Radio World

Software company WinMedia named Florin Velea-Grumezea as its new sales manager.

“Florin’s expertise in broadcast has enabled him to acquire knowledge of all broadcast products, from studio to transmitter,” the company stated.

WinMedia said it is managing an increasing number of turnkey projects that require knowledge of IP audio and NDI for video. Velea-Grumezea is also expected to help the company grow its business in countries in Eastern Europe.

The announcement was made by CEO Stéphane Tesoriere, who said that Velea-Grumezea “will continue the prospecting work that we launched three years ago and which is proving to be a real success with many customers who have trusted us with the modernization of their radio from audio-only to visual.”

See more recent People News coverage.

The post Velea-Grumezea Joins WinMedia appeared first on Radio World.

Alexander Leschinsky

G&L has joined RadioDNS.

“We want to help bringing the right radio content to each listener on the device of their choice,” said co-founder and Managing Director Alexander Leschinsky in the announcement, citing the company’s experience in hybrid radio metadata and IP distribution.

RadioDNS promotes the growth of hybrid radio globally through its open-source standards. The organization will hold its annual general assembly later this month.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

G&L Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and has offices in Berlin and Munich, as well as Pleasanton, Calif., in the United States. It offers solutions for processing and delivery of media content, and says its customers include providers of CDN services, vendors of players and encoders, and service providers for monitoring and controlling IT systems.

“G&L is a trusted partner to the German public service broadcasters, who represent a large amount of radio listening in Germany, the most populous country, and will be providing RadioDNS services for them,” according to the announcement.

Another recent new member is Hubbard Radio. The RadioDNS website has a list of members, which include familiar major media names like the BBC, NPR and the European Broadcasting Union.

The post G&L Joins RadioDNS appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC has issued a ruling in a dispute over a construction permit to move a FM translator in the city’s historic Beacon Hill area.

The WGBH Education Foundation, licensee of non-commercial WGBH(FM) in Boston, in June of 2020, filed a modification application to move the existing WGBH translator (W242AA) to a new site immediately adjacent to its licensed site in the city. WGBH also proposed a non-adjacent channel change from Channel 242 to Channel 247, and explained the swap would eliminate contour overlap with first-adjacent channel full-service WSRS(FM), licensed to Worcester, Mass.

It was the request to move the WGBH FM translator channel that would begin a domino effect and bring on a flurry of FCC filings by several other radio groups.

To start the FCC’s Media Bureau granted the WGBH modification request on June 24, 2020. The next day Beanpot License Corp., which owns WXRV(FM) at 92.5 MHz in Andover Mass., filed a request with the FCC to modify the facilities of its FM translator station Channel W243DC in Needham, Mass., to take advantage of the vacated WGBH channel on Chanel 242.

Then WJFD-FM Inc., licensee of full-service WJFD(FM) in New Bedford, Mass., in July 2020, filed a petition for reconsideration of the WGBH translator modification CP on the basis it would cause predicted interference to WJFD at 97.3 MHz.

[See Our Business and Law Page]

WGBH subsequently submitted a cancellation letter a month later to the Media Bureau stating it intended to stay put in its existing location and continue operating its translator on Chanel 242. Beanpot then objected to WGBH’s cancellation letter.

Beanpot in its argument supporting its objection to the of the WGBH translator modification cancellation cited several previous bureau decisions to support its claim that “once the FCC grants a translator modification application, the applicant must carry out the approved channel change and has at best an implied STA to continue operating on its original frequency while it constructs the new facility,” according to the Beanpot filing.

The back and forth between the parties continued with WGBH writing in its reply to the FCC “it has chosen not to change channels because information provided by WJFD has demonstrated to WGBH that it would not be practical for [the translator] to be built out on Channel 247.”

However, Beanpot continued to press the FCC to force WGBH to complete work on its new translator within the terms of its construction permit. “Beanpot disputes the validity of the predicted interference showing submitted by the WJFD application,” the broadcaster wrote.

Beanpot, which bills its WXRV(FM) as “Boston’s Independent Radio,” further argued that WGBH failed to formally serve the broadcaster with its CP cancellation letter in a timely fashion.

WGBH in Nov. 2020 attempted to resurrect its FM translator CP and move to the new site but to remain on the existing Channel 242 and at a lower power (3 watts ERP). In its second modification application, WGBH insisted its proposed transmitter facilities would not cause any prohibited contour overlap with the licensed Beanpot translator.

The NPR affiliate stated: “[The] proposed WGBH translator facilities would comply with respect to the first adjacent channel facility authorized in the Beanpot Modification Application because the area of existing overlap between the proposed WGBH Translator and the proposed Beanpot Translator would not increase as compared to the existing overlap between the licensed WGBH Translator and the proposed Beanpot Translator (in fact, would slightly decrease).”

Beanpot within a day filed an informal objection to WGBH’s second modification application.

Albert Shuldiner, chief of the FCC’s Audio Division, in a letter last week rejected Beanpot’s objections to WGBH’s cancellation letter and WGHB’s second modification application. The finding granted WGBH’s second modification application and appears to give the green light to WGBH to complete its FM translator move to the new facility site and remain on Channel 242.

It’s not clear from the FCC filings whether Beanpot License Corp. will proceed with its proposed modification request to switch FM translator channels.

Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post FCC Rules in Dispute Over Boston Translator Move appeared first on Radio World.

Chuck Kelly has retired.

“Since the summer of 1973, all I’ve wanted to do was be involved with radio,” he wrote on LinkedIn. Forty-eight years later, he can say he met his goal.

Having worked early in his career as a jock, PD, news director and chief engineer for stations in Colorado and Illinois, Kelly moved into technology sales in 1980 by going to work for 3M, where he was sales manager of International Tapetronics for eight years.

From 1988 to 2006 he was with Broadcast Electronics, a face of the company to the international market as its director of international sales. He then went to Nautel and worked there for 13 years as director of sales and later regional sales manager for the Asia/Pacific region.

In 2019 he rejoined Broadcast Electronics, which was under the new ownership of Elenos Group, as vice president of market development. His last day was Friday.

Kelly also is a longtime member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and was its president for two terms.

“Thank you to the folks who worked beside me and had endless patience with my mistakes as well as my enthusiasm,” Kelly wrote on LinkedIn. Thank you to the customers, business partners and friends from more than 120 countries in every corner of the world, I can never forget you.”

