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The second-deadliest tornado in history barreled through Kentucky through the wee hours of Saturday, December 11. The death toll is unconfirmed but believed to be above 100. The town of Mayfield was among the hardest hit communities.

For those seeking the most information associated with this devastating weather event, local television delivered, with “Local 6” in Paducah, Ky. — owned by Paxton Media Group LLC — and Marquee Broadcasting’s WNKY-40 in Bowling Green, Ky. among the standout media sources that have covered the tornado outbreak for the past 72 hours.

Given the importance of “Forecasting our Future,” Hearst Television on Monday said it is moving forward with a group-wide initiative “to address issues Americans face in navigating changing weather patterns and their impact on local communities and economies.”

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The Ram TRX 1500. SiriusXM’s 360L feature made its debut in Ram trucks in 2019.

During the years that I’ve produced the program “Radio-Road-Test,” I’ve seen in-dash entertainment evolve from basic to high-end AM and FM radios and cassette decks to sophisticated units capable of accessing entertainment from terrestrial stations, satellite channels and streaming audio.

More and more, such units occupy a prominent place in the center stack of the automotive dashboard. SiriusXM with 360L is the latest iteration of the satcaster’s platform. The name 360L is intended to suggest a 360-degree listening experience.

When it debuted in 2019 in the Ram 1500 pickup with 12-inch Uconnect 4.0 system, SiriusXM with 360L delivered content from both the satellite and through streaming via internet access through on-board modems.

This “hybrid radio” capability opened up online channels that weren’t available in the car and offered on-demand programming — interviews, podcasts and other features — based on listening preferences.

SiriusXM with 360L is a hybrid system that combines satellite and streaming content delivery to provide more channels and control.

In October 2020, the ability to create an artist channel through its subsidiary Pandora was added to the 360L experience in Ram trucks for those subscribers with SiriusXM’s Platinum Plan, along with sports notifications, which give listeners an alert about their favorite sports teams, and the ability to tune directly to the broadcast of the game.

Ram owners with the 360L platform from 2019 received over-the-air subscription updates to add those abilities to their units.

Listeners can access official broadcasts for pro and college teams.

SiriusXM says subscribers can also create individual listener profiles, so multiple drivers and passengers can customize and maintain their presets and favorites. Profiles can be synced with a listener’s mobile phone to access their favorites and pick up listening where they left off in the car on certain content.

[Check Out More From the Road Warrior]

How does this work in practice? In the Audi Q5, I was able to receive the audio stream of SiriusXM Channel 69 when the satellite feed was not available because of terrain. In the Ram 1500 TRX, I could create a channel by an artist unknown to all but a few radio listeners today, Richard Clayderman.

This feature used Pandora protocols to curate the channel’s music, adding music from other artists in the genre to Clayderman’s music, thus creating a “Richard Clayderman Radio” channel that was streamed. This is appealing to listeners like me who enjoy music from artists not usually heard on terrestrial radio — in my case Mantovani and Kostelanetz, in your case maybe it’s Weezer and Måneskin — and listeners who want to hear more music from their favorite artist when they want it.

Pandora is a part of the 360L experience, and it allows listeners to create an “artist channel.”

When I wanted to return to satellite programming or other radio programming in the Ram, all I needed to do was select the appropriate source, which could be done by touchscreen or voice control, with an old-school knob to back up the touchscreen and voice controls.

The on-demand programming offered by 360L gives a listener the ability to listen to a podcast or previously recorded show with a touch. In the Ram, the Uconnect unit will load mixed content in its presets (AM/FM/HD Radio, satellite channels and streaming audio selections).

Missing a podcast? Users can find them here.

Ford, GM, BMW and Volkswagen are among car manufacturers offering 360L-capable units in their newest vehicles.

We’ve been hearing from radio advocates like RadioDNS, the NAB and Xperi that local broadcasters need to have a strategy in place for competing with platforms like this. If one compares the channel and song displays from a typical SiriusXM channel to the display of a typical terrestrial station today, the comparison is striking.

My experience suggests that the 360L is a formidable competitor to terrestrial radio for the ears and eyes of drivers and passengers. There’s a lot to be said about giving listeners what they want, when they want it and for making it easy for the listener to access those choices.

