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Wearing its “world’s largest podcast publisher” hat, iHeartMedia has launched something it describes as unique. It’s a “Private Marketplace” to offer advertisers a programmatic buying way to reach listeners to podcasts in the iHeartPodcast Network.

The system was developed through Voxnest, which iHeart acquired last fall.

Brian Kaminsky, chief data officer and president of revenue strategies, said the goal of that purchase was to let iHeart give podcast advertisers “additional targetable inventory at scale.” The company said in its announcement that the iHeartPodcast Network offers “30 million US monthly uniques and 257 million global downloads and streams.”

The technology will let advertisers create their own “marketplaces” consisting of specific audience targets and pricing, “to dial up and down across each year as their marketing needs require.”

Those advertisers will have on three targeting options: Category, Geolocation and Psychographic.

“Categories” include business and finance, TV and film, music, true crime and so on, while “Geolocation” promises to deliver relevant messaging to a specific region.

“Psychographic” lets an advertiser buy into shows that “speak to specific consumer behaviors like the conqueror, explorer, legend, cultivator, decider, thriver, rising star, advocate, backer and intrepid.”

Buyers will be able to choose multiple deal types including Programmatic Guaranteed (PG), Preferred Deal (PD), Private Auction (PA) and Open Marketplace (OMP).

In 2016 iHeart launched a “programmatic private marketplace for digital radio” in an announcement with AdsWizz.

The post iHeart Launches “Private Marketplace” for Podcasts appeared first on Radio World.

Al Kenyon

Al Kenyon has a couple of suggestions of his own for the Federal Communications Commission regarding the Emergency Alert System — specifically involving EAS Originator and Event Codes.

He is intimately familiar with the topic as chief of FEMA’s IPAWS Customer Support Branch; but he emphasized that he was making his suggestions as an individual, not speaking for FEMA. He thinks the suggestions will improve public-facing EAS messaging without significant additional costs to industry or the alerting community.

[“FCC Releases Details of EAS Proposal”]

Kenyon filed comments in the FCC’s notice of public rulemaking regarding changes to the nation’s alerting systems.

He says originator codes need to make clear who or what organization originated the message. He also would like to see the addition of a Domestic Terrorism Event code.

First, he noted that two of the four currently authorized EAS originator codes convey descriptive information regarding who originated the alert.

“WXR and CIV indicate that the message originator was the National Weather Service or a Civil Authority, respectively. The third originator code, EAS, was commonly and interchangeably used with CIV when broadcast stations were always manned during operation and key local primary stations were expected to originate EAS messages at the request of local officials.” But he said that is no longer the case. “Use of the ‘EAS’ ORG code is now limited to use in conjunction with EAS Participant-originated RWT and RMT test messages.

“The fourth originator code was not based on the originating office or official but rather on the name of the top-level national EAS dissemination system, the Primary Entry Point system, ‘PEP.’ This collection of stations and facilities is now referred to by FEMA as the National Public Warning System or NPWS.”

But Kenyon noted that the PEP is not an originator, it is a message dissemination system.

“An EAS message scroll that begins with ‘The Primary Entry Point System has issued an …’ has little or no meaning to the general public and can only contribute to general confusion,” he said. “For the benefit of the public, originator codes should reflect who or what organization originated the message, not what collection of technical facilities were enlisted for top level dissemination of the message.”

Kenyon recommended that the FCC consider a replacement organization code such as FEO, for Federal Executive Official, or a similar alternative. He said this would be compatible the idea of renaming the current WEA Presidential Alert to allow for common use of that category by the president or by the FEMA administrator, as laid out by Congress in the legislation that prompted the current NPRM.

Second, “Regarding possible additions to EAS Event Codes, I ask the commission to consider authorizing a new Event Code for use in urgent instant action situations such as a radiation hazard caused by detonation of a ‘dirty’ bomb or improvised nuclear device,” Kenyon continued.

“While discussion of such hopefully unlikely events may be both unpopular and unpleasant, should such an event occur, it will be essential to the public health and welfare that people take shelter immediately. (That means Mommy should not get in a car and drive to little Timmy’s school. Little Timmy will be sheltering in place in school. Both Mommy and Timmy will be much better off if Mommy does not risk exposure during the period of greatest hazard immediately following the event.)”

For such a case Kenyon proposes adding a Domestic Terrorism Event, DTE, or similar event code. “Ideally a DTE Event Code would be a must-carry event similar in required retransmission status to an Emergency Action Notification. Presumably, such status could be granted through presidential delegation of authority to an appropriate fast response agency or organization.”

He closed his filing by saying that he doesn’t realistically expect the FCC to act on the proposed additional Event Code in the current proceeding. “But I would be remiss if I did not get this recommendation on the record now before the ebb and flow of international relations and splinter factions reaches a point where this becomes an imminent concern.”

Kenyon is a former engineering executive or chief engineer with broadcast companies Clear Channel, Jacor and Taft. He also has done significant volunteer work with EBS and EAS committees at various levels from local to national. He also worked for Denny & Associates, ManTech and Five Rivers Services before joining FEMA in 2010. In 2017 he was named IPAWS Customer Support Branch Chief.

The post Kenyon Says Make EAS Originator Codes Clearer appeared first on Radio World.

Radio and TV broadcast antenna and RF support equipment maker Dielectric has appointed Dan Glavin as its new western region sales manager. He succeeds Steve Moreen.

