Industry News

We already knew that Geoffrey Starks believes “America’s broadcasters should look like America.” But on Monday the FCC commissioner took that message in person directly to the NAB Joint Board of Directors.

The commissioner spoke to members of the NAB board during its meeting in Miami. According to a copy of the remarks released by his office, Starks addressed topics of public interest, media diversity and the future of broadcast.

Starks, one of the two commissioners in the Democratic minority on the FCC, said that the proliferation of information options available to consumers does not make it less important for broadcasters to focus on what it means to serve the public interest.

[Related: Read what Geoffrey Starks told the Media Institute Free Speech Gala in November.]

“Not at all. In fact, I think this is your competitive advantage.” He cited data that most Americans still get their local news from local TV stations, and that most of the news consumed online is originated by traditional sources like broadcasters or newspapers.

He also said, “We must find effective ways to move the needle on ownership diversity.” He made note of three House bills. One would reinstate the tax certificate program, which Starks strongly supports, to incentivize sales of stations to women and minorities and encourage investment of capital. Another would improve broadcast ownership data collection and direct the FCC to complete its EEO rulemaking. The third would require consideration of market entry barriers for “socially disadvantaged individuals” being excluded from media ownership.

Starks also complimented the NAB for its Broadcast Leadership Training program and hoped the association can build on it.

[Related: “Pai Lists His Accomplishments of Three Years”]

On EEO, he was critical of the FCC for “failing to make good on its statutory mandate to collect workforce diversity data from broadcasters. It is still not clear to me how, for nearly 20 years, the FCC ignored Congress’s will by not collecting this information,” and said he’d work to re-open the issue. “Until we can adequately quantify the problem, we cannot adequately address it.” He rejected arguments that collecting EEO data or adopting policies to promote diversity would be unconstitutional.

And Starks asked the TV industry to take data privacy and security issues into account as it deploys ATSC 3.0.

“All those features rely on consumer data that will be collected by broadcasters and device manufacturers. How will that data be kept secure? How will it be stored, anonymized or sold? How will consumers be fully aware of what data are being collected and how it is being used? What about the algorithms and machine learning that will be employed to manipulate consumer data to produce targeted ads, viewing suggestions, and the like?”

He advised TV broadcasters to “widen your aperture to be aware of and conscientiously think through complex issues involving data and privacy that are going to dominate our shared future.”

Read the full speech.

 

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SAN FRANCISCO — KQED(FM) recently began a project to remodel and expand our studios in San Francisco. The plan is two-phase. The first was to move the station’s operations to a temporary facility, followed by a transition back to our newly remodeled original complex.

Caroline Smith, producer, Forum, uses the Telos VSet 12 handset and Broadcast Bionics’ XScreen (her left screen) at the KQED temporary studios.

I created an initial plan so that the system could be configured well in advance of our move. Then the team at the Telos Alliance took my plan, checked that it made sense from a technical standpoint and added a few important modifications to achieve a modern and highly reliable on-air telephone system, one befitting a 24-hour news and information operation that is often the number one station in the San Francisco market.

Good hardware with a good plan is still lacking without good implementation. To this end, we also opted for on-site configuration and training by Telos Alliance Support, and the experience that we received from team member Shaun Dolan was above and beyond helpful. Many configuration pieces of the VXE system had to be worked out on-site, such as the network configuration using non-Cisco switches for the phones and programming the Asterisk server and VXE for the new SIP trunk.

The new SIP trunk provided by TPx had a few temporary numbers — actual KQED numbers would not be available until the studio moved. With Shaun’s help we were able to preprogram all of the numbers we would eventually be using. At cutover time, the training I received came in handy. I set up a VSet-12 phone at my workbench and pre-programmed multiple “shows” to include all of the numbers expected in the SIP trunk. As TPx moved the numbers one at a time, I was able to test them immediately. Some of the numbers didn’t work, and thanks to my training I knew where to look for problems and make the necessary corrections to a few typos that I had made during the process. All the talk show lines, including the toll-free number, worked as expected. I believe the SIP trunk provider, TPx, was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the KQED cutover went.

