Big news — I’m proud to announce that the Second Edition of my book VHF, Summits, and More is now available. I’ve received tons of positive feedback on the first edition, published in 2019, and I decided it was time for an update. This new version is printed in color, which greatly enhances the photos and graphics. This book is Continue reading Second Edition of VHF, Summits, and More→
Aux États-Unis, la part de marché des podcasts sur le contenu audio parlé a finalement dépassé celle de la radio AM/FM. Au dernier trimestre 2025, les Américains de plus de 13 ans ont passé plus de temps à écouter des podcasts qu’à écouter la radio traditionnelle, pour le contenu audio parlé.
Front: Caitlyn Minney, John Roddy Middle: Jackson Alexander, Emily Medina, Jasen Sokol Rear: Bill Peters, Nick Colbert
Now more than ever, every dollar counts.
For a college media program, a successful fundraiser is a way to prove your worth to campus administrators. For a regional public radio outlet, it might simply be a matter of survival.
So when a college station pulls off a financially record-breaking campaign in its history, it’s worth taking note.
John Carroll University’s 88.7 WJCU(FM) recently raised approximately $108,000 over a 10-day radiothon. The radio station licensed to the private university located in University Heights, Ohio, the Cleveland suburb, broke the school’s record of about $83,000, which itself was a marked jump from approximately $69,000 in 2024.
To understand how WJCU pulled this off, it is worth revisiting the backdrop of a significant event in northeast Ohio’s collegiate radio scene this past fall.
Though the operation is still licensed to CSU, Ideastream took over its programming, flipping it to a straight-ahead jazz format.
Jasen Sokol, who has been director of WJCU since 2020, felt the shockwaves immediately.
By night, Sokol operates as a public address announcer for the Cleveland Monsters AHL hockey team. While at the arena, unprompted, people came up to him through the penalty box glass asking what was going on at Cleveland State.
WJCU(FM) Director Jasen Sokol takes a call during its 2026 radiothon.
“I think it really hurt a lot of people, not just the students and the community volunteers there, but all the people that listen to those programs,” Sokol said.
“And all of us in the college radio community in northeast Ohio too, because it could have been us.”
As a result, Sokol does not take listener or administrative support for granted.
Proving your worth
While WJCU’s radiothon spans exactly 10 days, Sokol insists the effort is a year-round, around-the-clock campaign to prove the station’s value.
“Whether it’s live broadcasts from campus events or involvement fairs, we have to prove our worth constantly,” he said. That visibility has even earned WJCU’s studios a dedicated stop on the university’s prospective student campus tour.
When something good happens — such as the two awards WJCU earned at the 2026 IBS Convention in New York City — Sokol doesn’t waste any time sending out an email blast to campus departments. “Sometimes, you’ve got to be guilty of tooting your own horn,” he joked.
Sokol believes in the strategy. WJCU enjoys a well-placed standing with John Carroll’s administration. “Even members of our senior leadership team were donating,” Sokol said.
Believe-land
John Carroll University sophomore communications student Emily Medina on the phone during WJCU(FM)’s radiothon.
Today, about 40 students volunteer with the outlet, spearheaded by an eight-member student executive board. But crucially, the station also taps into the broader Cleveland community.
Approximately 40 community members host shows on WJCU. Many are alumni, including one founding member.
Another host will celebrate his 45th anniversary on the air next year. It’s a hybrid model that might not work everywhere, but Cleveland supports it, Sokol said.
“The cultural diversity in this town is something that is not only very broad, but it’s celebrated,” Sokol noted.
Beyond its deep rock-and-roll history, Cleveland’s cultural roots — from Little Italy to Slavic Village to its Paczki Day celebrations — provide a ground for local, niche radio.
But it’s evident in the number of college and community radio stations that are operating across the region. In addition to WJCU, there’s WRUW(FM) at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve and Baldwin Wallace College’s WBWC(FM) in Berea. To the south, the Class B FM signal of WZIP(FM) is operated by University of Akron.
“I think this is the best location in the nation for college radio,” Sokol said.
There’s also successful high school-operated stations in Streetsboro High School’s WSTB(FM) and the Kenston High School district’s WKHR(FM) in Bainbridge, Geauga County.
Where to start?
Left to right: Jasen Sokol, Janet DeSouza, Joe Madigan, Caitlyn Minney, Lauren Salata, Nick Colbert, Evan Richwalsky and Owen Close
For a public radio outlet looking to venture into fundraising for the first time, a $100,000 goal might seem daunting. Next year will be WJCU’s 25th radiothon, and Sokol cautions that building this kind of momentum takes time.
“Maybe you receive 75 pledges that are all around 20 or 30 bucks — that’s valuable!” he said.
Planning for WJCU’s spring radiothon begins in mid-September. Sokol said the team locks down themes and tests thank-you gifts before winter break to ensure donors receive high-quality items — like a WJCU Bluetooth speaker with a built-in FM radio for the $250 level, or an invitation to the annual Gold Member Dinner for the $500 level.
The radiothon is strategically scheduled to cover two weekends. The timing, Sokol said, ensures that community volunteers, who largely broadcast on weekends, get two opportunities to ask their dedicated audiences for support.
It pays off: “Jump in Joe’s Basement Show,” an oldies program, raised $25,000 between his two Saturday slots alone, driven by donors actively trying to one-up each other’s pledges on the air.
Meanwhile, a student show received a $10,000 single pledge called in by a former board member.
Finding the value statement
The first step for any successful drive, Sokol said, is training students on how to demonstrate to listeners that their hard-earned dollars are worth spending.
In late January, he works with WJCU’s students to refine their on-air pitches.
“The biggest thing is, we have to have a value statement,” he said. “This is a hard-working, blue-collar town. Why should someone who is living paycheck to paycheck contribute to us instead of the myriad of other causes out there?”
One WJCU student host, Lauren Koppelmann, pitched the station as the singular way she stays connected to her family back home in New Jersey, playing requests so they can share music via the online stream.
“We can still feel like we’re together because of what we’re doing on the radio,” she told her listeners.
Key students driving the station’s success include sports directors Nikolena Samac and Owen Close, and students Zachary Sinutko, Caitlyn Minney and Nick Colbert.
Koppelmann, WJCU’s co-music director and a varsity swimmer, even conceptualized an “inner circle” donor wall for those who contributed over $250.
“It’s something that’s going to last long after she graduates,” Sokol said.
WJCU(FM)’s Emily Davala is gifted a Valentine’s Day rose from Cleveland Guardians’ mascot, “Mustard.”
During this year’s drive, which overlapped with Valentine’s Day, alumni host Zachary “DJ Z13” Sinutko was out of town for work, so he arranged for “Mustard” — the Cleveland Guardians’ hot dog mascot — to surprise his girlfriend, Emily Davala, with a gift while she was answering phones at the station.
Ultimately, Sokol’s advice to stations hesitant to ask their listeners for money is simple: “Jump in and try it. Even if you raise a few thousand dollars, it’s more than you had.”
The Association of Public Radio Engineers is preparing for the 26th Public Radio Engineering Conference, returning to Las Vegas in April with a focus on navigating the uncertain future of the broadcast industry.
The event will take place Thursday, April 16, and Friday, April 17, at the Tuscany Suites and Casino, preceding the 2026 NAB Show.
This year’s speakers include engineers, representatives from product manufacturers and other recognizable industry names. PREC is public radio’s yearly gathering for broadcast engineers of all experience levels, featuring an emphasis on topics related to public broadcasting.
This year’s guiding theme is “what’s next” — which the organization said represents looking at where public radio and public media are heading from both a technical and public service standpoint.
According to APRE President Scott Hanley, the association’s board designed the 2026 event with the shifting public media landscape in mind. He believes it is the one time of year such a large and diverse group of technology experts can gather.
“We decided that our conference had become even more important than years past, as we face a future where effective, sustainable operation is at risk and important to our communities,” Hanley said.
The two-day schedule includes several industry-focused sessions. On Thursday, the conference begins with “Audio Processing – How To Tune It and Why It Matters,” hosted by Leif Claesson of Claesson Edwards.
Other Thursday sessions include:
David Layer of NAB presenting “AM Radio in the 21st Century”.
