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Dead air on WRDU?

K

Keith_Lake

Guest
Anyone know why WRDU was broadcasting a silent carrier this morning around 10 a.m.?

One of their (ahem) competitors called me this morning to tell me about it. The silence lasted a good 15 minutes. Wonder why they had no sort of backup programming to slam on the air until the problem could be resolved?

Way to go, Clear Channel.

KL<P ID="signature">______________
<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a></P>
 
> Anyone know why WRDU was broadcasting a silent carrier this
> morning around 10 a.m.?
>
> One of their (ahem) competitors called me this morning to
> tell me about it. The silence lasted a good 15 minutes.
> Wonder why they had no sort of backup programming to slam on
> the air until the problem could be resolved?
>
> Way to go, Clear Channel.
>
> KL
>

I bet the PC locked up. IIRC they are only live 3pm-7pm.<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>
 
> > Anyone know why WRDU was broadcasting a silent carrier
> this
> > morning around 10 a.m.?
> >
> > One of their (ahem) competitors called me this morning to
> > tell me about it. The silence lasted a good 15 minutes.
> > Wonder why they had no sort of backup programming to slam
> on
> > the air until the problem could be resolved?
> >
> > Way to go, Clear Channel.
> >
> > KL
> >
>
> I bet the PC locked up. IIRC they are only live 3pm-7pm.

Wouldn't be the first time. I seem to recall asking this same question about two years ago or so.<P ID="signature">______________
The Radio Blog: radio explained through uncommon sense.
http://theradioblog.blogspot.com</P>
 
> > I bet the PC locked up. IIRC they are only live 3pm-7pm.
>
> Wouldn't be the first time. I seem to recall asking this
> same question about two years ago or so.

The PC locking up is simply no excuse...esp. in a top 50 market.

I know where I work(ed), all the station's studios have at least one CD player. If the automation died, we'd get something called a CD and stick it in said CD player.

If people at RDU don't have one classic rock CD hanging around, they are pitiful.

I wonder if it wasn't a STL/ISDN/whatever they use to get the signal to the tower.

Radio-X<P ID="signature">______________
Formerly shocking, rocking, and angering the R-I community as radiodxrichmond!</P>
 
> > > I bet the PC locked up. IIRC they are only live
> 3pm-7pm.
> >
> > Wouldn't be the first time. I seem to recall asking this
> > same question about two years ago or so.
>
> The PC locking up is simply no excuse...esp. in a top 50
> market.
>
> I know where I work(ed), all the station's studios have at
> least one CD player. If the automation died, we'd get
> something called a CD and stick it in said CD player.
>
> If people at RDU don't have one classic rock CD hanging
> around, they are pitiful.
>
> I wonder if it wasn't a STL/ISDN/whatever they use to get
> the signal to the tower.
>
> Radio-X

Heck, the PC locking up is no excuse in a top 300 market. We had two CD decks at a station I once worked for, and if the computer went on the fritz, we had a huge library of CD's on the back wall of the studio.

I hate automation.<P ID="signature">______________
The Radio Blog: radio explained through uncommon sense.
http://theradioblog.blogspot.com</P>
 
> Anyone know why WRDU was broadcasting a silent carrier this
> morning around 10 a.m.?
>
> One of their (ahem) competitors called me this morning to
> tell me about it. The silence lasted a good 15 minutes.
> Wonder why they had no sort of backup programming to slam on
> the air until the problem could be resolved?
>
> Way to go, Clear Channel.
>
> KL
>

Bob and Tom ends about 10 a.m. Obviously something went awry in the transition from the show feed back into music. That's assuming things were fine up until 10:00, though.

15 minutes is a long time to be silent. Even if Prophet (this is CC, I assume they're using Prophet for automation) crashed, as everyone else has pointed out... shove in a CD. CD, PSA, ANY-thing. You can't help but wonder if it took a listener phone call to finally tip someone off, or if someone meandering through the building heard the silence somewhere and figured out there was a problem. If no one at Smoketree can pay enough attention to hear what's happening on RDU, I guess it then becomes evident as to how concerned they are with the state of the station. Makes me wonder if someone would have noticed it sooner if it had happened on The River. Or maybe not?
 
