Competition in Radio and ConcertIndustries Act Introduced

Washington - June 27, 2002 - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold introduced the Competition in Radio and Concert Industries Act, which is intended to help small and independent radio station owners, promoters and consumers by prohibiting anti-competitive practices in the radio and concert industries.

Feingold stated that radio is one of the most important media and that he is committed to fairness and competition and to ensuring that cross-ownership of promotion services or venues is not used to hurt musicians, concert promoters or other radio stations.

Feingold's bill is intended to accomplish three goals:

XM Tops 136,500 Subscribers

Detriot and Washington - Jul 1, 2002 - XM Satellite Radio ended the second quarter with more than 136,500 total subscribers, mostly from retail sales, exceeding most Wall Street projections. With XM's retail distribution rolling, General Motors is expanding factory installation of XM from the Cadillac DeVille and Seville to 23 additional GM models in the 2003 model year.

XM is naturally pleased with the repsonse. The company will now focus on making XM part of the sale of GM vehicles. In preparation for availability at dealers beginning later this summer, XM is now being factory installed in 25 models of GM cars with an aggressive rollout plan encompassing Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and GMC.

XM Subscriber Growth ‘On Track’
Exceeding most Wall Street expectations for the third consecutive quarter, XM announced a net gain of over 60,000 subscribers for the quarter, mostly from retail sales at Circuit City, Best Buy, Tweeter, Radio Shack and other retailers nationwide. XM remains on track with its goals to end the year with an anticipated 350,000 subscribers.

Sirius Launches NationwideService

New York - Jul 1, 2002 - Sirius Satellite Radio has officially begun its nationwide, 100-channel service of 60 commercial-free music channels and 40 news, sports and entertainment channels. For $12.95 per month, listeners can now receive what the broadcaster calls clutter-free music in multiple genres that include 11 rock, eight pop, six country and seven jazz categories, along with reggae, blues, gospel and Latin hits, as well as non-music channels that include CNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, BBC, Radio Disney, La Red Hispana, Discovery Radio and E! Entertainment Radio.

Sirius begins its first week of nationwide availability by declaring independence from commercial radio with Fourth of July-themed programs on many of its 60 commercial-free music channels. The holiday programming kicks off on The Galaxy, channel 100, from July 1 through July 8 with Sirius Across America, a unique compilation of music across all genres that celebrates favorite American places, along with personal "man-on-the-street" feelings about America and other fun facts.

Several times on July 4th, The Galaxy will also feature Let Freedom Ring, a one-hour musical scrapbook of songs and sounds reflecting the patriotic spirit that is the foundation of our nation, hosted by noted singer-songwriter Richie Havens.

Beginning with an initial service launch on February 14 in four metropolitan markets, Sirius introduced its service at scheduled intervals in 37 states and the District of Columbia between April 1 and June 1. Sirius completes its service rollout with the addition of Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, California, New Jersey and the greater New York City area.

Christian Music Broadcasters Formed

June 25, 2002 - About 40 Christian radio personnel gathered in Orlando, FL, last week to form Christian Music Broadcasters, an association focused on Christian music radio. A task force of the National Christian Radio Alliance (part of the Gospel Music Association) has been working during the past three months to incorporate a new 501-C3 for promoting the impact of Christian music radio on the church, the industry and the culture.

Membership is comprised of Christian radio stations, radio groups and radio networks. Consultants, agencies and record companies are included as associate members. An interim board was elected to coordinate the activities of the CMB until the first official election in April of 2003. New board members elected include:

Chairman: Tim McDermott, KSBJ, Houston
Vice Chairman: Dick Jenkins, K-Love, Sacramento
Secretary: Jon Hull, KSBJ, Houston
Treasurer: Jim Campbell, Radio Training Network, Lakeland, FL
Large Market: Joe Davis, Salem Communications, New York
Medium Market: Jim Marshall, KMHK, Columbia, SC
Small Market: Jim McDermott, KCVO, Camdenton, MO


CMB will also work with affiliate organizations such as the National Religious Broadcasters and the Radio Advertising Bureau to coordinate the Radio Boot Camp at the NRB Convention and plan a Christian radio seminar at the RAB Convention. CMB is tentatively planning an informal gathering for Christian radio personnel at the NAB Radio Show in Seattle this September.

