Ed Trombley passed along a thank you via Radio World for his recent award from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

"To my fellow broadcast engineers! Thank you, Michigan Association of Broadcasters, for picking me out of the many who were nominated. It is indeed an honor to receive this award. I also want to thank the many clients of Munn-Reese Inc. If it was not for you, the station engineers that called upon me for help or advice, and you, the station owners who asked the 'what if' questions, I would never have been able to help design or build the major projects that warrant such an award. Thank you for inviting me in to crank the knobs, bridge the common point, tweak, un-tweak, fix your monitor points or make them totally disappear. As always, 'Thanks for shopping at Munn-Reese Inc.'"

He signed it "Engineeringly Yours! Ed Trombley."

We haven't met Ed, but with a mustache like that we suspect he's also a fun guy.

I feel a connection to people who produce audio for the visually impaired. In the past I regularly recorded the New York Times Travel section as a volunteer for the blind in Delaware; and I came to know a number of fine organizations that support the visually impaired when I was selling broadcast equipment including a line of subcarrier receivers that was popular with those services.

So although I’m not on site to see this first-hand, I can envision the concerted effort and sense of purpose that have taken hold among volunteers for the Radio Reading Project in New York City.

According to a project update, the group was incorporated in December to replace the service that had been supplied by In Touch Networks. The latter ended operations last fall after 39 years. “The In Touch service provided programming to an estimated local and national audience of 490,000 blind and visually impaired persons through local subcarriers, and a national network of affiliate stations,” the Radio Reading Project states. Gail Starkey, former station manager of In Touch, is president of the RRP.

Volunteers read periodicals including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Listeners typically receive programming using dedicated receivers tuned to the local FM station — WKCR(FM) in New York or one of 56 affiliates in 23 states. Programming and the network have been maintained since October by volunteers using closed-circuit Internet feeds of programming originating from home studios, coordinated on a volunteer basis by Starkey and Richard Koziol of Peak Communications Services, according to the summary from the RRP.

Network program feeds have been supplied by The SightSeer of Grand Rapids, Mich., and are being sent to New York via Internet for local subcarrier distribution on WKCR and network distribution via the NPR Satellite System and closed-circuit Internet streaming servers.

The group wants to re-establish full-time New York City operations and hopes to resume local programming by mid-year. Koziol stated in a recent announcement, “Even though we are successful in keeping the existing network operational, we believe it is time to bring this service into the future using current and developing technologies. Subcarrier services were built around 1970s technology and we believe that it’s time to use what’s available today to get this vital service to every individual who needs this connection to the outside world.”

Echoing comments I’ve heard from others in the specialized world of reading services, he said this audience has other specific needs. “They are often tied to their radios throughout the day. For example, there needs to be a system in place to get specific information to them in the event of emergencies using their radios.”

The group now has added two prominent broadcast names to its board as it builds its effort. Les Marshak is a veteran voice talent, heard daily introducing NBC's “Today Show.” He was a volunteer reader for In Touch Networks for 15 years. John Lyons, well known to Radio World readers, is assistant vice president and director of broadcast communications for The Durst Organization in New York, which owns facilities including 4 Times Square.

I salute the volunteers who are working to keep radio reading services alive in the New York area, and commend them for efforts in finding creative new ways to put that important content into the ears of people who treasure it.

When someone asks you how many radio stations there are in the United States, you can say “14,420.”

Of course, as with most statistics, you can qualify this; you can say: “… unless you include LPFMs, in which case it’s 15,284. And of course, you can add in FM translators and boosters, which have been booming lately; that makes the number 21,439.” At which point your friend will wish you knew how to give a straight answer.

But that’s how the Federal Communications Commission reports these things, and those are the licensed station totals as of Dec. 31, 2009.

There are 4,790 AM stations. That's four more AM licenses than at this time last year and 16 more than five years ago, which is of particular note considering our recent discussions in Radio World about the health of the AM band and whether a significant number of AMs have gone off the air in recent times. Though the number of current licenses is only one measure (and the statistic tends to lag the market because stations can be off the air and yet still licensed), this does seem to imply that there hasn't been any kind of precipitous decline.

There are 6,479 FM commercial stations (an increase of 4% compared to five years ago), 3,151 FM educational stations (up 24% over five years) and 6,155 FM translators and boosters (up only a bit since last year but up 58% compared to 3,890 five years ago, a statistic that will surprise no one who follows the special world of radio translator strategies).

