Greetings from your broadcast friends out on the Desert…
This is BDR Newsletter 898, Volume 18, #13 for October 28, 2026

DOWN WITH DST!
At least for this year! For those of you saddled with DST (Daylight Saving Time), Sunday morning is your chance to get that “Free” hour of sleep that you lost back in the Spring. At 2:00 AM, the clock then will effectively go to 1:00:01 AM. Any legacy equipment that depends upon time – like power/pattern changes for AM – will need to be reset. Also, the programming department will need to schedule an extra hour of programming, or anything from a repeat or dead air could happen.

We, in Arizona (and Hawaii), are pretty happy with not having DST. While there was an effort in a number of places to make DST permanent, it will not happen this year… And a lot of folks hope DST never comes back.

OH OH … FORM ONE … LAST CALL
Sorry – one final reminder: Form One is due by Friday on the FCC ETRS page.

DAVICOM SET FOR GOOD FUTURE
Davicom users were happy to know the company is not fading away but getting stronger. See the video presentation from last week.

BE UNVEILS THE MTX
A new FM transmitter has been added to the Broadcast Electronics line. This week Rich Redmond will be with us to talk about what design features make the MTX stand out, and why you should consider it when purchasing a new transmitter.

Join us and find out more: tomorrow (Thursday) 2PM Eastern/11AM Pacific  Or catch us live on the youtube thebdrnet channel. Link invites are always at www.theBDR.net/TLG/

… and do not forget, on the same page we have hundreds of videos you can use on subjects you will want to learn about.

Oh, one more thing: we do have a Tuesday Reminder list, if you wish to get a reminder email for each week’s program. Just reply to this email and ask!   

May we please recommend this fine company which supports the BDR – and you!

 

AN IMPORTANT AUDIOVAULT WARNING
According to Broadcast Electronics, they have identified the cause of slowdowns reported on some AudioVAULT servers and workstations. This applies to systems shipped from 2018 to early 2020 that contain Micron 5×00 series SSDs. When these drives reach 65,535 power-on hours (about 2,730 days, or 7.48 years of running time), their performance drops sharply – throughput falling to around 1 Mbps, which makes Windows and every application on the machine, including AudioVAULT, slow and unresponsive.The problem does not clear on its own.

Note: The trigger is hours of operation, not purchase date, so some systems have already reached it, and others will over the coming months. BE strongly recommends scheduling a maintenance window to replace the drive before it reaches the threshold.  (hat tip to Mark Earle)

SIRIUSXM RETURNS WEEKLY EAS TESTS ON THE BARKER CHANNEL
Just in time for the National Periodic Tests (NPT) – although discontinued earlier in the year – SiriusXM seems to have listened to the many station that were using it as part of their EAS weekly test monitoring procedures to ensure national tests and alerts were accessible to all stations.

ABOUT THAT NPT
The NAB wants the EAS NPT to be as “normal” as possible, to reflect normal operating conditions. Therefore, it opposes a request by SiliconDust to disable Digital Rights Management (DRM) encryption, as used on some stations’ ATSC 3.0 transmissions, during the NPT on November 17th.

ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE RIGHT PLACE?
Yes, the NPT will come from the FEMA HQ, next month. However, while you are checking your EAS receiver to be sure it is programmed properly for the NPT, you might want to check the two over-the-air stations you are monitoring, to know the right ones are being heard. If not, perhaps because of signal strength issues, you have to get permission from the SECC to change to another station you can hear. Permission is easy. Picking the right alternate station may be a bit more difficult because so many stations do not relay NWS, for example. Check them out carefully. Oh, yes, and make sure the receptions are in the Station Log, checked weekly by the Chief Operator.

NAB NEW YORK
The Fall NAB Show, in New York City, was attended by some 6700, down about 40% from last yea,r, although the NAB reports 57% were first-time attenders.

TWO MORE SAD LOSSES FOR THE INDUSTRY
Over the past week or so, John Bisset and Hubert “Hue” Beavers have passed away.
Bisset was 73, a longtime broadcaster and equipment salesman. Beavers was 75, a fixture in the Dallas-Ft Worth market as engineer and station owner.

TURKEY DAY
It is true, November is just starting next week. But one of the most famous TV shows in history ran on October 30, 1978.  Remember?  It was the Turkey Drop on WKRP in Cincinnati.

