Industry News

Jutel is highlighting new technical architecture for its RadioMan platform. It is a virtual browser-based radio production and playout system built in the cloud.

The company said web-native technologies and architecture enable more flexible deployment models.

“RadioMan users can move freely in-between different locations, as laptops and tablets are used as a thin clients to access RadioMan virtually through a web browser,” it states on its website.

The system can deploy in a cloud environment, on physical hardware or as a hybrid.

“Every radio station can benefit from taking out expensive on-site hardware and moving to virtual environments, especially small, pop-up, temporary and web-only radio stations. Instead of having expensive on-site infrastructure throughout many locations, RadioMan allows for the infrastructure to move to one centralized location.”

It said RadioMan also allows the user to access it using any browser on any thin client. “With older systems, users tried to access one machine, which created a bottleneck that slows processes down considerably,” it said.

“However, RadioMan’s built-in load balancer allows the user to redirect HTTP traffic across the load-balanced back-end infrastructure. The back-end itself is run on Apache web servers and the messaging between the front and back-end infrastructure is controlled via web-native ActiveMQ messaging.”

The company deployed PostgreSQL database with RadioMan 6 to make it more affordable and easier to deploy.

The HTML interface runs inside the RadioMan deployment and there is no need for third-party plug-ins. The REST API allows for a user to build interactivity so that MAM, traffic and newsroom systems can be integrated with RadioMan.

Jutel, based in Finland, was founded in 1984 by Jorma and Reijo Kivelä and their business partner Timo Turunen, founded the company in 1984. The first RadioMan was introduced in 1992.

The post Jutel RadioMan Gets New Architecture appeared first on Radio World.

He joined Fox Corporation in 2019 as Executive Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel.

Now, he will oversee the company’s legal function as Claudia Teran remains Executive VP and Corporate General Counsel, as well as General Counsel of FOX Sports.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Its Twitter feed brags that it is “the most engaging college in the nation by The Wall Street Journal, 5 years in a row!”

Soon, however, it will be minus a medium used since 1968 “to proclaim God’s Word to generations of listeners.”

That’s because its owner, a university in Iowa, is selling the 100kw Class C1 facility.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Software company Radio Workflow has a new chief executive officer and has added sales and support offices in Billings, Mont., and Davenport, Iowa.

The firm is based in New Jersey and also has a presence in Australia.

Fletcher M. Ford is the new CEO; he joined Radio Workflow as a partner in 2020. The company did not have a CEO prior.

“Other members of the key management team will be Robert Maschio, director of sales, and Shane Zammit, director of product,” the company stated in an announcement. Those three also are the owners.

The company makes sales, traffic, billing and production software and recently introduced a browser-based traffic and billing system. It also plans the launch of a site called MyRadioDeals.com.

[Related: “Radio Workflow Provides Dividends to Regional Media”]

The post Radio Workflow Names Ford as CEO appeared first on Radio World.

A new NBCUniversal event that promised to “unite the power of the media and entertainment industry with the solutions focus of a developer conference” went off without a virtual hitch on Monday morning.

And, as hyped since early February, the global ONE21 gathering offered marketers a showcase of the insights, stories, technology and data into how the entire Comcast NBCUniversal Sky family sees commerce shaping the connection between content and advertising.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Prior to mid-February, it would have been a major market coup for a Talk station in need of a boost. Today, it only begs the question of why, and for how long, the Talk station has committed to a show with an expiry date.

The Rush Limbaugh Show, starting today, is now heard on a Talk station in the biggest city in the U.S. by square miles. It was previously heard on a crosstown News/Talker that has prepared for life without Rush.

Has iHeart or program syndicator Premiere Networks?

Now in the noon to 3pm time slot on WBOB-AM 600 in Jacksonville, a 50kw Class B blowtorch by day from 2 towers with 9.7kw at night from five towers is The Rush Limbaugh Show.

The AM’s signal stretches from Gainesville up past Savannah, Ga., and to much of the Charleston, S.C., market. But it boasts an FM translator — W266CX at 100.1 MHz in southeast Jacksonville — that gives WBOB all-important MHz coverage.

The program as today continues on with pre-recorded snippets of the late Rush Limbaugh, with Brett Winterble, Todd Herman and Ken Matthews taking turns setting up the content. Premiere has indicated this will continue until a transition to a new offering to its affiliates.

For Cox Media Group‘s WOKV-FM, the dominant spoken word FM along Florida’s First Coast, that wasn’t good enough.

Local personality Mark Kaye, who 4 1/2 years ago shared with RBR+TVBR five reasons why Snapchat matters for Radio, officially replaced Limbaugh’s program by shifting to the Noon-3pm time slot on WOKV today (3/22).

Kaye had been previously hosting the 10am-Noon shift on WOKV, following his morning co-host role on Cox Top 40 sibling WAPE-FM. Kaye is no longer heard on the pop music station.

With Cox’s decision to move on from the late Limbaugh, WBOB had an opportunity. With local market rights to the show now available, should it benefit from the now-deceased host as long as it can?

The answer for PD Gary Walsh and WBOB owner Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting Corp. was a definitive “yes.”

