Industry News

BOCA RATON, FLA. — On May 12, 2020, Nielsen Audio released its Miami-Fort Lauderdale April 2020 ratings report, along with station cume data, to radio industry trade publications including AllAccess.com.

The numbers were ugly. Between February and April, as measured by Nielsen through the Portable People Meter (PPM), Cox Media Group‘s top-rated WFEZ “Easy 93.1” saw its cume slide from 1.038 million to 536,100. That station wasn’t alone: Huge cume dips were seen for every station in the Top 10 by cume. And, Miami wasn’t the only market experiencing this pandemic-fueled slide in broadcast radio consumption.

Today, Nielsen Audio data suggest radio’s return to pre-pandemic audience levels in nearly complete. The remaining challenge? Recouping lost advertising dollars.

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The VAB, the broadcast television industry’s sales advocacy organization, has released a White Paper that finds that, based on the input from more than 200 marketers, 92% of these ad budget decisionmakers are adopting audience-based buying — at least to some degree.

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This is one in a series of interviews with people who work in and around radio about the kinds of mics they love and why.

Rob Bertrand is senior director of technology for WAMU 88.5 in Washington.

Radio World: What is your personal favorite for radio on-air work, and what sets it apart for you? 

Rob Bertrand: The Shure SM7B is one of the most versatile microphones out there that is hard to make sound bad. Its low-level output corrects for so many room distortions and background noise issues and it has a great balance of simultaneously sounding warm and crisp.

We use the Neumann BCM 104 in our host positions when we’re in the studio because it sounds consistent alongside the higher-end condensers found throughout NPR programming.

There is no presence effect so it is very forgiving of hosts who tend to operate from quite a distance of the microphone, however, it does require a very quiet studio to sound clean.

RW: What about remote work or other specialty applications?

Bertrand: We’re using a lot of SM7Bs in home setups right now, sometimes with external mic pres, because they are so forgiving of their environment. The SM58 is always a solid go-to for on-air and live usage.

My interview favorite will always be the Shure SM63LB.

RW: For someone making a microphone decision, any tips to share or common misconceptions to dispel?

Bertrand: Start simple. Use your ears. Be clear for yourself about what you’re trying to achieve, then go out and get different opinions.

In trying to find a new standard field reporter microphone for WCBS in the mid-2000s, I ordered about a dozen different handheld mics. I went out to different environments throughout New York City and recorded with them, wanting to find a nice presence for the subject but sensitive enough to provide reasonable nat sound.

We eventually landed on the SM63LB, which despite being omnidirectional, sounds great when used up close in an interview, with little-to-no handling noise. It gave WCBS a nice kick to its long-time field sound, enabled us to roll out a consistent mic, and gave the reporters an easy tool for recording better audio in the field.

As we deployed digital recorders and laptops, this enabled the station to provide a whole new level of rich audio to its listeners — whether listening on AM, HD, or streaming.

In my public radio life today, we have the time and ability to use more resources and a wider variety of microphones to deliver that polish, but I’ll always remember working with a team of reporters and news management to make that decision about the singular SM63LB for our reporters. I think it’s what they are still using today and it was a team decision based entirely on listening tests.

I think you want something that’s easy to use, holds up to the abuse of daily life, and is versatile in different situations. Marketing materials can help set you in the right direction, but you’ve really got to do the work of testing and listening to know for sure what sound you are crafting.

Read more of Radio World’s coverage of microphones.

The post My Favorite Mics: Rob Bertrand appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. radio audiences continue to grow back toward where they were when the pandemic took off.

Nielsen Audio announced this morning, “The May 2021 PPM survey saw yet another month of gains in radio listening across the aggregate of markets as America continues to reopen and consumers return to pre-pandemic routines.”

The research company said radio’s weekly reach is at its highest levels since March 2020 and has been growing for the past four months.

“In May 2021, radio’s weekly reach surpassed 122 million weekly listeners, within 2 million of where it was before the lockdown precautions took effect last year.”

Average Quarter-Hour (AQH) audience in May also saw its highest levels since March 2020, though again not quite back to where it was.

“AQH audience levels have increased 11 percent since January as vaccinations have rolled out, leading to a gradual return to pre-pandemic routines including dining out, traveling and more normal commutes.”

