You may have achieved what you think is the best low-end you’ve ever heard … in your car. Then, you listen in another car and wonder why it’s overwhelming. Don’t ignore it, go back and carefully find the right balance.

Remember the politics. The PD may be listening in their car and will legitimately hear things differently than you do. The audience will too. This is another reason finding that perfect sound takes time.

That being said, you can chase your tail forever if you make an adjustment every time you receive a comment or listen to a new device; know when to stop. Keeping the decision team small will help with this.

11 – Don’t forget your digital assets. These include your streams, Alexa, YouTube, FB, IG, etc. There are smart speakers, mobile apps and other ways in which your product is distributed.

Do you process your stream with as much thought and attention to detail as your terrestrial signal? About half of the stations I listen to online are not paying attention to their digital asset audio processing.

Consider using your main processor if that’s technically feasible. If not, use a separately purchased processor designed for digital streaming, an older model laying around the station left over from a previous upgrade (something is better than nothing), or one of the many great software-based processors you can find online.

Some manufacturers do offer software that can be used for streaming; many will run on the same PC your streaming encoder resides on. There are also hardware-based streaming appliances with built-in processing.

But don’t forget, processing for streaming requires a sound that’s great across various devices.

Digital processing design does not have all the same considerations as AM or FM transmission. For instance, analog FM is limited to 15 kHz frequency response while your stream might go out to 20 kHz. There is no 50us or 75us equalization curve.

Pay attention to your bit rates — don’t dip too low. There are several very good white papers on streaming across the web and located on the sites of audio processing manufacturers.

Streaming audio, done properly, will sound amazing — better than the analog terrestrial signal.

The author is owner of Kline Consulting Group LLC. He has held technical positions with several major broadcast organizations, most notably as senior VP of engineering at Cumulus Media. He has provided engineering support and consulting in the United States, Canada, China and several South American countries. He is a past recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award.

The post 11 Processing Things to Think About appeared first on Radio World.

It’s sobering to think that these great reliable air chain components can now be considered “legacy” products.

Cris Alexander is tech editor of RW Engineering Extra.

As I began editing the latest issue of RWEE, I couldn’t help taking another trip down memory lane, this time over the last 40+ years of FM air chain architecture.

Such reminiscences seem to come more often these days, and the words “Back in the day …” frequently elicit an eye roll from my daughter, who is CE of Crawford’s Denver cluster (though I think she secretly likes hearing about the “old stuff”).

So… let the eye rolls begin.

FM as stepchild

Back in the day… the FM stations at which I worked early on used simple air chain topography. The program bus of the on-air console fed, through a patch panel, a couple of pairs of CBS Laboratories audio processors: the Audimax and Volumax.

These were, if I recall correctly, discrete processors for left and right, although I think stereo versions were available at some point. If there was any kind of control linking between the mono pairs, I have long forgotten.

Those processors in turn, also through a patch panel, fed the Collins 310 exciter, which used a stereo generator card to create the multiplex signal.

Not a lot of radios could receive and decode the multiplex signal in those days. In fact, not a lot of radios could receive FM in those days!

FM was the stepchild, the “also-ran” to which not many paid a lot of attention. Which explains how I was able to land a job at a couple of FM stations before I even graduated high school.

I had an FM converter in my car for quite a while, which used an AM modulator to spit out a signal on the high end of the AM band where I could listen to the FM signal. It was mono, but I was way ahead of most folks just by being able to tune into those elevator music FM stations.

At some point, I bought and installed a car radio that had an integral FM tuner and a little red stereo light. I was amazed at the big stereo image when I first tuned into our FM station and that red light illuminated. That simple Audimax/Volumax air chain sounded pretty good!

Our little (but 100 kW!) FM station in the Texas Panhandle was a pretty low-budget operation, but when Orban came out with the Optimod 8000 in the 1970s, the owner sprang for one.

Installing it took some doing; the Collins exciter had to be reconfigured without the internal stereo generator, and I found out in a hurry that the multiplex cable between the composite output of the Optimod and the composite input of the exciter had to be pretty short if I wanted to have a good, wide stereo image.

Once I got the baseband and pilot levels adjusted to make the Belar FM and stereo monitors happy, I gave the station a listen in the car, and … wow!! That was my first exposure to multiband processing, and the on-air sound was amazing.

New methods

As time went on and I moved to the big city, I was exposed to other air chain topology.

I can’t recall working at any other stations that had collocated studios and transmitter site, so all used some kind of studio-to-transmitter link (STL). Many used equalized phone lines, but some used Marti discrete 950 MHz links.

Both those arrangements had their challenges. The phone lines would sometimes get noisy or hum, especially after a good rain, and the 950 MHz links were occasionally prone to noise and interference.

Audio processors were located at the transmitter site. By the late 1970s, all but one that I regularly dealt with used multiband processors. The sound was good, but not as good as that collocated Amarillo FM with its Optimod 8000.

And then I was hired as the chief (and only) engineer for a Dallas top 40 radio station. My transition into that job occurred at the same time as the station was transitioning to a new transmitter site and tower on the Cedar Hill antenna farm.

The studio was on a multistory building just east of downtown, and a 950 MHz Moseley composite STL was used to get the audio to the transmitter site. That was my first exposure to a composite STL, and I thought it very strange that the new Optimod 8100 processor was in the rack at the studio!

There was a loudness war underway in that very competitive market in those days, and we pretty much ran all knobs all the way to the right. But we needed more to stay ahead of — or even on a par with — our chief competition across town. The issue was overshoots in that composite STL; we had to keep the average modulation down to keep the peak modulation below 100%. The FCC had a field office in town, and they did pay attention to local broadcasters in those days.

Our parent company was New York-based, and it had connections, one of which was a brilliant engineer named Eric Small.

A mysterious “black box” of Mr. Small’s creation was placed in the air chain downstream of the STL receiver at the transmitter site, and that took care of the overshoots — we could run the modulation way up and stay out of trouble with the newfangled composite clipper in line. I knew it was working because I could see the pilot level dancing with modulation peaks.

Ethernet paths

That composite STL air chain architecture persisted for much of my career, until the digital age. We used various digital adapters on our composite links, including the Moseley DSP6000s, to good effect, and audio processors kept getting better.

