Accessible Digital Radio Broadcast Services

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• Accessible Digital Radio Broadcast Services
• Radio Waves and Human Ideas
• Companions to Serve Us All
• Mike Starling
• VP, CTO Executive Director, NPR Labs
• NPR, Washington D.C.
• Dr. Ellyn Sheffield Matt Burrough
• Cognitive Scientist Technical
  Researcher
• Towson University NPR Labs, NPR
• Helen Keller National Center
• Sand Point, NY
• December 7, 2007

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NPR Fast Facts

• NOT governmental agency
• Competitive government grants typically make up
  less than 2 of annual budget ½ of budget from
  station program fees 1/3 from corporate
  underwriting, balance, foundation support and
  grants
• CPB supplies community service grant support to
  local stations (16 of average budget)
• 825 stations with 32 million listeners each week
• NPR programs have 28 million weekly listeners
• NPR budget is roughly 150 million annually
• 750 employees, over half in News
• Journalism is NPRs hallmark programming

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NPR Membership Ranks 2nd in Stations 3rd in
Combined Revenues

• Group Broadcaster Stations Revenue
• Clear Channel 1,224 9,418,500,000
• National Public Radio 809 780,000,000
• Cumulus Media 266 320,100,000
• Citadel Communications 213 411,500,000
• Viacom 183 2,525,900,000
• Entercom 104 423,500,000
• ABC Radio 71 12,000,000
• Radio One 69 319,800,000
• Emmis Communications 25 591,900,000

Data Source 2004 revenues as reported to
Hoovers Inc. except for ABC Radio which reported
2003 data
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WNYC-FM/HD 15,747,000 Potential Listeners57
watt HD Signal - 61 dBu TIREM contour
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Public Radio Digital Transition
Public Radio Digital Transition SEP 07
DEC 06
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Why Accessible Radio?

• Radio is an immediate, companion medium that
  provides hundreds of programs not available on
  the TV or web
• Radio is available during emergencies when power
  grid is down
• For 40 years, NPR has worked on extending signal
  reach to the public, now were working on
  reaching the public better including accessibly

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Accessible Radio An Idea Whose Time Has Come

• 650 million people affected by serious
  disabilities
• That affects nearly 2 billion people living with
  them
• Radio has hundreds of programs not on TV or web
• For years worked on extending signal reach to the
  public, now working on reaching the public better
  
• 2007 U.N. Convention on Serving People With
  Disabilities now signed by 118 countries
• This scale presents best opportunity for
  mainstreamed, accessible radio development
• The Accessible Digital Radio Service Project
• Digital radio reading services for the visually
  impaired and print handicapped
• First ever Captioned Radio for the Deaf and Hard
  of Hearing

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Advanced Applications Services Reside in
Recently Authorized Extended Hybrid Spectrum
Upper DigitalSidebands
Lower DigitalSidebands
AdditionalReferenceSubcarrier
AdditionalReferenceSubcarrier
Primary
Primary
Main
Main
Extended
Extended
AnalogHost Signal(Stereo or Mono)
10 partitions
1,2, or 4partitions
10 partitions
1,2, or 4partitions
191Subcarriers
76Subcarriers
0 Hz (0)
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Accessible Radio Partners
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NPR Labs 1St Demonstration of Accessible Radio
Services Concept at NAB 2006

• Four Channel Extended-Hybrid HD Radio mode
• News - 48 kbps
• Classical - 36 kbps
• Electronic - 24 kbps
• Reading Service - 12 kbps
• 120 kbps total
• Plus Captioned Radio - 1.5 kbps

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Captioned Radio Concept Demo
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WX3NPR On Air Field Tests

• 50w Experimental FMHD station on 87.9 FM

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XNPR Video From 8/10/07
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Sharp Dual View Display Technology

• Front seat Captioning driver can see traffic
  map, while listening to radio - at the same time
  a D/HH passenger has same content on Captioned
  Radio view

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FEMA Recognizes Radios PrimacyDuring
Emergencies
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Thank You

• Comments, suggestions, questions
• Always welcome
• Mike Starling
• CTO, NPR
• mstarling_at_npr.org
• www.nprlabs.org