Paul Kaminski, CBT is a veteran radio news reporter and RW contributor, and host of msrpk.com’s “Radio-Road-Test.” Twitter: @msrpk_com.

Marketing the 360L

A recent announcement that 360L will be included in most Jaguar and Land Rover models provides insight into how SiriusXM markets the platform.

“SiriusXM with 360L combines satellite and streaming content delivery into a single, cohesive in-vehicle entertainment experience, upgrading the way the subscriber interacts with the service by providing more choice and a more customizable listening experience for their ride,” it stated in a press release.

Some of the on-demand content available through 360L.

“It delivers more SiriusXM channels in the vehicle, and its personalized ‘For You’ recommendations and ability to quickly access related content make it easier for listeners to discover more of the programming they love. With SiriusXM with 360L, drivers and their passengers can also access tens of thousands of hours of SiriusXM’s recorded On Demand content, so they can access exclusive interviews, unique shows and live performances whenever they want.”

Itemized benefits included the availability of many of the company’s streaming channels; access to “tens of thousands of hours” of on-demand content; enhanced sports play-by-play that “makes it easier to find the listener’s favorite team when it is game time, and gives them access to the official broadcasts for more pro and college teams”; Pandora stations that enable drivers to create personal channels; “For You” content recommendations based on listening habits; and listener profiles to allow more than one person to choose favored settings. Drivers and passengers also can use their voice to search SiriusXM’s library of content; and in Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, the platform can receive over-the-air software updates.

More info: Where to find it

SiriusXM with 360L is available in vehicles from Stellantis’ Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands; GM’s Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands; Ford F150s and Ford vehicles equipped with SYNC4; Lincoln Navigator and Nautilus; most BMWs; and most Audis and Volkswagens. It is standard across the Maserati lineup. It will be available in the New Range Rover and will be standard in Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles equipped with the PIVI Pro infotainment system by model year 2023.

The post SiriusXM with 360L Is an Impressive Dashboard Experience appeared first on Radio World.

Kirk Harnack and Jeremy Ruck circa 1994 with scale model of Sears Tower antenna masts

Among those mourning the death of engineer Jeremy Ruck this past weekend is Kirk Harnack, his friend and former co-worker.

“Jeremy and I worked together on the [then] Sears Tower in Chicago under the tutelage of Don Markley,” Harnack told us.

“We were measuring human exposure to RF radiation, mapping the tower and roof areas where workers’ presence would be time-limited. It’s not surprising that Jeremy continued to apply his knowledge and RF wisdom to the Willis Tower’s RF infrastructure over the 25+ years since our shared experience there.”

Jeremy Ruck and Kirk Harnack at the Michigan Broadcasters Engineering Conference 2020

Harnack commented on Ruck’s real-world experience and ability to communicate difficult ideas.

“Jeremy would explain complex technical concepts in simple tech terms that most engineers could understand. You felt smarter — better informed — after any conversation with him.”

He said Ruck’s favorite test equipment was the vector network analyzer. “He educated hundreds of engineers on the importance of VNA measurements, characterizing dozens of key parameters in RF transmission systems. These measurements allowed the fine adjustments necessary to optimize DTV transmission as well as FM systems. He could massage these systems to work as well or even better than their design. I think you’d be amazed at the number of FM listeners and TV viewers who unknowingly enjoy the results of Jeremy’s expertise.”

Jeremy Ruck (right) in the 2020 calendar of tower company Precision Comms Inc.

Ruck was a popular presenter at engineering conferences, including in Wisconsin and Nebraska. “He also shared his experience and knowledge about the TV repack with a wider audience in November 2019 on the SBE WEBxtra webcast.”

The photos shown here are provided by Kirk Harnack.

The post “You Felt Smarter After Any Conversation With Him” appeared first on Radio World.

Designed by live event touring professionals, the Li.LAC Microphone Disinfector is a rack-mounted encasement that uses controlled exposure to ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and viruses on microphone surfaces, metal grilles and the windscreens underneath.

