Industry News

The author is director of engineering services for the Alabama Broadcasters Association.

Prince Hamlet spoke the words “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” Today the question is “to lump sum or not.”

U.S. broadcasters and cable systems that utilize a C-Band satellite system to receive programming must each answer that question, and do so by Sept. 14.

As you probably know, these changes to your satellite system are due to a pending FCC auction of the lower half of the C-Band spectrum to broadband operators for 5G operation. And there have been many articles written over the last several months about this repack and the technical upgrades that will have to be completed to your satellite system.

But there’s still a lot of confusion over whether a user should take an FCC-authorized lump sum payment (about $8,900 for most people reading this), which is enticing but will require the owner then to pay for any upgrades needed to their satellite system or just let satellite operators do the necessary upgrade with no cost to the station.

Satellite operators will supply and install necessary equipment to have your system compliant (even if it means moving the dish or installing a new one). Changing your inside equipment such as receivers or decoders? That may be required by programmers and is not covered by the FCC payment plan.

During their changes, satellite operators will dual-feed programming to minimize interruption of service.

In a recent webinar from the Alabama Engineering Academy, available here for your viewing, Mark Johnson of Linkup Communications did a great job of untangling some of the confusion. (The discussion is not just for Alabama stations.)

He warned operators to do their homework on what upgrades will be needed before making the final decision. “Everybody doesn’t have the same situation.”

Unforeseen situations with your satellite system could exhaust the lump sum amount, leaving the operator paying the overage out of pocket. Older satellite equipment may not compliant; replacement parts may no longer be available.

“There’s a lot of antennas out there that are no longer manufactured,” he said during the webinar. “If for some reason there’s something wrong with your feed assembly, you take the lump sum you’re responsible for that.” And the FCC, he said, has been very clear: The lump sum irrevocably surrenders your right to ask for additional reimbursement.

Among the insights he shares is what happens next if you don’t take the lump sum, and how long he thinks it’ll take to receive reimbursement. That starts at about the 57 minute point of the video.

Should you decide to take the lump sum, stations are encouraged not to put the funds in the general operating budget. Put it in a separate account or shoe box under the bed. It would be too tempting to use it for current expenses, but then when the work is done, guess who has to come up the money?

In addition, if you decide to receive the lump sum, you must notify the FCC by the Sept. 14  deadline and answer a number of technical questions. Johnson covered the needed information during the webinar.

Finally, what if you failed to register your dish in 2018? Unfortunately  the FCC has not indicated that they will open a new window for stations that did not register their dish in 2018 to do so. That means you are not eligible for any reimbursement, including the lump sum.

Find more articles on this topic including information about other resources here.

The post ABA Webinar Offers C-Band Advice appeared first on Radio World.

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

Labor Day brings all kinds of folks into travel mode. Yet, across America, the mask wars are raging. How can radio best intervene in the interests of public safety?

By now, virtually everyone has heard of the feuds over how helpful face coverings are in stopping the spread of COVID-19. Georgia is one of the most prominent examples of the partisan divides, but this disagreement is being played out across the United States. And who has not been exposed to a Facebook post, text or image about face coverings?

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Tuned Out]

Since the days of “duck and cover” and even long before, radio stations have been a first line of defense for the American people. As media first responders, radio stations nationwide educate listeners about natural disasters, wildfires and area emergencies by providing essential information. We may tell our audiences about shelters, the latest data about a regional calamity, or ways they can protect themselves from smoke, landslides, and any number of issues that arise. Many now are important players in explaining COVID-19, but it’s evident our job has only just begun.

Scientists agree that social distancing and mask wearing are both effective in slowing the spread of coronavirus. However, in many communities, this is not a debate about health of a community. Instead, it is about misunderstandings and, at times, conspiracy theories that threaten to tear at the very fabric of who we are.

First Draft News recently held a meeting on the proliferation of antiface covering social media messages and memes. Their themes may prove instructive for your station.

The “infodemic,” as First Draft News called it, is worldwide and taps into old boogeymen like The Government, Big Brother, the New World Order, et al. At points, you’ll see mask wearing likened to gun ownership — arguing that, if liberals can choose whether or not they own firearms, conservatives can choose whether or not they wear masks. However, these forces are not the only problem, as First Draft notes the pro-mask contingent regularly amplifies their opposition and spreads misinformation. The Guardian takes a dive into how masks became a political issue.

