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1070 - The Fan Sounding Better

S

Sandy the Clown

Guest
Okay. A fatal flaw in the way we operated the AudioVault was discovered a few weeks ago, and since then the station has had very very few moments of questionable product during ESPN net. product. In an effort to vary liner delivery, we installed some carts inside carts. This, we found, is a big mistake.

As many of you correctly pointed out, The Fan had some fairly embarrassing issues with double audio, and even no audio. Obviously, that's not acceptable. We continued to eliminate reasons for failures until we had done everything we know to get it right. Still, every now and again, the system would puke during automation and we would sound like idiots.

Finally, Dave Hood, one of the best engineers in all radio, got with AudioVault's best guy and they broke the system down minute by minute. The AV guy noticed that the failures all occured when a specific liner cart played. Within that cart, we had another cart that rotated audio cuts. The AV guy told Dave that carts in carts will always cause the system to fail.

We eliminated the liner system we had devised, and we have operated almost perfectly since. There are still some minor deals - spotsets being a second short or long, but getting the spots in AudioVault to time out at exactly 10.0, 30.0, and 60.0 is not possible, so we'll have to live with the occasional blip at the end of spotsets.

The people on this message board seem genuinely interested in this kind of wonky specificity, so I thought I would let you know what happened.

Hopefully, this note doesn't jinx us.
 
Thanks Sandy. I was in the car listening from Crawford County, Illinois to Plainfield. The quals were on (5-6pm). The signal was great!! Nice and strong as always. I don't know if you had a board op or automation going, ( I guess that's good, eh? ;). Everything timed right into the IMS network nicely. NO BLIPS!

Keep up the good work.
 
I doubt that spots being too long is a real problem. If it is then you have some people doing production that shouldnt be working in Indy. If the spots are a second or two short you could try adding a cart that is 1 or 2 secs long ( that is silent ) and drop that in between spots. you could also add a 3 or 4 or 5 sec liner at the beginning of the break.. that should help the timming out and keep you from dumping back into the net too early. hope that helps
 
Will this correction to your audio system do anything to make that horrendous afternoon show sound any better? you could try running some other audio over them, maybe that would actually help in that case?
 
buttonpusher812 said:
I doubt that spots being too long is a real problem. If it is then you have some people doing production that shouldnt be working in Indy.
Click to expand...
Last time I checked, a fair number of Emmis-produced spots ran 1:02 or 1:03. And as far as I know, prod. director has remained the same for many years.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
buttonpusher812 said:
I doubt that spots being too long is a real problem. If it is then you have some people doing production that shouldnt be working in Indy.
Click to expand...
Last time I checked, a fair number of Emmis-produced spots ran 1:02 or 1:03. And as far as I know, prod. director has remained the same for many years.
Click to expand...

guess they couldn't afford a timer when they built the palace :'(
 
I guess I would have to ask Sandy, you have been running Audio Vault since you moved to Monument Circle, and its been running on the ESPN AM station alone for well over a year. Your IT or engineer people have just now decided maybe they should call B.E. to see if they had any thoughts about these pesky problems? Did they just plug it in, turn it on, and hope for the best back when it was installed? Trying to rotate cuts in a cart inside another cart is one of the most basic no-no's you learn when first starting to program Audio Vault. A-V is not the best automation system by any definition, but it can sound pretty good if you just spend a little time studying it and learning the tricks up front. Obviously neither your programming people nor the IT or engineers bothered to do that. But who cares, it's all okay now right?
 
We have never had any trouble with Scott Studios/DMarc/Google/whatever it's going to be now. The SS32 system has been a rock solid product if we do our jobs and set up things correctly. Most times it's human error that cause automation blips here.

As far as the Fan goes, you guys are doing a nice job. Kravitz and Eddie are getting better. Dakich is solid. Love Mike & Mike. Trackside with Cavin and Kevin is a good show. The Voice of the Fan is an awesome idea. I think you folks are doing a good job.

Jon Easter
WBDG-FM
General Manager
 
First of all, I am no fan of AV, but as a Production Director with a computer programming background and the fact that our engineer rarely makes it in more than two times a week, I've learned to deal with its eccentricities and tweak it when necessary. Anyway, what is the nature of these failures when using carts inside of carts? We have been using carts in carts for close to a year now and have had no problems at all.
 
The original problem is that you went with Audio Vault.

I've worked with both Scott Studios and Audio Vault. Scott Studios has a much better UI.
 
Since I started the original "Who's minding the Store" thread, I ought to check in here and affirm the improvement.

NOW: Only ONE factor stands between the Fan and radio near-perfection: ;D

For the past few months or so I have been hearing the ad for the "Mutual Fund Show" about 5-10 times a day, advertised as starting at 7am on Sunday morning.
Being a "degreed and certified financial professional," I decided to to check it out. It was promoted so heavily and so often that I also decided to invite a number of my "degreed and certified financial professional" friends over to check it out. Heck, I even channeled the spirit of Milton Friedman and invited it over for the advertised 7am start time. Bloody Marys were out, breakfast was being served, all in the hope of hearing cogent mutual fund advice in these turbulent times.

Atwitter with anticipation, two dozen "degreed and certified financial professionals" huddled around my Hammarlund HQ-110 and awaited the "Mutual Fund Show." We gasped in unison as the advertised 7am start time arrived and we heard the dulcet tones of...JOHN KINCAIDE on ESPN... :eek:

The "Mutual Fund Show" actually starts at 8am despite the millions of spots for it touting a start time of 7am. Milton Friedman's spirit was so disappointed, he retreated into the ether...two dozen "degreed and certified financial professionals" just kept eating and drinking and were napping by the real start time of 8am. ;D
 
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