There are 864 stations in the relatively new class of low-power FMs.

Once you add in the various flavors of TV licenses, the total number of U.S. broadcast licenses is 30,503.

Who’s got WiMax?

Here’s a cool map that gives you some idea.

Meanwhile, the WiMax Forum advocacy group recently reported that service providers now offer networks covering more than 620 million people in 147 countries and “are on pace to surpass the already forecasted 800 million POPs by end of 2010” and pass 1 billion by the end of next year, “which is approximately the time competitive 4G technologies are expected to begin early commercialization.”

The technology’s backers say these trends indicate strong momentum for their mobile broadband ecosystem. However, of the five regions for which it reported statistics, North America was the laggard.

The group said Asia Pacific leads with more than 237 million people covered in 100 network deployments; Central/Latin America has reached 113 million POPs and 109 deployments; Africa/Middle East covers 108 million POPs with 142 deployments; and Europe covers 115 million people with 153 deployments.

North American coverage is at 47 million POPS with 51 deployments.

But the group noted that “Clearwire plans to continue rolling out our 4G network to additional markets in 2010 with the launch of service in several large metro areas, including New York, Houston and the San Francisco Bay area, ultimately reaching up to 120 million people by the end of 2010,” according to d Ali Tabassi, senior vice president of global ecosystem and standards for Clearwire and a board member of the WiMax Forum.

The group also said current projections don’t account for potential growth WiMax will experience once spectrum is auctioned in India and networks are deployed in the Philippines as well as Indonesia.

Session organizer extraordinaire David Bialik is putting out the word that he welcomes ideas for topics of his broadcast and streaming sessions at the 129th Audio Engineering Society Convention in San Fran this November.

Bialik does a great job at planning, and brings a great deal of zeal to his task. When he really gets going, the panels he puts together can be spectacular. Over the years he was among the first to assemble panels about digital radio, and he has attracted some real legends to his sessions on audio processing. I've moderated a couple of panels about facility design at his invitation, so I know how much work he puts into getting good content together for the annual AES.

If you have a good idea or perhaps wish to participate, e-mail him at broadcast@aes.org, and tell him Paul McLane at Radio World sent you.

by Charles S. Fitch

James O’Neal’s WTOP story prompts some memories. At my age, everything is a story ... very briefly my favorite WTOP tale ...

Back in ’71 I was living in Baltimore and loved to watch the Charlie Chan movies on late Saturday nights on WTOP(TV) ... these were the Chan's with Warner Oland from 20th Century Fox circa 1935.

Anyway, they go into a break in the movie just after midnight and come out to a pad slide and the booth announcer essentially says, “And now back to the movie, ‘Charlie Chan in El Cajon.’”

The movie starts and there's no sound ... the Audimax or whatever they have starts looking for audio and you hear what sounds like control room noise ... then a VERY LOUD chair squeak … then a hand over the mic, then a door opens and, muffled, you can hear the booth guy call over to the MCR guy: “I don't think my mic is off.”

The booth guy takes his hand off the mic and you hear the MCR guy say, “Hit your on/cough switch button a couple of times.” Click, click ... bang, bang ... but still no movie audio as Chan rolls on.

The MCR says, “Must be a relay hung up as we don't have any movie audio.” Now the sound of rack doors opening in the distance and covers being pulled off ... more banging ... occasional silence ... more chair squeaking ... Chan rolls on. Tthe MCR guy says, “Let's go to a break and see if that clears it ... if need be I'll patch the audio.” Pad slide up ... booth audio disappears ... the break rolls extra long ...

Now we're back to the slide and the booth guy begins by apologizing for the technical snafu, which he tells viewers was caused by “an audio switcher bus relay latch ... whatever that is ... and since most of us have missed a notable part of the movie, we've re-racked the movie to where we lost audio. So that there is no confusion and especially for those who have just joined us, let me recapitulate the plot thus far.”

The booth guy now proceeds to give us an erudite plot analysis to this point in the movie! About 5 minutes of off-the-cuff dissertation.

“… And now back to ‘Charlie Chan in El Cajon.’”

This sort of thing never happens anymore ... this is when real people used to make TV.

My other D.C. favorite TV tidbit is that the original Channels 5 and Channel 7 started out in the hallways of the top floors of two D.C. hotels, the tallest buildings in the city at the time. Since they were demo stations, evidently they only operated during daylight hours so as not to disturb the guests.

