This article is a special report and part of a Radio World ebook on major trends in remote control and monitoring.

Here, we gather input from a range of experts about those changes.

Major trends

Jim DeChant, director of operations for Transmission Services Group, says: “In 2026, the most significant trend in how radio broadcasters control and monitor transmission facilities is the shift from ‘reactive polling’ to ‘agentic, IP-native observability.’

“While traditional remote control relied on simple status checks (SNMP polling) to tell an engineer if a transmitter was off, modern systems are moving toward intelligent, software-defined environments where the monitoring system acts as an autonomous ‘copilot.’”

Barry McLellan of Bonneville lives on Farnsworth Peak in Utah. He remembers having to explain over the phone to a part-time overnight staffer how to get readings out of a Moseley MRC-1600 and talking him through a complex process for turning on the auxiliary transmitter.

He also recalls later days of using a POTS connection to enter a password, go through an alarm list, run the appropriate macro to get a station back on the air and fall back to sleep. (“I was a DTMF master,” McLellan said.)

“The biggest improvement I’ve experienced with modern remote controls is the installation of solid IP connectivity at our sites,” he continued.

“If a local IP provider is not available, sometimes this means a 5.8 GHz ISM link, a 900 MHz modem diplexed on your STL link or possibly working with a WISP provider.”

He said newer IP-based remote controls have so much information available on-screen at once, configured just the way you want these readings to appear.

“The connection can be left open all day on your work desktop or phone showing all your sites at once for easy, quick access. Plus there are a whole host of new, inexpensive devices to monitor many other situations at your site to make sure there aren’t problems at the site you wouldn’t normally see.”

Ben Nason works in product development, tech support and engineering for Broadcast Tools.

“For us as a hardware manufacturer, the continued adoption of SNMP in broadcasting has been very important in guiding our product development decisions,” he said.

“SNMP integration goes hand in hand with the trends we see in broadcasting of increased adoption of audio-over-IP and software-based solutions. When in the past you might have been looking for a single device to solve a problem, now it’s much easier to use multiple devices distributed as needed and connected via SNMP over Ethernet.”

He said broadcasters use all of the tools available to them to provide redundancy.

“We believe that control of your transmitter is too important to be left to a single point of failure. For example, what are your options if you accidentally misconfigure the network interface on your transmitter while working remotely? If you have a remote control, even if it’s just in a backup role, then you have redundancy and you’ll still have control until someone can visit the site to correct the misconfiguration on the transmitter.”

For Mike Dorris, COO of Inrush Broadcast Services, the key trend is that now you can control everything at a site, primarily powered by that much wider adoption of SNMP that we’ve discussed in this ebook.

“Granted it sounds silly, since SNMP is rather old tech for the rest of the world,” he said.

“But for broadcasters, as always, it still feels like a struggle to convince stations of why it’s so powerful and not scary newfangled tech.”

He said being able to bring in telemetry from UPSs, dehydrators, environmental monitors, tower light controllers and other systems and aggregate them in a central monitoring device without hours of wiring or large capital costs in extra IO is “huge.”

He also noted the deployment of relatively inexpensive cameras — indoors to view equipment indicators in a rack, as well as outside as a backup “tower light monitor” or to watch for downed fences, copper thieves and other concerns.

“Nearly every new station we engage with we find ourselves rolling out SNMP and cameras almost immediately to aggregate all this kind of data.”

Jacub Emery of Dielectric points to a shift from binary “on/off” alarm monitoring toward ongoing, pattern-based monitoring of the entire RF system.

“Historically, transmitter control systems were focused on a simple question: ‘Is the transmitter on the air?’ Alarms were triggered only when something crossed a hard threshold, power dropped, VSWR spiked or a fault occurred.”

Emery said this approach was inherently reactive and often meant engineers learned about problems only after service was already degraded or lost.

He said products like Dielectric’s RFHawkeye take a more sophisticated mindset.

“The focus is no longer just whether the transmitter is operating, but whether the entire RF chain including transmitter, transmission line, antenna, and environment is healthy, stable and predictable over time.”

Rather than relying on yes/no alarms, he said, modern monitoring focuses on long-term trend analysis, established baseline deviation and identifying subtle changes in normal RF system behavior.

He said this allows engineers to ask whether the system is behaving the same way it did last month, last season, or under similar conditions. Small changes in impedance, phase, reflected power or noise that would not trip a traditional alarm can be detected before they become outages.

“This move toward holistic, data-driven RF monitoring is one of the most significant advances in broadcast transmission control today.”

Let’s end our ebook with a sampling of quotes about other aspects of this topic.

Cybersecurity

Ben Nason, Broadcast Tools: I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but if you are still using port forwarding or providing full access to a device over the internet using a static IP address, you should make plans to convert those sites over to secure access methods as soon as possible.

Current best practices for systems that need to be remotely accessed is to keep them behind a firewall and to use secure access methods such as a VPN to access devices on the site’s network and/or a remote desktop client to reach a PC on the site’s network. VPNs can be provided by dedicated router/firewall hardware from manufacturers like Ubiquiti, or by software-based solutions like Tailscale.

For larger broadcasters these kinds of IT and networking best practices should be second nature, but for smaller broadcasters with less in-house IT support there can be a learning curve. We recommend that engineers and managers who might not be familiar with the ins and outs of firewalls and VPNs take advantage of the many resources available including training from organizations like the SBE and outside IT/networking consultants.

Ed Bukont: The advice of a transmitter manufacturer’s support tech comes to mind: “Nobody ever died from a lack of rock and roll.”

Making your remote control easy for you to access makes it easy for others to access. Solutions should “dial out” rather than “dial in.” Being able to restore operations should not be an excuse to shortcut security protocols and best practices.

Control of access should limit the ingress necessary. Ingress and egress do not have to have complimentary network configurations. Most products designed to be accessed remotely for monitoring allow more than one level of access, from admin (setup only) to monitor (observe readings) to control (make adjustments). Each level should have some distinction and unique passwords.

The generic admin should have its password changed to something quite long, and a secondary admin user created for setup and admin.

Nautel and GatesAir have published guidelines on site network security. There are resources via SBE meetings, webinars and NAB shows. The information to secure your network is out there and often free. Join a users group such as Broadcast Engineers on Facebook to access the body of knowledge.

Do not put your devices directly on the internet, use a jump box — and yes, learn such IT lingo so you can ask for the support you need in a way that IT will understand.

Nothing about broadcast is unique in a way that cannot be properly managed according to recognized best practices, no exceptions. If you have an exception, it probably means you have a vulnerability.

Centralization

Jim DeChant, Transmission Services Group: Radio broadcast monitoring is undergoing a significant centralization into network operations centers utilized by major groups like SBG, Nexstar and iHeartMedia. This consolidation is driven by efficiency and advanced technology across three primary levels.

First, the regional/national NOC model employs a hub-and-spoke system where small, specialized teams use sophisticated dashboards to monitor and remotely troubleshoot hundreds of sites 24/7.