In the early 1990s, a guy named Frank Foti came to Detroit with a weird-looking box that he called the Omnia. He installed it in the air chain of our FM station there, and … wow! Over the next 25 years, Frank’s processors kept getting better and we kept buying them.

Then came true all-digital STLs that offered transparent transmission paths between studio and transmitter. HD Radio appeared in the early 2000s, and the Tomorrow Radio Project made multicast channels on FM HD stations possible, requiring additional audio paths between studio and transmitter.

It was then that my company made the move to Part 101 bidirectional point-to-point microwave links, putting studios and transmitter sites on the same networks.

Air chains, for us, became Ethernet paths involving AoIP, NICs and switches, a far cry from those analog Audimax/Volumax patch-panel stereo generator chains of old.

Now we have even more options, one of which is multiplex over IP. In the latest issue of RW Engineering Extra, Tony Peterle of Worldcast Systems introduces us to MPXoIP technology.

As I enter my 45th year in the business, I can’t wait to see what comes next. How about RF over IP? Put the transmitter at the studio and send 40 kW of RF down a twisted pair … okay, we probably can’t do that ever. But it would sure be cool if we could!

You can reach the author at rweetech@gmail.com. Cris Alexander, CPBE, AMD, DRB, is director of engineering at Crawford Broadcasting.

The post Air Chains Then and Now appeared first on Radio World.

Tony Coles is president of the Black Information Network, a radio news and information service from iHeartMedia. He is also division president for Metro Markets for iHeartMedia. And like so many in radio he’s made many stops on both coasts and both sides of the microphone.

He was interviewed by Suzanne Gougherty, director of MMTC Media and Telecom Brokers at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council. MMTC commentaries appear regularly in Radio World, which welcomes other points of view on industry issues.

Suzanne Gougherty: Do you think that BIN is setting a tone on mainstream FM music stations to a targeted audience to deliver access to news and information?
Tony Coles: We are at an interesting moment in time. Audio is hotter than ever, and we are seeing spoken word content being consumed more than ever. In addition to our 24/7 all-news format, the Black Information Network offers a short-form news product that is heard on a number of FM stations. Additionally, BIN supplies news and information over 100 iHeartMedia music stations — the majority on FM. I don’t know if that is setting the tone, but we are excited to fill a void for news and information that people are seeking.

On a broader basis, BIN seeks to address the concern that, especially with the recent and unfortunate narrative around “fake news,” there is a growing lack of trust within the Black population in mainstream news. BIN focuses on issues that are especially important to Black America — Black culture, education (HBCUs), Black wealth, social justice, faith and religion, and especially in the wake of a pandemic that disproportionately impacted communities of color, Black health — and reports on these matters with Black voices, using Black reporters, producers and influencers, to tell the stories — positive and negative — that might otherwise fall outside the traditional news cycle.

[Read: Looking to Radio for a Bounce-Back]

Gougherty: There were so many challenges in 2020—– pandemic which encompassed everything we do—– yet you and your team were able to launch a new product. Tell us how you pulled that off?
Coles: The need for an all-news/information network like BIN to tell the stories and offer the perspectives that are most relevant to Black Americans is not new. This has been a passion of mine for some time, and with the full support of iHeart’s senior leadership we started to build the plan foundation and begin recruitment before the pandemic shut us and everyone else down. When that happened, it impacted our timeline, for sure, but I firmly believe we are better as a result of changing strategy. Working from home caused us to discover not only reporters in places we weren’t looking, but the diversity of a staff in markets of all sizes and time zones makes for more robust reporting. Having the support and full backing of the resources and assets of a company like iHeart, which has been so laser-focused on modernizing and innovating the audio space generally, is also invaluable.

Gougherty: What were some of the behind the scene discussions like to get a full team in place? What kind of broadcast professionals were you seeking to hire? Were some hired from within?
Coles: Hiring an entire staff in a virtual environment has its own set of unique challenges, but we have been fortunate to find an incredible team. Because of our national platform, it was important for us to have a staff that reflects the complexity and diversity of Black America. Our team ranges from former New York TV reporters to anchors in rural Alabama. It was incredibly gratifying — and exciting — as some of the most well-respected Black voices out there — Tanita Myers, Ed Gordon, Roland Martin, and so many others — agreed to join us as we built this team. But we not only have seasoned veterans we are very intentionally creating opportunities for the next generation of Black media, including some who are just starting their careers. And while we were able to tap into the strong resources of our parent company, we have put a lot of effort into hiring a significant number of new reporters and anchors. In fact, the vast majority of the Black Information Network team members are Black. Top to bottom; young and old. This is hugely important to what makes the Black Information Network so special, and hopefully, so impactful to our listeners and communities.

Gougherty: Have you ever worked in a broadcast newsroom?
Coles: I was fortunate enough to start my career working at a full-service AM station and helping to produce the late news for the local NBC affiliate. Over the years, I was a news anchor at a number of stations. Thankfully, our newsroom is much more sophisticated, and our anchors are much better than I was. Still, having that background has given me a deeper respect and appreciation for the work our team is doing, and a particular passion for the role of Black journalism in reporting the news and telling the stories that need to be told at the local, national and international levels. BIN’s unique business model is actually quite relevant here, as well. Unlike traditional radio stations and audio networks, BIN is not chasing advertisers to fill inventory spot ads. Instead, we several Founding Partners have invested upfront to support BIN’s mission. This allows us to be laser-focused on the stories, the news, and the information we are committed to covering from a Black perspective.

Gougherty: Coming up soon is the first anniversary of BIN, what was the biggest challenge that you faced in year one and how did you overcome it?
Coles: Launching a network like BIN during a pandemic that disproportionally impacted the Black community and in the middle one of the most pivotal times in the social justice movement was even harder than it sounds. Not being able to physically be in the same room with the team — ever — was personally and professionally challenging.

Thankfully, we have an amazing team of engineers, incredible technology, and lots of coffee. Lots of coffee. Additionally, while BIN is the first of its kind 24/7 news and information network, true to our local broadcasting heart, we are committed to serving local communities, especially where there is a large Black population either in total numbers or just as a percentage of that community. That means that while we are in major urban centers such as New York, Atlanta and Washington, we are also in smaller, more rural communities such as Jackson, Miss., Macon, Ga. and Greenville, S.C. And a lot of places in between.

