Nautel brought a slate of prominent radio industry experts to its annual NAB Radio Technology Forum this year and displayed new equipment at its 2026 exhibition booth.

In a session titled Where Technology Meets Revenue; Helping your Station Prosper, speakers included Senior Xperi VP Joe D’Angelo, David Layer, NAB VP of Advanced Engineering and Steve Newberry, CEO of visual radio company Quu. Challenges, new technology solutions and answers found in small market radio stations we discussed in the session, including engineering support, staffing, parts availability, and other changing situations.

Nautel’s Jeff Welton hosted a session about finding and mentoring the next generation of broaadcast technical talent.

“Many new engineers will have a strong IT background but fewer RF related skills. It’s no question that the average age of the broadcast engineer continues to increase, as older engineers are working longer and fewer younger folks are coming into the industry… We are trying to come up with some workable ideas for finding more talent to keep the tower lights on and the watts moving down the coax.”

Nautel President and CEO Kevin Rodgers said: “Our forum began many years ago as a user group meeting and has expanded over time to include topics that are key to the success of radio broadcasters. It’s now considered a ‘must-attend’ event.”

Radio stations in the US and Canada who upgrade from an older tube transmitter to a new Nautel solid state transmitter prior to June 30, 2026 are eligible for up to $10,000 in a “last tube buyback” credit from Nautel to easing the transition to a reliable solid-state transmitter by offering a credit covering the cost of a station’s last tube.”

At the Nautel NAB exhibition booth this year, low power versions of the NX transmitter series were on ahow. The NX1 and NX2.5 are “true extensions of Nautel’s proven NX Series,” bringing the same ultra‑linear modulation architecture, digital transmission, and operational reliability used in high‑power NX installations worldwide to 1 kW and 2.5 kW transmitters.

A totally rewritten Advanced User Interface with an all-new operating system and architecture that will be standard on all new Nautel transmitters could be seen in action on Nautel’s GV, GV2, & VX transmitters.

Also at the exhibition booth was the VX Audio Player and AoIP Streaming back up service. In addition to built-in audio player and playlists, the VX natively supports Shoutcast, Icecast, & HLS streaming inputs