“While I won’t be working 8 to 5 anymore, I have several consulting gigs lined up to stay busy, and will hopefully continue my association with SBE Chapter 25 here in Indianapolis, as well as with the Holy Spirit at Geist 9:30 a.m. choir,” he wrote. “And I plan to fire up W9MDO on HF and DMR from time to time. I hope to catch you down the log.”

[Read Chuck Kelly’s 2018 commentary “Radio Matters, Here’s Why”]

The post Chuck Kelly Retires appeared first on Radio World.

The authors are, respectively, senior product manager and evangelist at ALC NetworX, and business development manager, OEM & Partnerships, at Ross Video.

Bill Rounopoulos (left) and Andreas Hildebrand

Remote production is clearly a hot topic today, as companies around the world race to maintain their existing workflows with their talent dispersed in many off-site locations. Such production is the new normal and — now that we have experienced its potential — is likely to continue to be a focus in the future.

While many solutions have been hastily cobbled together, there is a need for higher-quality productions with lower latency that integrate easily with existing equipment.

Starting Point
We started with a basic question: Can we send Ravenna/AES67 traffic over the public infrastructure and over long distances?

Then we wondered, would we be able to listen to something resembling audio? Would it be good quality?

It is one thing for a single company with their own equipment to do it, but could we also interoperate with equipment from other companies? After all, this is the whole point behind Ravenna and AES67.

Finally, we also wondered how we would do it and what challenges would we face.

Before digging into the setup and challenges that needed to be overcome, it is important to understand that Ravenna and AES67, even though they use IP, are designed to be used in local-area networks (LANs).

Despite this, Ravenna and AES67 have been proven and are being used commercially in wide-area network applications across private networks, even though their use in WANs was never contemplated by the standards.

Private dedicated networks, whether owned or leased, are well-architected, have predictable behavior and come with performance guarantees.

Public networks, on the other hand, are the equivalent of the “wild west.” You can’t control them. They are congested and unpredictable. Public networks suffer from packet loss due to link failures and have large, sometimes dramatic, latency due to packet re-transmissions.

This makes the public environment hostile for Ravenna and AES67!

Challenges
There are three main challenges: latency and packet jitter; packet loss; timing and synchronization.

Fortunately, the increased latency and packet jitter of the public network is handled by Ravenna by design, through the use of large receiver buffers that must be able to handle a minimum of 20 mS. AES67 only requires 3 mS but also recommends 20 mS.

Most well-designed Ravenna solutions, like all the equipment used in this experiment, have even bigger buffers and other associated techniques that can compensate for the added delay.

The AES Standard Committee working group SC-02-12-M is working on guidelines for AES67 over WAN applications, and a key recommendation is to increase the buffer size within devices.

Packet loss is another important challenge. Ravenna and AES67 are not designed to cope with dropped packets.

Fortunately, there are other transport protocols that are architected to deal with dropped packets without introducing a lot of extra latency. These include Secure Reliable Transport (SRT), Zixi and Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST), but there are many others.

We solved the challenge of packet loss by using SRT encapsulating Ravenna traffic within SRT.

The final but significant challenge is timing and synchronization. We start by having a separate Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Grandmaster (GM) at each site that is synchronized to GPS. All equipment at each location is locked to PTP locally in order to maintain synchronization among all participating devices. No PTP packets are sent across the WAN or through the cloud, which would simply not be practical as packet jitter is too high to achieve adequate synchronization precision.

The Demo Setup
These musings resulted in an ambitious proof-of-concept demo involving equipment from three Ravenna partners — Ross, Merging Technologies and DirectOut — across four sites over two continents, North America and Europe, that leverages the public cloud infrastructure from Amazon Web Services, or AWS.

Fig. 1: Block Diagram of Demo Setup

The Fig. 1 graphic gives a generalized view of the demo setup. Ross equipment in Ottawa, Canada, interfaced with AWS Virginia, while the Merging and DirectOut setups in Grenoble, France, Lausanne, Switzerland and Mittweida, Germany communicated with AWS Frankfurt.

On-site in Ottawa, Mittweida, Lausanne and Grenoble, various Ravenna/AES67 gear from Ross Video, DirectOut and Merging was used to create and receive standard AES67 streams. Gateways on the local networks were used to wrap these AES67 streams into SRT flows, which in turn were handed off to the AWS cloud access points using the public internet.

The flows were then transported within the AWS cloud between the access points, from where they were handed off (secured by SRT) to the local SRT gateways via public internet again. The gateways unwrapped the AES67 streams so that they appeared unchanged in the local destination networks and could be received by the Ravenna devices.

All SRT gateways were built from Haivision’s open-source SRT implementation. While Ross Video and Merging used separate host machines to run the SRT gateways, DirectOut was able to include the gateway functionality into their Prodigy.MP Multi-I/O converter.

Since all Ravenna devices were synchronized to the same time source via GPS, the generated streams received exact RTP timestamps that were transparently transported through the cloud, so that a deterministic and stable playout latency and inter-stream alignment could be configured at the receiving ends. Since streams were not processed or altered in the cloud or by the SRT gateways, the audio data was bit-transparently passed through with full quality.

Since any packet loss was coped with by the SRT protocol, a higher latency setting needed to be configured to accommodate the larger packet delay variation (PDV) due to occasional packet retransmission.

Thankfully, the Ravenna receiver devices used in this demo provided ample buffering capacity to allow adequate configuration. In practice, buffer settings (= overall latency setting) ranged from 200–600 mS, depending on quality and bandwidth of the local Internet connection.

A monitoring web page connected to a local loopback server hosted on AWS enabled listening to the live streams via http within any browser, including display of live VU metering and accumulated (unrecoverable) packet loss per stream.

More information and the live demo page are available on a dedicated page at www.ravenna-network.com/remote-production/.

Lessons Learned
The proof-of-concept demo worked well, and we are very pleased with the results. It required some expertise and fiddling with manual settings to get it to work.

Many lessons were learned from the proof of concept. Here are a few:

• “Local only” PTP synchronization locked to GPS works fine.
• There is packet loss, but this can be managed via SRT.
• Latency, at significantly less than 1 second, is lower than what we expected, but still substantial.
• To manage increased network delay, manual tuning of the link offset at each location was required, as expected, but the deep buffers of the receivers were able to compensate for it.