So yes, one of the big challenges, during a pandemic or otherwise, was identifying, and if necessary, acquiring, and then standing up, radio stations to build out our local footprint. I’m very proud to say that since our launch in June 2020, we’ve more than doubled the number of local BIN stations delivering our content 24/7. These stations carry not only the network programming, but also local stories, including from on-the-ground BIN reporters.

Gougherty: There are many issues that impact the Black communities, tell us some of the leading stories your team has covered in year one? What do they feel is their biggest accomplishment?
Coles: Our first year was filled with so many big stories that it is hard to even begin to list them. Obviously, the Black Lives Matter protests from last summer and our ongoing coverage of the impact of COVID-19 on the Black community top the list. Beyond that, I think our team would say so many of the stories that we brought to light when other news outlets either didn’t tell them, wouldn’t tell them, or told them from a biased perspective. From terribly disturbing stories such as the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich., to uplifting stories such as the election of the first Black woman Vice President, to highlighting the work Black leaders in business are doing to create generational wealth in the community — we have been and continue to be a part of it all. This is the stuff I tell my kids about.

Gougherty: How did your BIN team cover the Chauvin trial and verdict? 
Coles: One of our first network affiliates was KQQL(HD2) BIN 93.3 in Minneapolis. They carried live coverage of the trial from gavel to gavel. As a result, they were able to supply the network with great content and perspective, which was the engine for both our network reporting and a nightly trial recap that aired across the network. When the verdict came in, we aired it live across the network and within minutes we offered special reports to over 150 radio stations across the country.

[Read: Keeping Sports Hot in the Age of Coronavirus]

Gougherty: What is your day-to-day workload entail?
Coles: In addition to running the network, I am also a division president for 21 iHeartMedia markets. Fortunately, I am blessed to have great leaders in the markets, and an incredible leadership team at BIN. Most days are spent working to grow the network, interacting with our clients, and working with the local market leadership teams in my division to help them get results for our clients, improve the listening experience for our audiences, and grow and develop our teams.

Gougherty: When you envisioned BIN, were you thinking deeply about social responsibility, diversity and inclusion as a delivery vehicle to diverse audience?  
Coles: BIN was conceived long before the events of last summer, so our perspective on social responsibility had a different context. That said, we always wanted the network to be the voice of the unheard. We wanted our actions to lift up Black voices and create jobs and opportunities in the Black community, and for our reporting to create and amplify change.

Gougherty: What do you feel are the misconceptions about radio versus the big streaming companies?  
Coles: We have said it for years and will continue to say it: Radio is about companionship. Listeners turn to radio to be their friend and companion. Streaming services are wonderful places for your music collection, but when you want to be entertained, informed, and engaged, only radio can offer that deep and lasting connection.

Gougherty: As a black radio executive please share your thoughts about the cultural divide in the country and how that’s expressed itself in radio?
Coles: My great grandfather was a slave. My grandfather witnessed his murder at the hands of someone who felt slavery shouldn’t have ended. The KKK burned the first home my parents ever owned. My story isn’t unique, but it is a reminder of just how much darkness and division is rooted in our not so distant history. The cultural divide in our country runs deep and it won’t be resolved soon, but I am encouraged by so many of the things we have seen and heard over the past 12 months. While I am incredibly proud of the work the Black Information Network has done, I am equally proud of the conversations talent across the industry have sparked. We cannot resolve anything that we are not willing to discuss. Radio has always been at the center of conversations, and I am so proud that in this moment, we are once again the voice of change.

 

The post Coles Takes a Bold Step appeared first on Radio World.

Frank Hertel’s project: three individually dimmable LED lights. (Frank is the master of recycling; the wooden mounting pedestals are the panels from a decommissioned ATI console!)

Thanks for your comments on the super-bright tri-panel LED light “bulb” described in the last column.

Workbench contributor Frank Hertel of Newman-Kees RF Measurements and Engineering described another approach to lighting your shop or workbench with LED bulbs — and this one is dimmable.

The dimmer selector means you won’t blind yourself with overly bright light unless you need to.

What started it

Frank needed to replace spot and floodlights on his tractor, and found the LED fixtures shown in the first two photos on the internet.

A wide-beam rectangular LED light, with a sharp cutoff on the edges. A small round LED floodlight.

Before installing them on the tractor, he tested them on the workbench. Frank was impressed with how much light both fixtures provided, exceeding the brightness of his more expensive 120V LED shop lamps.

However Frank felt there might be cases where the brightness was too much for the work at hand, so he decided to build a dimmer circuit.

In selecting a method of dimming the LED fixtures, Frank first considered the simplest method: varying the DC voltage. This will work, but because of the “avalanche” turn-on point — it’s not a smooth ramp-up or down — varying the DC voltage makes for a sloppy dimming control.

Enter the 555

Frank decided on the ever-so-handy 555 Timer IC, which was configured as an adjustable duty cycle square wave generator.

Seen in the accompanying schematic, the 555 square wave generator drives an MPF102 FET, which in turn drives a D718 power transistor that provides a “pulsed” 12V variable duty cycle driving the LED lamp fixture.

Frank’s LED dimming circuit is based on a 555 Timer chip.

The fixture is only pulsed long enough with the 12 volts to establish the desired brightness level. This method overrides the “avalanche” “on-off” effect that is noticed when a variable voltage is used to attempt control of the fixture’s brightness.

Stated another way, the LED fixture’s brightness can be viewed in relation to the length of time the 12V pulse is present. Therefore, the duty cycle of the 555 IC’s square wave is the determining factor for the LED fixture’s brightness. Pretty slick!

He used a widely available and inexpensive D718 power transistor that is rated for 8A at 120V. With a properly sized 15VDC supply and heatsink for the D718, you could power several LED fixtures with just one dimmer. Alternately, the circuit is small enough that you could mount several dimmers in one chassis, for individual control.

Frank realizes you can buy a pre-made dimmer but asked, “What fun is that?”

Besides, this dimmer circuit can handle a lot of current and is small enough that multiple dimmer circuits can be mounted inside one chassis.

After outfitting his tractor, Frank mounted three fixtures on wood pedestals so he could focus the light on what needed illuminating. Frank adds that if pointed at a white ceiling, the fixtures provide ample room illumination.