Second, the industry is adopting cloud-native management, shifting monitoring infrastructure to hybrid cloud solutions and utilizing monitoring-as-a-service platforms such as Kybio and Skyline DataMiner for secure, web-accessible monitoring.

Finally, centralization now encompasses integrated asset and logistics management, linking technical health with financial data through tools like EZO AssetSonar. Automated systems instantly generate service tickets as with Zendesk or ServiceNow, with diagnostic logs and dispatch contract engineers upon system failure, streamlining the entire operational lifecycle.

Richard Sondermeyer, G.S. Broadcast Technical Services: We’ve seen very little movement toward fully centralized monitoring and control infrastructures among private radio broadcasters in Canada. Most private operators still manage their transmitter sites individually, with each location monitored and controlled on its own rather than through a unified national or corporate operations center.

Our public broadcaster, does have a centralized alarm-monitoring facility. They use this to collect alerts from across the country, providing a higher level of national oversight than what is typically found in the private sector.

In our own operations, we monitor more than 15 sites using remote-control systems. We rely on cloud-based alert-management software to ensure that fault notifications are distributed to all our technicians quickly and consistently. While this gives us an efficient, unified alerting workflow, we still log into each site individually for detailed diagnostics, control actions, and troubleshooting.

More on SNMP

Jim DeChant, Transmission Services Group: While Simple Network Management Protocol remains the mandatory foundation for radio transmission control in 2026, its role has narrowed. Every modern transmitter must support SNMP, making it a prerequisite rather than an advanced feature.

Buyers must insist on the highly secure SNMP v3, which utilizes AES encryption and SHA-256 authentication to protect public infrastructure, as older versions transmit passwords in plain text.

Additionally, the MIB (Management Information Base) file is essential, acting as the device’s dictionary for remote control systems.

For complex, real-time control and high-speed data, manufacturers are increasingly relying on faster REST APIs. The industry is also pivoting from constant bandwidth-heavy “polling” toward efficient Traps (alerts only on issues) and high-speed streaming telemetry for sub-second updates.

Connectivity

Barry McLellan, Bonneville: Local telcos have priced POTs out of existence or the facilities aren’t maintained any longer. Cellular connectivity doesn’t give the reliability or all the functionality I would like.

Ideally IP connectivity is needed. The addition of an IP drop to your site allows for always-on connectivity and multiple simultaneous connections available. This allows for a graphical interface to your remote control, helping you understand more quickly and completely what’s going on at your site.

If available, fiber to the building would be preferable to decrease the chance that a voltage surge could harm your gear. An IP connection may also provide an alternate audio delivery path that many stations operating with a microwave STL might not have.

Ben Nason, Broadcast Tools: There are several factors that go into selecting connectivity for remote sites including cost, bandwidth and reliability.

Historically, just getting enough bandwidth has been a challenge in some areas, although telemetry itself is fairly low-bandwidth. IP-based STLs require bandwidth and are more and more common. Fiber is great if you can get it, but it’s not immune to outages caused by things like falling trees, cars hitting utility poles and ill-advised excavation.

So redundancy is key. In that area an important trend that we have been seeing is the use of satellite-based ISPs like Starlink, either as the primary provider or more commonly as a redundant backup provider in conjunction with a dual-WAN router.

Mike Dorris, Inrush: The best approach is centered around ISP diversity. Have two network paths to a site. Ideally one is a wireless network link back to a studio, and one is an outside ISP at the site.

The best way to deploy this is via an SD-WAN, but that can become complex and costly. A simpler approach is to have a firewall that can establish a site-site VPN with basic failover to the other ISP; this is a good compromise that most engineers can set up and configure.

The ISP connectivity at each site will vary wildly by physical location and availability. But Starlink has proven to be a game changer on the technical level for satellite internet delivery. And in a situation where you can’t manage a wireless shot of your own but you can have a cable circuit and a WISP, that also helps achieve path diversity.

Jim DeChant, Transmission Services Group: Multi-Bearer Bonding is the necessary standard for reliable, mission-critical radio broadcast connectivity, especially at remote sites, making reliance on a single internet service provider unacceptable.

The essential “always-on” hybrid strategy uses a combination of four components:

The primary link is fiber (dedicated internet access), chosen for its symmetrical speed and ultra-low latency, and is now deployed with a 99.99% SLA.

The secondary link, Starlink or LEO satellite, has replaced traditional GEO satellites, providing consistently low latency that acts as a critical, air-gapped backup.

The mobility link leverages 5G and Private LTE, with 5G serving as the out-of-band management standard, using network slicing to guarantee critical data transmission.

Finally, the crucial component is SD-WAN and bonding, where a router like Peplink or Cradlepoint bonds the fiber, Starlink and 5G into a single virtual pipe.

This ensures unbreakable connectivity, as data packets instantly shift to active links if one fails, without dropping the session. The router also enables cost management by routing heavy data over fiber and duplicating critical light data across all links.

Customization

Jim DeChant, Transmission Services Group: Remote monitoring customization has evolved significantly, moving beyond simple control mapping to deep UI/UX tailoring and workflow automation.

The core areas of this evolution include “No-Code” Dashboard Orchestration, which allows engineers to build persona-based, dynamic interfaces using widgets, from complex RF spectrum views for chief engineers to simple “green/red” status displays for program directors. Furthermore, customization now includes programmable logic and “agentic” automation, enabling broadcasters to define conditional macros and self-healing routines for tasks like switching transmitters.

The API-First Integration approach, often called the “Lego” approach, permits the seamless overlay of critical external data, such as live weather or power status, with alerts directed to unified communications tools. Finally, virtual hardware and “soft” controlsSurfaces are replacing physical panels, allowing users to build custom mixing consoles or controllers on touchscreens with physical controls that utilize relegendable LCDs to adapt their function and appearance based on the station’s operational state.\

Notifications and alarms

Ben Nason, Broadcast Tools: As with connectivity, it’s important to have redundancy in notifications and alarms. Email and SMS text messages are two ubiquitous methods for alarm notifications. We recommend using a provider that’s purpose-built for notifications, such as SMTP2go. It provides SMTP service for email and can also provide shared or dedicated numbers for SMS text messaging.

Trust us when we say that using free email accounts and carrier provided email-to-SMS gateways can cause problems.

Alarm notification and remote control via telephone call should not be overlooked. Devices like our WVRC-4 Plus and WVRC-8 Plus remote controls support SNMP and have HTML-based web interfaces, but we also provide a telephone interface for alarm notification via recorded alarm messages and control via DTMF commands. As telephone providers continue to phase out copper-based POTS service, we’ve found that VoIP providers such as Ooma and others that are compatible with inexpensive professional-grade hardware from manufacturers like Grandstream to be a good solution.

