An oldie, but a goodie, February 20, 1971, WOWO gets an EAN via AP teletype and follows the procedure:
Back in the days of EBS, there were weekly closed-circuit tests via AP and UPI teletype. In the event of a real Emergency Action Notification (EAN) there was a red envelope that contained a set of code words for each month. The test code words were on the outside of the envelope. If an EAN was received, the envelope would be torn open and the actual code words would be matched against the code words in the message. If it were authenticated, then the station would do just what WOWO did right then, send the two-tone EBS alert for 25 seconds and break into programming.
It is amazing that this did not happen more often, especially on a Saturday morning with a sleepy Airman in Colorado pulling the wrong message tape off the rack at the message center responsible for the whole system.
It happened more recently when an EAS message was sent to evacuate the entire state of Connecticut. An EAN was sent in Chicago warning of a national attack when state officials were testing their new system. I am sure that others have been sent as well.
I suppose the emergency notification has always left something to be desired.
It has been about a month now, has anyone taken them up on this:
iBiquity Digital and Citadel Media announced a partnership which will enable stations to upgrade to digital while avoiding cash expenditure. Stations will have the opportunity to provide on-air inventory to Citadel Media in exchange for the HD Radio license fee and equipment supplied by Broadcast Electronics, Continental, Harris and Nautel.
I was sure that my former employer, now that I have left the company, would at least look into this. I know there are many other frugal like-minded companies out there that look at trade as being “free.” Anytime I had a building project, like paving the parking lot or replacing the roof membrane, the first question asked was “Can we trade it?” I hated dealing with trade. Often, it would end up as a half-paved parking lot and the general manager asking “Gee, what happened?”
I would be surprised if this iBiquity scheme didn’t generate at least some interest in the HD radio holdouts. Has anybody heard anything else on this?
I snapped these pictures at WICC in Bridgeport, CT. It is an older PR&E BMXII console, with 26 channels, I believe.
Pacific Recorders and Engineering BMXII 26
These were manufactured starting in 1985, I installed one in 1990. It is a testament to their durability that this one has lasted 23 years. They were expensive when purchased, and all of them were purchased directly from PR&E, Carlsbad, California. The beauty of these things is their modularity. All of the major components are replaceable, including the module face inlays.
Penny Giles conductive plastic fader, PRE BMXII console
The faders, Penny and Giles 4000 series, are fully rebuildable. The part that wears out the most is the nylon bushings that slide along the metal rails. The contact fingers sometimes also need to be replaced. These are 10 Kohm conductive plastic linear faders. P&G does not make these anymore, they have been replaced by the 8000 series, which has an edge connector instead of a wiring harness. Since the top of the fader is open, it also tends to accumulate dust, dirt, and other debris. The fader board itself should be cleaned off with warm water, light soap may be used if needed. Do not use alcohol on these because it eats into the conductive plastic and ruins the fader.
PR&E BMXII line input module
One of the great things about this console is the fact that all the modules are hot-pluggable. If one needs to be serviced, it can be pulled out of the main frame while the console is on the air and a new module plugged into it’s place. Only the line output module replacement necessitated taking the station off the air, and then only for a few seconds. It was a great concept that is now standard in almost every broadcast console.
There were several basic module configurations. On the input side, line level, mic level, and telco were standard console inputs. There was also a passive remote line select button set. Out put modules consisted of line-level output, control room monitor, and studio monitor modules.
PR&E consoles were top-of-the-line gear, but expensive. Most radio stations could not afford them and went with less expensive models like Wheatstone, BE, LPB, Autogram, Radio Systems, etc. The fact that some of these BMXII consoles are approaching 30 years of age and still in service is a testament to their construction.
In the early 1990s, PR&E began branching out into the lower priced market with their product line. They produced the Radiomixer and Productionmixer consoles, however, mid-market-sized radio stations were slow in adopting them because PR&E had the reputation of being expensive. After all, if you can only afford a Chevrolet, why bother looking at the Mercedes?
WQXR control room
This is a grainy promotions photo from the early 1990s showing what I think is the WQXR master control room, nick named “The Bridge.” I took a tour there around 1993 or so and it was a fantastic facility, of course, the New York Times spared no expense. I really felt like Willie Wonka in the Chocolate factory.
Later in that decade, they changed the name to Pacific Research and Engineering, and the went public. I think going public was the death knell, soon thereafter they sold the entire product line to Harris Broadcast. The final non-Harris console was the Airwave, which is a good medium-duty modular console, incorporating some of the traditional PR&E designs. The later consoles stopped routing audio directly through the faders, using voltage-controlled amplifiers instead. This solved some of the channel drop out problems that sometimes occurred in earlier consoles. The Airwave consoles are much less durable than the BMX series, however, with the advent of voice tracking, perhaps 24/7 durability is not that necessary anymore.
Harris has dropped support of much of the early PR&E line, but there are those that soldier on, buying up parts and rebuilding these things. Mooretronix has a good selection of BMX and ABX parts.
The WICC/WEBE installation is about to be refurbed, which means these consoles will be headed out the door. There are three of them in fair condition.
Or, it could also be phrased “A solution that causes more problems.” Radio World, once again, has a good article on the consequences of increasing IBOC power of the FM hybrid system. Especially telling is figure 24, a fuzzy 400 Hz sine wave showing how much distortion is added to the analog signal by a mere 4% HD signal. I’d be especially interested to see the results of the full 10% now allowed.
Naturally, HD proponents will cry “But this is only temporary! Wait until the transition to all digital!”
Bunk.
If HD radios were indeed flying off the shelves as iBiquity claims, and if the public expressed interest, okay, maybe. Clearly, that is not the case. The only thing that HD radio is doing is creating more interference. Period. More interference to the parent station and more interference to the adjacent channels all for an audience that does not exist. Another way to put it: NOBODY IS LISTENING. One of the stations that I service had a Harris Deathstar go offline for four days. NOT ONE PHONE CALL, NOBODY CARES!
The public did not perceive a technical problem with analog FM broadcasting. Of course, that can always change as the band gets filled with interference.
Let’s see where FM IBOC stands:
Rolled out with 1% digital power vs analog carrier, the system was found to lack building penetration and generally performed poorly in mobile listening environments (NPR labs study, Nov 24, 2009)
FCC allows up to 10% digital power vs analog carrier to overcome these problems, a few stations implement some type of power increase
This shows that self-interference is the largest problem IBOC needs to fix, one that is un-fixable due to the laws of physics
The public yawns, turns on their iPod
IBOC is a failure, both in AM and FM bands.
We are watching the self-destruction of radio broadcasting in the US.
