Ecco a che cosa servono le onde corte

Enrico Li Perni, il tecnico di radiofrequenza e radioamatore che in Kenya, con la sua ditta, lavora insieme e per conto di un contractor internazionale per la realizzazione di impianti e ponti radio è appena tornato a Nairobi dal villaggio turistico dove è rimasto bloccato in questi drammatici giorni di scontri etnico-politici postelettorali. Enrico gestisce anche una stazione FM rivolta ai turisti italiani. Ecco le considerazioni che mi ha gentilmente inviato via mail. Le sue sono poche righe che descrivono perfettamente una situazione purtroppo niente affatto eccezionale per una vasta parte del mondo. E considerate che in Kenya, come altrove, non è solo questione di tenere calme qualche decina di turisti italiani. Le onde corte potrebbero svolgere una funzione fondamentale proprio su un terreno vitale per l'intero pianeta come il processo di democraticizzazione. Rifiutarsi di prendere in considerazione questo ruolo con i vantaggi di una informazione accurata distribuibile e accessibile con investimenti tutto sommato contenuti o inquadrare il discorso all'interno di un dibattito tra ricchi annoiati sulla superiorità di questo o quell'altro medium, magari digitale, è da incoscienti. Specie quando le nazioni occidentali che fanno le pulci a questo mezzo bollandolo come "obsoleto" sono poi le prime a spendere miliardi di dollari per missioni militari di efficacia alquanto dubbia. E' un bello schifo e Enrico ha ragione da vendere quando parla di vergogna a proposito della sospensione delle trasmissioni di RAI International in onde corte.

Caro Andrea,

Appena di ritorno dalla costa del kenya dove siamo rimasti bloccati fino ad oggi. Viaggio allucinante oltre 600km con l'auto senza freni dopo che all'andata abbiamo centrato una mucca sull'autostrada.
Le uniche notizie che si riescono a sentire sono solo tramite la BBC.
Ero a Watamu 20 Km a sud della cittadina di Malindi, ho dovuto spegnere la radio italiana per via del GR con notizie non controllate dal governo del Kenya; l'unica mia fonte era tramite un giocattolino cinese da 4 euro sintonizzato di giorno a 17.730 Mhz e la sera sui 6.600Mhz [probabilmente Enrico utilizza un piccolo apparecchio a singola conversione e la lettura della frequenza è imprecisa, NdR]
Che vergogna che l'italia abbia abbandonato le OC ( notare la i minuscola). In effetti satellite non ce ne era, corrente neanche, niente benzina, latte pane acqua sigarette, solo la vista dell'Oceano indiano e il cancello del vilaggio turistico che ti catapultava in un mondo di disordini che vedi solo in televisione in qualche paese a te lontano. Il giocattolino sintonizzato sulla BBC era l'unica fonte di notizie obbiettive e non di parte. Facevo il sunto in italiano per i centinaia di turisti che son venuti dall'italia precedentemente ai fatti.
Non ci son balle che tengano, la radio in OC e' di fondamentale importanza per scavalcare i confini policiti e di censura nei paesi di dubbia coscienza.

Enrico
Nairobi 2-01-2008

Spot su Radio France? I sindacati si mobilitano

I sindacati francesi si sono mobilitati contro l'eventualità di un cambiamento di regole che consenta a Radio France di espandere il proprio potenziale pubblicitario. Una petizione online appena pubblicata dalle principali sigle sindacali afferma:

Le PDG de Radio France Jean Paul Cluzel et la Ministre de la Culture Christine Albanel envisagent, pour des questions budgétaires, d’autoriser les chaînes de Radio France (France Inter, France Info, France Culture, France Musique, Le Mouv, Fip, France Bleu) à diffuser de la publicité de marque.
Quoi qu’en disent les intéressés, et quelles que soient les assurances qu’ils donnent, cette décision enclencherait, comme jadis à la télévision, un mouvement irréversible. Ce mouvement conduirait, à moyen terme, à la destruction de l’identité même des stations de Radio France.

Insomma, i fautori della radio pubblica senza pubblicità si oppongono a un possibile snaturamento, un precedente che rischia di creare profonde lacerazioni. Ancora una volta a un italiano sembra di sognare, un movimento di opinione sfavorevole alla privatizzazione del pubblico. La corrispondenza di Marianne2, il sito del periodico Marianne, sottolinea come i primi a essere contrari sono i proprietari delle stazioni private, che come osservava anche il Wall Street Journal due giorni fa, temono molto il valore pubblicitario della programmazione di qualità trasmessa dalla radio pubblica.

