Engineering Radio

It just doesn’t have the same ring as Disk Jockey or DJ.  However, that would be an apt description of the person who plays the hits on most radio stations these days.

It is mostly just drag and drop the next element into the play deck, if anything needs to be done at all.

Technics SP-15 Turntable

I remember when DJ’s actually jockeyed disks, it was a sight to behold.  Back in the day when everything was on vinyl except the commercials, which were on cart, the DJ had his or her hands full.  Most of the songs where in the 2:30 to 3 minute range, so while the song was playing, the next song had to be cued up on the platter, the old song needed to be put back into it’s sleeve and shelved (most of the time), check the log to see what was on deck, pull the next commercial stop set, answer the phone and god forbid if the Program Director called on the hot line and it rang more than 3 times.  And hopefully the head wasn’t too far away, that coffee went somewhere, after all.  While all that is going on, timing, audience interaction, hitting the post and sounding fun.  In spite of what Howard Stern says, it was not easy.

Today, of course, if there is even a person in the studio, they may glance up at the computer screen every now and then to see when the next time they need to talk.  Otherwise, they would be engaged in talking on the phone with their girl friend, texting, surfing the internet, or watching the baseball game on TV.

Remember the move Planet of the Apes, at the end, when Charlton Heston realizes that the planet is actually Earth in the future, run by apes?  Here is a little refresher for you:

Anyway, my take on that movie was that world of the Apes was not a better place.  When the Statue of Liberty was blown up, it was the end of everything that represented western civilization, e.g. everything good.

I find some striking parallels in this story.

Radio was discovered and perfected by various inventors and innovators.  Heinrich Hertz is generally accepted as the first person to experiment with electromagnetic waves and their ability to be manipulated.  He was a physicist and an electrical engineer.

Nikola Tesla was the first person to use electromagnetic waves to transmit information.  He was also an electrical engineer.

Guglielmo Marconi developed and implemented commercial radio services, mostly ship to shore transmission facilities which charged customers by the word for delivered telegrams.  He was a physicist.

Reginald Fressenden invented Amplitude Modulation (AM) first using a rotary spark gap transmitter.  His first transmission included a violin solo and a reading from the bible.  This was transmitted a distance of about 1 mile.  He was an electrical engineer.

Lee Deforest invented the electron tube, which allowed for better amplification of transmitted and received radio waves, allowing the reliable transmission of voice over radio and broadcasting.  He was an electrical engineer.

Others such as Steinmetz, Alexanderson, Baker, Armstrong,  and even David Sarnoff (like him or not) added to the inventions and innovations that made radio work as a mass media and entertainment outlet.

Through the Golden Age of Radio, engineers and technical people ruled the roost, continuing to develop the technology and make improvements such as FM radio, Stereo Broadcasting, improved studio equipment, inventing television, and other wireless technology.  Radio was the first technical medium where budding electronics geeks could sink there teeth into something.  The number of devices that we use today because of radio is staggering.  Two way radios, cellphones, wireless internet connections, blue tooth, EZpass, RFID, shoplifting alarms, cordless phones, baby monitors, etc. all came about because somebody had the idea; “hey, we can use radio to do this…”

As the radio broadcasting developed into a big business, it became more of the realm of sales guys.  I once knew a General Manager, who rose from the ranks of the sales department say “Look, I don’t know nuttin about no technical stuff.  Those tubes and everything.”  We call him Biff (cause he looked like the guy from Back to the Future) the manager.  I worked for a general manager who, when I asked to spend money to fix something, would say things like “In the land of the blind, a one eyed man is king.”  While I contemplated what that meant to me, he would run out of the room and disappear for the rest of the day.  From this point, things only became worse.

Now radio is run by bean counters and bankers, a droll lot if there ever was one.  Not that bean counters and bankers are necessarily bad people, they don’t seem to understand the entertainment aspect of radio.  The fact that a successful radio format is more than just playing some music on the air.  It has to take the listener somewhere, either by evoking a memory or emotion, or by providing useful information.  Even a commercial, if well done, can accomplish this.

Computers are inexpensive, they are reliable, they don’t need vacations, they don’t call in sick, they don’t get divorced or get pulled over for drunk driving, they even reproduce good sounding audio.  In the end, however, it is just a machine.  Computers have no personality, no soul, no cognizant judgment, computers cannot decide if something is an emergency, they cannot engage a listener and make a personal connection.