Glavin will be responsible for sales west of the Mississippi River. He’ll report to Vice President of Sales Jay Martin.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

According to a release, Glavin started with the company in 2018 as an electrical engineer and expanded that job with outstanding performance. Martin pointed to that in the selection of Glavin for the job. “The ability to identify product requirements and respond in a technical capacity is key to this position, and Dan’s level of problem-solving expertise is rare among field sales,” said Martin. It is also noted that he is fluent in Spanish.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Dielectric’s Glavin Goes West appeared first on Radio World.

HHB headquarters in London

HHB Communications is now the primary distributor for Comrex in the United Kingdom.

“The strength of HHB’s reseller relationships in the UK, Scotland and Ireland and their focus on

customer service make them an exceptional choice to distribute Comrex products,” said Comrex Sales Director Chris Crump in the announcement, made jointly with HHB Head of Sales Matthew Fletcher.

Comrex was incorporated in 1961 and is known for its audio and video codecs, telco interfaces and related products.

[Read more of our recent coverage of Comrex news and products.]

HHB Communications was founded in 1976 and serves pro audio solutions to broadcasters, recording studios, post facilities, and system integrators. Consultation, training and installation are among its services.

 

The post Comrex Names HHB Its Primary UK Distributor appeared first on Radio World.

Group One Ltd. named James Tunnicliffe as technical support engineer for Calrec products in the United States.

He will be based in Newark, N.J., and report to CEO Jack Kelly and Group One Vice President of Broadcast and Production Chris Fichera.

“In his new role, he will be responsible for providing phone- and IP-based product troubleshooting and repair coordination, onsite service and maintenance calls, system design assistance and trainings, and liaising with Calrec’s headquarters in Hebden Bridge, England,” the company said.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Group One Ltd. is a U.S. importer and distributor for professional audio and lighting manufacturers including Calrec, whose products include radio consoles.

Tunnicliffe is a former Studer applications specialist with Harman Pro North America and also worked as a field service engineer and product specialist for Euphonix. Prior to those roles he was with Design FX Audio in Burbank and Westlake Audio in Hollywood.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

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Aug. 11 will be the date of the first national EAS test since before the pandemic began.

Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency officially informed the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday that it plans its sixth national EAS test on that day. They also plan to conduct a nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test concurrently.

As in the past, FEMA set a backup date in case a national test on Aug. 11 might interfere with actual alerting needs in the country around that time. The backup is Aug. 25.

Al Kenyon, chief of the Customer Support Branch of the IPAWS Program Office, wrote to the FCC that FEMA plans to conduct the Aug. 11 test at 2:20 p.m. EDT (18:20 GMT).

[Read: FCC Releases Results of 2019 National EAS Test]

“The test message will use the National Periodic Test (NPT) event code and be geo-targeted using the All-US (000000) geocode,” Kenyon wrote.

“This year FEMA proposes to originate the EAS portion of the test via the National Public Warning System composed of the FEMA designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) facilities. The intent of conducting the test in this fashion is to determine the capability of the Emergency Alert System to deliver messages to the public in event that dissemination via internet is not available.”

In the most recent national test in 2019, several PEPs did not transmit the alert due to varying degrees of equipment failures. Out of 77 PEP stations, 12 experienced technical issues on test day, according to a post-test FCC report.

Kenyon said that in the upcoming test, full message text and multilingual messaging will not be available due to the over-the-air message delivery and relay used in this system of EAS message dissemination.

“As in past years the national EAS test message will look and sound very much like the regular Required Monthly Test (RMT) messages broadcast every month by all EAS Participants, broadcast radio and television, cable, wireline service providers and direct broadcast satellite service providers,” he continued.

“Concurrent with the proposed 2021 National EAS Test, FEMA also proposes to originate a Nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test by originating a WEA message using the WEA test handling code targeting only cellphones where the user has opted-in to receive WEA test messages.”

An FCC analysis of the 2019 test found that 82% of radio stations participated that year.

While that test generally was deemed a success, the FCC said in its post-test report that some challenges impeded the ability of some EAS participants to receive and/or retransmit the NPT.

Some participants reported problems with equipment configuration, audio quality, alerting source problems and clock errors, among other issues. More than 2,530 test participants didn’t receive the test at all.

Other issues in 2019 included audio issues, power issues, signal issues, internet issues and even lightning — 20 participants reported issues caused by bolts of electricity.

Also, several State Emergency Communications Committees reported that certain areas of their states did not receive the alert. SECCs in Florida, Michigan and Georgia reported delivery problems to the Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations. The FCC also received reports of smaller-scale monitoring source issues in parts of several other states.

 

The post Aug. 11 Is the Next National EAS Test appeared first on Radio World.

A RadioDNS service converts broadcast parameters to internet domains, as noted in this slide from the webinar.

Big Tech is coming after automotive dashboards to win the ears and eyes of drivers/passengers; and radio’s best chance to survive this attack is to get hybrid radio into cars/trucks fast.

This “call to action” was expressed repeatedly during a recent webinar hosted by WorldDAB and the European Broadcasting Union.

“DAB+ at the Heart of Hybrid” delved into advances being made in hybrid radio technology by various companies and associations.

[Read: Broadcasters Conspiring in Their Own Demise]

Hybrid radio refers to platforms that combine over-the-air broadcast reception with two-way wireless connectivity.

The webinar focused on the role of hybrid radio in the DAB context, but themes of the conversation — threats from large digital competitors, the use of metadata, the future role of broadcast radio — are of interest globally.

Stark Warning
The presenters warned against allowing large digital competitors to take control of in-vehicle entertainment environments.

“When you look at what Big Tech can do and what they’ve (already) done in the app space — just look at Apple and Amazon and YouTube: They’re basically giving away audio content to aggregate an audience to basically monetize,” said Joe D’Angelo, Xperi’s senior vice president of radio.