“Transmission System Troubleshooting Techniques” by Steve Wilde of American Amplifier.
“The Magic of LTSC and Other Ways to Make Legacy Tech Work” presented by Scott Hanley, Darrell McCalla and William Harrison.
“The Data-Driven Dashboard: Leveraging AutoStage Analytics for Public Media” by Juan Galdamez of Xperi.
Friday’s schedule includes:
“Advances in FM Antenna Technology” by Cory Edwards of Dielectric.
“NCE Translator Window and Other Legal Updates” by Derek Teslik of Gray Miller Persh.
An update on NPR Distribution by NPR’s Badri Munipalla, Jon Cyphers and Mike Pilone.
“Studios (Or No Studios At All) – Some New Ways of Thinking” by Scott Fybush of Myriad broadcast software.
On Friday afternoon, the newly formed Public Media Infrastructure will also be presenting, with speakers to be announced.
Attendees can take advantage of early-bird pricing until March 1. Hanley said that APRE’s board extended this deadline because “December 31 was too soon for anyone to know what to expect and make a decision for spring.”
Organizers have held in-person conference prices flat since 2024. APRE has also kept a virtual attendance option for engineers unable to travel. Hanley said that early registrations are tracking similarly to past years.
He also said APRE is expanding its financial aid footprint.
The funds are designated both to assist attendees with financial needs and “to encourage the next generation of technical talent to get firmly engaged in the public media engineering community sooner rather than later,” according to Hanley.
The conference concludes on Friday evening with the annual APRE Awards Dinner at Lawry’s The Prime Rib.
On Friday afternoon, SBE Chapter 15’s Bud Williamson and Andy Gladding hosted multiple sessions, including an introduction to engineering, a technical Q&A and a discussion on the value of membership in the Society of Broadcast Engineers.
The sessions also included Mindy Hoffman, engineer for Audacy, and Scott Fybush, engineering consultant and U.S. sales representative for software automation provider Broadcast Radio.
These were part of a two-day conference where approximately 850 college and high school students gathered in New York City.
The festivities culminated in a boisterous atmosphere inside the Metropolitan Ballroom, where the 2026 IBS Media Awards were presented.
Receiving this year’s best overall college station award was 91.7 WSUM(FM) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It also secured the win for best college/university station for a student body greater than 10,000.
UW student members Vincent Hesprich, sports director, and Johnny Raider, production director, were on-hand to show off the new hardware. In all, the station brings four trophies back to the Badger State.
UW student members Vincent Hesprich, sports director, and Johnny Raider, production director
Other top honors included:
Best college/university station (less than 10,000 students): 91.1 WGCS(FM) Goshen (Ind.) College
Best community station: 90.3 WHPC(FM), Nassau County (N.Y.) Community College
Best high school station: 88.1 WLTL(FM), Lyons Township (Ill.) High School
Tom Gibson Award for outstanding radio engineering: Cornelius Gould and Eric Simna, 88.7 WJCU(FM), John Carroll University
Engineering extra
Mindy Hoffman, engineer for Audacy, describes DFW’s Cedar Hill tower farm.
Hoffman is also an advisor for Rutgers University’s 90.3 WVPH(FM) in Piscataway, N.J., and she offered a tutorial to the youthful audience.
She pointed out the visual differences between AM, FM and TV antennas and quizzed her subjects on their functions.
Her presentation also highlighted notable broadcast “tower farms” across North America, ranging from Mount Wilson in Los Angeles to Cedar Hill in Dallas–Ft. Worth and the Mount Royal farm in Montreal.
She recounted a story of scaling the steps at Mount Royal and looking out at its antennas, which drew oohs and aahs from the crowd.
Hoffman offered two key pieces of advice for student technical directors:
If a piece of equipment is malfunctioning, first check the power source.
It’s tried and true advice, but if a problem involves a station computer: Unless it is running a specifically scheduled event, turn it off and turn it back on.
As students move into more demanding tech roles, Williamson provided an explainer on the different methods of delivering AoIP commonly used by stations today.
Williamson and Gladding also encouraged students to capitalize on their physical presence on campus.
“It has to be visible,” Williamson said. “Maybe it’s in front of a mailroom — somewhere with a lot of foot traffic.”
What motivates you
Helen Little of WLTW(FM) delivers the keynote speech at the 2026 IBS Conference.
Keynote speaker Helen Little shared her inspirational career path, which saw her climb the ladder from UNC-Chapel Hill to WPEG(FM) in Charlotte, with subsequent stops in Houston, Dallas and Philadelphia.
At Radio One in Philadelphia, Little became the first African-American female operations manager of a radio station cluster in the country.
While she originally envisioned a career in a warm-weather market like Miami — a sharp contrast to the Blizzard Warnings being hoisted across the tri-state during her speech — a challenge from an ex-boyfriend changed her trajectory. He teased that she could never get a job in New York.
“That was a matter of someone telling me something I couldn’t do, which is one way to motivate me,” Little said. “Listen to your inner voice. Pay attention to your inner compass and let that guide you.”
She moved to New York as the program director of iHeartMedia’s 105.1 WWPR(FM), but eventually realized she missed being on the air. In 2008, she took a chance to become the midday host of the top-rated 106.7 WLTW(FM), a post she has held ever since.
It could have been viewed as a backwards move by some.
But addressing the students, Little emphasized finding personal motivation. “It’s not always going to be money. For me, it’s the fun of it all,” Little said.
She also touched on modern tools, noting she’ll use ChatGPT for show prep while adhering to iHeart’s “Guaranteed Human” policy.
“AI definitely has a great purpose, but not to make up a story for me to tell,” she said.
The future runway
Little was asked by a student how they could make it to the New York radio market. She admitted that many of her on-air coworkers at iHeart New York have been there for a while.
“In New York, when people get these jobs, they don’t leave,” Little explained. “It creates a bottleneck of opportunity,” she said. “But if you really want to do this, you’ll go where the work is.”
On that note, Saturday morning, a panel featuring Lance Venta of RadioInsight, Sean Ross of Ross on Radio and Pat “DJ Grooves” Cerullo from Loud Radio Pennsylvania discussed the current state of the industry, including for career opportunities.
Left to right: George Capalbo, panel moderator, Lance Venta, RadioInsight, Pat “DJ Grooves” Cerullo from Loud Radio Pennsylvania, Sean Ross, Ross on Radio
Venta, who has chronicled radio since he launched the Mid-Atlantic Radio Message Board in 1997, observed a dearth of Gen-Xers at the management level, leaving a gap between aging leadership over 60 and the newest faces in the building.
The few entry-level positions that are available do often involve relocation, and that’s just not appealing to the current generation, the panelists agreed.
“Overall, there is a future-vision problem,” Venta remarked.
But the panel also celebrated the fact that technology now allows many shows to be produced remotely — a major draw for young talent.
Cerullo, who operates his Loud Radio network from home, recently hired a 22-year-old Jabez “Bez Musiq” Carrasquilla for afternoon drive. “He’s active on social media and he has a great following, but the linear aspect of radio appealed to him,” Cerullo said.
Ross added that while “great radio” is harder to find, it still exists. He cited the K-Love network as an example: “They have seven great on-air shows and they present themselves with a swagger.”
Fybush, who recalled his first IBS in 1991, chimed in from the audience. He noted that versatility is now mandatory: “Most successful broadcasters are their own ad agencies these days.”
Ultimately, the conference highlighted that while radio faces the same hurdles it has for decades, the next generation is there, waiting, if the industry at large is willing to offer those opportunities.
As Little concluded in her keynote: “Give them a reason to listen, give them a reason to show up and they’ll do it. When you don’t take care of your audience, they start looking elsewhere.”
The SOTA Management Team launched a special challenge for 2026: a distance-based scoring challenge using CW and SSB on the 2m and 70cm bands. The announcement is here on the SOTA reflector. The basic idea is to encourage SOTA contacts using CW or SSB on these two bands. Because the scoring is based on distance, you need to enter the Continue reading SOTA Challenge: CW/SSB on 2m & 70cm→
A new public service announcement campaign from the National Association of Broadcasters voices appreciation for members of Congress who have publicly pledged support for an AM Radio vehicle mandate.
