Radio World 1325 - August 2026

Welcome to the

August 2026 issue of Radio World

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Technology & news for radio decision makers

This Connoisseur believes in radio.

“When we cease to be vital to our communities and provide compelling content and get great results to our clients,” says Jeff Warshaw, “then I’ll agree with the naysayers.”

Annunciate this!

Roll your own in-studio signaling using a Raspberry Pi.

Global meeting point

IBC preps for its next big show in Amsterdam.

Downsize that array

Cris Alexander considers the pros and cons.

radioworld.com | August 2026 | $5.00

Vol. 50 No. 15 | July 28 2026 www.radioworld.com FOLLOW US www.twitter.com/radioworld_news www.facebook.com/RadioWorldMagazine www.linkedin.com/company/radio-world-futureplc CONTENT Managing Director, Content & Editor in Chief Paul J. McLane, paul.mclane@futurenet.com, 845-414-6105 Content Producer Nick Langan, nicholas.langan@futurenet.com Technical Advisors W.C. “Cris” Alexander, Thomas R. McGinley, Doug Irwin Contributors: Michael Baldauf, David Bialik, John Bisset, Edwin Bukont, James Careless, Ken Deutsch, Todd Dixon, Mark Durenberger, Charles Fitch, Donna Halper, William Harrison, Alan Jurison, Paul Kaminski, John Kean, Mark Lapidus, James O’Neal, Jim Peck, Mark Persons, Jeremy Preece, John Schneider, Gregg Skall, Dan Slentz, Randy Stine, Tom Vernon, Chris Wygal Production Manager Nicole Schilling Senior Art Editors Cliff Newman and Steven Mumby ADVERTISING SALES Senior Business Director & Publisher, Radio World John Casey, john.casey@futurenet.com, 845-678-3839 Advertising EMEA Raffaella Calabrese, raffaella.calabrese@futurenet.com, +39 348 229 3293 SUBSCRIBER CUSTOMER SERVICE To subscribe, change your address, or check on your current account status, go to www.radioworld.com and click on Subscribe, email futureplc@computerfulfillment.com, call 888-266-5828, or write P.O. Box 254, Lowell, MA 01853.

LICENSING/REPRINTS/PERMISSIONS Radio World is available for licensing. Contact the Licensing team to discuss partnership opportunities. Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw licensing@futurenet.com MANAGEMENT SVP, MD, B2B Amanda Darman-Allen VP, Market Lead Carmel King MD, Content, Broadcast Tech Paul J. McLane VP, Global Head of Sales, B2B Dena Malouf Managing VP of Sales, B2B Tech Adam Goldstein VP, Global Head of Strategy & Ops, B2B Allison Markert VP, Product & Marketing, B2B Andrew Buchholz Head of Production US & UK Mark Constance Head of Design, B2B Nicole Cobban

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Radio as proven choice Nielsen asks carmakers: Why take such a big gamble?

O

n the same July day that broadcasters were on Capitol Hill lobbying for the “AM for Every Vehicle Act,” Nielsen posted a story on its website headlined “Tuned In: Paul Why Removing AM/FM Radio Is a MultiMcLane Billion-Dollar Gamble for Automakers.”

Editor in Chief The company, working with iHeartMedia, conducted a study to demonstrate that radio is one of the most valuable entertainment options in the car. It gathered sentiments of about 1,000 recent and prospective car buyers.

These two companies clearly have bulls in this ring, but their findings are worth reviewing for anyone whose job involves explaining the benefits of radio in the second quarter of the 21st century.

• They found that around half of respondents said they would refuse to purchase a car that doesn’t have AM/FM radio. Among those ages 18–34 it was about 40%, while among those 55+ it was 67%. These percentages are not as high as they would have been in the past; but to me they still represent big potential pools of potential revenue. Why turn away such buyers?

• More than 70% of the consumers view AM/FM radio as an essential feature that should come standard in new vehicles. You can almost hear many of them thinking, “Duh!” • Radio accounts for 55% of audio time spent in the car while streaming accounts for 16% and YouTube, podcasts, SiriusXM and owned music/ audiobooks make up the remaining 29%.

• Nielsen found that AM/FM radio had the second-highest impact on vehicle choice decisions, behind smartphone integration. The company used a process called Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis, a methodology familiar to carmakers “because it mirrors real-world shopping decisions by forcing consumers to make tradeoffs among features and price.” The results in the chart below show audio/infotainment features ranked by their impact on respondents’ vehicle choice decisions.

• Around half of respondents said they would have a less favorable view of a car brand that removed AM/FM radio from its lineup. “The risk is especially pronounced among buyers aged 55+, where both purchase refusal and brand erosion are stronger.” I wish radio didn’t have to rely so much on seniors like me; but boiling the discussion down to money again, why antagonize this important buying group?

• Eighty percent said it is important for their vehicle to receive national Emergency Alert System notifications. Alerting is an angle on which NAB and its allies are leaning heavily in their arguments for the AM bill.

THIS ISSUE NEWS 3

From the Editor

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Warshaw defies the radio naysayers

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What you don’t know can, in fact, hurt you!

FEATURES 12

Crawford “rolls its own” for studio annunciator purposes

16

IBC Convention will explore today’s diversity of platforms

24

Marketplace

26

The Pavek Museum celebrates Edwin H. Armstrong

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Should you downsize your AM directional array?

BUYER’S GUIDE 36

Learfield looks beyond the dish

38

South Carolina Public builds future-ready network

40

RTN moves quickly with help from 2wcom

OPINION 45

“I can’t understand what they’re saying”

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From the Editor

• Two out of three consumers said zero latency for live sports is important when listening in the car. Here’s a topic that probably deserves more attention from those of us making the case for radio’s relevance. Nielsen said the fact that radio has no inherent latency is especially valued by male drivers, younger demographics and hybrid and EV owners.

• Last, “while four in 10 drivers prioritize connecting their phone first when they get into a car, a quarter still turn first to AM/FM radio.”

The study is aimed directly at carmakers. Nielsen concluded that for OEMs looking to secure market share and build vehicles

that consumers love, “innovation should add to the dashboard, not strip away what drivers already value. Keeping standard AM/FM radio in the vehicle isn’t just about preserving tradition.

It may also help preserve brand equity and sales.” And in turn, stripping AM/FM out “isn’t just an unpopular design choice but a direct threat to customer loyalty and, ultimately, vehicle sales.”

You can find the post at www.nielsen.com/insights/2026.

I sense increasing urgency across our business about the apparent willingness of car companies to contemplate a future without broadcast radio as a front-and-center standard feature. That includes FM as well as AM. I suspect it’s one reason we’ve seen, for example, a series of blog posts from Pierre Bouvard, chief insights officer at Cumulus Media and Westwood One Audio Active Group, bearing headlines like “Reach Future General Motors Buyers on AM/FM Radio, The Medium GM Drivers Listen to Most.”

By my count he has written about more than a dozen separate car brands since April. On the face of it he’s explaining to their ad buyers why they should promote those car brands on the radio; but the series also constitutes a clear, direct shout from the radio industry to car companies about our medium’s overall continued impact and role in American life.

You can read those at www.westwoodone.com/blog/2026.

Both Bouvard and Nielsen/iHeart are appealing pragmatically to carmakers’ self-interest. We need more of that kind of ammo in this battle.

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Newsmaker

Writer

Randy J. Stine The author wrote about broadcast station insurance policies last issue.

Above Jeff Warshaw, left, with Rod Day, market manager for Anchorage, Alaska.

Warshaw defies the radio naysayers Connoisseur Media founder and CEO believes in the business viability of radio

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o borrow a sports analogy, it feels like a slam dunk that Connoisseur Media will be an aggressive consolidator of broadcast stations when and if the FCC relaxes the local ownership caps.

CEO Jeff Warshaw has been campaigning for the elimination of the caps, even meeting in person with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in Washington in June.

Warshaw believes the time for ownership reform is now.

He says the FCC’s sub-caps and local ownership rules are “crippling” an industry that now must compete with lessregulated global tech giants.

