The Relentless Drive to Consolidation

In this blog post about the NAB radio show, Paul McLane (Radio World editor) discusses the reduction of technical people in attendance at the conference.  Consolidation has brought about many changes in the broadcasting industry, engineering has not been immune to these changes.

Because of consolidation, engineering staff has been reduced or completely replaced by contract engineering firms.  Since the Great Recession of 2008-09, this trend has picked up speed.  Expect it to continue to the point where large broadcasting companies employ one engineering staff administrator at the top, and several regional engineering supervisors in the middle, and the bulk of the work performed will be done by regional contract engineering firms.

There is no reason to expect the media consolidation process to stop any time soon.  It will continue in fits and starts depending on the congressional mood and the awareness or lack thereof of the general public.  The NAB itself seems bent on removing all ownership regulations and eventually, with enough money spent lobbying Congress, they will get their way.   Thus, the majority of radio stations will be owned by one company, the majority of TV stations will be owned by another company and the majority of newspapers will be owned by a third.

There will be some exceptions to that scenario; public radio and TV, privately owned religious broadcasters, and single station consolidation holdouts.  If funding for public radio and TV gets cut, which is very likely if the economy collapses further, they will be up for grabs too.

Cloud based network diagram
Cloud-based network diagram

For the future of radio and radio engineering, I see the following trends developing:

  1. National formats will be introduced.  Clear Channel already does this somewhat with its talk radio formats.  Look for more standardization and national music formats for CHR, Country, Rock, Oldies, Nostalgia, etc.  These were previously called “Satellite Radio” formats but I am sure that somebody will dust off and repackage the idea as something else.  They will be somewhat like BBC Radio 1, where a single studio location is used with local markets having the ability to insert local commercials if needed.  Some “local” niche formats will still exist and major markets where the majority of the money is will continue to have localized radio.
  2. Audio distribution will move further into the Audio Over IP realm using private WANs for larger facilities, and public networks with VPN for smaller facilities.  AOIP consoles like the Wheatstone Vorsis and the Telos Axia will become the installation standard.  These consoles are remotely controllable and interface directly with existing IP networks for audio distribution and control.  Satellite terminals will become backup distribution or become two-way IP networked.
  3. Cloud-based automation systems will evolve.  File and data storage will be moved to cloud base servers using a Content Distribution Network topology.  Peers and Nodes will be distributed around the country to facilitate backup and faster file serving.
  4. Continued movement of the technical operations into a corporate hierarchy.  Technical NOC (Network Operations Center) will include all facets of facility monitoring including transmitters, STLs, automation systems, office file servers, and satellite receivers via IP networks.  The NOC operators will dispatch parts and technicians to the sites of equipment failures as needed.
  5. Regional contract engineering and maintenance firms will replace most staff engineers in all but the largest markets.  Existing regional engineering firms will continue to grow or consolidate as demands for services rise.  Those firms will employ one or two RF engineers, several computer/IT engineers, and many low-level technicians.
The most important skill set for broadcast engineers in the coming five to ten year period will be IP networking.  Everything is moving in that direction and those that want to keep up will either learn or be left behind.

Take a ski lift to work day, WBEC style

One thing that I like about the radio engineering job, every day is different from the last, at least when doing fieldwork. Access to transmitter sites can be a challenge, especially in the Winter months. Last Wednesday, I was doing work for WBEC in Pittsfield, MA. Their FM transmitter site is atop Mahanna Cobble in the Bousquet Ski Area.  The summit is about 1,800 feet AMSL and since the terrible rains last month, not been accessible by vehicle.  No worries though, somebody built this nice chair lift for us to use:

Bousquet Ski Area chair lift going down hill
Bousquet Ski Area chair lift going downhill

Going down!  I forgot to take pictures on the ride up.

Bousquet ski area chair lift
Bousquet ski area chair lift

The steep part of the hill.

Top of the hill radio tower
Top of the hill radio tower
American tower site top of bousquet ski area
American tower site top of Bousquet ski area

One of two towers, both owned and managed by American Tower Corporation.  This is the older tower that has the radio station, somebody’s translator, some paging and two-way stuff, and sprint PCS.  The other tower is to the right, out of the picture and holds cell carriers.

View to the north over the valley, WBEC-AM’s two tower directional array can be seen in the lower left hand side of the picture.

View to the north
View to the north

WBEC-FM’s transmitter, it’s in there somewhere:

WBEC Nautel VS 2.5 transmitter
WBEC Nautel VS 2.5 transmitter

Polyphasor surge protector has seen better days.  It suffered some serious damage and was removed from the circuit.  Now, it makes a convenient home for rodents.  Reduce, reuse, recycle:

Polyphasor surge suppressor
Polyphasor surge suppressor

Something is missing…

N2 regulator with nothing to do
N2 regulator with nothing to do

Now where did I put that Nitrogen tank?  The site needs a little work and that’s okay, we came to work and get paid.