Industry News

Next year will likely be another record-breaking political cycle. How big? One competitive ad intelligence SaaS company is projecting $8.9 billion in political media spend — the highest ever for a midterm cycle.

When asked for a breakout of broadcasting and cable dollars, and for dollars only going to broadcast media, there’s clearly some substantial growth.

But, there’s also one big question that can be asked: Where are 96.4% of the dollars that aren’t going to broadcast media going?

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Audacy employees who receive their pay check via Direct Deposit were left scratching their heads, and perhaps deeply concerned of a major problem, after waking up on Friday, checking their bank accounts, and not seeing their normal infusion of funds.

What happened? A “technical issue” is to blame, and it was quickly resolved.

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What are the primary benefits of virtualization to radio broadcasters? Are we farther along now than a year ago in seeing virtualization come to PPM, to EAS? What are common misconceptions or unfamiliar terms in virtualization that readers should be aware of?

Those are some of the questions explored in our new ebook “What’s Next for Virtualization?”

Editor in Chief Paul McLane talked with six manufacturers and software sponsors about their applications of the concept of virtualization, and he checked in with prominent industry engineering executives for an assessment of the relevance and impact of virtualization.

How close are we to a fully virtualized air chain? What else should we know on this topic? Find out in the latest free ebook.

Read it here.

The post What’s Next for Virtualization? appeared first on Radio World.

At Thursday’s FCC meeting, Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel used the occasion of her trip to Louisiana to explain several commission initiatives.

 In a written statement, she described the damage done by Hurricane Ida and summarized steps the FCC had taken before and after that storm.

 “But we have to understand where communications fell short, where recovery took too long, and what changes can be made to make our networks more resilient before the next unthinkable event occurs,” she wrote in comments released by her office.

 She talked about the NPRM that the FCC has adopted to strengthen its DIRS system and possibly to require backup power at communications facilities including broadcast stations.

The text of her statement is below:

This week I had the opportunity to see firsthand the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ida. Commissioner Carr joined me to crisscross a long, flat stretch of Louisiana — from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. The drive itself was telling. Along the way we saw cruel reminders of the storm and the great damage wind and water can do — mangled store signs and piles of refuse still being cleared away. Still, what struck me most was all the blue. Not the grey-blue of Lake Pontchartrain. Instead, it was the bright blue of heavy plastic tarps. They were everywhere. On the pitched rooves of homes. On the flat tops of commercial buildings. They were part of fixing what had blown away.

That image stays with me. But so does the strength and resilience of everyone we met. They love where they live and are deeply committed to restoration in their communities. They are also deeply invested in making sure that when the next storm comes — and it will — they are better prepared. Being better prepared means having more resilient communications. It means making sure our networks work when we need them most. I spoke with Governor John Bel Edwards about this before our trip and I heard it from everyone we met — state public safety leaders in Baton Rouge, 911 call center operators in Livingston, broadband companies in LaPlace, and FirstNet officials in Raceland.

Everyone we spoke with wanted to tell us their stories and give us their ideas. They wanted us to know what worked and what didn’t and how stronger and more resilient communications can save lives. I’m grateful Commissioner Carr was able to join me and thank all my colleagues for supporting the swift actions the agency took to assist before and after the storm.

In anticipation of landfall, the Federal Communications Commission set up an information hub for Hurricane Ida, with emergency communications tips in nine languages, tailored media advisories for broadcasters, downloadable Public Service Announcements, communications status reports, and other content.

We deployed FCC staff to Louisiana and the Federal Emergency Management Agency Regional Response Coordination Center in Dallas, Texas, to support spectrum management, perform damage assessments, and prioritize recovery efforts.

In coordination with FEMA and other federal partners, we activated our Disaster Information Reporting System. As a result, we published the first comprehensive assessment of Hurricane Ida’s impact on communications networks followed by daily updates.

We provided technical assistance to 911 coordinators, State Emergency Operations Centers, 911 call centers, carriers implementing the Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework and other communications providers, and the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters.

We engaged in daily coordination with Federal, state, and local partners, as well as with industry, to help coordinate the transport of necessary communications equipment, fuel, and other resources to help fill communications gaps. We also set up a first-of-its kind team to address coordination with utilities to prevent accidental fiber cuts during debris removal and restoration.