PIRATE ACT FINES
Three more individuals in New England were fined $20,000 for violations of the PIRATE Act. One, a Shane Kelly, acknowledged the violation – but said he’d disposed of the equipment and, also, promised not to do it again. (The FCC was not impressed and declined to change its decision.) Of course, as you know, the FCC cannot itself sue to collect nor take actions against those who ignore the fines. The Department of Justice has that task.

STATION WEB PAGE ALERT
Getty images has gone bankrupt. As the situation continues to unfold stations using pictures on their website might wish to check and ensure they continue to have permission for the pix.

HOW FAST IT BECAME A FACTOR!
ChatGPT was one of the first major AI agents launched four years ago. In only four years, it is hard to go anywhere, call any company or do research without an AI agent to help. Of course, others worry the Terminator is getting ever closer!

PHP PANIC
It is quite possible you heard from your IT folks, your ISP or hosting service about the huge panic last week when it was revealed that AI agents had found a major vulnerability in the PHP programming that underlies as much as 70% of web sites. Similar critical faults were also found in Linux Kernel, NodeJS, Bind, and Python. Numerous patches and updates were issued to try to close the danger, and some predict more are on the way. If you care for your own website, it is worth checking to ensure its safety.

SO MANY POTENTIAL BUGS
The rash of AI “discovered” critical faults in software is definitely not merely a social media phenomenon or other prank. AI operations have significantly increased the volume and complexity of vulnerabilities IT professionals face – and automate exploit discovery and attacks … and even just rumors. In fact, so many bug reports are coming in – many of them invalid reports – that Google, which has an open-source vulnerability reporting program, has had to suspend the program until sometime next year to develop improved systems in order to better verify which bugs need immediate attention.

Did someone say it all feels like the “Wild West?”

FOR SALE
A Shure SM-5B microphone is available. This and a lot more items are at: https://www.thebdr.net/buy-and-sell/

May we please recommend this fine company which supports the BDR – and you!

 

  Here are some of the more recent items of interest:

• Critter Control – Jeff Welton
• Getting Ready for Winter – Barry Mishkind
• Join the Lunch Gathering – Thursday 2 PM Eastern
• Enforcement Watch – No NPT Forms for 3 Year = $27k / NoV for 475% over power
• Getting Hear from There – Mark Durenberger
• The FCC EAS Proposals – where industry agrees … and where it doesn’t – Ed Czarnecki
• A Complete Station Audit is Important – Barry Mishkind
• A Free Tool for the New FCC EAS Password Rule – and More! – Ken Fine
• Do You Have the Right USB-C Cable? – Barry Mishkihd

May we please recommend this fine company which supports the BDR – and you!

 
MANUFACTURERS’ NEWS

Speaking of the recent alert on PHP, etc, the Telos Alliance is working on remediation strategies to keep their products secure.
Telos is working on remediation strategies to keep their products secure. If you have a:

• Zephyr Connect SE
• Altus SE
• Pathfinder Core Pro

You can contact Telos for more information and/or downloads.

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FOUR NEW BE TRANSMITTERS
Models of the Broadcast Electronics‘ MTX Compact Series line already have 25, 100, 500, and 1kW models, featuring high efficiency and a compact design that can be shipped using UPS or FedEx.

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… AND INSIDE THE MTX
With many of the low power MTX transmitters likely to be used for translator service, the new BE MTXs have available the built-in  Inovonics SDR receiver (FM and HD radio), eliminating the need for an outboard receiver.

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ARRAKIS DEBUTS A NEW AUTOMATION SYSTEM
The company says APEX Cloud is an entirely new automation system,. The browser-based system has been developed from the ground up, “reimaginiing how radio automation should operate, and creating a system that is more flexible, powerful, accessible, and easier to use than ever before.” The system, with many features can be used for as low as $100/month or via a one-time buyout.

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CHEAPER ATSC 3.0 CONVERTER BOXES COMING
Pearl TV is working to get low-cost converter boxes for NextGen TVC  (ATSC 3.0) in major production as they push to sunset ATSC 1.

May we please recommend this fine company which supports the BDR – and you!