“They’re stealing your audience by commoditizing an audio platform and audio service,” he said. “That’s the threat.”

Numerous topics were touched upon during a fast-moving two hours, thanks to the gentle but firm time management skills of moderator and WorldDAB Vice President Jacqueline Bierhorst.

Ben Poor, EBU’s project manager for digital radio, discussed the future of radio.

“We think that DAB can provide the best of broadcast,” said Poor. At the same time, “hybrid (radio) is the best way of creating a better user experience. So using broadcast plus IP makes for a range of new user experiences that are more engaging, that are more interesting, that are more dynamic, and that give the user more information and more value.”

RadioDNS Project Manager Nick Piggott explained the role of RadioDNS in creating open standards for hybrid radio, with an emphasis on the “open” part of the equation.

“The purpose of open standards is that they are durable,” Piggott said. “That means they last. They’re not anchored to the success of one company. And they’re interoperable, which gives you that huge scaling capability,” while reducing costs for broadcasters and manufacturers by only having one interface to support.

Radioplayer Director of Automotive Partnerships Laurence Harrison said, “We’ve got some experience in this area because we already powering approaching a million cars on roads today with hybrid radio and DAB+ at its heart. That’s through our collaboration partnership with Volkswagen Group and previously the fantastic team at Audi, which is now Car.Software Org.” Harrison noted that Radioplayer has recently formed a partnership with BMW Group, with Radioplayer’s hybrid radio solution going into BMW dashboards starting next year.

Added Andrea Heidrich, managing director of Radioplayer Austria: “Metadata is the key to the success of Radioplayer. Radioplayer ensures that only official station metadata provided directly by the broadcasters is used on car dashboards.”

Xperi’s Joe D’Angelo highlighted the features of his company’s DTS AutoStage hybrid radio system.

“This platform is open to all broadcasters,” said D’Angelo. “It’s free of charge. There’s no required investment. The data flows through the system ensuring that broadcasters are constantly in control of the end-user experience.”

The first carmaker success for DTS AutoStage was its adoption by Daimler last year.

Pluxbox CTO Cas Adriani titled his talk “A Brand Isn’t What You Say, It’s a Sum of All Experiences You Create.” He urged broadcasters to present the best visuals on hybrid radio screens.

“Your brand strategy is as strong as your weakest link,” said Adriani. “If people see your old logo or no logo at all in the station list, it’s hard for them to connect all the efforts you put in this advertisement for this important moment choosing the station.”

Finally, Radioline COO Xavier Filliol talked about his company’s hybrid radio efforts.

“Today what we provide is two hybrid radio applications,” he said. “One is HTML5-based: We presented it with Xperi last year at CES. And the other one is on (compatible with) the Android Automotive OS. We did it with Panasonic Automotive System Europe since last year in May.”

Panel Discussion
The webinar concluded with a presenters’ panel discussion on the merits of hybrid radio — that it uses the best of broadcast and IP to deliver a superior in-vehicle entertainment experience, doing so free from the influence of Big Tech.

“We need to make sure, as an industry, that we are working hard to keep radio prominent in that environment,” said Harrison of Radioplayer.

“The by-product of Big Tech’s involvement in the dashboard — and Android Automotive is a good example of this — is the dash becoming an app ecosystem … Hybrid radio is absolutely the platform on which we can build and innovate and create that radio experience that is going to keep radio exciting; keep it strong and keep it relevant.”

Radio isn’t alone in wanting to keep Google’s grip off the dashboard.

“Automakers are as leery of Big Tech as broadcasters are,” D’Angelo said. “That’s why we consider — and I think everyone would agree with this — that we’re in this space to provide a competitive response to Big Tech. … The whole reason we’re doing this is to provide control to broadcasters and provide an alternative to the car companies for how they can innovate around audio services.”

Will radio broadcasters and automakers be able to resist the incursion of Big Tech in the world’s dashboards? Will radio become “just another audio stream” in a vast catalog offered by Google and other Big Tech providers? The answer has yet to be written.

View the webinar “DAB+ at the Heart of Hybrid” on the WorldDAB YouTube channel.

 

The post Hybrid Described as Radio’s Best Chance appeared first on Radio World.

An image from the NATE Facebook page.

Wednesday is a day to appreciate the folks who work on your tower.

NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association has declared May 5 to be Tower Technician Appreciation Day “to pay tribute to the important work that communications infrastructure technicians conduct on a daily basis to enable a connected world.”

The proclamation highlights tower technicians for their skill sets, big responsibilities and demanding work environments.

[Read: NATE Shares Warning About a Honeywell Harness]

For example, it states: “Communications tower technicians have been designated by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as essential critical infrastructure workforce and are currently playing a heroic role on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic building, installing and maintaining America’s broadband infrastructure to accommodate the explosive demand for data and wireless services, thereby ensuring or enhancing reliable, high-speed networks.”

Read the full proclamation.

In the tower biz, a lot of attention is paid to work supporting 5G, broadband infrastructure and emergency alerting. But of course tower techs serve broadcasters as well.

Gordon Smith, the president/CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, joined in the appreciation.

“NAB salutes America’s tower technicians whose work is critical to the operation of broadcast radio and television stations. The particular skill set required, including working under dangerous conditions, is vitally important in preserving broadcasting’s uniquely local and resilient platform on which consumers and communities rely,” he said in a statement released by NATE.

The social media hashtag to use is #TowerTechAppreciationDay.

 

The post May 5 Is Tower Technician Appreciation Day appeared first on Radio World.