CMB will work with Westar Media Group on the use of Christian Radio Weekly magazine as a vehicle for news, information and ideas for Christian music radio.

Ward-Beck Announces West CoastRep

Toronto - Jul 3, 2002 - In a continuing effort to establish and maintain a high profile presence on the US West Coast, Eugene L. Johnson, managing director, and Michael Jordan, director of sales, announced that Ward-Beck Systems is now represented by Piper Digital. Based in the Los Angeles area, Piper Digital will perform the duties of manufacturer's representative for Ward-Beck in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho.

Piper Digital will be responsible for direct sales in these states and has the mandate to further expand the Ward-Beck presence in these regions through the development of a dealer network.

All inquiries in these states for information about Ward-Beck may be directed to Glen Thompson at Piper Digital, 4322 West 173rd Street, Torrance, CA, 90504-1009. Phone 310-370-7837, fax 310-370-7768 or e-mail glen@piperdigital.com.

Sales for all other areas of the US will be handled from the corporate headquarters in Toronto. Contact Michael Jordan, director of sales, at Ward-Beck Systems Ltd.; toll free 866-771-2556 or 800-771-2556, phone 416-335-5999, fax 416-335-5202 or e-mail michael@ward-beck.com

XTA Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

Farmingdale, NY - Jul 1, 2002 - XTA Electronics celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. XTA began its manufacturing line with the RT1 analyzer, the DS400 distribution system and the GQ600 graphic equalizer. Now, the company is a developer and supplier of digital and analog signal processing and audio control software for live- and installed-sound applications. The current product line includes the DP224 and DP226 speaker management systems; the DP100, DP 200 and the DP202 audio processors; GQ600 graphic equalizers; DS800 8 x 32 active mic/line splitter; and the Seriously Intelligent Digital Dynamics processor.

Harris Leads Digital Radio inDenmark

Rankweil, Austria - June 28, 2002 - As part of a project to bring digital radio to Denmark, Harris will provide a large number of DAB transmitters to Broadcast Service Denmark (BSD), which is partly owned by program providers Denmark’s Radio and TV2. The first phase, which involves the installation of 30 transmitters, is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year.

The transmitters range in power of 40W to 500W. Harris also plans to provide transmitter equipment for a second multiplex.

Belden Opens a NetworkingInteroperability Lab

Richmond, IN - June 26, 2002 - Belden Electronics Division, a manufacturer of cable for the networking, entertainment, home automation and industrial markets, is opening a Networking Interoperability Lab. The Lab will be an integral part of Belden’s R&D and product development programs. It will facilitate customer-driven and joint research projects with other networking industry leads and it will serve to identify a variety of link and channel test and performance issues of interest to the industry at large.

Stardraw Teams With ICIA andInfocomm IQ

London - May 31, 2002 - In a move designed to enhance businesses and add value for the end user, design and documentation software company Stardraw.com has announced a partnership with the premier audiovisual association ICIA. Infocomm IQ, developed, maintained and delivered by the International Communications Industries Association (ICIA), is an industry-wide product information database for the AV market that offers users instant access to the most up-to-the-minute product information. ICIA takes raw data from manufacturers and re-authors it to be complete, current and comparable. It is then distributed directly and through third party dealer websites. By teaming with Stardraw, with its own library of more than 36,000 high-quality symbols from manufacturers, ICIA plans to make Infocomm IQ available to a wider audience.

Stardraw users will not only have access to the graphical representation of a product for systems engineering drawings, but also technical data that can then be embedded directly into a tender document. The companies feel that the arrangement dovetails two complementary products to create an even more powerful industry tool.

RTS Installs APT Codecs to Rebuild

Belfast - June 25, 2002 - After losing most of its technical assets to NATO bombers and anti-Slobodan Milosevic protestors, Serbian radio station Radio Televizija Srbije (TTS) is about to undergo a major re-building program that is intended to transform it into a public broadcasting system for the nation.

The transformation is spearheaded by a new board of directors, which was appointed by the new Serbian government after Milosevic was ousted from power in October 2000. This includes journalists and independent professionals from all walks of life, many of whom were actively opposed to Milosevic during his years in power.

