Analog and HD out of sync...why?

[Chuck]

Some stations are too cheap to do even that....

 

[tomservo]

Man, you just so don't get it. I tried.

Yes, what do I know, I'm just a listener.

When the station "doesn't work" I bail. That's true for HD or analog. I'd say "I'll go to streaming since it's the future anyway" but even sitting still I can't seem to hold a stream for more than an hour or two, which is actually far worse than HD's performance, locally. On the road, I get about as many dropouts with streaming as I do with HD, only the HD actually works in the boonies where there's no cell coverage.

If it's this bad, and this screwed, and the engineers are this over worked, then just shut off the damn system and be done with it.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Man, you just so don't get it. I tried.

Yes, what do I know, I'm just a listener.

When the station "doesn't work" I bail. That's true for HD or analog. I'd say "I'll go to streaming since it's the future anyway" but even sitting still I can't seem to hold a stream for more than an hour or two, which is actually far worse than HD's performance, locally. On the road, I get about as many dropouts with streaming as I do with HD, only the HD actually works in the boonies where there's no cell coverage.

If it's this bad, and this screwed, and the engineers are this over worked, then just shut off the damn system and be done with it.

You don't know how many would love to, but the suits that bought into this Rube Goldberg kluge system refuse to admit their mistake. So the engineer handling 6 stations is saddled with keeping it operating, along with the main signal, the automation, the studios, the sales guys printer, the tower lights and guys, keeping the fences legal and the weeds knocked down, and unstopping the general manager's toilet.

 

[tomservo]

You don't know how many would love to, but the suits that bought into this Rube Goldberg kluge system refuse to admit their mistake. So the engineer handling 6 stations is saddled with keeping it operating, along with the main signal, the automation, the studios, the sales guys printer, the tower lights and guys, keeping the fences legal and the weeds knocked down, and unstopping the general manager's toilet.

Hey, my last factory job was the same. In addition to doing actual work and being a weekend shift leader and writing reviews and doing tons of paperwork I had to clean the floors and unstop the toilets and all that jazz. Only I made $12/hr. But I was thankful to have a job at all, so I did everything (including futzing with the stupid and impossible contraptions they brought in to "improve the product" and maintaining my own equipment because there was no machinist hired for years) to the best of my ability. I averaged 70+ hours a week over six years of work, so I know a thing or two about being overworked.

Having a hundred hats is just part of modern day American employment, it seems. I'm sorry for lashing out at the engineers who have a crappy job to do these days, I do recognize that management is as much to blame for the current situation, but twiddling a knob (or however you fix the HD delay) seems like such a minor thing that there's no excuse to check it once a month. Once a month!

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Well, I suppose I can grant you a once a month check on sync sounds reasonable, but you have to realize you're one of the very, very few that even listen to HD, much less know about it. I know stations in Memphis that have the HD down for a week at a time, and no one calls. It can take a couple hours out of your already long day to get out to the transmitter site, troubleshoot the problem and get it running again, while the sales manager is complaining you're not around to make his Blackberry get his email. Staying employed (which fortunately is not a concern I have) can often require setting priorities of keeping the suits happy.

 

[Ai4i]

One thing I have noticed is that the HD is always either behind the analog or synched with it, never ever ever ahead of it.