“Rush Limbaugh is a pioneering force in broadcasting,” said WBOB GM Jonathan McClellan. “He redefined talk radio and shaped the conservative political message for our country. We value the future of his legacy, and we believe his talented team will
drive the momentum of the movement far into the future. We welcome this monumental
voice.”

To bring Limbaugh to WBOB, The Dennis Prager Show was bumped.

Thus, WBOB has elected to replace a living Talk host’s program with that of a deceased one … for now. What’s on the table for WBOB could very well involve what Premiere decides to offer once it fully moves on from Limbaugh.

WBOB’s owner, Chesapeake-Portsmouth, is led by Nancy Epperson. She has family ties to Salem Media Group. But the lone involvement Salem has with WBOB is as a syndicated programming source. Following Limbaugh, America First with Sebastian Gorka, syndicated by Salem, airs in the 3pm-6pm slot. Mornings at WBOB are helmed by veteran local talk host and journalist Ed Dean.

While WBOB has elected to invest in Limbaugh’s legacy as a path for growth, Cumulus Media‘s rival to Premiere Networks, Westwood One, is in attack mode. On May 24, The Dan Bongino Show will be launched as a Noon-3pm Eastern offering. And, the show will air in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., where WMAL-FM has been a key bastion for conservative Talk in the Nation’s Capital.

“Critical Trends in Transmission” will be on the docket in the radio sessions of the Pro Audio & Radio Tech Summit on April 1.

The summit is a one-day online event that is free and also includes a track about pro audio plus virtual exhibits. (Register here.)

“We’re pleased to welcome Geoff Mendenhall and John Kean, two of broadcast’s most respected engineers, to talk about transmission topics in our 30-minute roundtable,” said Radio World Editor in Chief Paul McLane.

“Both of these gentlemen have been recipients of the NAB Radio Engineering Award; both have authored chapters in the NAB Engineering Handbook, among their many other accomplishments,” he said.

“We’ll have a discussion about the impact of the DTV spectrum repack in radio, the opening of all-digital as an option on the AM band, and audio streams on ATSC 3.0. We’ll also touch on the transport of FM composite baseband via IP networks, the growing interest in single-frequency networks and the possible impact of hybrid radio.”

Geoffrey N. Mendenhall, P.E., is an RF engineering consultant who has spent most of his 55-year career developing broadcast equipment technology for leading manufacturers. His many contributions have made him one of the industry’s best-known experts on FM transmission. He has authored over 50 technical papers on broadcast technology.

John Kean is a member of Cavell Mertz and Associates and has 45 years in television and radio technology. He is former senior technologist at National Public Radio, where he directed network projects and technical studies at NPR Labs, which he helped found. He also has done consulting engineering with Jules Cohen and Associates and with Moffet Larson and Johnson. He is active with the Audio Engineering Society and National Radio Systems Committee.

Register for free here.

The post Summit Explores Trends in Transmission appeared first on Radio World.

WMMS, WTAM and the other iHeart stations in Cleveland will get a new home this year. The company will move its regional office, including nine stations, downtown from the suburbs.

The stations involved are WMMS(FM), WTAM(AM/FM), WMJI(FM),  WGAR(FM), WHLK(FM), WAKS(FM), WKAS(HD2) and WARF(AM).

“The new location will be at 668 Euclid Avenue and will include a 10-year agreement lease with K&D Group,” the company said in a release.

The company currently has offices in the suburb of Independence, where it moved in March 2001.

It released these images showing the planned layout.

“The new agreement will move iHeartMedia Cleveland’s nine radio stations, along with the company’s sales, marketing, digital and Total Traffic operation to the new state-of-the-art street-level facility,” it stated. “The new offices are scheduled to open by the end of 2021.”

It said this will move more than 100 employees to downtown.

The announcement was made by Keith Hotchkiss, president of iHeartMedia Cleveland.

The post iHeart Will Move Cleveland Stations Downtown appeared first on Radio World.

PORTLAND, ORE. — A Nexstar Media Group TV station has launched its first podcast.

It’s part of a bigger plan to provide those in the Pacific Northwest’s second-largest market a local look at the six things they need to know … that they may not get from the abundance of full-power and low-power radio stations or the Oregonian newspaper as they start their day.

Introducing The Daily 6 from KOIN-6, the CBS affiliate serving Portland.

It marks the station’s first daily podcast, and will be released every morning at 7:15am Pacific.

The podcast is part of the KOIN Podcast Network. It’s a hub for on-demand weather reports and Beyond the Headlines reports, which have appeared sporadically as part of the beta test of the network.

The reports are audio-focused. One is hosted by Ian Costello.

Listening to the podcasts can be done from KOIN’s website or via popular platforms including Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay, Spotify, Stitcher and Podbean.

— Joshua Dudley

The Leon Black leadership era at the company that holds a majority stake in Cox Media Group has abruptly come to an end.

Nearly eight weeks after a Apollo Global Management “Conflicts Committee” and its board of directors completed a previously announced independent review of its Chairman and CEO’s previous professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — the convicted sex offender tied to the trafficking of minors who died in prison, Black has officially abdicated the top role at Apollo.

It comes several months ahead of the transition plan released in January.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)