Although funding for the project has yet to be agreed upon, staff at RTS are already beginning to get the broadcaster back on its feet. As part of this process, RTS has invested audio codecs from Audio Processing Technology. These include eight NLXs and four BCF codecs, which are being used to transmit five stereo signals via multiplex to the radio station's main switching rooms.

RTS is still trying to re-build the studios and transmission facilities, but it is back on the air broadcasting more than 100 hours of programming a day. There is still much work to be done and little money with which to do it.

APT and Broadcom Help TeamTalk GetOn-air

Belfast - June 24, 2002 - APT’s UK distributor, Broadcom, has supplied nine of the manufacturer’s new Worldnet Milano S bus codecs to Teamtalk Broadcast, a company that specializes in supplying programming to private and retail radio stations in Europe.

Teamtalk Broadcast approached Broadcom to discuss the distribution needs for a new radio service it is providing to MOTO service stations, ASDA FM (England and Scotland) and McCalls retail outlets. Broadcom recommended and quoted for multiplex equipment and codecs. The Milanos are on X21ccts with ISDN backup using APT’s Enhanced apt-X data compression algorithm at 16-bit, 256kb/s stereo.

XM Names Joseph Euteneuer asCFO

Washington - June 27, 2002 - XM Satellite Radio has named Joseph J. Euteneuer, a seasoned telecommunications corporate financial executive, as chief financial officer and executive vice president. Euteneuer comes to XM after 15 years as an executive at Comcast, a cable TV operator, where he held a number of financial and operating executive roles. Euteneuer will oversee all of XM’s financial operations as the company continues to expand its service.

Burns Joins Klotz Digital

Atlanta - June 27, 2002 - Dave Burns has been named director of broadcast business development for Klotz Digital America. As director of broadcast business development for Klotz, Burns will oversee all new business development efforts for the radio broadcast market including development of sales strategies and new product development.

Burns is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in broadcast and professional audio spanning the fields of sales, marketing, consulting and business development. Burns most recently held the position of studio products manager for Harris Corporation's Broadcast Division where he was responsible for new product development and vendor relations as well as the expansion of Harris's resale product line and integrated-services-facilitating products. Prior to his work with Harris, Burns served as an independent consultant to broadcast and professional audio companies including Bose and AudiCord/Air Corp Systems. Burns began his career as a salesman for Allied Broadcast Equipment in Richmond, IN, later becoming national sales and marketing nanager and later broadened his industry experience as senior vice president for Mediascan Advertising and Marketing in New Jersey.

Telex Adds Two Managers

Burnsville, MN - June 26, 2002 - Telex Communications has named Mark Gubser as product manager for its Radiocom wireless intercom products. While this is a new role for Gubser, he’s no stranger to Telex, having worked for 14 years in the company’s Lincoln, NE, facility, most recently as senior mechanical engineer of Telex’s RF Engineering Group. Gubser’s key accomplishments in this role include working as part of the team that brought the Telex BTR-700 and BTR-800 wireless intercom products into the marketplace, and his vast knowledge of project management, prototyping and industrial design will be invaluable in his new role.

Gubser will be responsible for planning and developing new wireless intercom products under the Radiocom brand, analyzing market and technology trends, supporting Telex’s dealer and direct sales efforts in the United States and internationally, developing new Radiocom product distribution and promotion strategies and working closely with the Lincoln factory to improve manufacturing efficiencies, inventory control and production forecasts.

Prior to joining Telex, Gubser was a senior technical associate for Bell Telephone Laboratories. Gubser holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Metropolitan State College, and an A.S. degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from Southeast Community College.

Telex Communications has named Tom Weems as the new western regional manager for the company’s RTS Systems Division. With a broad territory covering much of the northern and western U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii, Weems will be responsible for several aspects of sales, marketing, promotion and support for RTS System products.

Weems brings broadcast experience in television and radio to his new position, having held previous sales and marketing positions with Panasonic Broadcast, NewsMaker Systems, Tektronix TV Division, Link Electronics and Gray Communications Consultants. His background includes engineering management positions with major market TV stations, new station construction and facility integration/station remodeling. He has also worked closely with systems integrators, dealers, distributors, OEMs and facility design firms.

SSL Names Zaretsky as VP

New York - June 24, 2002 - Solid State Logic has appointed Steve Zaretsky to the position of vice president broadcast, East Coast. In this position, Zartesky will be responsible for all broadcast customers within the region. He will report directly to Rick Plushner, president of SSL North America.

