To be eligible, the products had to have been available for use (not just announced) by July 2008. Nominations were submitted by Radio magazine readers, contributors and manufacturers. The winning products will be profiled in the October issue of Radio magazine.

NAB Names 2008 Marconi Radio Award Winners
Austin - Sep 18, 2008 - Winners of the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Radio Awards were announced at the annual NAB Marconi Radio Awards Dinner and Show. The dinner was held at The NAB Radio Show in Austin.

Established in 1989 and named after inventor and Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, the NAB Marconi Radio Awards are given to radio stations and outstanding on-air personalities to recognize excellence in radio. This year's NAB Marconi Radio Award recipients are:

Marconi finalists were selected by a task force of broadcasters, and the winners were voted on by the NAB Marconi Radio Awards Selection Academy. The votes were tabulated by an independent firm.

Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, and VJ Barre, sales manager for the Austin Convention Center, give toys to children temporarily housed at the Austin Convention Center following Hurricane Ike.

NAB Donates Toys to Hurricane Ike Evacuees at Austin Convention Center
Austin, TX - Sep 18, 2008 - As the NAB Radio Show was being held at the Austin Convention Center, the City of Austin has also set up one of four area shelters for about 1,200 Hurricane Ike evacuees at the facility. The National Association of Broadcasters helped with the City’s hurricane relief efforts by donating several hundred toys and games to the evacuee children currently housed at the convention center.

The hurricane evacuees from the Houston/Galveston area are being sheltered as part of the relief effort by the City of Austin and the American Red Cross of Central Texas. The shelter at the Austin Convention Center was set up and in full operation in Exhibit Halls 2, 3 and 4 by Sept. 15.

NAB representatives and Convention Center staff helped distribute the toys to the children in the play area in Exhibit Hall 2. Every child at the shelter received at least one toy. The assortment included puzzles, games, books, Lincoln logs, Legos, cars, trucks, dolls, balls, coloring books, Play-Doh, and cards.

Business

AMSI Partners with Flycast for Cell Phone Delivery
Charleston, SC - Sep 12, 2008 - American Media Services Interactive (AMSI) is making its 193 online music channels available to listeners on mobile smart phones through a partnership with Flycast. Additionally, AMSI plans to create custom channels for Flycast.

The Flycast network deliver radio, video and podcasts to smart phones such as the Apple Iphone. Flycast currently offers more than 800 channels of music, news, video and podcasts in 130 countries. Listeners can access the AMSI online music channels by navigating to www.flycast.fm from their smart phone or by downloading the Flycast native Iphone app from the Iphone app store.

Sales Call Yangaroo has struck a deal with the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) for CARAS to use Yangaroo's digital media distribution system (DMDS) to distribute all music and related promotional materials submitted for Juno Award consideration to judges and CARAS' members. This system eliminates the need for each entrant to submit 12 copies of each CD to CARAS. These entries were then repackaged and reshipped to judges. Talking Information Center, a non-profit radio reading service that provides the visually-impaired and print-handicapped with access to the printed word, is using Barix audio over IP equipment for STL transport and live audio streaming over the Internet. Based in Marshfield, MA, the Talking Information Center serves 23,000 elderly and disabled readers state-wide, broadcasting newspapers, magazines, books and special consumer information over the air through a network of FM subcarriers and low-power FM stations. The Center installed Barix audio over IP technology to replace DDS digital telephone lines that cost upward of $32,000 per year to distribute programming to six affiliate sites across the state. The radio reading service now uses a Barix Instreamer-100 IP audio encoder at the Marshfield site to encode and stream programming to all six sites, where Barix Exstreamer-100 audio decoders receive and decode the audio for local transmission. Dial Global, Triton Radio's sales and programming division, has placed a $2.1 million equipment order for Wegener Ipump 6420 audio media servers and network products. Dial Global is purchasing the equipment to upgrade and expand the Wegener file-based broadcasting platform used to manage its 2,000-radio station network. Clear Channel's 94.5 the Buzz in Houston is using Abacast for live video streaming of the morning show. The webcast will use a sponsored video player.

Eye on IBOC

Nextmedia Signs with Worldband Media for South Asian Multicast Programming
San Jose, CA - Sep 15, 2008 - Nextmedia Group will work with Worldband Media to deliver ethnic content to Northern California's South Bay Area. Nextmedia Group's 106.5 KEZR-FM will transmit a format for the South Asian population on its HD2stream.

The arrangement is similar to a deal that Emmis struck with Worldband (Currents, Sept. 9, 2008) for Worldband to provide South Asian programming on Emmis stations in Los Angeles and Chicago.

People

Yangaroo Hires Zieman for US Operations
Toronto - Sep 17, 2008 - Yangaroo has appointed Josh Zieman, music industry veteran and former vice president of marketing at Manhattan/Blue Note Label Group (a division of EMI) as senior vice president of business development. Overseeing sales and market development for Yangaroo's digital media distribution system (DMDS), Zieman will work with Jon Klein, vice president, business development, based in New York, and Drew Ferrante, vice president, business development, based in Los Angeles to continue the expansion in the U.S. market.

Zieman joins Yangaroo with more than 25 years of experience in sales and marketing. Prior to working for EMI, he was general manager of Papa Joe Records (a division of Geffen Records). He has also held the positions of general manager at independent label Razor and Tie and vice president, marketing at Columbia Records and Mercury Records.

Products

Harris Enhances Console Routing and Control Features
Austin, TX - Sep 17, 2008 Harris has introduced enhancements to its studio systems and consoles range for radio. The enhancements include improved source selection and routing compatibility to Harris RMX Digital on-air consoles, as well as new console display techniques.

Harris introduced an RMX Digital Dual Selector upgrade kit, which transforms the standard dual-fader module into an integrated Harris 16x2 Microrouter controller. The 16x2 Microrouter is a compact, 1RU routing system that adds remote source selection capability to the consoles, providing up to 16 remote sources to any dual-fader module and allowing individual selection for each fader.

Harris also introduced two display styles for RMX Digital consoles, including an aviation-inspired, heads-up display that preserves sightlines to guests, video and other show information on LCD monitors and digital signage displays in the studio. A direct view style is also available, offering a more traditional low-profile design.

Izotope Now Shipping ANR-B Adaptive Noise Reduction
Austin, TX - Sep 17, 2008 - Izotope is now shipping its ANR-B Adaptive Real-time Noise Reduction Unit. The ANR-B uses Izotope's noise reduction technology to intelligently identify and suppress environmental broadband noise, hum, phone line artifacts and other noise sources from audio feeds.