Audacity, the long-running open source, cross-platform audio editor, has been acquired by Muse Group. Founded in 1999, the free software program has been downloaded more than 100 million times to date.

In partnership with Audacity’s online open-source community, the new owners will be looking to expand the software’s feature set and update its ease of use. Dedicated designers and developers will be tasked to work on the software, but Audacity will remain free and open source, the new owner says.

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

Shepherding Audacity will be Martin Keary, recruited based on his efforts running MuseScore, an open-source music notation software that is also owned by Muse Group; Keary will oversee both brands. In a wide-ranging YouTube video detailing the history of Audacity, Keary noted that he will be interviewing users and creating online spaces to interact with those users in an effort to determine priorities and approaches to the program’s development going forward. Keary noted that the company will prepublish designs and updates so users can comment before widespread implementation, taking advantage of open source’s transparency.

Some early priorities as Audacity moves forward will be the addition of nondestructive, stackable VST effects, as well as user-experience updates with the aim of making features easier to find and use. In the video, other, more experimental ideas are suggested and teased, such as a 3D spectral editing prototype that, if developed, could possibly offer haptic spectral editing via a haptic glove. With these and other additions in mind, Muse Group will be looking to hire a number of senior developers and designers with experience in audio and music technology.

Audacity’s new parent company, Muse Group, is relatively new itself, having only opened its doors last week on April 26. Muse Group owns the brands Ultimate Guitar, MuseClass, ToneBridge and MuseScore, which together reach more than 350 million users in more than 60 countries. The company is led by chairman Eugeny Naidenov and CEO Michael Trutnev; Naidenov founded Ultimate Guitar in 1998. In total, Muse Group has more than 100 employees in a fully remote-working oriented workforce; the company is privately held with no investors or external shareholders.

The post Audacity Acquired by Muse Group appeared first on Radio World.

Sue Zizza will receive the Norman Corwin Award for Excellence in Audio Theatre for 2021.

The National Audio Theatre Festivals noted that Zizza has been “producing award-winning audio theater for radio, the web and commercial release for more than 40 years.” She has been a teacher of sound for radio, television and film starting at Hofstra University and continuing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

“Sue has worked in many ways as a promoter of the art of audio theatre, fostering connections between the radio drama world and the emerging arenas of audiobooks and podcasting,” NATF wrote. “Sound effects aficionada, director, teacher, producer, Sue’s wide-ranging talents have long qualified her for this distinction.

Zizza is also co-owner of Radio Waves Studios in New York. In 2019 she and her partner Dave Shinn produced a radio drama about Nikola Tesla in front of a live audience in the rooftop theater of a building where Tesla lived and conducted radio experiments more than a century earlier.

[Read: Watch Out! The “Phantom Power” Is Coming This Halloween Season]

NATF wrote in its email, “It is particularly meaningful to announce that this year’s award will go to someone who has contributed so much to this organization, as well as the industry itself.”

The award will be presented during the annual Hear Now Festival in June.

 

The post Zizza to Receive Corwin Award for Audio Theatre appeared first on Radio World.

Roger Lanctot

The author of this commentary is a director in the Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics.

Just a few years ago, Jacobs Media Strategies conducted a study for the National Association of Broadcasters identifying the critical shortcomings facing the broadcast industry in its management and delivery of metadata for its content and advertising.

Prior to the encroachment of the digital age and streaming, this didn’t seem like such a high priority.

To its credit, the NAB sought out Jacobs to conduct an audit of digital station content as rendered in automobiles to assess the varying levels of digitalization across the radio dial.

Conducted about four years ago, the Jacobs audit was carried out in three markets and found significant shortcomings in the availability and rendering of metadata in vehicle infotainment systems.

The mere fact that such a study would be conducted at all was clear validation and recognition of the primacy of in-vehicle radio listening.

Just as radios of all kinds — clock radios, boom boxes and Walkman-style portables — have all but vanished, automobiles have increasingly become a key focal point for consuming audio content, second only to smartphones.

Most estimates suggest that in-vehicle radio listening today accounts for 50 percent or more of all radio listening, at least in the U.S. This figure is generally seen as somewhat lower outside the U.S.

The NAB has long recognized the importance of car radio listening — especially after witnessing the rise of SiriusXM, which has built one of the world’s most successful and largest networks of subscribers almost entirely upon and through its relationship with auto makers. Rare is the automobile in the U.S. that doesn’t leave the factor or the dealer’s lot equipped with SiriusXM satellite radio.

The importance of the listening experience in the car is twofold. The listener in the car represents a captive audience — seatbelted in place and focused on the driving task. The infotainment system, previously known as the car radio, is the focal point for content consumption in an environment designed to mitigate distraction.

The big change that has thrust metadata to the forefront, though, is the reality that the “car radio” as we once knew it is gone. There is no radio dial. There is now an increasingly large digital display and a built-in wireless connection.

Now every infotainment system has become something of a “box of chocolates”, to borrow a line from Forrest Gump. No two infotainment systems are identical.

At the same time, Strategy Analytics research has shown that even though radio listening in the car is king, content consumption more broadly considered is increasingly fragmented. This experience is global and reflects the introduction of app-centric in-dash systems and smartphone mirroring.