Future Considerations
There are a few items that require further study to make it a more practical and usable solution:

• A big one is how to transport timing through the cloud.
• We consciously decided on manual connections using session description protocol (SDP) files to keep things simple. It would be valuable to be able to use Ravenna or NMOS registration and discovery over the cloud to automate the connection process.
• Ease of use would be greatly enhanced if the link-offset could be handled automatically to compensate for network delay.
• To manage packet loss, it would be interesting to learn if ST2022-7 redundancy would work.
• Although SRT worked great, it would be good to experiment with RIST to understand if there are any performance or reliability benefits.

The proof of concept showed there is a lot of promise for Ravenna in the cloud and we are excited and motivated to tackle these items soon.

Thanks to Angelo Santos of Ross Video for providing the drawing of the proof of concept setup; Nicolas Sturmel of Merging Technologies for programming the monitoring website and setting up the AWS cloud access; and Claudio Becker-Foss of DirectOut Technologies for providing thoughts on gateway programming.

The post Ravenna Takes It to the Cloud appeared first on Radio World.

(Al-Ekhbariya TV via Twitter)

To mark World Radio Day, the Saudi Broadcasting Authority launched Al-Ekhbariya Radio, the first news radio station in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Feb. 13.

The station is affiliated with the government-owned Al-Ekhbariya TV channel and can heard on FM in the capital city of Riyadh (93.0 MHz), Jeddah (107.7 MHz) along the Red Sea coast, and Dammam (99.0 MHz) in the Eastern portion of the country.

SBA CEO Mohammed bin Fahd Al-Harithi told the Saudi Press Agency that the launch is part of the SBA’s effort to make greater use of all media platforms, develop more local content, and meet different societal tastes.

[Read More of Our Coverage of Radio Around the World]

Station director Mubarak Al-Ati told the Al-Ekhbariya TV “Today” program that the station is part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plans to build a more diverse and sustainable economy along with a vibrant society. “Launching the station is in the interest of the Saudi media renaissance to keep pace with the developments the kingdom is undergoing at all levels. Saudi media will continue to leap and advance in service of the kingdom’s leadership and people.”

According to UAE News, the station will have a network of 85 correspondents and will focus 80% of its programming on local news with the remainder focused on Arab and international news.

The post Saudi Arabia Launches Its First News Radio Station appeared first on Radio World.

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

Established in September 2011 by UNESCO, World Radio Day celebrates the profound influence of radio technology in spreading diverse, democratic discourse. Because of the medium’s relatively low cost and massive reach, it remains one of the most accessible forms of communication.

At the National Inventors Hall of Fame, we have the privilege of honoring some of the world’s greatest inventors, several of whom have played a significant role in developing radio technology. In recognition of the 10th anniversary of World Radio Day, we invite you to learn about NIHF Inductee Reginald Fessenden, who is known not only for discovering amplitude modulation (AM) radio, but also for conducting the first radio broadcast.

A Varied Background
Fessenden was born on Oct. 6, 1866, in what is now Québec. The son of an Anglican minister, he studied at Trinity College School and later at Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Quebec.

In addition to teaching, he landed a job as principal of the Whitney Institute, a newly formed school in Bermuda. It was there that he met his wife, Helen Trott, and became interested in the field of science.

[Read More from Radio World About Fessenden]

Fessenden later moved to New York City to work for fellow NIHF Inductee Thomas Edison. While he began as a tester at the Edison Machine Works in 1886, he impressed Edison so much that just one year later, he was promoted to the position of chief chemist at the newly built Edison Laboratory in West Orange, N.J.

Unfortunately, Edison’s companies ran into financial hardship during the late 1880s, and Fessenden was let go. Undeterred, he continued working in the field of electrical engineering and eventually returned to the classroom to teach at the University of Pittsburgh.

A History-Making Broadcast
In 1900, Fessenden left academia for a job at the U.S. Weather Bureau, where he was challenged to adapt radiotelegraphy for use in weather forecasting. Frustrated with the cumbersome and slow process of decoding radiotelegraphy messages, he began exploring ways to transmit voice. Through his experiments, Fessenden realized that combining radio waves with a locally generated wave of a slightly different frequency created an audible frequency that could transmit the human voice.

He continued developing this idea, which he named the heterodyne principle, and on Christmas Eve 1906 he used his technology to successfully transmit human voices from Brant Rock Station, Mass., to ships off the Atlantic coast. The ships at sea enjoyed a broadcast that included Fessenden playing “O Holy Night” on his violin and reading a passage from the Bible.

To ensure the broadcast worked, he requested sailors send him a letter describing what they had heard on the other end. Their responses confirmed that the transmission was a success.

However, it would take another 10 years for this modern idea of radio transmission to become commercially viable with the availability of electron tubes (also known as vacuum tubes) to serve as the oscillator.

Fessenden held over 200 U.S. patents, and thanks to his celebrated 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast, he is considered by many to be the father of modern radio.

Discover More World-Changing Hall of Famers
To learn about more NIHF Inductees whose innovations have helped improve the lives of people around the world, we invite you to visit our blog.

The author is a content strategist at the National Inventors Hall of Fame based in North Canton, Ohio.

The post Reginald Fessenden: Father of Modern Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Saga Communications station WCLZ(FM) in South Portland, Me., promoted the 14th Polar Bear Dip & Dash to benefit the Natural Resources Council of Maine and its efforts to fight climate change.

Before we get too much further into 2022, I’m hoping we can focus on making it a better world for ourselves and our listeners in as many ways as possible.

When you read the many summaries of the headlines 2021, you couldn’t help but notice that climate was one of the top stories. From extremely cold temperatures in Texas and record highs on the Pacific Coast to hurricanes and enormous forest fires, weather effects dominated the news.

Yet as I listen to commercial stations around the United States, I rarely hear the terms “climate change” or “global warming” mentioned other than news radio coverage. The exception is conservative talk radio, where the seriousness of climate change is still rejected as a left-wing scare tactic.

“Pluralistic ignorance” is a useful phenomenon to understand if our industry wants to help improve conditions we face with climate change, COVID and the economy.

Pluralistic ignorance happens when people misjudge beliefs and actions of others and then act accordingly, even when it goes against what they actually believe.

