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BOSTON — American Tower Corporation has closed its acquisition of CoreSite Realty Corporation.

It follows the completion of its previously announced tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of CoreSite.

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Add a Class B 1kw AM facility at 1600 on the dial, serving the Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tex., since 1948, to the list of senior-band radio stations that will be calling it quits instead of carrying on into 2022 and beyond.

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The high-profile cancellations of in-person expo hall booths at next week’s CES 2022 by some of the world’s biggest companies hit a new crescendo on Tuesday. One of the biggest advocates of radio advertising is cancelling its full-scale conference and expo plans as the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus continues to cause air transportation headaches alongside case surges in key locales — including Clark County, Nev.

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Despite the upheaval associated with the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to bring to everyone’s day-to-day lives television. It remains a primary source of news and entertainment, with U.S. viewers consuming on average more than three hours of TV per day, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Even with the growing number of viewing options available, including streaming and on- demand via smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other devices that can fragment audiences, WideOrbit Chief Product Officer Will Offerman can’t speak higher about broadcast TV. In his view, it is still the most effective method for reaching large numbers of consumers.

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A Class A FM radio station and its AM sibling with 1,000 watts of power, both of which serve the Missouri communities of Bonne Terre and Farmington, are being transferred to a new owner.

Thanks to a modified agreement between the buyer and seller, we now know how much more valuable the land, building, improvements and towers are, compared to the licenses and permits tied to the AM/FM combo.

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For a bit of holiday fun, Ken Deutsch, former jingle magnate and longtime Radio World contributor, has unleashed the latest in his series of airchecks of “Wonderful WORM,” a 1960s radio station that exists in his head.

Featuring the misadventures of DJ Johnny Lizard, the parody series is available for your listening pleasure.

Get ready for radio news item groaners like “A giant fly was seen attacking the Pomona Police Station. This morning the SWAT team had to be called in.” But it’s also an audio treat for those who loved the sound of AM radio in the 1950s and ’60s. Sound effects and audio drop-ins were sourced from films and records in his collection, and custom jingles for Wonderful WORM were again recorded.

Deutsch, aka Ken R., is former owner of recording studio in Ohio that for 20 years produced “re-sings” of PAMS jingles. He grew up a self-described jingle freak who started collecting jingles in 1964 and later lucked into the purchase of more than 3,000 reels of PAMS jingles, including the instrumental backing tracks.

The website JingleSamplers.com has more on that history and numerous jingle samplers.

 

The post Wonderful WORM Is Back appeared first on Radio World.

The Independent Broadcasters Association’s (IBA) Board of Directors has elected officers for the 2022-2023 term.

Founder Ron Stone was re-elected for a second term as President and Executive Director of the IBA. Two of the other officers were also re-elected: Darrell Calton, Chairman and Assistant Secretary; and Allen Dick, VP and Treasurer.

Tony Renda was elected as Secretary and Assistant Treasurer, replacing Mike Flood.

“I am very excited to have Tony Renda as one of our leaders in the next term,” Stone said. “Tony has been instrumental in helping the IBA with many of the initiatives we took on in our first two years. The IBA has succeeded in its first 18 months delivering many new ways for its members to save on operational cost, create new revenues, and benefit from all the professionals in the industry that are working with us. We have said from the beginning that a large independent membership provides scale and with scale we can deliver many great things for independent broadcasters. I am looking forward to working with our management team to establish new goals for the IBA for 2022 and 2023.”

For streamers the big concern is latency. You may ask what is it? Simply defined, latency is the time it takes to get from here to there.

Now to put it in the context for streaming, it is the time content leaves the source and is played out by the intended audience. For sports, low latency is desirable and necessary. Nobody wants someone knowing about a sports play before anybody else, even if we are talking minutes.

An example of very bad latency was in the 1973 film The Sting. The gambling house knew the results of the horse race before the bets were placed. Yes, that is not good nor desirable.

For streamers, latency develops as the content passes through devices on its transport to the audience.

Let’s consider a simple audio file. First, it is played out, then the audio is processed, and next it is encoded with metadata. Then the file is sent through the network switches and routers out to the internet.

Depending on your connection, the packets may make some additional stops before reaching the CDN, which then transcodes the packets and streams them to the audience’s network connection and finally to your audience.

Yes, this takes time!

[Related: “Loudness Recommendations Honored by AES”]

Because of this time, the audience can hear a delay. It is noticeable, especially if they are comparing the stream to over-the-air content. The trick is to get the amount of latency down to the point of acceptance.

To try to lessen the inherent delay, you can use the Softvelum Low Delay Protocol (SLDP). This is a last-mile delivery protocol.

