Completed cycle
Sep 1, 2002 12:00 PM, Chriss Scherer, editor
Because you’re only on page 8 of this issue, you may not have noticed the change yet. I will admit that the final step was subtle. It has been seven months since we launched the redesign of this magazine, and in that time you have told us that you like the new look. After several years with the same layout and design, we felt it was time for a fresh look to bring you the great information you look forward to every month. We kicked the redesign off at the spring NAB convention, and now that the fall NAB Radio Show is here, we have completed our transition.
To give you the complete story, I will start from an earlier point in this magazine’s history. In 1959, a publication called Broadcast Engineering was introduced to cover the technology behind radio and television. As these two sectors of broadcasting evolved, their common roots grew more disparate. In 1993 it was clear that one publication could not serve both sides of the industry to their fullest. In 1994, the radio content of Broadcast Engineering was taken out of that magazine and put into a new publication called BE Radio, while Broadcast Engineering continued to focus on television. The two magazines have stayed their courses, and today Broadcast Engineering even has two editions: the North American edition and the World edition.
Because of this magazine’s history, I often tell people that we’re a nine-year-old publication in a 44-year-old body. While our individual identity may be more recent, we have the longest continuous history of any radio technology publication.
Going back to what I said at the beginning, I’m sure you’re wondering what there was to complete. After nearly nine years of being called BE Radio, this publication has changed its name. What you are reading now is called Radio magazine. Don’t panic; I said that this final step was subtle. We still cover the broadcast engineering and technology side of the radio industry, but now our name says what we are and what we do. We’re not abandoning our heritage. Far from it. We embrace it every day. The new name just eliminates some confusion about the BE initials.
We chose the NAB Radio Show to complete the cycle to give you a chance to see the new layout and become comfortable with the new presentation. In March I said that the content hadn’t changed, only the surroundings. Now you know that this is true. We decided to hold off on the name change until you had a chance to see what we were doing. Now that it is complete, I think you will see that we delivered on our promise to provide the best timely and useful radio technology information that you need.
While our name has changed, the URL for our website hasn’t. We’re continuing the legacy that the website address carries. Our online component, www.beradio.com, is still the radio technology website where you will continue to find a wealth of news, information and exclusive stories. If you haven’t bookmarked it already, log on to www.beradio.com and bookmark it now.
Radio today uses technology from many allied fields including pro audio, computers, telecommunications, satellite and electronics. Many companies that cater directly to these outside market sectors are not familiar with the history of this publication. We have also learned that some of our readers do not accurately remember the history and the significance of the leading initials. Others who are completely outside the technology arena thought the initials were a verb, and they considered our name to be rather esoteric with a touch of Zen: Live radio; Know radio; Be radio.
Well, we are radio; Radio magazine.
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