Of course, we had help.  Communications companies worked long and hard to restore critical services. All of this made a difference. More than 98 percent of the cell sites in the affected counties have been restored. Other outages trended downward as fast as power was restored.

This is progress. But we have to understand where communications fell short, where recovery took too long, and what changes can be made to make our networks more resilient before the next unthinkable event occurs.

Today’s rulemaking gets that effort going. We start by taking a second look at the voluntary Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework and its disaster roaming and asking where can it be strengthened. Are best practices enough? Should coordination happen earlier? Be more automatic? This was something that came up repeatedly in our discussions in Louisiana — a desire for this cooperative roaming to work faster, work better, and help keep more people connected in disaster.

We also revisit our Disaster Information Reporting System and seek targeted comment on where there are gaps that need to be filled. 911 call centers should not be the last ones to find out where there are critical network failures. But we learned that during Hurricane Ida, that is exactly what happened. So we ask about how we can improve data collection and timely notification during disasters.

Finally, we renew our inquiry into backup power for communications facilities. Our review of the data collected in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida reveals that the lack of commercial power at key equipment and facilities is the single biggest reason why communications networks failed. Left unaddressed, this problem will only get worse in coming years as we experience disasters with increasing severity, duration, and impact. So our rulemaking explores resilience strategies for power outages — including better coordination between communications providers and power companies and backup power or other measures that could help keep service running after a disaster.

I am hopeful that this rulemaking is the beginning of a broader discussion of our need for resilient networks. Look around. We have hurricanes in Louisiana, a snowstorm in Texas, and wildfires out West. These issues are not going away. We need to think deeply about what network resiliency means and how our policies can support it. So in addition to this rulemaking, next month the FCC will hold a virtual field hearing on Hurricane Ida and the resilient networks now needed in disaster more generally. To make it simple, we’ll have it as part of our monthly open meeting in October. Stay tuned for details.

 

The post Rosenworcel Highlights Network Resilience appeared first on Radio World.

Marketers have asked for it. Now, thanks to Media Framework and Nielsen, they’re going to get it.

In one week, the “most comprehensive and validated diverse-owned media list in the industry” will be released. And, it will be paired with a “Diverse Owned Media Planning and Investment Guide” full of profiles and aggregated metrics of diverse-owned media on TV, radio and digital platforms and their related audience descriptions, estimated reach and gross impressions.

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David H. Layer is vice president, advanced engineering at the National Association of Broadcasters. Radio World spoke with him recently ahead of the anticipated Broadcast Engineering & IT Conference at the NAB Show. The convention has since been cancelled but the activities discussed here continue. Here are relevant portions of our conversation.

Radio World: David, there is a Radio Committee of the North American Broadcasters Association, in which NAB is involved. What role is NABA playing right now in regards to the auto infotainment landscape?
David Layer: NABA serves as a bridge between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico regarding radio and TV broadcasting technical and regulatory issues. NABA’s Radio Committee has two active projects, one involving development of a NABA In-Car User Experience (ICUE) guideline that is based upon — and complements — an ICUE document developed by WorldDAB, the other on hybrid radio and metadata.

This second project involves developing resources and guidance for North American broadcasters on how to effectively support hybrid radio platforms and regarding the importance of having good textual and visual metadata which will make radio look as good as it sounds.

RW: Hybrid radio has occupied a lot of your attention recently, and we’ve written a good deal about the topic in Radio World. What’s your key message for broadcasters regarding hybrid radio?
Layer: It’s a straightforward message: for each station to provide good metadata support for their over-the-air and streaming audio products.

At NAB, we’ve been reaching out to broadcasters with this message and backing it up with information on specific metadata suggestions that are relevant to different types of stations.

For example, all analog FM stations and AM and FM HD Radio stations should be registered with RadioDNS, a nonprofit organization that develops and supports open technical standards for hybrid radio — unfortunately, analog AM stations are not at present supported since they have no data-carrying capability.

NAB recently updated and reissued the NAB Digital Dashboard Best Practices Report, which provides lots of detail and recommendations for broadcasters on how to implement and improve their metadata operations. I would encourage your readers to download and read this report.