What can a radio station do in this climate? Clearly, there are the established health protocols to share. A station can do creative public service announcements that make information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many stations are doing exactly that — educating listeners with information that may is online, but could feel intimidating or hard to access. Stations are diligent about making emergency information understandable during a disaster; surely that ingenuity exists in a pandemic too.

Similarly, PSAs and other conversations may be the way a station can tackle misinformation about safety. A plethora of journalism organizations have stepped to help media correct the public record and clear up misunderstanding. How could your radio station tackle some of the rancor in a fashion that is compassionate and builds community? Panel discussions, listening sessions and more beckon.

Unfortunately, disputes over masks are here seemingly as long as COVID-19 may be with us. Radio stations can play a crucial role in cutting through the noise during this major health emergency.

The post Community Broadcaster: Mask Off appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has put the kibosh on a request to revamp its noncommercial educational (NCE) licensing rules.

In this case, the firm Discount Legal asked the commission to reconsider the way the commission licenses mutually exclusive (MX) FM radio noncommercial educational groups. Discount Legal, Bay Area-based lawyers that specialize in community radio, argued that the FCC should set up a secondary grant policy for MX groups, saying that this would foster a more efficient nationwide radio communication service and generally encourage more effective use of radio.

[Read: FCC Eliminates Radio Duplication Rule for Both AM and FM Bands]

As it stands today, when a filing window for NCE stations is opened, the commission places conflicting applications into MX groups before applying internal processing. It then selects one application for grant from each separate MX group. A point system is given to each application based on public-interest criteria (such as diversity of ownership, localism or technical superiority) and that the application with the most points in an MX group is the tentative selectee.

But when it comes to the idea of naming runner-up applications, the commission dismissed the idea for two main reasons: One, it would be burdensome to FCC staff to create and implement a secondary grant procedure and two, it would potentially give a green light to inferior applications.

Discount Legal countered by saying that nearly all the work to determine secondary grants has been done already. “The fruit of all that work remains available for secondary analysis,” the firm said in its petition for reconsideration. “Once the first selectee becomes final, the group can be re-scanned at a glance for applicants not in MX conflict with the winner. Free-standing applicants can be selected secondarily. Others, in subconflict, can be readily compared under the point system from work previously done.”

But the FCC disagreed. The commission has repeatedly stressed that the goal of the NCE licensing process is to maximize the quality of grantees, not simply to grant the maximum number of applications.

“The commission’s one-grant policy is designed to encourage the best possible application submissions in every filing window,” the commission said. “By having only one grantee per MX group, but allowing all non-selectees to reapply in the next window, the commission creates virtuous incentives, which yield a higher-quality result than a policy of granting as many applications as possible, regardless of quality.”

As a result, the commission dismissed and denied the petition of Discount Legal.

The post FCC Nixes Call to Revamp NCE Licensing Rules appeared first on Radio World.

Attendees can expect things to look a bit different at the first all-virtual 2020 Radio Show, even as some familiar features of this annual event will remain — from keynote addresses and townhall speeches to in-depth discussions on audio, advertising and podcasting.

The five-day show will kick off with a CEO Townhall on Monday Oct. 5, moderated by NBC News Senior Business Correspondent and MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle. She will be joined by Mary Berner, president and CEO of Cumulus Media; David Field, chairman, president and CEO of Entercom Communications; and Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.

[Read: Fall Radio Show in Nashville Is Cancelled; Online Event Set Instead]

The National Association of Broadcasters also recently announced new speakers for its leadership and business sessions. Author and business leader Rishad Tobaccowala will head the Oct. 6 session “Reinventing Leadership with Heart and Soul” while radio host and author Dave Ramsey will speak at the Oct. 9 session “Leadership 2021 — Inspiring and Building Successful Teams.”

Two key tracks will run concurrently throughout the convention. The Channel A sessions will address issues like inclusivity, local sales tactics and ideas for resurrecting businesses in 2020 and beyond. The series of Channel B sessions will dive into the technical side of the radio business including a behind-the-scenes look at the nation’s first all-digital AM station, an update on radio and the connected car, and a look at the evolution of broadcast equipment, including advances in hardware and software in the cloud.