The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (H.R. 979) would require the secretary of transportation to mandate that AM radio be made free and easily accessible to consumers in all new vehicles, including electric models.
According to NAB, the spots highlight grassroots and bipartisan support for the legislation. But they also urge congressional leadership to finally get the bill to a floor vote and bring it to the president’s desk.
“Listeners across the country are speaking up because they depend on AM radio for trusted news and lifesaving emergency information, and members of Congress are responding,” Grace Whaley, NAB’s director of communications and social media, told us.
“A lot of people don’t know about that, but it’s actually a very big subject,” Trump told Hewitt. “We’re going to be doing something on that.”
According to Radio Ink, the bill carries more than 375 co-sponsors across the Senate and House of Representatives. It still awaits a floor vote from House and Senate leadership, in the second year of the current congressional cycle.
Radio Ink also noted the strategic timing of the release of the thank you spots just prior to the NAB State Leadership Conference, which is to convene in Washington on March 3.
WorldDAB is out with the second edition of an ebook to help those who want to launch a DAB+ digital radio service or are in the process.
The resource is called “Establishing DAB+ Digital Broadcast Radio.” The first edition came out three years ago; it has been updated to coincide with World Radio Day this Friday.
“The book offers a unique, in-depth guide to the regulatory, technical and commercial aspects of establishing a successful DAB+ digital radio service,” according to the organization.
It covers the process from initial interest through to analog switch-off. New information is included on Automatic Safety Alert (ASA), hybrid radio features, regulation/licensing and how to minimize costs of site design.
“There are also updates on country examples, the digital adoption process and analog switchover.”
Mary Texanna Loomis and one of her transmitter projects. (Credit: Library of Congress)
In the 1920s, if you wanted to become a commercial radio operator or a shipboard radioman, you needed a Commercial Radio License, issued by the Department of Commerce.
The best way to achieve this was to attend one of the few radio schools that operated in principal cities around the United States. Two of the most distinguished schools were in Washington, D.C.: the National Radio Institute and the Loomis Radio College.
The latter was the only woman-owned radio school in the country. Mary Texanna Loomis was the principal instructor and that rare creature in the 1920s: a female authority on radio.
She was a distant cousin to Dr. Mahlon Loomis, who in 1866 had experimented with “stealing current from the atmosphere” using kites and metallic string.
In one experiment, he flew kites from two peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia and was able to detect a change in current in a galvanometer in one kite when he grounded the line of the other.
Subsequently, he was able to send Morse Code messages between the two locations, a distance of 18 miles. He was experimenting in wireless communication nine years before Guglielmo Marconi was born.
Adult learning
Mary Texanna Loomis was born August 18, 1880, in a homesteader’s shack near Goliad, Texas, the second child of Alvan Isaac and Caroline (Dryer) Loomis. Her middle name was bestowed in honor of the state where she was born.
Mary Texanna Loomis
The family moved to Rochester, N.Y., in 1883, where she had a respectable middle-class upbringing. She was sports-minded in her youth, participating in swimming, horseback riding and strenuous exercise. She also took voice lessons and became a good soprano. She learned to speak three languages: French, Italian and German.
A grandfather was a strong influence; he taught her to use tools and to build mechanical devices, and he helped develop her interest in science and the new inventions of the industrial age.
Loomis married Turner Erving Howard in October of 1898, in Buffalo. The marriage ended in divorce in 1917. It’s not known that she had any children.
After her divorce, she moved to Washington, where she looked unsuccessfully for music employment. But her life took a new turn when she attended a lecture on the emerging technology of wireless communication.
Fascinated, she proceeded to read everything she could find on the subject. At the age of 38, at a time when radio was the field of only a few experimenters and inventors, most if not all of them men, she graduated from radio school and earned her first-class radio telegraphy license.
During World War I, she worked for the Red Cross and as a secretary in a wireless school. It was only then that she learned about the experiments of her distant cousin, and she resolved to open a radio operator’s school in his honor.
The Loomis Radio School in (Washington, D.C. Credit: Library of Congress)
In 1920, she invested every cent she had and incorporated the Loomis Radio School. Located at 401–411 Ninth Street in the northwest quadrant of the city of Washington, it offered a six-month course preparing students for the first-class commercial radio license exam. Most students who graduated found positions as shipboard radio operators.
Meeting any mishap
Loomis was the school’s president and principal lecturer. She taught radio using the equipment that she constructed herself in the school’s machine shop, and taught her students how to build radio equipment.
“No man can graduate from my school until he learns how to make any part of the apparatus,” she said.
“I give him a blueprint of what I want him to do and tell him to go into the shop and keep hammering away until the job is completed. I want my graduates to be able to meet any emergency or mishap that may arise someday far out on the sea.”
She lived a frugal life in a boarding home, and worked 12 to 15 hours a day teaching, grading papers and writing. The Loomis Radio School offered four courses. One for commercial radio operators led to a first-class commercial radio operators license. A course for technical training taught how to build a receiving set. A third course led to a license as a radio amateur operator. And the fourth was for operators who needed to renew an expired license or who had been military operators and needed only minimal training.
Loomis teaches a class of future radio operators (Credit: Library of Congress)
Her students also gained practical experience operating a radio transmitter through the use of the school’s amateur station, W3YA.
Loomis was a noted lecturer and member of the prestigious Institute of Radio Engineers. She authored and marketed the popular book “Radio Theory and Operating for the Radio Student and Practical Operator.” This was a reference text of 886 pages and 700 illustrations, advertised at a reasonable price and offered postage-paid directly by the school. It found its place as a textbook used by many educational institutions and government agencies.
By 1928 the Loomis book was in its fifth edition and amounted to 1,006 pages. “Radio Broadcast” Magazine called it “one of the most comprehensive volumes in its field.”
She dedicated her book to her cousin Mahlon Loomis.
The depression that began in 1929 affected the school severely, as it did tens of thousands of other businesses. Fewer students could afford the training, and larger schools like the National Radio Institute had more resources to weather the hard times. Further, a new competitor, the Capitol Radio Institute, would open in Washington in 1932.
In 1930, Loomis reorganized the school as the Loomis Radio College, Inc., but it was dissolved in early 1933.
A student works on a radio project in the Loomis Radio School. (Credit: Library of Congress)
Not much is known about Mary Texanna Loomis’ later life. She is known to have relocated to San Francisco in 1938; the census shows that she lived in the St. Francis Hotel and listed her occupation as a stenographer. She died in that city in June of 1960, at the age of 79, and was buried at the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
Sources used in this article include:
“National Electragist,” November 1921: “Woman conducts radio school”, by H.O. Bishop
The Dearborn Independent, Dec. 31, 1921: “Woman conducts radio school”
“The American Magazine”, January 1924: “This young woman founded a radio school”
The Washington Post, March 15, 1931: “Mary Loomis bosses air students to high success”
“The Spectrum Monitor,” July 2022: “The First Lady of Radio” by Scott Caldwell
Another woman active in early radio was Mary Day Lee.
John Schneider has spent his career in broadcast technology development and sales. He is a lifelong radio history researcher. Email him at jschneid93@gmail.com.
From left: Hervé Godechot, journalist and ex-board member of Arcom; Jonathan Wall, director of BBC Sounds; and Charles-Emmanuel Bon, secretary general, Radio France at WorldDAB Summit in Antwerp in November.
The author of this commentary is program manager in France for WorldDAB.
France is one of the fastest-growing DAB+ markets, making this year’s Paris Radio Show on Feb. 3–4 a key event in the digital radio calendar.
The show is described by the organizers as being “where decision-makers and players in the digital audio, radio and podcasting industries come to learn, exchange ideas and discover suppliers for their technical, editorial, strategic or other needs.”
WorldDAB, the global industry forum for DAB+ digital radio, will again be represented. It will demonstrate advances in the new life-saving Automatic Safety Alert (ASA) system, as well as new features incorporated in the latest domestic receivers.
National update
DAB+ continues its rollout across France.
