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HHB headquarters in London

HHB Communications is now the primary distributor for Comrex in the United Kingdom.

“The strength of HHB’s reseller relationships in the UK, Scotland and Ireland and their focus on

customer service make them an exceptional choice to distribute Comrex products,” said Comrex Sales Director Chris Crump in the announcement, made jointly with HHB Head of Sales Matthew Fletcher.

Comrex was incorporated in 1961 and is known for its audio and video codecs, telco interfaces and related products.

[Read more of our recent coverage of Comrex news and products.]

HHB Communications was founded in 1976 and serves pro audio solutions to broadcasters, recording studios, post facilities, and system integrators. Consultation, training and installation are among its services.

 

The post Comrex Names HHB Its Primary UK Distributor appeared first on Radio World.

Group One Ltd. named James Tunnicliffe as technical support engineer for Calrec products in the United States.

He will be based in Newark, N.J., and report to CEO Jack Kelly and Group One Vice President of Broadcast and Production Chris Fichera.

“In his new role, he will be responsible for providing phone- and IP-based product troubleshooting and repair coordination, onsite service and maintenance calls, system design assistance and trainings, and liaising with Calrec’s headquarters in Hebden Bridge, England,” the company said.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Group One Ltd. is a U.S. importer and distributor for professional audio and lighting manufacturers including Calrec, whose products include radio consoles.

Tunnicliffe is a former Studer applications specialist with Harman Pro North America and also worked as a field service engineer and product specialist for Euphonix. Prior to those roles he was with Design FX Audio in Burbank and Westlake Audio in Hollywood.

Send your people news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Group One Hires Tunnicliffe for Calrec Support appeared first on Radio World.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has turned to broadcast management company Operative Media for an effort the ATSC 3.0 pioneer believes will “transform the way local and national media is transacted across all digital and linear platforms throughout the industry.”

A multi-year enterprise partnership agreement has been executed, one that will see Sinclair become the first local television broadcaster to consolidate all sellable assets across its platforms and markets into a single ad sales system, creating a unified brand experience for customers and sellers.

The deal calls for Sinclair to use Operative’s advertising sales management technology platform, AOS, to facilitate the movement of all of its inventory types (linear and digital) to a common impression-based currency.

Operative’s AOS platform automates workflows across planning, order management, inventory management, stewardship and billing, driving efficiency into the way Sinclair works internally across its portfolio and externally with its customers.

This will support Sinclair’s current products, such as Compulse 360 and ZypTV.

“We already provide a unique opportunity for marketers to engage consumers of all kinds, and Operative’s technology will further consolidate and simplify our sales process,” said Rob Weisbord, President of Broadcast & Chief Advertising Revenue Officer of Sinclair. “It will bring this concept to our markets in a way that is easily managed by our various sellers and the portfolios of inventory they represent. It will provide them flexibility to dynamically manage audience and spend allocations across Sinclair’s broad asset catalog.”

As Sinclair sees it, the introduction of yield tools helps deliver improved outcomes for both Sinclair and their customers by optimizing inventory utilization, delivery and make goods.

“This is an opportunity to align our proven track record in the broadcast industry with Operative’s technological expertise, to create a simple solution that we believe will change the way advertisers connect with consumers across all devices,” Sinclair Chief Information Officer Brian Bark said. “This new platform will empower advertisers with the ability to optimize campaigns across Sinclair’s distinguished portfolio of content, while altering the way the industry does business — paving the way for other media companies in the process.”

Estrella Media, the fast-growing reborn Hispanic-focused multimedia company formerly known as LBI Media, has selected Google Ad Manager for monetizing its live and on demand streaming TV platforms.

The Burbank, Calif.-based company calls the move “another important step” in its digital transformation and expansion of its content distribution in the streaming and digital universe.

Know Latinos. You’ll say ¡ñooooo! to the new revenue.

More at www.hispanicradioconference.com

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Another Congressional session, another statement against additional royalty fees levied against broadcast radio stations for the music it plays over-the-air.