Warshaw is in the headlines often, from his broadcast acquisitions (including the former Bonneville stations in San Fracisco) to his ongoing lawsuit against Audacy over a failed business deal. He also led a $1.2 billion consortium bid in

radioworld.com | August 2026

2022 in a failed attempt to acquire Cumulus Media before scooping up Alpha Media in 2025.

Connoisseur Media today operates more than 200 radio stations, though it has been shutting down radio signals in smaller markets that no longer fit in its portfolio.

We spoke with Warshaw about these moves and his outlook for the industry. The Q&A has been edited for clarity.

If the FCC eliminates or relaxes the local ownership rules, would Connoisseur Media immediately be in acquisition mode?

Jeff Warshaw: I think we’ve been aggressive. We are business-aggressive because we think the rules are silly, make no sense and are restrictive. The current chairman, I believe, ultimately sees that radio having these archaic

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Newsmaker You’ve asked for a waiver in Lincoln, Neb., to control seven FM signals after acquiring the NRG Media stations there. That’s addition to two AMs and two FM translators. That’s a vast majority of radio stations in that market. Do you see that as the new blueprint for mid-market radio survival?

Warshaw: Everybody has a different strategy. If you are local and you want to have a big local presence, have good facilities and you’re willing to invest in separate products and air staffs, then having more stations makes a lot of sense.

There are a number of companies that don’t ascribe to that strategy. They have a different philosophy. I can’t speak to them.

We believe in markets that we want to be in, and we want to have as a large presence as we can, so that we can provide the maximum service and get the economies of having a larger cluster.

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“ ” Jeff Warshaw

A big part of our model is having local talent, having endorsements, doing events, being out in the community.

That’s what we do, and we need people to do that.

rules that were put in place before the internet doesn’t make sense anymore.

We’ve been proceeding as if the rules are going to change. We applied for waivers (to go over the current cap) and we’ve had two waivers approved, and we’re awaiting our third. We are going to continue to make deals that make sense for us and ask for waivers, which we think are reasonable and should be granted.

If the caps are relaxed, would you expect a lot of station swapping to consolidate markets?

Warshaw: We’ve looked at it. I’ve done swaps in my career.

I’ve swapped with Cumulus. I’ve swapped with iHeart.

I think swaps make a lot of sense, but then every potential swap has its pitfalls. People don’t want to trade more cash flow for less cash flow. They may not want to trade from a bigger market to a smaller market.

A bunch of the large companies may not be in a position to swap, when it comes to it. Certainly, iHeart is not looking to trade out of any of their larger markets. Townsquare may not want to trade out of their digital positions they’ve gained. Cumulus, right now, is not doing anything because of their bankruptcy.

Other companies have significant restrictions on what they can do from a financial standpoint. Their lenders may not let them swap out cash flow for something that has more possible upside.

You’ve turned off some signals in more rural markets. What’s the thinking there?

Warshaw: We inherited a bunch of stations that, for a number of reasons, we could not figure out how to not lose hundreds of thousands of dollars with them a year — in some cases millions.

So we undertook a very aggressive campaign to sell these stations to local operators who we thought could make money with them.

After we exhausted every effort, including trying to give them away, we ultimately were forced to shut them down because we are not in a position to subsidize money-losing operations indefinitely.

Doing so jeopardizes our company, which jeopardizes much more than just a handful of operations. As a fiduciary we couldn’t continue to subsidize some of those operations.

radioworld.com | August 2026

“”

Newsmaker

As a fiduciary we couldn’t continue to subsidize some of those operations.

Right Warshaw with award-winning radio host Chaz of the “Chaz & AJ” morning show in Connecticut.

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Following the acquisition of Alpha Media, you talked about how radio had to stop cutting and start hiring with the philosophy that you’re going to keep local staff in place. How do you sustain the higher overhead, compared to an iHeart that’s been cutting staff, when national spot revenue remains so volatile?

Warshaw: First, national spot revenue is a relatively small percentage of our company’s revenue. Before we went into San Francisco, it was something around 11% of our revenue. Now it’s a bit higher, because San Francisco is higher, but national is not our focus.

We have a different model than iHeart. A big part of our model is having local talent, having endorsements, doing events, being out in the community. That’s what we do, and we need people to do that.

We have invested in our products locally, and maybe we’re dinosaurs. Maybe we won’t be successful, but this is our strategy.

Why buy the Bonneville operations in San Francisco, a very large market compared to your others?

Warshaw: We think what we do is a value in any size market, but in particular, San Francisco was strategic. We have a presence in San Jose. We saw the opportunity to buy some fantastic stations with tremendous heritage and wonderful operations, so we made that deal.

However, we are constantly looking at the best ways for us to operate, and in certain situations we can provide programming to smaller markets with efficiency using Super Hi-Fi. We can be efficient and provide a better product, perhaps, than we might be able to do locally.

However, without local talent, we think that we are just another commodity.

You announced a partnership with Audio Space this year and you talked about digital integration of 240 some platforms, including new radio station websites, and mobile apps. Is this an indication of more of a shift toward a “digital-first” distribution for Connoisseur?

Warshaw: We are not digital first. I don’t even know what that means. We have our broadcast signals. Our local presence is what we do.

We believe that the value of our local broadcast and the stream that goes along with it is one, and that our advertisers and our listeners want to be able to enjoy the best product possible.

I’m not trying to sell stock, so I don’t deal with terms like digital first, platforms or silos or any of that stuff. Those things are talking points that some people use as ways of showing that they’re some fast-growing business.

Are you embracing AI either in certain departments or across all operations?

Warshaw: Yeah, so I’m on the board of Super Hi-Fi, and we’ve been working closely with them for a while now. We use their product in a number of our markets, and I expect we’ll use it in more of our markets over time.

It provides an opportunity for our local people to spend less time messing with the music logs and writing liners, and more time being out in the community and coming up with ideas for sellers and doing things that are higher value.

We don’t have robots on the air, but we do use technology where appropriate.

What do you make of all the industry layoffs by iHeart in June?

Warshaw: They have to do what they need to do and what they think is best to support their business. We all have constraints on us based on our leverage and our what parameters we can operate within.

I’m not going to second guess what they’ve done.

JUST ADD AUDIO AUDIO IN

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Are you committed to maintaining physical studios in each of your local markets?

Warshaw: First of all, we have studios everywhere. Yeah, they’re not going to disappear. We have local talent everywhere, so that’s not going to disappear.

radioworld.com | August 2026

Newsmaker

More Info

Jeff Warshaw, 62, is a lifelong broadcaster.

He launched Connoisseur Communications in 1993 while a student at the Wharton School of Business, and sold the 39-station group to Cumulus for $258 million in 2000, according to reports at the time.

Warshaw founded Connoisseur Media in 2004 and has built the group through acquisitions, including the purchase of Alpha Media in 2025.

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He serves on the NAB Board of Directors and chairs the Nielsen Audio Advisory Council. He is former chair of the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Warshaw also serves on the Super Hi-Fi board of directors.

Connoisseur Media earlier this year agreed to re-platform some of its stations using Super Hi-Fi’s cloud-based operating system, built around its AI-powered “Program Director” technology.

He resides in Westport, Conn.

Above Warshaw and friends visiting with singer/ songwriter Max McNown, second from left.

“”

the internet doesn’t work and people don’t When we cease have power, radio is the only lifeline.

Of course GM and Tesla are looking for to be vital to our ways to monetize their captive drivers and passengers, but that shouldn’t be driving communities and the dialogue. provide compelling content Why do you believe in radio in the long term when so many and get great results to our others do not? clients, then I’ll agree with the Warshaw: It’s all about the effectiveness of local radio, and the effectiveness, naysayers. in particular, of advertisements for

You know we’re not using cart machines any longer.

We’re not playing CDs. This is another evolution of using technology to become more efficient and hopefully provide a better product.

There’s nothing inherently evil about using AI. We love our relationship with Super Hi-Fi, and we think that there’s more that we can do.

Connoisseur owns AM stations. How important is the effort in Washington to keep AM in the dashboard?

Warshaw: I think it’s very important. And that’s not just us being self-serving AM owners. I think it’s important for our country.

And we have to remember that if AM isn’t protected, then FM won’t be protected. If there’s a disaster and that

our clients.