The completed project provides for three individually dimmed LED fixtures. You’ll note in the photo that Frank chose silicone jacketed wire to connect the fixtures to the dimmer. This wire is super-flexible, albeit expensive. The silicone helps avoid tangles. The 22 gauge wire had an almost immeasurable voltage drop over the 30 foot length that Frank chose.

Frank chose ultra-flexible silicone wire. Similar to “Zip” cord, it resists tangling.

Parts are listed at the end of this article. Keep in mind that when selecting the working voltage of the capacitors, good engineering practice dictates choosing a capacitor rated at twice the supply voltage. Since we’re talking about 15VDC in this circuit, choose capacitors rated at either 30 or 50 Working Volts DC (WVDC).

PS: If you’ve made it this far, you are definitely an engineer who likes to build and tinker. San Diego’s Marc Mann reminded me of a site that will occupy your interest for hours with the variety of parts for sale. It’s Marlin P. Jones and Associates at www.mpja.com. Their online catalog is fascinating, and the site features bargains and closeouts. You can sign up there for an email flier or access their online catalog.

John Bisset, CPBE, has spent more than 50 years in broadcasting and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Shed a little light by sharing share your own Workbench submissions, which qualify for SBE recertification. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

 

Dimmer Project Parts List

1 each 20K Pot (linear) (B20K or 20KB)

1 each 1k 1/4W Resistor

1 each 6.8k 1/4W Resistor

2 each 0.01MFD Capacitors

1 each 1MFD Electrolytic Capacitor

1 each 1MFD non-polarized Capacitor

1 each 100MFD Electrolytic Capacitor

2 each 1N4006 Diodes (non critical)

1 each MPF102 F.E.T.

1 each D718 NPN Power Transistor

1 each Heatsink for above transistor

1 each 15VDC Power Supply, sized for LED fixture demands

1 each Enclosure of your choice

1 each Knob for pot

1 each perf board and hookup wire

 

The post Workbench: Build an LED Fixture Dimmer Circuit   appeared first on Radio World.

We continue our Microphone Month coverage by checking in with Anabella Poland, general manager of WMSC(FM).

The Montclair State University station in New Jersey keeps its microphone cage stocked with various models for specific purposes.

In the studio, it’s the reliable EV RE20. “They do a great job for broadcast radio even though they are not condenser microphones,” Poland said.

“For remote work most of my students primarily have Blue Snowball mics. They are fairly priced and do a decent job.”

They might pull out a Blue Bluebird for live performance recording applications such as over a drumset. For red carpet events the station uses Shure SM58 mics with its two Yellowtec iXM and one Zoom recorders.

At home Poland, shown, uses a Marantz Professional MPM-1000U. She said it “delivers high-quality audio recording directly into the computer as it is a USB microphone, and sometimes you just need that quick access for live shows and streaming.”

Read more of our Microphone Month coverage.

 

The post Our Favorite Mics: Anabella Poland, WMSC(FM) appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page: El Dorado Broadcasters chose RadioFX Inc. as its mobile app partner.

El Dorado owns 10 radio stations in Victor Valley, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., and has launched a mobile app platform for all of its station brands. Apps are available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store both under individual brands and aggregated under the El Dorado Broadcasters banner.

The announcement was made by Mark Mitchell, VP of programming, who said listeners will be able to access station streams, while the stations will be able to do in-app contesting, audience polling and a chat function with on-air staff.

In the announcement, EVP/GM Chris Fleming was quoted: “Mobile is of primary importance as it is ubiquitous. Of almost equal importance is having the interface with Android Auto and Apple Car Play, making our brands part of the in dash experience.”

Submit news to Who’s Buying What at radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post RadioFX Provides Apps to El Dorado appeared first on Radio World.

An FM station is facing a $3,000 forfeiture for allegedly failing to file a license renewal application on time.

The Audio Division of the Media Bureau issued the forfeiture to Jones Communications, licensee of WVFG(FM) in Uniontown, Ala. Federal Communications Commission rules say that license renewal applications must be filed by the first day of the fourth full calendar month prior to the expiration of the license. In WVFG’s case, that means that the renewal application should have been filed by Dec. 2, 2019, since the station’s license expired on April 1, 2020. The FCC said that the application was not filed until Feb. 10, 2020 and the licensee provided no explanation for the delay.

[Read: Four Stations Receive Forfeitures for Same Alleged Violation: Late Filings]

The bureau reached out to Jones in February with an initial notice and gave the licensee 30 days to pay the full amount or file a written statement seeking reduction or cancellation of the proposed forfeiture. As of June 11, the bureau said the licensee has neither paid the proposed forfeiture or filed a written statement in response to the notice.

In assessing forfeitures, the FCC looks at the Communications Act of 1934 to determine the nature, circumstances and gravity of the violation. As a result, the commission said that the licensee owed $3,000.

 

The post FCC Says FM Station Willfully Violated Rules appeared first on Radio World.

In a world … full … of microphones …

When I type that sentence I hear famed voice-over guy Don LaFontaine saying the words with his golden tones.

Although the world seems full of mics — and new ones coming all the time in the age of the podcast — not all mics are created equal. One size rarely fits all.

With podcasts flourishing and home studios proliferating, a lot of new mics are marketed as “voice mics” or as intended for “podcasting and broadcasting.” Some are very good, others may disappoint radio people who have come to expect certain quality.

[Related: “Today’s Microphones Offer a Buffet of Choices”]

In recent decades radio, or at least commercial U.S. radio, has tended to gravitate to a few very good models for studio work. For instance, the Electro-Voice RE20 (and its siblings the RE27ND and RE320) are common, as is the Shure SM7 and its variants, Sennheiser MD421-II, Heil Sound PR40 and a few others. You sometimes see Neumanns in radio studios and production rooms as well.

For voice work, it’s not uncommon to see a shotgun mic like Sennheiser’s MKH 416 being used, despite the original intention of that style for capturing distant sound. A user must know what they’re doing to use it for proximity voiceover situations.

Recently, decent USB microphones have hit the streets, and some are variations of mics we know and like, such as the USB version of the Shure SM7, called the MV7.

I’ve used a few other USB mics along the way for traveling (when a last-minute voice job comes in), and they work well in a pinch. Examples are Samson mics like the Satellite, the numerous Blue mic models and Audio-Technica’s 2020 USB.

Though it’s not common, a few manufacturers have combined USB and XLR connections into one microphone such as Audio-Technica’s ATR-2100 handheld.