And that is what radio is all about, making a personal connection with the listeners.

So imagine you worked as an engineer in radio in the 1940’s and by some strange occurrence, you were transported to the same radio station in 2009.  The atmosphere would surely be much different, if not completely unrecognizable.  Then you are discovered to be an engineer and the hounds are released.  You are beseeched with inane requests for everything from replacing the florescent light bulbs in the bathroom to fixing the squeaky chair.  You might think you are on another planet.  One run by… Apes.

This would be what it is like on a typical Monday morning department heads meeting…

The other day, the NTR (Non-Traditional Revenue) person came to me and said “Great news!  We hired a new web guy, he knows all about engineering too!”

Really?

So I spoke to the Web Master/Broadcast Engineer for a bit.  As it turns out, he knows how to do things like reboot the XDS satellite receiver, and he has been to the transmitter site a few times to take meter readings.  I suppose these days, that is what counts as broadcast engineering experience.  I suppose that someone like this could get by for a bit until something really bad happened.

Sadly, I think the upper management and ownership believes that this guy could do my job.  To them, I am an employee number, with a salary and benefits package worth X.  If they can replace me with someone that makes <X, that would represent savings.  Plug that guy into this spot, everything will go on as it did before.

I don’t think they understand exactly what a Broadcast Engineer does.  On any given day, I may:

• Program an automation computer
• Change the battery on a backup generator
• Change the battery bank in our 18 KVA UPS
• Clean a transmitter
• Aim a satellite dish
• Trouble shoot a DS-1 Circuit
• Repair a microwave transmitter or receiver
• Take a set of monitor points
• Repair a tower light flasher circuit
• Install a console
• Repair a CD player
• Trouble shoot an RF module
• PM a generator
• Work with a tower crew to place an antenna on a tower
• Install an RF connector on 3 inch transmission line
• Wire an Air conditioning unit at a transmitter site
• Repair lightning damaged ATU
• Trouble shoot an AC unit
• Aim an STL antenna
• Repair an RPU transmitter
• Wire a new rack room
• Order a new HICAP TELCO circuit
• Coordinate a complex format change
• Program and wire a new satellite reciever
• Trouble shoot an audio hum
• Pass an FCC inspection
• Program an EAS unit
• Wire a new studio
• Design a tower light monitor circuit
• Fix a studio phone system
• Install an audio router
• Match an AM transmitter to a new tower
• Wire an ethernet patch panel
• Manage a new tower project
• Install a new transmitter
• Make NRSC measurements on an AM transmitter
• Reboot a server
• Fix a reel to reel machine
• Install a computer program
• Clean a console
• Pass an inspection by the fire marshal

To name a few.  In other words, there are a lot of complex systems at a multi station radio facility.  Some of this can be learned at various schools and colleges.  A lot of it is experience.  There is no substitute for an experienced veteran broadcaster who has seen almost everything and can think on his or her feet.

I have had this discussion with the market manager, and he gets it.  I know that he understands who knows more about the ins and outs of all of our studio and transmitter sites.  Things like, where is the water shutoff, the handle is broken off of the toilet on the second floor.  Of course, I know it is down stairs in the furnace room next to the fire sprinkler system.

I know where the skeletons are buried.  I have the inside numbers for the utility companies and the phone company.  I know the code enforcement officer for most of the municipalities where we own buildings and property.

Yet, the only thing they see is X.

chair chained to work bench

Ever since the new morning show guy started about six months ago, my work bench chair has been frequently migrating into the air studio.  I don’t mind sharing, as long as things are put back where they came.  I requested that the ever so cool, to hip to care DJ return it after use, which was ignored.

On my last trip to the hardware store, I made a purchase:

Behold, a length of 5/16 chain and two master combination locks.  Now, every time I go to sit in my work bench chair, it is there.

If only all problems were this easy.

Every now and then something goes wrong.  One of the nicer features of a solid state transmitter is a soft failure mode.  For example, the loss of a single RF module may bring the transmitter down to 95% power vs 100% power.  In a tube transmitter, the failure of the tube would mean 0% power.

