Industry News

Two radio station licensees in Florida have received notices of violation from the Federal Communications Commission for spurious emissions.

In one case, the commission believes a low-power FM station was causing interference to aviation frequencies at Orlando International Airport. In that instance, the Enforcement Bureau issued a notice of violation to WBVL(LP) in Kissimmee, Fla., licensed to Sucremedia Inc.

The commission says the Federal Aviation Administration began receiving interference to aviation frequencies on Dec. 15, 2020. The interference was reported to the Enforcement Bureau on Dec. 26. The next day, the bureau’s Miami office investigated.

It said WBVL is licensed on 99.7 MHz at a maximum effective radiated power of 89 Watts, but the FCC said its agents measured excessive spurious emissions from the station transmitter on six frequencies — 114.145, 115.850, 118.385, 120.995, 134.585 and 135.765 MHz.

The rules in this situation require that the LPFM stop operations within three hours. The FCC says it made numerous attempts to contact the station but that WBVL didn’t go off the air until at least 41 hours later.

Once WBVL was off the air, the interference to the Orlando International Airport ceased.

In a separate case this week the Miami office issued a notice to Cornerstone Broadcasting Corp. for spurious emissions on 133.0626 MHz that the FCC attributes to Cornerstone’s FM translator at 97.3 in Deland, Fla. That translator serves WJLU(FM) in New Smyrna Beach.

In both cases the FCC has instructed the licensees to provide information about the emissions and any steps they have taken to resolve the situation, while reserving the option of taking further action.

The post Fla. LPFM Gets Interference Notice appeared first on Radio World.

The “only programming network dedicated to the active adventure lifestyle in the United States” is saying goodbye to a low-power analog TV station it owns in the Reno, Nevada DMA.

The buyer? The entity that now controls the brand associated with this over-the-air station that in 2003 successfully won a carriage complaint in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., against Charter Communications.

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On Monday (3/2), RBR+TVBR learned that The E.W. Scripps Co. had added their digital multicast networks onto stations it has obtained through its blockbuster acquisition of ION Media.

While this immediately created a doubling up of clearance for certain networks, it is now known that it’s only temporary.

Scripps is launching two new national TV networks as the company says it continues to capitalize on its position “as a full-scale national television company.”

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BOCA RATON, FLA. — She currently serves as Regional President of Entercom Communications‘ Gainesville, Fla.; Memphis; Miami; and Orlando markets, where she has served as Market Manager.

With Orlando’s “105.9 Sunny FM” a ratings monster, that success has led Entercom to give this local leader more duties by tacking on Market Manager responsibilities for South Florida.

At the same time, Entercom is welcoming a new SVP/Market Manager for its six Boston stations.

In the Sunshine State, Claudia Menegus is taking on more responsibilities, as she will now also oversee Entercom’s Miami-Fort Lauderdale cluster.

The stations are comprised of former Beasley Media Group (later, CBS Radio) and Lincoln Financial Media properties:  Adult Contemporary WLYF-FM, Classic Hits WMXJ-FM “102.7 The Beach,” Alternative WSFS-FM “104.3 The Shark,” Sports twins WQAM-AM 560 “The Joe” and WAXY-AM 790 “The Ticket,” Rhythmic Top 40 WPOW-FM “Power 96,” and Country WKIS-FM.

“I look forward to leading our Miami market and its seven premier brands,” said Menegus, who has been overseeing Entercom/Miami on an interim basis since Keriann Worley resigned in late October 2020 as SVP/Market Manager. “Collectively, these stations and our talent embody the local spirit of Miami, giving listeners a home for entertainment and information each and every day. I’m proud to have the opportunity to work with these brands and our talented Miami team, reimagining new possibilities and connecting with our consumers and community.”

Worley had been overseeing Entercom/Miami since November 2017, and was Director of Sales for stations Beasley had spun to CBS Radio and were added to the Entercom family upon the completion of the two companies’ tax-free merger.

Menegus is a 22-year broadcast veteran, with 18 of those years spent at CBS Radio. During her tenure with CBS Radio, Menegus spent 14 years in various roles in the Baltimore market.  Menegus also developed the CBS Radio Baltimore Marketing Group, a vehicle to expand non-traditional platforms, venue sponsorships, and sports marketing with Baltimore Ravens players, providing exclusive sponsorship programs and raising awareness for their foundations. In 2014, she was appointed as Director of Integrated Marketing for CBS Radio Corporate overseeing the Events and Experiences Division in 15 markets. Menegus began her career with Infinity Broadcasting in Tampa, which later merged with CBS Radio.