Radio on-air processing fans will no doubt be watching closely what the major names will be up to at this spring’s NAB Show.

Radio World has gleaned some details about the pending new Orban Optimod-FM 8600, the latest FM processor from that big player in the high-stakes, high-emotion FM processing niche.

While the 8500 will continue to ship “for years into the future,” according to company insiders, the 8600 will begin shipping within weeks of the spring convention and the price of the earlier model will fall.

Here’s what RW has learned:

Orban will emphasize that the 8600 gives “dramatically improved” peak limiter technology that decreases distortion while increasing transient punch and high-frequency power handling. “Compared to the FM-channel peak limiter in Optimod-FM 8500,” company materials will state, “the new peak limiter typically provides 2.5 to 3 dB more power at high frequencies, which minimizes audible HF loss caused by preemphasis limiting. Drums and percussion cut through the mix. Highs are airy. ‘Problem material’ that used to cause audible distortion is handled cleanly.”

Orban will tell NAB attendees that while the design offers “about the same loudness as 8500 processing, its main goal is to make FM analog broadcasts more competitive with the cleanliness, punch and open high frequencies of the digital media against which FM analog transmissions now battle.” The company states in a product summary: “The FM loudness wars were so 20th century; in the 21st century the new foe is digital media.”

Features also will include parallel processing for digital channels like HD Radio that simulcast program material on FM analog. Except for the AGC, the analog FM and digital radio channels will be independent and separately adjustable. The 8600’s digital radio channel promises a new peak limiter. As before, an FM-only model without processing for digital radio will be made available at lower cost.

Fans of the 8500 can run their favorite presets on the new unit. Various popular 8500 features are carried over to the 8600.

The new unit also lets users in countries enforcing ITU-R 412 MPX power limits to apply MPX power gain reduction after the clippers so that the texture of the processing can include more “clipper sound.”

The processor will offer six structures. Four are the same as in the Optimod-FM 8500. New “MX” structures (five-band and two-band) are similar to their earlier counterparts but use the new peak limiting technology, which Orban says will decrease distortion while achieving big improvements in transient punch and high frequency clarity. “This advanced technology requires more input-to-output delay than the older structures, so it is impractical for talent to monitor these structures off-air with headphones. The 8600 offers a special low-delay monitor output for this purpose.”

The Optimod-FM 8600 HD Digital will retail for $13,990 while the non-HD Radio version will be three grand less. The current 8500 drops in price; the Optimod-FM 8500 HD Digital becomes $9,590 while the FM-only version is one thousand less.

A story on marketing news site ClickZ will no doubt grab the attention of radio sales types.

“Personalized Internet music provider Pandora is looking to pull more business from local advertisers in 2010 with a new sales team aimed solely at small and mid-size businesses,” it reported in an article that was picked up by, among others, NAB’s SmartBrief newsletter.

ClickZ quotes Pandora exec Brian Mikalis saying the company has had more inquiries from local advertisers than its national sales staff could handle.

“If Mikalis' comments are any indication,” ClickZ reports, “that new staff will be trying to sell Pandora to advertisers as less of a Web site than a radio station.”

Read it here.

This, combined with Pandora’s efforts to expand into the auto dashboard through partnerships with consumer electronics makers, offers yet more reason for radio managers to know about what that online competitor is doing.

by Brett Moss

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski got the attention of broadcasters recently by bringing in as an advisor a law professor who has floated the idea that the broadcast spectrum, as currently configured, might not be sacrosanct. It might not be the most efficient use of that spectrum.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for broadcasters, but he and others like him will get their way in the long run.

Ultimately all most broadcasters have is that little piece of spectrum they control. Traditional broadcasting’s days are numbered. The business model is already in bad shape. There are people, e.g. wireless phone (re: smart phone) network companies, who have noticed this. Colleagues laughed at me awhile back when I talked about political forces taking away broadcasters’ spectrum. For once I can say their mocking was misplaced! It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when, how much and who manages to keep theirs.

I do think radio might actually dodge the big bullet by being such a small target — for a while. When people are hunting elephants, the squirrels can rest (but should still keep one eye open!).

The TV guys should be worried. They rent/lease valuable property (spectrum) that others are eyeing enviously. Their revenues are going down and will continue to drop for some time. But they will hit a bottom, somewhere.