The Jacobs Media audit highlighted the magnitude of the problem on the ground in cars on the road today.  Jacobs concluded:

• There is room for improvement.
• The display of radio station text and image information is generally inconsistent, creating a sub-optimal user experience.
• The radio industry needs a standardized approach.
• Dynamic vs. static information. Some stations provide a static environment for their content, while others use a dynamic approach and “scroll” or “chunk” information, creating a sub-optimal experience that can be harder to read.
• Album art for FM-band HD Radio stations. There is a lack of consistency in the use of display pictures and illustrations when music is playing.
• Case consistency. Some stations use all caps, while others blend in all caps for some items and title case for others.
• There is a lack of consistency during commercial breaks. There is no industry standard for showcasing advertisers during commercial breaks.
• Inconsistent use of available fields. (RDS systems have two available fields for content display. The Program Service (PS) field has both static and dynamic capabilities and is comprised of just eight characters. It typically resides at the top section of the dashboard display. The RadioText (RT) field is comprised of up to 64 characters and is typically on the lower portion of the dashboard display.)
• There are missed opportunities to showcase HD1 (main channel) stations, especially in the spoken word formats.
• HD multicast channels generally lack branding of any kind.
• Format designations need to be reviewed and expanded. Too often, the name of the format of the station is incorrect, or is simply listed as “Other.”

In its report, Jacobs Media highlighted these failures with images from in-dash displays.

Four years later a company, Quu, has emerged to directly engage with broadcasters to help overcome the overwhelming metadata shortfall that persists to this day.

This matters because in today’s in-dash systems the radio is no longer the default screen. Drivers and passengers have to search for the radio, and may not even recognize it when and if they find it.

Quu is directly taking on this challenge, as is Xperi.

The latter has emerged on the metadata scene — actually Xperi has been toiling for the past 15 years to stitch together the back-end infrastructure now capable of delivering what can only be described as radio-as-a-service, or RaaS.

Xperi’s Raas platform, DTS AutoStage, aggregates station, artist and genre information suitable for in-dash display clarifying the consistent appearance of what a connected radio should look like while simultaneously enabling non-linear listening with search and program guides along with the ability to integrate events and interactive advertising opportunities, from organizations such as Instreamatic.

[“Xperi Has Big Ambitions for DTS AutoStage”]

Xperi is perhaps best known as a digital radio advocate, with particular emphasis on HD Radio. But the scope of AutoStage is sufficiently transformative that it is enabling a redefinition of the concept of hybrid radio (a combination of streaming and broadcast) pioneered by Audi.

It’s true that each automaker has its own idea about what radio should and will look like in the car. At least with Xperi, automakers can start with a consistent look and feel applicable across the globe and capable of integrating analog and digital broadcast sources and rendering them in a familiar fashion in any car.

This Xperi value-add is essential in a market increasingly dominated by Android-based infotainment systems increasingly skewing toward app-based solutions, or smartphone mirroring solutions that exclude broadcast content sources. Xperi’s RaaS platform allows broadcasters to compete and allows auto makers to create differentiated systems, while preserving familiarity.

The weakest link — as demonstrated by Jacobs Media in its NAB audit and still in evidence today — are the broadcasters, many of which have yet to remedy the shortcomings in their metadata strategies.

As radio listening declines in automobiles — a phenomenon that Strategy Analytics has documented from consumer surveys conducted over the past 10 years across China, North America, and Europe — broadcasters will have no one to blame but themselves for that fading signal.

The message from the Jacobs Media study, from Quu, from Xperi and from Strategy Analytics surveys and customer clinics is clear: Fixing the management, delivery and rendering of metadata in dashboards is essential to the survival of broadcast radio.

The post Broadcasters Conspiring in Their Own Demise appeared first on Radio World.

Lawo has introduced a “second-generation” mc²36 audio production console based around a dual-fader operating bay featuring 48 faders in the same space as a 32-fader board. The update is seen as a move to broaden the console’s appeal for theater, houses of worship, corporate, live and broadcast audio applications.

According to the company, with DSP more than doubled from its predecessor, the new mc²36 with built-in A__UHD Core functionality, so that all developments in the future will happen on a single, unified platform, and Lawo continues to provide production file compatibility between all mc² consoles.

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

With the A__UHD Core, the new console offers 256 processing channels, available at both 48 and 96 kHz, and natively supports ST2110, AES67, Ravenna, and Ember+. It provides an I/O capacity of 864 channels, with local connections that include three redundant IP network interfaces, 16 Lawo-grade mic/line inputs, 16 line outputs, eight AES3 inputs and outputs, eight GPIO connections, and an SFP MADI port.

Operating and visualizing features include Button-Glow and touch-sensitive rotary controls, color TFT fader-strip displays, LiveView video thumbnails, and 21.5-inch full HD touchscreen controls. Its built-in full loudness control is compliant with the ITU 1770 (EBU/R128 or ATSC/A85) standard, featuring peak and loudness metering which can measure individual channels as well as summing buses. The new mc²36 offers integration with a variety of third-party solutions including Waves SuperRack SoundGrid without the need for additional screens or control devices required.

The new mc²36 makes use of Lawo’s IP Easy functionality, which in turn is based around the company’s proprietary Home management platform for IP-based media infrastructures. With IP Easy, the console automatically detects new devices and makes them available at the touch of a button. It also manages IP addresses, multicast ranges and VLANs, and includes security features like access control and quarantining of unknown devices to protect a network.

Info: www.lawo.com

 

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Communications infrastructure association NATE is calling attention to a “mandatory stop use” warning for certain models of Honeywell tower climbing harness.

“NATE Member Gravitec Systems Inc. just shared a Stop Use Alert on the Miller/Honeywell Harness 850KQC/S/MBK,” the association wrote in an email to members last week. “All companies are encouraged to check their inventory.”

Read the original notice, which was posted in November.