Other highlights during the Oct. 5–9 show — which the NAB announced is now open for registration — include a series of award presentations and technology demonstrations.

The post Virtual Radio Show Announces Latest Speaker, Session Lineup appeared first on Radio World.

The author is director of engineering services for the Alabama Broadcasters Association and chair of the Alabama State Emergency Communications Committee.

Broadcast engineers have a lot to look after, even before COVID-19. A successful station operation depends almost entirely on proper technical operation. From the studio to the antenna, there is a lot of “stuff” that must be installed and maintained.

One important item in the chain is your Emergency Alert System equipment. As with any type of technical system, it is important to have some type of monitoring system to ensure that every section is working properly. This also includes working with all the end users to clear up any problems.

Simple Setup

While there may be various ways for your State Emergency Communications Committee (see sidebar at bottom) to monitor an entire system, in Alabama we chose to take advantage of the ability built into most EAS units to export to an FTP server in real time.

It is a simple system to create and maintain:

• Set up an FTP server; most state broadcast associations have one running;
• Create a folder in the root directory of the server to receive the data;
• Have stations load the log-in information in their units.

Fig. 1 shows information loaded into the EAS unit. Every time the station unit has any EAS activity, it will transmit a report to the server.

We found an easy way to create a database to check the “health of the entire system.” The data from the FTP server is copied into Microsoft Word; using the Find tab, the data can be separated by type of alert/test.

Currently we fill out the database manually; we haven’t found any software yet that will do this. However, it only takes a few minutes each morning over your first cup of coffee.

Fig. 2 shows a partial database.

If you see that a station has been missing a certain test for several weeks, contact its engineer to check on the problem. The data received also include an audio file of tests, so it is easy to listen to the quality.

Audio Quality

The FCC recently issued a report on last year’s national test, reporting that one of the main problems was quality of the audio. If a station is having a problem receiving quality audio from a source, the committee can work with the station engineer to correct the problem and, if need be, assign a different source.

The beauty of this system is that there is no cost to set it up, either to the station or or the state broadcast association, plus the speed of the response.

We recently had an agency issue an Amber Alert. After notification of the alert, we looked at the log and discovered that the text of the alert was missing. After a simple phone call to the origination agency, the alert was retransmitted, this time with the text.

If a station has EAS equipment that cannot export data to an FTP server, simply have them add a dedicated email in the unit. That way the committee can still get the report from that station.

Note that this monitor service is only for the state committee use in maintaining the system. It does not replace the legal requirement that the station chief operator review the station log on a weekly basis. That log is required to be retained for a period of two years.

sidebar:

EAS Coordination Is Essential

Not only is EAS participation required by the FCC, but it is a major community service for your listeners and viewers. At the station level, approved equipment must be installed and configured correctly. The commission requires that proper operation of the EAS system is checked once a week and logged in the station log.

As most readers know, a committee in each state, often named the State Emergency Communications Committee or SECC, is tasked with setting up a secure and reliable origination/distribution system to ensure your equipment receives the correct alerts and test. That leads to the creation of an EAS state plan, which all broadcasters and cable systems should follow.

The committee plans and oversees the entire EAS origination/distribution, plus closely works with FEMA and other state and national agencies.It’s important to have representatives of all stakeholders participate. This includes your state emergency management agency, the National Weather Service, state broadcast association, state cable association and of course engineers from radio and television.

Here is a list of SECC chairs and links to state plans on the FCC website.

The author is a recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award. Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post How Alabama Monitors the EAS System appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters is expressing concern about the threat to local journalism from a handful of digital technology platforms.

In a filing submitted to the House Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith said a handful of powerful digital technology platforms — including Google, YouTube and Facebook  — are placing local broadcast radio and TV stations at a serious competitive disadvantage and hampering their mandate to serve the public interest.

“Local journalism is now at risk due to the overwhelming competitive position of a handful of technology companies in today’s digital marketplace,” the NAB said in its filing.