A bipartisan coalition of 77 members of the House of Representatives and eight Senators have joined together to introduce resolutions in both bodies of Congress that oppose “any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge” on AM or FM radio in the U.S.

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On April 13, Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. and Univision Holdings shared for the first time that they plan to merge, with Miami-based Univision — thanks, in part, to Google — making the binational deal happen.

Now, Univision is going to the bond market to finance the deal.

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Aug. 11 will be the date of the first national EAS test since before the pandemic began.

Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency officially informed the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday that it plans its sixth national EAS test on that day. They also plan to conduct a nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test concurrently.

As in the past, FEMA set a backup date in case a national test on Aug. 11 might interfere with actual alerting needs in the country around that time. The backup is Aug. 25.

Al Kenyon, chief of the Customer Support Branch of the IPAWS Program Office, wrote to the FCC that FEMA plans to conduct the Aug. 11 test at 2:20 p.m. EDT (18:20 GMT).

[Read: FCC Releases Results of 2019 National EAS Test]

“The test message will use the National Periodic Test (NPT) event code and be geo-targeted using the All-US (000000) geocode,” Kenyon wrote.

“This year FEMA proposes to originate the EAS portion of the test via the National Public Warning System composed of the FEMA designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) facilities. The intent of conducting the test in this fashion is to determine the capability of the Emergency Alert System to deliver messages to the public in event that dissemination via internet is not available.”

In the most recent national test in 2019, several PEPs did not transmit the alert due to varying degrees of equipment failures. Out of 77 PEP stations, 12 experienced technical issues on test day, according to a post-test FCC report.

Kenyon said that in the upcoming test, full message text and multilingual messaging will not be available due to the over-the-air message delivery and relay used in this system of EAS message dissemination.

“As in past years the national EAS test message will look and sound very much like the regular Required Monthly Test (RMT) messages broadcast every month by all EAS Participants, broadcast radio and television, cable, wireline service providers and direct broadcast satellite service providers,” he continued.

“Concurrent with the proposed 2021 National EAS Test, FEMA also proposes to originate a Nationwide Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) test by originating a WEA message using the WEA test handling code targeting only cellphones where the user has opted-in to receive WEA test messages.”

An FCC analysis of the 2019 test found that 82% of radio stations participated that year.

While that test generally was deemed a success, the FCC said in its post-test report that some challenges impeded the ability of some EAS participants to receive and/or retransmit the NPT.

Some participants reported problems with equipment configuration, audio quality, alerting source problems and clock errors, among other issues. More than 2,530 test participants didn’t receive the test at all.

Other issues in 2019 included audio issues, power issues, signal issues, internet issues and even lightning — 20 participants reported issues caused by bolts of electricity.

Also, several State Emergency Communications Committees reported that certain areas of their states did not receive the alert. SECCs in Florida, Michigan and Georgia reported delivery problems to the Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations. The FCC also received reports of smaller-scale monitoring source issues in parts of several other states.

 

The post Aug. 11 Is the Next National EAS Test appeared first on Radio World.

In the view of American Enterprise Institute Visiting Scholar Mark Jamison, White House control of FCC regulatory analysis is a bad idea.

A better idea, he says, is to set transparent standards for such analyses, including public review.

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It’s despised by the nation’s “Big Four” networks and the NAB isn’t quite fond of it, either.

That’s not stopping Locast from rolling out its not-for-profit “donation”-fueled model of delivering local TV stations via an IP-based delivery platform in yet another market.

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A RadioDNS service converts broadcast parameters to internet domains, as noted in this slide from the webinar.

Big Tech is coming after automotive dashboards to win the ears and eyes of drivers/passengers; and radio’s best chance to survive this attack is to get hybrid radio into cars/trucks fast.

This “call to action” was expressed repeatedly during a recent webinar hosted by WorldDAB and the European Broadcasting Union.

“DAB+ at the Heart of Hybrid” delved into advances being made in hybrid radio technology by various companies and associations.

[Read: Broadcasters Conspiring in Their Own Demise]

Hybrid radio refers to platforms that combine over-the-air broadcast reception with two-way wireless connectivity.