In December 2025, a further 90 transmitters were brought into service. These new sites mainly enhance the range of radio stations already available on DAB+, primarily in Brittany and the Pays-de-la-Loire region.
In short, DAB+ started north-east, center and south, and it now expands further west. Sixty-six percent of the population can now enjoy DAB+, including nearly all towns with a population of 50,000 or more.
The “metropolitan” multiplexes, which bring together the main national public and private networks, launched a total of 69 additional transmitters in December, bringing good coverage to the main urban areas of Brittany and the region’s road network.
The metropolitan multiplexes can also be received on more than 9,000 km of motorway; by the end of this year, population coverage is expected to reach 80%.
Exciting new DAB+ stations are also in the pipeline such as Radio France’s “Mon Petit France Inter,” a new public service radio station designed for children. At the recent WorldDAB Summit, Charles-Emmanuel Bon, secretary general of Radio France, described the service as a unique offering, broadcast only in DAB+, and targeted toward children ages 6–10 and their parents for in-car listening.
Alongside this, “Ensemble pour le DAB+” brings the industry together to produce innovative media campaigns promoting DAB+ to the public, with the support of the Ministry of Culture. After several radio and poster campaigns, the promotion of DAB+ took another step forward last year with a summer television campaign.
In addition to a new wave of radio promotions, DAB+ was featured on several television channels: M6, France TV, BFMTV and SECOM. The advert showed the many benefits of listening to DAB+ radio while travelling, in everyday life or on holiday. In 2026, DAB+ will represent a broadcasting spending of more than £30 million per year for French radio stations.
Assisted awareness jumped in two years to 34%. And more than 80% of listeners express their satisfaction. DAB+ kept its promises: free, uninterrupted listening on the go, and quality audio. All these values reinforce the benefits of broadcast radio.
At the Paris Radio Show, WorldDAB Project Director Bernie O’Neill and France Country Manager Jean-Marc Dubreuil will be in attendance to offer expert advice and to showcase the functionalities of the innovative new life-saving DAB+ Automatic Safety Alert system.
Last year, WorldDAB’s work to develop ASA for DAB+ was recognized by the Show’s Grand Prix Awards. ASA was nominated in the “Best Technical Innovation” award, the category recognizing new concepts, emerging technologies and innovative solutions.
Three key features make this DAB+ emergency warning system different from every other system available:
Location targeting — only people in affected areas are notified
Signaling between ensembles — receivers analyze references to warning announcements on other radio stations, increasing the flexibility and reach of the warnings
Wake-up modality — receivers can be awakened by DAB+, especially important for alarm clock radios
“These new features help broadcasters and regulators to position broadcast radio as an asset in emergency situations given it is a robust and hack-resistant technology — while meeting the objectives of cultural diversity,” said O’Neill.
“This helps justify the required investment in the technology.”
The technical standards for this new feature were published by ETSI in September 2024. Product testing certification is now available to manufacturers through WorldDAB’s partners DTG Testing, with the first consumer receivers incorporating ASA now available.
Paris Radio Show takes place in La Bellevilloise in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, Feb. 3–4.
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The FCC imposed six financial penalties against alleged radio pirate operators last year.
It also issued 10 notices of apparent liability that may turn into fines, and it entered into three consent decree agreements with pirate operators, each with 20-year compliance plans.
The commission sent to Congress its required annual report on its activity under the PIRATE Act of 2020.
The biggest penalty was a fine issued last June against Fabrice Polynice for approximately $2.4 million for pirate radio broadcasting in North Miami, Fla., confirming an earlier notice of proposed liability.
The commission called him one of the most egregious offenders and said he operated “Radio Touche Douce” since at least 2012. Polynice, also known as DJ Paz, had asked the commission to reduce his penalty, saying he couldn’t afford to pay.
Also on the list is a fine against Masner Beauplan for $920,000 issued in September for activity in the New York City area.
Other fines or settlements range from $6,000 to $325,000. The commission has not said that these or other pirate fines have actually been collected, other than in cases of consent decrees.
The current maximum fines are about $120,000 per day and $2.5 million total.
The Enforcement Bureau can also issue notices to property owners and property managers of apparent pirate radio broadcasts from their property.
In 2025, it issued 28 such letters, including 17 related to the required pirate “sweeps” it conducts in cities where illegal broadcasting is most prevalent.
“Because pirate radio stations often cease operating for a period of time but then return, the bureau will continue to monitor the properties for which notices were provided and will initiate enforcement action where appropriate,” it told Congress.
The commission has hired six full-time employees under the PIRATE Act but did not hire any in the past year.
It also maintains a public database of its activities in pirate enforcement; that has been updated. It lists 185 individual actions since 2020, ranging from nonmonetary notice letters to large financial penalties. The majority of its enforcement activity has been in New York, Massachusetts and Florida.
Author Steve Herman (W7VOA) has been a licensed amateur radio operator for over 50 years and is a retired Voice of America correspondent.
To the average gamer, the “Hill” is a high-fidelity map in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
But for Alanson “Alan” Higbie, the location outside Berlin, built on piles of wartime rubble, was a real-life cathedral of radomes and reel-to-reel tape decks. Teufelsberg was a key listening post for the U.S. intelligence community’s fight against Communism.
During the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, Higbie found himself on the Hill playing a bit part in Cold War history when frightened but courageous Czechs at the other end of amateur radio communications asked him to inform the outside world of their fate.
Higbie’s date with destiny atop a German mountain of debris began with a childhood crystal radio set and an amateur radio license.
Enlisting in the Army
An August 1970 photo of Alan Higbie, manning the West Berlin, Germany MARS station.
As a teen spending his time acquiring knowledge about electronics and radio communication, Higbie seemed destined for a career as an electronic engineer. But a learning plateau with the mathematics beyond basic physics derailed any such plan.
He took a pause from studies as a political science major at the University of Oregon, but that made him vulnerable for the military at the height of the Vietnam War. Higbie, in 1967, took a gamble and signed up for a four-year enlistment with the Army Security Agency, knowing it “would send you where they want you.”
He figured, however, this increased the odds of going to language school or other non-combat component, while it lowered the odds of toting an M16 rifle in the jungles and risking ambush by the Viet Cong. Higbie asked for training in foreign languages, preferring Russian and Mandarin as “those would give me the best shot to get into language school.”
And of course, “you don’t get what you want.”
He got German. Not a bad consolation prize, remembers Higbie, who adds, “I’ve been very lucky in my life.”
After basic training, he was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., for six months of intensive German courses.
Higbie struggled in the military’s language school with German. He was called in and told in no uncertain terms that if he flunked out he would not be able to stay in the elite, mostly non-combat cocoon of the Army Security Agency.
“I learned how to study literally at gunpoint and under the threat of death,” says Higbie. “It was a big wake-up call. I still don’t have much aptitude for language. But German is a very easy language for an American to learn.”
Higbie, given orders for Germany with the junior enlisted rank of Specialist 5 — a grade equivalent in pay to a corporal — was initially unclear on what he would be doing there.
“I didn’t realize what the mission of the Army Security Agency really was,” remembers Higbie. He quickly discovered that “we worked with the National Security Agency. They were our bosses. They were civilians on the site.”
Teufelsberg mission
Higbie, in 1967, took a gamble and signed up for a four-year enlistment with the Army Security Agency. He would head to Teufelsberg, Germany, which atop a hill, was ideal for radio communication.
Back then, the NSA was super-secret. Now there are signs on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway guiding motorists to the NSA gate at Fort Meade in Maryland.
Higbie’s new post was Teufelsberg, a pile of rubble atop an unfinished Nazi technical college. Nearly 100 million cubic yards of Berlin rubble was hauled there after the Germans were defeated in the Second World War. That gave rise to a hill at an elevation of about 260 feet above a plateau, affording a spectacular view of Berlin.
The Allies realized the artificial mountain was also an ideal spot for radio reception. The NSA, in 1963, moved in to snoop on the Warsaw Pact communications.
“It was a very, very productive site,” according to Higbie.
The Hill is immortalized in the 21st century in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War as the video game’s multiplayer Echelon map. Having seen the game, Higbie, says, “I can attest to how eerily realistic and accurate the interior of the operations center appears in the game version.”
