General – Page 58 – Engineering Radio

Computer file manipulator

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.

I remember when DJs actually jockeyed disks, it was a sight to behold. Back in the day when everything was on vinyl except the commercials, which were on the cart, the DJ had his or her hands full. Most of the songs were 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 its 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 hotline 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 girlfriend, texting, surfing the internet, or watching a baseball game on TV.

Copper theft and how to avoid it

One of the unfortunate signs of the times is the increased theft of valuable materials. Copper, while not as expensive as it once was, still fetches a fair amount at the scrap dealer. One local telephone company has been having a difficult time keeping its aerial cables intact in certain areas. For radio stations, the situation is compounded by remote transmitter sites with lots of copper transmission lines and buried ground radials around AM towers. Reduced staffing levels also mean that the weekly trip to the transmitter site is now every two weeks or perhaps once a month or even less.

Sites that are not visited or monitored very often are prime targets for copper theft. Forget asking the local constabulary to patrol more often, the few times I tried that I was met with a blank stare.

A few common sense type things that I have learned over the years may keep your site intact:

Keep up appearances. A neglected transmitter site is more likely to attract the wrong type of attention from the wrong type of people. Clean up any rubbish, dead equipment, keep the weeds and trees cut down, etc. If a site looks well tended and is often visited, a thief may think twice about lifting valuable metals.
Along with #1, keep things buttoned up. Secure all transmission lines to ice bridges, remove any deadlines, etc. If there are ground radials poking out bury them, same with ground screens, copper straps, etc. Out of sight, out of mind, leaving this stuff exposed is asking for somebody to come along and give a tug.
Fences and locks. Towers are required to be fenced and locked to prevent electric shock hazards. It is also a good idea to fence the building, generator, and fuel tank if possible.
Post all sorts of warning signs, RF warning, high voltage, no trespassing, under video surveillance, pretty much anything to deter trespassing and vandalism.
Add video cameras with a video recording device since most theft occurs during non-working hours. Last year, the company I used to work for traded a video surveillance system for the studio location.
Compensate a neighbor to keep an eye on the place and call you if they see any suspicious activity. It doesn’t even have to be money, I once worked out a deal with a neighbor for some T-shirts and CDs. That was the best alarm system we ever had.

In the long run, keeping all the copper parts where they belong is a great way to avoid those annoying “the station is off the air” phone calls not to mention the expense of replacing damaged transmission and ground systems.

The loudness wars are over, Apple has won!

Excuse me while I gag…

Okay, that’s a little better. I was just reading up on the newest, greatest, holy cow, gee whiz, gotta have that expensive box processor, also known as the Omnia 11. I have to hand it to Mr. Frank Foti and his marketing team. They have created one heck of a buzz about this thing, and it seems like folks are jumping on board to shell out $10 – $12 K for the box. But let us review a few things.

I will admit most freely that I tend to be an audio purest. I do believe that a limited amount of processing has its merits, especially for those listeners in high-noise environments like automobiles, work sites, etc. With sloppy DJs working the consoles, there is a minor need for some limiting, gain reduction, and so on, just to the air product levels aren’t all over the place. Those are real-world considerations.

Does an iPod have an air chain processor? No, if the iPod user wants more loudness, they turn up the volume. Since most Ipod users are normal people and not some burned-out DJs with bad hearing, the volume control on an Ipod has plenty of headroom to satisfy. Does a Droid or a Blackberry or whatever else people are listening to these days have an air chain processor? No. And most users/listeners of those devices are perfectly happy with the quality and quantity of audio.

Back in the day when loudness meant a bigger transmitter, more carrier power, bigger signal, was easier to tune manually with the non-digital dial readout, etc., perhaps a loudness war with the cross-town rival was part of the game. Nowadays, nobody cares except the program directors. I repeat NOBODY CARES. Ask anybody on the street what the loudest radio station is. They very likely won’t even understand what you are trying to ask and you likely could not explain it in terms that would make them understand, much less care about.

The average person doesn’t give a rat’s ass about loudness. Nor do they really care about how deep and full the DJ’s voice is, or how well the noise gate works, or the six-band EQ, or any of that crap. In fact, if the music sounded just like it does on the iPod, e.g. completely unprocessed, they probably wouldn’t even notice. The competition has changed and radio is being left behind because many people are stuck with old ideas about how things used to be. Times have changed, and what should be the driving force in radio, the listeners, want to hear the music that they like. That is what the program director should be worried about, finding and playing good music that the listeners want to hear. Or having the best talk show, the most interesting news, or whatever other programming the station carries.

If the programming content is good, compelling radio, they will listen. Never mind the air chain processor, the mic processor, the limiter, how loud the station is, what power the transmitter is running at, etc. That is for the Engineers to take care of.

Why “New Media” is no replacement for “Old Media.”

The DC circuit court struck a stinging blow to any thoughts about so-called “Net Neutrality” when it overturned the FCC’s attempts to force Comcast the abide by its rules regarding internet access. The three-judge panel ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to force Internet Service Providers (ISP) to give equal access to all its customers. In a nutshell, this means that companies like Comcast, ATT, and Verizon, can filter search engine results and traffic, baning websites for no specific reasons.

So much for net neutrality. Say I type something here that is critical of one of those companies, or any ISP for that matter. With a few keystrokes, my site will disappear. Gone. Just like that. For those that think the internet is this wonderful open global village thing that can spread the word and as a sort of modern-day check and balance system, think again. In this day and age, when corporations have the same rights as people, look for the large ISPs to spend significant lobbying dollars to keep the laws tilted in their favor. I would expect to also see quite a few campaign contributions to legislators that are friendly to large corporations.

There are several letter-writing campaigns, urging the FCC to change its classification of ISPs to a common carrier status, something that would put the ISPs squarely under the FCC’s control. I look upon those with a jaundiced eye. Perhaps the FCC can be convinced to change the rules, this time. What will happen when a new FCC gets appointed? Will those changes stay in effect? The cynical side of me says no.

Independently run media outlets have traditionally acted as a backstop in our society. There are fewer and fewer of those left these days. I will readily acknowledge that the current crop of radio station owners, with some minor exceptions, have left the industry in shambles. Their decision to place profit above all considerations, in spite of the license being granted in the public trust, has decimated newsrooms, reduced staffing, and relegated community involvement to a minor paperwork shuffle at license renewal time. All of this and more have conspired to make radio dull and uninformative. Bland canned formats created and programmed thousands of miles away have ruined local radio flavor. No wonder why people spend money to download from Itunes.

Yet, radio listenership is still high. Radio’s saving grace is it is nearly universal, everyone has a radio, and most households have four or five radios. The technology is time-tested and it works well. Almost every square mile of the US is covered by broadcast radio signals. Some areas are sparse, but there are at least one or two stations that come in. People are used to radio, there is no learning curve, no subscriber fees, and no censorship from a huge faceless mega-corporation. Well, that last part is in theory, anyway. It is almost too much of a coincidence that mega-corporations also own the majority of radio stations too.

Television as a medium is almost gone. Very few people actually watch over-the-air TV, most people get their TV piped into their house via cable. Once again, as those in the NY metropolitan area know, there is no guarantee that the local cable operator will carry a broadcast station, vis a vis the WABC-7 Cablevision dispute from last month.

Newspapers are struggling to stay afloat, even the once mighty New York Times has seen better days.

That leaves us with Radio to fill in the role of un-censored informer. Can they? Will they? It would be a radical departure from the current course and only time will tell.