Whether you are encoding an RTMP, SRT, RTSP, NDI, MPEG-TS, HLS, Icecast or SHOUTcast stream, the SLDP protocol at the player side will pass the content to the audience with sub-second delay. SLDP is supported by modern browsers that support Media Source Extensions (MSE).

SLDP is proprietary and must be decoded with a free HTML5 player and dedicated mobile application. A custom mobile app experience can be created by subscribing to a mobile specific SDK.

The SLDP protocol also allows for synchronized playback across devices, ensuring that all members of your audience are viewing the same media at the same time. This can be incredibly important for second screen usage at live events or for any kind of real-time broadcast that both low-latency and consistent experience are important.

With sports as a key example again, imagine two viewers in a room together watching on their own devices, both getting 1- to 2-second delays, but with one about half a second ahead of the other. Each exciting play or devastating mistake spoiled for the other viewer as the quicker of the two reacts first.

Synchronized low-latency not only gives your audience a great experience compared to traditional over-the-air broadcast, but also ensures you maintain the shared experience that would otherwise be lost when viewing streamed content.

Another way is to use WebRTC, which stands for Web-based Real Time Communications. WebRTC operates very similarly to SLDP, but the issue with this Google-developed open-source solution is there is not a standard implementation. Different services are not deploying it in the same way.

WebRTC is fast. A real-time latency could be below 500 milliseconds. WebRTC is also supported by many browsers and is native to iOS.

According to StreamGuys the advantage of SLDP is the standardization of deployment.

According to Eduardo Martinez, director of technology for StreamGuys, “When you use a purpose-built protocol for ultra-low latency streaming you can significantly cut down on the delay inherent in traditional segmented streaming protocols.”

When it comes to streaming of events, mainly sports and breaking news, the audience will not tolerate high latency. In this world of multiple streams, the streamer does not want to be slower than an over-the-air broadcast. To quote Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part.

The author is a consultant who has held technical broadcast and streaming positions for companies like Entercom and CBS Radio. 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. His commentaries are a recurring feature at radioworld.com.

The post Tips to Help Diminish Streaming Delay appeared first on Radio World.

On May 11, 1951, an AM radio station signed on the air under the ownership of David M. Segal. On that day, KDKD became the fifth station to be owned by Segal.

Today, the AM is part of the Radford Media Group, led by Clifford and Brittany Radford. And, at 5:15pm Central on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021, the Class D radio station that has served Clinton, Mo., to the southeast of Kansas City, will sign off the air forever.

Radford says the decision wasn’t up to them, but the entity that owns the KDKD-AM broadcast tower. That would be Crown Castle, the communications infrastructure provider that saw 2020 revenue of $5.84 billion and has a market capitalization of $88.67 billion on the NYSE.

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This week Radio World is featuring highlights of our 2021 ebooks. This article appeared in “Mission-Critical: Maintaining Your Transmitter Site.”

One hundred years is an impressive lifespan not just for any human but for any American industry.

The modern radio business has crossed that demarcation and, for us broadcast technocrats, it’s a moment of self-celebration, as our industry remains dependent on the technology that we supply.

In its first years, radio was so novel that it needed an understandable simile. Radio was like a newspaper without paper. It was like a town crier, delivering an abundance of useful information, interesting voices and sounds through the ether to everyone, everywhere.

To continue the romantic analogy, the voice of that crier is our transmitter, arguably the most important element in any station’s success story.

Like a lover, we want our transmitter to be reliable, durable and faithful.

But little useful or good happens in life by accident. Achieving high performance and trouble-free transmitter operation takes a thoughtful, attentive design and maintenance program.

Good engineering practice (GEP) in any discipline usually is a function of refinement. A century allows a long journey of refinement, inculcating a plethora of detailed methodology and techniques, culminating in a distilled corpus of best practices.

[Check Out More of Radio World’s Ebooks Here]

Let’s start at the beginning.

What does a transmitter do but take electric power and turn it into radio? Like baking a cake, bad components usually make a bad cake. Similarly, poor electric power makes for bad transmissions.

Let’s discuss power and best practices to achieve the goal of “perfect” power utilization.

Power to any broadcast installation can be divided into two universes, hard and soft. The former is supplied by a commercial utility, usually regulated by the government; the latter is generated locally and can come from a variety of sources.

Hard power

Gather and have ready access to all details concerning your electric supply. If power is lost, having information at hand will help you get your power back much more quickly.