John Ahern, Davicom: Select the points you absolutely need to monitor, then select those that are nice to have. Set up your alarm ranges/thresholds and observe system operation for a few days. Look for glitches and special conditions that cause an overabundance of alarms. Fine-tune the thresholds and activate de-glitching delays, hysteresis, signal averaging and root cause logic so that you aren’t alarmed to death. Too many alarms, or even receiving alarms from non-essential systems, can cause you or your personnel to experience alarm fatigue and start ignoring alarms.

Barry McLellan, Bonneville: At our site, we’ve expanded the capability of our remote control by adding third-party sensors that work independently but provide a summary output closure to our remote control.

The sensors are from a company called YoLink. I like this brand because of the wide variety, low cost and lack of subscription costs. They have devices for many scenarios: water leak detectors, configurable temperature sensors, door, window, smoke, vibration, power loss, motion detection, remote access, siren, paging, personal alarm fobs, smart relays & outlets.

When an alarm comes from these sensors, we get a push notification on our phones, and sensors we set up as critical alarms trigger a summary closure to our remote control. These sensors connect wirelessly in the 900 MHz band to an IP-connected hub.

This architecture gives you long range in hostile RF environments or even through the steel walls of the building. They are inexpensive. Three temperature sensors or leak detectors with a hub are $55. We’ve used this gear to protect our site in ways that expand on your remote’s capabilities — leak detectors in ventilation ducts where rain or snow from serious storms could get in and drip on equipment. Also, ambient room temperature and transmitter exhaust temp with alarm trigger points that tie into the remote control. Door, motion and smoke sensors could also eliminate an alarm systems monitoring costs.

Sensors can be set up this way according to the needs of your site without consuming a status/metering channels. You have so many options with this gear.

Third-party providers

Mike Dorris, Inrush: This is rapidly becoming a much larger part of our business. More and more of our broadcast customers who sign up as Inrush Member Stations are using us as their front-line responders to any of the various remote controls and other site monitors and alarms for their facilities.

Internally we use several tools to aggregate these data and alarms to a rotating on-call system, with several layers of backups. For many of these customers, these are sites hundreds of miles from our main offices, so we’re cognizant that we still need them to be the last-mile boots on the ground. But before any of them have to be sent out to investigate, we’ve triaged the alarm, activated backups if available, determined the priority of the alarm and whether it requires a wakeup call, and summarized the situation to the client.

With proper planning and investment, the overnight call can be eliminated almost entirely.

Richard Sondermeyer, G.S. Broadcast Technical Services: In Canada, most major radio broadcasters continue to manage the control and remote operation of their transmission facilities in-house. They generally maintain their own engineering teams and technical staff, relying on third-party providers only to supplement internal resources when needed.

However, there is a growing segment of broadcasters, particularly small operators, who are relying more heavily on external service providers. In some cases, such as with several of our clients, we manage virtually everything from the microphone to the antenna. This includes full responsibility for the transmission chain as well as overseeing building maintenance, infrastructure and even coordination with tenants in shared facilities.

Misconceptions?

John Ahern, Davicom: Some RTUs initially seem expensive. However, the real cost benefit is in the trips saved and operational efficiency provided. Having a well-configured RTU at the site can save thousands of dollars. Customer surveys that we have done — considering travel costs, salaries, overtime, overhead — show that a site remote control can pay for itself within 12 months if one trip per month is saved to the site.

Jacub Emery, Dielectric: The most common misconception we hear is: “If forward/reflected power and VSWR look okay, the RF system is okay.” That view misses slow degradation that doesn’t immediately trip transmitter alarms. Our RFHawkeye was built to localize small changes in VSWR across the line/antenna system in real time, so you can catch deterioration before it becomes expensive damage or downtime.

Another misconception is that arcing is an early warning. However an arc event is often evidence of a problem that has been deteriorating for some time, not the first sign. The modern mindset is “trend + baseline + location,” not just binary alarms.

Ed Bukont: Just because you are off the air doesn’t mean it is the engineer’s problem! Not every fault is a truck roll, especially if the engineer is driving his or her POV.

Nothing coming out of the speaker at the GM’s home? First call the OM and be sure the automation is really playing. If not, then ask, “Is the log created and loaded?” Who handles that and can they be contacted outside of business hours? Check with the A/P person that the ISP bill has been paid.

If the automation is playing and the STL is intact, now call the engineer. What then can be diagnosed or serviced remotely?

Then, if a dispatch is needed, is there someone with a brain who can arrive at the studio or transmitter faster than the engineer or the OM, to be guided by the knowledgeable person?

At one station the contract engineer had a strict limit of hours. The OM was afraid of the transmitter site and did not have a POV. But the new person, the daughter of an electrical transmission engineer, was happy to assist and offered a pair of eyes, ears and hands under remote direction.

This is supposed to be teamwork. Sending all alarms to the engineer is not using the team to do the work.

Read more on this topic in the free ebook “Trends in Remote Control & Facility Management.”

The post “Intelligent … Autonomous … Holistic” appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has released a draft report and order to be considered at its May open meeting that, if adopted, the FCC believes will “modernize” its Disaster Information Reporting System.

DIRS is a web-based system that communications providers, including broadcast, wireless, wireline, cable and broadband service providers use to report their communications infrastructure status and collect situational awareness information.

In a notice released April 29, the commission said the proposed order will enhance DIRS’ capabilities “while eliminating unnecessary burdens on communications service providers, allowing them to focus more of their resources on service restoration instead of redundant paperwork in those circumstances when every second counts.”

In addition to saving time and streamlining DIRS report preparation, the FCC said the National Association of Broadcasters believes that the redesign of the system “would facilitate broadcasters voluntary participation in DIRS, especially smaller stations.”

Proposed changes include the elimination of fields that “do not offer significant value to public safety stakeholders.”

(Read the commission’s DIRS “modernization” report and order.)

The proposed DIRS rules would also allow manual filers to submit a single form instead of multiple worksheets, according to the release. It also establishes a “one-click” option for manual filers to indicate when there is no change from the previous day’s reports.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also said in the release the rules to be considered would augment providers’ ability to submit geospatial data about outages.

Additional changes

The report and order under consideration in May offers other DIRS modifications:

• Eliminates the requirement for DIRS filers to submit a final report after DIRS is deactivated.
• Limits DIRS reporting obligations to facilities-based providers, which the commission believes will eliminate “unnecessary reporting burdens” for resellers and mobile virtual network operators that do not operate communications infrastructure.
• Establishes mandatory DIRS reporting for public safety voice and broadband network operators on the status of public safety network infrastructure and public safety customer impact.

The FCC also directed the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to improve the ability of filers to voluntarily submit “geographic” information about service areas and the locations of facilities that are out of service.

The commission had asked in its proposed rulemaking for comments on ways to collect “more granular information” from wireless providers about the location of cell sites that are out of service.

It said it plans to move forward voluntarily collecting such information, but “not limit it to only cell site locations and allow it for any kind of geographic information that filers believe would be useful to provide to emergency managers.”