Paradoxalement, en apparence, l'intersyndicale s'est trouvée dans cette lutte contre l'ouverture des antennes de la station au « tout venant » publicitaire un allié inattendu : les radios privées.
Ainsi, Virginie Teissier, ancienne directrice de la communication de RTL, récemment nommée à la tête du Syndicat Indépendant des Régies de Radios Privées estime que ce serait là « ouvrir la boite de Pandore. Si cette décision devait devenir effective, Radio France deviendra une radio commerciale, il ne sera pas possible de revenir en arrière ».
La décision inquiète d'autant plus les radios privées que, notamment depuis l'ouverture de la publicité télévisée à la grande distribution, le marché publicitaire est sous tension : « Les professionnels du secteur estiment que si Radio France obtient l'autorisation de faire de la pub de marque, cela entraînerait une perte de 80 à 90 millions d'euros pour les radios privées » ajoute Virginie Teissier qui se dit également choquée par les méthodes de la ministre de la culture : « nous aurions au moins aimé être consultés pour exprimer notre point de vue. Rien n'a été prévu, pas une réunion avec le ministère ! Je comprends la position des dirigeants de Radio-France, la situation financière est difficile, et je conçois que la ministre de la culture, Christine Albanel, se dise favorable à un assouplissement de certaines règles. Mais je crois qu'ils n'ont pas mesuré l'impact d'une telle mesure compte tenu de la situation du marché publicitaire ».
De son côté, le groupe public assure que la progression de ses recettes publicitaires ne dépassera pas 1,3 million d'euros et que « ce projet ne saurait avoir ni pour objet ni pour effet de perturber les marchés publicitaires ».

Per Radio Gazelle si decide tutto in una notte blu

La decisione sulla sopravvivenza di Radio Gazelle, a Marsiglia, resta appesa a un filo a quanto leggo sul sito Rue89, che si occupa della questione con una intervista telefonica a Sarah Benkherfallah (potete leggere e sentire tutto qui). Il CSA, l'autorità francese, avrebbe stabilito di riassegnare la frequenza di Gazelle a una radio commerciale legata a un imprenditore marocchino amico personale del nuovo Presidente francese. Il 7 febbraio ci sarà quella che nel gergo del CSA si chiama Nuit Bleue radiophonique, ufficialmente nota come Nuit d’entrée en vigueur des autorisations. Solo allora si saprà se Radio France Maghreb prenderà il posto della storica emittente multietnica "phocéenne".
Laconici ma indicativi i commenti dei lettori di Rue89. Come quello che scrive "...mais on efface, on supprime, on éjecte tout ce qui dérange depuis qu'on est en Sarkoland..." Da quando viviamo a Sarkoland, si cancella, si sopprime e si rigetta tutto ciò che disturba. Mi ricorda qualcosa, ma devo averlo rimosso.

USA: Arbitron alle prese con l'audience giovanile

Vi ricordate del portable meter di Arbitron? Da quando la società omologa dell'Audiradio negli USA ha introdotto un nuovo sofisticato dispositivo portatile per misurare l'audience radiofonica, l'industria discute molto sull'attendibilità dei dari raccolti. La tecnologia, basata sulla cattura e la rielaborazione di segnali audio inudibili che "marchiano" programmi e stazioni, ha già creato qualche problema sovvertendo le precedenti classifiche di popolarità nei vari bacini pubblicitari.
Ma il New York Times si occupa di una questione più sottile: come farà Arbitron a fornire dati corretti sull'ascolto giovanile della radio? Un segmento molto ambito dagli inserzionisti, ma anche difficile da misurare, specie attraverso un dispositivo
che in teoria uno deve avere sempre in tasca, requisito assai poco confacente con lo stile di vita sportivo dei giovani (che quando possono le tasche preferiscono togliersele, insieme al resto dei vestiti). Molte stazioni radio si dicono scettiche.

December 31, 2007
Radio’s Challenge: Counting the Young
By BRIAN STELTER

As radio moves away from an outdated system of audience measurement, it is facing the same problem that confronts other media: figuring out how many young people are listening or watching is maddeningly difficult.