When Higbie discovered the site’s mission, he was intrigued “because it was radios, and I loved working with and listening to radios.”
Amateur beginnings
As a child, Higbie’s parents had gifted him a crystal radio set kit.
“I built it, and I could receive police calls and other things locally. I thought it was pretty cool and then started listening to shortwave – the Voice of America, HCJB — the high-power religious station in Ecuador — and Radio Moscow.”
A friend of Higbie’s parents in Cincinnati, Gordon Foote, a chemical engineer for Procter & Gamble, who had the amateur radio call sign of W8YKO, thought Higbie, then 13, should get a ham radio license.
“He let me visit his station. We talked to somebody in South America.” Higbie went home with a set of instructional Morse Code 78 rpm vinyl records.
The FCC’s entry-level ham test, in addition to questions on basic regulations, operating procedures and electronic theory, required sending and receiving Morse Code at five words per minute.
“I was pretty hooked and (Foote) gave me the Novice class license test.”
Higbie passed and received the call sign KN8SQN. In that era, on the high, shortwave frequencies, Novice licensees could only operate continuous wave (CW) mode, which uses Morse Code.
After a family move to California and a license class upgrade, Higbie became WA6PMK and earned privileges to add a microphone to his ham station. But his love for Morse Code did not abate.
Eavesdropping
Higbie’s assignment at Teufelsberg did not require Morse Code proficiency. He just needed to listen to German voices. Some were intercepted on microwave radio frequencies used to relay telephone calls, including the East German Communist Party novel telephone system.
After a civil uprising in 1953, during which the landlines were sabotaged, East German authorities decided that communications for the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands had to be destruction-proof and the microwave system was erected, with high towers in East Berlin and at its various district headquarters around East Germany.
The system was line of sight and thought impervious to eavesdropping, but the NSA discovered it could intercept the side lobes of the electromagnetic waves.
“It was spotty, but sometimes the reception was really good. We had big antennas that were hidden under giant radomes so no one could see in which directions the receiving antennas were pointed,” explains Higbie.
A 1969 photo of Teufelsberg, with the radomes that concealed directional antennas. “No piece of information seemed to be too small,” Higbie recalled.
Although the ruling party officials in East Berlin were not supposed to use the telephones for secret communications, naturally, they did, allowing the intercepts by Higbie and his fellow soldiers to be pieced together to tell a bigger story.
“In the Cold War, there was so much money available for fighting communism. This was a big, big effort. No piece of information seemed to be too small,” recalls Higbie.
When Higbie returned to Germany after the Cold War was over and the Berlin Wall was down, he visited Stasi headquarters, which had been turned into a museum, and noticed the push buttons on the telephone on the desk of the secretary of Erich Mielke, the dreaded head of the Ministerium für Staatsicherheit.
“I recognized the numbers,” remembers Higbie.
Higbie also listened to soldiers in the field and border guards.
Reports of flooding in East Germany, agricultural production … Higbie and the others recorded it on reel-to-reel tape decks and transcribed it for dispatch to the NSA.
One of the site’s targets was the communications of the East German border guards. “We would hear them chasing a ‘fox’, as they called it. Then at some point you come to realize they are chasing real people who are trying to escape across the border to freedom in the West. Sometimes they’d catch the fox — sometimes they didn’t. It’s real. It’s all fun and games until somebody gets their eye poked out.”
Most of the time the intercepts were routine.
On both sides of the Cold War there were a “lot of little people just plodding along,” working around the clock.
Higbie’s colleagues were linguists, with a few years of college who were qualified for the Army Security Agency, but not eligible to be officers as they had not graduated from university.
While there was widespread disillusionment with President Richard Nixon and the war in Vietnam, for those with the U.S. Army Security Agency in Germany, who had volunteered in hopes of avoiding infantry duty in Southeast Asia, there was an esprit de corps.
Those at Teufelsberg took their job seriously, realizing they were on the front lines separating two alliances and ideologies, in a Cold War that if turned hot might result in leaders in Washington and Berlin authorizing the launch of nuclear weapons.
“We were paying very close attention when the Warsaw Pact was conducting its exercises. It’s a common cover for military aggression to begin as having an exercise,” noted Higbie.
Extended duty
The situation was especially tense in 1968 after the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubček, initiated political liberalization, seeking to create “socialism to a human face.”
But the mass protests in Prague in favor of reform spooked the hardline generals in Moscow. On Aug. 20, several hundred thousand Soviet, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Polish troops invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the newfound freedoms.
East German troops were pulled out of the invasion force at the last minute to avoid comparisons to the Nazis rolling into Czech territory in 1939. Despite that, the Americans atop Teufelsberg were very busy. To increase available manpower, instead of working eight-hour shifts, they were now at their listening posts for 12 hours on and 12 hours off.
Higbie had a routine that when he was off the clock, he would volunteer to run phone patches on the site’s Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) shortwave station.
Phone patches – a telephone/radio relay system – allowed soldiers, sailors and airmen to talk for free with their spouses or parents across the Atlantic Ocean. The radio signals would be bounced off the ionosphere.
It was low-fidelity and not duplex — one would have to say “over” for the radio operators on both ends to switch from transmit to receive or vice versa. This was an era well before cell phones and the internet. A few minutes of trans-Atlantic talking through telephones would have cost approximately $12 for a few minutes of conversation – that’s equivalent to $100 in today’s money.
“It wasn’t my job, but I would help the Signal Corps guys that were assigned to that. By running some phone patches, I could also operate the station on amateur frequencies using my German amateur radio call sign, DL4QQ,” Higbie said.
That is, in addition to volunteering to help with the morale-boosting MARS operation, Higbie had access to the elaborate HF radio gear solely for his amateur radio hobby, his way of relaxing.
Amateur radio lifeline
Higbie’s logbook, operating with the amateur radio callsign DL4QQ, from Aug. 24, 1968. Click to enlarge.
Amateur radio operators’ two-way conversations are typically an exchange of signal reports, their name and locations, mention of their equipment and perhaps, the weather.
The ham setup at Andrews Barracks in Lichterfelde was first rate: a Collins S-Line transceiver, a high-power transmitting amplifier and a directional yagi antenna mounted on a tower.
In the days after the Russian military invaded Czechoslovakia, Higbie began having unusual conversations on the amateur frequencies.
Using Morse Code on the 40-meter band, Higbie made contact with OK1KLC and other stations in Czechoslovakia and listened to other radio amateurs engaged in brief conversations in German and English.
Instead of just talking about ham gear and the weather, the Czech operators pleaded with those in western Europe to relay urgent messages to relatives who were not behind the Iron Curtain.
Since Higbie was using a German call sign, others had no idea he was in the U.S. military. Some of the Czechs, to protect their identity and detection, began using fake call signs, which is normally a taboo. They sent messages for relay to England, the Congo and other destinations.
Call sign OK1J, identifying himself as located in North Bohemia, asked that “you give this news for all the world. Thank you very much, okay?” The Czechs want the world to know that Prime Minister Oldřich Černík, a staunch supporter of the Prague Spring reforms “fly from Moscow now.”
Days earlier, Černík had been forced to go to the Soviet Union and when he returned to the Czech capital he implored the public to cooperate with the invaders, while dubiously promising he would continue to support reform.
As Higbie wrote down these messages, he heard deliberate interference on the frequencies the Czechs were using. Most likely the Soviets were engaged in jamming to try to prevent the transmissions from Czechoslovakia getting through to the West.
A typed copy of Higbie’s QSOs as DL4QQ, from Aug. 24, 1968. Click to enlarge.
One Czech operator said he would like to continue to transmit but “I have to get off now” because helicopters with direction finding equipment were trying to locate him and the other amateur radio stations.
Another radio amateur, tapping away in Morse Code in German, revealed that “many foreign soldiers stop our automobiles and take our gasoline, seize transistor radios, take bread and other food” and had also imposed a 9 p.m. curfew.
The Czech operators asked that the information be passed to the BBC. Higbie says he complied with this request to dispatch the message to the newsroom in London.
On the streets, Czech citizens engaged in non-violent resistance, taking down street signs to confuse the invaders, confronting tanks with offerings of flowers and shouted, “Ivan Go Home!”