[Read More Promo Power Here]

A prime example of pluralistic ignorance comes from a 2019 survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. It discovered that the American public underestimates how many people in our country believe that global warming is real.

It might be surprising to you to learn that Americans on average think that only 54% of others believe that global warming is occurring, when actually 69% of Americans surveyed at that time really did believe it was happening. And the latest survey from September indicates that this belief about global warming has grown to 76% of the American public believing that “global warming is happening,” an all-time high since the program began its surveys in 2008.

Taos Communications station KTAO in New Mexico has been using solar power since 1991.

While I understand talk radio has an audience to serve, these stats make me wonder if its programmers are doing enough research to make sure that the once-sacred cow of poo-pooing climate change should be reassessed, even for their listeners.

After all, it is common for Americans of radically different political stripes to want the same thing. The crux of conflict is how it should be done.

Regarding policy proposals, an April 2021 Pew Research survey reports that among specifically conservative-leaning Republicans, 86% favor planting about a trillion trees around the world to absorb carbon emissions, 69% support tax credit for businesses to develop carbon-capture and storage technology, and nearly half support tougher restrictions on power plant carbon emissions. Those results are not what common wisdom might predict.

And if you take a look at the comparison maps of the Yale Program’s 2018 survey of Democratic and Republican views of climate change, you will see that most Republicans at least “somewhat agree” that global warming should be taught in our schools — and an astounding number at least “somewhat support” the funding of research into “renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.”

That’s a far cry from the notion that politically conservative Americans couldn’t care less about climate change.

Broaden the conversation
For most of the listening universe in America, it’s past time that stations started openly supporting climate change initiatives, or at least letting the conversation take place.

Where to start? There’s a 90-second piece called “Climate Connections,” produced five times a week by The Yale Center for Environmental Communication that’s on many public radio stations; it could use more support from commercial radio. If you’re interested, email editor@yaleclimateconnections.org. If not, Yale’s climate change focused websites https://yaleclimateconnections.org/and https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/ offer many ideas for how you can incorporate messaging into your programming.

There are even studies showing how the public views specific topics you may consider addressing.

Along with addressing the topic regularly, stations can help support local and national initiatives and execute promotions, events and concerts with the proceeds benefiting organizations working to fight climate change.

Taking political affiliation into consideration, it’s easy to find resources that support different climate change initiatives. Google “climate change solutions” or “climate change education” and you’ll find everything from Greenpeace to the Brookings Institution and the Senate Bipartisan Climate Caucus.

Is it possible to run all or part of your radio station using solar energy? KTAO in Taos, N.M., famously has been using solar since 1991. If you’ve got to “get it in the budget” for next year, there’s no better time to plan for the future than now.

With seven in 10 Americans being at least “somewhat worried” about global warming, it’s time to broaden the conversation about this crucial aspect of the future that we all share.

The post Radio, Influencing the Future for Good appeared first on Radio World.

YFM DJ Kutloano Nhlapo, also known as “Da Kruk,” hosts his “Sinday Social” radio show in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Almost three decades into democracy, radio is thriving in South Africa. Radio listenership in the country is consistently higher than the global average. And it in fact increased during the COVID-19 lockdowns of the past two years.

This is perhaps not surprising given that radio acts as a companion and that people were confined to their homes and so more likely to tune in, more often. But during the pandemic, radio has also played an important role in bringing educational broadcasts to youth who did not have access to the internet. People also listened to radio station podcasts during lockdown, and podcast listenership in South Africa is also higher than the global average.

Despite South Africa’s divisive history, I have argued that this is because radio listening provides background texture to everyday life. It’s a social activity which reminds people that there is a social world “out there” and helps them link to it.

The numbers
Radio is a universal mass medium in South Africa, since more people have access to radio receivers and broadcasts than they do television sets. In fact, radio remains the most popular and pervasive medium across the continent. This is despite the proliferation of cellphones, the growth of social media apps and on-demand streaming music services.

[Read More of Our Coverage of Radio Around the World]

One might assume that fewer people would listen to the radio given these technological innovations. But the most recent measurement figures show that radio audiences in South Africa continue to grow.

In 2021, about 80% of South Africans had tuned into a radio station within the last week, with most people still listening on traditional radio sets. There are 40 commercial and public broadcast stations and 284 community stations in South Africa.

Radio audience numbers in South Africa have not declined as they have in North America, due to an increase in streaming service options. There is, in particular, high listenership among young people, who listen to radio as a source of both news and companionship.

Vernacular radio
World Radio Day is a good time to reflect on the role of the medium in a country like South Africa, characterized by inequality and an ethnically divisive history under apartheid.

Historically, South African broadcasting has not provided a common space of public communication, but instead reinforced notions of separateness, in line with apartheid narratives of difference. As I argued in my book Broadcasting Democracy, people “consume” radio, making strategic choices about which stations to tune into on the basis of their personal or group identities.

Commercial music radio stations in particular are still often seen and sometimes even explicitly framed along racial lines. There is a plethora of radio stations in all 11 official languages available at the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corp.

South African scholar Liz Gunner has shown how a station like the Zulu language Ukhozi FM has been significant in connecting with urban and rural listeners to navigate post-apartheid Zulu identity. Ukhozi FM has the highest radio listenership with nearly 8-million listeners. While during apartheid language and ethnic differences were used as a means to segregate citizens, today these are celebrated as part of a diverse “rainbow nation”.

The public sphere
Despite the continued popularity of vernacular radio, English-language talk radio stations and shows still attract African language speakers who frequently phone in and participate. This could be linked to the dominance of English-language media in South Africa and the fact that English media spaces are also often dominant.

In other words, despite the range of vernacular options, English stations are perceived as being sites of the public sphere and attract debate and conversation between a diverse range of South Africans.

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

Regardless of language, talk radio shows are booming with vibrant conversations, highlighting the important role of radio as a space to bring together geographically diverse South Africans to debate matters of social and political importance.

Aside from identity, radio also plays a key role as a companion for people, as in this study where the majority of youth said that radio “keeps me company”. Another recent study confirmed that listeners often see their preferred radio station as a companion and feel a deep connection with both the station and its DJs.

Social media
While traditional listenership is growing in South Africa, people are also listening more online and interacting with radio stations in different ways, for example via social media platforms.