The Audio-Technica ATR2100 is a dual USB/XLR microphone.

As I’ve explored these mics for my own voiceover work, I tend to go back to two mics depending on the job: the EV RE320 and the Sennheiser MKE 600 shotgun, which is more affordable than its cousin the MKH 416.

These are not USB, they have standard XLR connections. If you are married to XLR favorites, carry a XLR/USB adapter with you.

One important consideration is that USB connections are not nearly as durable or “repairable” as an XLR connection.

A different approach is to use a utility XLR-input mixer with a USB port, such as a Mackie ProFX, to get audio into your computer. The biggest advantage of this over an adapter or cable is the ability to take multiple mics (or outboard equipment) into the computer over one connection. The disadvantage is that this system is far less portable if your idea is to make the system portable and/or very simple to connect.

Rode Podcaster Pro

If you have the budget, there are excellent feature-packed dedicated mixers designed to be USB interfaces. A notable example is the Rode Podcaster Pro with multiple XLR inputs, mic processing, built-in recorder, quick-player pad and multiple headset jacks.

Not to be forgotten are the desktop audio interfaces for getting XLR-sourced audio into a computer. As with microphones, there has been a wave of desktop digital audio converters at all sorts of price and feature points on the retail market. An examination of those would be an article in of itself.

Making Choices

As always, it’s advisable to demo a mic before buying. To narrow prospects, the internet can provide a wealth of information and helpful videos.

The website Podcastage, for example, has a video in which the host compares no fewer than 14 dynamic broadcast mics from EV, Shure, Rode, Audio-Technica, MXL, Golden Age, Heil, Neumann, Aston, Telefunken and ART.

It’s comprehensive (though the way he stacks the mics in his arms at the beginning made me cringe).

Keep in mind that asking someone which mic is best is a pretty subjective question. Voices, rooms, hardware and any processing vary so if you are tailoring the mic for one particular person or situation, that will have an impact on which one to choose.

[Read more of our Microphone Month coverage.]

>>>

Mic Sampler

Here’s a list of mics on the market for podcasting and radio work; by no means is this a complete list. Prices are MSRP. Important: Veteran shoppers know that most popular mic models are usually sold at a good discount from dealers, so shop around.

ART D7 — $269

Aston Stealth — $379

Audio-Technica AT2020 — $99

Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ — $149

Audio-Technica BP40 — $349

Blue BluebirdSL — $299

Blue Snowball iCE — $49.99

Blue Yeti — $129.99

Electro-Voice RE20 — $609

Electro-Voice RE27N/D — $700

Electro-Voice RE320 — $337

Golden Age Project D2 — $150

Heil Sound PR40 — $329

M-Audio Nova — $35

MXL V87 — $199.95

MXL 990 — $99.95

MXL BCD-1 — $149.95

Neumann BCM 705 — $849

Neumann TLM 103 — $1,349

Neumann U 87 Ai — $3,999

PreSonus PD-70 — $169.95

Rode PodMic — $150

Rode Procaster — $369

Rode NT1 Kit — $395

Samson Satellite — $148.99

SE Electronics V7 — $129

Sennheiser MD 421-II — $399.95

Sennheiser MD 441-U — $999

Shure SM58 — $124

Shure SM7B — $499

Shure MV7 USB — $311

Telefunken M82 — $459

Zoom ZDM-1 — $79.99

>>>

XLR to USB XLR-to-USB adapters from Polsen, Shure, Roland and Senai.

If you just can’t leave your XLR microphone behind try an XLR-to-USB adapter:

Polsen XLR-USB-48 XLR to SUB adapter — $51.95

Roland Black Series USB to XLR Cable — $35.99

Senal XU-1648 XLR to USB adapter — $123.95

Shure X2u XLR to USB adapter — $99

 

The post Pondering Microphone Choices in 2021 appeared first on Radio World.

I’m tired of thinking about hackers. I’m tired of maintaining a sophisticated stateful proxy firewall at home. This is almost surely on top of whatever threat mitigation is employed by my internet service provider Comcast.

Even basic firewalls (including the one on your computer) limit the connectivity to a handful of well-known ports and protocols for inbound traffic. That’s a lot of barbed wire fences to climb over.

My firewall (pfSense — free for non-com use, runs on Berkeley Linux) even blocks DNS resolution from URLs on several lists like www.spamhaus.org, feds.dshield.org and a list of lists at www.iblocklist.com. Makes loading exploit code harder. I presume most consolidated IT departments employ similar tools.

Still, stuff happens.

Easy pickings

The reason this keeps happening is that the rewards for successful hacking and the ease with which thousands of exposed attack surfaces can be scanned quickly makes it trivial to pick the low-hanging fruit of misconfiguration. If only 2% of victims pay the ransom, so what? It’s still a bonanza.

Users at home might pay a hundred bucks or so to restore their files. A hospital might be good for a hundred thousand. Meanwhile the software tools to make this mischief are available for sale or rent.

Literally, there’s malware software as a service. Bitcoin makes collecting ransom anonymous.

So, lacking any true bulletproof software solution, I’m now exploring the kinds of firewall hardware that no amount of probing can circumvent. I’ve arrived at a solution that I think gets the job done, at least as far as the truly malicious software offerings are concerned.

For online banking, where I do not enjoy the protection of the $50 limit on credit card fraud, it’s now a machine that is connected only when I am online. Literally, the first order of business is to enable the wired IP interface. It gets disabled when I’m done. Any old hunk of junk will do for this application.

This strategy relies on the presumption that network mapping is a prerequisite to successful attacks, and a machine they can’t see is unlikely to be vulnerable.

Elsewhere, whole machine backups made to a USB-connected drive pass through an external USB hub. One of my Raspberry Pi timers (described in an earlier column) connects and disconnects the USB hub power on a schedule.

Yes, exploring the machine that is backed up using this scheme will reveal a Windows backup schedule and the path to the actual backup but no access. Let ’em wonder how that can be.

K.I.S.S.

And so that’s where I’m headed for low-cost, low-tech solutions for the automation network at the radio station.

Like most places, we require internet connectivity to pull down paid content, news, weather and such. There’s no avoiding exposure. But I think a custom “jump box” will solve the problem.

It’ll be built as an FTP device, reaching out via scripting to harvest needed files, placing them in a quarantine, running them through anti-whatever, then dropping them into an “outbox” for pickup by the automation system’s loading tools.