Programming the VXe system phones to work with the many studios and shows is a breeze. The lines are displayed clearly on the phones, and the users easily can understand which lines are available for different purposes. We set up the VXe system to flash a light in the control rooms instead of using the ringer. This ensures that the studio engineers never miss a call due to the ringer being turned off.

Our talk show people learned how to operate the new phones much more quickly than I expected. They are happy with the new phones operation and information filled displays, as well as the overall quality of the VSets. They were used to the old Telos producer/talent software, but quickly came to like the Broadcast Bionics xScreen software. They especially like that, through xScreen, they can see how many times someone has called into the show. They know the show is really popular when the regular callers are crowded out by a bunch of new callers. Broadcast Bionics worked with KQED to optimize xScreen for our needs. We really appreciated their willingness to listen to our suggestions for their product and improve it for our needs. The transition to the new studio was so smooth, our listeners and callers were unaware that anything had changed.

People are now used to the new equipment and work flows at our new studio location. But of course, this new location is only temporary while the old studio complex facility is being fully remodeled and expanded.

Early 2020 we start the planning for reconstructing the newly rebuilt facility. For the move back I expect we will get another new VXe and Asterisk phone system and make the one we are using today a backup in a fully redundant system. After our last experience, I’m sure we will get Telos back out for another configuration.

For information, contact Cam Eicher at The Telos Alliance in Ohio at 1-216-241-7225 or visit www.telosalliance.com.

The post User Report: Telos Supports Smooth Transitions in San Francisco appeared first on Radio World.

Erika Beasley

Beasley Media Group has promoted Erika Beasley to vice president of digital content. She will now oversee the content creation for Beasley’s digital platforms.

Prior to this announcement, Beasley was corporate digital content director for local markets. Before that role, she spent more than three years as the Fayetteville, N.C., vice president and market manager. She also had a two-year stint as general sales manager for the Tampa market, preceded by nearly two years as local sales manager for Philadelphia stations WXTU(FM) and WRDW(FM) — now WTDY — and eight years as account manager for WXTU and WRDW. 

Her first gig with the family business was in 2004, when she was hired as a traffic manager for the Ft. Meyers, Fla., stations. 

Beasley Media Group Chief Content Officer Justin Chase said she has contributed to “the company’s digital transformation” and noted that her work “speaks for itself.”

Beasley graduated from North Carolina State University and continued her education through the National Association of Broadcasters’ Broadcast Leadership Training program and the BMI & Radio Advertising Bureau’s Rising Through The Ranks program, where she was recognized with the Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio Group’s Rising Star Award.   

She also has served on the board of the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters.

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There are clear rules regarding the broadcasting of live and prerecorded programming. And for those stations that don’t follow those rules, there will likely be consequences.

That was the case for Salem Media Group after the Federal Communications Commission began an investigation into a possible violation of the commission’s live broadcast rules. According to the FCC, Salem violated its live broadcast rules by broadcasting prerecorded programming as “live” without announcing before the broadcast that the programming was prerecorded.

[Read: Alleged Deception Costs FM Broadcasters Their License]

Salem agreed to settle the matter by entering into a consent decree and pay a $50,000 civil penalty. The company admitted that it failed to announce that the programming was actually prerecorded and agreed to implement a compliance plan to help ensure future compliance with commission rules.

In announcing the consent agreement, the FCC reiterated that it has a “longstanding goal of protecting consumers by ensuring the public knows when certain program material is ‘live’ rather than taped, filmed or recorded.”

The commission specified that any time there is an impression that the event is occurring simultaneously as the broadcast, a broadcaster must clearly identify if it is actually taped, filmed or recorded. “Doing otherwise may mislead the public,” the FCC said.

 

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The National Association of Broadcasters said its opponents have given the FCC no reason to deny NAB’s request that it clarify its disclosure requirements for third-party political ads and follow NAB’s “rationally tailored approach.”

That came in a reply to comments on its request for that clarification.

NAB joined with Hearst Television, Graham Media Group, Nexstar, Fox, Tegna and Scripps to ask the FCC to narrow its definition of non-candidate ads on “any political matter of national importance” (i.e. “issue” ads) and the disclosure obligations on broadcasters to identify the issues in those ads.

That came in NAB’s petition for reconsideration of the FCC’s order resolving complaints against broadcast groups for failure to properly identify political ads.