The company says that from a weekly reach perspective, “the radio audience in May 2021 is 8% larger than the same month from one year ago, while for AQH the audience is now 20% larger than May of 2020.” May listening gains were spread across dayparts.

As for trends within formats, Nielsen Audio said it sees familiar seasonal listening patterns “corresponding with the shift towards summer.” Formats on the upside include classic hits, Hot AC and all-sports.

The post Nielsen Has Good News in May Numbers appeared first on Radio World.

Speaker Specialist KRK has announced the addition of two monitors to its Classic line.

Classic 7 and Classic 8 (pictured) join smaller sibling Classic 5.

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The two new monitors match the Classic 5 in most features — biamplified with A/B amplifiers, one-inch soft dome tweeters, bass boost, high- and low-frequency controls, passive front-firing bass port, XLR, 1/4-inch and RCA connections.

The nominal difference between the two is the 7- and 8-inch KRK yellow glass aramid fiber woofers, respectively. The Classic 7 uses a 48W woofer amplifier and a 25W tweeter amp while the Classic 8 uses a 75W bass amp with the 25W tweeter amplifier.

Info: www.krkmusic.com

The post KRK Adds to Speaker Line appeared first on Radio World.

NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, has announced the hiring of Kathy Stieler as the director of Safety, Health & Compliance.

It is a new position and she starts immediately.

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Stieler has been in similar positions in a variety of related industries over many decades, including, most recently, director, ERI Installations and Safety since 2012.

According to a release, “Stieler will be tasked with directing, developing and overseeing the general health and safety policies and procedures of the association to ensure its safety materials and best practices documents are in compliance with OSHA and other applicable state and local regulations and standards.”

In addition, she “will also be available to provide technical subject matter expertise to the association’s member companies, as well as helping these businesses navigate the oftentimes onerous compliance onboarding process.”

NATE Chairman Jimmy Miller said, “Through the establishment of this director of Safety, Health & Compliance position, NATE is doubling down on safety and investing directly into our growing membership of companies. Kathy will be a tremendous asset and I encourage member companies to leverage her expertise to enhance their respective safety cultures.”

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Kathy Stieler Joins NATE appeared first on Radio World.

Nielsen has just released its PPM Audio Software Encoder for FM stations, allowing more broadcasters to move away from a hardware-based audio watermarking process.

“The release of the PPM Audio Software Encoder for FM stations follows the successful completion of a live field evaluation in the March and April measurement periods,” the company wrote in a note to clients.

It had already released the Audio Software encoder for AM stations earlier.

It says the software encoder allows a station to perform its PPM encoding in products from audio processor manufacturers, “enabling opportunities for cloud-based broadcast operations, reduction of rack space in your facilities and simplification of your station’s workflows.”

The company has published a list of certified vendors that includes Orban, Telos/Omnia and Wheatstone products.

In a recent commentary in Radio World, Nielsen Audio Director of Product Management Nick Mannion, wrote: “We took the PPM encoding algorithm (Enhanced CBET) out of the hardware that it lives in today and made it available in the form of a software development kit (SDK). This SDK is then made available to industry participants enabling them to integrate PPM encoding into their products.”

Once an integration is complete, he continued, Nielsen works with the manufacturer of the product to perform a certification process. “This … ensures that the PPM encoding generated by the manufacturer’s product meets all of Nielsen’s encoding quality standards.”

Nielsen plans to expand its PPM Audio Software Encoding to include digital streams later this year.

The post Nielsen Releases PPM Software Encoder for FMs appeared first on Radio World.

On Dec. 23, 2020, iHeartMedia shares finished the day at $11.99. It was a good finish, as IHRT in early July was trading in the mid-$6 range.

With Wednesday’s Closing Bell on the Nasdaq GlobalSelect market, investors who have had IHRT for the past year will certainly be celebrating.

Why? They’ve more than quadrupled their dollars.

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A low-powered TV station offering Azteca América programming to Nevada’s second-largest market is being sold.

It marks an 11-year end of ownership by a group that grabbed the facility from the bankrupt Equity Media Holdings in 2009.

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SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — An entertainment industry legal veteran who has been the associate general counsel at Amazon Studios until today has returned to Davis Wright Tremaine LLP after more than 20 years.

It’s a return for an individual who was a DWT associate in the late 1990s.

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