A long-awaited electronic measurement tool, the “portable people meter,” has produced sudden swings in ratings in tests, raising red flags for radio executives. After a test in October in New York, the radio measurement company Arbitron delayed the broader introduction of people meters by nine months.
Arbitron officials say that tallying the number of young listeners — in particular the 18- to 34-year-old demographic group prized by advertisers — has been a perpetual concern. The stakes are high for media companies and advertisers, and for the measurement companies themselves; last month, Arbitron warned its stockholders that earnings would be adversely affected by the people meter delay.
Ceril Shagrin, an executive vice president for corporate research at Univision Communications, a major Spanish-language broadcaster, found that the ratings for Radio La Kalle 105.9 FM in New York fell sharply when the people meters were tested in October. She expressed concerns about the reliability of the Arbitron sample.
“The Hispanic universe is younger, and our audience is therefore made up of more young people. When the sample doesn’t reflect them, then our radio ratings aren’t correct,” Ms. Shagrin said.
Lower ratings can translate into less advertising revenue. The television ratings company Nielsen Media Research has experienced the same sampling challenges.
“I think any survey research operation, no matter what they’re doing, would say that young households are more difficult to recruit,” said Paul Donato, chief research officer for Nielsen.
Mr. Donato said young demographics were well represented by Nielsen’s samples, and Arbitron said its data was improving. November data from the people meter, released on Dec. 7, showed some gains among younger people and minority groups.
Still, Arbitron has work to do; on an average day in New York last month, 575 participants aged 18 to 34 provided data, far short of the company’s goal of 919.
Owen Charlebois, president for technology, research and development, said young people were less likely to participate automatically in a research study.
“We have to work harder to explain why it’s important for them to take part,” he said. “In some ways, there are parallels with voting rates in the U.S.”
Because it costs more for Arbitron to deploy electronic measurements, the sample size becomes smaller, but each member of the sample contributes more data, making the recruitment process that much more important.
“You really have to get people who you know are going to participate,” said Brad Adgate, director for research at the media-buying agency Horizon Media.
Researchers often try to persuade hard-to-reach age groups to participate by paying them more. While Arbitron does not release specific information on incentives, it said it offers 18- to 24-year-olds two to three times as much as the average respondent. The company will increase the age for incentives to 34 in 2008.
Even once recruited, the younger people pose challenges for sampling studies.
“On an average day, half of 18- to 34-year-olds don’t provide usable data,” Ms. Shagrin said. Young people may leave the people meter, which is roughly the size of a cellphone, at home because carrying it is inconvenient in certain situations, as when on a date or while playing sports.
Like other research companies, Arbitron weights the sample to achieve equal representation for each demographic group.
“Those few people who do decide to participate count more than those in other age groups,” potentially skewing the results further, Mr. Adgate said.
Bob Patchen, chief research officer for Arbitron, said young people have less routine in their lives, making them more likely to forget or lose the meter. The company sometimes visits young respondents to encourage participation. It also plans to release “meter skins” that will allow participants to customize their meters, in much the way some young people change the colors and textures of their cellphones.
The larger issues raised by people meters involve the fragmentation of media and the preference of advertisers to reach narrow swaths of consumers. On television, as in radio, programs that appeal to 18- to 34-year-old viewers can become cash machines because advertisers will pay a premium to reach young people. But as media companies use Arbitron and Nielsen to carve ever-thinner slices of demographic data, concerns about the reliability of that data increase.
“Sometimes the ratings, particularly in cable, are really being generated by just a couple of people in the sample,” said Alan Wurtzel, president for research and media development at NBC.
But over time, the data tends to become increasingly reliable, researchers say. Arbitron will spend the next nine months trying to make its customers just as confident.

Il futuro (digitale?) delle onde medie messicane

Dietro gli Stati Uniti, nel continente americano una delle nazioni con il maggior numero di emittenti in onde medie è il Messico. Forse in Brasile sono più numerose (almeno secondo fonti come il CIA World Factbook, e sono dati vecchi), ma moltissime trasmettono in network. Come gli Stati Uniti il Messico comincia a interrogarsi sul futuro di queste stazioni, ora che il cammino verso la digitalizzazione della radio sembra irreversibile. Questo articolo di El Universal invoca una decisione da parte politica ed è molto possibilista sulle chances di cui godrebbe il sistema HD Radio, ancora più dell'Eureka 147. Una possibilità, infatti, è quella di assegnare alle stazioni AM dei sottocanali IBOC, per offrire loro un percorso di migrazione. Ma non si esclude, in teoria, l'alterrnativa della banda L (DAB) o addirittura dei 400 MHz. L'idea di tenere in piedi le stazioni in onde medie, con tutti i loro limiti "qualitativi" (?), non viene neppure presa in considerazione. Si digitalizza e basta. Mah.

AM, supeditada a la política en materia de radio digital
Angelina Mejía Guerrero - El Universal
Martes 01 de enero de 2008

El 2008 será un año de definiciones para la industria de la radio, pues de las decisiones que se tomen en materia tecnológica y de lo que se adopte para las estaciones de AM dependerá el futuro de este sector.

