Technical problems

[SomeRadioGuy]

What sort of problem? Audio disappearing momentarily? Some sort of noise that interrupts the audio? Carrier dropping?

This liek when i get a call one of our rebroadcast stations is "off the air" (stations, not translators, could but dont originate programming)

i always have to ask "is it off air as in it sounds like the transmitter is off and its static or is it on air with no audio, just a b it of hiss". one time, a listener said "yes" after i asked that.. to them, when theres no music or programming, its off.. it is sometimes, understandably hard to get them to qualify that statement.,

 

[nowradioguy]

Towers get painted. A tower may be an antenna, particularly for AM. But for FM, the tower is not the antenna.

And in the first 10 or so years of AM radio, the towers held up the antenna, but were not the antenna itself. And in much of the world, well into the 70's, many AM stations used wire antennas hung from towers, but insulated from them.

With all due respect, David, we were referring to the painting of the painting of WRKO's three towers, which constitute their antenna system. Just so we're clear, no one here, at least, was referring to the painting of any FM antenna elements, nor to the wire antennas used by some AM stations. IIRC, and maybe someone here can confirm, a few years back, after a temporarily silent AM in the Boston area had re-signed on from a new site, a horizontal wire antenna was used until either a suitable tower-type antenna could be built, or arrangements were made for an existing AM tower array to be used for diplexing.

 

[nowradioguy]

You're exactly right. I get it, there are still a lot of legacy assumptions that some version of Les Nessman is working at their favorite station 24/7 putting together a fresh newscast waiting to cover breaking news. Not only did those days never really exist, but most newscasts are just files dropped into an automated playlist. The newscast may be produced from someone out of town via their home. If they forget or are unable to FTP their newscast over, what remains is what you'll hear. Chances are, most average listeners don't notice, let alone care.

Don't know where you're writing from, or if you work for iHeart, but here's what we know:

iHeart-Boston owns/operates WBZ (AM 1030), WRKO (AM 680), and WXKS (AM 1200). WBZ is "Boston's NewsRadio", and their news readers record brief newscasts for use on both WRKO and WXKS. This was supposed to be a really good thing for the latter two stations, which are primarily conservative talk sourced either from off-site or from Premiere Networks. But, since "iHeart happens", more often than not, the 'BZ newscast recorded for the two talkers does not get updated for hours at a time, especially on weekends, and sometimes not at all. In worse cases, there's dead air where that news clip was supposed to run. You and some others here may be cool with all this, but a few of us still think there should be a certain sense of pride in running a smooth operation. I suppose it could be referred to euphemistically as "a glitch", because the word(s) I'd use for what passes for on-air production these days would get me banned in a hurry.

 

[nowradioguy]

This liek when i get a call one of our rebroadcast stations is "off the air" (stations, not translators, could but dont originate programming)

i always have to ask "is it off air as in it sounds like the transmitter is off and its static or is it on air with no audio, just a b it of hiss". one time, a listener said "yes" after i asked that.. to them, when theres no music or programming, its off.. it is sometimes, understandably hard to get them to qualify that statement.,

Sorry, but I've had to report you to your English comp instructor.

 

[secondchoice]

Don't know where you're writing from, or if you work for iHeart, but here's what we know:

iHeart-Boston owns/operates WBZ (AM 1030), WRKO (AM 680), and WXKS (AM 1200). WBZ is "Boston's NewsRadio", and their news readers record brief newscasts for use on both WRKO and WXKS. This was supposed to be a really good thing for the latter two stations, which are primarily conservative talk sourced either from off-site or from Premiere Networks. But, since "iHeart happens", more often than not, the 'BZ newscast recorded for the two talkers does not get updated for hours at a time, especially on weekends, and sometimes not at all. In worse cases, there's dead air where that news clip was supposed to run. You and some others here may be cool with all this, but a few of us still think there should be a certain sense of pride in running a smooth operation. I suppose it could be referred to euphemistically as "a glitch", because the word(s) I'd use for what passes for on-air production these days would get me banned in a hurry.

The situation will not change until it affects revenue. If a sponsor complains his sponsored weather or news cast is messed up and want to cancel then dodo hits the fan and they will fix. It.

 

[Kelly A]

The situation will not change until it affects revenue. If a sponsor complains his sponsored weather or news cast is messed up and want to cancel then dodo hits the fan and they will fix. It.

And that's exactly right. Unless paid-block programming, there is no revenue directly attributed to nights or weekends, let alone newscasts. It's all essentially filler until the marquis show(s) air.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Sorry, but I've had to report you to your English comp instructor.

im legendary among friends for my bad typing... my fingers get places 2 steps ahead of my brain