More participation

The DIRS system, first established in 2007, is voluntary for broadcasters and can only be activated by the commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The information collected gives local emergency managers “situational awareness they need to respond to these disasters,” according to the draft being circulated.

As Radio World has reported, in 2024, the commission made DIRS reporting mandatory for cable communications, wireless, wireline and interconnected VoIP providers, but not radio nor TV broadcasters.

The FCC previously has said only 20 to 35% of broadcast stations typically submit reports, but the draft of the new rulemaking being considered made no mention of DIRS reporting being made mandatory for broadcasters.

NAB has told the FCC in the past that it believes mandatory filings for broadcasters would disrupt the emergency restoration efforts of radio and TV stations.

The FCC opened a window last fall to collect comments on ways to improve DIRS. The new measures likely to be adopted “simplify DIRS reporting for all service providers especially those with limited resources,” the commission said.

The FCC’s open meeting is scheduled for May 20.

[Related: “FCC Activates DIRS for Super Typhoon Sinlaku”]

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A cluster of stations in and around North Carolina’s Cape Fear region are being sold from one in-state broadcasting company to another.

Don Curtis’ Curtis Media Group will purchase four FMs, one AM and two associated translators from Capitol Broadcasting Company’s Sunrise Broadcasting for $1.75 million, according to FCC records.

The deal includes 100 kW 98.7 WRMR(FM) in Jacksonville, while the rest of the signals are to the southwest serving the Wilmington market.

Both of the companies involved in the deal are based in Raleigh. Curtis Media Group operates 30 full-power stations and 31 translators across the Tar Heel State, according to its website.

Capitol Broadcasting Company continues to operate two FM stations and one AM station in the Triangle region — including 101.5 WRAL(FM), along with television stations in Raleigh and Wilmington, and other digital media brands.

The coastal North Carolina stations going to Curtis Media are listed below:

Kalil & Co., Inc. was the broker for this transaction.

[Do you receive the Radio World SmartBrief newsletter each weekday morning? We invite you to sign up here.]

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Learn from radio managers and innovative suppliers how technologies like DTS AutoStage, Quu, MaxxCasting, RDS, AI, billboards and modern analytics are helping stations drive revenue, with a particular eye on smaller to medium-sized markets.

Read it here.

The post Where Tech Meets Revenue: A New Ebook appeared first on Radio World.

Ben Arden, former special counsel in the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau and once a legal adviser to Brendan Carr, has joined the National Association of Broadcasters as senior vice president and deputy general counsel.

Arden will lead NAB’s policy and legal advocacy before the commission, the association said, advocating broadcasters’ priorities on such issues as media ownership, competition policy and the evolving media marketplace.

He’ll report to Rick Kaplan, NAB’s chief legal officer and executive VP of legal and regulatory affairs.

“Ben brings an exceptional depth of experience in communications law and policy, along with a proven ability to navigate complex regulatory challenges,” NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said.

As Media Bureau special counsel, Arden advised Carr’s office and FCC senior leaders on a range of issues, including media ownership, transaction reviews, foreign ownership, retransmission consent and emerging technologies, NAB said.

Arden was with the FCC for 15 years and held multiple leadership roles. Prior to the Media Bureau post, he served as chief of staff and legal adviser to then-Commissioner Carr.

Before the FCC, Arden was an associate attorney at law firm Williams Mullen, representing communications clients before Congress, the FCC and other federal agencies. He earned his law degree from Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and political science from Arizona State University.

[Related: “LeGeyt Says FCC License Action Creates ‘Significant Uncertainty'”]

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VoiceGPIO from Broadcast Bionics is a software service that integrates with compatible AoIP systems and equipment, enabling control through simple voice commands.

Bionics says it allows operators to stay focused while making studio operation more accessible.

“Designed specifically for fast-paced live environments where time is of the essence, VoiceGPIO allows operators to issue commands and receive spoken feedback through their existing talkback system or console, creating a seamless, hands-free control experience that reduces reliance on screens, physical controls and visual cues.”

It is designed to be used with Telos Infinity IP talkback systems. VoiceGPIO runs securely on-prem and integrates natively with AoIP broadcast infrastructure to control consoles, talkshow systems, routing and other functions. 

Bionics said it does not rely heavily on cloud services or consumer-grade voice assistants.

With a voice command, operators can control key studio functions. These include toggling faders, switching busses, managing calls, routing audio, switching video sources, or triggering custom GPIO and UDP messages. 

“Actions that would traditionally require multiple physical interactions can now be executed with a single voice command, without taking hands off the console or attention away from live content.”

The tool creates a voice-driven environment for faster, more accessible, workflows. 

Read more coverage of our Best of Show recipients.

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The longest-tenured play-by-play radio broadcaster in the NFL, Merrill Reese, has been named a 2026 recipient of the Common Wealth Award for his contributions to mass communications and his impact on sports broadcasting.

Reese, 83, will be entering his 50th season as the play-by-play voice of the Philadelphia Eagles in the fall, and you can hear him on Audacy Eagles’ flagship station 94.1 WIP(FM). The company recognized him in a release. 

“Merrill Reese is a Philadelphia institution and one of the greatest play-by-play broadcasters in NFL history,” said David Yadgaroff, Audacy’s Philadelphia market senior VP of sales.

In 2024, Reese received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

Reese’s radio roots date back to his time as a student at Philadelphia’s Temple University, where he worked at WRTI(FM), broadcasting football and basketball, and also hosted a music show. His first radio gig, fresh out of the Navy, came via WPAZ(AM) in Pottstown.

He was also a co-owner of WBCB(AM) in Levittown as one half of Progressive Broadcasting Company, before it donated the station to a new owner last year.

The Common Wealth Award of Distinguished Service honors individuals from around the world across a wide range of fields, with approximately 180 honorees since it was established in 1979.

Fellow honorees at the April 25 Common Wealth Award ceremony at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Del., included astronaut Michael Massimino and actress Jane Seymour.

[Do you receive the Radio World SmartBrief newsletter each weekday morning? We invite you to sign up here.]

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On Thursday, an AM station in Texas will air its final farewell.

1000 KSTA(AM) is licensed to Coleman, about 140 miles southwest of Ft. Worth. It is a 250-watt daytime-only signal that runs a country music format.

According to the station’s website, it has been on the air at 1000 AM since 1951. The FCC’s history card shows that it granted KSTA’s license in 1947.

Wendlee Broadcasting, led by Rex Tackett and his wife Mariann, purchased the signal in 2006, along with sister stations 1240 KXYL(AM), 96.9 KQBZ(FM) and 102.3 KXYL(FM).

At the time, Tackett and his wife saw the investment as a short-term endeavor. Twenty years later, they sought to find new ownership for all of the stations.

For four of their five stations, they have been successful. But unable to find a buyer for KSTA, after Thursday, it will go silent. Wendlee Broadcasting made the announcement this week on its Facebook page.

For $160,000, Tackett is selling the KXYL AM/FM combo to Lonestar Broadcasting Group, according to an April 28 FCC filing.