> Bob and Tom ends about 10 a.m. Obviously something went
> awry in the transition from the show feed back into music.
> That's assuming things were fine up until 10:00, though.
>
> 15 minutes is a long time to be silent. Even if Prophet
> (this is CC, I assume they're using Prophet for automation)
> crashed, as everyone else has pointed out... shove in a CD.
> CD, PSA, ANY-thing. You can't help but wonder if it took a
> listener phone call to finally tip someone off, or if
> someone meandering through the building heard the silence
> somewhere and figured out there was a problem. If no one at
> Smoketree can pay enough attention to hear what's happening
> on RDU, I guess it then becomes evident as to how concerned
> they are with the state of the station. Makes me wonder if
> someone would have noticed it sooner if it had happened on
> The River. Or maybe not?

Is the River live or voicetracked during the day? I have heard EAS tests on there that don't cut music out, they actually happen in stopsets. Commercial ends, test happens, sweeper plays, song begins... leading me to believe SOMEONE is looking after it some way or another.<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>
 
> Heck, the PC locking up is no excuse in a top 300 market.
> We had two CD decks at a station I once worked for, and if
> the computer went on the fritz, we had a huge library of
> CD's on the back wall of the studio.
>
> I hate automation.

But that requires someone to be listening to the station. I know several instances of stations where dead air goes on and on because no one who can do anything about it cares enough to listen.<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>
 
>
> Is the River live or voicetracked during the day? I have
> heard EAS tests on there that don't cut music out, they
> actually happen in stopsets. Commercial ends, test happens,
> sweeper plays, song begins... leading me to believe SOMEONE
> is looking after it some way or another.
>


Scheduled EAS tests are pre-recorded and automated, on all stations. Have been for years.
 
> > Heck, the PC locking up is no excuse in a top 300 market.
>
> > We had two CD decks at a station I once worked for, and if
>
> > the computer went on the fritz, we had a huge library of
> > CD's on the back wall of the studio.
> >
> > I hate automation.
>
> But that requires someone to be listening to the station. I
> know several instances of stations where dead air goes on
> and on because no one who can do anything about it cares
> enough to listen.
>


There are dead air "alarms" (scrolling LED's) in every on-air studio, tied to the other studios, plus an "alarm" in the Prod Dept dub station.

Could've been a network feed issue, or a contact closure to return to local programming may not have been rec'd by Prophet.

15 minutes is morbidly excessive. Someone somewhere should'be been able to get to the control room and play a cd (there's a wall full of them).

I'll add this, the CC Raleigh Engineers are three of the best I've ever worked with. Props to Fred, Thomas and my main brutha' Sol!

Prophet NexGen rocks! It's the best automation system on the market. Even with it's 5:5:1 data compression (mp2's) it's still the best. Heck, ppl are listening to 128kps mp3s on iPods, so linear audio is not needed. Just play the hits!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by bigwoody on 02/24/06 11:25 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> Scheduled EAS tests are pre-recorded and automated, on all
> stations. Have been for years.

How do you pre-record an EAS test? Doesn't the machine still have to go through it's processes?<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>
 
> > Scheduled EAS tests are pre-recorded and automated, on all
>
> > stations. Have been for years.
>
> How do you pre-record an EAS test? Doesn't the machine
> still have to go through it's processes?
>

Yes. I'm not sure how, but Prophet is tied into the EAS machine. The voice part of the EAS is pre-recorded (I voiced it). That's why the pre-scheduled test runs in a stopset.
 
> > > Heck, the PC locking up is no excuse in a top 300
> market.
> >
> > > We had two CD decks at a station I once worked for, and
> if
> >
> > > the computer went on the fritz, we had a huge library of
>
> > > CD's on the back wall of the studio.
> > >
> > > I hate automation.
> >
> > But that requires someone to be listening to the station.
> I
> > know several instances of stations where dead air goes on
> > and on because no one who can do anything about it cares
> > enough to listen.
> >
>
>
> There are dead air "alarms" (scrolling LED's) in every
> on-air studio, tied to the other studios, plus an "alarm" in
> the Prod Dept dub station.
>
> Could've been a network feed issue, or a contact closure to
> return to local programming may not have been rec'd by
> Prophet.
>
> 15 minutes is morbidly excessive. Someone somewhere
> should'be been able to get to the control room and play a cd
> (there's a wall full of them).
>
> Prophet NexGen rocks! It's the best automation system on the
> market. Even with it's 5:5:1 data compression (mp2's) it's
> still the best. Heck, ppl are listening to 128kps mp3s on
> iPods, so linear audio is not needed. Just play the hits!