RW: U.S. broadcasters seem to be cautious about building out the infrastructure to support hybrid radio. Why do you think that is?
Layer: I believe there are many broadcasters who have actually been bullish on hybrid radio and eager to provide top-notch support, encompassing both medium and large radio groups. I do not sense a lack of interest among broadcasters but I definitely think that there are resource issues contributing to a slower-than-desired rollout of support. And not surprisingly, these resource issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

RW: What specific make and models of cars now have hybrid radio available in North America, and when should we expect more?
Layer: I know that Audi, using their MultiMedia Interface or MMI, and Mercedes, using DTS AutoStage, are shipping cars with hybrid radio receivers to North America, but I do not know the model breakdown. Also, there are BMW cars in North America that use RadioDNS for station information and logos but do not support streaming audio service following.

I expect more brands will be doing hybrid radio soon but I expect that the “chip shortage” we’ve been reading about, where the computer chips needed by automobiles are in short supply, will lengthen this hybrid radio rollout.

RW: Something NAB PILOT has been involved in, is testing the reception of all-digital AM radio in electric vehicles. Why is this important?
Layer: I’ve been privileged to work with a fine group of Xperi employees on an all-digital AM in electric vehicles project, most recently with Pooja Nair, an Xperi communications engineer who is my co-author for a paper on this subject in this year’s NAB Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology Conference Proceedings.

Also, a special thanks to Dave Kolesar of Hubbard Broadcasting for making all-digital AM station WWFD at 820 kHz in Frederick, Md., available for electric vehicle-related testing.

One of the topics covered in our BEITC paper is a comparison of the coverage of all-digital AM radio using both internal combustion engine or “ICE” vehicles and electric vehicles, or EVs. While only a limited amount of all-digital AM testing has been done in electric vehicles to date, the clear indication is that all-digital AM works well in electric vehicles and is much more resistant to the electrical noise generated by the motors than is analog AM.

This is important information for automakers as they make decisions affecting radio technology in electric vehicles.

RW: What else should engineers know about these topics and the work in radio that NAB PILOT is doing?
Layer: An interesting recent development is the installation and upgrading of the PILOT radio test bed into the Technology Lab at NAB’s new headquarters building at 1 M Street SE in Washington, D.C.

This test bed, built for PILOT by Cavell, Mertz & Associates, was housed at their office in Manassas, Va., prior to this move, and while in Manassas was used for a number of important projects including co-channel interference testing for all-digital AM radio and testing of FM-band HD Radio mode MP11 which adds an additional 25 kbps of throughput to digital FM radio signals.

Bringing this facility to the new NAB building will provide us with new opportunities to use the test bed for technology demonstrations to NAB members and others, and will allow NAB and PILOT to continue exploring radio technology and assisting in its development.

The post Layer Reiterates Importance of Good, Consistent Metadata appeared first on Radio World.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation is putting the final touches on Tuesday’s presentation of the 46th Annual Gracie Awards.

The fete, which celebrates women in the industry who “continue to inspire and support
others, break down barriers, and lead by example in creating opportunities for
future generations,” will be hosted by Lauren Ash, the Canadian actress and comedian known for her role as “Dina” on the NBC sitcom Superstore.

The event, which will be held 7pm ET/PT on October 5, also features performances from recording artists Jewel and CeCe Winans.

The 46th Gracie Awards will stream exclusively at @AllWomenInMedia on Facebook.

The list of Presenters is as follows:

● Adam Rodriguez will present to Caitriona Baife.
● Angela Yee will present to Selenis Leyva and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
● Beth Behrs and Tichina Arnold will present to This Is Us
● Candice Patton will present to Sara Sidner
● Charissa Thompson will present to Erin Andrews
● Devery Jacobs will present to SciGirls
● Gabriel Iglesias will present to Gina Brillon
● Hailie Sahar will present to Between the World & Me
● Judge Judith Sheindlin will present to Robin Roberts
● Kandi Burrus will present to Hoda Kotb & Jenna Bush Hager and
Morgan Radford
● Kelly Hu will present to Mobituaries: Anna May Wong – Death of a
Trailblazer
● Marin Hinkle will present to Eve Lindley and Shannon Thornton
● Marla Gibbs will present to Black-ish
● Medalion Rahimi will present to The Estelle Show and Julie Anne
Robinson
● Omose Ighodaro, AWM Foundation & Ford Motor Company Fund
Scholarship Recipient to Mrs. America
● Paula Madison and Dr. Imani Walker will present to Lindsay Czarniak and
DeDe McGuire
● Yvette Nicole Brown will present to Kelly Clarkson, Alexa Mansour and
Aliyah Royale

Sponsors of the Gracie Awards include Crown Media, Ziploc, CNN, Apple Music,
FOX Sports, Premiere Networks, Katz Media Group, NCTA – The Internet &
Television Association, Meruelo Media, Beasley Media Group, Marketplace and
TEGNA.