The list includes direct phone numbers to the trouble section of your utility; your account numbers; whose name is on the account; the exact service address; your meter number; the format of your supply (e.g. 480 volt 3 phase in wye); who else might be on your supply (e.g. the two cell operators on your tower) and on common poles and transformer; the pole numbers; your priority position for restoration; the phone numbers of other site users so you can coordinate your complaints and requests, etc.

• Be aware of your power system. Inspect and review it routinely. Remove temporary connections and attachments soonest. Address points of failure and eliminate potential safety issues.
• One of my confreres tells a story of arriving to work on a hop system at a large common tower site. Looking around for a place to plug in his drill, he was told not to unplug a particular extension cord that ran from his hop equipment closet, out the door, through the hallway, into another station’s transmitter room, where STL equipment was plugged into this line.
• Seems they’d run out of outlets and this was the most convenient location to plug in — a point of failure for both users.
• Maintain your power system. Since your transmitter system will be on hard power 99.9% of the time, check at least annually for hot spots, especially around suspect locations including terminations in circuit breaker panels, on the CBs as well as on neutral and ground bar screws.
• Review grounding. Whenever you are inside your electrical system, review the wiring arrangements and take amprobe measurements such that the separation of neutral and ground paths are maintained.
• Our mantra is that current should flow in the neutral, no current should be flowing on the grounding paths. The last place where ground and neutral are common is most often in the main breaker panel or main metering where neutral is firmly bonded to (earth) ground. After this selected point, they must be kept separate.
• At least three ground systems should exist at every transmitter site, for power, signal and lightning grounding; we want them to function as separate entities. If these systems become intertwined, current flow becomes unpredictable and can be downright dangerous. Interconnections of these grounding systems, if necessary, should always be at just one point.
• Make certain in original installation as well as retrofits that your conductor and fusing sizes are appropriate. Remember that the National Electric Code addresses minimums to achieve a threshold of safety. More capacious systems are encouraged to accommodate your continuous and critical needs.
• Surge and lighting protection. Utility power is perfect as it leaves the power plant. It’s the haphazard distribution and ugly user loads in the real world that make for the noise, sag, phase imbalance and unattractive sine wave that we have to live with or correct.

Reactive loads (usually operated by others) on your supply system, especially if nearby, can produce horrible surges and sags that can be highly destructive to your plant.

Protection from these power energy extremes, like most electrical system design, is progressive: You have a main circuit breaker to protect the overall system, a panel board main circuit breaker to protect appliance branches fed from that panel, individual circuit breakers for each significant device, and then usually small current fuses on each piece of gear.

The best surge protection is similar in design, where a main surge suppressor to protect the site system is followed by panel board units and internally on critical individual items. Any piece of powered gear in the main stream of your signal should have surge protection.

Soft power

Your standby power source uses the same distribution system discussed in hard power, so we’ll focus on the actual power source.

Choose your source of supply carefully. Remember that a soft supply system may be overwhelmed by factors that a commercial electric supply, with its copious energy reservoir, can manage easily.

The issues most often overlooked are power factor, waveform and load variation.

Power factor usually is expressed as the ratio difference between the apparent power passing through the consumption system and the actual power consumed. The cause of the peak power which appears to be consumed is reactive components in the system.

An expressed number of 0.9 would let us know that about 10% more power appears to be consumed that actually is consumed for the operation of your transmitter site or some specific device like the transmitter.

This power is not lost, it is essentially returned to the generator. In commercial power, it goes all the way back to the hydro or nuclear plant’s generator that made the power; in your station, running on soft/standby power, this “reactive power” is returned to your UPS supply or engine-driven generator.

Although not consumed, this power still needs to be generated.

The prevalence of switching power supplies makes waveform purity a critical item.

A tremendous variation in this quality exists among soft power sources, and manufacturers now carefully annotate this as a separate performance specification. If it is not listed on the generator or UPS supply sheet, insist on having this data. Many UPS and switching supplies will not operate with dirty waveforms.

Just as critical to the selection process is the character of the load’s consumption.

Let’s take a simple example. Many years ago on a due diligence trip, we got to the transmitter at night, and in the course of the inspection we asked to see this station’s operation on their generator. With a 250 watt night signal, the notable varying load of two sets of beacon flashing caused the generator to gun every time the 2400 watts of beacon bulbs were brought online.

Although the generator ostensibly could handle the power demand on a nameplate basis, the varying load caused a hysteresis effect as the engine was stimulated to produce more horsepower to then produce more current and still maintain voltage.

Obviously this rhythmic up and down was not helpful to the plant’s overall performance and ultimately changes were made.