Yes, but anyone who works with Prophet or Scott Studios knows MP2's are not comparable to 128kbps MP3s. An average MP2 sounds about equal to a 320kbps MP3. 128's will sound like pure crap coming through a broadcast processor.<P ID="signature">______________
The Radio Blog: radio explained through uncommon sense.
http://theradioblog.blogspot.com</P>
 
> Yes, but anyone who works with Prophet or Scott Studios
> knows MP2's are not comparable to 128kbps MP3s. An average
> MP2 sounds about equal to a 320kbps MP3. 128's will sound
> like pure crap coming through a broadcast processor.

All the (60s/70s) music on Y102.9 was dubbed, by hand, in real time, through
an analog amplified board, then into the MP2 automation. The processing is all analog, vintage gear. It's sounds pretty damn good.
 
> > Yes, but anyone who works with Prophet or Scott Studios
> > knows MP2's are not comparable to 128kbps MP3s. An
> average
> > MP2 sounds about equal to a 320kbps MP3. 128's will sound
>
> > like pure crap coming through a broadcast processor.
>
> All the (60s/70s) music on Y102.9 was dubbed, by hand, in
> real time, through
> an analog amplified board, then into the MP2 automation.
> The processing is all analog, vintage gear. It's sounds
> pretty damn good.
>


Doesn't matter, it's now mp2 quality.

Same with Prophet. You can have pristime linear wav audio, processed and Eq'd, but once it's dubbed to Prophet it's an mp2. Audio quality has been degraded significantly. Then it goes thru your Omnia/Optimod/CRL/STL, whatever. It's compressed audio before the processing, and even moreso after.

I will say I like a well compressed signal. I don't like it "open". So mp2/mp3 audio doesn't bother me. I think it sounds ok. Plus, Joe Average is not an audiophile (like engineers) nor do most ppl listen on high end stereos. Process a station for the car.
 
> > Yes, but anyone who works with Prophet or Scott Studios
> > knows MP2's are not comparable to 128kbps MP3s. An
> average
> > MP2 sounds about equal to a 320kbps MP3. 128's will sound
>
> > like pure crap coming through a broadcast processor.
>
> All the (60s/70s) music on Y102.9 was dubbed, by hand, in
> real time, through
> an analog amplified board, then into the MP2 automation.
> The processing is all analog, vintage gear. It's sounds
> pretty damn good.
>


I've had plenty bad to say about Clear Channel here but it's only fair to say any station can go down from time to time. All of this technical chat is really missing the point. We are talking about a station here that was once one of the cutting edge rock stations in the country. A winner of every award known to man and a cornerstone in the triangle community. The tragedy here isn't 15 minutes of dead air. It's five years of nobody over there giving a (BLEEP). How 'bout it Capn' Jack? How sad.
 
> Anyone know why WRDU was broadcasting a silent carrier this
> morning around 10 a.m.?
>
> One of their (ahem) competitors called me this morning to
> tell me about it. The silence lasted a good 15 minutes.
> Wonder why they had no sort of backup programming to slam on
> the air until the problem could be resolved?
>
> Way to go, Clear Channel.
>
> KL
>


It's my understanding there was a power failure to the entire 7th floor (Smoketree Tower), which falls on the buiding's maintenance dept. So with that said 15 minutes of dead air isn't too bad.
 
> It's my understanding there was a power failure to the
> entire 7th floor (Smoketree Tower), which falls on the
> buiding's maintenance dept. So with that said 15 minutes of
> dead air isn't too bad.

Are there no generators on hand for this sort of thing?<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>
 
> Doesn't matter, it's now mp2 quality.

Actually it does. The amp in the dubbing process adds a level
of warmth to the CD. Then there's the benefit of riding gain during the dubbing on low intros.

Yes, it eventually becomes an MP2. But, the final processing is all analog.
There's no odd re-data compression going on that there would be in a digital
processor.

The vintage analog processing chain allows a cymbal to sound like a cymbal
and not like a trash can lid. And, analog bass always sounds better than digital.

Kind of like tube pre-amps and such. It's a nice, subtle difference.

Now, if we could just get rid of the automation/MP2's and get some human beings!
 
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