He said he is close to finding a buyer for KQBZ.

Tackett told Radio World that he had tried to find someone within the community who would be willing to invest in KSTA.

But with the lease on its building expiring, along with several recent KSTA technical challenges, Hackett felt it was time to pull the plug instead of investing in repairs.

“My wife and I bought these stations 20 years ago, and though we’ve loved every minute of it, we want to be able to enjoy retirement,” Tackett, 82, told us.

He has more than 50 years of experience in broadcasting and is best known for his days as a general manager at radio stations in San Antonio, Houston, Beaumont and Oklahoma City while working for then-Clear Channel.

In 2012, Tackett was inducted Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

Radio, he said, has changed since he first got involved. But despite his exit, Tackett still believes it has a place.

“Coleman County is an example of a location where nothing can replicate the immediacy of radio,” he said.

“I’m proud of what radio does, and I’m sorry to be leaving it, and I wish it the best of luck,” Tackett added.

Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

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The National Association of Broadcasters is speaking out in response to an order from the Federal Communications Commission that Disney’s ABC-owned TV stations must file for early license renewal.

NAB President/CEO Curtis LeGeyt said that the Media Bureau’s “nearly unprecedented” request that a specific company reapply for all of its licenses essentially on demand — rather than use its normal enforcement process — creates “significant uncertainty” for all broadcasters.

“The FCC’s broadcast license renewal process must be grounded in predictability, fairness and transparency, principles reflected in the license terms Congress established and later extended,” LeGeyt said.

“Broadcast stations already face intense challenges as they work to deliver trusted journalism, lifesaving emergency services, community programming and election coverage,” he added in the statement.

“The FCC must be careful to avoid actions that create further instability for the local stations viewers and listeners depend on.”

Disney’s broadcast licenses were not due to be reviewed before October ​2028, according to Reuters. As our sister site TVTech noted, asking for an early license renewal is extremely rare and almost never involves network-owned stations.

In the order issued on Tuesday, the FCC referred to its ongoing investigation of Disney’s DEI policies. David Brown, chief of the Video Division of the Media Bureau, wrote, “The FCC determines that calling in Disney’s ABC licenses for early renewal, at this time, under the Communications Act’s public interest standard is essential within the meaning of agency regulations. Therefore, Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days — in other words, by May 28, 2026.”

But the move follows months of comments by President Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr suggesting that the ABC stations should lose their licenses over comments made by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

In a post on X, Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s only Democrat, blasted the order as a “political stunt.”

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

The post LeGeyt Says FCC License Action Creates “Significant Uncertainty” appeared first on Radio World.

The time is coming when more listeners will access their favorite radio stations via digital platforms rather than traditional broadcast signals.

The latest Techsurvey from Jacobs Media indicates that the gap is closing quickly, even among the devoted radio listeners who make up this survey.

Jacobs asked respondents what percentage of time they spent in a typical week listening via broadcast versus digital platforms such as computers, mobile, smart speakers, podcasts or smart TV options.

The results reveal a dramatic trend line: 54% of respondents consistently listened to regular radio and 44% on digital platforms. On a graph, the lines are converging and likely to cross in several years if things continue in this direction.

“Just truly a remarkable story here on one chart. The gap there between broadcast and digital back in 2013 was a 71-point difference. Now take a look at this year, only a 10-point gap,” President Fred Jacobs said on a webinar about the survey.

When you look closer at how respondents consume radio, below, the Jacobs research finds in-vehicle still makes up the most of traditional radio listening at 37%, with another saying they listen to radio at home or work. The computer stream is popular (17%), mobile apps (12%) and smart speaker (9%) account for the highest listening percentages.

When Jacobs breaks out the data by demographic splits, over the air isn’t leading among all age groups. For instance, Gen Z is showing a pretty much an even split, with survey respondents saying they listen 49% digital and 48% over the air radio.

Traditional radio listening grows its lead over digital as you move through age groups. For instance, Millennials at 52% broadcast vs. 46% digital, while Boomers clocked in at 57% broadcast and 41% digital.

While fewer than three in four Techsurvey respondents now have regular radios at home, in-vehicle listening continues to show strength despite increased entertainment offerings in the dashboard, according to the findings. In-car infotainment systems have reached an all-time high. Now 40% in the survey have in-car media systems compared to 25% in 2018.

“It’s almost impossible even to buy an entry-level vehicle without an infotainment system at this point,” said Fred Jacobs. “These are systems like Ford Sync and Audi Connect.”

OTA radio is still a dominant force in the car, with 50% of respondents saying they listen to AM/FM, though other forms challenge it when taken in aggregate. Satellite radio was a distant second with 20% of in-vehicle consumption.

“Then we’ve got streaming audio coming from somewhere at 10% personal music, 8%, podcast, 5% talking books another 5%. But you add them all together and you’ve got other audio at 48%, so it’s already close. And that 50% mark for AMFM car radio is in jeopardy of continuing to go down,” Jacobs said.

The survey’s 31,000 or so participants were selected from email databases of 506 commercial radio stations in the U.S. across major radio formats. As Jacobs explained, the respondents are typically “radio fans” to begin with.

For the first time in several years, Audacy stations provided listener data so they could participate in the survey, Jacobs said.

Unique to Techsurvey is what Jacobs calls the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is a way of measuring how likely someone is to recommend listening to their favorite radio station to others. This year, the NPS was 46, which has remained remarkably consistent since 2010, Jacobs said

“The way it works is this, on a scale of zero to 10, how likely are you to recommend the station that sent you the survey? Ten is extremely likely, zero is not at all likely. So if you look at the scale, you can see it’s a very high bar. In order to be considered a promoter, you’ve got to give the radio station a nine or a 10,” he said. “A detractor is a zero through six.”

Radio World will continue to break down the TS2026 finding in the coming days. Next time we examine the importance of radio’s visuals and in-vehicle metadata.

The post Techsurvey: Digital Consumption of Radio Hits New High appeared first on Radio World.

Such an increase might not seem notable, but it stands out because U.S. radio station fees have declined in each of the three previous years.

The commission has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking and has invited comments. Fiscal 2026 ends on Sept. 30 of this year. The FCC must collect about $416 million in fees, equal to its salaries and expenses appropriation for the year.

Revenue from AM and FM radio station fees would total around $28.1 million. [Read the NPRM.]

Proposed rates range from $395 for Class D AM stations in the smallest markets, to about $25,000 for the biggest of the big-market FM signals.

The chart at the bottom of this story shows the proposed fees. They generally are about 5% more than the current year.

Regulatory fees must be paid for broadcast licenses granted on or before Oct. 1, 2025 and for initial construction permits granted on or before that date for AM/FM stations, full-power VHF/UHF broadcast television stations and satellite TV stations. Noncommercial radio and television stations are exempt.

Comments in the NPRM are due by May 28 and replies by June 12. Comment at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/ and put 26-94 in the Proceeding field.