The webinar focused on the role of hybrid radio in the DAB context, but themes of the conversation — threats from large digital competitors, the use of metadata, the future role of broadcast radio — are of interest globally.

Stark Warning
The presenters warned against allowing large digital competitors to take control of in-vehicle entertainment environments.

“When you look at what Big Tech can do and what they’ve (already) done in the app space — just look at Apple and Amazon and YouTube: They’re basically giving away audio content to aggregate an audience to basically monetize,” said Joe D’Angelo, Xperi’s senior vice president of radio.

“They’re stealing your audience by commoditizing an audio platform and audio service,” he said. “That’s the threat.”

Numerous topics were touched upon during a fast-moving two hours, thanks to the gentle but firm time management skills of moderator and WorldDAB Vice President Jacqueline Bierhorst.

Ben Poor, EBU’s project manager for digital radio, discussed the future of radio.

“We think that DAB can provide the best of broadcast,” said Poor. At the same time, “hybrid (radio) is the best way of creating a better user experience. So using broadcast plus IP makes for a range of new user experiences that are more engaging, that are more interesting, that are more dynamic, and that give the user more information and more value.”

RadioDNS Project Manager Nick Piggott explained the role of RadioDNS in creating open standards for hybrid radio, with an emphasis on the “open” part of the equation.

“The purpose of open standards is that they are durable,” Piggott said. “That means they last. They’re not anchored to the success of one company. And they’re interoperable, which gives you that huge scaling capability,” while reducing costs for broadcasters and manufacturers by only having one interface to support.

Radioplayer Director of Automotive Partnerships Laurence Harrison said, “We’ve got some experience in this area because we already powering approaching a million cars on roads today with hybrid radio and DAB+ at its heart. That’s through our collaboration partnership with Volkswagen Group and previously the fantastic team at Audi, which is now Car.Software Org.” Harrison noted that Radioplayer has recently formed a partnership with BMW Group, with Radioplayer’s hybrid radio solution going into BMW dashboards starting next year.

Added Andrea Heidrich, managing director of Radioplayer Austria: “Metadata is the key to the success of Radioplayer. Radioplayer ensures that only official station metadata provided directly by the broadcasters is used on car dashboards.”

Xperi’s Joe D’Angelo highlighted the features of his company’s DTS AutoStage hybrid radio system.

“This platform is open to all broadcasters,” said D’Angelo. “It’s free of charge. There’s no required investment. The data flows through the system ensuring that broadcasters are constantly in control of the end-user experience.”

The first carmaker success for DTS AutoStage was its adoption by Daimler last year.

Pluxbox CTO Cas Adriani titled his talk “A Brand Isn’t What You Say, It’s a Sum of All Experiences You Create.” He urged broadcasters to present the best visuals on hybrid radio screens.

“Your brand strategy is as strong as your weakest link,” said Adriani. “If people see your old logo or no logo at all in the station list, it’s hard for them to connect all the efforts you put in this advertisement for this important moment choosing the station.”

Finally, Radioline COO Xavier Filliol talked about his company’s hybrid radio efforts.

“Today what we provide is two hybrid radio applications,” he said. “One is HTML5-based: We presented it with Xperi last year at CES. And the other one is on (compatible with) the Android Automotive OS. We did it with Panasonic Automotive System Europe since last year in May.”

Panel Discussion
The webinar concluded with a presenters’ panel discussion on the merits of hybrid radio — that it uses the best of broadcast and IP to deliver a superior in-vehicle entertainment experience, doing so free from the influence of Big Tech.

“We need to make sure, as an industry, that we are working hard to keep radio prominent in that environment,” said Harrison of Radioplayer.

“The by-product of Big Tech’s involvement in the dashboard — and Android Automotive is a good example of this — is the dash becoming an app ecosystem … Hybrid radio is absolutely the platform on which we can build and innovate and create that radio experience that is going to keep radio exciting; keep it strong and keep it relevant.”

Radio isn’t alone in wanting to keep Google’s grip off the dashboard.

