| Clay’s Corner
Providing news and views from a broadcast engineers perspective since September 1986 |
| The headline read –
Broadcasters Raise Red Flag Over FCC’s C-Band Plans. Sitting just a few feet from FCC Chairman Pai at NAB recently I came away thinking that he is not anti-broadcast…Then I learned his position regarding C-Band (3.7-4.2 Gig) Called Mid-Band by the wireless industry. Once again we are in a defensive position in terms of spectrum. The wireless industry is not dumb – They want additional spectrum and they consider any of that is not heavily used fair-game…On the surface, apparently, our C-Band qualified. Remember the battle over the 2 Gig spectrum when the wireless industry set its sights on that band? Broadcasters were scrambling to show the FCC that we did indeed use the spectrum a lot more than they thought. The issue was the lack of information regarding the number and location of receivers. Frankly, we were caught short on this one…As a result we experienced our first dose of ‘repacking’…(even if it was not called that). In the end, we lost spectrum. Then it was deemed that Broadcasters were never going to use all the TV spectrum they were allocated….and, on top of that, the FCC had done a poor job of spectrum management with the switch from analog to digital and the case was made to ‘re-pack’ TV….One more time, we lost ground. Now the wireless ‘cross-hairs’ are on C-Band. This spectrum has been used for a very long time for program/network distribution and, in the minds of many, is un-utilized…..”Wireless Speak’ for ‘We want it’. Much like the 2-Gig issue, broadcasters have laid back thinking that the FCC was never going to let anyone else use this band…Nothing to fear. All it took is for the Wireless crowd to assert that the band was under-utilized and contend that, at least, it could be shared by them. IMHO, much of the blame here rests with Broadcasters, in particular Radio Stations, that have sprinkled satellite receiving antennas all over the land and not bothered to have any formal data documenting all this use. This ‘under-counting’ is proving to be dangerous. Now, all of a sudden there is this scramble to try and make a case that this is not a suitable location for shared use. Whether or not we will be successful at beating back this threat remains to be seen. History has shown that, when confronted with this kind of a situation, that we may well be looking for a loss of spectrum in exchange for a smaller piece of the pie with some protection. Several organizations are involved in this battle – NAB, NPR, iHeartMedia, program distributors, networks etc. Has this has put the FCC in a position that, perhaps, they did not see coming? On the Wireless side – they are making it clear that they need the spectrum, and this particular piece is ideal for their new 5G systems. Seems to me that this pits the desire of new ‘Gee-Whiz’ wireless toys up against old fashioned systems that are frequency hogs anyway. Let’s face it – 5G is being pre-sold as the do-all, end-all, wireless system that’s likely exciting to the policy makers while Broadcasting is being pushed to the rear of the bus as old technology. We were being told that the FCC would be voting in July on the proposal….Then we got word that the filing deadline had been extended to October 17. As a lot of media coverage has pointed out. Our C-Band systems impact a huge amount of Radio and TV operations. A lot of fingers are crossed – My Guess – Standby for more re-packing. See GN Docket Nos. 18-122. Remember the 103.3 Oak Harbor Station? It was on the air playing a Country format using the old call letters imported to the Seattle area from Hood River, KMCQ. The station is now KZNW and part of the Bustos family of stations airing their Le Zeta format. The Transmitter, operating with 1400 watts, is SE of Mt Vernon. Le Zeta is the same format they run at their 1210 AM Auburn Station. I’ve found there are a number of locations in the Everett area that you can hear both quite well. Now the question is who will be next to pick up the KMCQ call-letters? As of early June the only station on the air with it is KMCQ-LP in Salem, Oregon. Congratulations to Sue Qualls who is retiring from KUOW in Seattle after 32 years. Now she can have time to come to the SBE Chapter Meetings and make all the working-stiffs feel bad Sue recently posted this on Pubtech – After 32 years at KUOW it is time to retire. This list has been oh so helpful (and entertaining!). I will miss my fellow public radio engineers but who knows I might show up for the PREC some year! Hard to let go some times. I leave KUOW in the capable hands of Sam Roffe and Tim Meinig. There is a lot on their plate but with the help of Dane Johnson and crew nothing they can’t handle. All the best, Apparently the Retirement Bug is ‘catchy’. I was at Daniels on South Lake Union recently to attend the Tom Pierson Retirement Gathering. Tom has changed his email signature to read – Paul Carvalho is the new Chief Engineer for Bonneville Seattle The very best to both of you. To be very honest, I too would like to retire…Unlike these folks, I will likely begin to do this in phases by cutting back on the amount of work I do. The problem is how to start the process. I figured by now that it would be ‘others’ that make the first move. I attended the 35th annual gathering of Amateur Radio operators in Seaside the first weekend in June. The weather was spectacular. Here’s a picture taken from the balcony of our hotel looking east at the Coast Range. I actually bought a new radio too!
