The NAB Show is about one month away now. For the exhibitors and for us covering the industry, our planning began some time ago. In January we began gathering information on new products that will be unveiled. We also started gathering information about the sessions and assembling the data for our exhibit floor map.

By February, most of the pieces were in place for our March issue, although we still had to add last-minute updates until the end of the month.

It’s now March, and we’re working on the April issue while we make appointments for the convention. My hotel and airline reservations are made. I am making final arrangements on meetings rooms. Up until I arrive in Las Vegas I will be making constant updates to my daily schedule. I’ll make a few adjustments on site as well.

Then, for one week, I’ll be a blur. I’ll spend most of my time on the exhibit floor. I’ll pop in a few sessions when I can, but unfortunately I can’t spend as much time there as I would like. In the evenings, I head back to my room not to relax, but to process all the information I gathered during the day, including news and photos of the day. Some I’ll post online myself, some I’ll pass to the staff minding the fort at home. In the morning I get to do it all again.

I have never calculated all the time I spend preparing for the NAB Show. I don’t think I really want to know. Of course once the show is over, I’m still working on it for our Pick Hits and post-show review.

Who says it’s only one week a year?

I saw an item in the New York Daily News discussing MTV’s recent admission that it is not a music channel. Thanks for letting us know, MTV. It’s been this way since at least 1990.

MTV went on the wire (it’s a cable channel, so saying “on the air” sounds wrong) on Aug. 1, 1981. The first video the channel played was the Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. In 1981, many thought this was a prophecy. Three decades later, we know it hasn’t come to pass.

Even with media iPods, Youtube, Pandora and many other outlets, radio is still making a mark. We’re not in the heyday of the golden oldies and boss jocks, but we’re still doing ok.

It seems the promos the NAB has provided to radio stations about eliminating terrestrial radio’s exemption from paying the music performance fee are being heard. My non-broadcast coworkers and friends are all asking me about the tax (as the NAB calls it) being proposed for radio stations.

First, I clarify the term “tax.” While an assessed fee can technically be called a tax, most people understand a tax to be a fee levied by the government to subsidize the government’s actions. The issue at hand is for radio stations to pay a royalty that it so far has been exempt from paying.

But listeners only hear the tax portion. Good for the NAB; the message is at least being heard.

However, it’s not being understood. It’s raising awareness, but it’s not answering questions. And as far as I can tell, no one is going to the website the NAB created to see what it’s about.

Seems like it’s time for phase two of the message.

I have received several inquiries about the Chapter 11 filing made by Penton Media, the company that owns Radio magazine. For a company to file Chapter 11 raises thoughts of doom and gloom to most people. In this case, Chapter 11 is only part of the story. What was filed was a pre-packaged Chapter 11.

During the past year, Penton’s management team and board of directors focused on strengthening the company financially and operationally as part of its commitment to making sure we are best positioned to meet the needs of our customers when the economy turns.

We have made solid progress, which has allowed us to remain profitable. However, Penton still faces the burden of a heavy debt load at a time when difficult economic conditions are putting pressure on the entire industry. This debt is simply not sustainable. As a result, Penton proactively engaged in discussions with our current owners and lenders, and we reached an agreement on a capital restructuring that will strengthen our balance sheet and significantly improve our financial position. Once it is implemented, the restructuring will result in:

I just finished a long weekend trip. I had a rental car this time, so I had the fun of setting up the radio so it was listenable before I left the lot. (Who turns the bass all the way down and the treble all the way up?) This radio included Sirius as well. I don’t subscribe to sat radio, so it was a good chance to check it out again.

I have always liked the depth of programming on many of the channels. It’s a nice change, but I don’t drive enough to justify paying the monthly fee for the service. Plus, I can’t stand the audio encoding. All that swishing of the encoder drives me crazy.

But this is not rant about the evils of sat radio.

While I was driving, I tuned around the FM band. I was in three medium-sized markets on my trip, so I had time to sample lots of stations.