At present, the FCC is conducting a review of its broadcast and cable Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules and policies.

As such, it is accepting comments on the matter, officially known as “MB Docket No. 98-204.”

For Foster Garvey PC and a coalition comprised of 18 licensees, the Commission’s proposed rule for how the Commission can recommence the collection of data on the Broadcast Station Annual Employment Report needs an update.

The gender choices listed simply aren’t enough, given today’s USA.

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Click image to enlarge.

The author is executive director, broadcast technology at Xperi Corp.

As broadcasters, we often limit our perception of radio to audio programming. But we shouldn’t.

Jeff Detweiler

Today, Radio Data Systems (RDS) and HD Radio technology mean that data can be sent over the air through radio’s cost-effective and reliable, one-to-many delivery system. Each week, radio broadcast touches the lives of over 93% of the U.S. population, with no point-to-point connection, conveying simplex data effortlessly to a single unit or millions of devices.

Because it’s scalable, broadcasters can add millions of new data “listeners,” without increasing infrastructure costs or reducing existing service quality, for analog and digital broadcasts.

While FM analog RBDS services offer limited data, text or messaging, HD Radio technology enables digital audio programs and much higher levels of data services to automobiles, homes and portable devices. In other words: digital radio IoT.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things, or IoT, has service providers who want to deliver content over a secure cost-effective platform, but security is a big concern.

At present, most connected devices allow bidirectional communication, with vulnerability to hacking. Configuration data, including personal information, may be exposed. Plus, there is the challenge of keeping those devices connected on in-home networks.

Unidirectional communication can mitigate these challenges: device applications can benefit from a one-way secure communication path.

Green initiatives

Recent regulations on Green House Gas (GHG) emissions mandate an energy shift from fossil fuels to an already oversubscribed electrical power grid, impacting electric energy pricing, billing and consumption. Radio is poised to play a significant role in this changing landscape.

On Aug. 5, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order targeting that 50% of all automobiles be zero-emission by 2030, jump-starting a dramatic shift toward EVs. In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order banning all in-state sales of gasoline-fueled vehicles by 2035. In addition, the California Air Resources Board, Natural Gas (NG) plans to tighten rules on natural gas for home heating and hot water, effective in 2023.

Real-time demand/response

The proliferation of electric vehicles, and the shift from gas-fired heating to electric, will further burden an already overtaxed power grid. Constructing new generation plants, or adding battery storage, comes at a high cost to utilities, without addressing the variable nature of the load.

Creation of an intelligent demand/response network for managing power usage offers a solution. How? Providing real-time energy pricing to devices means they become “smarter” about energy cost, use and charging decisions — and this is where radio has a critical role to play.

The Consumer Technology Association has defined CTA-2045 as a modular communications interface (MCI) to facilitate communications with residential devices for applications such as energy management.

Among these are:

• Electric Vehicles (EV) charging systems
• Water Heaters
• Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
• Emergency shutdown of electricity and gas
• Smart City Lighting management and control
• Pool and spa pumps
• Autonomous vehicles
• Connected car

As the number of electric vehicles increases, peak use will exceed the design limits of the electric grid, overloading it with potentially disastrous consequences, including wildfires that cause loss of life and property. Rolling blackouts in California have become commonplace to reduce these risks.

Smart charging systems and utility control data mean EV chargers could manage charging times to avoid peak power demands, optimize charging costs. This requires tight collaboration between the auto industry, electricity providers, and data service companies, which is where radio can be indispensable: conveying pricing and control data. While this data distribution may not be exclusive to radio, it just may be the best fit due to security, reliability and cost concerns.

The competitive landscape

Sending 1 MB of data to 10,000 IoT devices requires 1 GB capacity for cellular, BUT only 1 MB for radio.