The question will be how many of them can generate enough local/regional ad revenue to survive. National advertisers eventually will abandon most markets for highly targeted cable/Internet/mobile advertising.

How long before the networks start seriously shedding their expensive O&Os? When that happens don’t be surprised when they become purely cable networks. ABC in St. Louis is pretty much the same as ABC in NYC and ABC in Duluth, Minn., in prime time. They really don’t care about the rest of the clock but they’re paying the costs of operating those stations 24 hours a day. From a cable/Internet standpoint they can distribute programming and sell national advertising at minimal costs. But not quite yet.

For future local independent/former network TV affiliates it will be musical chairs. They’ll become more like traditional UHFs relying on syndication and reruns for programming. Most local TV news operations will die because they are too expensive and everyone will realize that three or four news operations in one market is repetitive. Perhaps some salvation will come in the “radio-ization” of TV with “channels” nicheing themselves like radio stations do now. One will become an all-news (and probably survive in larger markets) while the others juggle formats.

They’ll have to find a lot of local advertising to keep themselves alive. And drastically cut costs.

Somewhere along the line their ratings will become so small that few viewers will care (or notice) when they go away. An all-news local might generate enough transient viewers to warrant survival but how many other stations can survive in the post-Oprah world (especially when viewers watch Oprah on the Oprah Channel)? Maybe the TV broadcast spectrum gets whittled down to a handful of stations in each market?

As I’ve indicated, all a local station really has is its little bit of spectrum. It uses that spectrum to deliver content. Once that content is available elsewhere, the station becomes redundant (not to its owner but to the network and maybe the viewer). The station has to justify the use of that spectrum to keep it. It’s going to be hard to justify that use when the local audience gets ABC’s content via cable/Internet or an Internet-fed wireless/mobile connection directly from ABC. And Verizon and AT&T and T-Mobile and so on are screaming for that spectrum (and so are your kids because Apple just Tweeted a message telling them about lack of spectrum as an explanation why the dancing kitten video is twitchy tonight).

On the other hand, all the big TV networks really are, are content providers — ultimately like HBO or USA Network. They don’t necessarily need local affiliates for delivering their content anymore (or in a few years).

I recently read a piece on “Over-The-Top” (OTT) cable/Internet (IP) experiments. These are years away but they are coming. You’ll have a cable box/home server with flash memory. It will allow cable networks and national advertisers to send you highly targeted ads that are stored and then can be played in the TV feed that you are watching — Food Network, ESPN, Lifetime, doesn’t matter. This is far more attractive to advertisers than paying ABC national or local affiliate rates to put a one-size-fits-all ad in front of a bunch of people, 98% of whom don’t care at all about your product.

And consider this: “Mobile content” users, the “kids,” think in terms of two-way or interactive media. When it finally sinks in that the “TV” is nothing more than a jumbo monitor on an enormous international computer network, and that it should operate that way, things will radically change.

Imagine watching a baseball game and having the option of making the news/score crawl along the bottom go away with a click of a mouse (the modern remote is an inferior UI) and being able to pop up the stats of the batter (John Smith) or pitcher merely by clicking on them or some “widget.” Or having the option of clicking on a flashing dot in a corner that is labeled, “Smith game-winning World Series home run replay.” You click on it and in a box you see the replay. You like the play and you see it again if you want. Maybe it’s the sponsored “Dominos Star Play of the Day.”

Cha-ching! That’s money! And if you click on the sponsored version, you can immediately access your IP phone and order a pizza. Maybe a discount comes along with ordering off of the replay. In the future world of this type of media, it’s all just data, so it can be remolded on the fly. Browser TV is an accurate description.

Broadcast TV is passive and there doesn’t seem to be any realistic way of changing that. Modern digital media is different. Imagine this if you’re an advertiser: the Oprah Network plays the Best of Oprah — the show where she gave away a Ford Fusion. Or a viewer chooses to download that program from the network. What if Oprah’s people have presold Ford to have an ad in that show, whenever and wherever it is played. Now here’s the killer app — there is no prepped Ford ad in the show, one that might be last year’s model. Rather a flag in the show tells your set-top box (or smart phone) to download the latest Ford ad. Or perhaps it is redirected to download an ad for the local Ford dealer. It could download the ad while the show rolls. Just-in-time advertising.