Unfortunately, on May 31st, another broadcast tower fell. This time the cause was not related to re-packing but rather a pilot of a crop-duster clipping a guy wire. The pilot died and the 1040 foot tower for KTUZ-FM in Okarche, Oklahoma (NW of Oklahoma City) went crashing to the ground. I am reminded of the time an aircraft clipped a guy wire on the Channel 13 tower on Gold Mountain. In that case the tower survived, the plane and pilot did not. There is a lot of buzz these days about SFN’s (Translation: Single Frequency Networks) for TV. Locally Buzz Anderson has been working on a radio version of this with the addition of a number of on-frequency boosters for the Bustos Media’s KDDS on 99.3, to my knowledge the first of its kind in this area. Perhaps he could come tell us about it at a future SBE-16 Chapter Meeting? A number of years ago this column started appearing on the Northwest Broadcasters website. This provided access to my musings to an additional number of readers. This change meant that I would be receiving incoming mail from many of them. Often, very interesting. One of those new readers was named John Ashbridge. John never wrote about what he did, but would rather make comments about something I had written. I was saddened recently to receive an email from Gord Lansdell, the NW Broadcasters webmaster, informing me that John had recently passed. He passed on his Obit where I learned that he was the longtime PA Announcer for the Canuck’s in addition to being a newsman at CKNW. It’s always great to have new readers, but always hard to lose an old one. He was 71.
On the 13th of June we learned of the Passing of Dick Harris. Thanks to John Price for coming up with this picture of Dick standing next to some fellow (on left) who was an obvious shutterbug (A young Dwight Small) I recall hearing Dicks great voice on KIRO and the Crista Stations.
Like many of us in Broadcast Engineering, Dick was a Ham with the Call of K7VCD. The following is a picture of Dick that he had posted to QRZ-
He also posted these comments –
Back in the 50’s while working at the RCA plant in Camden, NJ, and being surrounded at work by a lot of Hams, I succeeded in getting my first license, KN2MBT and plunged in as a Novice. Not being satisfied with Novice limitations I worked hard and earned my general in 1955. In 1962 we moved out to Washington State and became K7VCD. For the next 43years I was satisfied with my General class privileges, until March 23rd, 2005. After much persuasion, encouragement from a friend, N6TZ, and hours of studying practice exams, I earned my Extra Class privilege and decided to keep my call, K7VCD, because it has been me since 1962. My current station includes a Kenwood TS570, Ameritron AL-811 linear amp, working into an inverted V fed with ladder-line, a Hy-gain DX-88 all-band vertical. My Hy-gain 20-10 Triband beam was completely restored again on Memorial Day weekend 2005, with a lot of help from family and friends. It’s now working better than ever, and is my window to the world of Ham radio once again. I’ve been in radio broadcasting since 1949, starting as a board announcer/disc jockey gravitating over to the engineering side. Finally retired as fulltime Corporate Project Engineer with Salem Communications in the Spring of 2003 after 19 years.