Se espera que en 2008 el gobierno federal publique la política de transición a la radio digital, con lo cual los concesionarios podrán dar nuevos servicios interactivos y de mejor calidad a su audiencia, y con ello, aprovechar mayores oportunidades para la comercialización.
Según Arturo Laris, presidente del Consejo Consultivo de la Cámara Nacional de la Industria de la Radio y Televisión (CIRT), es necesaria una estrategia conjunta entre los concesionarios y el gobierno federal para impulsar la adopción de la tecnología digital. Para los concesionarios mexicanos es mejor tener un sistema híbrido, es decir, que se implante el estándar europeo Eureka 147, pero con la opción de adoptar el estadounidense IBOC.
“El auditorio no va a responder en poco tiempo, y necesita saber que existe una señal digital que es de mayor calidad a la actual y que hay una amplia gama de receptores entre los que puede seleccionar alguno económico o estético, según sus necesidades”, sostuvo. Pero al mismo tiempo, se requiere motivar a los radiodifusores para que inviertan en estas tecnologías y asegurar que será un negocio rentable, agregó. “La visión de la política digital en la radio es no apagar ninguna estación analógica hasta que todos los mexicanos tengan un receptor digital”.
En este sentido, Héctor Osuna, presidente de la Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Cofetel), dijo que la definición del estándar digital en términos técnicos no tiene problema; es en la parte social y económica donde se debe trabajar para que este proceso sea exitoso, expuso.
“Lo importante es cómo se puede impulsar en la sociedad y cómo una política de telecomunicaciones se vuelve una política socioeconómica, y qué debe contener para que la penetración de los nuevos dispositivos sea tal para lograr que efectivamente se transite de una tecnología a la otra”, indicó.
Insistió en que se debe cuidar que esta propuesta de migración contenga elementos atractivos para que la población se vea motivada a comprar un receptor digital.

Se quedará el IBOC

Para Gabriel Sosa Plata, experto en el sector de telecomunicaciones y medios, aunque los radiodifusores pidan la implantación del sistema Eureka, en la práctica será el IBOC el que se adopte, pues ni siquiera en Europa existen suficientes receptores y no se han creado condiciones necesarias para su desarrollo.
Señaló que en realidad la intención de los concesionarios mexicanos es pedir el estándar Eureka para reservar el espectro de la banda L, necesaria para esta tecnología, y así evitar que otros servicios lleguen a ocupar estas frecuencias.
Además, señaló, la política que en breve se pondrá en marcha para las estaciones de radio de la frontera norte con el fin de que adopten el sistema IBOC, aplicará para todas las radiodifusoras de AM del país, ya que todas están en esta franja, por lo que cualquiera puede implantar esta tecnología cuando lo decida.
Consideró que la adopción del IBOC deberá estar ligada a una decisión política, administrativa y económica para dotar a las estaciones de AM de canales de FM para hacer transmisiones simultáneas.
Otra alternativa es modificar la norma técnica para permitir que las radiodifusoras de FM operen entre los 400 MegaHertz, para que las estaciones de AM puedan operar en las bandas de FM.
En el caso de adoptarse el Eureka se asignaría un canal adicional en la banda L a los concesionarios, aunque los operadores insistirían en una transición intermedia, es decir, primero pasar a operar en FM analógico y luego migrar al esquema digital.

USA, l'ham radio non sfonda. Anche senza Morse

Poco meno di un anno fa, la FCC americana si è adeguata a molte altre nazioni è ha depennato la prova di comprensione del codice Morse dall'esame per la concessione delle licenze radioamatoriali. Una codifica troppo antiquata, oggi superata da tecniche di modulazione digitale più efficienti e computerizzate... Tanto più che il computer serve anche per codificare e decodificare il Morse. L'esame meno difficile ha poi avuto un impatto sul numero di licenze assegnate? Insomma, senza il codice Morse ci sono più persone disposte a diventare radioamatori?
In questo commento su Technocrat Bruce Perens dice che no, l'hobby del radioamatore non "tira" più, quello che si può affermare è che da febbraio a oggi sembra essersi arrestata l'emorragia che in questi ultimi tre o quattro anni ha visto un costante diminuire del numero complessivo di licenze. Ma è una consolazione un po' magra. Il sito citato da Bruce, contiene una dettagliata statistica mensile che parte dall'Agosto del 1999. Il picco è stato raggiunto nell'aprile del 2003 con 687,860 licenze totali negli USA. A fine dicembre siamo a 655,842, ma la metà di questa somma, diciamo 315 mila licenze, è di tipo "technician", con possibilità di trasmettere in fonia solo dalla banda dei 10 metri compresi (in HF sotto i 10 metri il technician può solo operare in Morse). Le licenze di tipo "general", quelle di base, grazie ai travasi dovuti alla soppressione del Morse sono diventate circa 143 mila. Non moltissime, ma nemmeno poche.

On February 23, 2007, the U.S. FCC dropped Morse Code requirements for all ham radio license classes. Other nations, except for Russia, had done so earlier and the ITU had dropped code requirements from its international radio treaty. I had founded No-Code International 10 years previously, to fight for this to happen. We won, and we lost too.
One of the reasons for eliminating the code requirement was that many prospective licensees were deterred from getting their ham licenses by what, in present time, had become a wildly unnecessary and inappropriate requirement - that operators demonstrate the ability to read Morse code by ear. Morse is fun for many, but it was silly for it to be a requirement. The real reason it was there was that the hams themselves wanted to keep out "riff-raff", generally portrayed as undisciplined former CB operators, who they felt would be deterred by the lengthy process of developing code proficiency.
Well, the good news is that there was no flood of riff-raff into Amateur Radio. The bad news is that there was no flood of anyone. A lot of Amateurs upgraded their license class, but the overall population has not increased by even 2000 hams. The best that can be said for Amateur operator numbers is that we have stopped the decline for now, as you can see in these statistics.