While 5G’s capacity and interconnectivity can offer advantages to connected cars and personal entertainment, 5G, like the power grid, may be oversubscribed before it reaches mass adoption. In 2020, connected cars and autonomous vehicles will generate 380 GB/hour to over 5 TB/hour of data, according to the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium.

A limitation on 5G networks is that they are yet to be fully deployed. 5G build-out in high population density and urban locations may be cost-effective for providers, but suburban and rural deployment will be a challenge given low population density and high rollout costs.

This is an opportunity for radio broadcasters, who offer broad reach through over 2,400 digital HD Radio stations, as well as scalability and reliability.

Today, through HD Radio data technology, stations are already transmitting real-time traffic and weather data directly to car navigation systems. Multiple automakers are working with HD Radio technology developer, Xperi Corp., to investigate, demonstrate and test additional data services, including software and ECU updates, map updates, navigation corrections, customer relationship management and more.

What is needed

Several components need to coalesce to achieve digital radio IoT. These include a content distribution system and a backend that enables service providers to connect to local radio stations or subscribers to provide content over available data bandwidth.

Radio stations could register to participate in data services and allow part of their data capacity to be used for services or applications. For example, an application provider (utility, city management, etc.) could have a data service or application that needs to communicate to their devices. The cloud distribution system would manage the data input and then route to the appropriately registered stations in the given market. Authentication, scheduling, and routing would happen automatically. The radio station simply has to configure their HD Radio Importer to open the available data ports. This data content distribution system has been prototyped and is operational in selected markets.

At the consumer end is a low-cost, low-power HD Radio-enabled IoT receiver module in the form of a plug-in card for an existing CTA-2045 compatible smart appliance or, ultimately, built-in to the appliance circuit board. The IoT module scans the band, detecting the application’s required data service. Once data is available, the HD Radio IoT device pulls the appropriate data from the digital broadcast and provides the content to the smart appliance application.

Xperi is testing this end-to-end system in several markets, gathering data on coverage and data reliability to create Quality of Service (QoS) metrics for these data applications. Xperi, together with the broadcast community and our development partners, looks forward to bolstering radio’s future with digital radio IoT, providing game-changing, cost-efficient and reliable data transmission services.

The post Radio Broadcasting and the Internet of Things appeared first on Radio World.

This article originally appeared in the Nov. 19, 2014, issue of Radio World and was posted on this website Nov. 26, 2014, a nice Thanksgiving treat. See More of John’s Schneider’s Roots of Radio.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch employee reads the facsimile newspaper received over W9XZY. An RCA printer is shown. The black roller at the top contains the used carbon paper after the page has been printed. Wide World Photo, 1938.

In the beginning, there were newspapers.

And then radio arrived, challenging the newspapers’ journalistic monopoly.

At first, many newspapers fought the new competitor, refusing to print radio news or program schedules. But some went in the opposite direction, deciding to operate their own radio stations to augment their businesses. And finally, a few brave pioneering publications went even farther: They tried to deliver their newspapers via radio facsimile.

In the early 1930s, radio facsimile looked like the dream application for newspapers. They could use their own local radio stations to deliver newspapers directly to consumers during overnight hours. It would eliminate the cost of printing and distribution and shift those costs onto consumers, who would provide their own printers and paper.

A home user receives a Detroit News bulletin from WWJ on her Finch facsimile printer, 1938. Courtesy of the Detroit News archives.

This led several radio stations and newspapers to experiment with facsimile transmission during the late 1930s.

THE FINCH SYSTEM
The person most responsible for this technology was William G. H. Finch. He worked for the International News Service and set up their first teletype circuits between New York, Chicago and Havana. He became interested in facsimile machines and eventually amassed hundreds of patents.

In 1935, he established Finch Telecommunications Laboratories to build and market his system. Although RCA had already developed a facsimile system, it was only focused on its commercial possibilities. Finch envisioned the delivery of newspapers to the public via radio facsimile.

The Finch system circumvented RCA’s patents in several ways.

First, image details were transmitted by varying the amplitude of an audio tone, instead of its frequency.

An example of a news bulletin received on the Finch system.

Second, it recreated the image by generating an electric current at the tip of a stylus to trace the image onto thermally sensitive paper (the origins of the thermal paper still used by cash registers today). Synchronization between the transmitter and receiver used the 60 Hz line frequency. The Finch scanning head focused a pinpoint scanning spot on the document. A motor moved the scanner across the page while another motor advanced the page at the end of each scanning line. Low-frequency sync pulses were inserted at the end of each line. The result was an audio signal that could be fed into any conventional AM transmitter.