We are free, we’re ubiquitous, we are the only ones providing local service. We think there’s a need for that. And we think that radio is vital to our communities.

If radio got its fair share of ad dollars, we’d be doing much more than we are. I believe the ability to measure has somehow been conflated with the effectiveness, and because radio isn’t as easy to measure, as easy to buy as some other media are, it has taken a back seat.

A 27-year-old media buyer who doesn’t listen to the radio is making some of these decisions, and is more interested about showing metrics rather than actual results.

At the end of the day, when you have clients that get results and you have listeners who love what we’re putting out over the air, we have a viable business. When we cease to be vital to our communities and provide compelling content and get great results to our clients, then I’ll agree with the naysayers.

radioworld.com | August 2026

Tech Tips Writer

Mike Pappas Senior VP of Global Sales, Orban Labs

What you don’t know can, in fact, hurt you!

Based on visits to many radio station transmitter sites, Mike Pappas offers a seven-step tutorial

A

n air chain consists of anything you want to transmit,” writes Mike Pappas, VP of global sales for Orban Labs, in the Radio World ebook “Optimize Your Air Chain.”

“It starts with audio sources like automation systems, mics, satellite feeds and so on. This audio then runs through your ‘plant,’ which may consist of consoles, routers, EAS gear, PPM encoding and maybe processing (if it’s not at the transmitter site).

“It then takes a ride on a microwave or some other method to go from the plant to the transmitter site. Once there, the audio might encounter an EAS box and/or processing.”

In the ebook, which you can access at radioworld.com/ ebooks, Pappas put forth a seven-step plan to help you diagnose common issues with an air chain. It starts with realizing you have a problem.

“Audio corruption is subtle and may have many sources,” Pappas wrote.

“The best way to start looking at an air chain is to make a block diagram. Start at the output of the plant and, working backward, put your hands on every inch of the system.

“In our travels, we have found gear patched into air

chains hiding in the bottom of racks under piles of cables, hiding in closets and stuffed in all kinds of weird locations.

We hunted down pairs of cascaded processors under a pile of wire 12 inches deep at the bottom of a rack. Those were running a combined 40 dB of compression before the main processor, and it sounded like Satan’s ShopVac.” Step 2 is to look for unnecessary digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions. Even though A /D and D/A have come a long way in terms of performance, having six sets of them in an air chain isn’t a good plan for great audio, he writes.

He goes on to recommend taking a critical listen to your audio; assessing the current performance of your STL; checking any AGC before the STL; weighing the performance of Nielsen PPM encoding; and reviewing your microphone preamps.

Pappas also echoes advice that we heard from several other engineers: Simplify.

“Your assignment: Make a block diagram and then look at what’s in the air chain … and get rid of everything that absolutely doesn’t need to be there. With air chains, less is always more.”

Read more at radioworld.com/ebooks.

“

Make a block diagram Eliminate unnecessary A/D and D/A conversion Listen to your audio critically

Assess your STL

Do you really need that AGC?

Make sure your PPM health is good

Check those microphone preamps

Waqas Ilyas/Getty Images

radioworld.com | August 2026

11

Workbench

Crawford “rolls its own” for studio annunciator purposes John Bisset CPBE The author is a longtime radio engineer, contract engineer and technology account executive. He is a past recipient of the SBE Educator of the Year Award.

Tips Please

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Your tech tips are what make Workbench go, and they qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@ gmail.com.

Above This on-screen message in the control room would display if the receiver that monitors KLZ(AM) went silent.

Right Several sample annunciator messages.

Raspberry Pi comes to the rescue once again

C

rawford Broadcasting has been using Enberg BA-6 annunciator panels in its control rooms for many years, to alert operators of conditions like silence, ringing phones or that someone is at the door.

They are simple and effective, but today they look dated and rely on night-light bulbs as the primary indicators. Not a great fit in an AoIP control room.

Now Crawford is experimenting with a modern replacement developed

by Cris and his colleague Stephen Poole.

These employ a Raspberry Pi-4 as the “brains” and a 27inch LCD monitor with HDMI input for the display. They’ve assembled three or four of them so far.

The photo demonstrates an on-screen message that would be displayed if the receiver monitoring the air signal of KLZ(AM) control room went silent.

“We initially set things up in our production units with four inputs from Wheatstone logic outputs,” Cris wrote in the company’s Local Oscillator newsletter.

“Those LIOs are cross-connected in software with silence detection from off-air monitor receivers, and if one goes silent for more than a few seconds, a graphic is displayed on the screen indicating, for example, ‘KLZ Silent.’”

All four stations are monitored, and silence on any of those stations will be reported on the displays in all the studios.

Three of Crawford’s stations in Denver employ Telos Hx6 on-air phone systems connected to incoming lines set up to feed analog ports in an Avaya IP Office 8 phone system.

Ringing talk lines or hotlines are detected by analog ring detectors, the closures from which are connected to the Pi annunciator display systems.

But KLZ employs a Telos VXs virtual on-air phone system, and with that system, there is no “ring voltage” to detect.

The VXs does, however, allow configuration of generalpurpose outputs (GPOs) through the Livewire network.

What if you’re a Wheatnet facility? There’s no way to make a Livewire GPO from the virtual phone system “talk” to the Wheatnet infrastructure. Or is there?

Cris has previously obtained a used Axia GPIO node. He and his daughter and Crawford colleague Amanda Hopp set it up on the bench, and she figured out the IP address of the unit.

“Once we had that, we were able to set a new IP address to one on the Wheatstone AoIP network and plug it in there. Then I went into the configuration of the VXs and set up a couple of GPOs, one for the three lines in the hunt group and one for the hotline, mapping them to two different closures on the Axia GPIO node. We ran a quick test, and it worked!”

radioworld.com | August 2026

“ ”

Workbench

When any of the lines in the KLZ on-air hunt group ring, an ‘Incoming Call’ graphic pops up on the display.

From there it was a simple matter of making a physical connection between those Axia node closures and logic port inputs on a Wheatstone blade, creating LIO sources for them in Navigator, creating LIO destinations on the KLZ control room blade, and cross-connecting them. They had to add two more wires to the general-purpose input (GPI) cable for the display Pi, and that was it.

When any of the lines in the KLZ on-air hunt group ring, an “Incoming Call” graphic pops up on the display. When the hotline rings, a flaming “Hotline” graphic appears.

Cris said this solution was simple and effective for an environment where you can’t have an audible ring.

Crawford’s team has also manufactured and installed SNMP-enabled antenna switch controllers and an SNMPenabled HVAC controller using Pi-4s. They also have been

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working on a Pi-based SNMP interface for older auxiliary transmitters that don’t have web connectivity.

And now Cris is wondering how hard it would be to add SNMP functionality to the studio annunciator board display Raspberry Pi’s. “Just think of all the stuff we could monitor and cause to light up on that display!”

What’s up there?

Larry Wilkins of the Alabama Broadcasters Association reminds us that after a tower is built to support a transmission antenna, additional equipment can accumulate on the structure over time.

“Without accurate records, you may eventually lose track of everything installed on the tower,” he wrote in the association’s engineering newsletter.

Larry recommends that you keep on file a tower drawing that shows the height and location of these additions. The drawing should include the level of various lights, side markers and beacons; the length of the antenna, if topmounted, above the structure top plate; and the height of STL gear, rental equipment, ENG, two-way antennas etc.

“Create a separate data sheet for each item that lists its purpose, transmission line type and the tower leg where the item and line are mounted,” Larry writes.

“Heights may be measured from either ground level or the tower base, and the site’s ground elevation above sea level should also be noted.”

Right What’s up there?

Getty Images/Detlef Voigt Keep a record.

radioworld.com | August 2026

IBC Show

16 IBC

IBC Convention will explore today’s diversity of platforms “Radio continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience,” Connolly says

T

he IBC2026 convention will return to RAI Amsterdam on Sept. 11–14. CEO Michael Crimp has said that the show comes “at a defining moment for the global media and entertainment industry.”

We asked IBC Director Steve Connolly to preview the show for us.

What themes will be featured of particular interest to radio and audio professionals?

