Posted on: Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Audio-delay devices in demand by radio stations

By Christina Hoag
Knight Ridder News Service

MIAMI — Radio stations are scrambling to install equipment that enables them to ax obscenities before they hit the airwaves in the wake of the government crackdown on broadcast indecency.

The country's two swamped manufacturers of audio-delay devices say they're struggling to keep up with demand.

"We've had a year's worth of orders in a month," said Paul Roberts, sales coordinator for Symetrix of Mountlake Terrace, Wash. "We've had to dramatically increase production of this product."

Neither he nor his competitor, Eventide of Little Ferry, N.J., would say how much sales have increased, but both companies said they're operating under 30-day backlogs.

"We're largely catching up now," said Ray Maxwell, Eventide's vice president of sales and marketing.

The $2,200 to $3,400 digital machines work by delaying broadcasts up to 20 seconds, giving time for technicians to slice out any offensive material. The standard delay is 7.5 seconds.

Until now, the devices have typically been used by talk stations that handle unpredictable calls from listeners or stations that broadcast live a lot, said Tom Taylor, editor of M Street/Inside Radio newsletter.

But with the recent drive by the Federal Communications Commission to clean up the airwaves, all kinds of stations now want the equipment — just in case.

"A station could be going live from a car lot and someone walking by could say something that gets picked up by the mike," Taylor said. "Stations are feeling they must protect their business."

Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio broadcaster, announced last month that it was buying $500,000 worth of delay equipment for its stations.

The FCC fined the company $495,000 on Thursday for the raunchy on-air antics of Howard Stern, a popular syndicated "shock jock," last April.

Clear Channel dropped the show, which it had suspended.