“Automakers are as leery of Big Tech as broadcasters are,” D’Angelo said. “That’s why we consider — and I think everyone would agree with this — that we’re in this space to provide a competitive response to Big Tech. … The whole reason we’re doing this is to provide control to broadcasters and provide an alternative to the car companies for how they can innovate around audio services.”

Will radio broadcasters and automakers be able to resist the incursion of Big Tech in the world’s dashboards? Will radio become “just another audio stream” in a vast catalog offered by Google and other Big Tech providers? The answer has yet to be written.

View the webinar “DAB+ at the Heart of Hybrid” on the WorldDAB YouTube channel.

 

The post Hybrid Described as Radio’s Best Chance appeared first on Radio World.

Adjacent to the broadcast tower for Nexstar Media Group’s WKRN-2 in Nashville is the transmitter for a FM translator serving Brentwood, Forest Hills and tony Belle Meade, on the south side of Music City USA.

Until now, it’s been used for Middle Tennessee State University‘s MTSU Jazz Network. That’s about to change, as the facility has been sold.

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Thursday is shaping up to be one of the busiest in ages for media industry analysts and investors, with a half-dozen Q1 2021 earnings calls competing with Estrella Media’s Upfront presentation and a webinar showcasing Edison Research’s Moms and Media Study.

In the middle of all of these noteworthy events is Jacobs Media‘s presentation of its Techsurvey 2021 results. We’ve got a smidge of the details prior to this May 6 online affair.

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An image from the NATE Facebook page.

Wednesday is a day to appreciate the folks who work on your tower.

NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association has declared May 5 to be Tower Technician Appreciation Day “to pay tribute to the important work that communications infrastructure technicians conduct on a daily basis to enable a connected world.”

The proclamation highlights tower technicians for their skill sets, big responsibilities and demanding work environments.

[Read: NATE Shares Warning About a Honeywell Harness]

For example, it states: “Communications tower technicians have been designated by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as essential critical infrastructure workforce and are currently playing a heroic role on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic building, installing and maintaining America’s broadband infrastructure to accommodate the explosive demand for data and wireless services, thereby ensuring or enhancing reliable, high-speed networks.”

Read the full proclamation.

In the tower biz, a lot of attention is paid to work supporting 5G, broadband infrastructure and emergency alerting. But of course tower techs serve broadcasters as well.

Gordon Smith, the president/CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, joined in the appreciation.

“NAB salutes America’s tower technicians whose work is critical to the operation of broadcast radio and television stations. The particular skill set required, including working under dangerous conditions, is vitally important in preserving broadcasting’s uniquely local and resilient platform on which consumers and communities rely,” he said in a statement released by NATE.

The social media hashtag to use is #TowerTechAppreciationDay.

 

The post May 5 Is Tower Technician Appreciation Day appeared first on Radio World.

LOS ANGELES — The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) has four new board members, following their election to the organization that hosts the annual NATPE Miami conference each January in Miami Beach.

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Now on the board are the following individuals:

• Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content, HBO Max
• Sean Cohan, Chief Growth Officer and President of International, Nielsen
• Dan Cohen, President of Global Distribution Group, ViacomCBS
• Laura Kennedy, CEO, Avalon 

The new appointees will serve a term of three years.

The NATPE is comprised of 41 members from all areas of the content industry.

 

A wider net loss. Lower station operating income. Those are the key takeaways for Beasley Media Group, which released its Q1 2021 earnings results on Tuesday morning.

Investors reacted by shedding shares in BBGI. Within the first hour of trading, Beasley’s stock price was down by nearly 9%.

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Audacity, the long-running open source, cross-platform audio editor, has been acquired by Muse Group. Founded in 1999, the free software program has been downloaded more than 100 million times to date.

In partnership with Audacity’s online open-source community, the new owners will be looking to expand the software’s feature set and update its ease of use. Dedicated designers and developers will be tasked to work on the software, but Audacity will remain free and open source, the new owner says.