Warsaw Pact troops fatally shot more than 100 peaceful protestors.
A fellow American amateur radio operator stationed in Berlin, who was an officer with military intelligence and not in Higbie’s chain of command, asked Higbie to share this type of information with him and his unit, but Higbie politely declined.
“This was ham-to-ham kind of stuff, and I felt a little strange and would be like a betrayal of the amateur spirit, so I declined the offer as it wasn’t an order, wasn’t part of my job,” Higbie recalls.
Higbie ironically adhered to a strict line between his amateur radio hobby and U.S. intelligence, despite his day job of intercepting radio signals and phone calls from East German officials and soldiers on behalf of the NSA.
“We like to keep it a hobby. I was young. I really had a firm set of ethics,” remembers Higbie. “It just didn’t seem right to me.”
The military intelligence office, surprisingly, “as a ham, he respected that and that was the last I heard of it.”
By Aug. 27, it was all over in Prague.
A doleful Dubček, who had been arrested and flown to Moscow, addressed his nation.
“We hope that you will trust us even though we might be forced to take some temporary measures that limit democracy and freedom of opinion,” said Dubček.
On the other side
The Communists in Prague would remain submissive to the Kremlin until the 1989 Velvet Revolution which climaxed with dissident writer Václav Havel being elected president. The Cold War would end two years later with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Higbie was long gone from Teufelsberg by then. Although after his initial four years he had become an instructor of special intelligence, teaching others the specialized vocabulary related to the communications systems they were monitoring, Higbie did not re-enlist in 1971.
He gained admission to the University of California – Berkeley, resuming his college education. Higbie grew his hair long but kept up his grades, graduated and then went to law school at the University of San Francisco. He moved to Colorado where he passed the bar exam and became a trial lawyer, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury cases.
Higbie is still an amateur radio operator, call sign K0AV, and he takes special enjoyment in digging out weak and distant signals. Occasionally, he finds himself engaged in a Morse Code chat with fellow hams in the Czech Republic. The conversations usually are centered on mundane topics, such as an exchange of weather reports.
But Higbie sometimes wonders if the person on the other end might be one of those who sent him a dramatic message during those fateful days of Czech history in the summer of ’68.
As one of its final acts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will award funds for program distribution directly into the hands of eligible public media stations.
In a message to station managers sent Thursday, CPB CEO Patricia Harrison announced that its board has approved approximately $12 million in remaining interconnection funds for the initiative.
But she noted that stations have not historically received these funds directly.
The grants are specifically earmarked as “interconnection dollars” — a category defined by the Public Broadcasting Act and the appropriations legislation that provided the funding. The legislation charges CPB with supporting the systems and technologies that enable public media content to be distributed to stations and then to listeners.
Stations that receive funding can choose to spend it directly with national public media interconnection providers — such as PBS, the newly formed Public Media Infrastructure or NPR — or on other technology that enhance their ability to distribute content to audiences, a CPB spokesperson said.
CPB had announced it awarded a $57 million grant to PMI for distribution in September. A contentious dispute with NPR followed. NPR manages the Public Radio Satellite System, the primary distribution channel for public media outlets.
When asked by Radio World if the announcement reflects a renewed harmony with NPR following the dispute, the CPB spokesperson said that as the corporation shuts down, it is critical that the distribution system at large work in partnership to preserve public media.
PMI, NPR, PBS and other partners “stand ready to serve together” as stations consider how to invest in distribution, technology and service to their communities, Harrison said in the statement.
She added that CPB has already made large investments at the national level to sustain the system.
“This final interconnection allocation builds on that foundation by giving stations the flexibility to invest directly in the technologies, services and partnerships that best meet their local needs and evolving audience expectations,” Harrison wrote.
Additional information on the grant awards and the distribution process will follow, she indicated.
CPB’s board of directors voted to dissolve the organization earlier this month after 58 years of service. It had announced it would begin winding down operations in September following Congress’ rescission of federal funding for public media.
Hosted by the Association of Public Radio Engineers (APRE), the event will take place April 16–17 at the Tuscany Suites and Casino in Las Vegas — the Thursday and Friday prior to the NAB Show.
The conference is an annual gathering for engineers at all experience levels. APRE noted in a release that presentations are relevant to all radio engineers, with a special emphasis on public broadcasting.
The PREC session schedule will be announced in mid-February. The association said last year’s sessions covered the basics of radio transmission, non-traditional STLs, broadcast telephony SIP and more, including the challenges facing public radio and public media.
“We encourage a collegial setting where you can speak directly with industry-leading engineers and vendors,” APRE said in the release.
Early-bird registration — and its pricing benefits — is open through March 1.
A virtual attendance option is also available, and APRE is offering scholarships to help cover the cost of attendance for deserving applicants.
Conference registration includes all presentations, meals and the Night Owl session on Thursday. Tickets for the APRE Awards dinner at Lawry’s The Prime Rib on Friday evening, which APRE said perennially sells out, are available upon registration.
APRE’s mission is to advance the art, science and performance of public radio engineers and public radio engineering for the public good.
“Show Us Your Mic Collection” is a new Radio World feature in which intrepid broadcasters and readers show off their microphones. Have a submission? Email us at radioworld@futurenet.com.
Does the “cool factor” of your gear actually change how you work? Is there a psychological boost to using equipment that is high-end, sleek and just plain fun to operate? Or is it all just window dressing?
Meet Geoffrey Hacker, a design engineer and collector who views microphones not just as transducers, but as masterpieces of industrial design.
With a doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida, Hacker is uniquely qualified to explore the intersection of form and function. His fascination lies in the “why” — specifically, how great curves, lines, and colors affect the human experience.
Geoffrey Hacker’s glass-enclosed mic collection, which includes an entire Art Deco color collection of the Turner Colortones microphones. These mics are rare due to limited manufacturing, and because the plastic or lacquer over metal meant they were easily damaged due to chipping, fading or stage use, which made them less popular.
Hacker’s journey into collecting began 20 years ago with microphones, which eventually led him to the world of rare, hand-built automobiles. As the founder of Undiscovered Classics, he now spends much of his time researching, restoring, and showing one-of-a-kind prototype cars.
But he hasn’t forgotten his audio roots. Many of us in the broadcast industry know that if a studio is clean and the gear looks “pro,” talent and engineers are less likely to blame an error on “crappy gear” — and they tend to treat the equipment with more respect.
“I’ve always loved design,” Hacker told us. “Around 2005, I came across an Astatic 600. It was only produced for a single year, and that rarity piqued my interest. As I researched its history, I discovered a wider range of stunning designs across various manufacturers than I ever could have imagined.”
The Astatic 600 Conneaut “Rocket Ship” Microphone. The company started out in Youngstown, Ohio in the 1960s and later moving to Conneaut, Ohio. It was founded by two amateur radio operators.
Hacker’s collection blossomed from there, fueled by advice from collectors and historians across the country.
We noted in particular Hacker’s Turner Colortone mics — and he has them in all colors, made specifically in 1955–1956. They were short-lived due to the fact they were plastic/lacquer coated and didn’t hold up well on stage.
But Hacker’s core background is neither professional audio nor radio. In fact, Hacker credits his friend, Tim Masters, a musician and recording artist, for testing the models in his collection.
“I am strictly driven by the design aspect,” Hacker explained, “that’s what fuels my passion for collecting.” As a result, while Hacker has used a few of them for his recording studio, he’s never personally tested a microphone he acquired.
His Astatic 600 is his personal favorite, as it’s what he said kicked off the mic collecting hobby. “However, I recently found an American C-5 after searching for over 15 years,” he told us. “That was a major win for the collection.”
After 15 years, Hacker uncovered an American C-5 microphone. From the late 1930s into the early 1940s, carbon and crystal mics like this were quickly considered inferior due to dynamic and ribbon mics of the decade.
Which one is the best sounding?
Hacker simply isn’t sure. He asks you, the reader, if you have used any of the models in his collection and what your audio impressions are.
If you’ve used any of the mics in Geoffrey’s collection and want to share your technical feedback or memories of the gear, we want to hear from you! Contact us at Radio World or email Geoffrey directly.
