Effective Communication

Communications men, US Navy WWII Pacific Theater
Communications men, US Navy WWII Pacific Theater

In almost every broadcast company I have ever worked for, there is always some communication dysfunction between management and the technical staff. It is perhaps, inevitable given the different cultures. Most managers come from a sales background, where everything is negotiable. The engineering field is fixed in the physical world, where everything has two states; right/wrong, on/off, true/false, functional/non-functional, etc.  Try to negotiate with a non-functional transmitter, let me know how that works.

Engineering eggheads often couch their conversations in technical terms that tend to confuse the uninitiated.  While those terms are technically correct if I said “Радио генератор инвалида.”  You’d say “Huh?” and rightly so.   If the receiving party does not understand the terms used, it is ineffective communication.

The other mistake I often see, which irritates me beyond reason, is long rambling e-mails or other documents that fail to come to the point, directly or otherwise.  Time is a precious commodity, wasting other people’s time with long needless diatribes is ineffective communication.  Likely, the recipient will not read the entire thing anyway.  If a person gains a reputation for generating huge amounts of superfluous verbiage, then it only becomes so much background noise to be filtered out.  When I was in the service, I went to a class called “Message Drafting.”  This was back in the day when everything was sent via radio.  The gist is to get the complete idea across to the recipient with as few words as possible.  Think: “ENEMY ON ISLAND. ISSUE IN DOUBT.”  Clear and concise, six words paint the picture.

The key to effective communication is to know your audience.  If you are writing a white paper for a bunch of MIT graduates, use all the appropriate technical terms.  More often than not, however, as broadcast engineer, our intended audience is more likely station management and/or ownership.  Their backgrounds may be in sales and finance.

In order to get those technical ideas into the heads that matter, a good method is to use the lowest common denominator.  If the general manager is a formerly used car salesman, car analogies might work.  The transmitter has 200,000 miles on it, the tower is rusting out like a ’72 Pinto, and so on.  Almost anything at a transmitter site can be compared to a vehicle in some way.  Find out what the manager’s background is then figure out what language he or she speaks and use it.  You may say, “But he is the manager, it is up to him (or her) to understand this stuff.”  You are not incorrect, but that is not how the world works.

Secondly, use brevity in communications.  Managers are busy, engineering is but one aspect of the radio station’s operations.  If written, provide a summary first, then expound upon it in follow-up paragraphs if required.  If you are in a meeting, give a brief presentation and then wait for questions.  Always have a high ballpark figure in mind when the inevitable “How much?” question comes along.

Don’t assume that the manager will follow through with your ideas up the chain of command, always follow up a few days later.  If it is important, continue to ask, in a friendly way, if there is any progress on the issue.

There are so many ways to communicate these days that failure to communicate is almost unfathomable.  One additional thought, if you find yourself out of the loop, find a way to get back in or you’ll find yourself looking for a new job.

AM HD update and other ideas

Looks like the AM HD Radio™ juggernaut continues… To sink under its own technical faults that is. According to the list the number of AM stations running IBOC in the US is now down to 233 stations from a high water mark of 290 or so.  That represents a total of just 4.8% (233 IBOC/4782 Total stations) of all US AM radio stations.  On a related note, Bob Savage of WYSL 1040, Rochester, NY has a good idea:

I’ve always said – if you want to see surprising new life in the AM band, s**t-can the stupid irrelevant NRSC pre-emphasis filter and allow stations to run to 15 kHz during daylight hours and 10 kHz nighttime.  Mandate C-QUAM in all receiver and receiver devices.

It will sound better than HD, be more robust, and cause far fewer problems.  Plus it wouldn’t obsolete a single radio out there, while making a whole bunch of them sound a whole bunch better.

It is so simple in concept, so easy to implement, with almost no expense to AM stations.  Again, Mr. Savage:

Most software-based processors have com ports which can be addressed by a remote control system like Sine Systems, so when the power gets reduced at evening pattern change, the bandpass can be changed at the same time…..vice-versa at sunup.  No biggie.

