Greetings from your broadcast friends out on the Desert…
This is BDR Newsletter 769, Volume 15, #41 for May 8, 2024

Here are some things you might want to know about:

WHEN A DA WAS NEW
It was 92 years ago that an idea to solve a problem set the stage for a lot of what we see today. Somewhat more recently, it set us off on a traipse in Clearwater to find some real roots of radio broadcasting.

FORM 395-B FILED FOR REINSTATEMENT
The FCC has published a Public Notice regarding the Fourth Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration in the Federal Register, with the effective date of June 3, 2024. Still to be determined: the OMB must approve of any new or changed information collection before compliance will be  required. Another Public Notice will be issued when this is completed.

CANADIAN ALERT READY TODAY
Today is the day for the Canadian semi-annual national test. If you are in Canada (or monitoring the Alert Ready System) you should have gotten the test today.

A SOLID STL OPTION
No matter how much time and effort you put into getting great audio in and out of the Control Room, your Studio-Transmitter-Link can sometimes end up defeating a lot of your work – especially if you have some older gear in the audio chain. GatesAir Intraplex continues to improve their Intraplex system and, as shown at the recent NAB show, introduced several new features and an application designed to optimize how the audio gets from here to there.

Tony Gervasi is our special guest this week, on Thursday at 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific to discuss some very interesting options/features you may want to implement on your system. The link request is at www.theBDR.net/TLG/


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

 

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT AI?
Dana is right on the topic . Not only the good parts, but where you need to be wary.

CONCERT TICKET REFORMS
Billie Eilish, Green Day, and Duran Duran are among more than 280 musical acts that are currently asking the US Congress to support the “Fans First Act.” The goal is to address hoped for reforms for the ticket-buying process for concerts and live events.

PASSKEY VS 2FA
Login access continues to evolve. According to Google, more than 400 million users have used passkeys over a billion times in the past two years, more than the number of SMS one-time passwords and other app-based OTPs combined. (Passkeys include facial or voice recognition or PINs.)

PEELING BACK THE ONION
The satirical news site – The Onion – was just sold for the second time in 5 years. It is now owned by Global Tetrahedron (Twilio’s Jeff Lawson). Their first article: “Give us $1 or The Onion disappears forever.”

FOR SALE
A BW TX50, also a set of ABR200’s are available, probably for parts and projects. What else might you want/need? See the Buy/Sell Page.

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

 

Some recent articles of interest:

• History By the Bay – the first DA – Barry Mishkind
• Living In A Time Of AI And ChatGPT – Dana Puopolo
• Join the Lunch Gathering – Thursday 2 PM Eastern
• WCCO – A Good Start Meets a Setback – Mark Durenberger
• Kapton Tape Can Save The Day – Ron Schacht
• Enforcement Watch: Underwriting foul costs Pacifica
• Really Communicating with Managers – Dana Puopolo
• The YI Dome Guard Security Camera – Barry Mishkind
• Belden 9451 vs StudioHub – Bob Burnham
• Dana’s Daily Deals
• More newsy items here

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

 

MANUFACTURERS’ NEWS
 

SAS has improved their consoles with a new feature: instead of just labelling pots with letters and numbers, you can now use icons for microphones or telephone, for example.

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Shure is holding an SM58 day .. with a discount on the famous microphone. They are also featuring a new product the Nexadyne dynamic microphone using Shure’s patented Shure Revonic Dual Transducer Technology to make voices stand out in the mix.

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At the NAB Show, Arrakis showed off their H15, a complement to the H10 – a series of analog consoles, controllable via software. Also, the DARC series are AoIP consoles, started at $500 and range from 4 to 16 channels.

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… and more that we will talk about in coming weeks. 
May we please recommend this fine company which supports the BDR – and you!
 


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

• 23 years ago (5/8/01) XM got their satellite system in place. (The official launch of the service was on September 25, 2001.)
• 47 years ago (5/7/77) The Eagles checked in with a 6:08 song, “Hotel California,” as #1.
• 48 Years ago (5/8/76) The theme from “Welcome Back, Kotter“ was the #1 song.
• 54 years ago (5/9/70) The Guess Who hit #1 with “American Woman“ – actually a tribute to Canadian Women.
• 59 years ago (5/6/65) Keith Richards woke up in the middle of the night to write “Satisfaction.”
• 60 years ago (5/9/64) the Beatles were toppled from being #1 after three and a half solid months. Who did it? And what was the hit that became #1? *
• 63 years ago (5/9/61) Newton Minnow gave his famous speech to the NAB calling TV a “Vast Wasteland.”**
• 87 years ago (5/6/37) the Hindenberg crashed at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in New Jersey with Herbert Morrison’s famous coverage on WLS.***
• 90 years ago (5/9/1932) WFLA-WSUN in Tampa, FL began operations with the first directional antenna on AM.

… and 200 years ago (5/7/1824) Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 debuted.

How about some “regular news history” type items?

• 22 years ago (5/5/02) “Spider-Man” became the first movie to top $100 million in its opening weekend.
• 24 years ago (5/5/00) the “ILOVEYOU” cyberworm went global in 24 hours, infecting hundreds of millions.
• 27 years ago (5/11/97) IBM’s Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess match.
• 30 years ago (5/6/94) the English Channel Tunnel (The Chunnel) opened. A 3 and 1/2 hour ferry became a half-hour train ride. 2 and 1/2 hours to Paris. Just drive your car on the train and go! **** Some stats!
• 30 years ago (5/7/94) Norway’s most famous painting, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo.
• 50 years ago (5/9/74) Richard Nixon’s Impeachment Hearings started.
• 61 years ago (5/8/63) In the US, Sean Connery starred in his first Bond movie, “Dr. No.”
• 63 years ago (5/5/61) Alan Shepherd, Jr became the first American in space, in the Freedom 7 space capsule, one month after Russia’s Gagarin.  ***** Mission length???
• 64 years ago (5/7/60) Leonid Brezhnev becomes president of the USSR.
• 79 years ago (5/8/45) V-E Day was celebrated in America and Britain, as Germany surrendered in WWII.
• 109 years ago (5/7/1915) a German submarine sunk the RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198.
• 155 years ago (5/10/1869) the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met in Promontory, Utah, and drove a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connected their railroads. This made transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time in U.S. history.

… and 157 years ago (5/8/67) Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patented dynamite in England.

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

 

* The Beatles were finally knocked off the #1 slot – a place they held longer than any other artist before or since – by Louis Armstrong …. and his top of the charts “Hello Dolly“  on May 9, 1964.

** … and yes, in a recent interview, he still feels that way.

*** “Oh, the humanity!”

**** the Chunnel runs under water for 23 miles, with an average depth of 150 feet below the seabed. Each day, about 30,000 people, 6,000 cars and 3,500 trucks journey on it.

***** Shepherd was in space for 15 minutes. But it was a start!

MIDWEEK BONUS

The very first music video? This was long before MTV. And, no, you won’t be rick-rolled.

Like to browse electronic stores with old stock? A couple of videos on youtube have visited stores with cameras. The “guide” is definitely an enthusiast. He loves it … often commenting “how cool is that!” Get a beverage and be ready to get nostalgic!

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PLEASE INVITE A FRIEND
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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?

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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

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Now … some extra stuff .. some important … some just interesting.

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