The Li.LAC Microphone Disinfector is available in a professional 19-inch 3U rackmount drawer-based format, so that it can be located in an equipment room or packed in a road case to travel with other equipment.

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

The departments of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherlands have conducted scientific studies to evaluate the effectiveness of Li.LAC. A disinfection level of 99.99 percent for surface disinfection inside Li.LAC has been approved by Opsytec Dr. Gröbel GmbH, an independent, accredited laboratory and developer of industrial UV measurement technology. Li.LAC qualifies the 99.9 percent value, however, noting that the exact surface disinfection level varies with the type of virus or bacteria and the shape and surface of the microphone or other object being disinfected.

The unit can hold up to three hand-held microphones or several lavalier or headset microphones, headsets or beltpacks at a time, and a disinfection cycle takes 5 to 10 minutes. Much like a microwave oven, users close the drawer and press Start; the unit will not operate unless the drawer is fully closed and switches off as soon as the drawer is opened, ensuring operator safety.

The Li.LAC Microphone Disinfector is available in the United States for $1,599 from ISEMcon. Li.LAC lists additional resellers in Europe and Australia/New Zealand on its website.

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Li.LAC Microphone Disinfector Debuts appeared first on Radio World.

With Christmas just two weeks away and time running out to get gifts, one big-box retailer has committed to outdoing all competitors with respect to its television commercials.

And, that heavy activity can be seen across Spot Cable and Spot Television.

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A news network dedicated to covering “the unique perspectives, challenges, and successes of Black and Brown communities” has secured its latest wide-scale distribution agreement.

As such, subscribers to one major MVPD will now have access to the channel led by President/CEO Princell Hair.

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The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report is out, and it shows a big leader for the week ending December 12, 2021.

No, it’s not for a big retailer at Christmastime. And no, it’s not an auto insurance specialist.

Rather, it is a maker of a COVID-19 vaccine and an approved booster.

In a sign of the times, Pfizer leads all in the latest Spot Ten Radio report, and by a sizable margin over No. 2 Indeed, the job search and employment portal.

State Farm, eBay and McDonald’s are also big players this week, and are their respective category leaders, by far, at the AM and FM radio stations tracked by iHeartMedia-owned Media Monitors.

 

In this document, the Commission proposes changes to its Next Gen TV rules designed to preserve over-the-air television viewers' access to the widest possible range of programming while also supporting television broadcasters' transition to the next generation of broadcast digital television (DTV) technology. In response to a Petition filed by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Commission proposes to allow Next Gen TV stations to include within their license certain of their non-primary video programming streams (multicast streams) that are aired in a different service on ``host'' stations during a transitional period, using the same licensing framework, and to a large extent the same regulatory regime, established for the simulcast of primary video programming streams on ``host'' station facilities.

Another AM radio station in the United States has converted to all-digital broadcast operations. WSRO(AM) turned off its analog signal in early December and is now broadcasting jazz music in all-digital AM covering the western suburbs of Boston.

The radio station is licensed to Ashland, Mass., and owned by Langer Broadcasting Group. The geographic area considered part of the MetroWest region of Greater Boston and located about a half-hour west of the city.

According to a post by station representatives on a Boston area radio message board: “WSRO Ashland, Mass. is on the air in the digital-only MA-3 mode of HD Radio. The transition occurred about 3:30 p.m. this afternoon (December 1).”

The station, which promoted the switch to all-digital AM on-air, asked for reception reports from listeners in its online post.

The FCC confirmed the station turned off it analog signal on Dec. 1 and can no longer heard on analog radio receivers. The station at 650 kHz is directional and drops from 1.5 kW daytime to 100 watts at night.

WSRO programming is simulcast on FM translator 102.1 MHz in Framingham, Mass. It also simulcasts in analog on 1410 (AM) and 98.1 (FM), according to those familiar with the most recent developments.

Attempts to reach representatives of WSRO for comment on the transition and listener response were unsuccessful.

WSRO was silent from July 9, 2020, through Oct.27, 2020, to reorganize its finances, according to the FCC database. The station broadcast a Brazilian music format until it switched to jazz earlier this year.