[Read: Techsurvey Reflects Consumer Dynamics]

Broadcast stations must use digital platforms to effectively reach their audience but stations have little leverage when dealing with the digital giants that control access to content, Smith said in a statement about the NAB filing. He contends that because of the tech platforms’ dominant role as content gatekeepers, their unilateral decision-making and ranking algorithms are negatively impacting broadcast radio and TV stations’ ability to deliver local news and information to communities.

This is particularly troubling because those algorithms consistently favor national sources over local sources, favor controversial and polarizing content and opinion sources over high-quality journalism, and can make it difficult for smaller, local publishers to reach audiences at all, Smith said.

“The massive shift in advertising to other platforms has profoundly affected local broadcasters,” Smith said. “Stations in mid-sized and small markets with limited economic bases have been disproportionately impacted because any significant loss of revenue has an outsized effect on their ability to pay the largely fixed costs required to operate and to produce or acquire news and other programming.”

Today only a slight majority of TV stations report profitable local news operations with many radio stations in markets of all sizes are struggling to make local news programming financially viable.

Smith also called out the lack of transparency over these digital platforms, which impose advertising limits and policies that impede stations’ ability to effectively monetize their own content online. “These platforms’ technologies and unilaterally set policies hurt local providers of quality journalism … . Receiving cents on the dollar does not enable TV and radio stations to recover the considerable costs of producing local content in the first place.”

The NAB said it supports legislation to address these issues, including the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act that would allow broadcasters and other news publishers to collectively negotiate with digital platforms regarding the terms on which their content may be distributed online. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.

“[W]e emphasize our support for laws and policies that adequately address the unique role of free and local OTA broadcasting and its value in a democratic society,” the NAB said in its filing.

The post NAB: Local Journalism Under Threat From Dominant Digital Platforms appeared first on Radio World.

Lest you had any doubt, the “visual experience” that consumers get from radio in their car dashboards is of growing importance.

Now WorldDAB has launched a campaign to encourage broadcasters to use visual assets to keep digital radio prominent there. It’ll certainly be of interest to European broadcasters given the European Electronic Communications Code directive that mandates digital radio in new car radios across Europe starting this December.

[Read: Broadcasters Must Be at the Heart of Radio’s Dashboard Development]

“The campaign underlines the important role visual information now plays in providing a positive digital radio experience for drivers,” the group stated, “and it offers guidance to broadcasters on how to use information they already have in the form of metadata to provide a richer experience for the driver.”

The organization is providing an animated video, an information sheet for managers and other resources.

WorldDAB is an industry forum that promotes DAB digital radio; its dedicated Automotive User Experience (UX) Group is involved in this campaign. It noted that metadata enables visual information, text and graphics including station name and logo, air talent name, song title and album artwork to be displayed.

It said metadata also is taking on increasing importance as hybrid radio — meaning OTA radio plus streamed versions of the same content, working in-sync — becomes more common.

The chairman of the WorldDAB Automotive Working Group is Laurence Harrison; he is quoted in the announcement saying car manufacturers need confidence that broadcasters will provide metadata. “That in turn will ensure that they prioritize the radio user experience in their cars.”

He added that as screens in cars get even better, metadata and visual components become even more important.

The post WorldDAB Puts Spotlight on Visual Experience appeared first on Radio World.

Ecosystems in support of hybrid radio continue to be built.

From RadioDNS today comes news of two more developments; and we can expect to hear more about these as concepts of hybrid radio take on a larger role in our radio marketplace.

(RadioDNS is a non-for-profit that promotes technical standards for combining broadcast radio and internet technologies that enable interoperability. Its website says the goal is that “content from one radio station can reach a multitude of devices, and devices can get content from a multitude of radio stations.”)

First, the organization has published an update to its Service and Program Standard to add controls for listening based on location, or geo-fencing.

“This was a function requested by some U.S. broadcasters to minimize use of streaming within areas where there’s good FM radio coverage,” said Project Director Nick Piggott.

“As rights to content, particularly music and sports rights, get more complex (and more expensive), constraining access to known areas and platforms gets more important,” he wrote on the RadioDNS website.

