A day in the life of a lamptimer

[oldiesfan6479]

SHOCKER! (Exclamatory statement courtesy All Access.)

Someone finally reset the lamptimer! Lumberyard 1440 signed off
tonight at 7:45:00!

Amazing, ain't it?

Well not exactly, since it was still a "carrier dump" sign-off sans ID.

And from 7:00-something to 7:03:35 it was yet another airing of audio
from the NBA game (ABC-TV), followed by over 11 min. of patch cord
fumbling (i.e., dead air) before the music automation popped back on
at 7:15:15.

BTW, up to last night--before the "amazing lamptimer fix"--sign-offs got
as late as 7:57:10.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Friday, June 12:

Sign-on (carrier popped on, music JIP, no ID) at 5:15:06am.
Sign-off (carrier dumped mid-song, no ID) at 7:45:13pm.

The infamous lamptimer gained :13 in the 24 hours since being reset,
we'll see if it settles back into its usual :11 per day gain.

 

[DrAkbar]

Nurse Jeff and I want to know:

When will Gumpdusky sell Lumberyard 14~Forty?

When will 11~Ninety & 13~Ten return to the air?

When will Aunt Carlos return to KT'R?

When will KFWhyEye move to FM?

When will a Fiat be more respected than a Gremlin?

 

[catfish]

Offer Chuck a big chunk of money and maybe you can buy it if your so interested.
Soon on question 2
who cares
it's on the HD2 channel of KNIX
Fiat could never be more respected than a Gremlin.. after all I used to own a Vega when I was in the Navy.. top that!!! And when I sold it it had 110,000 miles on it and it still ran good.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Having tuned in an expected ten minutes or so early to see what
was on "Lamptimer Frolics" tonight, I found that Lumberyard 1440
was already off the air at 7:35.

Closed circuit for Gumpdusky: sign-off doesn't change for July
vs. June (although today is still June), sign-on does shift 15
minutes later in July (but that's tomorrow).

 

[landtuna]

And when I sold it it had 110,000 miles on it and it still ran good.

You surely meant 'it ran as good as new' which, for a Vega, is not all that good. ;D

OTOH, there were no living mosquitoes anywhere in a two-mile radius.

 

[desertskies]

Just a simple wonder, nothing more.
Why the hoopla of a shop that would average being a 1KW tower in Mamou Louisiana?
Any stock holders here?

 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

RBR reports:

According to FCC regulations, AM stations may now apply for FM translators to fill in-contour gaps in their coverage, and will also allow daytimers to use the translators to provide nighttime service.

More at http://www.rbr.com/radio/15509.html

 

[DrAkbar]

RBR reports:

According to FCC regulations, AM stations may now apply for FM translators to fill in-contour gaps in their coverage, and will also allow daytimers to use the translators to provide nighttime service.

More at http://www.rbr.com/radio/15509.html

If Gumpdusky won't use their 52 watts at night, then why would they even bother to obtain a low power fm frequency? This ruling makes a lot more sense to KFNN, KASA, KXEG and other Class D Ancient Modulation stations. One thing Nurse Jeff and I'd like to know: does the ruling apply to only Class D daytimers, or any Class D? Gumpdusky is the only Class D operator in the Valley that chooses to remain a daytimer.

 

[landtuna]

Gumpdusky is the only Class D operator in the Valley that chooses to remain a daytimer.

Yeh, but as soon as they can find an engineer what knows how to set the lamptimer and put an AC plug on the transmitter power cord they be blastin' Valley wide overnight and we'll be cruzin' the Big Boy once again!!!

 

[catfish]

It would cost money to do that. The current gates is not type accepted to run at 52 watts and will not and the CCA 5kw beast has not seen plate on since 93. Times are tough for the broadcasters right now and a new transmitter ain't happening. Sandusky is one of the few broadcast companies not laying off people and Chuck is a great GM who does not want that to happen. Yes 52 watts would be nice if there was a transmitter on site that could do that. KXEG is 42 watts at night on 1280 and gets out about 20 miles. They have a BE 2.5 kw solid state transmitter that is type accepted by the FCC to run at that power level. But who would listen to it? I'll sell you my Vega and raise you $500 K and maybe Chuck will give you the keys to 1440. :

 

[catfish]

Yeh, but as soon as they can find an engineer what knows how to set the lamptimer and put an AC plug on the transmitter power cord they be blastin' Valley wide overnight and we'll be cruzin' the Big Boy once again!!!