Today many FM stations still have Class A transmitter loads, where the transmitter draws essentially the same current all the time. However, many stations use transmitters (an abundance of AMs particularly) with amplifier classes going to digital Class D (or even E) where the power demand can go from nothing to max at a megahertz rate with even that extreme pulsing varying a time basis.

Between the factors delineated above, you should identify the capacity for handling power factor and complex loads carefully.

Broadcast operations are specialized. Even with the best outside professional help, sample the experiences of your peers and equipment manufacturer before you design, purchase or install any significant soft system.

Exercise and test your soft/standby system regularly on a disciplined periodic basis. As we learned from the space program, if you want the rocket to work perfectly one time, you need to design and build it to work a thousand times.

An important key to this is regular exercise under the total loads that will need to be supported if you lose commercial power.

At least annually but better quarterly, shut off commercial power and observe the entire procedure. How long does it take for the control system to recognize the power loss, for the engine to come to speed and acceptable voltage, for the station to stabilize and go through the steps to bring the station back on?

Support systems are an equally important part of the operation. Observe and inspect them at the same time. Do the louvers open properly and fully? Does the day tank pump bring up fuel correctly?

A long run of at least an hour in hot weather is appropriate to see if cooling and lubrication are functioning correctly.

Needless to say, but we’ll say it: Change oil and coolants on an annual basis. Test or change gasoline or oil annually.

A generator that does not run when needed is a monumental capital waste.

UPS batteries have a finite life.

Sealed, wet dielectric batteries have an optimal charging pattern. Because of the limited charge and deep discharge demands, they usually have a limited life.

To ensure reliability, there is no substitute for an actual deep discharge test where the batteries are taken to the voltage point where the UPS disconnects. Note the time time this takes under the expected loads and compare with the previous exercise. The battery and/or the UPS manufacturer should be able to supply performance data that will guide you in creating your replacement plan.

Change all batteries in an UPS at the same time.

Clearly mark all components.

The National Electric Code requires that all commercial outlets be identified as to panel and overcurrent device (fuse or circuit breaker).

In addition, clearly identify your various system components and their source of supply, especially when you make changes.

A quick if imperfect example of this came during the fast change-out of an FM transmitter. The main supply breaker (marked “FM transmitter”) was turned off and conductors in the conduit were being pulled out. For a few seconds, a scary shower of sparks flew out of the ceiling.

The first transmitter in the space had a separate circuit for its crystal heaters. This circuit was never removed and never turned off as it was not marked in the panel or rig.

Luckily no one was hurt.

Charles S. Fitch, P.E., is a longtime contributor whose articles about engineering concepts, DIY projects and radio history are a popular recurring feature in Radio World.

The post Your Power, Your Transmitter and You appeared first on Radio World.

The Dec. 22 issue of Radio World features our Buyer’s Guide for antennas, RF support and power products. Buyer’s Guide features application stories like this one.

Information Station Specialists says its newly available HPR.0990 Antenna is a temporary, auxiliary or emergency solution for AM broadcasters that need an affordable means of remaining on the air when a situation demands it. That might be because of loss of primary site, tower rebuild/failure, maintenance of translator authorization or a tower site move.

Pictured is the antenna in temporary use by KNBI(AM) in Monterey, Calif.

The station, which is branded as KMBY, was silenced due to reduced revenues during COVID and was donated to a nonprofit that then was unable to renegotiate the tower lease. So a temporary antenna solution was required. ISS says the 1240 signal is back on air from a commercial building’s roof in Monterey.

The HPR.0990 can transmit with up to 270 watts (carrier) with no ATU requirement due to its 50-ohm resonant design. A generous loading coil and capacitive top hat allow the antenna to be shorter (32 feet) and more efficient than antennas of similar design.

Its efficiency rating is up to 170 mV/m/km/1 kW. A 25-foot radius ground plane provides the required counterpoise. The antenna is tunable across a frequency range.

Local engineer and installer Mark Carbonaro said the antenna is relatively lightweight at 30 pounds and has durable, stainless steel assembly parts, important in a marine environment. The anodized finish is designed for harsh conditions. The sustained wind rating exceeds 100 mph. KNBI’s antenna survived 65-mph gusts from recent coastal windstorms.

The antenna is in stock at common frequencies for fast shipment. ISS said Carbonaro offers to answer questions about the antenna at markcarbonaro1@gmail.com.

Info: theRADIOsource.com, 616-772-2300 ext. 102, or email bill@theradiosource.com.

The post ISS HPR.0990 AM Antenna Does a Quick Stand-In appeared first on Radio World.

Here’s your 2022 Radio World Source Book & Directory.

