General – Page 38 – Engineering Radio

Why stealing is bad

Eventually, you will get caught, odds dictate. The local engineer for Cumulus Broadcasting in Cincinnati found this out earlier in the week. Of course, innocent until proven guilty, so I won’t assume anything.

Broadcast engineering, especially radio engineering is a small field. Sadly, when something like this happens it makes all radio engineers look bad and there is no good reason or excuse for it.

I have seen several cases where an engineer or technical person has taken advantage of their position to pilfer from a radio station. These vary from cashing in on dud tubes from a transmitter site to taking high-value equipment and selling it on eBay. I recall a recent instance of backup transmitter and STL systems being sold. I cannot imagine what these people are thinking. A transmitter, STL system, console, or even a dud tube has a serial number and is traceable. Anything with a serial number is likely part of a station inventory list and or will have some record of manufacture and sale.

There are instances when old equipment is getting thrown out. In that situation, I always get permission before removing anything, even from the dumpster.

I have made several trips to the scrap yard with old transmitter chassis, wire or leftovers from transmitter installations. In those circumstances, I always get a receipt and write the source of the scrap on the back. This way, a record is kept and if there are any questions, I can refer to it.

Generally speaking, it is better to be overly cautious.

Work Ethic

We have this guy that works for us who is atypical. We call him Pete because that is his name. The other day, he was slacking off on the job again, this time figuring out how to take a nap in a transmitter:

What are we going to do with him?

Actually, he is rebuilding the grid tuning section (AKA input tuning section), which is no small matter. Soon, we will have this 26 year old transmitter running good as new, or better than new. It already sounds much better on the air than it did before, the input tuning is broader and there is much less AM noise.

Currently, it is running about 70% power while we wait for a replacement amplifier from Silicon Valley Power Amps.

I don’t know what it is that I like about you but I like it a lot

Alternate title: How Important is College Radio?

If Radio as an entertainment medium is to survive; vital. College Radio is the alternative to corporatist radio and is fertile ground for new artists and music. The big three radio groups control (Clear Channel, Cumulus, CBS) something like 75% of the radio revenue while owning 13% of the commercial radio stations. Against that wall, the remaining radio groups and independent operators hurl themselves to make a living. While there are few (precious few) commercial independent operators who do break new music, perform community service and provide a valuable asset to their city of license, the majority of the remaining 87% of radio stations run some sort of repeater/automated format.

In this risk-adverse society, which large radio group is willing to take even small calculated risks?

Who is going to replace Dick Clark and where will that person come from? By the way, God bless Dick Clark but, man, enough already.

Where will the newest crop if disk jockeys come from?

If one wants to hear something new, or at least different, there is no better place to listen than a student-run college radio station.

It was in this setting that several college boards had a Eureka! moment when they discovered that those FM licenses were actually worth money. Money! and in not-so-small amounts in several cases. The collective wisdom is that kids these days don’t listen to radio, nobody will miss those programs anyway. Even so, when Rice University sought to transfer KTRU there was a large backlash from Alumni and the student body. When the University of San Francisco sold KUSF to Entercom, they did so over Christmas break. At Vanderbilt University, the WRVU staff was locked out of the studio. The whole sordid tale can be found in 2011: The Year that College Radio Fought Back and College Radio’s fight for FM.

There are other stations whose fate is less well known, no doubt.

It is disappointing to see the various college boards deciding that broadcast radio is no longer desired and to see the campus radio station regarded as an extracurricular activity or so much excess real estate.

There are still many college radio stations in this area that are worthwhile to listen to, just to hear something other than blended crap, super specialized satellite radio channels, or some personality-less internet stream with computer-picked songs.

So kudos to WRPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), WVKR (Vassar College), and others like them for having student-run radio stations and not selling out or morphing into the borg-like collective that is NPR.

Old Year SWR

This time of year is when we all sit back and assess things that we did in the past 365 or so days. It is called reflection, which is just a civilian term for SWR (Standing Wave Ratio).

Thus, I thought I would take a little time and make a few observations about the business, my part in it, and this blog.

1. The business of Radio:

Let us be honest, Radio is not what it used to be. Many times, what it used to be was somewhat of a free for all, wheeler-dealer radio station owners cutting corners and making do with less than-optimum equipment and staff. And trade, lots and lots of trade. Only in large metropolitan areas did radio stations make enough money to throw it around, but sometimes not even then. Radio was by no means a huge money-making operation and therefore, those that worked in mostly it did it as a labor of love. That may or may not have come across on the air. By far, the funniest station I ever listened to was run from a closet, with a sound reinforcement board and the program director’s CD collection. What made it so much fun was they had nothing to lose, there were no restraints placed on the staff. Once that on-air enthusiasm translated to ratings, then to revenue, the magic was gone and they were just another radio station filling a spot on the dial.

The radio business has fully transitioned from a fun, seat-of-the-pants entertainment operation to a mega money-making corporate mentality under the control of mostly non-entertainment types. Even those stations owned by smaller group owners are forced to rely on the tactics developed by the big two in order to stay in business.

Group owners will continue to extract money in whatever way they can until the money train runs off the rails. Then, radio will be replaced by something less.

2. Radio Engineering:

Engineering will continue to grow smaller, with more emphasis on computers, networking, and IT infrastructure. The future distribution of music and program material will take the form of streaming (live events), podcasts (specialty shows), and subscription services. Over-the-air free radio will become less and less relevant as younger “listeners” trend toward new media. The idea of listeners may be archaic in lieu of “subscribers” or “users.” Thus, in order to remain relevant, broadcast engineers are going to have to keep their skill sets current. I would recommend to anyone getting into the business to get current with routers, routing tables, Cisco equipment, and whatnot. The cloud is coming and will rain on all those not adjusted to the new “broadcasting” reality.

3. My part in the business:

A somewhat superannuated broadcast engineer whose skill set lies mostly within the RF and heavy-duty electrical areas, I am going back to college in January. Cisco Network Administrator is the degree I am shooting for, for that is where the local jobs, both in and out of broadcasting will be. Network Administrators are going to be the backbone of cloud computing, those that can configure routing tables will be desired.

That being said, I continue to be involved with larger RF projects and transmitter work. It is fun for me, most of the time. Having to drive two hours, one way on Christmas Eve to fix a backup transmitter, not so much, but those situations tend to be the exception, rather than the rule.

All in all, it is great fun to press the high voltage on button, not knowing if the transmitter will cycle on normally, or put on some type of display.

4. The blog:

This little thing we have here has been fun. I get a good response to most articles. I welcome all the comments and offline e-mails that come my way. My original intent, which is to provoke thought and dialog, remains unchanged. This year, I have delved into areas not covered by the trade magazines, but do have at least some bearing on radio or radio-related arts. To that end, there have been several negative responses, which is fine. I don’t pretend to know everything, if you know more, then by all means, speak up. By and large, however, the majority of responses continue to be positive.

I continue to grow the overseas audience, with roughly 36% of the page views coming from non-US IP addresses. Persons from The UK, followed by Canada, Netherlands, Australia, and Germany are the top five non-US readers of this blog.

So, I will continue to post about things in the coming year. If any of you have any suggestions or requests, shoot me an email or leave a comment.

In the meantime, have a Happy New Year!