This happened recently when a transmitter was turned off for tower maintenance.  Upon restart, an RF module failed.  Unfortunately, the spare RF module had already been used due to a lightning strike in early July.  So we were down a few percent on the output meter until another RF module was ordered and installed.  The station was running at 94% power according to the external watt meter.  That equates to about half a dB power reduction over normal operations, which is really insignificant.

Naturally, the fact that the transmitter was at low power gave the program director another excuse to pile on.  First I received this e-mail:

Getting reports out of both XXX and XXX that it’s nothing but the The (competing station) on 1xx.1 – the tropo is going pretty good right now.  I’ll monitor on the ride in but needless to say we can’t fix this soon enough. We’ve been bad in XXX County for the last two weeks and I just assumed tropo and stayed quiet – could this module have been out for a while?

Where are we on a software controller  so we can log in and monitor stuff like this?

To which I responded:

The module problem arose after the transmitter was turned back on, so no, this has not been a problem for the last two weeks, it has only been a problem since Sunday Morning at 11:42 am.

As I said below, the new module was ordered and as soon as it arrives, it will be put back in.

I then received this e-mail:

With all the shadowing in our contour and the short-spacing, we just can’t afford to loose 1db without tangible effects.  We need every nanowatt possible everyday – especially in the summer.

So, Mr. Smarty paints there thinks that 0.00000001 watt makes a difference.  The absurdity of that statement is un-measurable.  Why not a femto watt or a yacto watt?  Here was my politically correct response:

1. I understand you want the transmitter fixed.
2. I have done everything humanly possible to effect repairs including calling Harris on my day off to order parts and have them shipped.
3. e-mails of this type do not make things go any faster, and are in fact, counter productive.

I hope one day, he reads this blog.

If you work at a radio station that still has a local program director instead of one at the corporate programming lair (I know, sooooo old school), then you might be interested in this.  I compiled a list of things that radio station program directors like:

1. Good ratings.  A good rating book means that they are great program directors and they really know their stuff.  Bad ratings means that engineering dropped the ball (again) when the station went off the air for 30 seconds during afternoon drive.
2. Taking credit for anything good.  Sort of goes with the good ratings above, but this extends out to all other aspects of a radio station, promotions, sales, news, and even engineering.
3. New Processing.  Any new gizmo or gadget that changes the sound of the microphone or entire station, for better or worse, is good.  The more flashing lights the better.  The more knobs to adjust the better.  Things that can be plugged into computers and remotely controlled are the ultimate.
4. More.  More of anything is better, more compression, more expansion, more highs, more mid-range, more lows, more gain, more de-essing, more loudness, more power, more punch, more reverb, more crack, more more more.  If they could just have a little more, the station would be number one.
5. Any other new piece of equipment.  Watching a program director look at a new studio is like watching a two year old open presents on Christmas morning.  I know, I have a two year old.  Unfortunately, the studios don’t stay new looking for long.
6. Taping notes up in the studio.  I have one studio where every stationary piece of equipment has a note taped to it.  Mind you, the notes have nothing to do with the equipment they are covering up, they are more like general directions, phone numbers, and other miscellaneous pieces of information.
7. Free stuff.  Used to be called payola  or plugola, now it is a free lap top, or a trip to Disney paid for by the record rep.  I’ve even seen some mysterious mike processors show up (see number 3).
8. Rigging up lights to alert operators.  This is a great one, the studio operator does not know if the Marti (or Matrix or ISDN) is active, so they want a light to indicate there is someone there.  Or a light on the phone hotline, or a light for the EAS machine, the back door, the coffee machine, the silence sensor (never mind they are in the studio, they still need a silence sensor light)
9. Blaming other people when things go wrong.  The program director is infallible.  If something goes wrong, it is somebody else’s fault.  Always. And forever.  Amen.

Some one suggested that I put up the video “More, more, more” by Andrea True Connection to go along #4.  Well, okay, I guess.  It is not a terrible song but the video kinda suxor.  From what I can tell, Andrea True is a former p0r n star that turned signer for just this one hit. Looks like it was filmed on a p0r n set too.

Feel free to add anything else that I may have forgotten.  Of course, this is all in good fun.  I’ll to a “stuff radio engineers like” post as soon as I figure out what that is.