HD Radio, nuovo silicio in arrivo

Uno dei nodi fondamentali della questione radio digitale continua a essere il mercato dei terminali utente, in italiano "ricevitori". EETimes si occupa in questo articolo del silicio che Samsung e SiPort http://www.siport.com/, azienda di progettazione "fabless", presenteranno in anteprima al CES di Las Vegas. Il focus è il mercato delle autoradio per il sistema Ibiquity.

Terrestrial digital radio goes mobile

Junko Yoshida
(12/31/2007 1:49 PM EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205205995

New York — The U.S. digital radio market is far from settled. The merger of rival satellite services Sirius and XM is still pending, iPod and MP3 players are proliferating, and Internet radio is fast becoming a viable option. Now iBiquity, a developer of free-over-the-air terrestrial digital radio broadcast systems, is pushing HD Radio.
IBiquity is neither content owner nor broadcaster; rather, its technology lets radio stations simulcast compressed digital audio and traditional analog audio without shifting to new frequency bands. As of today, according to iBiquity, 1,500 HD Radio stations are on the air, with 700 offering new FM multicast channels exclusively to HD Radio listeners, subscription-free.
IBiquity hopes to gain exposure for the concept at the Consumer Electronics Show, which opens Jan. 7 in Las Vegas. The company and its partners will demonstrate new HD Radio features at CES, including an "iTunes tagging" offering that it says will make it easier to purchase music, while unveiling chips and reference designs developed to let HD Radio go mobile in portable devices as well as car radio.
Among the new IC offerings is Samsung's HD Radio chip set, consisting of an RF-IF peripheral processor and a baseband processor and billed as the first low-power solution for portable HD Radio. Not to be outdone, fabless chip company SiPort (Santa Clara, Calif.) will demonstrate a single-chip HD Radio solution at CES that integrates the RF, baseband, memory, ADC and PLL. SiPort's chip, now in production-silicon form, will show up in commercial portable products by the third quarter, Sid Agrawal, SiPort's CEO, told EE Times.
IBiquity, which has been a CES regular for the past several years, believes the HD Radio infrastructure is finally in place to propel terrestrial digital radio's market penetration. A year ago, there were only 20 unique HD Radio products on the market, most notably a JVC car radio that sold for about $199. "Today, we have more than 60 unique HD Radio receivers, whose prices start as low as $99 and [scale] upward to $199," said Robert Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity. The company claims that HD Radio coverage reaches 80 percent of the population.
For their part, digital satellite radio services have been growing their subscription base: Sirius reported 7.7 million subscribers as of September, and XM touts nearly 8.6 million subscribers. But the satellite services continue to rack up financial losses, largely as a result of expensive deals to sign up high-end talent (such as Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan and Major League Baseball on XM, and Howard Stern and the National Football League games on Sirius).
Despite its latecomer status, HD Radio has potential, thanks to its free-over-the-air broadcast business model. HD technology enables multicast channels of programming, broadcast over a single FM frequency, which increases listener choice. The format has already garnered commitments from radio stations that produce or own content.
But not everyone is ready to predict that terrestrial digital radio can compete effectively in the U.S. market against satellite digital radio.
"HD Radio does not have commercial-free content or breadth of coverage like satellite radio," said Frank Dickson, chief research officer at MultiMedia Intelligence. "You also have to separate the satellite radio companies from the transmission medium."
The satellite radio players say that they are content aggregators first, distributors second. "This means they will license to Internet, mobile or any other distribution [medium]," Dickson said. "They already do Internet radio as part of the satellite subscription package. Content is king, so he who controls Howard Stern and Opera Winfrey has a multinetwork opportunity."
Indeed, iBiquity acknowledges it is neither content owner nor broadcaster. "We offer a patent portfolio, know-how and brand to chip vendors, receiver manufacturers, transmitter companies and broadcasters," explained Gene Parella, vice president of engineering at the company.
That means the HD Radio concept is reliant on the available content offered by broadcasters—as well as on cost-effective receivers and innovative services and applications—for success among consumers.
One new service that iBiquity is banking on is iTunes tagging, which the company states "makes listening, discovery and purchase of music easier." As a song is played on the air, the radio station broadcasts a metadata transmission of the iTunes store ID for the selection. A special iTunes tag button on the HD radio receiver lets users flag the song for subsequent preview and purchase on iTunes. At CES, Alpine Electronics, Polk Audio, JVC and others will demonstrate products with the tagging feature.
Like XM and Sirus, which bank on new car sales as the biggest generators of new subscriptions, iBiquity considers the in-car radio an essential market for HD Radio. But if iBiquity hopes to succeed, it needs to pay attention as well to the retail radio market. That's where portable designs enabled by chips from Samsung and SiPort come into play.
According to iBiquity's Parella, Samsung's HD Radio baseband processor, based on Tensilica's programmable core, integrates the baseband, memory, SDRAM and flash in a system-in-package measuring 9 x 9 mm. Including the companion RF chip, the chip set's total power consumption is 150 mW. Samsung developed the chip set based on iBiquity's design. Ibiquity intends to roll further reference designs that will let OEMs build tabletop radios and MP3 players capable of tuning and demodulating both HD Radio and its analog forebears.
Other IC vendors, such as Texas Instruments and NXP, have licensed iBiquity's technology and built chips based on a netlist from that company.
But SiPort designed its HD Radio chip on its own, claiming the first chip for the platform that is focused solely on nonautomotive applications.
SiPort's single-die solution is tailored for low-power, high-performance portables. Sunder Velamuri, vice president of marketing at SiPort, said power dissipation of the mixed-signal device is expected to be "around 100 mW in typical configurations." He added that the chip, essentially "a software radio," can tune and demodulate not only analog AM/FM and HD Radio but also DAB and DMB-T, making it ready for the global market. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is fabricating the device.
The startup is betting the first application for its chip will be portable GSP devices, given HD Radio's ability to datacast real-time traffic information from local radio stations in far more detailed and comprehensive fashion than is currently available via the analog FM band.