Meanwhile, Entercom/Boston Regional President Mark Hannon is welcoming Tim Clarke, an Asian American, as SVP/Market Manager.

Clarke, who as of March 15 will oversee Classic Hits WBGB-FM “Big 103,” AC WMJX-FM “Magic 106.7,” Hot AC WWBX-FM “Mix 104.1,” and Sports WEEI-AM & FM and WVEI-AM, joins Entercom after previously serving as VP of Content and Audience for Cox Media Group (CMG).

In this role, he oversaw all content, programming, marketing and digital audience strategies for the company’s radio properties.

Prior to that, Clarke was Senior Director of Digital Audience, where he was responsible for digital content, audience and product strategy for CMG’s radio stations.

At Cox Media Group, Clarke also held the roles of Director of Branding and Programming for WPOI-FM “Hot 101.5” in Tampa and served as Director of Social Media for all six of CMG’s Tampa properties. Previously, he served as Program Director at CMG’s Top 40 WAPE-FM in Jacksonville and as Music Director for CMG’s Top 40 sibling on Long Island in New York, WBLI-FM.

In the nation’s fourth-largest radio market, Camarillo, Calif.-based Salem Media Group owns and operates three AM radio stations — two of which offer secular programming.

Soon, two more AMs will be added to the mix. And, it is a safe bet the stations will retain their religious focus.

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Imperative Audio has launched its first product, the PVB, a portable vocal booth. The booth is designed to provide the space and acoustics of a typical vocal booth, but in a collapsible form factor.

Intended for podcasters, recording pros, singers, voiceover artists and broadcasters, the PVB sports a light aluminum cylindrical design with a circumference of 324 centimeters/127.5 inches and an opening of 80 centimeters/31.5 inches, making it spacious enough accommodate performers for extended periods without a claustrophobic atmosphere.

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

When its five legs are retracted, the PVB sits at 118 centimeters/46.5 inches and can be used for amp isolation and miking in the studio. At full height with its legs extended, the PVB stands at 210 centimeters/83 inches, and it can be used with an open top or with an optional acoustically treated roof that can be added securely. The roof features a channel which allows users to lower an overhead mic stand into the booth. The vocal booth ships with an accessory bar, bookstand, storage bag and for a limited period, a free LED light.

Inside, the booth features three layers of acoustic treatment; when used with the optional roof, the PCB offers a reported 0.07 secs reflection time (RT60 in accordance with ISO 3382-2 Measurements) and an average of 28.4 dBa reduction (One-Third-Octave Spectrum LZeq in accordance with IEC 61260).

The PVB runs $1,499.

Info: https://imperativeaudio.com

 

The post Imperative Audio Launches PVB Portable Vocal Booth appeared first on Radio World.

Circle City Broadcasting has gained notice across the U.S. thanks to its owner, African American owner and CEO DuJuan McCoy. Its two stations include the CW Network affiliate serving Indianapolis.

Now, that station has figured out how to close-caption its content while being budget-minded in its selection process. In the end, WISH-8 went with ENCO.

As such, the station has begun to use the automated enCaption4 system from ENCO to meet its both its scheduled and late-breaking captioning needs.

Prior to adopting enCaption4, all of WISH-8’s closed captioning was done by human transcribers through a service company that would dial in to the station’s caption encoders. The huge amount of local news content WISH-TV produces – up to 12 hours per day – required a lot of dial-ins. With the rates charged by such services, the broadcaster’s captioning costs were very high.

“Our main goal wasn’t necessarily to save money, but more importantly to allow us to caption a greater majority of our content in a more cost-effective manner,” said Mike Selby, a staff engineer at WISH-8.

Selby had looked at automated speech-to-text technologies around eight years earlier but didn’t consider their accuracy good enough at the time. WISH-8 Chief Engineer Glenn Edwards kept following automated captioning technology. After reading a favorable review of ENCO’s enCaption4 system, the station took a closer look.

“We saw that enCaption4 would allow us to caption more of our programs for less money than we were paying for dial-in captioning, so we requested a demo unit for a trial,” Selby said. “It worked right out of the box and we were impressed with its accuracy.”