Dick was a warm and wonderful person, loved and appreciated by all that knew him…and a reader of my column…I know this for he too would occasionally drop me a note about something I had written. To say the least, another great loss. John Price located a prior business card from when Dick was in NYC –
A spy in our midst? That’s what a lot of people were wondering on learning that the Amazon Echo smart speaker could be listening in to our conversations….or that someone, somewhere, could be. Many news organizations jumped all over this one. In the years that I’ve been around I’ve seen many things come and go. When I started in broadcasting, back in the last century, AM was king and FM was something that some experimented with. Now that has completely reversed. Not long ago, Medium Wave (or so it’s called in other lands), was also the predominant audio delivery. Now with AM’s popularity fading all over the world, some are suggesting that moving from Amplitude Modulation to Digital might give the medium a new lease on life. In this country our experiences with HD Radio have been less than stellar….Those that are advocating Digital Radio Mondiale are viewing things a bit differently. Regardless of what music lovers will tell you, there is still an audience for non-music programming – News, Talk, Sports etc. The latest ratings surge of KIRO-AM-710 is a great example. The problem with AM is not so much the lack of stereo or fidelity, but rather the ever increasing noise level that effectively, progressively, reduces the coverage of AM Stations. Operating with a different modulation scheme, one that is less subject to noise would certainly be a move in the right direction. The potential is likely great. However…There are a couple of minor problems with DRM….1) No one has a receiver for it, 2) Owners of broadcast stations are not going to invest money in transmitting equipment to broadcast to no-one (much less invest in new AM equipment) and 3) You can’t buy a receiver at Best Buy, Costco, Walmart etc. However, you can buy one from Amazon… https://www.amazon.in/Avion-DRM-Digital-Radio-DRM-AM-FM-M/dp/B012GIDF1O The problem here is the classic – Should we do it just because we can? Can anyone tell me just how we could make a transition from today’s AM to a DRM system in the US or Canada? In other countries they have it easy….Just sunset AM and mandate that everyone do DRM. Oh oh….I forgot – 5G is going to eliminate all broadcasting anyway….What was I thinking? Appears that KZQM in Sequim has been granted a license by the FCC. The little station had to deal with the objections of the neighbors on Dungeness Heights. KZQM is on 104.9 operating with 6 kW ERP with a directional antenna, providing a broad null to the NNW. They are not the only station facing objections. Apparently there are those on Bainbridge Island that don’t like the idea of a 3rd station at the Salem transmitter site. in this case KKOL/1300. The City of Bainbridge Island is one of the objectors. Nice to know that it’s not just broadcasting that’s causing objections…So is the roll out of 5G. With about 300,000 new antennas sprouting from all kinds of structures across the land, it’s not the visual impact that is raising concerns, it’s the old fear that this new service will cause cancer and this cancer causing emitter could be on a light pole in your front yard. This is going to be interesting to watch. New broadcast station transmitters rarely have a lot of support ….However, with all the hype about 5G there is likely going to be a lot of pressure to overlook objections. The old fear that having a transmitter in your backyard will lower property values may not hold true this time. The fact is that a property that does not have 5G coverage may well suffer because of it. July 10th at 9:30 a.m. is the date and time of the next SECC Meeting at Clover Park Technical College. On the subject of EAS – This fall we will likely, once-again, have a National Test. At this time it’s not known whether this will come via the Internet and the FEMA/IPAWS CAP system or if it will be via the legacy EAS (Analog) system we’ve had for years. There are some suggesting that FEMA may ‘stress-test’ the system by surprising us. If you attend the NAB Convention in Las Vegas, and deal with broadcast transmitters, you have probably looked at the giant Stratosphere Tower and wondered how it would work as a broadcast transmitter site. The wondering is over as Beasley now has a 250 watt translator there (translator for their 720 AM). Reports are that it works very well, nearly the same as the higher powered stations on Black Mountain. Here’s a view that you don’t often get of a tower. In this case, we are looking down on the top of the original broadcast tower at West Tiger Mountain, all thanks to Martin Gibbs and his UAV. The elevation of the top of this tower is 3148 ft (or about 960 Meters) above sea-level which helps explain why FM stations located here cover such a large area.
More from CNBC The Headline read – What salary do you need to afford a Seattle-area home? This was followed with this question – How much do you reasonably need to be earning to afford a median-priced home in the Seattle-area compared to the rest of the U.S.? The following information comes from Lending Tree, who made the following assumptions about the borrowers –
Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue, Wash. – Median home price: $410,000 – Monthly mortgage payment: $1,870 – Salary required: $97,554 Portland/Hillsboro, Ore., Vancouver, Wash. – Median home price: $348,050 – Monthly mortgage payment: $1,587 – Salary required: $83,311 Denver/Aurora/Lakewood, Colo. – Median home price: $360,000 – Monthly mortgage payment: $1,642 – Salary required: $81,157. If you think that buying a home in Seattle is expensive….We are far below San Francisco…But that is another story. On a personal note – I just received my Official Property Value Notice from King County…My 2018 to 2019 change is $50,000. A friend of mine in Seattle had his valuation increase just under $100,000. We can only guess the impact this will have on the property taxes we will be paying next year. Is it any wonder why retiree’s look to move out of the area? XL Media has announced they are buying KZIZ/1560 and KKDZ/1250 for $850,000. For those old-timers in the area, KKDZ/1250 started back in the 1920’s as KTW. Local, Seattle area, station KNKX uplinks it’s program streams to a Satellite. Recently that system went down on June 9th sending Lowell Kiesow on a mission to discover what happened. The cause was quite unique. Apparently a local high school was holding their graduation nearby and let loose a number of balloons. A bouquet of metalized, Mylar balloons stuck in front of the uplink feed horn which is 14 feet off the ground. Look closely at the feed on the antenna – As Lowell said…’It’s a first for me’. Perhaps a new term – ‘Balloon Fade’??