Steve Connolly: Audio professionals attending IBC2026 will find plenty of content focused on practical innovation and real-world implementation. Across the industry, organizations are moving beyond exploring

Writer

Paul McLane Editor in Chief

new technologies to understanding how they can be deployed at scale and integrated into everyday operations.

Whether the conversation is about AI, cloud infrastructure, virtualized production, metadata or audience engagement, the emphasis at IBC is increasingly on practical application and measurable outcomes.

Visitors will also find a strong community of audio technology exhibitors covering everything from AoIP networking and mixing to remote contribution, processing, monitoring and transmission. Companies such as Calrec, SSL, Yamaha, Genelec, Sennheiser, DHD, Comrex, Sonifex, Telos Alliance and many others reflect the breadth of innovation taking place across professional audio and broadcast radio.

radioworld.com | August 2026

IBC Show

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Can you point to sample sessions or presentations?

Connolly: The full conference program will be announced closer to the event, but there are already some highlights that will be of particular interest to radio and audio professionals.

WorldDAB will once again host its dedicated session in Room E102 on the Sunday afternoon, alongside exhibiting throughout the show, showcasing Automatic Safety Alerts (ASA) and hosting stakeholder meetings during IBC2026.

Across the conference, attendees can expect practical discussions around AI implementation, audience engagement, security and content authenticity, evolving business models, and the changing relationship between content creation and technology.

These are challenges shared across the wider media industry, and increasingly they are equally relevant for radio broadcasters navigating digital transformation.

Future Tech will also be a key destination. Following its successful launch last year, it has expanded significantly for 2026, bringing together start-ups, researchers, broadcasters and technology providers to explore emerging technologies and practical innovation.

The Accelerator Media Innovation Program will once again demonstrate collaborative proof-of-concepts tackling real operational challenges.

One project likely to resonate strongly with audio professionals is “Crystal Clear: Boosting Speech Intelligibility in Media,” which brings together the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Fraunhofer Institute and the IET to establish a more consistent way of measuring and improving dialogue intelligibility across broadcast and streaming.

By combining AI-based analysis with structured human listening assessments, the project explores how speech clarity can be measured more consistently and embedded into production and distribution workflows.

It’s the latest in a series of audio-focused Accelerator projects over the years, an area where Shure has played a significant role in driving innovation over recent cycles.

In the United States, radio infrastructures and workflows have been affected dramatically by the cloud, virtualization, cuts in human resources, a reduction of studio footprints, the growth of AI and software-based services, and

IBC

Above Steve Connolly

the growing role of visual metadata. What’s happening in Europe?

Connolly: Many of these same technology trends are evident across Europe too, but the conversation has broadened beyond technology alone.

One of the clearest messages emerging from across the industry is that radio continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience. Recent European Broadcasting Union research shows that radio remains a genuine mass medium across Europe, even as listening habits evolve and audiences consume content across a growing range of connected platforms.

The challenge for broadcasters is less about preserving radio’s relevance and more about ensuring it remains easy to discover and engage with wherever audiences choose to listen.

That helps explain why podcasts, metadata and connected car experiences have become such important areas of focus. As listening increasingly takes place through digital dashboards and connected interfaces, broadcasters are investing in richer metadata and hybrid broadcast/IP services to improve discoverability while retaining the scale, reliability and efficiency of broadcast delivery.

We’re also seeing an important shift in how radio infrastructure is viewed. In markets such as France, digital radio is increasingly being discussed in the context of national resilience and trusted public communications, recognizing the role resilient broadcast networks can play during emergencies or when other communications infrastructure is unavailable.

Last year you spoke about AI being viewed as an enabler of human efficiency. How has the role of AI evolved further in media ecosystems?

Connolly: Over the past year we’ve seen the conversation move decisively from experimentation to implementation.

In radio, AI is increasingly being deployed as a practical production and editorial tool rather than an end in itself.

Broadcasters are using it to automate repetitive tasks such as transcription, metadata generation, translation, content summarization and newsroom workflows.

We’re also seeing AI reshape how audiences discover radio. As listening increasingly takes place through connected devices and digital interfaces, broadcasters are using AI to surface relevant local content and improve contextual recommendations. The focus isn’t simply on personalization for its own sake, but on making trusted radio services easier to find and engage with across a much wider range of listening environments.

Perhaps the biggest shift, though, is that the industry has become much clearer about where AI should (and shouldn’t) add value.

Across Europe there is growing recognition that radio’s greatest strengths remain its trusted voices, local

radioworld.com | August 2026

IBC Show being finalized, the session will explore research and innovation in areas directly relevant to radio and professional audio.

More broadly, radio and audio professionals can expect peerreviewed research covering themes such as AI, media workflows, networking, production technologies, audio innovation and other developments that increasingly span the wider media ecosystem.

20

IBC

relevance and ability to build genuine human connection.

The most successful applications of AI are those that preserve the editorial judgement and authenticity that audiences value most.

Are there technical papers that would be of particular interest?

Connolly: The IBC Technical Papers remain one of the defining elements of the conference, bringing together researchers, engineers and practitioners to present peerreviewed work exploring the technologies shaping the future of media.

One session that will be of particular interest is the “Audio, Access Services and User Experience Technical Papers” session, taking place on Friday 3.5 kW – 40 kW FM Transmitters lunchtime. While the individual papers are still

nautel.com/NVLT

What else should we know?

Connolly: IBC has always been about bringing the industry together to tackle the challenges that no single organization can solve alone, and I think that’s particularly true for radio today.

One of the greatest strengths of IBC is the opportunity to learn from adjacent sectors across the wider media and entertainment ecosystem, where many of the same challenges — and increasingly many of the same solutions — are emerging.

That’s part of the reason we’ve introduced several new initiatives, like the Braindate Lounge and Future Tech Ignite, to spark ideas, new business opportunities and crossindustry knowledge sharing at the show.

We want visitors to leave the show with new connections, and fresh, practical insight that can help shape the next generation of services and listener experiences.

“ Above An attendee checks out microphone windscreens at last year’s IBC.

These are challenges shared across the wider media industry, and increasingly they are equally relevant for radio broadcasters navigating digital transformation.

radioworld.com | August 2026

Marketplace Joda Offers WeatherCenter.ai

Tri-Solate Shock Mount Now Available in the United States

WeatherCenter.ai is a new service for radio stations from Joda Media, an AI-based weather platform that the company describes as entirely self-service and completely automated.

Costing $249 per month per location, it delivers live, current forecasts based on National Weather Service data.

“Natural, on-brand scripts are generated automatically for every market,” Joda states.

“You can even tune the content of the forecasts to your particular region, like the threshold for mentioning wind, humidity and information.”

Segments come fully produced using AI voices and the station’s music beds and sponsor billboards. They’re delivered via Joda’s CDN, FTP or a desktop app.

The company website offers a demo using your own music bed.

Independent Audio has made the Tri-Solate Universal Microphone Shock Mount Kit available in the U.S. market.

It is an isolation system designed to reduce vibration and handling noise for a range of studio and broadcast microphones.

“Unlike conventional shock mounts designed for specific microphone models, the Tri-Solate Universal Microphone Shock Mount Kit offers a flexible mounting solution compatible with a broad range of microphone shapes and sizes,” the company said.

The design provides isolation without the need for multiple model-specific mounts. Independent Audio said it is well-suited for professional recording studios, broadcast facilities, podcast production environments, educational institutions and home studios.

Independent Audio is a distributor based in Maine. The company welcomes dealer inquiries.

Info: https://weathercenter.ai

Info: www.independentaudio.com

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radioworld.com | August 2026

Marketplace Former BBC Producer Builds Radio Music Catalog A free catalog of production music, Hundred Hand Slap, is available for stations to access.

Former BBC Radio lead producer Matt Fisher has curated a collection that includes talkover beds, imaging FX packages as well as sound design and production music.

“I wanted to build a place where great-sounding audio is easy to find, quick to use and built entirely with radio in mind,” Fisher said. He has more than 20 years of experience creating audio imaging for broadcasters.

The platform’s search engine allows users to browse content by mood, genre, station format, instrumentation and era, making it suitable for producers to find audio for their projects.