For older setups a simple outboard relay and rolloff network could accomplish the same thing.  It’s a little more complex but again, not a big deal.

Wow.  Facepalm.

Wish somebody had thought of that a few years ago, it might have saved several million dollars and we’d have a different AM band today.

There are a few shoehorned AM stations around here that might be adversely affected by 15 KHz daytime bandwidth, but those are few and far between.  By and large, most stations are spaced correctly where this could really work and work well.  It certainly would not generate the chaos that AM HD Radio™ has.

The LED work light

As is often the case when doing studio wiring, some type of work light is needed, especially when working inside studio furniture.  Having a good work light makes it easier to see wire colors and usually means fewer mistakes, thus the installation work goes faster.  I remember being questioned by the CFO of the last company I worked for when making purchases like this in the past:

CFO “Fifty-nine dollars for a work light?  Did we really need that?”

Myself: “Yes.”

CFO:

Myself:

CFO: “Uh, care to expound on that at all?”

Myself: “No.”

The studio I was working in yesterday didn’t even have its overhead lights installed yet, so work lights were a must.

Normally, some type of halogen or incandescent light is used.  The downside to these types of work lights is excess heat, especially inside studio furniture cabinets.  I have often felt like the side of my face was getting sunburned when working in close quarters with one of these units.

Fortunately, we bought this light:

LED work light
LED work light
LED work light
LED work light

Say or think what you will about global warming, environmentalists and so on.  The high-efficiency LED light works very well and kept me from boiling when punching down wires.  As with most LED lights, it has a high blue content, which most people find a little harsh.  I like this light temperature for detail wiring work.  It has an internal battery plus a plug-in wall wart for recharging and using as a wired light.

Not that I have any loyalty to that particular brand, but the light worked very well.  I am not sure how durable it is, it seems a little light duty.  That being said, I’d recommend it.

Milwaukee’s oldest radio station

WISN 1130 AM has been on the air since 1922, although not always with those call letters.  In an interesting twist, the license was granted to the local newspaper, the Wisconsin News, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.  Initially, both entities were programming the station, however, by about 1925, the newspaper was responsible for programming and the engineering school was responsible for technical operations.

In 1941, the station increased power from 1,000 watts to 5,000 watts and added nighttime service.  This is a series of pictures from that time period.

WISN night time allocation study
WISN night time allocation study

Back in 1941, nighttime interference was taken seriously.  The nighttime allocation study (on 1150 KHz, WISN’s former frequency) includes co-channel stations in the US, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico.

WISN night time allocation ma
WISN night time allocation ma

The array consisted of four Blaw-Knox self-supporting towers in a rectangle.  Notice the lack of fencing, warning signs, and the like around the towers.

WISN antenna array
WISN antenna array

From the front of the transmitter building

WISN transmitter site, 1941
WISN transmitter site, 1941

The site looks well designed, no doubt manned during operation, which at the time would likely be 6 am to midnight except under special circumstances.   Most of these old transmitter sites had full kitchens, bathrooms, and occasionally a bunk room.  The transmitter operators where required to have 1st telephone licenses from the FCC.   There is only one manned transmitter site in the US that I know about; Mount Mansfield, VT.  There, WCAX, WPTZ, WETK, and VPR have their transmitters.

WISN RCA BT-5E transmitter, 1941
WISN RCA BT-5E transmitter, 1941

The WISN RCA BT5E transmitter looks huge for that power level.  Back in the day when AM was king, these units were designed to stay on the air, no matter what.  I don’t know too much about this model transmitter, but if it is like other RCA/GE models from the same era, it has redundant everything.

RCA AM antenna monitor
RCA AM antenna monitor

Old school antenna monitor.  I have never seen one of these in operation, however, as I understand it, the scope was used to compare the phase relationship of each tower against the reference tower.

These pictures are of the WISN 1150 array was it was in 1941.  Since then, the station has changed frequencies to 1130 KHz and increased power to 50,000 watts daytime/10,000 watts night time.  The daytime array consists of six towers and the night time array has nine towers, all of which are 90 degrees.

Special thanks to John A. for sending these pictures along.