Le cupe prospettive pubblicitarie della radio USA

Una lunga analisi di Katy Bachman, di Mediaweek sulle (grigie) prospettive del mezzo pubblicitario radiofonico negli Stati Uniti. Solo negli anni Cinquanta, con la guerra in Corea e il primo boom televisivo, c'erano state tante difficoltà. Ma con un po' di inventiva...

Forecast '08: Radio

Katy Bachman

DECEMBER 31, 2007

The last thing the radio industry needs after seven years of slow-to-no growth is to get slammed with the local ad slowdown predicted for 2008. Dependent on local advertising for 80 percent of its revenue, the industry will need to pull out all the stops in order to offset forecasted declines of flat to down 2 percent, say experts. “Local media are more economically sensitive to retail sales and consumer spending—the ultimate cash register effect,” says Jon Swallen, senior vp, research at TNS Media Intelligence. “Retail sales growth has been slowing.
It’s at its lowest growth rate in three to four years. A couple of key categories—auto, home-related categories—are all in the dumps right now, and that’s affecting the volume of ad spend.”
As 2007 draws to a close, analysts have readjusted downward radio’s year-end forecast, to negative 2 percent growth. For the first time since 2002, radio revenue could slip below $20 billion excluding nonspot sales, per SNL Kagan.
Never has the industry had such a tough stretch. In fact, these are the worst times since the 1950s, when radio faced the triple whammy of an economic recession, the Korean War and the advent of the new medium of television. “The big picture is discouraging. If 2008 doesn’t pull some surprises, an eighth straight slow-to-no-growth year looms,” says Jim Boyle, analyst at CL King & Associates. “Not enough larger groups are changing much to stem audience erosion or ad share attrition or to prop up rate card discipline and surmount the biggest problem: weak advertiser demand.”
To turn around business, radio has several initiatives in the pipeline. The industry’s aggressive forays online most likely hold the best hope. Stations’ online intake in 2007 made up more than half of their nontraditional revenue, a trend likely to continue in 2008. “The smartest operators are looking to develop programs for marketers that deliver audio content wherever they want it, putting audio into a number of distribution channels,” says Jeff Haley, president and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, which forecasts radio revenue will be flat in 2008.
Lee Westerfield, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, estimates that three percent to five percent of radio revenue (or $640 million to $1 billion) is generated by online ad sales.
“Radio is about to go through a huge renaissance,” predicts a bullish David Goodman, president of marketing at CBS Radio, which, according to the exec, has doubled online revenue each of the last three years.
As they intensify their Web presence, stations also are expected to expand into mobile and HD in 2008.
Still, much work remains to salvage the core business. To that end, the industry has, for the first time, made an aggressive push for political ad bucks. PQ Media estimates radio will ring up 6 percent of total campaign spending in 2008, hitting $272 million. CBS Radio president of sales Michael Weiss says widely disparate pricing has scared off prospects in the past. “Stations were charging $1,500 for issue ads and $500 for political ads,” he says, and campaigns “felt like they were being ripped off. The cost-per points were higher than TV, so they bought TV.”
Radio also is figuring out how to best manage inventory—a careful balance of offering more units at varied lengths, presenting innovative sponsorship opportunities for entire program segments and maintaining rate integrity. “Advertisers are looking for new options and choice,” says John Hogan, CEO, Clear Channel Radio. “To think in today’s competitive media environment that any single-length spot is right for all advertisers is pretty myopic.”
Advertisers also are demanding more accountability, something that hit a snag this past November when Arbitron, pressured by several radio groups and the Media Rating Council to do a better job with its 18-34 sample, delayed the rollout of its portable people meter ratings service in the nation’s largest markets—leaving the industry to do business based on the diary-based service, in which few advertisers have confidence. “Radio may not be getting the consideration it deserves because it can’t be looked at through the same lens as other platforms with more data attached to them,” says Maribeth Papuga, senior vp, local broadcast at MediaVest.
Many radio execs believe now is the time to pull together. “For the betterment of radio, we need to start doing things collectively,” said CBS’ Weiss. “Fighting out in the open—it’s a paradigm we need to get out of. Whatever the PPM problems are, the cumes are an amazing story. We know more people are listening than we ever thought. We need to do a better job telling everybody. Our medium is a lot more sexy than people make it out to be.”