The station first used enCaption4 on the locally produced TV version of nationally syndicated radio program The Bob & Tom Show. It started airing on WNDY in October. Since then, they have expanded their use of enCaption4 across both WISH and co-owned sibling WNDY-23 in Indianapolis.

ENCO’s enCaption4 REST API gave WISH-8 the flexibility to set up their captioning operations exactly the way they desired and the ability to control enCaption4 through their own custom software.

“Our IT developer created an application that runs on a Raspberry Pi platform and enables us to easily start and stop the captioning process,” Selby said. “Our homebrew software also uses GPIOs on the Raspberry Pi to trigger the switching of our AJA KUMO router to the desired SDI source for our enCaption4 system, and to connect enCaption4 to the appropriate downstream caption encoder. In this manner, we can use our single enCaption4 system on our choice of the WISH, WNDY or control room signals.”

Most significantly, enCaption4 has enabled the broadcaster to expand its closed captioning to nearly all of its content.

“Having a machine that can handle all of our captioning needs is like a dream come true,” Selby said. “I’m impressed with how far the technology has come over the years. We had long hoped that someone would offer speech-to-text capabilities that work accurately enough for our on-air needs, so we could just hit a button and have it work.”

— Brian Galante

CALGARY — A new Subaru commercial by production company OPC, shot on a secluded mountainside in Banff National Park to the northwest of this Alberta, Canada, metropolis, was brought to life thanks to a “game-changing” CellSat connectivity service, a blended cellular and Ku-band IP satellite product expressly designed for remote broadcasting, communication and collaboration.

To bypass the logistical and financial challenges presented by limited cellular connectivity in remote shooting locations and the set-up and use of traditional satellite technology, B2B integrated connectivity company First Mile Technologies set up a flexible, portable workflow based around the Dejero CellSat service that not only delivered connectivity to and from set by dynamically blending cellular and satellite connections, but also allowed the team to collaborate in real-time, without interruption, using live streaming video from a set that would previously have been too remote to connect to.

“CellSat service streamlined every single aspect of critical communication and feedback for this job, by delivering resilient connectivity from a remote mountainside where usually the delivery of only a handful of stills would have been possible,” said Brandon Cooper, president, film and new media at First Mile Technologies. “This time, with Dejero CellSat, the team on set was able to receive real-time feedback, approvals, and general collaboration which isn’t normally feasible or affordable in extreme locations like this one. This type of technology is a revolution for the film and commercial production industry, allowing us to take things to the next level in terms of where we can film, at what cost, and the reliability and speeds at which we will be able to transfer video and data over a mix of cellular and satellite.”

During the shooting of this Subaru commercial, which included dynamic shots of driving, skiing and other active footage against the backdrop of the Canadian Rockies, First Mile Technologies set up an infrastructure that transported the camera feed from a Dejero EnGo mobile transmitter over the Dejero CellSat service to a Dejero WayPoint receiver at headquarters, where the stream was then sent to various platforms, including Zoom and First Mile’s own Web RTC platform for real-time, virtual collaboration.

In addition, Dejero CellSat provided enough bandwidth to support VoIP phone connectivity for the six people on set in Banff.

CellSat uses Dejero’s patented Smart Blending Technology which blends cellular connectivity from multiple mobile network providers with Ku-band IP satellite connectivity from Intelsat — delivering the bandwidth needed to transmit broadcast-quality video in real time. The CellSat service can be accessed from virtually anywhere in the United States and Canada.

“The use of the Dejero package, including CellSat and EnGo, was an integral solution for a remote Subaru commercial in the Canadian Rockies,” said John Scarth, line producer at OPC. “From a snow covered mountain top we were able to stream live to our offsite client with a low latency and rock solid connection. This technology allowed us to have a real time conversation with our client and work as though they were on set with us. With streaming becoming a key part of production, the Dejero platform is a turnkey solution for production in any environment.”

Faith Newton reported on this story from Calgary. Editing by Adam R Jacobson in Boca Raton, Fla.

Nova Scotia-based Nautel has announced a new series of webinars to be held on alternate Wednesdays in March.

The first Wednesday Webinar, tomorrow (3/3) at Noon Eastern, will cover “All-Digital AM featuring the NX Series.”