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

Shepherding Audacity will be Martin Keary, recruited based on his efforts running MuseScore, an open-source music notation software that is also owned by Muse Group; Keary will oversee both brands. In a wide-ranging YouTube video detailing the history of Audacity, Keary noted that he will be interviewing users and creating online spaces to interact with those users in an effort to determine priorities and approaches to the program’s development going forward. Keary noted that the company will prepublish designs and updates so users can comment before widespread implementation, taking advantage of open source’s transparency.

Some early priorities as Audacity moves forward will be the addition of nondestructive, stackable VST effects, as well as user-experience updates with the aim of making features easier to find and use. In the video, other, more experimental ideas are suggested and teased, such as a 3D spectral editing prototype that, if developed, could possibly offer haptic spectral editing via a haptic glove. With these and other additions in mind, Muse Group will be looking to hire a number of senior developers and designers with experience in audio and music technology.

Audacity’s new parent company, Muse Group, is relatively new itself, having only opened its doors last week on April 26. Muse Group owns the brands Ultimate Guitar, MuseClass, ToneBridge and MuseScore, which together reach more than 350 million users in more than 60 countries. The company is led by chairman Eugeny Naidenov and CEO Michael Trutnev; Naidenov founded Ultimate Guitar in 1998. In total, Muse Group has more than 100 employees in a fully remote-working oriented workforce; the company is privately held with no investors or external shareholders.

The post Audacity Acquired by Muse Group appeared first on Radio World.

Many high-power broadcast stations have few options for staying on the air while replacing a transmitter. Acrodyne Services, focused on transmitter installation and service, has developed the Mobile Acrodyne Transmitter (MAT) — a self-contained UHF transmitter housed in an enclosed trailer.

As an external system, MAT maintains broadcasting without interfering with the removal of the old transmission system, room prep, electrical modifications, and new transmitter installation inside the facility. MAT can broadcast ATSC 1.0 or ATSC 3.0 signals.

“Stations and TV groups are continuing to upgrade their broadcast infrastructures by replacing old transmitters,” Acrodyne GM Andy Whiteside said. “There are low-power solutions and other workarounds, but none of them are ideal, especially for stations that have limited space or run into unexpected delays because of logistic and structural issues. MAT provides a clean, external, and high-power solution that allows broadcasters to conduct business as usual.”

Whiteside added that the UHF version has been deployed successfully several times, and a VHF version is currently being prepared for deployment later in 2021.

Dale Scherbring, Director of Engineering for RF transmission at Sinclair Broadcast Group, described MAT as a “full-power transmitter on wheels that was designed by Acrodyne engineers who get their hands dirty.”

The climate-controlled trailer features a one-rack, liquid-cooled Rohde & Schwarz THU9evo UHF19kW transmitter with 12 amplifiers, Dielectric tunable mask filter, patch-panel, test load plus pumps, and separate heat exchangers for the transmitter and test load. Stations only need to provide AC power and an input signal from master control. Acrodyne provides a run of coaxial flex line to connect MAT’s output to the antenna to maintain regular broadcasting.

Sinclair Broadcast Group Manager of TV Transmission Engineering Rusty Mooney was part of MAT’s initial deployment in June 2020 at the company’s two stations serving Raleigh: WLFL-TV and WRDC-TV. Both transmitters were in the same room and both needed to be replaced. Plus, a new filter for WRDC needed to be installed. “There just wasn’t enough room for all of that work,” Mooney recalled. “You’d run out of wall space trying to keep one transmitter running while trying to build a new transmitter.”

With MAT parked outside the facility and transmitting, the old WRDC transmitter was removed – and when the new WRDC transmitter was commissioned, MAT was quickly reconfigured to broadcast for WLFL while its transmitter was replaced. “MAT allows you to offload your signal to the trailer,” Mooney said. “Then you can gut the room and start with a clean slate for the new install.”

MAT’s next stop was KDNL-TV, a Sinclair station serving St. Louis, in early January 2021. According to Mooney, the small RF facility required extensive renovations in addition to a new transmitter. The station stayed on the air until late March with MAT while it replaced its two-cabinet IOT transmitter.