The chart below shows the proposed rates:

The post Radio FCC Fees to Go Up 5% Under Proposal appeared first on Radio World.

Engineer Friend Weller has been busy in retirement with the LPFM he operates, KVWJ(LP), licensed to Alumni Records Inc.

To help with maintenance at its transmission facility, Friend recently built a transmitter transfer-switch controller for less than $25 using mostly spare and salvaged parts.

The front panel has three high-visibility LED indicators and pushbutton switches. The components inside include a four-port coax switch and a 3PDT relay. 

The recessed front-panel interlock switch interrupts the fail-safes on the transmitters prior to switching. It also activates the yellow LED to give a visual indication that the interlocks have been opened, preventing hot switching. Only at that point can the transmitters be switched between the antenna and the dummy load. 

The rear terminals interconnect to the remote-control system as well to the fail-safe terminals on each of the transmitters. 

See the accompanying schematic, which you can download here.

No rocket science here, Friend says — this is a project that demonstrates careful chassis planning and a lot of good, old-fashioned point-to-point wiring, all with an eye towards the credo of the radio broadcast engineer: If you can’t afford it, build it!

Perhaps this project will inspire other grassroots engineering efforts at stations with limited budgets. Share yours with us.

Gary’s streaming advice

When was the last time you consumed your station like a “regular person” would?

Broadcast radio consultant Gary Berkowitz asked that in his newsletter recently. Gary recommends that you pull your station up on your car dashboard and look at it. Forget the audio and the programming for a moment, just look at what your listeners are seeing. 

Is it a blank album art square? Maybe a frozen “Now Playing” field? Worst of all, an internal placeholder from your traffic system that was never meant to be seen by listeners?

The visual presence of your station as viewed on dashboards, watches and smartphones will make an impression on listeners. Is it a good one?

Radio World readers have heard this gospel before in our coverage of reports from companies like Quu, Jacobs Media, Xperi and the NAB. 

But Gary points out in radio, it’s still common to obsess about the audio but not pay attention to the visual output of stations and their streams.

Gary offers three things you can do this week:

1. Kill the placeholders. Look at what your “Now Playing” field actually says during a stopset. Listeners should see a clean, formatted display.
2. Get the art right. Every song should trigger a clean, high-resolution album art push. Blank squares or pixelated thumbnails tell listeners you don’t care.
3. Gary reemphasizes: Go look at your presence on a car dashboard. Pull up your station on Android Auto or Apple CarPlay or today’s integrated infotainment systems to verify that the art is clean and the text readable. 

To visit Gary’s website, click here.  

Also, Quu has released its third annual report showing how radio station metadata displays in the 100 top-selling vehicles in the United States. Its dashboard photos reinforce just how crucial your visual presence is in 2026.

I love YouTube

The next time you find yourself with a plastic part in which threads have been stripped, don’t throw it away. 

Visit YouTube to watch a helpful hint posted by a user called SkRolla, who points out that you can replace the factory-threaded bushing with a few turns of wire wrapped around a screw. You then heat the wire and press the screw into the plastic until all the wire is inside. After it cools you remove the screw, and the threads have been restored.

Watch the clip online, or at YouTube search “LexwMRlZmXQ.”

YouTube is rich with tips and hacks. Share your favorites with us.

Another resistor mnemonic

Jimmy Poole is a field engineer for K-Love, working in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. The first resistor color code mnemonic he learned was “Bad Beer Rots Our Young Guts But Vodka Goes Well.” It may have come from the Radio Shack electronics book for beginners he had as a teenager, or possibly a Forrest M. Mims book. 

Our Paul McLane discovered a Wikipedia page that provides at least 60 more mnemonics, not to mention the outdated and inappropriate ones discussed earlier.

Just a few examples:

• Beach Bums Rarely Offer You Gatorade But Very Good Water
• Better Buy Resistors Or Your Grid Bias Voltages Go West
• Badly Burnt Resistors On Your Ground Bus Void General Warranty

(Does anyone remember “ELI the ICE Man”?)

Workbench submissions qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

The post Friend Weller’s Home-Brew Transfer Controller appeared first on Radio World.

ENCO has announced the release of enSpeak, a voice translation solution.

The company said that the technology adds natural-sounding, low-latency voice translation to its existing enCaption platform, allowing audiences to hear live programming in their preferred language alongside translated captions.

enCaption uses speech-to-text technology to generate live captions from audio and video sources. The captions feed ENCO’s enTranslate engine, which produces multilingual text translations for broadcast.

enTranslate Mobile extends those translations to smartphones and browsers for in-venue and AV environments, the company said. 

EnSpeak is deployable in cloud, on-premises or hybrid environments, and can integrate with ENCO’s existing ecosystem or operate as a standalone solution.

The platform can ingest live audio, ENCO said, making it suitable for applications ranging from broadcast production and OTT streaming to corporate events, classrooms, transportation hubs and public address systems. 

ENCO originally debuted enSpeak at the 2026 NAB Show.

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

The post ENCO Adds Real-Time Voice Translation for Broadcast and AV appeared first on Radio World.

The company is the third-largest commercial U.S. radio group by revenue and is in the process of its second Chapter 11 reorganization in nine years.

Cumulus owns 394 radio stations, the Westwood One audio network and the Cumulus Podcast Network.

[“Cumulus Media to Go Private in Debt-for-Equity Restructuring”]

“The court’s recent approval of our reorganization plan marks a pivotal milestone in strengthening our financial foundation and positioning the company to compete in the evolving media landscape,” said President/CEO Mary Berner.

“While we await FCC approval of the plan, we remain focused on leveraging our core strengths to drive long-term value creation.”

Its net revenue was $164.4 million, down from $187.3 million a year earlier. It lost $16.9 million compared to $32.3 million in Q1 last year.

Broadcast radio revenue was down about 19% to $100.7 million. Digital revenue fell 8% to $33.5 million.

In 2018 the company concluded a Chapter 11 reorganization to alleviate $1 billion in debt. With the approval of its lenders, Cumulus now is seeking to eliminate another $600 million in debt. The signed lenders will have 95% control of the company. Cumulus also seeks to shed several tower sites and studio facilities.

Business observer Jerry Del Colliano has written that once the FCC approves the agreement, the Cumulus board is expected to be reconstituted with new members chosen by the lender/owners.

The post Cumulus Posts Q1 Revenue Decline of 12% appeared first on Radio World.

Tuesday, a group of former FCC chairs, commissioners and senior-level staff, joined by the Radio Television Digital News Association, filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The filing asks the court to compel the FCC to respond to a November petition to repeal the News Distortion Policy.

The petition was in response to several controversial investigations by the FCC into allegations of “biased” news coverage of President Donald Trump by ABC, CBS and NBC and comments by FCC Chair Brendan Carr that the regulator has the power to punish broadcasters and potentially even remove broadcast licenses from stations violating public interest and news distortion rules.

In response to the November petition, Carr indicated on X that he does not plan to repeal the news distortion policy.

