NERW Special

Daily updates from the NAB Convention Floor

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Wednesday, April 10

LAS VEGAS - As NAB begins winding to its conclusion (and we get ready to head back to the Northeast), we've had a chance to roam the exhibit floors and see what's new out there.

On the radio side, the quick answer is, "not much, thanks," with the exception of Ibiquity's IBOC system (about which, see below...) The changes this year, such as they are, are more evloutionary: next generations of the digital automation systems, editing systems, transmitters and so forth that were rolled out in recent years.

It's all about DTV on the television floors, of course, with several companies promoting low-cost, very low-power solutins to getting minimal DTV facilities on the air at small- and medium-market stations.

And in the post-boom landscape, there's a little bit more empty space on the exhibit floors than most of the remaining exhibitors would like to see. (The word from one booth on the TV floor this morning was that traffic was down 50% from last year.)

Across the way at RTNDA, chairman-elect Bob Salsberg (you New Englanders all know him as AP broadcast chief in Boston) tells NERW attendance this year was about 1,100, slightly above expectations for the hastily-rescheduled first attempt at combining RTNDA with the NAB convention.

The turnout was healthy at the Paul White Award dinner Monday night honoring Tom Brokaw, and it was heartening to see a packed room for the News Radio Summit on Tuesday. (Among the faces from our region: Mark Mills from WINS in New York, his WCBS counterpart Frank Raphael, and Steve Butler from KYW in Philadelphia.)

And as long as we're thinking about the Northeast, two big pieces of news from back home to catch you all up on: up in Toronto, the CRTC approved two of the applications for new TV stations. Craig (the broadcaster from the Canadian midwest) was the big winner, getting permission to build a channel 52 outlet in Toronto and a relay on channel 45 in Hamilton, running predominantly ethnic programming.

The CRTC also approved the proposal from Rogers' CFMT-TV to establish a second ethnic service, but asked Rogers to find a channel other than 52 to use before the application can be granted.

Much more on this next week...

Meanwhile, across the border in upstate New York, Binghamton's WCDW (100.5 Susquehanna PA) made the expected flip to oldies, cancelling the Greaseman morning show in the process. More on this next Monday, as well; we'll see you back here then!

Tuesday, April 9

The headlines, first: if you've been reading those other trades, you've probably already heard about the lukewarm endorsement given to Ibiquity's AM digital in-band, on-channel standard. The recommendation released here suggests that the standard is, quite literally, not ready for prime time: it's suggested for daytime use only.

We're not surprised; the buzz we've been getting from those we trust in the industry suggests that the system just isn't ready to deal with nighttime skywave conditions - or, more worrisomely, with the adjacent-channel listening that nighttime skywave makes possible.

And after seeing the really innovative things broadcasters elsewhere in the world plan to do with their digital radio signals, we're still mystified about why broadcasters in the U.S. think listeners will spend big bucks to buy new radios just to hear the same programming they're already getting on AM and FM.

NAB president Eddie Fritts made the usual IBOC pep talk in his keynote address Monday morning, getting in the usual digs against XM and Sirius and the NAB's fear that they'll try to offer local service.

"Radio stations accept the challenge," he told the crowd, "but what we cannot accept is a new competitor that plays fast and loose with the rules."

A tip of the hat to one of Fritts' gestures: it was a classy touch to present a big-screen tribute to the six World Trade Center broadcast engineers who lost their lives September 11.

Two more decent gestures to mention as well: Fritts reached out to CBS, NBC and Fox in his address, suggesting that the networks and the NAB still have plenty in common despite the difference of opinion over ownership-cap rules that caused the nets to leave the organization. We'd like to see CBS back, in particular; without heavy participation from the Infinity group (as well as Clear Channel, which has cut back its attendance at NAB in recent years), the radio sessions are much smaller than the industry would otherwise merit.

We also liked Fritts' stance on the latest proposals for licensing fees for streaming music.

"It's puzzling to us why those who control the music industry want fees to be excessive to the point that many radio stations will be driven off the Web," he said, drawing some of the louder applause the speech received.

We also had a chance to walk through the RTNDA exhibit area next door to the Convention Center; "sparse" would be a kind word, unfortunately. The good news from the RTNDA side: attendance seemed strong (including some notable CBS News faces on the radio side), and it was particularly heartening to see a strong contingent from the next generation, courtesy of NERW-land's own Emerson College.

Check back right here for still more tomorrow, including some notes from the convention floor!

Monday, April 8

A few quick first impressions of NAB 2002, after just a few hours Sunday afternoon: for an industry that's supposedly going through tough times, this is one big show.

We thought (and our aching legs agreed) that previous NAB shows were huge. But this year, the two existing show floors at NAB, one merely large, the other gargantuan, have been joined by the new South Hall, which opened Sunday afternoon with giant booths (the size of a football field) from Sony, Avid and other video players. Add to that the multimedia exhibits a mile away at the Sands convention hall, and then stir in the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention taking place next door, and it can take half an hour to get from one end to the next.

For all that, it seemed Sunday as if the only people here to enjoy it were the engineers. That was true, actually, since the engineering conference started earlier than the main convention.

And a lot of those engineers were from outside the U.S.; as in past years, the big American groups have cut back on the number of people they send to these shows. But that's OK; a lot of the action out there is taking place beyond American soil, at least where digital broadcasting is concerned.

We sat in on two digital sessions, hearing first about the DTV developments in Britain that have set-top converter boxes available for less than $150 in the corner grocery, then about the digital radio developments around the globe that are leaving the U.S. in the dust.

How about digital shortwave radio? Digital Radio Mondiale is testing its system - right now! - on Radio Nederlands in Bonaire, RCI in New Brunswick and WEWN in Alabama, and DXers will soon be able to download software to tune it in, as long as they have a shortwave radio attached to their computers.

Not - to use the British engineers' technical jargon - "whizzy" enough for you? Travel to the Isle of Man and you can plug into a digital radio system that's tied into 3G wireless phones to allow you to pick the next song, right from your handset. Did we mention there's streaming video there, too?

One quick update to this week's Site of the Week on Las Vegas, while we're thinking about it: the site shown for KNUU 970 is indeed history; it was razed sometime in the last year and the station is now using a new site to the south. We have pictures - and you'll see them when we get back home next week.

But first, there's more shoe leather to be worn out (did we mention there's a shuttle bus this year that runs just from one end of the convention center to the other?!?), more press releases to scan and more sessions to attend; tune in again tomorrow for all the latest from Sin City!

NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by the generous contributions of our regular readers. If you enjoy NERW, please click here to learn how you can help make continued publication possible. NERW is copyright 2002 by Scott Fybush.