The station’s transition follows the recent move of Cumulus Media news talker WFAS(AM) in New York’s Hudson Valley to all-digital AM broadcasting. WWFD(AM) in Frederick, Md., and WMGG(AM) in Tampa, Fla., are two other stations operating with all-digital AM broadcasts.

In addition, several other AM licensees have notified the FCC of their intentions to go all-digital only.

The post New England Gets Its First All-Digital AM appeared first on Radio World.

Jeremy Ruck — a broadcast engineer and P.E. who owned Jeremy Ruck & Associates, managed Willis Tower in Chicago and wrote many articles for Radio magazine and Radio World — has died.

According to his obituary at Oaks-Hines Funeral Home in Canon, Ill., Ruck was 50. He died after a battle with COVID-19.

Ruck graduated from Bradley University in 1996 with a degree in electrical engineering.

His friend and colleague Mark Persons said that Ruck was an employee of D.L. Markley & Associates for many years, but left that firm after Don Markley died. He formed Jeremy Ruck & Associates in 2012.

“The broadcast engineering community will miss Jeremy Ruck,” Persons told Radio World.

“Jeremy was always young and vital, ready to go the top of the Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, in Chicago to supervise a broadcast antenna project in the middle of the night. Many remember Jeremy as a frequent speaker at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, Wis., describing the complexities and math behind engineering problems.

“He came to my town on the 1990s to do a tune up of a three-tower AM directional and sipped wine with Paula and me when the workday was done. We talked endlessly about the radio industry and amateur radio.”

Persons said Jeremy Ruck, WM9C, became an Extra Class amateur radio operator at age of 17 and was active in the ham community over the years.

“Like Don Markley, not many can fill his shoes.”

Fletcher Ford, CEO of Regional Media, posted on social media that Ruck was “one of the best consulting broadcast engineers in the country, a great husband and father, a devout Catholic and Freemason, and a great friend.”

Another friend, engineer Art Reis, said Ruck had been involved in leading the television repack in Chicago. “I am sad beyond words,” Reis wrote.

Among his survivors are his wife Frankie and 10-year-old son Alexander.

A graveside funeral services will be held on Thursday, Dec. 16, at St Joseph Cemetery in Canton, Ill, according to Ruck’s obituary.

The post Broadcast Engineer Jeremy Ruck Dies, Age 50 appeared first on Radio World.

One major technological innovation in consumer electronics of the past decade is the smart speaker. Increasingly, there are ever fewer homes that you can walk into where devices will not activate when you utter the name Alexa.

The smart speaker performs many jobs in the modern home from turning on lights, acting as a cooking timer, and connecting with search engines. These devices are handy. In many homes, these speakers also serve as a table-top radio. Many users don’t realize that asking an Amazon Echo or Google Nest smart speaker for their favorite radio station actually connects them to the station’s live stream.

Delivering an audio stream to at-home listeners via smart speakers presents new opportunities and challenges for broadcasters. But with the right approach to tackling these challenges, a broadcaster can increase listener engagement and generate more revenue for the station … and isn’t that what station ownership wants?

[Read more articles by David Bialik.]

First, development of a good smart speaker action (for Google) or skill (for Amazon) is imperative. A station should have its own smart speaker skill or action, not relying on the device’s default response. This allows the station to have full control over the listener experience, maintaining their brand, without the reliance on potential competitors (i.e., iHeart and TuneIn) to act as gatekeepers.

Perhaps the station wants to have its on-air talent be the voice for the skill, rather than Alexa or Google’s default voice. The station should think critically about the invocation phrase the audience says to listen to the content. This must be a simple phrase for your audience to remember and, yes, it must be unique!

The difficulty is the uniqueness. Is the station’s name or call letters easy to say clearly without being misinterpreted by the smart speaker as a competitive or out-of-market station? Are the verbal commands going to be easy for the listener to remember?

Picking a unique activation phrase is not an easy task, but it is as crucial as making sure that your FM transmitter is on frequency!

For some broadcasters who use the default skill on the device, the delay between asking to listen to a station and actually receiving audio can be fairly long, sometimes as much as 30 seconds. This delayed response is detrimental to building your audience due to listener impatience.