Whereas in the past listeners could only access radio hosts via calling in to the station, they can now easily and instantly reach them via apps like Twitter. And equally instantly receive responses. While calling in to a station usually implies negotiating one’s way past a call screener or producer and engaging on a specific topic, Twitter communication is often more casual, relaxed and personal.

Radio is thus no longer a one-dimensional platform or “blind medium”, and this is a key contributing factor to its growth. And radio listeners are able to now communicate directly not only with the station, but also one another.

Community radio
And with 284 stations, the role of community radio in South Africa also remains key to continuing to build and consolidate democracy. Originally designed as the “voice of the voiceless”, community radio emerged as part of the liberalization of the airwaves in the early 1990s. They were a key strategy in the repositioning of the apartheid-state media landscape.

Like many other organizations in the NGO sector, community stations have faced financial challenges after the withdrawal of international donor funds which sustained them during the apartheid period. But they are still flourishing, as evidenced by the large number of stations still in existence.

Stations like Bush Radio, the oldest community radio project in Cape Town, still boast an exciting lineup of alternative talk and music content. And smaller community projects like Rx Radio, a children’s radio project based at Red Cross Children’s Hospital, also play a key role in providing children’s entertainment produced by children themselves.

Radio plays a significant role in South Africa as form of education and entertainment. The diverse and vibrant range of stations is a unique feature of the South African media landscape.

Tanja Bosch is an associate professor in Media Studies and Production at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the author of the book Broadcasting Democracy: Radio and Identity in South Africa. Her Twitter feed is @radionerd76.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

The post Radio Is Thriving in South Africa: 80% Are Tuning In appeared first on Radio World.

(Photo by Pixbay)

The National Association of Broadcasters has laid out its top policy priorities for the 117th Congress with a list of policy priorities that include preserving local journalism in the age of big tech, increasing diversity in broadcasters, preventing harmful changes to advertising tax treatment, and ensuring broadcast ownership rules reflect the competitive marketplace.

Its list of policy priorities began with preserving local journalism in the age of big tech.

Noting that journalism and a free press are bedrocks of American democracy, the NAB said that while “free, accessible and reliable content remains in high demand, it is being undermined on multiple fronts.”

As the “advertising market has become dominated by a few giant online platforms, broadcast stations’ advertising revenues have significantly declined, making local journalism more difficult to support,” the NAB said.

“As Congress considers the competitive challenges and antitrust concerns raised by digital platforms and their impact on local news and information, it should support laws and policies that recognize and uphold broadcasters’ unique and essential role in democracy and a free press,” the NAB said.

[Read More of RW’s Congressional Coverage]

In opposing a performance tax on local radio stations, the NAB contended that a “performance tax would financially cripple local radio stations simply for airing music, jeopardizing local jobs, stifling new artists and harming local radio listeners. Broadcasters strongly support the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 33, S. Con. Res. 9), a resolution that opposes a performance tax and is supported by more than 230 bipartisan members of the House and Senate.”

In terms of its policy priority of increasing diversity in broadcasting, the NAB noted that “the most impactful program to expand diversity in broadcast ownership – the Minority Tax Certificate Program – was eliminated by Congress in 1995. That program had provided tax incentives to those who sold their majority interests in broadcast stations to minorities, and broadcasters support legislation to reinstate it.”

“Broadcasters support the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act (H.R. 4871) and the Broadcast Varied Ownership Incentives for Community Expanded Service Act, also known as the Broadcast VOICES Act (S. 2456), introduced in the House and Senate respectively during the 117th Congress,” the NAB said. “Reinstating the Tax Certificate Program at the FCC would encourage investment in broadcast station ownership for women and people of color and dramatically help underrepresented voices realize their dreams of radio and television station ownership.”

The NAB also came out against preventing harmful changes to advertising tax treatment.

“Under the U.S. tax code, advertising is treated as an ordinary and necessary business expense deductible in the year it is incurred,” the NAB said. “In the last few years, some in Congress and in state legislatures have proposed changes to the tax treatment of businesses’ advertising as a means of raising revenue. These modifications would have a devastating impact on radio and television stations, as well as local newspapers, by discouraging businesses from advertising….Congress should oppose legislation that modifies the tax laws to make advertising more expensive for businesses.”

In terms of relaxing ownership regulations, the NAB stressed that “TV and radio stations are best able to serve their local communities when allowed to compete effectively in the marketplace….Broadcasters urge policymakers to support the FCC’s modernization of radio and TV ownership rules to reflect the current marketplace and account for the rise and increasing influence of digital media.”

More information on the policies that broadcasters will focus on during the rest of the 117th Congress is available at nab.org/advocacy.

The post NAB Lays Out Top Policy Priorities for 117th Congress appeared first on Radio World.

Infographic Courtesy Pure Digital. Click to embiggen.

A new study from digital radio manufacturer Pure Radio finds that for many Brits, radio now provides the soundtrack for their lives.

This is especially true 18- to 34-year-olds. The survey found that more than 62% of the younger audience segment is tuning to radio compared to pre-pandemic. Despite older listeners not changing their listening habits as dramatically, on average, more than a third of U.K. listeners find themselves listening to the radio more now.

In part, Pure Radio stated in a release announcing the survey findings, the increase is connected to working from home. A fifth of respondents noted they listen to the radio while eating breakfast or during the workday with 11 a.m. being the most popular time to listen to the radio. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they put on the radio to help combat feelings of loneliness.

[Related: “World Radio Day Focuses on Trust for 2022”]

The biggest difference in listening habits between younger and older listeners comes in an unexpected place — the shower. The survey found that the 18–24 segment was four times as likely to listen to the radio while washing themselves than those aged 45+ (20% of 18–24 respondents versus just 5% of those 45+). Younger listeners were three times as likely to listen to the radio during dinner than older listeners (18% vs. 6%).

When it comes to their preferred listening method, 27% of 18–34s said they found listening via a traditional radio receiver most convenient.

Pure Radio surveyed 2,000 Brits for the study to understand the trust people have in radio as part of a campaign connected to World Radio Day 2022.

The post Radio Listening Up Among Younger Brits appeared first on Radio World.

I think Fred Baumgartner’s article about OTA Next Gen ATSC 3.0 and the entire push to put it on the air misses a very important point: Why bother?