Broadcasters want to narrow the interpretation of “national importance” by specifying that the term applies only to national political actors in position to take national action, which would exclude ads targeted at state and local races.

Commenters opposed to NAB’s request said the association’s interpretation of “political matter of national importance” is contrary to statutory intent and language, but NAB said campaign finance reform disclosures are about soft money and issue ads influencing federal elections and should not apply to “thousands of state and local elections merely because they may mention issues discussed at the national, as well as state or local, level.”

Besides, NAB pointed out, the FCC’s overbroad interpretation of the disclosure requirement would be “virtually impossible to administer.”

“Even the opposition recognizes it would be ‘impracticable’ for stations to draw ‘fine distinctions between federal and state issues,’ which is precisely what the Political File Order requires,” said NAB.

 

The post NAB to FCC: Ad Clarification Opponents Have It All Wrong appeared first on Radio World.

The 16th European Digital Radio and Audio Show drew to a close on Saturday Jan. 25.

The exhibition floor at the 2020 edition of the European Digital Radio and Audio Show.

According to organizers, the three-day event attracted 8,100 visitors, an 8% increase over the 2019 gathering. It also played host to 183 exhibitors.

Sporting the theme “Solid Radio. Liquid Audio,” some 500 speakers animated the conferences, workshops and masterclasses. Session topics ranged from virtualization to advertising and from media education to diversity in radio.

LOOKING AHEAD

While many of the sessions that made up the three conference tracks were in French, a few were in English. One such panel was “The Future of Audio Under GAFA Hegemony.”

The “The Future of Audio Under GAFA Hegemony” session analyzed the future of radio in relation to the arrival of tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.

Moderated by consultant Gary Kline, the session looked at the future of radio and how broadcasters should adapt to changing consumption patterns and expectations with the arrival of tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.

The panel also featured Alexandre Saboundjian, CEO, Targetspot;  Philippe Generali, CEO of RCS; and James Cridland, radio consultant and founder of Podnews.

In addition, the 2020 event showcased Germany and Austria’s work in the industry. More than 15 German and Austrian exhibitors were present, including Audi and its e-tron automobile, featuring its latest infotainment system.

NEW ENTRY

A new entry to this year’s lineup was the POD.Village, a space dedicated entirely to podcast professionals and podcasters.

There was also an In-car XP stand on embedded digital radio and audio experiments in the automotive industry, while the DAB+ pavilion offered updates on digital terrestrial radio around the world.

Charlie Gawlie accepts the “Product of the Year” award at the show. Also pictured are Alexi Saillant (left) and Paul Guibouret of SAVE Diffusion. The company is Tieline’s distributor in France.

As in previous years, organizers held a ceremony to honor notable talent and products. Tieline took home an award for its Via codec in the “Product of the Year” category and IP-Studio won the “Service of the Year” award for its virtualization studio.

The 2021 edition will take place Jan. 21–23 at Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, where Italy will be the country of honor.

The post European Digital Radio and Audio Show Eyes Future appeared first on Radio World.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to be seen as an action-oriented reformer who works through consensus.

That has been evident before but is reinforced by an 11-page punch list just released by Pai’s office of what it sees as his accomplishments over three years.

[Read: Chairman Pai: The Radio World Interview]

Of interest to radio broadcasters, the list includes elimination of the main studio rule, streamlining of EAS reporting and the creation of a Blue Alert event code to notify the public of threats to law enforcement and to help apprehend dangerous suspects.

Pai also said the FCC had “moved aggressively” to combat illegal broadcasts during his tenure, including proposed maximum fines against two apparent Boston-area pirate operators and “hundreds” of actions against illegal operators, as reported on its online dashboard.

It also mentioned his modernization of media regulations initiative, elimination of paper filing requirements and the move of public files to online, among other steps.

More generally, Pai is proud of the commission’s decision-making approach.

“Chairman Pai has restored the collaborative and consensus-based tradition of FCC decision making,” his office stated. “Under Chairman Pai, the commission has voted over 80% of items on the monthly meeting agenda with bipartisan support and over 70% without dissent. Under the previous administration, fewer than 50% of agenda items were voted without dissent.”

