If every NAB Show in recent years has been marked by some uncertainty, this year’s version gets underway in Las Vegas this weekend on even shakier ground than usual.

It’s not just the international economy and travel concerns about coming to the US. And it’s not just the very loud drumbeats of hype about AI-powered everything, a recurring theme that’s especially strong in the thousands of news releases flooding the in-boxes of any of us who’ve ended up on the NAB’s press list.

Here’s the thing: you, dear reader, are a human (I hope!) who’s interested in how humans can do all the things we still do best to make radio that connects humans to other humans.

And this year, which is something like my 24th NAB Show, I have an exciting new role that I’ll tell you about with a company that’s doing just that.

I’m still doing all the other things that I do to help broadcasters solve problems, of course, and in those roles there’s a lot that I’m going to be looking for and telling you about at this year’s show.

On the regulatory front, we’re looking at a very different FCC from what most of us have been accustomed to. Most of the usual rules about ownership caps in TV and radio quietly slipped out the door in the last few months as Brendan Carr’s Commission bypassed its usual processes to approve TV’s Nexstar-TEGNA merger and, more quietly, a Bonneville radio deal in San Francisco that blew out the usual ownership limits.

Will these new rules survive court scrutiny? We don’t know yet, and we really want to hear what the DC lawyers will be saying this week and what our fellow station brokers are hearing about whether there are buyers ready to create newer, bigger clusters.

There’s also a filing window coming this fall for new non-commercial FM translators and the prospect for more deregulation coming in other aspects of FCC processes. We know there are EAS developments in the pipeline as stations brace for a move from hardware boxes to some sort of software-based EAS future.

We’ll also be watching for the impending end to C-band satellite distribution for radio networks and syndication, as both commercial providers and public radio start rolling out replacement services that look to be mostly Internet-delivered.

(I’m attending the Public Radio Engineering Conference before the big show starts, where everyone who’s still able to attend is laser-focused on doing more with less after last year’s elimination of most federal funding.)

With my contract engineer hat on, I’m going to be walking the show floor (where most radio vendors are now clustered in Central Hall) to see this year’s crop of shiny new boxes. If you’ve missed a good old-fashioned audio processing war, Telos has a new weapon this year in its Omnia 12, its first new flagship processor in over a decade, squaring off against a field that includes worthy opponents from Orban, Angry Audio, Wheatstone and more.

The slow and steady drumbeat of AM stations leaving the air is another big issue, but there’s still been a void for new lower-powered AM transmitters to keep surviving stations going as their old Armstrongs and Harrises hit end of life. So it’s oddly thrilling to see Nautel and BE (under new employee ownership) meeting that need with fresh entries at the 1000 and 2500-watt levels this year.

While transmitters still pretty much have to be hardware products, almost everything else in the air chain can be virtual these days. We’re looking forward to checking out some of the new “glass” consoles on offer this year – and here’s where we come back around to my new role at NAB and the sponsor of this column.

At last year’s NAB, I was introduced to a software company I hadn’t heard much about. I rarely say no to an opportunity to meet new people at the show, and I’m very glad I said yes to Myriad and signed on as their sales and marketing executive for the US and Canada.

This small but mighty company was started in the UK three decades ago by university students who couldn’t find the software they needed for their college station and ended up writing it themselves. These days, Myriad software powers thousands of broadcasters ranging from the British Forces Broadcasting Services global operation, to volunteer led hospital radio stations, and even elementary school stations ran by the children themselves! Not to mention KEXP Seattle and a growing number of broadcasters here who are figuring out what they’ve been missing.

What’s the magic? It’s thoughtful software design that offers customizable design for playout screens, the versatility of running playout locally, in the cloud or (why not?) both for disaster recovery and flexibility. Myriad 6 Schedule has all the tools of the other big names, with the added advantage of tight integration with Myriad 6 Playout so you’re never worrying about whether a log has imported properly – and if you’re not in the studio or you don’t even have a studio, Myriad Anywhere lets you control everything from any web browser… anywhere.

But that’s not all. There’s a brilliant solution for logging, archiving and repurposing the content you brilliant humans are creating. There’s BR Live, a minimal-latency browser based remote audio connection that’s great for live sports, music remotes, meat sales and whatever else your sales department throws at you at the last second. There are great tools for splitting breaks among multiple networked stations, or for spinning up an extra stream of specialized content.

Can it integrate with just about everything? It can, with native support for most popular console and switching systems, and an on-site development team at headquarters that’s ready to figure out the less popular ones, too.

And what about price? It’s more than affordable – we really want to work with you to create a system that meets your needs, whether that’s a monthly plan or a perpetual license.

If you’re here in Vegas, Myriad will also be powering “Shotgun” Tom Kelly’s broadcasts from the SAS booth and we’ll be tossing remotes back and forth to our booth, which is conveniently located at C2230.

Come see what it’s all about and say hello – and if you’re not in Vegas, I’m as close as email or the myriad.radio website to schedule a demo and get you set up with trial software.