While he argues that ancient modulation on the MW band and even FM on the VHF band cannot compete with ATSC 3.0 on the UHF band for OTA distribution for most of the global audience, he forgets that wireless transmission in general is passe except for time spent in motion, commuting, etc. Fiber to the home is rapidly replacing copper circuits of all types and is far more reliable than any OTA signal.

[Read More Guest Commentaries Here]

Do we need ATSC 3.0 to reach commuters? Nope. Sure, we could use its data formats with 5G OTA, but that’s really optional. Once you have an IP connection, any data format will work. ATSC 3.0 TV transmission, even synchronous repeaters, pales in comparison with cellular carriers, who will be providing thousands of cell sites in any one community.

If you look at rural areas, especially those with very hilly or mountainous terrain, OTA remains highly challenged. And that includes 5G cellular service. But many of these same areas are being rewired with fiber.

So, for that magnificent 8K TV screen, fiber will likely rule. For the kids in the back seats of the family van, do they really need 8K for the 24-inch screen built into the back rests of the seats in front of them?

In the world of Internet of things, will traditional TV license holders matter? Nope. These devices require two-way connectivity. Only the wireless carriers are in a position to expand and prosper. And at home, the bits can be uplinked more efficiently with wireless modems connected to the world via fiber than 5G.

The author is chief engineer of Monadnock Broadcasting Group and Saga Communications. Opinions are his own.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Why Bother With NextGen TV? appeared first on Radio World.

Spanish Broadcasting System has asked the Federal Communications Commission to allow foreign investors to indirectly own up to 49.99% of its equity in aggregate.

SBS filed a petition for declaratory ruling as a consequence of a litigation settlement under which certain investors would receive a combination of cash and new shares of SBS’s common stock.

SBS has radio holdings in multiple major markets including flagship WSKQ(FM) in New York.

“The issuance of the total number of shares required to implement the settlement could cause the aggregate equity foreign ownership of SBS to exceed … [the] 25% benchmark because some of these parties are foreign entities and/or individuals,” the commission wrote in a summary.

[Recently in RW: “FCC Grants iHeart Petition on GMEI Foreign Investment”]

The commission noted that SBS only seeks approval for foreign investors to hold up to 49.99% of the company’s total equity interests; it does not seek special approval with respect to its voting interests.

Raúl Alarcón is the only person or entity that would hold a 5% or greater voting interest, with an approximately 80% voting interest and 34% equity interest in SBS. “The remainder of SBS’s stock would be held by various domestic and foreign investors,” the FCC wrote.

The petition doesn’t seek advance approval for any individual or entity. SBS told the FCC that the request raises no national security, trade policy or law enforcement concerns “and will further the commission’s goal of encouraging foreign investment in the broadcast industry.”

The commission accepted its petition for review and will take public comment. Per its past practice it also will check with relevant executive branch agencies for any concerns related to foreign ownership of SBS.

Comments can be filed on the FCC website and are due March 14, 2022. They should reference MB Docket No. 22-61.

The post SBS Seeks OK for More Foreign Investment appeared first on Radio World.

A new study has found that those who commute to an office outside the home use radio more than two times as much as those who work from home.

The media research and content intelligence provider NuVoodoo Media Services recently completed its 19th Rating Prospects Study, which suggests that the industry has reason to be optimistic about increased radio listening in the months ahead.

“Through the earlier stages of the pandemic and in our January study, the data has clearly shown more upside for radio when the focus is on the out of home audience,” said Carolyn Gilbert, president of NuVoodoo Media Services. “As Omicron cases peak and recede, the portion of the radio audience that offers more impact to stations’ monthly report cards is best found and influenced outside the home, in cars and at work, especially during critical weekday prime listening periods.”

Where survey respondents are typically working. (Courtesy NuVoodoo Media Services)

The report found that among those working in any capacity, just 12% report using radio most in a home office setting. Those numbers almost triple to 32% when working outside the home. Differences were also seen among all respondents, those who were likely to participate in ratings surveys (RPS Yes), and those who use radio for an hour or more each day (RPS 60). Less extreme differences were seen between at-home and out-of-home listening to digital streaming platforms (DSP) and other audio sources, although out-of-home workers were greater audio consumers regardless of the chosen medium.

The survey found a clear difference in listening habits between at-home workers and those commuting to work outside the home. (Courtesy NuVoodoo Media Services)

On Feb. 16, 2022, the study and findings will be presented in a 40-minute webinar that will explore how often listeners use streaming apps like Spotify and Apple when compared with how often they use and listen to local AM/FM radio streaming apps. The webinar will look at radio station marketing strategies, including social media, connected TV, direct mail, direct outdoor and telemarketing, and will take a deep dive into the use of smart speakers, car audio systems and podcast listening trends.

The survey was fielded nationwide at the start of January 2022 to 3,298 listeners across all PPM markets. The webinar on the report’s findings will be begin at 1 pm Eastern on Feb. 16.

The post Study: Those Working Outside the Home Listen to More Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Thresa and Michael Gay

Every now and then we are fortunate in our industry that a startup crops up to bring us some really cool problem-solvers. Some of these firms come and go. Some products are acquired by other companies (the old Dannager Audio Works Plan B silence sensor comes to mind). Some suppliers become industry stalwarts.

We have long-standing manufacturers like Henry Engineering and RDL that have built special widgets for years. Relative newcomer Angry Audio has a growing variety of solutions.

Now a company called NotaBotYet is on the scene with its own line of creative products for radio broadcasters. The startup was founded by wife-and-husband team Thresa and Michael Gay.

[Check Out More Product Evaluations in Our Products Section]

Early glimmers came while Michael was helping his daughter build her first robot, named the C-Bot, and trying to come up with a cute name to put on the circuit board. Because this was just the foundation of the project, he wrote “NotaBotYet” on the board.

Fast forward about six months to a studio build when one of Michael’s engineering colleagues spent days, literally, days, soldering 15-pin connectors for an Axia node. Michael thought, “There has to be a better way.” So he worked out some circuit board designs, and put the “NotaBotYet” name on them again.

That little breakout board was noticed by Dave Kerstin of distributor Broadcasters General Store, who said, “Hey I could probably sell a lot of those! Think you can make more?”

Thus in 2015, NotaBotYet was born.

