Claim OwnershipThis Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)
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“TWiRT” is your go to show if you want to get behind the scenes on what makes broadcasting possible. The show addresses common issues as well as explaining past experiences from a wide array of hosts who each come from a different background in radio technology. This show is a must for any tech geek or for anyone who is interested in what goes on behind the boards and wires.
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Most broadcast engineers love a good project - especially when planning and resources overlap to enable a worthy outcome. But even solid “enablement” requires an engaged and knowledgeable engineer to guide the project’s moving parts, seeing the project through, and making sure the outcome fits the goal. That’s where Aaron Cox comes in. Aaron appreciates a good project - even a complex one - and he’s our guest, describing several compelling broadcast projects. From a couple of tower projects to new studios and upgrading an AM directional array, Aaron brings a “can-do” spirit to each job. Chris Tarr co-hosts this episode, adding his parallel expertise.
Mike Dosch has served as the CEO of Telos-Omnia-Axia, and is the Founder of Angry Audio. But his passion is audio circuit design and manufacturing. Mike joins us to talk about solving some vexing audio problems, and getting the best performance from analog audio interfaces. Isolating audio circuits from the noisy data circuits that connect them was a challenge - one that is solved in the USB Audio Gizmo from Angry Audio. Mike also discusses Common Mode Rejection Ratio (CMRR) and how this figure of merit is important in real audio facilities. Josh Bohn joins us to announce a new wireless data connection path for remote sites. And we meet Mike Hutchens, the new Director of Technical Services at MK Technical Services.
Amazing that this worked out, but thanks to Pierre Lonewolf’s topic idea and Bill Murdoch’s eagerness to join us, we have a fun and informative TWiRT episode! Two chiefs who engineer at two different high-power AM radio stations - each broadcasting at 720 kHz on the AM dial. And we’re having this conversation on episode 720 of “This Week in Radio Tech!” It had to be fate! Between Pierre and Bill, we find plenty of similarities and some big differences in their transmitter operations. Pierre’s station is KOTZ in Kotzebue, Alaska. Bill’s station is WGN in Chicago, Illinois. The towers are about 3,200 miles apart from each other, so neither station gets interference from the other, but each station has interesting and individual challenges. You’ve got to check out Pierre’s and Bill’s Tips of the Week at the end of the show. Great wisdom there!
Conditional Access systems for building security have always seemed like a “per building” or “per campus” proposition. But with today’s ubiquitous Internet access, and somewhat autonomous operation, conditional access systems can be deployed in remote locations. They can provide not only conditional access security, but also inform site owners of who is opening doors and gates, and exactly when they’re doing it. It’s convenience for those requiring access, and verification for those who need to monitor such access. Ty Magnum has assembled the right ‘best of breed” security systems and is installing these systems at transmitter sites and broadcast studio facilities. Chris Tarr joins us to apply his perspective on rolling out this technology and the equipment that makes it work.
We radio engineers who aspire to be fondly remembered in our careers should take a few notes from Ed Glab. Ed engineered the studios and the remote broadcasters for WLS, Chicago, for over 40 years. His career and his positive ingenuity are fondly remembered by the DJs and radio hosts who worked with him. On this episode of TWiRT, we get to talk with Ed and hear his perspective and stories about engineering at “Music Radio - WLS”.
Listen fast, because George Whittam reveals a LOT of gold nuggets of useful audio capture and production information in this episode of TWiRT. Just look at the long list of Show Notes below! George is the engineer to the Voice Over stars, and the rest of the voice talent world, too. We engineers can learn a lot from George’s tireless efforts to help voice talent get the most from their equipment and studios, and modify or build new spaces when needed. Check out George’s advice, then follow him on other podcasts and his website to dig into solid audio engineering advice.
TWiRT is on location at a Nashville radio station - Jazzy 88, WFSK-FM. Rick Durham is a provider of managed IT services in Middle Tennessee. He’s also the engineer for WFSK-FM. WFSK is preparing for their annual fundraising event, where they broadcast live from the parking lot and take drive through donations while interviewing numerous Nashville dignitaries and music artists. We also spend a few minutes with Sharon Kay, WFSK’s General Manager, and Xuam (X-Man) Lawson, WFSK’s Program Director. We discuss some engineering and how WFSK is keeping up with an Audio over IP audio plant. We also discuss the engineer’s role in keeping the jazz playing and the public affairs programming on the air, too.
Lee Melton is one of those semi-crazy radio guys that we know and love. And many of us wanted to BE that guy! Lee’s career started at KFI, Los Angeles, and he’s been at about 25 radio stations, even building a couple in Southeast Texas. Some have called him “The Kind of Radio Trade-Outs” while many others called him a friendly and fun voice on the radio. Lee’s radio recollections inspire plenty of banter with Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack. And Chris reveals his encounter with Paul McCartney! It's an hour of radio stories and fun, with a little engineering talk sprinkled in.
Sometimes we originate a TWiRT episode from a newly-built radio studio. Today, however, we’re visiting beautiful studios that are under construction. Bill Jackson works with K-Love, a nationwide Christian radio group. He’s in charge of the design and build-out of a couple dozen radio studios, podcast rooms, edit, and news booths. Bill is absolutely maximizing Audio over IP technology throughout. Let’s take a “cook’s tour” of a couple large studios, plus look at a data closet and the broadcast portion of the restricted-access data center.
The Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program (ABIP) was created around 1989 to aid the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in making sure all broadcast operations are in compliance and to help stations understand the rules in a one-on-one setting. In the beginning, the ABIP inspectors were retired FCC engineers. As the program began to expand around the country, other engineers were recruited and trained by regional FCC inspectors. ABIP inspectors have long used a basic Self Inspection Checklist that became woefully out of date. Tom Ray, working with other committee members at the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) has rewritten and greatly expanded these checklists for AM, FM, and TV stations. ABIP inspections are an excellent tool for broadcasters to assure compliance with FCC Rules, and do so in a friendly, non-adversarial encounter.
The rise of AI-generated lyrics and music is giving engineers something to chuckle about. But could this “easy creativity” inspire other engineering solutions? Kirk drew a comparison with photographer Jeremy Cowart and his use of an LED wall to produce 60 different portraits in 60 seconds. Anthony Kuzub, an engineer at CBC in Canada, pointed out the AI that’s involved with lighting a new studio, matching accent lights to the video monitor feeds. Matt Aaron is programming a fully-AI streaming station that’s playing “Broadcast Engineers Gangster Rap”. Are these just passing curiosities? Or are they signals of technologies and techniques to come for broadcasting and content creation?
Most every piece of equipment we use, or software we depend on began with an idea and a dream - a dream to help ourselves and others do their jobs better, faster, easier. Or perhaps to provide a service, or improve an existing one. Paul Stewart started Summit Technology Group with this motivation in mind as well. Paul and his company provide software and services with new features, conveniences, and efficiencies. Exactly what many broadcast engineers are looking for. Chris Tarr and I are talking with Paul about the software and services he’s bringing to broadcasters.
The CCBE conference encompasses two days of professional broadcast engineering career development. This includes carefully-chosen paper presentations, an expo hall, and an awards dinner and ceremony honoring leaders in the broadcast engineering profession. We got to meet with and converse with leaders in the Central Canadian Broadcast Engineers group, plus Canadian engineers and leading equipment manufacturers.
Have you wondered what goes on at the Network Operations Center of a satellite distribution network? We sure have, and our good friend, Marcos O’Rourke, joins us to talk about it. Marcos is now the Engineering Manager at Linkup Communications. We’ve followed Linkup’s rising star in the satellite communications business and watched as this company has grown to serve a lot of the broadcast industry. Marcos gives a brief history of the NOC in Denver, Colorado, and shares pictures of their operations and IT center.
It’s Radio Convention season and we’re bringing some of the Alabama Broadcasters Convention to you. Live from the Renaissance Ross Bridge Resort, we’re meeting with engineers and radio equipment reps as this ABA Convention draws to a close. One of our highlights is visiting with Steven Westbrook from the Alabama Historical Radio Society. We also get cameo appearances from Bob Mayben, Jeff Welton, and Jim Armstrong. Join us for some fun conversation while we learn a few things about both new and old technologies and some personalities that shaped - and are now shaping - radio tech.
A Google search on “SCOTUS and Chevron Deference” returns a lot of breathless headlines, prefacing pearl-clutching stories of near-calamitous changes in the way Federal agencies can carry out their missions. Indeed, one dissenting Supreme Court justice wrote that this ruling, “will cause a massive shock to the legal system.” The ruling will eventually affect some broadcast Rules from the Federal Communications Commission, but communications attorney, David Oxenford, predicts less dramatic effects on broadcast Rules and station operations. To clarify the Chevron decision and it’s likely effects on broadcasters, we interviewed Oxenford for this episode. We also get commentary from Larry Fuss, President and CEO of several multi-station radio broadcasting companies, and co-host, Chris Tarr. Join us for an informative episode of TWiRT as we discuss broadcast Rules in light of the SCOTUS decision on Chevron Deference.
As we are all very aware, being a technical person or layman, the recent CrowdStrike outage caused disruptions on a myriad of computer systems worldwide, affecting multiple industry sectors and millions of people in some way, shape, or form. Approximately 8.5 million devices were affected, leading to outages in various sectors, including airlines, healthcare, and financial institutions. Some broadcasters were affected, but it seems most radio broadcasters were spared. Why is that? What crippled many very large industries had relatively little impact on radio station operations. Three experts join this TWiRT episode: Shaun Dolan, Kyle Walker, and David Smedley. Together we’ll uncover how Crowdstrike affected some broadcasters, and we’ll learn about some best practices for IT security.
Radio’s beloved John Bisset is back! Author of the “Workbench” column is Radio World magazine, John is bringing us the best ideas from engineers since his last appearance on TWiRT, over six months ago. John’s Workbench columns are found at this aggregation page at https://www.radioworld.com/tag/workbench. Plus, Chris Tarr just drove 2,800 miles to buy a LOT of broadcast equipment.
Larry Janus is no stranger to broadcast engineering, but his passion is excellent design of vacuum tube based audio circuits, and then controlling their functions using modern control electronics via WiFi. This passion leads to a clever integration of a tube-based mic pre-amp, fully remote controlled using a phone app over WiFi. This arrangement gives rise to some interesting and convenient possibilities for stage-placed mic pre-amps with remote control. Larry Janus joins us from his well-equipped home lab in Florida.
Low Power FM radio is intended to be a community service. It’s for giving the opportunity for diverse thoughts and voices to spread over a community. However, it’s perfectly OK to have some radio fun in the process! Andy Denoncour, Frank Licata, and Grady Moates each played key roles in getting a new station - WGGG-LP - signed-on and serving the village of Ossipee, New Hampshire. The host and guests all agree that there’s a thrilling excitement to turning the radio transmitter ON for the first time, hearing your audio programming, and taking a drive to check out the coverage!
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