He gave these examples of where stations would want to control listening based on location:

• A station prefers listeners not to stream where there is good FM coverage, because streaming is more expensive (technical and rights costs). They define their FM coverage area and “deny” access to streaming within that area. Now streaming should only happen outside the good coverage area.
• The same station may have a known “hole” in their FM coverage, so they can “allow” streaming within the coverage hole, within the good coverage area. So their geo-fencing can contain nested areas.
• A different station may have rights to a sports event but only within their country. They can “allow” streaming within their country, and “deny” it everywhere else. If they’re clever, they can have an alternate stream with different content that is provided outside their country instead.

Piggott said these controls are not just applicable to streaming but can be applied to any analog, digital or streaming distribution platform, and to a whole service or to individual programs. “We’ll be working to help everyone understand what a good implementation looks like.”

The details of that development are here.

Second, RadioDNS has now published its Radio Metadata Terms of Use.

“We’re really hoping this provides the template for the global industry to come to a common understanding of ‘fair use,’ which removes some of the uncertainties on using metadata to enhance broadcast radio,” said Piggott.

This document is an attempt to codify acceptable use of content made available by radio stations for radio devices. It’s a template that broadcasters can adopt if they think it describes how they’d like their metadata and content to be used by device manufacturers.

Piggott wrote about this recently on the Radio World website (read that here.) “We think a standard is valuable because it dramatically reduces the complexity of working out what ‘OK’ looks like, and establishes a consistency that allows manufacturers to make a radio that works for the majority of radio stations globally,” he wrote then.

The RadioDNS website describes this document as a “simple, passive, implied agreement” that will help manufacturers and broadcasters both. “If a manufacturer knows they are using metadata and content as described in these terms, they can use it from every broadcaster who adopts the terms with no further checks. If a broadcaster is happy for their metadata and content to be used as described in the Terms, they can adopt them just by linking to them,’ the site states.

Read more about it on the RadioDNS website.

Piggott noted that the Automotive User Experience Working Group of WorldDAB has just published its recommendations on metadata, and that the National Association of Broadcasters is helping U.S. broadcasters to understand hybrid radio and how it may affect them.

The post RadioDNS Adds Geo-Fencing to Its Standard appeared first on Radio World.

Public media biggie WGBH is dropping the “W” in its name that long identified it as a broadcaster based east of the Mississippi.

Where some organizations might make such a branding tweak without calling attention to it right away, GBH went big.

“While its local TV and radio broadcast stations will always be important, the new branding recognizes GBH’s commitment to on-demand and digital-first content for audiences nationwide through streaming, apps, podcasts, social media, educational curricula and virtual events,” the organization stated.

It reported that more than half of its audience impressions come via digital platforms, so it dropped the “W” to “better reflect its leadership in the new media environment.” Affiliate WCAI becomes  justCAI. WCRB will become CRB Classical 99.5. WGBX Channel 44 becomes GBH 44.

The organization is a multiplatform creator for public media, producing content for PBS and partnering with NPR and PRX. Its studios and newsroom are in Boston.

The announcement was made by Jon Abbott, president and CEO, and Tina Cassidy, chief marketing officer. They noted that the new logo still uses a “drop shadow” design that dates to the 1970s, created by Chermayeff & Geismar.

And when you’re a really big public media entity, you can get away with delving into the fine details of how you updated your logos.

“The font will change to the clean and modern Red Hat, which functions better digitally,” it announced. “The iconic audio mark, also known as the sting, or the sound that audiences hear at the end of GBH-produced content, will not change.” And they chose purple as a new primary brand color, calling it “vibrant” and “digital first,” and because “equality, wisdom, empathy, creativity and resilience are all associated with purple and align with GBH’s core brand values.”

The station released a brand launch video, watch here.

The post Public Media Biggie WGBH Drops the “W” appeared first on Radio World.

Following up on an earlier story — after evacuating the company premises in Felton, Calif., as fires raged nearby, Inovonics reports that things are returning to the previous normal.

The factory is open, processing and shipping orders while tech support is up and running.

[Read: Inovonics Factory Affected by Evacuation Zone]

A relieved Inovonics CEO and President Ben Barber said, “Inovonics was untouched by the fires and though many of us had to evacuate the valley, no employees’ homes were harmed.”

The company says that if anything fell through the cracks during the closure, customers can contact them at sales@inovonicsbroadcast.com or tech@inovonicsbroadcast.com.

The post Inovonics Back From Fire Threat appeared first on Radio World.