What surprised me was that the car radio had a graphic display for Sirius, but it did not have RBDS. I saw a large numeric display of the frequency, but nothing more. That disappointed me. RBDS is far from a new technology; why isn’t it in every car radio receiver?

While I missed not having RBDS, the fact that satellite radio was included made me think that it would have been nice to have HD Radio available. What great way to introduce consumers to the newest terrestrial radio technology.

This car radio had an auxiliary input jack and a USB power jack. I could have bypassed radio altogether and listened to my media player if I wanted to.

Again, terrestrial radio is missing a huge opportunity to show consumers what is available.

When ISDN was introduced, it was believed it would be the next common wired communications service. I remember looking at an office phone system and being told that POTS lines would go away and ISDN would be the norm.

20 years later, ISDN is fading away. It’s unavailable in many areas already. Funny how POTS has managed to stick around.

Or has it?

AT&T filed comments with the FCC that say for broadband deployment to continue, the legacy circuit-switched network must be phased out to make room for broadband and IP. A main argument is that as demand and usage of POTS lines decreases, the cost to maintain that network increases. The money spent on maintaining the circuit-switched network could be better applied to broadband services.

I can’t say I totally disagree with the general idea. We’re using IP connectivity for almost everything already. It’s also much more efficient than circuit-switched networks. But still, the idea of not have any tip-ring anywhere? It’s almost hard to believe.

The next Radio Show — a joint effort of the NAB and the RAB — will be held in Washington, DC, Sep 29 - Oct 1. It was recently announced at an NAB board meeting that the Grand Hyatt will be the host site.

At the 2009 NAB Radio Show, it was suggested that the 2010 event would integrate sessions and exhibits more closely. There are still no specifics being offered on this idea. It was even suggested that there would be no exhibit floor of its own, only table-top exhibits around the session rooms. That didn’t sit well with exhibitors at the 2009 show.

In the meantime, we still wait for details.

AT&T released data saying that usage at its 20,000 Wi-fi hotspots reached 85.5 million in 2009. This is more than 4 times the use in 2008. It was also noted that most of this access was via some form of smartphone. We already know the world is connected. As cell carriers compete for better coverage, Wi-fi still ranks high in usage. This is good for the wireless carriers because a Wi-fi user is not using the wireless network and stealing from the data capacity.

New devices want more bandwidth all the time. Streaming radio is no exception. How long will it be until Wi-fi and Wimax is everywhere?

I received a product release today for a stand-alone radio that includes 1GB of storage and a timer interface to record up to 70 hours of radio programming. I wasn’t sure what to make of the idea.

The idea is that the unit can be set to record favorite programs for later playback. It’s a radio Tivo. This is not a new idea. There have also been similar functions offered in HD Radio receivers.

I looked at a few syndicated show sites to see if they all offered archives of their shows. They do. Some provided an easy way to save the shows or transfer them to a media player. Others were a little more difficult to navigate.

Regardless, the tools are there, although it might not be intuitive for some listeners.

Is there a need for this radio Tivo? For certain radio listeners it makes sense. It’s a self-contained system, although I have no idea how easy it is to use.

I then turned to some local station sites to see if the morning shows were offered as archives. In most cases, they had archives of clips. A few sites did not, which surprised me. Why would a station not offer its prime content online somehow? Even if that content is behind a registration wall (which also provides some info about the listener) it’s something.

The FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking to modify the rules and establisha method for an national EAS test has been issued. Do we need a national test? If we are going to keep the EAS as it is, a national test is a good idea. Such a test has never been conducted.

The recent EAN test in Alaska showed that the system seems to work, at least in that state. If the system were ever needed across the country, would it work as well?

It seems the FCC is still focused on the daisy-chain idea behind EAS, however. I know many plans kept this idea in place from EBS, but it’s an outdated idea and should be replaced if it’s still being used. That’s another issue than what the NPRM seeks, but it is worth noting in comments that the daisy chain should not be perpetuated.

Because the FCC sees broadcast as such a major part of the EAN, it’s important for stations to express their views on how such a test should be implemented.