LORAN-C radionavigazione superstite

Un giornale locale della Lousiana ha pubblicato un bell'articolo sulla stazione LORAN-C di Grangeville. Il titolo del quotidiano è un po' fuorviante perché a differenza del predecessore Omega, Il LORAN-C dà una copertura dei 48 stati continentali e dell'Alaska, non è un sistema globale. Il sito di The Advocate con l'articolo originale pubblica anche una bella foto dell'antenna di circa 200 metri. Il LOng RAnge, Navigation System - C è un sistema di radioposizionamento di tipo iperbolico. In pratica il ricevitore del mezzo (nave, ma anche aereo) che deve determinare la posizione si sintonizza su un triangolo di tre stazioni, una master e due secondarie e calcola la leggera differenza temporale tra i segnali ricevuti. Questo consente di tracciare una doppia iperbole con una coppia master-secondary A e B come fuochi. Il ricevitore si troverà nel punto di intersezione delle due iperboli. La preciione, un quarto di miglio marino, non è quella del GPS, ma il sistema è affidabile ed economico. Creato una trentina d'anni fa, il LORAN-C è ancora attivo, ma il suo destino è probabilmente segnato. Trovate tutte le informazioni su questo affascinante sistema di radioposizionamento terrestre sul sito della Guardia Costiera americana. La frequenza operativa LORAN è di 100 kHz.

LORAN-C sent from St. Helena to world

Site keeps ships, planes on course

By DAVID J. MITCHELL
Advocate Florida parishes bureau
Published: Dec 31, 2007

GRANGEVILLE — Hidden far away in the piney woods of St. Helena Parish, a 640-foot transmission tower pulsing 20,000 volts helps ships and aircraft find their way as far south as Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Only a sign off La. 63 north of La. 16 lets passers-by know that the U.S. Coast Guard operates the facility 150 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico.
The facility — on about 300 acres since 1978 — is part of two chains of LORAN C (LOng-RAnge Navigation) transmission towers set up in rural, inland locales across the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Thornton Dixon was assigned to the facility about seven months ago from the harbor town of Portsmouth, Va. He smiled when asked about his land-based duty.
Dixon, 34, a native of Cincinnati, said area residents are not sure what happens where he works and have come to him with several theories.
“You know what the No. 1 question is? ‘Does the Amite River run through there?’ ” he said.
It doesn’t. The river runs about two miles to the west.
Dixon said the LORAN C stations were set up away from the coast to protect the radio towers from high winds and in rural areas to limit damage in case a tower falls.
The towers — there are 24 stations across the United States — use low-frequency radio waves that help aviators and sailors — civilian and military — navigate, fix their positions and keep time.
LORAN C is a precursor of the now-ubiquitous Global Positioning Satellite system. LORAN C is more reliable — but less accurate — than GPS, Dixon said.
With an increase in the use of GPS, the LORAN C has been proposed for the congressional budget axe since the mid-1990s but has not received the final blow.
In the meantime, a four-man crew keeps the Grangeville station transmitting signals 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Behind the pines, a white cinder-block building and a collection of trailers sit in the center of a broad grassy field framed by a gravel ring road, trees and ground-contact points for tower guy wires.
The building entrance greets visitors with a three-flag yardarm and a “Welcome Aboard” sign.
Inside, electronic equipment, including three cesium atomic clocks, create, shape, monitor, amplify and transmit signal pulses, Dixon said.
Behind a door that warns the visitor to cover his ears, a static, metallic, skipping sound — the sound of the signal — fills the room.
“The PA (public address) system at my church will pick it up once and a while. I will occasionally smile because I’m the only one who knows what it is,” Dixon said.
In that noisy room, two banks of 28 pull-out cabinets filled with electronics, amplify the signal before it is sent to the transmission tower via lines that run through the wall.
The room cannot get warmer than 70 degrees, Dixon said, and special fire-suppression equipment shaped like spheres line the back of the electronics banks, just in case.
“There’s a lot of voltage in there,” Dixon said.
The Coast Guard says the system’s future is under evaluation for the long term.
In 2001, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center recommended LORAN C be upgraded as a GPS backup because the center found GPS could be jammed or otherwise knocked out.
The Grangeville facility has gotten some of those upgrades, Dixon said, and Congress recently authorized funding the system for 2008.
But in January and in July, the Coast Guard sought public comment on plans that could include eliminating all LORAN C facilities.
Dixon said LORAN C seems to be safe through 2010, but after that he is not sure. “I don’t want to see it go away,” he said.