Acrodyne’s “transmitter on wheels” concept was first developed during the recent FCC Repack, when hundreds of UHF stations across the country transitioned to new channels. Last September, WHKY, an independent station owned by Long Communications that serves part of the Charlotte market, rented an earlier version of MAT while renovating its facility and replacing its old transmitter.

Between the four-cabinet transmitter and two very large filters for the channel 14 UHF station, the building did not have room to accommodate a second transmitter. “I had to get the old transmitter out of the building,” said Tom Long, one of the station owners. “MAT makes it a lot easier. It got everything out of my way and it’s self-contained.”

Once all its Repack projects are complete, Sinclair is expected to replace the remaining IOT transmitters in about 20 of its stations with solid-state transmitters. Scherbring expects to use MAT at those locations and at the VHF-to-UHF conversions currently being considered. However, he said MAT can also be deployed for emergency or disaster situations, and the system can be operational within a day. Both VHF and UHF versions of MAT will be available for use by all broadcasters, subject to demand.

At first glance, the 2021 first quarter results for the nation’s largest owner of broadcast TV stations seems super: Net income rose by 26.3%. Adjusted EBITDA improved by 2.4% against tough comps tied to roughly $50 million fewer political ad dollars.

But, the big reveal for Nexstar Media Group is that its “Distribution Fee Revenue,” a.k.a. retransmission consent dollars, are far and away the greatest revenue driver — significantly surpassing core ad revenue, which slipped in Q1.

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Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned broadcast antenna and RF system subsidiary Dielectric has selected the individual who will succeed Steven Moreen.

He’s retiring, and will soon conclude a 52-year career in the broadcast industry.

Taking the job of Western Region Sales Manager is Dan Glavin.

He now has responsibility for all U.S. TV and FM sales and customer service west of the Mississippi River and reports to Jay Martin, Dielectric’s Vice President of Sales.

Glavin joined Dielectric in 2018 as an Electrical Engineer, with an emphasis on system
design, data analysis and antenna testing. He has since led technical development
initiatives and field installations for RFHAWKEYE, the broadcast industry’s first IP-based
RF monitoring system.

“The ability to identify product requirements and respond in a technical capacity is key to
this position, and Dan’s level of problem-solving expertise is rare among field sales,”
Martin said. “Dan is an extrovert and extremely technical, and will be a strong mediator who can communicate complex technical requirements between our customers and internal
Dielectric engineers. His fluency in Spanish will benefit the Hispanic communities we serve,
and his experience across site logistics, off-air challenges and other common over-the-air
issues will benefit all customers.”

Glavin added, “The expansion and integration of ATSC 3.0 broadcast systems, single-frequency networks, and investment in public television and radio all represent exciting opportunities for business development throughout the western U.S. region. Steve has set the bar high, but I look forward to building on his example in working closely with customers to help them solve problems, and explore the next-generation of over-the-air opportunities. Every opportunity comes down to helping broadcasters achieve their goals through cost-effective and efficient implementation, while delivering robust designs and products that offer long-term value.”

PromoSuite has revealed who its new VP of Product Design & Development is. It is someone who joined PromoSuite in 2018 to lead the design and development of the new PromoSuitePlus platform.

That would be Rey Mena, who PromoSuite says will ontinue fulfilling his current role, in addition to new responsibilities including strategic oversight to PromoSuite’s entire product line.

Mena’s media career spans over three decades and includes key leadership roles including LSM, NSM, GSM and Marketing Director at Emmis Communications’ former Chicago properties and as Co-President of Emmis Interactive.

Mena left the radio industry in 2014 to launch branding and consulting firm Menagery Inc.

“There’s no one more qualified, capable and forward thinking in the media technology space to propel PromoSuite to the next level than Rey,” said PromoSuite CEO Rocco Macri. “I’ve known him for over 20 years and have watched in awe of the advancements he’s made for brands, radio stations and in technology. He’s an innovator that dreams big and knows how to execute. We are proud to have him on our team.”