Access is free, and the library operates within the PRO rights system.

The library is registered with the U.K.based PRS and MCPS, Fisher said, which allows broadcasters to use the content through standard music reporting procedures.

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The IOX-24S delivers a cost-effective yet fully capable SNMP remote control solution for broadcast facilities. It adds extensive monitoring and control to any site. Easy setup, PoE/AC power options, and SNMP compatibility make integration simple and reliable.

Broadcast Devices Inc. https://broadcast-devices.com

Podcasters who seek to use the library are encouraged to contact Fisher for licensing.

In its first five months, Hundred Hand Slap has released approximately 40 albums, with more in production.

Info: https://hundredhandslap.cadenzabox.com/

Roots of Radio

26

The Pavek Museum celebrates Edwin H. Armstrong Mark Persons drops back in for a visit Writer

Mark Persons CPBE, CBNT, AMD The author wrote in January about measuring station performance.

T

here is a good way to look back into the history of broadcasting and how we communicate. I do that by visiting the Pavek Museum of Electronic Communication in St. Louis Park, Minn.

It’s on the west side of the Twin Cities, about 17 miles from MSP airport. The Pavek was declared the Museum of Wonderful Wireless at its grand opening in 1988. Much has changed in this 12,000-squarefoot facility even since I wrote about it here a few years ago.

Of special interest for me recently was the opening in February of a traveling exhibit about Edwin Howard Armstrong (1890–1954), titled “Unseen Signals.”

Armstrong was a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer in World War I, working on ways to improve military communications. That included going up in a surveillance airplane to pass messages to a ground station.

Armstrong improved regenerative receivers of the day with super-regeneration to improve sensitivity and ease of use. The scheme used feedback to amplify RF and was just one more step into making radios work better. Then there

were patent battles which I won’t go into here, but they weren’t pretty.

As a patriot, he allowed the U.S. government free use of his patents to help the war effort during World War Two. Historian Alexander Magoun, Ph.D., from Princeton, N.J., was at the Pavek Museum to tell attendees the story of this famous man.

Of note is that Armstrong invented the superheterodyne receiver in 1923. Receivers of this type convert incoming signals to an intermediate frequency, often 455 kHz or 10.7 MHz, then amplify it before detection. With six tubes, this innovative design vastly improved receiver sensitivity and selectivity.

Fig. 2 on the next page shows one of the original hand-built receivers from back then. We still use this technology today.

Ten years later, Armstrong took frequency modulation from theory to practice in what we now know as FM radio, sometimes referred to as wide-band FM. Rather than 5 kHz, it is 75 kHz FM deviation that is required to give good audio

radioworld.com | August 2026

Roots of Radio

Right Fig. 1: Alexander Magout, Ph.D., with the Armstrong exhibit.

28

Below Fig. 2: One of the first six superheterodyne receivers.

performance. Original FMs were in the 42 to 50 MHz range.

Some two dozen stations were heard in the eastern part of the U.S. on the Yankee Radio Network using this new and innovative FM technology in the 1930s. My father Charles B. Persons built one of those FMs for the Arrowhead Radio Network in Duluth, Minn.

It was evident that FM is technically superior. In its infinite wisdom, the FCC moved the band to its current 88 to 108 MHz after World War Two. In the photo at right you see a model of Armstrong’s famous transmission tower in Alpine, N.J. That 400-foot tower still stands as a testament to this man. I have a lot of respect for Edwin Howard Armstrong as an inventor and innovator. The exhibit details his life but at this writing was scheduled to close in late August.

The Pavek Museum has a large collection of receivers as well as radio and television broadcasting equipment. That includes a 250-watt Western Electric AM transmitter that I helped donate years ago (Fig. 3 on page 30). It came from KBRF Radio in Fergus Falls, Minn.

Next to it are century-old receivers. Also, as you would expect, there are vintage microphones, a few with legendary call letters (Fig. 4).

There are guided tours, but I prefer to analyze each display in detail at my own pace. As in many museums, recognizable equipment that I used as a young man is now on display as museum pieces!

The Pavek is home to the Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame display (Fig. 5). Names and stories of exceptional

Keep your station front and center …with easy-to-deploy, dashboard-enhancing digital radio solutions by Nautel.

nautel.com/HD

radioworld.com | August 2026

Roots of Radio Right Fig. 3: Receivers and a Western Electric 250-watt AM transmitter.

Far Right Fig. 4: Classic microphones from back in the day.

Below Fig. 5: The Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame wall.

Below Right Fig. 6: Paula Persons tried her hand at playing the Theremin.

30

Below A wire recorder and a Magnetophon tape recorder.

Right Fig. 8: The Man from Mars Radio Hat. Far Right Fig. 9: A 1930s display of Nipper the dog and a radio on a clear winter night.

There are guided tours, but I prefer to analyze each display in detail at my own pace. radioworld.com | August 2026

Roots of Radio

Right Fig. 10: A 1950s bicycle with a tube radio.

Midwest broadcasters are remembered. That includes a few engineers.

Visitors can even attempt to play music on the Theremin, an electronic musical instrument that changes sound as a musician’s hands are moved near two conductors (Fig. 6).

Invented in 1920 by Leon Theremin, it amazed audiences in the 1920s and ’30s.

Of particular interest to many is a rare original Magnetophon tape recorder that was brought to this country from Germany just after World War Two (Fig. 7).

It was vastly superior to wire recorders, which you can see on the left in the photo. The technology was copied and

improved by Ampex and others to be a standard way of recording and playing audio for over 70 years. Later came audio cassettes, reel-to-reel and cartridge tapes.

The Man From Mars Radio Hat is a curiosity with two tubes, a rotatable loop antenna and volume control (Fig. 8).

AM radio of course from the early 1950s.

You don’t find junk at the Pavek. Most items have been meticulously restored. The display window that I find comforting is Nipper the dog listening to a radio on what appears to be a clear winter night in the 1930s (Fig. 9).

Then there is a radio on a bicycle from 1956 that has four tubes and a battery pack under the seat. A switch selects one of three AM stations (Fig. 10). I had one similar to that as a kid!

Field trips from local schools tour the Pavek on a regular basis. Students follow scripts and then innovate to create radio and television shows to the chagrin of their friends.

More than a museum, Pavek has regular classes on Saturdays where adults are taught how radios work and how to repair them. Multimeters and soldering irons are among the tools.

Then there are annual events such as Havoc at the Pavek Haunted Manor around Halloween. Participants scavenger hunt in STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics adventures through the history of communications. Events include plays, much like how radio

31

radioworld.com | August 2026

Roots of Radio Right Fig 11: One of the many displays.

was done in the 1930s and ’40s. They are often voiced by retired local broadcast personalities, to the delight of crowds.

I am a proud sponsor of the Pavek Museum because it tells the story of electronic communications so well. It takes at least two hours for each visit. Find out more at PavekMuseum.org

Mark Persons, WØMH is an SBE Life Member, CPBE, CBNT, AMD. He is retired after more than 60 years in radio broadcast engineering, including 44 years in business. He started by turning the dials of broadcast transmitters at age 11 and stays active by mentoring four radio broadcast engineers. Mark and his wife Paula were inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2024. Their website is MWPersons.com

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radioworld.com | August 2026

AM Engineering Writer

Should you downsize your AM directional array?

It’s no wonder owners are looking to get rid of some of their towers

Created in ChatGPT

Cris Alexander CPBE The author is a longtime contributor and director of engineering at Crawford Broadcasting.

I

n talking with folks who still do AM allocations work, I have noticed a trend. Station owners are looking for ways to reduce the number of towers in their antenna systems as a means of reducing costs and sometimes freeing up land for other uses.

Many AM stations employ multi-tower directional antennas for different modes of operation. Some are non-directional day and directional at night. Others are directional both day and night. And still others have a third “critical hours” mode that may require a different power level, different directional pattern or both.

Towers aren’t cheap to operate and maintain. Those that are over 200 feet in height will generally require marking (aviation orange paint alternating with white), or mediumintensity white strobes for daytime and red lights at night.