Honeywell Personal Protective Equipment reported that its Harness 850KQC/S/MBK failed an arc flash test. “This test failure also impacts the use of other 850K models, as well as models in the 650K, 060076, 080007 product lines. While there have been no reported incidents due to this nonconformity, continued use of the product for arc flash protection could result in serious injury or death.”

So Honeywell issued an “immediate stop use” of the Honeywell Miller Heavy Duty Harness 650K, 850K, 060076, and 080007 Kevlar series “only when used for arc flash protection.”

 

The post NATE Shares Warning About a Honeywell Harness appeared first on Radio World.

International Datacasting Corp. says that it has provided its next-generation MAP Pro Audio satellite receivers and a NetManager network management subsystem to radio broadcaster Southern Cross Austereo for live content delivery to SCA’s affiliates in Australia.

According to a release, the MAP Pro Audio downlink receivers are “the first in the new generation of the modular architecture platform (MAP) products for radio, video, and data distribution via satellite and/or internet. It is designed to be both backward and forward compatible and easy to expand and upgrade with modular features as technology evolves.” It added that “NetManager provides in-band management and control enabling easy remote configuration control and over-the-air updates.”

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

SCA Lead Systems Engineer Phil Elzerman said, “Our existing platform that service SCA’s own sites are excellent, but has some limits — it provided good functionality but comes at a significant cost and is dependent on WAN connectivity for control. We went with IDC for our expansion because the MAP solution utilizes ‘in-band’ control, and also because we appreciate their willingness to meet the challenge of building a platform that would integrate seamlessly into our existing infrastructure.”

President and CEO Harris Liontas of IDC’s owner, Novra Group, said, “We designed the modular architecture platform of the MAP specifically to make sure it would be extremely flexible and adaptable to the changing requirements of broadcasters.”

Lumina Broadcast Systems Australia was the contractor.

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

 

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The National Association of Broadcasters opened its nomination window for the 2021 NAB Marconi Radio Awards.

The program recognizes excellence and performance in a range of categories including Best Radio Podcast, Legendary Station of the Year, Radio Station of the Year in various market sizes and formats, Personality of the Year by Market Size, and others.

Finalists will be announced in July and winners will be saluted at the Radio Show in Las Vegas in October.

Nominations must be submitted through the NAB member portal. Rules are posted posted online.

The post Marconi Awards Nominations Are Open appeared first on Radio World.

A highlight of our recent Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit was the session “Building the Virtual Air Chain.” Among the speakers was Alan Jurison, senior operations engineer for iHeartMedia and a member of the NAB Radio Technology Committee.

He explained a committee project intended to help broadcasters insert local EAS alerts onto HD Radio subchannels that normally are fed their programming from another city or from the cloud.

[Read: HD Radio’s History of Innovation and Future of Growth]

Jurison said that achieving this in the past has been cumbersome, requiring a local master EAS encoder/decoder and some kind of audio switching device to interrupt the audio.

“We have a wide variety of formats at iHeartRadio, and we like to feature them on HD2 and HD3 subchannels throughout the nation, but the automation system that’s running the national format isn’t necessarily in the market. So how do we get emergency alerts on it?”

The committee worked with hardware manufacturers and Xperi on an approach. The first device resulting from that work is the HDR-CC standalone embedded HD Radio capture client from manufacturer 2wcom.

You tie together the GPIO and audio connections from your local Sage, DASDEC or other EAS device. When an EAS alert comes through, the 2wcom device logs into the embedded HD Radio Gen4 importer/exporter and can replace all supplemental channels (HD2–HD4) with the EAS audio. After the GPI is released, the HDR-CC logs out and the importer continues with normal operation airing the original program material already in progress.

As a result, listeners to the HD Radio subchannels get relevant local alerts as required by the FCC rules and regulations. This could be achieved prior to Gen4 HD architecture, but involved complicated external audio switchers to achieve.

The committee tested this with iHeart ’90s music content. A system in the company’s Cincinnati data center was running RCS NexGen automation, a music log and streaming software. It fed through iHeart’s WAN infrastructure to its headquarters in San Antonio, and then on to an FM station’s HD Radio subchannel on WWHT(HD2) in Syracuse, N.Y.

It was successful, and iHeart has kept that in place, now using RCS’ cloud-based automation software as the source today.

“You’re still regulatory compliant,” Jurison said, “but you can have that audio come from literally wherever you’d like now with Gen4.”

You can watch that session for free at proaudioradiotechsummit.com.

Keep an eye on what the NAB Radio Technology Committee is up to. They’re also working with all the major processing manufacturers so that they can integrate Nielsen’s PPM encoding directly into audio processors without the need for external encoders; and they’re having similar discussions aimed at making EAS for non-HD channels more flexible and resilient as well.

 

The post Simplifying EAS Alert Insertion on HD Subchannels appeared first on Radio World.

What would Elvis do? Here, the King receives a polio vaccination from Dr. Leona Baumgartner and Dr. Harold Fuerst at CBS Studio 50 in New York in 1956. (Photo by Seymour Wally/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

American patriotism does not belong to a political party. Do you disagree? Or perhaps discussion of this topic makes you uncomfortable? At least I’ve got you thinking about what it means to live in a democratic society.

Here’s a gut punch: Is getting the COVID-19 vaccine patriotic?

Medical authorities and most Americans say the “jab” is the only real way out of the pandemic. Some though feel that being coerced into vaccination is wrong in a free society, or believe the vaccine is not as safe as others Americans commonly get.

Not taking a stance on vaccination or being loud with encouraging messaging is a choice your radio station must discuss internally, if it hasn’t already, because this issue still hovers over our entire country as we seek to climb out of isolation, unemployment and fear.