And it said that in 36 meetings under Pai, the FCC has voted and adopted 221 items in open meetings, which it said is more than double the amount over the previous three years under Chairman Tom Wheeler.

The overall list is broken into major categories like bridging the digital divide, promoting innovation and investment, protecting consumers and enhancing public safety.

Read the full list here.

 

The post Pai Lists His Accomplishments of Three Years appeared first on Radio World.

Community service is a pillar of local radio. Stations have created a “Veterans Dire Needs Fund;” campaigned for mental health awareness; collected 913 tons of food; and raised more than $14,000 for a child advocacy center. And those were just the winners of the 2019 Celebration of Service to America Awards.

In 2020, the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation continues its tradition of honoring these efforts with its annual community service award program. Interested stations and broadcast ownership groups should submit entries illustrating their efforts to the NAB Leadership Foundation by March 6. 

According to the foundation’s website, submissions should “describe the campaign, project or program and how it met the needs of your local community” and should illustrate “how this entry made a lasting or meaningful impact.”

The call for entries page also offers submission inspiration through videos and audio clips highlighting the 2019 winners.

Service to Community Awards will be presented to radio and television stations in categories according to whether the entry was on behalf or a broadcast ownership group or an individual station in a certain market size. Eight honorees will be chosen.

This year’s black-tie gala and award ceremony will be held June 9 at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. The event will also recognize the 2020 Celebration of Service to America Leadership Award honoree.

The Celebration of Service to America Awards is sponsored and produced by the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation and financially supported by the NAB, Bonneville International and Hearst Television.

The post NAB Leadership Foundation to Honor Stations’ Community Service appeared first on Radio World.

Clay Freinwald, a principal in Clay Freinwald Technical Services, enjoyed reading “A Dead Battery Can Ruin Your Station’s Day” (Workbench, Nov. 13, 2019). Clay tells us that in his opinion, batteries are ticking time bombs waiting to attack their surroundings chemically. The losses and frustrations caused by this problem can be significant.

As for the BE transmitters with a 9 volt power set-point memory system, Clay is familiar with this approach; he said someone on a design team must have loved the idea, for it was used across a number of BE products. Not only did the designer place the battery right on the circuit board, they used a mechanical fastening system that Clay found frustrating. The battery was then hidden away, out of sight, behind a panel. The result, he feels, was a trap for an engineer who had no clue it was there.

Clay is not one merely to complain; he offers a solution to this problem. Pictured in Fig. 1 is a fix that Clay has deployed over the years. He constructed this “jumper” easily out of a couple of retired 9 volt batteries.

Fig. 1: A low-cost jumper to prevent battery corrosion and leakage inside equipment.

Peel back the metal case with needle-nose pliers or a pair of diagonal cutters (dykes) and remove the contact board. Observing the polarity, connect the two connector boards with a chunk of Belden 9451. Then plug the jumper into the socket on the printed circuit board. The other end of the jumper connects to the battery.

Clay’s design accomplishes a couple of things. First, it keeps the battery away from the circuit board. Second, you no longer have to deal with the frustrating battery clasp. If you construct one of these jumpers, as mentioned, be sure to watch the polarity as you solder the wires!

Further, in some cases, Clay has placed his battery assembly inside an empty plastic pill bottle; there is usually room in the BE rigs to hold this. Should the battery go bad or be forgotten, your loss is minimal; you can throw away the whole corroded thing.

Using “dead” 9V batteries to provide the contact board reduces the cost of this jumper assembly to nearly zero.

When I maintained these transmitters and other gear with “memory-keep-alive” batteries inside, I added a label on the front of the equipment labeled “BATTERY INSIDE,” and left space to mark when the battery was last changed.

* * *

 

Jay Melnick works for ColoRadio Communications Group. He has been following what has become a series of suggestions on keeping rodents out of your transmitter sites.

Jay offers a great resource for a variety of traps: YouTube! Particularly a channel named “Mousetrap Mondays.”  The site has been around for a few years, and all kinds of traps for unwanted guests are tested. Some of the solutions are do-it-yourself.

* * *

 

Charles Cooper provides engineering services in West Africa, where they too have rodent issues at transmitter sites.