Painting a typical tower of 200 to 400 feet can easily run $10,000 or more, which is one of the reasons that changing

to dual medium-intensity white and red lights is such an attractive option. In less than two paint cycles the cost of conversion is paid for.

But even doing away with the paint budget with new 24hour lighting doesn’t totally eliminate the expense. Tower lighting systems require maintenance and they do fail, especially when lightning is a regular thing.

So it’s no wonder station owners are looking to get rid of some of their towers.

The thing is, usually (but not always), the directional antenna pattern is employed to protect co- and adjacentchannel spectrum neighbors from interference. That requirement doesn’t go away as long as those neighbors are still there.

So one of the first steps required when considering downsizing a directional array is to look at the allocation picture for that mode of operation.

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AM Engineering If the spectrum neighbors are still in place, the maximum non-directional power can be determined by finding the minimum permissible inverse distance field (IDF) toward each of those neighbors.

During daytime hours, that will be a simple number expressed in mV/m at 1 km. For night operation, it will also include a range of vertical angles, meaning that the station cannot radiate more than “X” mV/m between those two vertical angles, known as θMIN and θMAX, or theta min and theta max.

The maximum power is then determined using the efficiency of the non-directional antenna, dividing the permissible IDF by either the §73.190 Figure 8 1 kW IDF of the non-directional radiator or the licensed 1 kW IDF of the radiator, and then taking the square of that number.

For example, if the maximum permissible IDF for a station is 33 mV/m and the Figure 8 IDF of the non-directional radiator is 306 (typical for a quarter-

wavelength tower), the maximum power would be (33/306)2 = 0.012 kW or 12 watts.

If we’re talking about a night facility, you would first divide the maximum permissible IDF number by the f(θ) (the function of theta), or the reduction in inverse distance field at the vertical angle. The formula for computing f(θ) is contained in §73.160 of the FCC’s rules.

34

radioworld.com | August 2026

Above Crawford’s WDCZ(AM), 970 kHz, Buffalo, N.Y., with Lake Erie in the background.

“ ”

AM Engineering

Ditching a directional antenna and going ND can be a good option for some struggling stations.

Give Us Direction

Comment on this or any story.

Email radioworld@ futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line.

In our quarter-wavelength (90°) tower example above, if the lowest vertical angle (θMIN) is 25 degrees, f(θ) would be 0.8691, so we would take the associated maximum permissible IDF (33 mV/m) and divide by 0.8691, which would yield 38 mV/m. Then we would use our power formula as follows: (38/306)2 = 15 watts.

One other case bears mentioning. It’s possible — likely, even — that because of rule changes or other factors, an existing overlap exists with a spectrum neighbor, meaning that the field currently radiated toward that neighbor exceeds what is permissible under the current rules.

The FCC will permit existing overlaps to remain, so you would take the existing minimum IDF toward that neighbor and use it in the power formula.

So, what about principal community coverage? §73.24 requires that the daytime 5 mV/m contour covers 50% of the area or population of the principal community, and that the nighttime 5 mV/m or interference-free contour (whichever is higher) covers 50% of the area or population of the community.

What if a station owner wants to ditch their night directional antenna, but the resulting night non-directional power will not produce that required coverage?

The answer is that they would have to downgrade that station from a Class B to a Class D station. Nighttime operation would be secondary and not protected from interference. That same scenario would exist if the night power were less than 250 watts or the night IDF of less than 107.5 mV/m, regardless of community coverage.

A station’s daytime facility must produce the required principal community coverage.

Ditching a directional antenna and going non-directional can be a good option for some struggling stations, keeping them on the air, and for many, feeding their FM translators 24 hours a day. The land once occupied by the other towers can be sold or leased out, raising cash to further help the operation. It’s certainly something worth considering.

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radioworld.com | August 2026

Codecs & STL About Buyer’s Guide

The Buyer’s Guide section appears in every other issue, focusing on a particular category of equipment and services.

It is intended to help buyers know what’s on the market and gain insight into how their peers are using such products.

36

Right Learfield’s Ben Blevins, left, and Randy Williams, right, are shown with Adrian Berkovits of Adventure 33.

More Info

https:// adventure33 .com

Learfield looks beyond the dish

The company finds Prism a better way to deliver college sports

A

dventure 33 notes that the radio industry is changing fast. Across the country, ownership groups are downsizing facilities, virtualizing operations and losing the physical space and staff needed to maintain satellite downlink infrastructure.

Concurrently, FCC spectrum reallocation is forcing broadcasters off the C-Band frequencies they’ve relied on for decades, while the cost of maintaining aging satellite equipment continues to climb.

Adventure 33 designs modern workflows that replace outdated infrastructure with systems built for the IP-driven world. This includes the new Prism audio distribution system.

Its client Learfield is a leading media and technology company powering college athletics. Adventure 33 said Learfield needed a new delivery model to replace legacy equipment, rising costs and mounting spectrum uncertainty.

“The challenge wasn’t simply swapping satellites for streaming,” said Adrian Berkovits, founder of Adventure 33.

“True broadcast-grade IP delivery required solving problems the industry hadn’t cracked until recently: ultralow latency, automation cuing embedded directly in the audio stream, and geo-targeted commercial insertion (copy-splitting) at the station and/or regional level.”

As the Prism launch partner, Learfield helped shape Prism with their real-world operational needs built into the platform from the ground up.

“There’s a real joy in building something alongside people who care as much about the outcome as you do,” said Berkovits.

“With Learfield, we were solving real problems together, and I couldn’t be prouder of what that collaboration has produced. That’s exactly the kind of partnership that moves this industry forward.”

Broadcasters can choose between Prism Blue, a single or four-channel IP receiver, or Prism Red, a fully virtualized solution. “Both deliver broadcast-quality audio with the precision broadcasters demand,” Berkovits said.

Ben Blevins, Learfield senior director of broadcast technology and engineering, said, “Prism allows us to

improve reliability and quality standards of satellite delivery while creating a cost-effective, scalable, and future-ready model for delivering content using the public internet. Our partnership with Adrian and his team in the development of Prism is a strategic advantage as we continue to innovate and define what the next generation of broadcast distribution should look like.”

Berkovits said that the platform is built for broadcastquality program and STL delivery. “Prism is ready for whatever the industry’s next chapter demands.”

“

With Learfield, we were solving real problems together, and I couldn’t be prouder of what that collaboration has produced.

radioworld.com | August 2026

Tech Update Gateway Nexus High-Density Codec Unveiled At the NAB Show, Tieline unveiled the Gateway Nexus, a 32-channel, high-density AoIP codec that the company says delivers “deterministic, low-latency multichannel audio transport using dedicated and reliable hardware.”

Tieline said that as the industry shifts towards centralized and remote production models for live broadcast applications, its DSP-based platform allows broadcasters to upscale infrastructure efficiently.

Gateway Nexus can be deployed in hosted and data center environments and is engineered to natively support AES67, ST211030, ST2022-7, Ravenna, Livewire, NMOS and Ember+. An optional Dante card is available.

“It stands out as a powerful and cost-effective alternative to virtualized codec and server-based systems, providing seamless integration into IP-based audio networks.”

The Nexus is designed for hosted data center deployments, delivering 32 channels of full-duplex high-density AoIP audio.

“Unlike virtual codec solutions, it provides fully deterministic performance that is predictable, low-latency and fully hardwarebased, making it ideal for modern broadcast networks,” Tieline said.

The Gateway Nexus expands encoding capabilities by providing a centralized hub for all of the user’s AoIP streams. It delivers high channel density and low-latency connections for live programming and communications applications. Other popular uses include network program syndication, managing multiple remotes, distributing STL signals and inter-studio links.

Remote control is provided using the Toolbox Web-GUI embedded in the unit, or the optional Cloud Codec Controller.

Info: www.tieline.com/gateway-nexus

37

Tech Update MaxxKonnect: Traditional STL or Modern IP Transport As broadcasters evaluate new ways to move audio, MaxxKonnect says it offers solutions for both traditional RF and modern IP-based transport.

The MaxxKonnect UST/USR 950 Studio-Transmitter Link combines the reliability of licensed 950 MHz STL technology with the remote monitoring and management capabilities expected by engineers today.