The wireless guys have big plans. More than a few won’t work or take several technical generations to implement. But the story over the holidays that AT&T was crimping iPhone purchases in the NYC area, supposedly for lack of spectrum, needs to be taken seriously. When more people are watching via cable or the smart phone, do you really think traditional broadcasters will be able to hold onto their spectrum?

That report on OTT boxes noted that people under the age of 30 really take this iPhone/mobile content thing seriously. Few of us older folks do, but the viewers of tomorrow do. Who gets more attention?

But as I said, this is a few years away and there is a lot to work out; we may very well be watching this finally happen from the Old Broadcasters’ Home. Yet the groundwork is being laid. Appointment TV on a local affiliate is not the wave of the future. If I owned a local TV station I’d start thinking about selling before the market goes soft(er) or gets flooded.

The radio broadcasters might be able to hold out in a “ghetto.” The spectrum slice is so small it might not be worth the trouble of acquiring. Radio needs to bang the “local” drum as loudly as possible. Be the “emergency” service available for when there are digital network outages. It might help to return to some older types of programs. The kind that TV producers ignore.

Local stories and shows would help. The “international” computer network probably won’t do “local” very well (not at first anyway — but there’s always “cable access”). Maybe half a dozen people listen to your public affairs programs; but if you put the mayor and a local congressman on regularly they might think it is in their interest to keep you around — at least until the demand for your spectrum becomes so overwhelming they understand the political equation has changed.

Brett Moss is gear and technology editor of Radio World.

Stiernberg Consulting, a firm specializing in business strategies for companies involved in a variety of entertainment technologies, has released a white paper, “Business Megatrends and Our Industry 2010 — Twelve Factors Shaping the New Competitive Environment.”

Though the paper offers no specific prescriptions for what ails radio, it does offer a number of general thoughts for the whole entertainment technology industry that are applicable.

Perhaps most hopeful is Stiernberg’s claim that the entertainment technology industry (including broadcasting) in 2010 will probably not lose money, recovering to flat and might return to growth.

Stiernberg says that “globalization” will continue apace yet a “one-size-fits-all” approach will rarely succeed. This will lead to increasing reliance upon a growing number of niche markets.

Radio broadcasters might want to note that Stiernberg proclaims that “content is king” (and will only get more royal as media options mushroom) but they warn that content receivers are increasingly overwhelmed by the content. So content creation and distribution needs to be wisely thought out.

Naturally, as with most similar annual prediction products, Stiernberg offers the obligatory things-will-get-smaller-cheaper-more available-better but they also feel that design will become a growing factor in many products.

Do you know an outstanding public radio engineer? Did he or she do something worthwhile in the last three to five years? Or maybe you'd like to recognize the person for an oustanding but unsung career? Maybe that description fits you! (Don’t be modest!)

It’s the time of year for nominations for the annual Association of Public Radio Engineers Engineering Achievement Award.

The committee is on the lookout for public radio engineers who have made a “significant impact on, or improvement in the state of the public radio industry.”

Nomination forms and more details can be found at the APRE Web site. Nominations must be received by March 1.

Previous winners include Roger Karwoski, assistant manager and director of engineering for KBIA, Columbia, Mo.; Donald Creighton, vice president of technology for Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media; Richard Cassidy, director of IT and New Media for WAMU, Washington; Wayne Hetrich, an original NPR employee; Chuck Leavens, director of engineering and information technology management, WDUQ, Pittsburgh; and Marty Bloss, former director of technology at NPR. Last year’s honorees were Don Danko, vice president for engineering for Cincinnati Public Radio, and John Kean of NPR Labs, part of NPR Distribution’s Technology Research Center.

Winners will be honored at the annual NPR Labs/APRE Engineering Dinner, part of the public radio pre-NAB Show festivities in April in Las Vegas. Kudos to the public radio engineering community for planting and nourishing this award program.

My old boss Dan Braverman always has had an eye for a pretty lady.

So I suspect it was with extra pleasure that he put out the announcement that Radio Systems Millenium consoles play a supporting role in Sony Pictures’ movie “The Accidental Husband,” which was released earlier but is only recently out on DVD.

"Co-starring with the consoles are actors Uma Thurman, Colin Firth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan," Radio Systems stated. "The plot surrounds a N.Y. talk-show host (Uma) whose 'love doctor' advice gets her 'accidentally' married to someone other than her fiancé."

Radio Systems says it was contracted to build the fictitious “WZPZ” talk studios.