Thresa is president of the family firm. “My degree is in education. I’m a mom, which qualifies for doing just about any job on the fly. For our company, I was in a position that I could balance starting a company — finances, sales, management — with home life — finances, sales, management.”

The NotaBotYet Howler Monkey is named for the loudest land animal.

Michael’s day job is vice president of engineering for Cumulus Media, but in his spare time he is the product designer for NotaBotYet. And their teenage daughters Tesla and Cianna help out.

Tesla, the 16-year-old, loves technology and has built her own gaming computer. (“Yes, she was named after Nikola Tesla,” said Thresa Gay. “I did marry a radio engineer. She was named Tesla before Tesla was cool.”)

Sample work
NotaBotYet makes a bunch of cost-effective solutions to resolve radio installation quandaries. They include the NotaBotYet Axia Relay, Axia GPIO Breakout, Six-Channel WheatNet Logic or Axia Livewire GPIO Relay, Yellowtec LITT Signaling Device Interface, Easy Relay, On-Air 85, Tally Helper 100 & 500, the Howler Monkey Precision Studio Headphone Amp and the Studio Jam and Expansion Jam.

An example of how Howler Monkeys can be daisy chained.

They’ve also built clever mounts for installing video cameras in radio studios.

Consider the Howler Monkey Headphone Amp system. It is designed to mount around the studio at guest locations; it uses standard RJ45 connectors and Ethernet cables. (And why is it called “Howler Monkey”? Because the howler monkeys of Central and South America are among the loudest creatures on land.)

It’s so well built and designed, I had to open the case to check out the construction. These headphone amp boxes have both 1/4-inch stereo and mini headphone jack, so no adapters to hunt down. You can daisy chain five of these (so you don’t need five “wall wart” power supplies all over) and you can chain the audio via Cat-5 from one to the next, or feed them individually from your analog DA, Blade or Node. Retail price is $320.

Studio Jam can help add multicolor accent lighting around the studio in an inexpensive and creative way.

Then there’s the Studio Jam, a fun device that can be used to create cool lighting effects in the studio based on GPIO connections from your audio board or AoIP gear.

These days, with studios “on camera” via social media and video streaming, an “ugly studio” won’t do. So NotaBotYet created this box to help add multicolor accent lighting around the studio in an inexpensive and creative way. Use it to cause lighting in the room to change color, depending on a GPIO trigger. Maybe the highlights glow red during an EAS! Or as various guest mics open, maybe the room — or even just the boom arms — might change color. Retail price is $340.

Another slick device worth mentioning is the On-Air 85, a universal 12V On-Air light that can be controlled by the Axia, Wheatstone or generic GPIO system.

Unlike more traditional on-air notification systems, this very small device provides the power to your 12V on-air light. It simplifies the wiring and connection to an output of the GPIO to the On-Air 85, and the On-Air 85 to the light. Simple and safe, avoiding any 120V AC wiring, and using easy low-voltage wiring.

A room with lighting controlled by Studio Jam. The NotaBotYet graphics have been Photoshopped in.
Besides the “Steady On” mode, there are 14 flashing patterns you can choose, so this device can certainly be used as the interface for a “phone” GPIO, “door” GPIO, or even “Coffee is READY!” GPIO. Retail price is $140.

Keep your eye on NotaBotYet for more creative ideas. Check out what they have, and if there is something you need, tell them. They’re open to helping you meet that need for the tough-to-solve problem.

The website is www.notabotyet.com and includes a list of its U.S. and international dealers.

The author is chief video engineer for the Cleveland Orchestra and a veteran radio and TV engineer. He wrote about the Elgato Stream Deck in January.

The post NotaBotYet Has SolutionsForYou! appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page: CGI announced that the South African Broadcasting Corp. is using its dira system at eight of its radio stations and will roll it out to the other 11 this year.

Dira is a playout, production and music scheduling platform.

“The contract, won via a competitive tender process, has seen the SABC invest in CGI’s full dira Solution Suite, including Onair Player, Highlander, Scheduler, Startrack, Orion and Broadcast Report,” the supplier said in a press release.

“The proof of concept and subsequent implementation by CGI has achieved the SABC’s goal to enable dira’s use throughout the company’s radio environment, from sales, sport, news and current affairs to education and drama.”

The announcement was made by Nada Wotshela, group executive for SABC Radio, and Michael Thielen, vice president of radio solutions at CGI.

Wotshela said a feature of particular interest is a Commercial Player that plays radio ads within a specified window of booked time. “This will assist with accurate reporting and also ensure that skipping of advertisements, which leads to revenue losses, is a thing of the past,” Wotshela stated.

CGI acquired SCISYS Group PLC, the previous developer of dira, in 2019.

The post SABC Adopts CGI’s Dira Platform appeared first on Radio World.

Tascam has launched three podcast system bundles for its Mixcast 4 Podcast Station with built-in recorder and USB audio interface. They were designed to streamline content creation for podcasts, live streaming, event production and voiceover work.

The three bundles can accommodate up to four people with four microphones and four headsets so users can tailor their setups to accommodate both show personnel and guests.

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

Key to each bundle is the Mixcast 4 Podcast Station, the TM-70 Dynamic Broadcast Microphone and the TH-02 Studio Headphones. The main difference between each of the three Mixcast 4 bundles is the number of TM-70 microphones and TH-02 headphones included — Bundle No. 1 includes one set of each; Bundle No. 2 includes two sets of each; and Bundle No. 3 includes four of each.

The Mixcast 4 Podcast Station is available as a single entity for those already in possession of microphones and headphones. The company says the three available bundles create system packages that represent a cost-effective solution compared to the expense of acquiring the individual components necessary to form a complete system.

For more information, visit www.tascam.com.

The post Tascam Intros Mixcast 4 Podcast Station Bundles appeared first on Radio World.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers today said it will hold the 2022 SBE Leadership Development Course, a three-day intensive program focused on successful leadership and management for broadcast engineers, Aug.3-5, in Atlanta.

The course explores the nature of leadership, the difference between being a manager and being a leader, how to build a winning team, the importance of attitude in the leadership position and insights into communication.

Instructing the course will be Frank Pianki, Ph.D., a professor of management who has served at Anderson University since 1998. His balanced background blends academic ability and professional experience.

Pianki earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Arizona, an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University and a doctorate from Indiana University.