Even at less-than-perfect efficacy, it is clear that vaccinations work beautifully to stem the tide. Not taking a stance is a choice, but your upper management should at least do so consciously instead of passively.

Beyond the mask

We all understand that when stations take political positions, as talk radio does, a specific form of politics will echo through the attitude the station projects. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s especially true in these times of “identity politics.”

However, this vaccination question — especially locally — is so important that avoiding the topic does not give even talk stations a pass. In fact, the issue should be debated regularly on the air. From what I’ve been hearing, the talk corner of the dial is not fully rejecting the idea of vaccination. Some on-air personalities and many listeners are open to it.

While masks remain important, we’re not just talking about those anymore. The increasing success of vaccination brings a lot more to the table in terms of supporting the health of one’s fellow Americans and aiding our economic recovery.

The more people who are vaccinated, the closer we are to the herd immunity that we need to compensate for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or well-established religious reasons.

If nothing else, it’s time to clue in vaccine skeptics that, while the jab is a choice, there will certainly be personal repercussions of rejecting it.

Depending on particular state law, some companies and entertainment or dining venues may employ or admit only those who hold vaccine certification. There will be much debate and angst about the right of the individual vs. the right of a business to protect its customers. Even so, some domestic and most international travel without vaccination proof will be restricted.

And perhaps most important, beating back COVID-19 will most certainly affect in-person school attendance. Our country needs our kids safely back in school more than ever. If necessary, do good research to bust the myths using information from your local health department.

Idea list

For stations ready to go all-in with encouragement, here are kickstarter ideas.

Showcase short sound bites of your own on-air personalities saying that they got the shot with local places now taking appointments. If you can get format stars or other local celebrities to do this too, it will amplify the effect.

Consider promos with stats and studies showing that vaccination is safe. Interview well-known local doctors, along with little-league coaches, youth advocates who want open schools and public health, cultural and other community leaders.

Go for community rather than government. If there’s a mass-vaccination place like a stadium, do live remotes or regular cut-ins with updates on wait times and interviews with locals who just got the shot.

Highlight local business owners who want to encourage people to vaccinate so that they can fully reopen. If you’re able to obtain the percentage number of vaccinations in your city or county, highlight this percentage daily, or weekly, to show progress.

When you start to dive into all the things a station can do, the list gets long. In your heart you surely know that this type of advocacy is something radio stations do very well. Radio is the ideal platform for propagating community health and well-being. What could be more patriotic?

Read more Promo Power columns from Mark Lapidus.

The post Radio Is Well Positioned for Shot Advocacy appeared first on Radio World.

Affiliates of the public radio satellite system in the United States are in the process of completing a major receiver switchover.

The project involved deployment of XDS headend hardware and the XDSv7 Content Management system from manufacturer ATX. “Collaboration with NPR was paramount in helping ATX enrich and improve its XDS Radio Platform with new and advanced enhancement,” said Jose Rivero, an executive with the company’s Media Broadcast business.

Radio World asked Michael Beach, NPR vice president of distribution, about this project in March.

RW: What was the scope of this project?
Michael Beach: More than 300 public radio stations interconnected through the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS) installed two new ATX receivers. Those downlink sites in turn feed about 1,200 public radio stations throughout the country.

RW: What specific equipment is being swapped out or upgraded?
Beach: The specific equipment at the stations includes two ATX XDS PRO4S Integrated Receiver Decoders. The receivers are integrated with our proprietary software, ContentDepot, which enables content management, scheduling and automation integration. These ATX receivers are replacing two IDC 4104 Integrated Receiver Decoders at each station.

In addition, we’ve rebuilt our Network Operations Center (NOC) in Washington — the hub of our system — and made significant upgrades to our Backup Network Operations Center (BuNOC) in St. Paul, Minn.

Dale Neiburg monitors functions in the NPR Distribution Services Network Operations Center control room in the basement at NPR headquarters in Washington. Photo: Allison Shelley/NPR

RW: What are the key benefits to stations of the change?
Beach: The new ATX system enables us to add new services immediately, and to add others over time with some additional development work.

For example, as soon as we implemented the new system, we were able to activate a backchannel internet connection. This allows instantaneous remote status monitoring by the NOC at NPR headquarters. That means we know immediately if a station is having signal issues or has gone offline.

Another feature of the new PRO4S receivers is that they will automatically receive a feed across the internet in the event that the satellite signal is lost for any reason.

The receiver also helps NPR consider future bandwidth-delivery options over terrestrially-based networks. Using the new system, stations can not only subscribe to national radio content, but also schedule when the content will be played out of the receiver locally.

A view inside the Backup Network Operations Center (BuNOC) in St. Paul, Minn. Photo: Allen Baylus, Doug Bevington, NPR

RW: We heard that there were some bumps along the way. What problems cropped up and how were they resolved?
Beach: The scale of this project was huge. It included a rollout to all public radio stations in the network and required a large equipment change at our main and backup facilities.

The effort required careful planning and execution because it involves an overhaul of equipment, software upgrades and working with almost 400 organizations, many in different time zones. This all needed to be coordinated while running a network 24/7, and a switchover to the new system without causing any stations to go off the air.

Then add a pandemic, just before we planned to ship the receivers.

[Read: Tiny Desk Series Works From “Home”]

The effect of the pandemic meant that many organizations closed their physical stations and moved staff to work remotely either for weeks or months. Many are still working remotely. Since station engineers were working remotely, deliveries had to be delayed until last fall, and then installations were delayed.