Each year the Radio World editorial team compiles a directory of companies that offer products and services to support radio broadcast professionals.

Here is your 2022 edition. It includes an alphabetical company listing as well as a cross-index by types of product or service. The companies you’ll find here are your source for audio processors, remote control systems, transmitters, microphones, air lights, contracting, integration services, the list goes on.

We hope you find this a helpful resource. Thank you for being a Radio World reader!

Read it here.

The post Radio World’s 2022 Source Book & Directory appeared first on Radio World.

Dave “Chachi” Denes, the President and co-founder of radio imaging, production library, programming and jingles company Benztown, is the latest audio content and distribution industry executive to share why he’s attending CES 2022.

What is Chachi looking forward to by traveling to Las Vegas to the mega-conference and expo? Is there one thing in particular that radio industry executives should keep their eye on?

Chachi shares his thoughts in this InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Dave “Chachi” Denes” on Spreaker.

An international linear advertising-based video on demand service headquartered in the far north of Germany is launching both its web application and an app for Android devices as it looks forward to a 2022 arrival in North America.

Kiel-based FAST+AVOD entity rlaxx TV in early December launched its app for iOS and the iPad. As such, it is now available on nearly every smart TV in target markets across Europe and the U.K., as well as Turkey, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

“What we have achieved since September 2020 makes us very proud,” says Ronny Lutzi, CEO and founder of rlaxx TV. “Within a year, we have launched our app on almost every internet-enabled device, in addition to the 24 countries we will be available in by the end of the year. With these final 2021 launches we are keeping our promise and very ambitious annual goal to offer a laid-back experience for viewers in all forms of presentation.”

By the week, rlaxx TV hopes to have services to Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland up and running. This makes NATPE Miami, from January 18-20, 2022, a potentially important event for rlaxx TV. A rollout in the U.S. and Canada is planned for the first quarter of 2022.

The marketing team at rlaxx TV calls its content “premium niche.” Current media partners include international holders of video and TV rights for Vevo Pop, Nitro Circus, Gusto TV, Street League Skateboarding, Comedy Dynamics, People TV, New KPop, New KFood, and PowerNation TV. Thus, rlaxx TV relies on a global network of content partners.

NATPE Miami could bring new relationships.

Unlike other design disciplines, sound design is partly created live during a show.

The cast can change. A performer isn’t 100%. Perhaps there’s a sub in the band. Even the size of the audience, or the weather can have a huge impact on the sound of a show.

It’s no wonder that most sound designers were sound engineers. The upcoming Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry Conference (EPIC), a virtual affair, will offer fresh insight into how the person behind the mixing board is both an artist and an engineer — one who needs all their right and left brain power to create the best audio landscape.

AUDIO ENGINEERS & DESIGN: TECHNICIANS & ARTISTS is one panel that Weekly Tech Roundup readers may have a particular interest in.

This panel of engineers, technicians, and designers (including Jessica Paz, the first woman to win a Tony Award for sound design, with “Hadestown”) will discuss the work they do in their dual roles as technician and artist.

The EPIC event offers four content zones across its upcoming live-streamed event, scheduled for January 10, 2022. Sessions will be available on demand until February 12. Among the better-known participants: Billy Porter, the acclaimed Broadway actor, in a Mainstage Session for all attendees. 

The sessions start at 9am Eastern on January 10.

 

More info and ticket information may be found at www.GlobalEpicEvent.com

Broadcast industry audio processing pioneer Robert Orban has been named as the recipient of the inaugural Audio Engineering Society President’s Award.

Orban and fellow collaborators were honored for technical achievement in drafting TC Document TD1008: “Recommendations for Loudness of Internet Audio Streaming and On-Demand Distribution.”

The award recognizes contributions to the goals of AES that are made collaboratively in groups; Orban shares this award with David Bialik, Rob Byers, Jim Coursey, Eelco Grimm, Bob Katz, John Kean, Scott Norcross, Shawn Singh, Jim Starzynski and Alessandro Travaglini.

“Bob’s work with his fellow industry luminaries will go a long way toward improving the user experience for billions of internet listeners,” said Orban President David Day. “His leadership and expertise in the processing arena are second to none. We are honored to work with Bob on a daily basis.”

Mr. Orban commented, “The process took nearly two years with weekly Zoom meetings. Our group was quite large and brought a wealth of ideas to the table, but it did take some time to sort out everyone’s thoughts and present a comprehensive recommendation to the AES. I enjoyed working with this prestigious group of audio engineering experts.”

The AES President’s Award was presented in an online ceremony in mid-December along with technical, fellowship and Board of Governors’ Awards.

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