Martin, DJ remotizzato

Come racconta il giornale quebecchese La Tribune, Martin Bossé, un conduttore della stazione indipendente CFMV di Chandler, opera dallo studio localizzato nel seminterrato della sua abitazione di Sherbrooke, a circa 600 km di distanza. Il tutto con una connessione a Internet e un po' di software. Niente di sorprendente di quest'epoca, ma certo è una bella opportunità. Per questioni di latenza dello stream digitale, Martin deve "trasmettere" con 15 minuti di anticipo, ma questo gli consente anche di fare qualche modifica in corso d'opera.

Le lundi 31 déc 2007

Il anime pour une station de radio de Chandler... à distance

Claude Plante, La Tribune

SHERBROOKE

Depuis septembre dernier, Martin Bossé anime une émission matinale à distance, à partir du sous-sol de sa maison de Sherbrooke, pour une station de radio de la Gaspésie.
"Les matins du grand littoral" sont acheminés via Internet et diffusés sur les ondes de CFMV 92,1 FM, une radio indépendante de Chandler.
"Pour moi, c'est génial. Je peux faire de la radio sans sortir de chez moi. C'est mon travail à temps plein", commente l'animateur qu'on a pu déjà entendre ici à Sherbrooke sur les ondes d'Énergie 106,1 et de Génération Rock 104,5 FM.
"Je ne suis pas là, mais il y a une équipe sur place avec qui je peux interagir. Des journalistes sont en Gaspésie et couvrent les nouvelles. Moi, en ondes, je parle de l'actualité générale, mais j'ai accès à distance au contenu de la station. Le tout se fait par Internet."
La manière de fonctionner lui donne un délai de 15 minutes avant que le contenu soit diffusé en ondes, explique-t-il. Cela lui permet de reprendre à l'occasion des segments à améliorer ou de s'ajuster pour réagir à l'actualité. Par exemple, le matin de l'assassinat de l'ancienne première ministre pakistanaise Benazir Bhutto, Martin Bossé a dû se virer sur un dix sous pour donner la nouvelle en ondes.
"J'ai eu deux ou trois minutes pour réagir."
Les auditeurs du 92,1 FM ne réalisent pas vraiment que leur matinier ne se trouve pas en Gaspésie quand ils l'entendent. "On ne le cache pas. Les gens commencent à le savoir", assure-t-il.
"Les appels des auditeurs sont détournés vers chez moi. Je réponds comme si j'étais sur place", ajoute ce Sherbrookois de naissance qui n'a jamais mis les pieds à Chandler de sa vie.
Martin Bossé a commencé à faire de la radio à distance pour cette station il y a deux ans, produisant des émissions préenregistrées. L'été dernier, la direction du "Rythme que j'aime" (www.fm92-1.com) cherchait un animateur du matin. On a pensé à lui.
Martin Bossé ne prévoit pas déménager un jour en Gaspésie. Sa famille est bien installée à Sherbrooke, dit-il. "Si j'avais 20 ans, sans attache, j'y penserais. Je songe un jour à m'acheter un chalet dans ce coin-là pour pouvoir y aller à l'occasion."
"Je devrai m'y rendre prochainement, car la station va changer de fréquence (au 96,3 FM) et la direction veut faire un grand lancement."
Martin Bossé caresse d'autres projets. Notamment, il est à mettre les dernières retouches à un site Internet pour la diffusion d'une émission de radio sur le Web (podcast). The Boss radio.net (www.thebossradio.net) reprendra essentiellement la formule du "666", émission diffusée autrefois sur les ondes de Génération Rock.
"Ça sera un peu comme le Canal vie du rock", lance-t-il, un sourire aux lèvres. "Je vais reprendre cette émission-là où je voulais l'amener à Génération Rock. Il y aura du rock, ça sera relax et on parlera de la vie d'aujourd'hui."
"Il y a aura beaucoup de musique rock actuelle et des gens de la relève. Au départ, ça sera une fois par semaine, mais je veux en venir par diffuser plus souvent."