 

Do You Remember? This week in history:
Broadcast related items:

• 4 years ago (10/31/22) Taylor Swift Made History as First Artist With Entire Top 10 on Billboard Hot 100, Led by “Anti-Hero” at 1. * 
• 8 years ago (11/2/18) The biopic about Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody” opened in theaters. It won four Oscars.
• 9 years ago (10/25/17) Kenny Rogers, retiring after 60 years, had a star-studded farewell concert in Nashville.
• 28 years ago (10/28/98) President Bill Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law.
• 56 years ago (10/27/70) Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber released “Jesus Christ Superstar.“
• 60 years ago (10/29/66) ? and the Mysterians hit #1 with “96 Tears.” **
• 62 years ago (10/31/64) The Beatles were unseated from #1 after 14 weeks by Barbra Striesand’s “People.”
• 88 years ago (10/30/38) Orson Welles dramatization “War of the Worlds” was broadcast. Actually, historians point out that most of the confusion and panic reported was more hype than actual fact.

and … 106 years ago (10/27/1920) 8ZZ was granted a license. This was the station that became KDKA.

Here are a few more newsy-type items:

• 4 years ago (10/27/22) Elon Musk took control of Twitter, firing four executives.
• 14 years ago (10/29/12) Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast, creating the widest emergency area since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. (This year’s double hurricane might have been even bigger.)
• 57 years ago 10/29/69) the first message over ARPANET began … leading directly to our current Internet. ***
• 61 years ago (10/28/65) construction was completed on the Gateway Arch, a spectacular 630-foot-high parabola of stainless steel at St. Louis, Missouri.
• 63 years ago (10/31/63) Ed Sullivan was at Heatrow Airport where he witnessed the pandemonium of Beatlemania.
• 97 years ago (10/29/29) the Stock Market crashed and set off the Great Depression.
• 97 years ago (10/25/29) Secretary of the interior Albert B. Fall, found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office. ****
• 1221 years ago (10/27/1904) the inaugural run of the New York City subway opened. No sandwiches were served. *****
• 509 years ago (10/31/1517) Martin Luther is said to have posted his 95 theses on the Wittenberg (Germany) Castle Church, starting the Protestant Reformation.

May we please recommend this fine company which supports the BDR – and you!

 

* Swift passed Drake, who claimed nine of the top 10 in September 2021.

** Yes, years before Prince changed his name to that unpronounceable icon, the lead singer for the Mysterians took the name “?”

*** UCLA student Charley Kline attempted to transmit the text “login” to a computer at the Stanford Research Institute over the first link on the ARPANET. Unfortunately, the system crashed after the letters “l” and “o” were sent, making “lo” the first message ever sent on the Internet.

**** Fall was guilty in Teapot Dome scandal – the first individual to be convicted of a crime committed while a presidential cabinet member.

***** London boasts the world’s oldest underground train network (opened in 1863).

MIDWEEK BONUS

NO MORE LEAP SECONDS COMING
Every so often we would hear how, since 1972, the “keepers of time” used a “leap second” to align Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), due to the Earth rotation slowing a bit over the centuries. However, the Smithsonian now reports the General Conference on Weights and Measures has decided to eliminate the leap second. The reason relates to the technical challenges leap seconds pose to modern technology, such as computer and website disruptions. Instead, a leap hour will be introduced when UTC deviates from astronomical time by 3,600 seconds, a change not expected for hundreds of years.

Wait a minute! Why UTC, not CUT? UTC is a compromise between the English CUT and the Canadian French TUC.

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PLEASE TELL US WHAT’S WHAT
There are so many areas into which we would like to expand, but it is feedback from you that helps us decided where to go first. Are you interested in a certain piece of gear or technology? Let us know. Even better, would you be willing to do a user report and share your experience? 

PLEASE INVITE A FRIEND TO JOIN US
We sure hope you are finding the BDR and the Newsletter to be of value to you. If so, there are two things that you can do to ensure the BDR keeps pulsing along:
        1. Invite a colleague or a friend to sign up for the Newsletter. Since it is only one-time-a-week, you will not be accused of flooding their in-boxes!
        2. Anytime you deal with one of our sponsors, letting them know the BDR is important to you will make them happy – and ready to keep on supporting the BDR.

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We sure do appreciate you spending time with our Newsletter. And even more so when you recommend us to your colleagues and friends.

barry