Following the FCC approval of the MA3 mode of all-digital AM broadcasting in October 2020, many broadcasters have asked what is involved in upgrading, what the different
modes mean, and if there is any benefit for their particular situation.

Nautel and selected guests will discuss these questions as well as equipment capabilities and potential directions for this technology.

FM Digital, featuring the Nautel HD MultiCast+ (HDMC+) HD Importer/Exporter, will be the
topic on March 17 at Noon Eastern.

“There is active discussion in the industry about the pros and cons of fixed purpose embedded hardware vs. software implementations, especially where HD Radio importer and exporter components are involved,” Nautel says. “This webinar will review the evolution of HD Radio for FM, the development and features of the HDMC+, and will cover some of the capabilities of this powerful tool.”

These Webinars join the continuing “Transmission Talk Tuesday” sessions hosted by Nautel’s
Jeff Welton. These round-table discussions bring different topics to the floor for participant input and questions, and feature guest panelists.

Upcoming sessions include an HD Primer on March 9 and a discussion of Single Frequency Networking on March 23. Each TTT Roundtable takes place on Tuesdays at Noon Eastern.

Advance registration is required on all Nautel Webinars and Transmission Talk Tuesday
discussions; visit https://nautel.com/webinars for more information. All Webinars and TTT
sessions qualify for ½ SBE recertification credit.

Every two years, the Federal Communications Commission now is required to publish a Communications Marketplace Report that assesses the state of competition across the broader communications marketplace in the United States. The FCC recently released the second such report.

Broadcasting is one of the many market segments included. The report makes for interesting reading and I recommend you check it out. The discussion of the audio market, including radio, appears on pages 142–156.

Here I thought I’d share six charts from the report that capture various aspects of the FCC’s discussion about trends in U.S. radio.

Station count

The FCC noted that the number of AM and FM stations licensed in the United States, below, has remained steady in recent years, while the number of LPFM stations has increased. It reminded readers that new stations are possible only through new allocations and award of licenses, either via an auction in the case of commercial stations, or a comparative system for non-commercial stations. (Also see my recent related story that compares the 2020 numbers to the year 2000.)

Top 10 radio station owners

To secure the highest ad rates and to compete for advertising market share, the FCC reminds us, stations strive to gain the largest audience of listeners possible to maximize the price for ad time sold. Below it ranks the top 10 largest radio station owners, by revenue.

“These owners control stations that are not confined to particular geographic regions; they are spread out across various geographical markets.” (And here’s a link to what the list looked like in 2006, though from a different research source.)

U.S. terrestrial radio revenue

The FCC observed that radio ad revenue had been virtually flat between 2010 and 2019 but that 2020 was expected to see a drop of around 15% due to the pandemic. “While these numbers are preliminary, the predicted decline in advertising revenue is substantial.”

The chart below also indicates that revenue never fully recovered from the recession following the 2008 financial crisis.

“In a recent report, S&P Global predicts that advertising revenue for terrestrial radio stations will face a tougher road to recovery from the pandemic-induced recession compared to broadcast television stations.”

The chart also captures the growth in revenue from online radio compared to OTA.

Stations by market size

The next image is a scatterplot of the number of stations within a market against the market size, measured by rank.

“The number of radio stations available decreases as the market size decreases, suggesting more choice in markets with higher populations. Not shown in the table, however, are additional choices that listeners have that include satellite and online radio …”

Programming formats for terrestrial radio

The commission said interference issues may have contributed to AM stations favoring talk formats relative to music; 63% of FMs identify with a music format, while only 34% of AM stations do. AMs favor Spanish and ethnic, news, sports, and talk. The percentages of stations that air religion are similar for AM and FM stations. Public and education format stations predominantly use FM. Nearly half of LPFMs are music; about 36% provide religious community programming.

US terrestrial and online radio weekly audience

“While broadcast terrestrial radio remains dominant in some respects … the gap in usage between broadcast terrestrial and online audio has declined over time.”

Over the past decade, the number of listeners to terrestrial radio grew annually around 0.55% on average, while annual growth in online radio was 29%. (Though part of online growth was due to listeners accessing AM/FM broadcasts online, the FCC said the figure below “illustrates the dynamic nature of audio as listeners continue to access online radio across a diverse range of devices.”)

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