To expand my question--limited by the subject field--have you ever been listening to any radio station, heard something the DJ or board op was oblivious to and called him/her to offer help?
For me, these are my experiences -- both happening in the early 90s. Living in Morganton, I became acquainted with a fellow broadcaster in Bluefield, WV and frequently visit there since the mid 80s. Being familiar with the radio stations there, I happened to be here at home scanning the AM dial one night. I stopped at AM 1190 (home of the THEN very powerful WOWO). Instead of WOWO, I was mostly hearing WBDY in Bluefield's 10kw which was supposed to have signed off hours before. I was not surprised, because at the time the AM duplicated the FM 95% -- the only time the AM was thought of was during its morning Trading Post. I kept the radio on and called the station and before I finished telling him his AM was still on the air, I heard him drop the phone (it really banged like it hit the floor) and it was just a couple of seconds until I heard the station go off. He came back and thanked me profusely and asked if I needed his name and if I was the FCC. I could have been mean and said "yes", but I didn't.
My second such memorable experience was hearing our local station's automation causing a partial repititon of the same song. It took about 30 minutes for me to figure it out. Most of you remember that most automation music reels consisted of 3 or 4 reels -- currents, recurrents, oldies and a 2nd one of the aforementioned categories for the 4th reel which complemented the first. For this incident, when the automation called on the current deck, I kept hearing the middle of song begin and play until the end. This happend everytime the current reel was called -- about the same spot of the middle of the same song would start. Having previously worked at this station, I finally figured that someone has likely engaged the cue switch on this reel deck. I called the station and the lady did not know what I was referring to--she began monitoring that station, but couldn't figure out what was causing it. So, I stopped by and showed her the engaged cue switch. I explained to her when the last song on the reel is played it kicks into rewind (triggerd by a laser seeing sensing foil we would place onto every reel upon arrival). If the cue switch is on, when the reel reaches a certain rewind speed the pitches of the audio can potentially mimick the equivalent of a "stop" tone which can cause the deck to stop before the tape finishes rewinding. I thought that was one of the more interesting glitches (in a sea of glitches) encountered with those grand ole automation systems.
Eric
For me, these are my experiences -- both happening in the early 90s. Living in Morganton, I became acquainted with a fellow broadcaster in Bluefield, WV and frequently visit there since the mid 80s. Being familiar with the radio stations there, I happened to be here at home scanning the AM dial one night. I stopped at AM 1190 (home of the THEN very powerful WOWO). Instead of WOWO, I was mostly hearing WBDY in Bluefield's 10kw which was supposed to have signed off hours before. I was not surprised, because at the time the AM duplicated the FM 95% -- the only time the AM was thought of was during its morning Trading Post. I kept the radio on and called the station and before I finished telling him his AM was still on the air, I heard him drop the phone (it really banged like it hit the floor) and it was just a couple of seconds until I heard the station go off. He came back and thanked me profusely and asked if I needed his name and if I was the FCC. I could have been mean and said "yes", but I didn't.
My second such memorable experience was hearing our local station's automation causing a partial repititon of the same song. It took about 30 minutes for me to figure it out. Most of you remember that most automation music reels consisted of 3 or 4 reels -- currents, recurrents, oldies and a 2nd one of the aforementioned categories for the 4th reel which complemented the first. For this incident, when the automation called on the current deck, I kept hearing the middle of song begin and play until the end. This happend everytime the current reel was called -- about the same spot of the middle of the same song would start. Having previously worked at this station, I finally figured that someone has likely engaged the cue switch on this reel deck. I called the station and the lady did not know what I was referring to--she began monitoring that station, but couldn't figure out what was causing it. So, I stopped by and showed her the engaged cue switch. I explained to her when the last song on the reel is played it kicks into rewind (triggerd by a laser seeing sensing foil we would place onto every reel upon arrival). If the cue switch is on, when the reel reaches a certain rewind speed the pitches of the audio can potentially mimick the equivalent of a "stop" tone which can cause the deck to stop before the tape finishes rewinding. I thought that was one of the more interesting glitches (in a sea of glitches) encountered with those grand ole automation systems.
Eric