Each public radio station is independent of the network, so local station technical designs vary. This means that the receivers require a different, unique effort to fully integrate into each broadcast station’s audio chain.

In some cases, local engineers may have waited until late in the transition phase of the project when we offered both the old and new interconnection systems side by side in dual operations. If the integration effort required more than the local station engineers envisioned, then wrapping up the work in time for the completion of dual operations on Feb. 26, became a challenge for some. We continue working with individual stations that did not complete their integration on time.

Our project management office and account reps worked tirelessly to determine workarounds and time-saving options with our engineers.

Public Radio Satellite System interconnection diagram

For example, the pandemic meant we needed to delay travel to complete installation work at the BuNOC in Minnesota, too. When our engineers were finally able to travel, they drove nonstop from Washington to St. Paul to be as careful as possible and avoid nonessential interactions.

Our engineering team adjusted their schedules, too, making improvements in our NOC and also guiding engineers who were able to get into their stations through installations. Our NOC technicians and help desk adapted to phone and Zoom calls to try to make this transition as smooth as possible. Station leaders across the country and their engineers continued to be terrific, understanding, and patient partners throughout the project. That’s gratifying, especially considering that they each had challenges they were dealing with in their worlds, too.

It’s been an amazing team effort across the entire PRSS, and a reason that we’re such a strong network of technology and people.

RW: What is the budget for this project and who bears the cost?
Beach: The project is part of a four-year, $25.8 million contract between NPR as the system operator and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The cost of operating the system is funded by the users — public radio stations and public radio content producers. The total scope of the contract includes the local receivers, a major revamp of the main and backup technology in Washington and St. Paul, lease of satellite bandwidth for content delivery, and replacement of some aging satellite antennas at local radio stations.

ATX XDS-PRO4S Integrated Receiver Decoder

RW: What is the expected lifespan of a new deployment of receivers across the U.S.?
Beach: The station receivers have an expected life span of four to five years. However, NPR is maintaining a limited inventory of replacement receivers, and has an arrangement with the system vendor for repair or replacement as needed.

RW: What else should we know?
Beach: The new total network design allows the PRSS to provide better service to stations through a network monitoring system to help troubleshoot local receiver issues 24/7. The ATX system also better positions the system for network topology changes — including the transition to a terrestrial delivery system as those costs become more affordable.

Stations now have increased flexibility to create multiple unique playout schedules from the receiver, including the ability to time delay live content. We’re also working closely with stations who are offering ideas about new features they’d like to see.

 

The post PRSS Stations Get New Receivers appeared first on Radio World.

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

We have reached President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, and vaccine distribution may go down in history as one of his signature achievements. What does that mean for radio stations and reopening?

When Joe Biden arrived in the White House, the coronavirus spread was a top concern in the minds of many Americans. More than 400,000 people in the U.S. had already died from the virus, and vaccinations had sputtered. The Trump administration shouldered much of the blame for the slow response, and voters seemed to want leaders to go on the offensive. Biden promised a bold plan of 100 million COVID vaccine shots in the first 100 days.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: New Radio Filing Is Here]

With spring in the air, Biden can claim victory for that pledge. The United States has administered over 200 million COVID-19 vaccines in his first 100 days in office. The breakneck pace and sheer accessibility of vaccination today — states like Texas and others have made vaccines freely available to everyone — is sparking hope in somewhat of a return back to normal.

Offices, including those of radio stations, are part of the normalcy conversation. Dozens of major corporations and municipalities have announced plans to fully reopen this summer. For media outlets, including public and community radio, the discussion about reopening to staff, volunteers and the public is in full swing.

What are the issues radio stations should consider when weighing out reopening their studios and facilities?

First and foremost, it is best that stations follow recommendations of their cities and counties for reopening. City and county leadership are monitoring infection rates daily. They can give your station tips on issues like office capacity and what other nonprofits and businesses are doing. They may even be able to point you to a group of organizations like yours and how they’re mapping out reopening, and to what degree.

Getty Images/Yaroslav Mikheev

You may also wish to decide how open you want your station to be. Vaccinated staff may feel comfortable around unvaccinated individuals or those whose status is unclear. Vaccination is not a 100% guarantee that a vaccinated person won’t contract the virus. So, you may want to explore this matter with staff and your human resources people. Will you want to do a temperature check with guests? What are your cleaning and social distancing protocols? These are among the topics you will need to resolve.

Voluntary or mandatory vaccination is another question you may want to consider. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Labor have previously noted vaccines may be required as a safety measure. If your station wants to make vaccines voluntary or mandatory, you will need to ensure that you are making appropriate medical or religious accommodations as they are necessary.

The National Federation of Community Broadcasters recently issued a variety of templates and a checklist for community radio stations considering reopening. Such documents may prove beneficial to stations starting the long journey toward welcoming back our communities to radio studios.

 

The post Community Broadcaster: Reopening Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Westwood One announced several promotions.

Susan Stephens becomes SVP and general manager of Westwood One Programming.

“In this expanded role, Stephens, a 28-year veteran of Westwood One, will work to optimize programming and content opportunities and collaborations between news, talk, music, and entertainment,” the company announced.

Susan Stephens, Tim Seymour, Becky Bennett

Tim Seymour becomes SVP, head of operations, overseeing operations, partner relations, affiliate & sales operations, traffic & continuity, and research operations teams.

And Becky Bennett is promoted to VP of partner relations. “In addition to managing the compensation inventory procurement process and current partner relationships, Bennett is responsible for developing new producer partners.”

Stephens and Seymour report to Westwood One President Suzanne Grimes. Bennett reports to Seymour.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

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