Newswatch

FCC Allows Directional FM Modeling

The FCC will allow FM broadcasters the option to use computer modeling to verify directional antennas.

The most common reason to use a directional antenna by a commercial fullpower FM is to allow it to “short-space” to another FM while maintaining contour protection to that station.

The computer modeling must be done by the antenna’s manufacturer. The FCC declined to extend authority to perform modeling to others, at least for now.

Once a particular antenna model or series of elements has been verified by one applicant using a given type of software, the FCC will permit subsequent applicants using the same combination to submit the computer model for their installations.

“May 19, 2022 is a monumental day for FM broadcasters,” wrote manufacturer Dielectric, which pressed for the change along with Shively, RFS and Jampro, as well as broadcast group Educational Media Foundation.

Electronics Research Inc. had opposed the change, which it said would increase interference due to patterns that do not accurately reflect actual directional signals.

Courtesy Cris Alexander

James Boyd Dies at 75

Engineer James Boyd died in May.

Boyd was well known in the radio technical industry but especially in the northwestern U.S. He owned Boyd Broadcast Technical Services in Oregon.

Earlier in his career he was a chief engineer, operations manager and group chief for Capps Broadcast Group from the late 1960s to the early 1990s; he also had worked for WTD Industries.

An amateur radio enthusiast, he also was a lead inspector for the Alternate Broadcast Inspection Program for the Oregon Association of Broadcasters and the Idaho Broadcasters Association.

He told author Scott Fybush in a 2008 article for Radio Guide magazine that his first job was at KBND(AM), before he served in Vietnam as a broadcast specialist in the U.S. Army. He founded his company in October 1991, and clients included Entercom, CBS Rwadio, smaller stations, Harris Corp. and consulting firms Hatfield and Dawson and DuTreil, Lundin & Rackley.

According to a Radio World article in 2016, Boyd was involved in the effort to create a “first informer” credential for Oregon broadcast engineers.