Finally, once the key features are up and working, I’ll burn the entire boot partition to a DVD and boot from that. Reboot every 24 hours.

For script storage and the anti-whatever database, a thumb drive with an external write protect switch seems obvious; maybe something like this. You get the idea.

Think like a hacker. Create impenetrable physical barriers for him. Presume you’ll be infected and flush their effort before it is productive. Given the target-rich environment, I believe it’ll work like those alarm company stickers on your window. The bad guys will just move on.

Finally, I am no longer a fan of unified, company-wide systems for authentication like Active Directory.

The recent zerologon attack put a lot of AD users in the ditch. Essentially, one try in 256 would authenticate a password of all zeros. A glitch in the code, it seems.

These systems are robust until they aren’t and, unfortunately, can be bought and set up by anybody. De-compilers allow a view into the binaries, and any vulnerabilities will be found by bad guys.

Sadly, response from software vendors to even hacks they’ve been made aware of can be slow. Understandable, I suppose, since hundreds of supposed vulnerabilities are reported for every one that is actually viable. Everybody wants to be a hero. But sorting the real problem from all the chaff reported is time consuming.

Often, posting actual exploit code as a proof of concept is the only way to get a vendor’s attention. That’s what it took for the zerologon hack. And the bad guys have plenty of money to buy a version of every software product and every appliance out there, then reverse engineer it all. So it’s a losing battle.

On the other hand, a machine that is unplugged is a pretty tough hacking target. And a machine that boots fresh daily from read only media is going to be pretty challenging for a hacker, too.

Finally, when machines need updates, let ’em access the public internet for only the time required, then cut them off.

Turns out old ideas can apply to new environments. Want to prevent a mishap? Turn off the power, disengage, disconnect.

The author is chief engineer of Salem Communications’ Chicago cluster and president of the consultancy FM and Co.

The post Old Ideas for a New Threat Environment appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters has presented its 2021 Radio Engineering Achievement Award to David Hershberger. The veteran engineer retired as senior scientist with Continental Electronics in 2017.

NAB describes Hershberger as a “true renaissance broadcast engineer” with over four decades of experience.

Hershberger, a graduate of University of Illinois with a master’s in electrical engineering, joined the broadcast group at Harris Broadcast in 1975 designing and refining broadcast transmission products. In addition, he served in various engineering roles at Grass Valley Group and Axcera.

[Read: NAB Foundation Will Honor Lin-Manuel Miranda]

Hershberger focused primarily on exciters and modulators for FM transmitters, and low-level signal processing, and is credited with co-developing the world’s first digital FM exciter as an experimental prototype, according to a NAB press release announcing the award. He holds 21 U.S. patents.

“Among many people who have helped me along the way I want to thank Geoff Mendenhall (a former co-worker at Harris), who showed me how to turn ideas in products. And Dan Dickey (president of Continental Electronics) gave me the best advice of my career, and that was to learn math lab. I’m glad I did,” Hershberger said during today’s online awards presentation.

NAB engineering award winners are nominated by their peers for significant contributions for advancing the state of the art in broadcast engineering. Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer of NAB, hosted the NAB Amplify streaming event, which also featured keynote conversation with Mike Chapman, a partner and Americas Media Lead at Kearney, a management consulting firm specializing in corporate and growth strategy and business transformation.

NAB presents two engineering achievement awards each year — one for achievements in radio and the other for television. Dave Folsom of Pearl TV was named recipient of the 2021 NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Television.

The NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering Award is presented periodically to individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the industry. Today NAB announced Grady Dreasler, corporate director of engineering and technology at Quincy Media, as recipient of its 2021 service award recipient.

In addition, the broadcaster association also presented its Digital Leadership Award during today’s Amplify presentation to Adam Wiener, executive VP and GM of CBS Local Digital Media.

 

The post Hershberger Honored With 2021 NAB Engineering Award appeared first on Radio World.

Clyde Scott, a broadcast engineer and consultant, has died at age 70.

According to his obituary, he passed away Tuesday in Georgia.

Scott was the owner-operator of technical consulting firm EME Communications. “He was well-known throughout the southeastern United States for troubleshooting radio transmitter issues,” the obituary states. “He was sought after to research and file new applications and worked closely with the FCC attorneys in Washington, D.C.”

He also was active in amateur radio (W4CCS) and established the online station Bluegrassradio.org as well as low-power FM station WLOV, Colquitt Community Radio, in Moultrie, Ga.

His friend Robert Combs, director of engineering at Cumulus Media, told Radio World that Clyde Scott graduated from the University of Tennessee with an electrical engineering degree. His first job was as a transmitter site engineer at WSB(AM) in Atlanta.

“Besides working in radio, he worked at a Procter & Gamble plant in the engineering department on the third shift so he could work on radio stations during the day,” Combs said.

“Clyde was the go-to engineer in southern Georgia and northern Florida when you needed help with filing paperwork with the FCC or if you need some troubleshooting help that required heavy equipment. He was the guy with all the test gear that was always willing to help,” Combs said.

“He was an avid ham operator and had three towers, a long-wire and satellite dish in his back yard for his hobby. He also enjoyed rebuilding 1940-era John Deere tractors.”

Combs called him a mentor and friend to many engineers who began their careers in the Southeast.

“Clyde took me, an overnight DJ in Bainbridge, Ga., under his wing and helped me with my career every step for the last 32 years,” Combs recalled.

“The funniest story he ever told me was of the time he and some fellow college students ‘accidentally’ connected the ground system of a small Tennessee AM station to a railroad track one Sunday morning and had the citizens of that town thinking it was God’s voice talking to them through every appliance, radio and TV in their house.”

 

The post Clyde Scott Dies, Well-Known Engineer in Southeast appeared first on Radio World.

An image from Sennheiser’s petition to the FCC, comparing traditional wireless mics and WMAS.

“When a new technology for wireless microphones comes along, it merits a close and careful look.”

That’s what Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said this spring in introducing a proposal to permit the use of Wireless Multi-Channel Audio Systems.

WMAS systems digitally combine multiple mic signals and use a more efficient operating protocol, which results in more mics being able to operate in the available spectrum. Sennheiser filed the original petition requesting the rule change, and other mic companies have given qualified support. Now the commission is taking comment via a notice of proposed rulemaking.