Now that's low.. the current engineer is a great engineer and a very nice man. There is no lamptimer!! DOS based computer which has a dos version of Burke remote control on it that is hooked up to a Burke remote control... again times are tough and maybe next year he will get some capital to do some things but why on an AM station that does not make much money to be on at 52 watts at night.. Listen and support the advertisers that are on the air now and you can make a difference. After all no one is playing any music from the 50's and 60's in this market.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

The current gates is not type accepted to run at 52 watts and will not and the CCA 5kw beast has not seen plate on since 93...(snip)...Yes 52 watts would be nice if there was a transmitter on site that could do that.

That's catfish with a "C" (not with a "K"), correct?

How did they do the 52 watts in April 2008 when for a period of a week or so,
KAZG powered down and ran at night?

There is no lamptimer!! DOS based computer which has a dos version of Burke remote control on it that is hooked up to a Burke remote control.

But the lamptimer has become a Gumpdusky legend!

Now if you could only provide some photo evidence of this Burke remote, DOS PC,
et al, then we could start blaming Burke.

In this case, Burke before and after work.
(I'm hopeful a few of our local radio group-o-geeks will get that reference. Joel?)


BTW--running two legal IDs nearly back-to-back at 7:00--with about :01 worth
of "hoo hoos" from the fade of Duke Of Earl in between--doesn't count as a
substitute for not IDing at sign-off! ;D Which was at 7:45:10 tonight.

 

[landtuna]

Listen and support the advertisers that are on the air now and you can make a difference.

I would love to! However, those pow pow powerful signals don't make it down to the southeast Valley. I know a bunch of people who listen when up north but there is nothing left but static south of the 60.

After all no one is playing any music from the 50's and 60's in this market.

That's why I've pretty much given up terrestrial radio and listen to BoomerRadio.com for my 50's & 60's fix.

 

[KeithE4]

Now that's low.. the current engineer is a great engineer and a very nice man. There is no lamptimer!! DOS based computer which has a dos version of Burke remote control on it that is hooked up to a Burke remote control... again times are tough and maybe next year he will get some capital to do some things but why on an AM station that does not make much money to be on at 52 watts at night.. Listen and support the advertisers that are on the air now and you can make a difference. After all no one is playing any music from the 50's and 60's in this market.

A DOS-based computer?!?!?!? They can't replace that with something that could be found in a landfill, loaded with an old version of Linux, connected to the internets once a day for a time-check with NIST.gov (they could tie into the lumberyard's connection with permission, I'm sure), and running a Perl script that controls a timer off the parallel port? Total cost: $0.00 for the PC and maybe a hundred bucks worth of an engineer's (or his 12-year-old kid's) time to write the script.

Maybe not. I don't know of any lamptimers that connect to printer ports. ;D

 

[DrAkbar]

Times are tough for the broadcasters right now and a new transmitter ain't happening. Sandusky is one of the few broadcast companies not laying off people and Chuck is a great GM who does not want that to happen. I'll sell you my Vega and raise you $500 K and maybe Chuck will give you the keys to 1440. :

As Nurse Jeff and I have said over the years, playing worn out oldies aint the highest and best use of Lumberyard 14~Forty. Brokered programming is and would provide the revenue to purchase a xmttr capable of putting out 52 watts of nighttime pow-pow-power. We'll tip our fezes to GM Artigue as knowing what's best for Gumpdusky in Phoenix (actually Mesa, Tempe & Scottsdale), but doing anything with 14~Forty isn't on his radar screen.

The Vega and $500k sounds fair... if only he'd take it!

 

[boiseengineer]

There was Heathkit software and interface you could hook to you IBM 286 computer that would turn your house lights on & off using the "plug 'n power" modules. And you can use the Burke Burk to turn lights on & off. So you can say the Burk being run by an old DOS computer IS a lamptimer!

 

[catfish]

I could agree that the the old computer would qualify as a lamptimer.. but lamptimers usually keep better time ...

 

[phil]

maybe the 286 needs an new battery for it's clock?

 

[The Beave]

Times are tough for the broadcasters right now and a new transmitter ain't happening. Sandusky is one of the few broadcast companies not laying off people and Chuck is a great GM who does not want that to happen. I'll sell you my Vega and raise you $500 K and maybe Chuck will give you the keys to 1440. :

As Nurse Jeff and I have said over the years, playing worn out oldies aint the highest and best use of Lumberyard 14~Forty. Brokered programming is and would provide the revenue to purchase a xmttr capable of putting out 52 watts of nighttime pow-pow-power. We'll tip our fezes to GM Artigue as knowing what's best for Gumpdusky in Phoenix (actually Mesa, Tempe & Scottsdale), but doing anything with 14~Forty isn't on his radar screen.

The Vega and $500k sounds fair... if only he'd take it!

The only problem Doc, is the vega engine would need an overhaul to power the 286 so the lamptimer COULD keep time. ???