Carr has repeatedly argued that the public interest rules for obtaining broadcast licenses give the FCC authority to investigate stations airing biased newscasts and programming. Several affiliate stations are currently being investigated, but the agency has yet to take any formal action.

“FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s refusal to present the petition to the Commission for a vote is not only a procedural failure, but also an active threat to the First Amendment,” said Conor Gaffney, counsel at Protect Democracy.

If the writ is granted, the FCC would be required to take a formal position on whether to repeal or uphold the news distortion policy. Critics argue that Carr has used the policy to “chill” free speech in the press by threatening to yank broadcast licenses.

“The free press is called the fourth estate for a reason — it exists to hold powerful leaders in the legislature, judiciary and executive branch to account,” said Tara Puckey, president and CEO of RTDNA.

Besides the RTDNA, other petitioners include: former FCC member Rachelle B. Chong; former PBS president Ervin S. Duggan; former FCC chairs Mark S. Fowler, Alfred C. Sikes and Thomas E. Wheeler; former FCC general counsel Christopher J. Wright; Kathryn C. Brown, chief of staff to former FCC Chairman William Kennard; and Jerald N. Fritz, a former chief of staff to Fowler and longtime broadcast executive.

The petitioners are represented by counsel at Protect Democracy and TechFreedom, as well as Andrew Jay Schwartzman and Gigi Sohn.

Read the full petition here.

[See Our Business and Law Page]

The post RTDNA, Former Officials Sue to Force FCC Ruling on News Distortion appeared first on Radio World.

Notably, according to the latest Global Wearables Market Outlook report from the UK-based Futuresource Consulting, smart glasses and smart rings are beginning to carry “real strategic weight.” Earlier this year, we wrote about the firm’s study on car audio listening.

Several of the smart glass wearables, for example, include built-in wireless audio, positioned as not just eyewear, but headphones and personal voice assistants.

Advances in on-device AI, sensor fusion and next-generation chip platforms are giving wearables more autonomy and more relevance throughout the day, according to the new study.

In all, the firm forecasts approximately 229 million shipments worldwide this year, a 5.1% increase from 2025.

Retail value is expected to increase at a 6% clip, resulting in a generation of $57 billion.

Smartwatches continue to hold the high ground, according to the report, with approximately 93 million shipped last year and further growth expected. Their position rests on a mix of health tracking, connectivity and ecosystem value, the report said, particularly in North America and Europe.

“What has changed is that the smartwatch category is no longer carrying the whole market on its own,” Futuresource said. Now, the wearables growth is being shared more widely, it said, and with that comes a more fragmented landscape.

Smart glasses shipments rose to approximately 6 million units in 2025, with Futuresource forecasting expansion through to 2030 as improvements in AI, voice control and component footprint size continue.

Meanwhile, smart rings reached about 4 million units in 2025 and are building traction through health tracking with relevance in sleep, stress and women’s health.

The report points to a wearables market increasingly shaped by “connected-device ecosystems,” where watches, glasses, rings and smartphones all work together as part of a broader digital environment.

But not every segment is keeping pace, the report said. Activity trackers continue to contract, with Futuresource forecasting an 8.9% drop in volume CAGR through to 2030.

The decline is a clear signal, according to Futuresource, that simpler hardware is losing ground when it can’t justify its place “through richer features or stronger ecosystem relevance.”

Futuresource Consulting said it has operated for approximately 35 years as a market research and consultancy firm.

[Visit Radio World’s News and Business Page]

The post Wearables Market Branches Out With Smart Glasses and Rings appeared first on Radio World.

At the recently completed NAB Show, ENCO introduced a new tool called Spotai.

Expanding on its existing SPECai technology, the company said it is intended as a creative production platform that allows teams to generate professional video content from their desks.

But while SPECai serves primarily as a sales tool, SPOTai provides a workflow for creating video advertisements tailored for TV, digital media, social platforms, podcasts and streaming environments, ENCO said. 

Similar to SPECai, the new platform uses generative AI and large language models to convert text descriptions into visual content. The process starts with a brand setup stage where users define  elements like a business name, logo and contact information. In the following new commercial stage, users input a description of their desired ad.

The platform then generates a 1080p video ready for use across television, websites and social media platforms.

SPECai momentum

ENCO is also updating SPECai in partnership with Benztown and Compass Media Networks.

Driven by broadcaster feedback, the ongoing updates focus on speed, usability and creative flexibility, ENCO said. The platform continues to let account executives generate broadcast-ready commercials with voiceovers, music beds and written scripts.

Along with new workflow improvements and automation tools introduced at the NAB Show, ENCO previewed a SPECai plug-in. The tool allows users to repurpose scripts and audio from existing radio spec spots into new video assets for digital advertising.

Additionally, the InstaSpot feature now includes multi-voice capabilities, emotional tone selection and enhanced production elements. 

By entering an advertiser’s web address, users can generate a complete commercial, suitable for account managers to create targeted spec spots on demand during client meetings.

[Do you receive the Radio World SmartBrief newsletter each weekday morning? We invite you to sign up here.]

The post ENCO Introduces AI-Driven Video Ad Creation Platform appeared first on Radio World.

NUGEN Audio is highlighting its DialogCheck speech intelligibility plug-in as a useful tool for podcasters and audio professionals.

“While poor dialog intelligibility has long been one of the biggest complaints among television and film audiences, it’s an even bigger challenge in podcasting, where usually there are no visuals or subtitles to fall back on,” it states.

NUGEN noted that listeners cannot rely on lip-reading or captions to follow along and make up for muffled or uneven speech.

“Every word must carry through cleanly, regardless of where or how someone is listening. That means every mix decision, from levels to noise reduction, directly affects how well the story is heard and understood.”

The company said its DialogCheck was developed in collaboration with Fraunhofer IDMT. The tool is sold on the NUGEN website for $399.

It uses automatic speech recognition, psychoacoustic modeling and a Listening Effort Meter to analyze how hard a listener must work to understand speech.

“In simple terms, it transforms something typically judged by ear into precise, visual data. The result is a clear reference point for audio professionals to make confident, data-driven mix decisions.”

The interface provides tools such as a bar meter, history graph and distribution view that allow engineers to evaluate episodes or segments.

“The plug-in syncs with the DAW timecode, so users can identify problem areas, adjust and instantly see the results reflected in updated intelligibility scores.”

NUGEN said this translates to faster, more consistent results and a better listening experience.

“It helps pinpoint when speech is being masked by background music and effects, or when noise reduction and EQ tweaks might be needed to bring voices forward. Once adjustments are made, running the mix through DialogCheck again confirms that clarity has improved, saving valuable time in the reviewing process.”

It can also be helpful in pre-production, helping podcasters evaluate mic choices, room acoustics and recording setups.

NUGEN CEO Paul Tapper gave a presentation at the NAB Show regarding speech intelligibility.

The post NUGEN Highlights Podcast Dialog Intelligibility appeared first on Radio World.