Four alleged radio pirates in the greater New York City area each face a possible $20,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission.
The FCC said Jean Boncoeur broadcast “Radio Gold Stars” on 90.5 MHz out of a residence in Spring Valley, N.Y.
It said Etzer Toussaint operated “Radio Model” or “Radio Tele Model” on 88.9 MHz, also in Spring Valley.
It said Henderson Lennox Elcock allegedly operated “Wild FM” on 106.3 MHz in Brooklyn.
And it said Robert Bekune operated “Powerhouse Radio” on 98.5 MHz in Irvington, N.J.
The FCC issued notices of apparent liability for a $20,000 forfeiture against each. They have 30 days to pay or to seek to have the penalty reduced or dismissed.
Federal law allows pirate fines of up to $122,000 per day and $2.4 million in total, but the FCC’s base forfeiture is $20,000.
In each case, the FCC cited a single day in January of last year when it detected on-air broadcasts, though in least two of these cases the broadcasts appear to have been going on for years. The FCC believes that Bekune has been involved in Powerhouse Radio since at least 2018, and it said Radio Model’s website states that Toussaint established the station in 2006.
The cases were investigated using a mix of direction-finding, audio recordings, and FCC review of the stations’ online streams, social media posts and property tax records.
The notices were issued by Patrick Webre, acting director of the Enforcement Bureau.
A sign cautions the presence of radio frequency fields at a data transmission tower in Chicago. Credit: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A group of petitioners continues to seek authorization of high-frequency financial data trading in the shortwave radio bands.
The Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) desires long-distance non-voice communications between 2–25 MHz to be fully authorized under the existing Part 90 FCC rules.
The proposed Part 90 authorization differs from traditional international HF broadcasts, governed under the Part 73 rules.
Those rules were utilized last year by three firms with ties to financial trading to obtain station grants; however, the FCC restricted those stations to broadcast operations, likely prompting trading firms to view the pending Part 90 petition as their only remaining path to secure spectrum for dedicated non-voice data.
The SMC’s petition has been pending since 2023, and, based on the tenor of its latest FCC filing, it is growing anxious for some sort of answer from the commission.
“A radio engineer from the 1920s could take a shortwave radio from the 1920s and transmit and receive voice signals today,” the SMC wrote in a cost-benefit analysis filed to the FCC after a December meeting with the commission. “It is remarkable how little innovation has occurred in this band.”
Full-time usage
The coalition is made up of seven financial trading firms that ensure there is always a buyer or seller available for stocks and other financial products.
Right now, SMC member experimental HF transmissions operate under Part 5 of the commission’s rules. The licensees “are not permitted to provide commercial service, charge fees or receive payments for products or services of operation.”
But seeking permanency, the coalition said that its members and the U.S. public have benefitted “substantially” from non-voice communications in the shortwave band over the last decade.
“Absent communications in the 2–25 MHz band, the SMC members would lose what has been demonstrated to be an extremely efficient and beneficial method of delivering data over long distances,” the coalition wrote in its December filing.
Granting Part 90 non-voice licenses would simply allow current experimental licensees to continue their operations that have existed without formal complaints of interference, it said.
Moreover, the coalition believes the HF band should be brought into the current practice of spectrum regulation, with the “flexible use” approach that the FCC has used to manage other bands.
New technology through software-defined systems, the coalition said, has been engineered to find open channels without impacting existing spectrum users.
“This vital feature of how the band has been utilized means that any harmful interference with active federal users should not be a concern,” the coalition wrote.
Of course, not all current users of the shortwave spectrum agree with that assertion.
Interference and noise
The open FCC petition from 2023 includes approximately 900 comments, many of which are from radio amateurs seeking to deny the SMC petition, the National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), as well as the U.S. Coast Guard.
Nine Part 90 bands are immediately adjacent or overlap amateur bands.
The Coast Guard, meanwhile, worries that the overall noise floor in the 2–25 MHz band will increase due to increased usage in the band.
But the SMC argued that there have been a “relatively small number of firms” seeking such licenses. It also argued that if noise were a problem, comments would have been filed against existing experimental license users, which the SMC said has not happened.
“Many of the commenters appear simply to be unaware that non-voice communications have been in place for many years without complaints about an increase in the noise floor,” it wrote.
Several of these stations, as Radio World reported, were exempted from station ID requirements until mid-December, when the FCC revoked the exemptions.
In the ARRL’s opposition document, which was filed in August 2023, the association argued that it would not be possible to identify Part 90 stations responsible for interference without periodic station identification “using an open and known protocol” required for that purpose.
The OfficialSWLchannel on YouTube captured what is believed to be a financial trading signal last January:
The ARRL also noted that experimental transmissions occurred at “unknown times” and changing frequencies, making interference sources difficult to track down.
The SMC’s petition also seeks a power increase for Part 90 operations in the 2–25 MHz band, resulting in a maximum transmitter power of 20 kW. SMC pointed to 10Band LLC’s use of 20 kW, authorized for experimental usage, and a study conducted by Roberson and Associates affirming its belief that the power levels will not cause harmful interference.
But the ARRL noted that compared to the current authorization of 1,000 watts peak envelope power for the Part 90 operations that do exist in the HF bands, that constitutes an increase of at least 13 dB, creating a much greater potential for interference.
The ARRL also believed that the SMC’s analysis was flawed by considering only ionospheric propagation and not groundwave interference, and using noise floor baselines that consider only residential noise levels, ignoring the lower noise floors of rural environments.
FCC meeting
SMC consultants Dennis Roberson and former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth met with members of the commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology and Office of International Affairs on Dec. 5.
In its meeting with the commission, the SMC also discussed how the proposal would work with respect to international settings. It suggested that the service would function under the commission’s Part 2 rules. Those rules include stipulations that if there is a complaint of harmful interference from a foreign source, the U.S.-licensed user must stop operating on the associated frequency.
Their equipment must also be able to transmit and receive on any assigned frequency in the band and be capable of immediately changing frequency.
SMC member companies stated their experimental stations have already been operating in such a manner.
Petitions like the SMC’s, as Bennett Kobb explained in Experimental Radio News, can often sit inactive for years. The coalition believes that the commission’s inaction “is ultimately a form of denial of the petition.”
SMC argued that the temporary nature of experimental licenses will dissuade its members from further investing in shortwave data communications.
Ultimately, the SMC seeks the grant of its petition and initiation of a rulemaking process.
Information Station Specialists’ Magnum K1 antenna.
Engineered in the U.S. heartland, the pending Magnum k1 antenna, Information Station Specialists said, will offer AM station operators a path for an affordable antenna with a “fly under the radar” footprint.
The Michigan-based company said the model is pending the completion of full-power tests. The FCC granted an AM station the authority to test the antenna at 1 kW on Jan. 12, according to Bill Baker of Information Station Specialists. The company anticipates it will begin taking orders in the spring.
But Baker told us that the antenna is designed to specifically support up to 1,000 watts of power on middle and upper AM frequencies.
He has heard from interested station owners early and often who crave an antenna that can reduce their land footprint — or better yet, be installed on a building roof.
“It can absolutely save an AM license when a broadcaster is forced to move their antenna because of a land sale, loss of lease or the sudden requirement for a tower replacement,” Baker said.
The Magnum k1 stands less than 50 feet tall and only a modest, flat area of ground or rooftop is required, Information Station Specialists said. It recommends a 100 ft. x 100 ft. flat installation surface with the antenna and its supporting mast installed in the center.
“Testing thus far proves it has the efficiency to be a full-time antenna for many Class B, C and D stations that operate on frequencies 900 kHz and above,” Baker told us.
The Magnum k1 package includes the antenna itself, as well as mounts, a support mast and pole, guy lines, hardware and electronics in a weatherproof cabinet.
“Because the antenna’s design is series-resonant with a matching network, an antenna tuning unit is not needed,” he said.
The idea was hatched about seven years ago. The company’s HPR.0990 AM antenna for travelers’ information station broadcasters could handle more wattage than the standard 10 watts of TIS power in an emergency under a special temporary authority with the FCC.
AM stations began to use the model for STAs and even full-time applications for power levels under 300 watts.