“These systems have the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of wireless microphone operations,” Rosenworcel wrote in April. “So much so, that under the rules we propose here, three times as many microphones may be able to operate while putting the same amount of power over the air as a single wireless microphone does under our rules today.”

She noted that wireless mics are “ubiquitous,” from Broadway productions and small-town theaters to film sets, churches, stadiums and schools. “These airwaves are shared with a range of other wireless services, including broadcasting, aeronautical activities, Wi-Fi and unlicensed operations that use white spaces to expand the availability of broadband. Making sure all of these services can function at the same time without interference is a significant task.”

In 2018 Sennheiser filed a petition asking the commission to allow this use. “WMAS approximately doubles the capacity of a 6 MHz channel for wireless microphones that deliver the best audio quality, and triples the capacity for intercom quality,” it told the FCC then. “Most productions use a mix of device types, and will see improvement between these extremes (and will occupy fewer channels overall).”

Shure subsequently weighed in with support for an NPRM and suggestions of its own for how to go about it, as did Alteros, part of Audio-Technica. Among points of difference are how many mics they think should be allowed per 6 MHz WMAS channel.

The NPRM asks for public comment on allowing WMAS on a licensed basis in frequency bands where wireless mics already are authorized, including the TV bands, the 600 MHz duplex gap and in portions of the 900 MHz, 1.4 GHz and 7 GHz bands. It also explores using the technology on an unlicensed basis under Part 15.

The FCC noted that the technology is permitted in Europe under European Telecommunications Standards Institute standards.

“We do not intend to alter the existing spectrum rights — or expectations regarding access and availability of spectrum — vis-à-vis all the various authorized users, whether broadcast licensees, white space device users, the wireless microphone users themselves, or others, that share frequency bands with wireless microphones,” the commission stated.

Comment deadlines have not yet been set in ET Docket 21-115; they await publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register.

[Read the NPRM text.]

 

The post FCC Explores More Efficient Wireless Mic Systems appeared first on Radio World.

Cumulus Media named Jeff Boden as vice president/market manager of its operation in Washington, D.C., which includes WMAL(FM) and WSBN(AM).

He succeeds the late Ken Roberts, who died in April.

Boden is the former VP and market manager for Alpha Media’s four-station group down I-95 in Fredericksburg, Va., and former president of Delmarva Broadcasting in Wilmington, Del.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

“The Cumulus appointment is a homecoming for Boden, who was president/general manager for Washington, D.C. stations WRQX, WMAL and WJZW from 2005 to 2012, when the stations were owned and operated by ABC Radio and later, Citadel Broadcasting,” the company stated. Boden has additional D.C. roots, having graduated from The American University.

The announcement was made by EVP Operations Dave Milner.

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Boden Will Run Cumulus D.C. Cluster appeared first on Radio World.

RF equipment manufacturer ERI posted this pic on LinkedIn, showing work being done for the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, which has a project to increase the effective radiated power of KNWI(FM) to 100 kW.

As we told you earlier, the station, which serves Des Moines, Iowa, on 107.1 MHz, currently operates at 30 kW at 630 feet above ground level but is getting an upgrade.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

The stub for the new 995-foot tower was set recently, and the erection should be completed before the end of July, according to the ERI post. And it’s going to support a big antenna.

“The tower includes a free-standing 100-foot, 48-inch face, ERI Lambda Optimized FM Mounting System that will support KNWI’s new 10-bay High-Power Rototiller FM antenna,” ERI wrote.

ERI is managing the project; the erection is subcontracted to Tower King II.

Northwestern Media is using a Nautel GV30DN transmitter and HD MultiCast+ Importer/Exporter. It will feed a translator in downtown Des Moines and provide HD programming of its Faith Radio talk and teaching format to the Des Moines market, according to an earlier announcement from Nautel.

The project also includes a Slatercom/Dialight LED High/Medium Intensity lighting system.

Suppliers and users are invited to submit their project news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post KNWI’s New Stick Is Going Up appeared first on Radio World.

Paid audio services have become a way of life for many Americans. Will more radio companies participate in the boom?

New data this week from Edison Research indicates that almost half — 47% — of us now subscribe to at least one such service. “This number is just over double what it was in 2015, when 23% had a paid subscription,” the company stated. It found that growth includes services like Spotify Premium, Apple Music, Pandora Premium or Plus, SiriusXM Satellite Radio and Audible.

[Read: Survey Says Full Speed Ahead for Mobile Devices and Apps]

Edison President Larry Rosin expects to see more such offerings, “particularly from radio companies.”

“While much of this doubling of the numbers is the redirection of money that was going to physical music formats to music streaming subscriptions, there is also the trend of more people paying to avoid commercials,” he said.

He noted that the U.K.’s Bauer Media launched a subscription radio service that offers commercial-free versions of their radio brands. “I would think such efforts are likely to be launched in the U.S. as well.”

 

The post Paid Audio Services Boom in U.S. appeared first on Radio World.

A screenshot of a cell phone shows actual emergency messages on Jan. 13, 2018 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The background is a composite. (Screen image: Eugene Tanner AFP via Getty Images)

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted several changes to its rules for emergency alerting in the United States.

This order makes the changes we described in our recent story “Changes Coming in National Alerting.”

On the mobile phone side of things, the FCC doesn’t want people to opt out of receiving critical information, so it has combined the existing “Presidential Alerts” category, which is non-optional on devices that receive Wireless Emergency Alerts, with alerts from the FEMA administrator to create a new non-optional alert class called “National Alerts.”

On the EAS front, the commission is requiring State Emergency Communications Committees to meet at least annually and submit plans for FCC approval. Also it is encouraging states to review the composition and governance of their SECCs (or to form a committee one, if one doesn’t exist).

The FCC also plans to provide a checklist of information that should be included in annual state Emergency Alert System plans, and will tighten up its process for reviewing those plans. (We’ll report on that when the full order text is available but you can read the draft order that was released ahead of the meeting.)

The order also specifies that government agencies may report false emergency alerts to the FCC’s 24/7 Operations Center. And it clarifies how alert originators can repeat their alert transmissions.

Congress had instructed the FCC to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to adopt such rules.