“The importance of simplicity and having quick stream playback in the action is crucial,” said Eduardo Martinez, director of technology for StreamGuys, whose company creates custom interactions for stations.

This diagram explains the flow of a smart speaker command, in this case using StreamGuys’ services.

During development, skills are tested in a sandbox environment to continually add features or match the interactions available for your needs. Once the developer is happy with the response, the skill is sent for approval (sometimes called certification) by the platform before it is available on the smart speaker. You can always make updates, but those updates also need to be approved.

Skill development is not easy and using an experienced developer is the smart route to getting integrated with a smart speaker.

Second, the listener should be instructed how to install and use the stations’ skill. No longer will you have to turn the dial or press a preset button for your favorite station. Because the station’s skill can have custom invocation phrases and interactions, it’s important the listener be aware of how to use this specific service.

If both live and on-demand content is available, listeners should know how to verbally navigate to both types of content. Custom stills are a great opportunity to prompt listeners to contribute to station programming, such as make song requests, respond to listener polls, or ask a question of an interviewee. A non-profit station could appeal to listeners to submit a donation.

All this advanced interaction increases listener engagement, but requires some listener education to be effective.

Third, the station should sell advertising on the stream to sponsors looking to reach at-home listeners. The convenience of using the voice to interact with a station’s program has pulled in the audience. Now is the time to present advertising packages to sponsors who want to reach these listeners.

Potential sponsors include companies that provide home appliances, such as kitchen and laundry, or home services, such as food delivery, house cleaning, or yard maintenance. Packages could be assembled that only reach smart speakers; most stream ad insertion technologies can target dynamic ads just to these listeners.

Assuring your sponsors that their messaging reaches at-home listeners allows you to charge higher rates for ad placement to their targeted audience. Consumption metrics for both live and on-demand usage by smart speakers are also important data the ad sales team will want to share with sponsors.

The percentage of radio listening on smart speakers will continue to grow as more of these devices find their way into homes. An effective initiative to engage with these listeners should include a custom skill or action, suitable instruction for the audience about how the verbal interaction works, and targeted sponsorship messaging to provide value to advertisers. Together, these components can help increase audience, listener engagement, and revenue as the listening platforms evolve.

Please remember that digital assistants are entering the automotive environment now, too, so the need for good voice commands continues to grow.

The author is a consultant who has held technical broadcast and streaming positions for companies like Entercom, CBS Radio, Bloomberg and Bonneville. He is co-chair of the AES Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery and chair of the Metadata Usage Working Group of the National Radio Systems Committee. Contact him at dkbialik@erols.com or 845-634-6595.

The post Smart Speakers and How to Talk to Them appeared first on Radio World.

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Audio Division, Media Bureau, Issues Order cancelling Notice of Apparent Liability

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At 103.9 MHz on Maryland’s Eastern Shore is a heritage rhythmic Top 40 station that in recent years has been owned by the Ron Stone-led Adams Radio Group. In June, Stone indicated that the station would be sold, as part of a wholesale exit from the Salisbury-Ocean City market.

Now, it’s official: Adams has spun the last remaining assets it had on the Delmarva Peninsula.

For $550,000, Adams is selling WOCQ-FM 103.9 in Berlin, Md., and FM Translators W282AW at 104.3 in Salisbury and W286BB at 105.1 in Ocean Pines to the Craig Jahelka-led parent of WBOC Inc., known as Draper Media.

It follows the sale of WGBG-FM 107.7 in Fruitland, Md., for $600,000 and the $1.6 million spin of WZBH-FM 93.5 in Millsboro, Del., to Draper Media/WBOC Inc. and the consummation in late June 2021 of the $300,000 sale of WUSX-FM 98.5, with a signal covering Salisbury, Md.; Georgetown, Del.; and the Bethany Beach, Del.; area; to Mark Giuliani-led DataTech Digital.

How does the acquisition of WOCQ fit within local ownership limits? Thanks to BIA Advisory Services, an adjustment of the market definition for Salisbury-Ocean City was made in response to Nielsen Audio inadvertently counting some Draper stations toward the market, although they do not serve the market. This would pair WOCQ with WZBH, WGBG and WBOC-FM.