I’ve written, in past columns, about ‘parking of call letters’. This is a common practice by big companies who feel the need to change call letters in a market but don’t wish to give up letters that they feel have value. iHeartMedia recently did this with KUBE, likely knowing that a lot of other broadcasters would love to have them (pronounceable call letters are very hard to come by) so they changed the call of a co-owned AM in California to KUBE. Now, after some format shuffling, KUBE is back in Seattle on 93.3. I recently spotted a billboard reading ‘KUBE 93.3 is Back’. Apparently AM stations that are operating FM Translators, in some cases, have discovered HD Radio. Whereas many of these translators are operating with very low power or highly directional arrays. It’s not likely that a station owner will make the investment in the equipment required. However, some of them, with 250 Watts and a decent location have. Could it be that some of these operations might even devote some time and energy to their HD and HD2’s? HD Radio certainly has grown, with some 2200 Stations now broadcasting with HD. Radio’s version of Multicasting is growing also, with almost 1500 stations operating HD2 (a second program channel) and close to 500 operating HD3 (a third program channel). Installing HD Radio systems for a station is a matter of receiver penetration. According to Xperi – 51% of all cars sold in 2018 came with HD Radio. Breaking this down further…There are 40 brands with 253 different models that come with the mode. Penetration bottom line – over 16% of all cars on the road have HD Radios or a total of 45 million vehicles, a figure that is growing at the rate of about 10 million vehicles per year. That’s a pretty compelling reason for broadcasters to get on the band-wagon. The owners of 107.7 in Vancouver are the latest in SW B.C. to jump on the bandwagon. I recall when HD multicasting was just being talked about. Back then broadcasters were excited to have a multicast channel, as they considered it to be ‘another radio station’ they could make money with. Then the reality of the matter sunk in. They were fearful of putting on compelling programming or cross promoting the new system for fear it would mean moving listeners away from their FM station that was paying the bills. Many made it clear – If it can’t make money on day-one…they were not interested. Then there is the problem of educating consumers. An owner of a new vehicle may stumble across the fact that their car-radio can receive content that they like, but have never heard about and have little chance of getting additional information. Most HD program streams do little to explain how it works. Auto dealers are, generally clueless. You would think that broadcasters in a given market area would have a printed hand-out that comes with every new vehicle that explains how HD Radio works and promotes the content that is available. Nope – Not happening. My ‘technical mind’ obviously operates on a different plane than those that could really do a lot more to make HD Radio into the money maker that we all want. Again this is so much like the roll-out of FM many years ago. Then AM Station owners, not realizing the advantages and potential for FM were afraid to promote it for fear it would hurt their AM operations. Sure it had better fidelity, Stereo, less noise, worked in places that AM would not, etc. FM finally had to almost make it on its own…and that it did. In many cases consumers were the leaders and station owners were the followers. I am beginning to have hope that attitudes are changing with young and more techno-savvy managers taking the reins that HD Radio and other new technologies will be embraced rather than being feared. Speaking of new things – No, not Smart Speakers …Podcasting. So what is a Podcast? According to Wikipedia: A podcast, or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download and listen to. It is often available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player. [1] It is very similar to, and may overlap with, Internet radio, though perhaps distinct in revolving around topics personalized exactly to listener preferences, [2] plus podcasts are often able to be streamed or downloaded on demand. Some broadcasters are very much Involved with Podcasting…Especially those stations that have non-music content. Some podcasts are, essentially, recordings of previously aired programming. NPR and their affiliates are naturals for this mode as they do more long-form content that lends itself to becoming a podcast. In some respects this reminds me of being able to access old-time radio shows. Meanwhile iHeartMedia is working on its own Podcasts. These will be scripted episodes targeting teens. There is nothing like a great story, in audio form. As a kid I grew up listening to wonderful stories on the Radio. The mind can paint pictures just as good as you can find on TV or in the movies. Interestingly there has been a huge gap between the days when Radio was the story teller and today when Podcasting is catching on as something ‘cool and new’. If you have a story about some locally produced Podcasts – Let me know. Many were wondering if Cumulus Media would be parted out and sold off as part of their re-organization. Sounds like they did exit a few properties, but not as many as some suspected. The major change was to cut their debt load by about a Billion Bucks. Time to look at the highlights of the latest Seattle Radio – 6+ – numbers…