The attached Uma image accompanied the announcement, which also noted that Radio Systems boards have movie credits with Jodie Foster and Kelsey Grammer.

End of the year is a good time to consider support for the John Bayliss Broadcast Foundation.

Like other nonprofits, the foundation — which supports college students through scholarships and internship opportunities — has faced challenging times in keeping its outreach active. Its annual roast was put on hiatus this year, and the organization explored a new fundraising approach through its first online auction, which grossed $35,000. It continues to review fundraising opportunities and work to reduce its expenses.

The organization, under Executive Director Kit Hunter Franke, thanked donors this month for helping keep its scholarship fund active.

“Since 1985, we have provided more than 340 outstanding college students with over $1.1 million in financial aid. Thank you! … The Bayliss Foundation's commitment to excellence in our industry and to the development of young talent is hard fast,” it continued. “We are determined to be positive in our outlook for the future and persistent in our endeavor to continue our mission to supply the radio industry with dedicated professionals. But, your help is still necessary.”

Tax-deductible gifts to the Bayliss Radio Scholarship Fund can be made here.

Gary Clarkson passed away this month.

RW reported that earlier but more information about his life comes to us from his colleague Kevin Clayborn. Below is what Kevin had to say in writing to his friends this week:


It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Gary Clarkson on Dec. 12th, 2009.

Gary was born on July 4th, 1952 in Sacramento, Calif. to Glen and Phyllis Clarkson. He was raised in Carmichael, Calif., where he graduated from El Camino High School. Following high school, Gary attended DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix, graduating in 1970. After graduation he worked as a contract engineer at several Arizona radio stations and continued his education in Electrical Engineering at Phoenix College and Arizona State University.

Gary, along with his good friend and classmate, the late Ron Jones, started Circuit Research Labs (CRL) in the kitchen of Ron’s house in Phoenix, Ariz. in the late '70s. They incorporated the company in 1983. Together, they grew the business, from an engineering service company into a significant force, both domestically and internationally, in the design and manufacture of audio processing for broadcasters in both the radio and television industries. They created innovative products and made many friends in the broadcast industry along the way.

After Ron’s passing on Jan 1, 1998, Gary ran the company until it was purchased in 1999. Gary remained a part of the company until June of 2009.

Gary was a warm and kind hearted person and a superb engineer. He was directly responsible for several CRL products, including the MBL-100 Shortwave Processor, the Amigo AM and the SC-100 RBDS Encoder to name just a few. He had several hobbies outside of broadcasting, including astronomy and woodworking.

Gary leaves behind his father, Glen of Sacramento, CA; his brother Don of Vancouver, WA; his good friends Ed and Karen Saunders of Mesa, AZ; three nephews Jim, John and Shane and many, many friends in the industry who will mourn his passing.

A memorial service in honor of Gary will be held in January, 2010.


You can write to Kevin Clayborn directly at kevin (at) orban.com

Whether the new movie “Pirate Radio” is a success, one thing is for sure, old broadcast pros will be scrutinizing every frame for “authenticity,” as they’ve done with any movie that touches on radio including “American Graffiti,” “Play Misty for Me” and “Howard Stern’s Private Parts.”

Broadcast Electronics has already claimed a prize, spotting a pair of its Spotmaster 500 cart players in “Pirate Radio” scenes involving the illicit 1960s radio broadcast operation.

To radio personnel over the age of, say 45, the Spotmaster was a beloved (and occasionally cursed) piece of studio equipment from the 1960s through the 1990s, when, first, CD and other media players (often designed to look and function sort of like cart machines) and then digital automation supplanted them.

Broadcast Electronics manufactured the Spotmaster line from 1959 to the early 1980s and maintained them until spare parts ran out, according to a press release from BE.

Shown in the photo below in back of the illuminated lamp is one of the two Spotmaster 500s, with DJs played by Rhys Ifans in forefront and Tom Sturridge in the background.

Here’s a nice radio story, with a little RW connection to boot.

An island with no stoplights and no parking meters is getting its first radio station, promising to become more important to the people of Ocracoke, N.C., than any new Wi-Fi outlet, cellphone service and their cable television.

Ocracoke Island is an isolated community at the south end of the Outer Banks, too far to matter for the big city stations, and vulnerable to hurricanes. A federal grant announced in September will buy a transmitter for WOVV(FM).