Zaretsky has held positions with New England Digital, Otari and Euphonix. Most recently, Zaretsky worked in the equipment finance business specializing in the professional audio and video marketplace. Zaretsky’s knowledge and experience enhances SSL’s leadership position as the broadcast industry aggressively moves to an all-digital workflow.

DRM Re-elects DeutscheWelle’s Peter Senger as Chairman

Ohio – May 8, 2002 - For the fourth year in a row, Digital Radio Mondiale has chosen Peter Senger, chief engineer and deputy technical director of Deutsche Welle, as its chairman. Senger has led DRM since its inception in 1998. DRM also re-elected Jan Hoek, CFO/CTO and deputy director general of Radio Netherlands, as its vice chairman. Hoek has been vice chairman since DRM’s beginning. DRM also re-elected all 18 members of its Steering Board. The voting took place at the consortium’s annual General Assembly, held this year in Mason, Ohio, U.S.A., at the corporate headquarters of DRM member Harris Corporation, Broadcast Communications Division.

DRM’s Steering Board members remain the BBC, Coding Technologies GmbH, IDT Continental Electronics, Deutsche Telekom AG, DW, Fraunhofer IIS-A, Harris Corporation, Hitachi Kokusai Electric, International Broadcasting Bureau/VOA, Merlin Communications International Ltd., Radio Netherlands, Robert Bosch GmbH, Sony International Europe, TéléDiffusion de France, TELEFUNKEN SenderSysteme Berlin AG, Telenor/Norkring, Thales Broadcast & Multimedia and Voice of Nigeria.

Paredes Promoted to New Post atOrban/CRL

June 21, 2002 - San Leandro, CA - Gareth Paredes has been promoted to managing director of sales, marketing, and customer service of Orban/CRL Systems. His responsibilities will include overseeing all of Orban/CRL’s sales, marketing and customer service activities.

After graduating from San Francisco State University in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration-Marketing, Paredes held various positions within the company. Starting his career as a marketing assistant in the San Francisco office, he moved on to order entry administrator with Orban/AKG Acoustics, and most recently was Orban/CRL sales support manager.

Domains for .DJ Now Available

Clear Channel Selects Vitalstreamfor Internet Streaming

Irvine, CA - June 25, 2002 - Vitalstream has signed an agreement with Clear Channel Radio to carry more than 200 radio streams on the Vitalstream Digital Broadcast Network.

According to industry figures, Clear Channel Worldwide streams more hours of online programming than any other radio group in the world. Clear Channel streams audio formats ranging from rock to news/talk through its domestic radio stations in the top 50 markets.

Vitalstream, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sensar, is a provider of products and services that enable the digital broadcast of audio and video content and other communications via the Internet. Vitalstream provides audio and video streaming, Web conferencing, advanced media hosting, payment processing and consulting services.

VideoLogic Announces InexpensiveEureka Digital Radio

London - Jul 1, 2002 - VideoLogic Systems, a division of Imagination Technologies, unveiled its plans to manufacture the Pure Evoke-1 DAB digital radio. The Evoke-1 will be the first high-volume, stand-alone Eureka-147 DAB radio to break the £100 (US$153) price point.

The Evoke-1 features a maple-wood case and pearlescent white front with silver grille and control panel, which includes a scrolling LCD text display, station selection and volume knobs and button controls for presets, display-settings, power and auto-tuning. The Pure Evoke-1 features third-generation DAB technology. Frontier Silicon’s Chorus FS1010 is a single-chip DAB/audio processor, based on the META processor design and DAB IP licensed from Imagination Technologies.

The unit will be available at the end of July in retail stores in the United Kingdom.

Waves Offers New Version ofSoftware

Knoxville, TN - June 27, 2002 - Waves has introduced a ver. 3.5 software upgrade that is available for free to all users of versions 3.0 and higher. The new version offers more processors supporting high sample rates (96kHz and 192kHz) and dual processors, as well as focuses on optimization of system processor usage by loading optimal software code for the specific processor being used. The optimization of digital audio signal processing frees up processing power to run additional plug-ins or carry out other operations. The upgrade loads specific code for each individual processor.