“When alerts work well, we get the facts we require in an emergency,” said Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement. “But when they fail, they can cause fear and confusion and even panic.” She cited the 2018 incident when people in Hawaii got an emergency alert warning of a ballistic missile threat and were told “This is not a drill.”

Rosenworcel said the Hawaii incident led her to call for a system for reporting false alerts “so we can learn from our errors going forward,” and to urge the use of state emergency communications plans to promote best practices.

“This is progress. But there is still more to do,” she continued. “So today we are kicking off a rulemaking to discuss additional ways we can improve alerting, based on recommendations from our colleagues at FEMA.”

She also made note of the nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts that is scheduled for August.

The post Emergency Alert Changes Pass FCC appeared first on Radio World.

Bertrand poses with his vintage Electro-Voice 664, a model he actively used as a kid, learning live sound reinforcement at his church when he was young. Reunited with it by an eBay impulse buy, it graces many of his Zoom calls as a background prop.

This is one in a series of interviews with people who work in and around radio about the kinds of mics they love and why.

Rob Bertrand is senior director of technology for WAMU 88.5 in Washington.

Radio World: What is your personal favorite for radio on-air work, and what sets it apart for you? 

Rob Bertrand: The Shure SM7B is one of the most versatile microphones out there that is hard to make sound bad. Its low-level output corrects for so many room distortions and background noise issues and it has a great balance of simultaneously sounding warm and crisp.

We use the Neumann BCM 104 in our host positions when we’re in the studio because it sounds consistent alongside the higher-end condensers found throughout NPR programming.

There is no presence effect so it is very forgiving of hosts who tend to operate from quite a distance of the microphone, however, it does require a very quiet studio to sound clean.

RW: What about remote work or other specialty applications?

Bertrand: We’re using a lot of SM7Bs in home setups right now, sometimes with external mic pres, because they are so forgiving of their environment. The SM58 is always a solid go-to for on-air and live usage.

Bertrand loves the long-handled version of the Shure SM63 for field interviews.

My interview favorite will always be the Shure SM63LB.

RW: For someone making a microphone decision, any tips to share or common misconceptions to dispel?

Bertrand: Start simple. Use your ears. Be clear for yourself about what you’re trying to achieve, then go out and get different opinions.

In trying to find a new standard field reporter microphone for WCBS in the mid-2000s, I ordered about a dozen different handheld mics. I went out to different environments throughout New York City and recorded with them, wanting to find a nice presence for the subject but sensitive enough to provide reasonable nat sound.

We eventually landed on the SM63LB, which despite being omnidirectional, sounds great when used up close in an interview, with little-to-no handling noise. It gave WCBS a nice kick to its long-time field sound, enabled us to roll out a consistent mic, and gave the reporters an easy tool for recording better audio in the field.

As we deployed digital recorders and laptops, this enabled the station to provide a whole new level of rich audio to its listeners — whether listening on AM, HD, or streaming.

In my public radio life today, we have the time and ability to use more resources and a wider variety of microphones to deliver that polish, but I’ll always remember working with a team of reporters and news management to make that decision about the singular SM63LB for our reporters. I think it’s what they are still using today and it was a team decision based entirely on listening tests.

I think you want something that’s easy to use, holds up to the abuse of daily life, and is versatile in different situations. Marketing materials can help set you in the right direction, but you’ve really got to do the work of testing and listening to know for sure what sound you are crafting.

Read more of Radio World’s coverage of microphones.

The post My Favorite Mics: Rob Bertrand appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. radio audiences continue to grow back toward where they were when the pandemic took off.

Nielsen Audio announced this morning, “The May 2021 PPM survey saw yet another month of gains in radio listening across the aggregate of markets as America continues to reopen and consumers return to pre-pandemic routines.”

The research company said radio’s weekly reach is at its highest levels since March 2020 and has been growing for the past four months.

“In May 2021, radio’s weekly reach surpassed 122 million weekly listeners, within 2 million of where it was before the lockdown precautions took effect last year.”

Average Quarter-Hour (AQH) audience in May also saw its highest levels since March 2020, though again not quite back to where it was.

“AQH audience levels have increased 11 percent since January as vaccinations have rolled out, leading to a gradual return to pre-pandemic routines including dining out, traveling and more normal commutes.”

The company says that from a weekly reach perspective, “the radio audience in May 2021 is 8% larger than the same month from one year ago, while for AQH the audience is now 20% larger than May of 2020.” May listening gains were spread across dayparts.

As for trends within formats, Nielsen Audio said it sees familiar seasonal listening patterns “corresponding with the shift towards summer.” Formats on the upside include classic hits, Hot AC and all-sports.

The post Nielsen Has Good News in May Numbers appeared first on Radio World.

KRK Classic 8

Speaker Specialist KRK has announced the addition of two monitors to its Classic line.

Classic 7 and Classic 8 (pictured) join smaller sibling Classic 5.

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

The two new monitors match the Classic 5 in most features — biamplified with A/B amplifiers, one-inch soft dome tweeters, bass boost, high- and low-frequency controls, passive front-firing bass port, XLR, 1/4-inch and RCA connections.

The nominal difference between the two is the 7- and 8-inch KRK yellow glass aramid fiber woofers, respectively. The Classic 7 uses a 48W woofer amplifier and a 25W tweeter amp while the Classic 8 uses a 75W bass amp with the 25W tweeter amplifier.

Info: www.krkmusic.com

The post KRK Adds to Speaker Line appeared first on Radio World.

NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, has announced the hiring of Kathy Stieler as the director of Safety, Health & Compliance.

It is a new position and she starts immediately.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Stieler has been in similar positions in a variety of related industries over many decades, including, most recently, director, ERI Installations and Safety since 2012.

According to a release, “Stieler will be tasked with directing, developing and overseeing the general health and safety policies and procedures of the association to ensure its safety materials and best practices documents are in compliance with OSHA and other applicable state and local regulations and standards.”

In addition, she “will also be available to provide technical subject matter expertise to the association’s member companies, as well as helping these businesses navigate the oftentimes onerous compliance onboarding process.”

NATE Chairman Jimmy Miller said, “Through the establishment of this director of Safety, Health & Compliance position, NATE is doubling down on safety and investing directly into our growing membership of companies. Kathy will be a tremendous asset and I encourage member companies to leverage her expertise to enhance their respective safety cultures.”

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Kathy Stieler Joins NATE appeared first on Radio World.