CNN visited to find out what the station will do for the village. Watch it here.

The story is reported by Paul Courson, who has written for RW about radio hobbyists who rescue old broadcast transmitters for use on shortwave.

To the truly gadget-oriented, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas every January is a hot ticket. All the cool new toys are there, including the latest in radio and other media players and related equipment.

To whet appetites, if appetites needed whetting, the Consumer Electronics Association each year presents a list of Innovations Honorees, notable new products that are expected at the show. These are chosen based on innovative design and engineering. A strong theme is iPod/iTouch/iPhone accessories.

From a final honoree list of several dozen, a “Best of” list is also selected. This year’s list, or rather the list for the 2010 show, has been released.

The “Best of Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award” list is light on traditional radio and TV devices but features a range of items including computer keyboards, digital cameras and a large number of automation/integration products that fulfill the prediction that one day everything will be wired to everything else.

Some fun items are the Arabesque speakers by Crystal Cable BV. The Arabesque are tower speakers with transparent glass sides.

Another notable winner is the XM SkyDock, an iPhone/iPod holder for auto use that marries XM satellite radio with standard FM radio, iPod and hands-free phone operation. It plugs into a cigarette lighter or the aux input and it will recharge the iPhone/iPod as well.

Probably the wildest product is Sanyo’s eneloop “synergistic hybrid” bicycle, a battery-assisted bike that uses braking and coasting to recharge its batteries.

The annual International CES Show is Jan. 7–10 in Las Vegas.

Read the list.

Marv Collins, a retired engineer and friend of RW, shares some pix of interest.

“Paul, you may have heard of the Station Fire in southern California,” he writes. “It burned within 150 feet of our house. This is the same fire that threatened Mount Wilson. The fire is out after we had 2.5 inches of rain a week ago.”

But strong winds this past week brought an ash dust storm. Marv attached three photos.

“The fire may be out but the ash dust from the fire sure continues on a daily basis,” he added.

A morning photo of the burned mountain behind Marv’s house. An afternoon photo of what looks like fog but is actually ash dust stirred up by the wind. It started as a clear day. The Collins swimming pool is covered with a layer of ash dust.

Are you a Marantz Maven? Sony Supporter? AEQ Advocate? Zoom Zealot?

Your "Radio Road Warrior" is looking for anecdotes from radio reporters and techies about your favorite audio recorders. What's your favorite model? Why? Are you using the latest hot gizmo, or have you never convinced yourself to toss your audio cassettes?

The best comments will find their way into an upcoming column on audio recorders for news work. Ideas, suggestions, brickbats + bouquets can be e-mailed to motorsportsradio@msrpk.com.

Read past columns here.

Like it or not, data is a big part of modern radio. Music is researched and tested; PPM offers minute-by-minute audience reactions. Now, Golden Square Labs is giving listeners a way to find the station that plays their favorite artists.

Compare My Radio, which opened in beta last week, tracks now-playing data from 20 stations across the United Kingdom. Listeners can search for artists or specific tracks and see which stations have played what how frequently. A "variety gauge" for each station helps visualize the ratio of total tracks to unique tracks played over the past 30 days (week or fortnight comparisons can also be made). It's also possible to compare two stations directly in terms of total tracks played, overlap in playlists and most-played tracks.

For example, a Beyoncé fan can quickly see that 11 stations have played 17 of her tracks over the past 30 day with a total of 1,837 tracks played. Choice FM and Capitol FM are the top two players of Beyoncé, but they only have a 40% overlap in their playlist. So a Beyoncé fan who also likes Lady GaGa and La Roux might find more music they like more often on Capital FM, while those who like to intersperse Beyoncé with Jay-Z and Keri Hilson might want to choose Choice FM.

A Frightened Rabbit fan, on the other hand, has slimmer pickings with only eight track-plays over the past 30 days — hopefully when the new single drops next month that'll increase — six on NME Radio vs. two on BBC Radio 6.

The stations tracked have an aggregate audience of more than 27 million, about 53% of the U.K. population, according to the RAJAR second quarter of 2009 audience report.

It's an interesting way to breakdown playlists and is likely to cause a few users to reëvaluate their station choices as they look more closely at who plays who and how often. Of course, even Compare My Radio helps a listener see if one station plays a greater variety of favorite artists or tracks, its playlist analysis can't account for how often a presenter talks (or how entertaining, engaging or annoying he or she is).