WBOC Inc. and the Draper family have long been known as the owner of WBOC-16. But WBOC Inc. doesn’t just own this longtime station, which has been a CBS affiliate since 1956. It also owns and operates “FOX21 Delmarva,” housed on a WBOC subchannel; WBOC-LD 42, a Telemundo affiliate; and WRDE-LD 31, an NBC affiliate since June 2014 that filled a local network assignment gap, with WBAL-11 and WRC-4 from Baltimore and Washington, respectively, serving Southern Maryland and WCAU-10 serving Delaware prior to WRDE’s sign-on.

Then, there is the WBOC Inc. radio properties, which had been sold off prior to August 2015. That’s when RBR+TVBR reported on the company’s acquisition of WOLC-FM, in Princess Anne, Md. from Maranatha Inc. The station became WBOC-FM, today an Adult Contemporary station.

The Draper family’s re-entry into radio was accelerated in March 2018. That’s when WBOC Inc., under the direction of Draper Media President Craig Jahelka, closed on its $700,000 purchase of the following stations from MTS Broadcasting in a transaction brokered by Patrick Communications:

• Class C WCEM-AM 1240 in Cambridge, Md., which serves the resort community of St. Michaels and nearby Easton
• Class A WCEM-FM 106.3 in Cambridge, which also serves the communities listed above
• Class A WAAI-FM 100.9 in Hurlock, Md., also serving St. Michaels, Easton and Cambridge
• Class A WTDK-FM 107.1 in Federalsburg, Md., which covers the Delaware cities of Georgetown, Seaford and Milford in addition to Denton, Md.

The 1BCG transmitter used for the original Transatlantic Test Project in 1921

To celebrate the first transatlantic radio broadcast by members of its club 100 years ago, the Radio Club of America (RCA) will undertake a re-creation of the 1921 Transatlantic Test Project transmission on Dec. 12.

Using shortwave, low power and other state-of-the-art technology from the time, the signals the club broadcast in 1921 from Connecticut were heard in Scotland, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Puerto Rico, British Columbia, California and Washington state.

[See More of radio’s history in Roots of Radio.]

Back in 1921, the club said in an announcement about the event, transatlantic wireless was an arduous process done with 250 kilowatt transmitters and antenna superstructures. Ham radio operator Major E. Howard Armstrong, though, worked to secure a 10 foot × 14 foot wooden hut in a farmer’s field in Greenwich, Conn., with a transmitter with an input power of 900 watts. The signal was broadcast using a 100-foot-long and 70-foot-high T-cage antenna with a radial counterpoise at a wavelength of 230 meters.

The event was a watershed, the organization said. On Dec. 12, 2021, at 0252 UTC (9:52 p.m. EST) radio aficionados with a shortwave receiver or have access to an internet radio receiver can tune to 1825 kHz. The transmission will identify as W2RCA and repeat the 1921 Morse Code CW transmission at a speed of 12 wpm.

In addition to the Radio Club of America’s re-creation, The Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut will use a replica of the 1BCG transmitter to transmit a similar one-way Morse Code message on 1820 kHz. The message will repeat every 15 minutes starting Dec. 11 at 2300 UTC (6 p.m. EST) through 0400 UTC (11 p.m.) on Dec. 12.

The American Radio Relay League and the Radio Society of Great Britain have assembled a list of other stations and groups organizing events and activities to celebrate 100 years of amateur radio transatlantic communication. Visit http://www.arrl.org/transatlantic and https://rsgb.org/transatlantic-tests respectively.

The post Radio Club of America to Recreate 100-Year-Old Transatlantic Test appeared first on Radio World.

On November 28, every FOX Network affiliate and owned-and-operated station in the U.S. aired what appeared to be a 45-second promotional message that, in its first three seconds, features the Emergency Alert System (EAS) tone. The penalty could be severe for FOX as the FCC investigates the incident.

How big could that fine get? A proposed financial penalty presented to Beasley Media Group for a single instance at a Talk station serving Las Vegas provides a hint at what could come for FOX.

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