The frequency-agile system supports composite and mono audio as standard, with optional stereo analog or AES/EBU interfaces. “Delivering up to 15 watts of RF output power, the UST/ USR 950 is designed to manage even the longest STL paths with confidence,” it says.

An integrated web server provides browser-based configuration and status monitoring, while SNMP support and customizable email alerts help engineers identify issues before they become on-air problems.

Universal 100–240 VAC operation, a 24 VDC backup power input and a front-panel display make the UST/USR 950 suited to primary STL applications or as part of a redundant transmission strategy.

For broadcasters exploring IP-based program transport, MaxxKonnect offers a range of managed connectivity solutions.

UltraMAXX 5G provides prioritized unlimited wireless internet service for remote sites, while enterprise satellite connectivity is available through Starlink and Viasat. These services can serve as standalone IP transport solutions or complement traditional licensed RF links.

“Simply add the IP codec of your choice to create a reliable, highperformance STL over wireless or satellite connectivity.”

Info: https://maxxkonnect.com

radioworld.com | August 17 2026

Buyer’s Guide

South Carolina Public builds fuure-ready network GatesAir supports SCETV project with transmitters and AoIP infrastructure

S

38

outh Carolina Public Radio’s decision to embrace HD Radio across its statewide network inspired more than a transmitter replacement project.

It also prompted a complete modernization of the broadcaster’s audio transport infrastructure, creating a more flexible, resilient and localized distribution network for its eight FM stations.

A longtime GatesAir customer, South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV), which operates South Carolina Public Radio, recently completed installation of eight new GatesAir Flexiva transmitters — seven liquid-cooled FLX models and one FAX air-cooled transmitter — to support simultaneous FM and HD Radio broadcasting.

The transmitter upgrade opened the door for a new audio over IP strategy centered on GatesAir’s Intraplex Ascent cloud transport platform and second-generation IP Link codecs.

“We made the decision to move to HD Radio because it gives us flexibility for future programming and new formats,” said Mark Jahnke, chief technology officer for SCETV. “Once we started that project, it made sense to modernize the entire transport network at the same time.”

At the core of the new architecture is Intraplex Ascent, which aggregates audio from multiple studio sources and distributes multicast streams to transmitter sites across South Carolina.

Above SCETV Broadcast Engineer Brandon Smallwood checks the gear.

More Info

www.gatesair .com

Tech Update Zephyr Connect Is a Multi-Codec Portal Telos Zephyr Connect is a software-based multi-codec gateway for transporting multiple channels of stereo, mono and dual-mono audio across IP networks.

It provides the functionality and features of the Telos iPort High Density hardware platform, the company says, but with increased flexibility and scalability. It includes two bidirectional codec channels and is expandable in one-channel increments up to a “massive” 64 channels per instance.

Each codec is independently configurable and offers Fraunhofer IIS encoding algorithms, including AAC, AAC-HE, AAC-HEv2, AAC-LD, MP3

Rather than relying on traditional point-to-point STL connections, Ascent enables any studio to deliver programming to any transmitter while simplifying statewide content distribution.

Each transmitter site receives programming through an Intraplex IPL-200n hardware codec, which provides local storage for station IDs, underwriting messages and other programming that can be inserted automatically at the edge.

Every Flexiva transmitter also integrates an Intraplex IPL100e module, providing a third layer of redundancy beyond SCETV’s primary fiber and microwave transport paths.

GatesAir’s Intraplex StreamSplicing technology continuously repairs packet loss by borrowing data across both network paths, helping maintain uninterrupted audio delivery.

The manufacturer said that the new architecture also positions South Carolina Public Radio for greater regional flexibility, allowing local studios to originate programming for specific markets without routing every program through a central distribution hub.

For Jahnke, the investment continues a relationship with GatesAir that spans more than two decades.

“Reliability is number one, audio quality is number two and customer support is number three,” he said. “Those have always been the strengths of the Intraplex platform, and they’re exactly what we need for a statewide public radio network.”

and MP2 in a variety of bitrates, plus the option of Enhanced aptX (E-aptX) encoding.

Zephyr Connect is suitable for sending multiple linear or MPEG channels over VPNs, satellite links, Ethernet radio systems and telcoand ISP-provided services such as SD-WAN, MPLS or legacy data links.

It can also be used as a network distribution system, a multi-channel link to remote studios or a studio-to-transmitter link.

“Pair Zephyr Connect with an appropriate server for streaming audio, or pass audio and GPIO with a QoS-enabled IP link between studios on a Livewire network using Telos Alliance xNode2 AoIP audio interfaces,” the company states.

Info: www.telosalliance.com

radioworld.com | August 2026

Buyer’s Guide

More Info

www.2wcom. com

RTN moves quickly with help from 2wcom Radio Training Network met a 10-day audio transport deadline without new hardware

A

software-based audio transport workflow helped RTN establish new SRT paths remotely, using 2wcom’s MoIN platform and existing IP-4c codecs instead of new studio hardware or site visits.

When Radio Training Network had to bring a group of Florida signals into a new distribution setup, the schedule left little room for a traditional hardware rollout. RTN had roughly 10 days to absorb a sister network and keep several stations and translators on the air without disruption.

40

“ ” WRTN had roughly 10 days to absorb a sister network and keep several stations and translators on the air without disruption.

For Aaron Schultz CBT, CBRE and the RTN engineering team, the challenge was practical: create reliable program paths quickly, without turning the project into hardware shipments, rack work, codec swaps and transmittersite visits.

RTN already had 2wcom IP-4c codecs installed at the remote sites. By adding 2wcom’s MoIN software platform, the team could build the new transport paths around existing hardware instead of rebuilding the physical chain.

From RTN’s Riverview facility, the team created a MoIN pod, established the required SRT paths, verified the audio and confirmed link stability.

150 W to 6 kW FM Analog Transmitters He reported that the core setup was completed in less than 30 minutes, with no new studio hardware and no transmitter-site visits.

Right A 2wcom IP-4 codec installed in a translator cabinet in the Atlanta area. RTN used existing IP-4c units together with MoIN to establish new SRT audio paths remotely.

“The result was a practical example of how softwarebased audio transport can change the pace of broadcast projects,” according to a project summary from 2wcom.

“What might otherwise have required more equipment, travel and coordination became a remotely managed configuration task.”

The company says that for broadcasters operating multiple stations, translators, or regional networks, the lesson is that when IP transport can be configured and tested remotely, infrastructure becomes easier to adapt under deadline pressure. “In RTN’s case, MoIN and IP-4c provided the flexibility to move quickly while keeping the air chain stable.”

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radioworld.com | August 2026

Buyer’s Guide

Tech Update Comrex Releases Comet and Enhances Codec Features Comrex recently released version 5.5 Firmware for its ACCESS and BRIC-Link IP Audio codecs.

In addition to graphical theme enhancements, 5.5 adds TLS support to the web User Interface for these codecs. This will allow for incoming connections from web browsers that support the HTTPS protocol.

“This update is especially critical for Comrex users concerned with IT infrastructure security,” the company states.

“Please read the Tech Note found on the Comrex support page for a detailed technical description of this important firmware update.”

That page is www.comrex.com/support/#ip-codecs.

Additional performance enhancements and feature improvements are included in the version 5.5 Firmware update.

Comrex is also shipping its new Comet USB-C Microphone Interface, shown, which is designed for use with smartphones.

“When used with the free Comrex FieldTap app, Comet creates a powerful reporting tool. The user can plug their favorite dynamic microphone into Comet, then connect the USB-C connector into their

smartphone for high quality audio to and from a Comrex BRIC-Link, ACCESS or the new FieldLink Sideline reporter codec.”

For a limited time, Comrex customers can get a free Comet with the purchase of a FieldLink, a $320 value.

Info: www.comrex.com

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You really need to get out more.

Got a smartphone?

The new FieldLink sideline reporter codec from Comrex can put your broadcast team right in the middle of the action using a mobile phone, a USB-C mic/headphones, and our free FieldTap app.