Chuck reminds us not to forget to add pieces of charcoal along the rodent “Super Highway,” better known as the intersection of vertical walls to the floor, where mice usually travel. Chuck has found the charcoal will repel the rodents — maybe the smell of impending barbeque?

To keep the charcoal in place, drop a couple chunks in the toe of a woman’s old nylon stocking and knot the end. The smell still permeates the room, but the stocking reduces the chance that bits of charcoal or dust will dirty your site.

* * *

 

Dan Slentz sent me a really neat link for engineers who are turned on with orderly wiring.

Especially in this day of audio over  IP, you usually end up with a cabinet or rack full of cable spaghetti — Cat-6 Ethernet cables of differing lengths, with no easy way to lace them up to make the bundles look orderly.

Dan’s “find” is a product called the Patchbox Plus+ from Austrian company Patchbox. Its retractable cables provide the perfect length cable every time. Network cable installation is also faster; you’ve got to see the video of their Patchbox Speed Challenge and how quickly interconnect wiring is installed. The company offers a number of pictures showing “traditional wiring” versus Patchbox Plus+ wiring. You’ll be amazed.

Here’s the website: https://patchbox.com/patchbox-plus.

* * *

 

Set a goal — and maybe earn a pay raise — by getting certified by the Society of Broadcast Engineers in 2020.

Successful completion of any level of certification not only provides you with a professional certificate but also a letter to your boss from the SBE, complimenting you on your achievement. An ideal combination for a salary review! Remember, recertification credit is provided to engineers who share a tip published in Workbench. Thank you for sharing your tips and high-resolution photos by sending them to johnpbisset@gmail.com.

John Bisset has spent 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is still learning. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He holds CPBE certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.

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BLANTYRE, Malawi — In March, Malawi’s communications regulator, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), embarked on a drive aimed to refarm or reorganize its radio frequencies in an effort to manage interference and FM frequency congestion.

MACRA says the frequency refarming scheme will help radio stations enhance sound quality. Station host Madalitso Phiri (on the console) is pictured with Yankho Chilunga and Kulleza Banda (far right) in the Capital FM on-air studio in Blantyre. Credit: Lameck Masina.

In July 2018, MACRA stopped issuing radio broadcast licenses due to saturation in the 87.5 to 108 MHz band, meaning it temporarily could not accommodate new radio stations.

SOLUTION

The decision to address the problem followed a recommendation from Davood Molkdar, managing director for Casitel, an independent consulting firm that MACRA hired in March to help with the country’s spectrum and frequency audit.

MACRA Director of Broadcasting Fegus Lipenga told journalists, when unveiling the outcome of the audit in Blantyre in December, that the refarming would require some broadcasters with two or more transmitters in close vicinity to “reduce transmitting power to avoid interference.”

Lipenga also explained that in addition, “Other broadcasters would be reassigned new frequencies, and that the initiative would economically benefit broadcasters since they’ll eventually be using fewer transmitters.”

For the past few years Malawi has witnessed a saturation of the FM band mainly due to the increased growth of the broadcasting sector.

The radio boom followed the liberalization of the airwaves after the passage of the Communications Act in 1998.

According to MACRA, Malawi today has more than 80 licensed broadcasters, 56 of which are radio stations and 27 are television.

NEW APPLICATIONS

FM frequency congestion and interference have caused listeners like Lingilirani Moyo to have difficulties in tuning in to their favorite radio station. Credit: Lameck Masina

MACRA set up a 12-member task force comprising broadcasters and officials from MACRA to implement the scheme.

The task force is responsible for collecting data on current FM license allocations, gathering data on actual occupancy and obtaining statistics on FM transmitters.

Following the initial March spectrum and frequency audit, MACRA asked Zodiak Broadcasting Station to remove four transmitters, Radio Islam to remove two and Times Radio to remove one because they were believed to interfere with other stations.

But, said Mussa Abdul, head engineer for Radio Islam “The final decision will be reached upon recommendation from the task force, which is currently going around the country assessing whether a radio station really needs to remove a transmitter or if it can resolve the issue by reducing antenna power or relocating to a new frequency.”

In the meantime, MACRA lifted the suspension on issuance of radio licenses in early December and has begun inviting new applications.

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