Finch receivers sold for $125 and were housed in a one-foot-square wooden box that could be connected to the speaker of any radio receiver. The images were drawn onto a continuous roll of thermal paper 5 inches wide that sold for one dollar and would last about a week. The process was slow, taking about 20 minutes to print a 12-inch page, but a timer was used to capture the transmissions from a local AM station during overnight hours. Six hours overnight was enough time to print a six-page, two-column news bulletin.

Several stations received FCC permission in 1937 and 1938 to experiment with the Finch system. The first was KSTP in St. Paul, Minn. It was followed by WHO in Des Moines, Iowa; WGH in Newport News, Va.; WOR in New York; WGN in Chicago; WHK in Cleveland; WSM in Nashville, Tenn.; and WWJ in Detroit.

McClatchy Newspapers published the Radio Bee over KFBK in Sacramento and KMJ in Fresno, Calif. It required a staff of seven to produce the radio newspaper, and McClatchy bought 100 Finch receivers to distribute to listeners.

RCA ADAPTS
RCA, sensing it had missed an opportunity, quickly adapted its system for use by broadcasters.

The RCA Radio Facsimile system was displayed in the RCA Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, 1939.

The RCA system went into operation overnights on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s station KSD in St. Louis in 1937. By late the following year, the service moved to an experimental ultra-high-frequency station, W9XZY, transmitting on 31,600 kHz with 100 watts. It had a range of about 20 miles. By using a dedicated transmitter for facsimile, the transmissions could be made during daytime hours, and so the Post-Dispatch transmissions now took place at 2 p.m. Also, ultrahigh frequencies were less susceptible to radio static, which greatly disrupted the received image quality. RCA provided 15 receivers for the experiment, placing them at Washington University and in St. Louis area homes.

The receivers sold for $260 each and combined an ultra-high frequency receiver and facsimile printer into a single cabinet that had no controls or adjustments — the user simply kept the receiver supplied with rolls of carbon paper and white printing paper. RCA also demonstrated its facsimile system at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, transmitting special “Radiopress” bulletins daily over WOR.

CROSLEY GETS IN THE GAME
At the same world’s fair, Crosley Radio Corp. surprised everyone by introducing its own facsimile machine called the “Reado,” with two models selling for $60 and $80. (A timer to turn the unit overnight cost an additional $10.)

A Crosley Reado with a shortwave receiver and Finch facsimile printer (removed from its cabinet) at WWJ in Detroit, 1940. Courtesy of the Detroit News archives.

Powel Crosley had licensed the Finch technology and made some changes to reduce the cost. He produced an initial stock of 500 units and made plans to turn out up to 1,000 units a day. He began Reado facsimile transmissions during overnight hours over 500,000-watt WLW, which continued until 1942.

Most radio facsimile transmissions soon shifted from the AM band to the ultrahigh frequencies. About a dozen of these experimental stations were built, including the Milwaukee Journal station WTMJ, which transmitted over W9XAF.

Nonetheless, it soon became clear that radio facsimile was a technological dead end.

An engineer at W9XZY in St. Louis prepares an RCA scanner for the transmission of a news bulletin in 1938 in this photo from the author’s collection.

Despite all the promotion and hype, the public had neither asked for, nor cared about, the technology.

Receivers were expensive, suffered from frequent paper jams and outages, and were subject to content loss due to static.

To make matters worse, there were two incompatible standards fighting for market dominance.

Further, advertisers didn’t want to risk their money on the new medium, preferring the safety of traditional media.

The World War II paper shortages caused most facsimile stations to cease operations, and when the war was over, it was all but forgotten in the rush to build the new television industry. An attempt to bring it back on the FM band found no takers.

William Finch’s company went into bankruptcy in 1952, and RCA eventually took over many of his patents. Finch died in Florida in 1990 at the age of 93.

John Schneider is a lifelong radio history researcher. Write the author at jschneid93@gmail.com. See other photos from his collection. Click on the Roots of Radio tab atradioworld.comunder Columns.

The post A Look Back at the Radio Newspaper of the Air appeared first on Radio World.