Did you ever think that someone would develop a device like a UAV or Drone?…Obviously advancements in computers and electronics have made these devices not only possible but common. The earlier picture of the top of the West Tiger tower would have required a big helicopter with a pilot and camera operator in the past. Now, with something that can be stored in a small case, you can launch your camera in minutes, for a fraction of the cost. TV news has certainly discovered the usefulness of these devices, so has spot or commercial generation. A recent look at one of those real-estate magazines showed aerial views of a lot of properties. Fire fighters are using them to locate hot-spots in wildfires. Ranchers are using them to keep track of their cattle. Farmers are using them to look over their crops. The list goes on. With any kind of device like this there are going to be those that fly them where they should not…and there are those that don’t want to be snooped on. And of course, you will find this sign –
And the Headline read… WiFi Now Available at Potholes State Park! I suppose you could ask – Why would someone want a park named after a hole in a road? At least there is Wi Fi there! What’s happening to KUIK in Hillsboro, OR (West of Portland)? Recently I received a list of equipment that was for sale at the station…Could it be that it was off the air and selling parts and pieces? Apparently this is the case. I ran across this on-line: The following U-Tube video gives you a look around the station on their last day of broadcasting. Note how their studios were at the airport. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfifrPprCAs According to the FCC, KUIK was first licensed in November of 1954. It appears they were operating with 5 kW Non-Directional Day and 5 kW Directional at night with 4 towers. There are rumors that they lost their lease at their transmitter site. Others report the station was sold and will be back, in some form. The bottom line appears to be that yet another AM will become nothing more than history. Sadly, I suspect the trend will continue. To wind up my column for this month….Some miscellaneous, off the top, ramblings, all of which will likely confirm what many of you have suspected for a long time… Have you ever noticed how we have a habit of asking the wrong question ? Let me give you an example – You have just arrived at your hotel. You walk up to the desk and the person there asks you, “What brought you here today?” My typical response – ‘I drove’ – at which point the clerk is clearly set back. If they had asked – What is the reason for your visit here today, that would have been a better question. Why do we do this? Another favorite of mine is when in a restaurant many servers will ask – “Can I grab something else for you?” What!! Did they really mean to ask if they could bring me something else? How about that question on a form at a medical provider’s office – “In case of an emergency who should be called?” I like to write ‘Ambulance’ .. Just to see if anyone actually reads those things. Some questions are just an invitation to have a little fun. For example when at the checkout of the grocery store they will often ask “Did you find everything OK?” Responding with something like “I couldn’t locate the Pickup Trucks” will often stop them cold, leaving them with no idea of what to say. Responding with a totally unexpected answer is also fun – Example – When people see a cat’s litter box they will often ask if you have a cat….Responding with, “No, that’s for company” is certain to generate an interesting expression. I’m among the few that have no middle name. Often, when filling out a form, I am asked to complete my name at which time I write NMI. Occasionally someone will ask me how I pronounce it. Thinking about this a bit more I have concluded that I am a very lucky follow. I determined long ago, the only reason people have middle names is so a child will really know they are in trouble when a parent uses it. I recall, several years ago, I was on my way to, or from, an Amateur Radio event. I stopped at a grocery store while wearing a little pin on badge that looked like this. CLAY
The checker kept looking at me ….and finally she took a deep breath and said, “How do you pronounce your last name?” (She was very serious.) When you reach my age you have come to the point in life that you have no choice to accept what the passing of time has done. A lot of people have trouble admitting how old they are and will try and hide it, or will subtract a few years from the actual number. I have a lot more fun approaching this differently. I like to ADD about 10 years to the actual number. The response is amazing….People will often remark about how good you look. Hard to get compliments at this point! Well that’s it for this month. Thanks for permitting me to share these items with you. If you have a thought – feel free to drop me a note – always happy to know that someone, somewhere is reading it. Have a wonderful Summer. Remember, at this latitude, it is our shortest season. Clay, K7CR, CPBE
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