Tascam Takes on Development ofMX-2424

Montebello, CA - Jul 1, 2002 - Tascam has brought the ongoing engineering development in-house for the MX-2424 hard disk recorder/editor and the MM-series film dubbers, which were designed and manufactured in conjunction with TimeLine Vista Inc. Tascam has established a direct working relationship with Gerry Lester and Teeto Cheema, the Academy award-winning engineers primarily responsible for the development of the MX-2424 and the MM Series.

Tascam's MMR-8 and MMP-16 Digital Dubbers are nonlinear audio systems designed specifically for the motion picture industry.

The MX-2424 is Tascam's standalone 24-track hard disk recorder. Since its introduction in 2000, Tascam has sold thousands of MX-2424s worldwide. Its sonic fidelity and audio file compatibility with other industry-leading recording and editing systems has made the MX-2424 widely popular with professional musicians, engineers and studio owners who capture audio for later transfer to DAW systems.

Tascam Shipping Pocketstudio 5 andSx-1

Montebello, CA - June 28, 2002 - The Tascam Pocketstudio 5 and the SX-1 Digital Production Environment are now shipping and available at authorized Tascam dealers. The Pocketstudio 5 is a portable multitrack digital recorder that uses Compact Flash cards for media, has an internal MIDI synthesizer module and can create final stereo mixes in MP3 format. The SX-1 combines automated digital mixing, hard disk recording, MIDI sequencing, editing, DSP effects and CD-burning capabilities into a single production unit.

Stardraw Launches Web-EnabledTechnology

London - June 28, 2002 - Software provider Stardraw has chosen InfoComm 02 to unveil a new suite of design applications. While they follow the principles of the developer's established product range, Stardraw AV, Stardraw Audio and Stardraw Lighting 2D, the new applications are fully Web-enabled, allowing users to access a Web page to use the software within an Internet browser.

Where conventional software is shipped on CD and installed, Stardraw's Web-enabled applications are delivered through HTML pages, using tools that download themselves when they are needed. All of the functionality is executed on the client side for speed, and symbols, libraries and pricing are stored in databases on the server. An advantage of the client/server split is that even if the Internet connection is broken, users can still continue to work and save files locally.

Stardraw adds Project ManagementReports

London - June 27, 2002 - Stardraw.com announce the inclusion of Client, Management and Installation Reports as May's new program features. This extension of Stardraw's reporting adds a new level of functionality tailored to the project-management process. The feature-per-month enables Stardraw to add functionality in response to user requests. As the name suggests, at least one new feature is added each month, which is available to all current subscribers and downloadable from the Internet. Hundreds of new product symbols are also added to the family of Stardraw packages each month. In this way all Stardraw users are guaranteed to be operating on the most up-to-date version of the software.

As with all new Stardraw features, this latest tool is Web-enabled gives users the broadest set of presentation options. With it users can now produce reports by room and phase in addition to the well-established summary and detail pricing reports and cable schedules.

Audio-Technica Makes The World CupSquad

Stow, OH - June 25, 2002 - Being a large sporting event, there are many detailed aspects to broadcasting the the FIFA World Cup soccer games. Audio-Technica microphones have been specified for the 2002 World Cup by Robert Edwards, Sound Director of Video Sound Services Limited (UK).

The Audio-Technica AT895 adaptive-array microphone system will be present for coverage of each manager's bench at every World Cup game. Broadcasters are able to connect to specific circuits to independently access these microphones, which make up the core of the Team A and Team B feeds. They are available to broadcast companies around the world through host broadcaster HBS. The AT895s are also mixed in as part of the overall World TV feed, and used at halftime for sideline interviews.

Orban Now ShippingOpticodecs

San Leandro, CA - June 21, 2002 - Orban/CRL Systems in conjunction with Orban Europe (formerly Dialog 4) have begun shipping the Opticodec models 7000 and 7400, which are manufactured in Germany by Orban Europe to ISO9000 quality standards.

The Opticodec 7000 is a portable audio recorder that can edit and transmit live audio via a MPEG Layer II and Layer III compliant codec for use with ISDN, as well as G.722 and G.711 telephone modes. The Opticodec 7400 is a fixed-location audio Layer II and Layer III codec for use with ISDN, and is TCP/IP and UDP addressable for use over any LAN, WAN, intranet or the Internet. G.722 and G.711 telephone modes are included as well.