I’ve spent my career as a project manager, estimator and rigger for P&R Tower Company in Sacramento, Calif. We work primarily in the west but have traveled nationwide for tower projects.

Early in my career, I was fortunate to be mentored by one of the greats in our industry: Jack Olson. His influence has shaped not only my professional life but also the person I became.

I started in the tower business because my grandfather, Pete Smith, owned P&R. The grandkids worked summers through college, and I took to climbing and rigging naturally. I enjoyed the work, understood the mechanics and got along well with the crews.

Like many young workers, I was still learning what responsibility looked like in a demanding trade. Jack recognized potential in me and invested his time and guidance. I’m grateful for that, and I know I grew because of it.

Jack and safety

When I started, there were two foremen and my grandfather. One of them was Jack. I never had a close call or near-miss on a job he ran. That’s the first thing to know about Jack: He is unwavering about safety.

Jack came up in the early 1980s, when tower work still had a “Wild West” mentality.

Many riggers he knew over the years died doing this work. Yet the only injury I ever saw on one of Jack’s jobs was a rare situation that OSHA agreed wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t perfect, but he was close — and I’m certain the habits he instilled in me have kept me safe throughout my career.

He thought about everything: safety, customer service, backups, minimizing risk, showing up ready to work, leaving a site better than you found it, securing rigging and making things easier for the next crew. Jack raised the bar for what a tower hand should be.

He didn’t compare himself to others’ shortcuts. He judged his work by what was right. That didn’t always make the most money in the moment, but it paid off in the long run.

A steady example

Jack’s influence extended beyond the job site.

Tower hands aren’t always known for wise decisions after hours, especially when they’re young and on the road. Jack didn’t get caught up in that. He cared about his family, stayed true to his values and set an example of steadiness and integrity.

He wasn’t preachy, but he lived by a quiet moral code. Even on job sites where language wasn’t always clean — including his — he avoided taking the Lord’s name in vain. It was a small thing, but it said a lot about his character.

His example helped shape the way I approached my own life, marriage and family. He took a fatherly role with younger guys who needed it, and I’m grateful I was around him in those years.

One of Jack’s non-negotiables was securing rigging and “buttoning things up” at the end of the day. After 11 hours in the sun, it’s easy to say, “It’ll be fine until tomorrow.” But that mentality has caused damage, failures and deaths.

Jack has taught me that you take the extra time so you can sleep at night. Because of him, I’ve never had to lie awake during a storm wondering if something was going to fail. Instead, I’ve woken up, heard the wind and gone right back to sleep — thanking Jack for that lesson.

That same mindset applied to finishing a job: doing it right, stabilizing and protecting equipment for the long term, and leaving a clean site.

I’ll never forget stacking a four-tower AM system with a young crew. We did the technical work well but left trash behind, not realizing the importance of cleanup.

Later, I returned with Jack to fix a lighting issue — one that wasn’t our fault — and he saw the mess we’d left. He made sure I understood the importance of leaving a site better than we found it. That was nearly 30 years ago, and the lesson still resonates.

Consistency and character

When I met Jack, he and my grandfather didn’t always see eye to eye. Both had strong personalities.

But while some foremen acted one way around Pete and another when he wasn’t there, Jack was always Jack. Whether Pete was on site or not, whether a customer was watching or not, Jack prepared, thought ahead and did the job right. His projects ran smoothly and were done right the first time.

Jack was the quintessential tortoise — steady, methodical and reliable — while others were often the hares. And as the Special Forces say, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”

That said, Jack wasn’t slow. You can measure the towers he’s stacked in miles, not feet. Few people can stack a small- to medium-face guyed tower faster with a gin pole. Customers were often amazed at how much tower he could put up in a day.

Lessons that last

I’ve been doing this work for 35 years and have been chosen for some technically difficult jobs. Even now, I like having Jack with me — or at least talking through the project with him. His experience and ability to line things up and make a job go smoothly are invaluable.

Jack doesn’t climb anymore, and some younger guys may not yet appreciate the importance of the stories he tells or the advice he gives.

But one day, they’ll have an epiphany and realize how much he gave them. Many of the most important lessons I’ve learned in this business came from Jack.

If you’re lucky enough to have a “Jack” on your crew or as a service provider, don’t take it for granted. Jacks are rare. I often think about how thankful I am — and how thankful our company is — to have had Jack Olson working with us.

Thank you, Jack.

And to all the “Jacks” out there. Your fellow workers, your companies, your customers and this industry owe you more than you know.

Comment on this or any article. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

The post A Salute to Jack Olson, Blue-Collar Tower Hero appeared first on Radio World.

When I was a newbie engineer, our station went off the air due to a problem in its McMartin transmitter. The engineer in charge spent about 15 minutes explaining the theory of this model until I interrupted and said, “How do we fix it?” 

Ultimately I isolated the issue to an old tube exciter that was losing frequency lock. The station would wander up and down the FM band until something tripped.

But the memory reminds me that as engineers dealing with off-air situations, we tend to talk to one another in terms that other people at the station probably do not understand. 

Let’s say a transmitter is failing intermittently due to a recurring reflected power issue. Perhaps it is caused by a shorting antenna bay, or a combiner failure, or fluid in the coax, or a bad connector. So, fellow engineers, how should we handle this? 

Well of course we would test the transmitter into a dummy load, use a framus wigglenator to veebleize the combiner utilizer and exize the googleator. 

Right? 

To a non-broadcast engineer, our conversation might well sound like the above. 

Of course, unlike the technobabble made famous by “Star Trek,” the impressive terminology we use isn’t essentially meaningless. But in many situations it’s useful, even important, to help non-technical colleagues feel that they have a basic understanding. This certainly applies to interactions with your boss.

For this problem, I might tell the station manager, “Ah. There may be some water that has built up over time in the coax cable that goes up the tower. We will take the connector off the bottom and see if any liquid comes out. Then if that’s not it, I will let you know what we will do next.” 

This brief explanation — in plain English — gives the person a sense that their engineer is working on the issue in a sensible and timely manner, rather than leaving them to wonder what, if anything, is going on. Your explanation also shows them respect and helps develop a team mindset.

Later, once the station is back on the air, we should communicate in plain terms what the issue was, how we repaired it and what we did to try and keep it from happening again. This will help everyone to sleep better knowing that the issue was addressed fully. 

And as Radio World’s John Bisset has written many times, it demonstrates the value of engineering to station management.

Let me know your own experiences in how to communicate effectively with non-engineers, especially in this new era of networking, virtualization, cloud and IP. Drop me a note via Radio World.

By the way I am often tempted to explain how I resolved an issue by saying “I used Magic Purple Dust.” But do as I say, not as I do! 

Meanwhile if you are having a particularly hard day and just need a sentence like “I’m detecting a slight field variance in the isotopic electro-ceramic booster,” check out the Technobabble Generator.

RW welcomes your Tech Tips, email us at radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Technobabble Doesn’t Help Your Cause appeared first on Radio World.