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Radio World has assembled useful free eBooks on many topics such as streaming, LPFM, processing and HD Radio. With a little free holiday time check one or more out. | | Special Edition: Commentaries - 12.30.14 | Industry commentaries are part of what make Radio World unique; below are some of the provocative articles that appeared in our pages in 2014. Through this holiday season, Radio World NewsBytes features special roundups of the best of our year's editorial coverage.
Broadcasting Is Key in Emergencies (January)
Lynn Claudy of NAB said an ITU inquiry yielded instructive insights about the strength of broadcasting as an emergency information tool. "With wide area coverage, geographic diversity of stations, lack of intermediate potential points of failure between transmitters and receivers, evolved emergency plans and procedures and local power backups, broadcast services are more likely to survive crisis events than other communication networks," he wrote.
Adjust Rules for NRSC Measurements (February)
Mark Persons put aside his tech tips pen for a bit and took on a bigger topic. "If it is a goal of the Federal Communications Commission to reduce regulatory and financial burden on AM broadcasters, then here is one way to help: Modify FCC rule 73.1590(a)(6) requiring annual occupied bandwidth and RF harmonic radiation measurements on AM stations, known as AM NRSC measurements."
Streaming Audio: The New Mobile Distribution Frontier? (April)
Veteran engineer Scott Clifton has been streaming audio for 14 years. "Suffice to say, there is a definite need for continued development to get a good-quality codec to work at the lowest rate. Is the cellular industry ready for this kind of data demand?"
Back From the Trenches: 25 Years Hence (June)
Longtime reader favorite Al Peterson stuck his head in the door to say howdy. He reflected on tech changes: "Magnetic tape made way for digits. CDs stepped aside for music on hard drive. Spots arrived on reel, then via DG Systems, then over the Web in an email. Former rival stations all piled inside one building as a new family. Staffs shrank, debt grew. The Web beckoned, then threatened. AM suffered, satellites merged, dashboards changed. The morning guy is now six states away, and the traffic guy even farther than that."
The Connected Car Takes Its Place (July)
Consultant Valerie Shuman wrote as part of our ongoing coverage of the evolving automobile environment: "Listening to conversations around the recent Telematics Detroit show felt a bit like picking up an early iPhone — not only are the new infotainment platforms driving rapid changes in the automotive industry, they are affecting every other industry that interacts with the consumer in the car, from pizza to insurance." | |
| The BBG Must Be Where the Audience Is Listening (September)
Matt Armstrong sits on the Broadcasting Board of Governors. "Shortwave continues to be an important medium in key markets such as Nigeria, Burma, North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and other places where we believe it continues to empower strategic audiences," he told Radio World readers. "At the same time, we must reduce or eliminate shortwave broadcasts where there is either minimal audience or that audience is not a U.S. foreign policy priority."
No, Really, This Is Not a Test (November)
Scott Fybush sought to draw lessons from the errant national alert generated by "The Bobby Bones Show." "For stations that could be facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for erroneous EAS transmissions, or for the syndicators who shouldn't have any EAS noises coming down the satellite to their affiliates, the expense of a fail-safe system … should be relatively small by comparison."
Why I Heart iHeartRadio (November)
Deborah Taylor Tate is vice-chair of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and a former FCC commissioner. "This [station] donation follows a string of others, including a package of seven stations donated by Clear Channel, and quickly followed by another large gift from Entercom."
Skotdal: AM Band Needs Drastic Change (December)
Andrew Skotdal has a way of mixing the pot. Mulling the idea of all-digital on the AM band, he wrote: "A more elegant solution would be to use the next four decades to migrate occupants of the AM band to abandoned VHF spectrum, meaning current Channels 1–6, and simplify the user experience."
Linking Hands & Bands (December)
Ruxandra Obreja chairs Digital Radio Mondiale. "Listeners do not care about acronyms. The technology or technologies that will eventually gain the upper hand will be those that can demonstrate the most robust, global performance." | |
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