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Buy a FieldLink and get a free Comet USB-C MIC interface. A $320 value. Contact your favorite broadcast equipment supplier today!

| August 17 2026 radioworld.com info@comrex.com 1-800-237-1776

comrex.com

Buyer’s Guide

Tech Update Thimeo Releases V.5 of MicroMPX

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MicroMPX, Thimeo’s codec for transporting FM composite signals over IP, adds improvements in version 5. The company said this improves transmission resilience, transport, codec efficiency, monitoring and system integration.

Version 5 adds support for partial keyframes. “Instead of waiting for the next keyframe to arrive after packet loss, decoders can use incremental reconstruction data to resume playback immediately, with minimal stream overhead,” the company says.

This reduces the audible impact of packet loss, for example on public internet or wireless IP links.

V.5 also adds optional RTP header support, allowing MicroMPX streams to integrate with existing broadcast RTP infrastructure and monitoring tools.

Thimeo says optimization of the codec has resulted in slightly reduced CPU utilization in encoder and decoder, especially at higher bitrates, while improving composite signal integrity and audio fidelity.

The minimum bitrate for standard MicroMPX has been reduced from 320 to 300 kbps. The more aggressive MicroMPX+ codec still operates at bitrates down to 176 kbps.

Stream metadata including MPX, left and right peak levels, pilot level and RDS level can now be read without decoding the stream.

“This makes it possible to monitor multiple streams with virtually no CPU overhead and make informed switching decisions.”

A standardized method for triggering top-of-hour station IDs or other locally stored content has been introduced. This allows triggering playback of local top-of-hour IDs at different transmitter sites, synchronized with the main MicroMPX audio. Availability depends on the implementation.

For users of standalone MicroMPX software, Emergency Alert System support is now integrated. The software can monitor a GPI input and automatically switch to direct pass-through when alert audio is available, using a lightweight internal audio leveler to maintain modulation levels during alert playback.

Info: www.thimeo.com

radioworld.com | August 2026

Buyer’s Guide

Tech Update Skyview Introduces CloudNative Distribution Platform Skyview Networks said its Cirocast cloud-native audio distribution platform is designed to free broadcasters from constraints of hardware-dependent satellite infrastructure and build toward “a more flexible, revenue-generating future.”

It said Cirocast was built in response to shifting economics in broadcast distribution and the urgency created by pending C-Band regulatory changes.

“Unlike current IP platforms that focus on point-to-point transport, Cirocast moves ad targeting, copy splits and content personalization upstream into the cloud, assembling fully mixed, market-specific feeds before delivery rather than relying on edge-based processing at the affiliate level,” it said.

Aaron Mellis, SVP, Technology at Skyview Networks, said that with these capabilities, “distribution becomes a strategic revenue platform rather than a fixed cost.”

The platform deploys across cloud-based automation systems, virtual environments and traditional on-premise setups using IP receivers, with the operation managed from one interface.

Its Feed Orchestrator functions as a real-time audio assembly engine, integrating with Skyview’s AdView Inventory Management software or a station’s existing traffic system to enable granular, programmatic ad targeting at scale.

“Economically, Cirocast shifts broadcasters from a capital-heavy satellite model to a software-driven operating expense structure, reducing receiver, maintenance and infrastructure costs across a network’s full operation.”

Cirocast is intended for content producers running 24/7 live and recorded programming, national and regional audio networks, syndicators and group owners.

Info: http://cirocast.com

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radioworld.com | August 17 2026

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radioworld.com | August 2026

Audio in Radio

Getty Images/Phynart Studio

Writer

“I can’t understand what they’re saying” Speech intelligibility increasingly is a problem across media

Dr. Paul Tapper CEO NUGEN Audio

Above If audiences cannot follow dialog, they are less likely to remain engaged, complete listening to a program or even return for a future episode.

I

n broadcast and radio production, few qualities are as fundamental or as deceptively complex as speech intelligibility.

It sits at the center of the listening experience, yet intelligibility is often only noticed when it fails.

When dialog becomes unclear, listeners disengage, comprehension drops and the content itself loses its impact.

In radio especially, where speech is the primary carrier of information, personality and storytelling, intelligibility is not simply a technical concern, it is the core principle of audience connection.

We have seen this kind of industry-wide reckoning before. In the early 2000s, the dominant complaint from audiences was inconsistent loudness — particularly the jarring jumps between programming and commercials.

Viewers were forced to ride volume controls, and broadcasters faced reputational damage and potential revenue loss as audiences switched away from uncomfortable listening experiences.

radioworld.com | August 2026

That challenge ultimately drove a global response: the development of standardized loudness measurement, most notably through ITU-R BS.1770, which finally gave engineers a way to quantify perceived loudness in a consistent, human-relevant way.

From there, regulation and practice evolved. In the U.S., legislation such as the CALM Act reinforced the need for compliance, while production and QC workflows integrated loudness normalization as standard practice. What was once subjective became measurable, and what was measurable became controllable.

Today, we may be entering a similar inflection point, only this time the issue is speech intelligibility.

Across radio, streaming and broadcast environments, complaints are shifting. Instead of “it’s too loud,” the more common listener frustration is increasingly “I can’t understand what they’re saying.”

Dialog might be masked by music and effects, compromised by poor recording conditions or degraded through complex processing chains. It might also suffer

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Audio in Radio

46

from excessive reverberation, inconsistent microphone technique, over-compression or poor performance conditions.

Unlike loudness, however, intelligibility has many more possible failure points and far less agreement on how to define or measure it.

That complexity is part of the problem. Human speech understanding is influenced not only by signal quality, but by cognition, context, language familiarity and even listener fatigue. Two audio signals with identical technical characteristics might be perceived very differently depending on content and environment.

While engineers can easily measure peaks, LUFS or dynamic range for loudness control, there has not been a universally adopted metric that captures how easily speech can be understood in real-world listening conditions.

Yet the motivation to solve this is becoming increasingly urgent. In a fragmented media environment where listener attention is fragile, poor intelligibility has direct consequences. If audiences cannot follow dialog, they are less likely to remain engaged, complete listening to a program or even return for a future episode.

For radio, where storytelling, news delivery and personality-driven formats dominate, that loss of clarity can quickly become a loss of relevance.

Encouragingly, work is underway to address this gap.

New approaches to measuring “listening effort” are emerging, using machine learning models trained to estimate how difficult it is for a listener to decode speech in any given signal.

One example is the concept of a listening effort meter, such as the one found in NUGEN Audio’s DialogCheck plugin, which analyzes short segments of audio and evaluates how confidently speech elements can be identified. Rather

“

There has not been a universally adopted metric that captures how easily speech can be understood in real-world listening conditions.

than relying on simple amplitude or spectral balance, these systems attempt to model perception itself — how much cognitive effort is required to understand spoken content.

Early implementations, developed across multiple technology platforms, suggest that such models can be surprisingly robust across languages and content types.

That is significant because intelligibility is not bound to a single language or production style, and any useful metric must function across diverse broadcast environments.

However, these tools are still evolving, and their application raises important questions.

How do you translate a series of short-term intelligibility scores into a meaningful quality threshold for a full-length program? What constitutes “acceptable” intelligibility in news versus drama versus entertainment? And, critically, how should such measurements be integrated into QC workflows without oversimplifying creative intent?

These questions mirror those faced during the loudness transition. Early loudness measurement was not immediately a production standard; it took years of refinement, testing and consensus-building before loudness became embedded in global workflows.

Speech intelligibility is likely to follow a similar path, moving gradually from experimental metrics toward standardized guidance and, eventually, operational use.

For radio broadcasters, the opportunity is clear. As tools and methodologies mature, there is potential not only to detect intelligibility issues more reliably, but to design production workflows that prevent them in the first place.

That could influence microphone techniques, mixing decisions, content balancing and even editorial choices.

Ultimately, speech intelligibility is not just an audio engineering challenge, it is a listener experience issue. In radio, where the entire medium depends on the clarity of spoken word, it might also be the most important quality metric that we have not yet fully defined.

The author is founder and CEO of NUGEN Audio, a U.Kbased manufacturer of professional software audio plug-ins.

He founded NUGEN Audio in 2004.

radioworld.com | August 2026

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