Baker pointed to Emmis’ 1070 WFNI(AM), which has been operating with the HPR.0990 from a downtown Indianapolis rooftop site with around 200 watts while the company seeks to find a prospective purchaser, according to WFNI’s STA. (WFNI filed for a silent STA this past December.)
One station in Connecticut is also using the HPR.0990 and hopes to move back to its licensed 1 kW with the Magnum k1.
“We are being real careful to get this product right,” Baker said. Upcoming field tests to prove its power worthiness, he believes, will prove that.
Additional options, including a preassembled ground plane, roof installation kit, tuning analyzer and engineering support, will also be available.
Operators can request an estimate of signal performance with the Magnum k1, Baker said, and also whether the antenna is likely to be efficient enough for commission approval on their frequency from any site in the U.S., prior to purchase.
The Magnum k1 joins other antenna and tuners offerings from Information Station Specialists, including “The Lowdown”, a 630-meter amateur radio antenna, “The Range Extender,” a Part 15 antenna and tuner and the Matchbox impedance matching network.
In this “Future in Focus” series, we’re asking industry thought leaders, executives and engineers to comment on top trends of the past year and what they expect for radio in 2026.
Steve Williams broke into radio growing up in Cincinnati at WAIF(AM). He programmed Detroit’s WJZZ(FM) in the mid-1980s and went on to lead successful smooth jazz stations such as New York’s WQCD(FM), San Francisco’s KKSF(FM) and Denver’s KJCD(FM), as well as heritage R&B station WDAS(FM) in Philadelphia.
Williams also has several years of experience in public radio, first at Detroit’s WDET(FM) in the 80s, and more recently at WAMU(FM) in Washington, D.C., and KUOW(FM) in Seattle, before becoming president and CEO of Newark Public Radio’s 88.3 WBGO(FM) in 2021.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore with Williams the current state of public radio, what WBGO is about to unveil in 2026, and why he believes jazz music on the radio is thriving.
Radio World:Did 2025 change public radio as we know it forever?
Steve Williams: If you’re thinking about the loss of federal funding earlier this year and dismantling of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting — yes — 2025 is the year when public media began to move into a new state of maturity and institutional awareness, which will undoubtedly — and I believe positively — influence the way forward from here.
It’s worth noting that the seeds of what we’re seeing now were sown in 2016 — the year that I believe truly changed the course of public media. Back then, there were few, if any, that could see or accept the “handwriting on the wall” — the inevitability of 2025.
It’s the result of what happened after the beginning of President Trump’s first term, when public media’s relationship with the federal government became more adversarial.
RW:How is WBGO’s future looking, from a funding perspective?
Williams: The loss of federal funding has been a terrific source of positive energy for the “mother” of WBGO’s reinvention. Not only are our listeners stepping up in record numbers to fill the gap, but we are also prioritizing and energizing more diverse revenue streams. When I think about what losing federal funding means for BGO, I equate what happened to a “kick in the head” to truly realize our positive potential. We’re compelled to explore open doors to revenue opportunities that will provide long-term solutions to near-term challenges.
Annually, WBGO receives more than $2.5 million in direct contributions from thousands of new and recurrent listeners — for decades running.
WBGO is sui generis among modern-day media organizations — indefatigable longevity, brand exclusivity, a high degree of constituent loyalty, exceptional demography and geography and technological adaptability.
And out of necessity, we’re leveraging those qualities to build stability and prosperity. The possibilities are unique and exhilarating. And to some degree, we have the rescission of federal funding to thank for instigating a fresh approach to thinking about our future, and the here and now.
RW:What will be your main professional goal or project with WBGO in the coming 12 months?
Williams: Here’s a scoop: In response to listener demand, in 2026 we’ll launch a multi-channel, multi-formatted bespoke music streaming service that will encompass the entire spectrum of jazz music and journalism. We’re expecting it to launch in Q1.
Our annual Jazz Appreciation Month celebration, meanwhile, will feature a dozen major colleges and universities performing in our studio this April.
We’re in the midst of a multi-million dollar new studio construction project, with a scheduled completion in early 2028.
Finally, we have our eye on our 50th anniversary celebration planning, which happens in 2029.
A large jazz ensemble from the Borough of Manhattan Community College in front of WBGO’s Newark, N.J., studios in 2024. Credit: WBGO
RW:What trend in terms of technology do you think is going to have the greatest impact in radio in 2026?
Williams: Sophisticated AI-generated content will continue to have a significant impact on the radio industry, not as a replacement for human integrity and ingenuity but more as an augmentation and elevation for the “gray matter” that drives our world.
At BGO, we’re finding an appetite for streaming audio and custom content curation to be the strongest point of engagement for the people we serve.
The other phenomenon that will take hold in our industry during the coming year will be collaboration, or cross-functional partnerships between organizations that were once considered competitors — such as the recent coming together of iHeartMedia and Netflix — which I believe is a bellwether.
On a smaller scale, but no less significant, is the landmark collaboration between the music-formatted New York City area public radio stations – WBGO, WQXR, WFUV and WSHU, which we initiated more than two years ago.
RW:While it affects commercial broadcasters, is the potential removal of caps on local ownership limits something you will be paying attention to this year?
Williams: The recurring ownership caps issue is of no immediate concern for public media, in my estimation. Although it could, in the future, present sustainability solutions for smaller station owners/operators not affiliated with one of the larger companies or an academic institution.
As an aside, if you’re in radio, you’re in the business of content distribution. The trends suggest the long-term benefit of investing time and development resources into the surging 21st century non-broadcast, digital platforms for content, instead of 20th century terrestrial broadcasting assets.
RW:Are there any other regulatory/FCC trends you are watching?
Williams: The FCC’s “delete, delete, delete” approach to deregulation is something to watch, although the stated intent of that initiative — to remove outdated rules and regulations — contradicts the recent reinstitution and emphasis on the formerly obsolete and nearly 80-year old News Distortion Policy — which is cause for some concern because of implications related to the possibility of censorship and political retribution.
I’m hoping that one day that the restrictions to revenue generation that prevent noncommercial radio stations from competing in the general marketplace will be restructured and/or reduced, if not lifted altogether, to give the noncom operators room to “breathe,” financially speaking.
RW:You’ve had more than four decades programming highly successful stations on the commercial side of the radio ledger, in big markets. What’s been the biggest adjustment operating a station like WBGO?
Williams: Wow — has it been four decades? In many ways it seems like it was only a few days ago … For me, the learning curve has been about harnessing the creative application of exceedingly limited resources, and gaining an comprehensive understanding of the principles of fundraising for a nonprofit organization.
RW:Is the appetite for jazz music still thriving?
Williams: The hunger for jazz and the menu of choices has never been richer, more robust or varied in the entire time of its existence.
Jazz is very alive, thriving and in constant state of renewal — which is what you would expect of something — an art form — that has retained its significance in our society for more than a century.
And the excitement and intellectual curiosity that jazz inspires is eternal.
Pat Prescott
RW:You programmed “CD 101.9” in New York during its most successful years in the 1990s. Working contemporary jazz on a “traditional” station like WBGO can be difficult. Have you been able to tap into some of WQCD’s former audience and through a voice like the legendary Pat Prescott, who is heard regularly on WBGO?
Williams: The balancing act to which you’re referring is easy for us – it is core to our mission to provide a completely diverse, inclusive and truthful experience for our followers, who come from all walks of life and entry points. It’s our obligation to tell the whole story.
In fact, BGO fans include many who listened to CD 101.9 during its heyday (1992–1999), and they recognize and respond favorably to a richness they remember from back in the day. It’s a familiar sensation to hear former CD 101.9 hosts like Prescott and Paul Cavalconte on our air because of the programming similarities between the two stations.
RW:How will our industry be different in 10 years?
Williams: Will radio be different in 2036? Most certainly — but what will be different is anybody’s guess.
If I had to hazard a guess, it would be to look for more video integration and connectivity — “radio TV” or “TV radio?” Connected TV’s and telephones, connected, self-driving automobiles and programmatic, geo-targeted content. Everything can and will have a readily available and easily accessible video component.
Connexion