Before his academic career, Pianki had nearly 20 years of experience working in business and industry. He has worked as chief operating officer for a healthcare organization and vice president of operations for a manufacturing company.

The cost of the program is $670 for SBE members and $725 for non-members.

Registration is available online.

The post Frank Pianki to Teach SBE Leadership Development Course appeared first on Radio World.

Computer modeling allowed me to set up a new four-tower 50 kW array from scratch in just one day.

It wasn’t too long after I started fooling around with computers in the mid-1980s that antenna modeling became a thing. NEC and MININEC were the prevalent modeling engines, and the source code was out there in the public domain.

At some point, I began playing with models of medium-wave monopole antennas, simple nondirectional radiators. While those simple models were somewhat useful, they didn’t really do a whole lot for me. Now, if I could model a directional array and get an accurate prediction of the driving point impedances, that would be worth something.

And so it was that I started playing with directional models. The challenge was not in the physical geometry of a directional array. It was coming up with a set of drive voltages and phases. I experimented but had little to no success, and I eventually gave up, moving on to other, more pressing things.

Eureka!
Fortunately, some very smart people were working on the problem, people like J.L. Smith, Ron Rackley, Jim Hatfield, Jerry Westberg, Ben Dawson and others.

They figured out that you had to compute the individual tower current moments for unity drive, then with that information and the theoretical directional parameters, solve a set of simultaneous equations to get the normalized drive voltages.

Those drive voltages, each expressed as complex numbers, could be applied as sources in the model, and the resulting tower moments would equal the theoretical directional parameters.

After the brain trust figured that out, I was able to write some code and create a computer program that would do the whole thing, taking array geometry expressed in either X,Y,Z format or in distance/azimuth from a reference tower, then taking the theoretical directional parameters (ratios and phases) and turning that into a model that I could calibrate to real-world impedance matrix measurements and produce an output including driving point impedances, voltages and currents; element current distribution, and both near- and far-field E- and H-field values.

This tower serves Crawford station KBRT in Los Angeles. We caught the sunset on one of our security cameras. You might be able to make out a hawk sitting on a guy wire waiting for his dinner.

New FCC rules permitting “proofing” of AM directional arrays went into effect in 2008. I filed my first model-proof that summer, and I’ve never looked back.

The moment-method modeling proof option has been great for our industry. Aging arrays that needed a lot of very expensive fieldwork could be brought into adjustment very quickly in many cases, and new installations could be tuned up in days if not hours.

Today, you can look through the FCC database and you’ll see many occurrences of the telltale file number prefix “BMM,” indicating a moment-method proofed facility. Many of those are model proofs I have filed.

Needless to say, I’m still a believer.

The trap
Fast forward to 2021. Last year, a group of engineers and broadcasters (more really smart people) petitioned the FCC for a rule change that would allow model proofing of FM directional antennas. That rulemaking, at this writing, is in process.

FM directionals, which constitute a reported 20% of all full-power FM facilities, have long been a problem for engineers. I got caught in the FM directional “trap” back in the mid-1980s and had to petition the FCC for a variance to get a facility on the air.

The usual process is first to determine the maximum ERP in every direction of interest, whether a target service area or toward a protected station or border, then develop a theoretical antenna pattern based solely on the coverage and protection requirements.

That ideal or “envelope” pattern then is specified in the construction permit application. When the CP is granted, the envelope pattern is sent to the antenna manufacturer, who will do range measurements using a model based on detailed information about the mounting location provided by the permittee. The manufacturer will make tweaks, adding and moving around parasitic elements to get as close as possible with the measured pattern to the supplied ideal or envelope pattern.

The “trap” occurs in that zone between meeting all the protections and making the required RMS, which by law must be 85% of that of the authorized pattern. Sometimes the measured pattern will meet all the protection requirements but come up short on RMS. That’s what happened to me way back when.

The sure-fire way to avoid this situation is to have the antenna manufacturer develop a buildable, measured pattern and file that pattern instead of the envelope or ideal pattern with the CP application.

Then, when the time comes to file the license application, that same pattern is filed as the “proofed” pattern. All protections are met, and the RMS is 100%.

But that entails some financial risk. You have to pay the antenna manufacturer to develop and fully proof a pattern, with no assurance that the FCC will grant the application. That risk can be minimized with careful attention to detail in the application process (and leaving some white space between interfering and protected contours), but if there’s one thing I have learned from 40+ years of filing FCC applications, it’s that anything can happen.

Remember those smart people I mentioned, the ones who have petitioned for a rulemaking that will allow model-proofing of FM antennas? Their proposal will solve the problem of the “trap” as well as saving all the time, trouble and cost of FM directional antenna range measurements.

In the latest issue of RW Engineering Extra, we feature a white paper on computer modeling of directional FM antennas by John Schadler of Dielectric. John provides some compelling arguments for this, and I think you’ll find it interesting.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that the FCC will very shortly enact the requested rule change in some form to permit model proofing of FM directional antennas. While there are differences, the engineers at the Media Bureau have certainly seen the benefits and reliability of AM model proofing, and that undoubtedly carries some weight.

The result for broadcasters will be no more RMS/protection traps, no more range measurements, and a reduction in time between order and delivery of custom directional antennas. Patterns can be fine-tuned to fit the application with engineering time being the only cost.

I think that’s pretty doggone cool.

The post FM Directional Computer Simulations — Why Not? appeared first on Radio World.

John Robinson, P.E., has been named the new vice president of structural engineering for Electronics Research Inc.

This is his second stint with the company, where he worked for 23 years and was senior engineer of the Structural Division.

“Robinson rejoins ERI from Hodge Engineering, a structural engineering consulting firm where he was the principal engineer for their Tower Engineering Group,” ERI said in its announcement. Robinson succeeds James Ruedlinger, who left to pursue other interests.

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He is a registered Professional Engineer in Indiana and 17 other states. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the TIA TR-14 Engineering Committee for Structural Standards for Communication and Small Wind Turbine Support Structures.

The announcement was made by President/CEO Tom Silliman, who welcomed Robinson back and added, “We also value and support his participation on the TIA TR14 Committee as its work is critical to our installations subsidiary.”

Robinson is a graduate of the University of Evansville and holds undergraduate degrees in civil and mechanical engineering as well as a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

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

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