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Great Words of Wisdom by Radio Engineers
- Thread starter Tynosaur
- Start date
I drove from Little Rock to Memphis last night between 10:00 and 12:30. Couldn't find a single listenable signal for more than two or three minutes at a time. Mostly just a band of noise.
Great threads should be continued...so I'll try to continue this one. The greatest quote I ever heard about an engineer was attributed to a long-time "train driver" at a station in Northwest Tennessee.
One day, a D.J. was on the air when he messed something up producing the necessary amount of dead air to get just about everyone's attention. As is sometimes the case, the only thing you can do is open the mic and "do a little soft shoe". Among the "tap dancing" he did was referring to the problem as "technical difficulties". He said it several times. It prompted the time-worn, battle-scarred engineer to throw a clipboard full of transmitter logs at the D.J. and inform the young jock "Don't you blame your screw-ups on me, boy."
I understand it NEVER happened again.
One day, a D.J. was on the air when he messed something up producing the necessary amount of dead air to get just about everyone's attention. As is sometimes the case, the only thing you can do is open the mic and "do a little soft shoe". Among the "tap dancing" he did was referring to the problem as "technical difficulties". He said it several times. It prompted the time-worn, battle-scarred engineer to throw a clipboard full of transmitter logs at the D.J. and inform the young jock "Don't you blame your screw-ups on me, boy."
I understand it NEVER happened again.
Back about 15+ years ago in Jonesboro at KJBR, we had a huge Lightning storm pass through. During the storm, a good part of the city lost power, as did the station, the jock on duty tried to call out to the transmitter to see if it was still on, but no answer. After some of the power had returned to the city, we still couldn't get the transmitter to answer.
We had a new 1,100 foot tower just north of the city, and to get there you had to go down several dirt and gravel roads. Well our engineer at the time Paul Barzizza, only had a car and he knew it wouldn't make it there - so we got in my 4x4 Toyota pick up and went to the tower. Upon arriving at the tower site, you could smell the burnt ozone from about 20' outside the building.
Once we got in, we found that the tower had taken a direct hit, and I sware it looked like someone had thrown greanades in there. Paul took one look at the carnage and said in flat tone 'I ain't got enough booze for this job'.
In the end, it took 2 full weeks to get the place cleaned out, the remains of the old xmitter removed and a new Harris put in place - after that - Paul took about a month off of work.
We had a new 1,100 foot tower just north of the city, and to get there you had to go down several dirt and gravel roads. Well our engineer at the time Paul Barzizza, only had a car and he knew it wouldn't make it there - so we got in my 4x4 Toyota pick up and went to the tower. Upon arriving at the tower site, you could smell the burnt ozone from about 20' outside the building.
Once we got in, we found that the tower had taken a direct hit, and I sware it looked like someone had thrown greanades in there. Paul took one look at the carnage and said in flat tone 'I ain't got enough booze for this job'.
In the end, it took 2 full weeks to get the place cleaned out, the remains of the old xmitter removed and a new Harris put in place - after that - Paul took about a month off of work.
Zeke's story flashes me back to 1983 or '84, when K94/KSMB had just gone to the full 100kW from that newly built monster stick at Church Point, LA. Power outages were a pretty regular occurrence every spring, so the owner popped for a (for that time) super high-tech back-up system. Mammoth toggle switch on the building wall outside my PD office, then across a big, swampy, weedy lot, we had a gas-powered generator in a shed. And high-tech'est of all, there was a set-up at the Xmtr that we'd call, to re-boot the Xmtr, which would have automatically shut down after a certain number of minutes with no STL signal. First time we used it, I almost drowned in that field, but I got the generator crankin', then ran back to re-up the Xmtr. Sure would've been fine...if our new, also highest-tech phone system hadn't needed electricity to operate -- and if the generator had supplied power to more than just the studios and the STL!
Then there's the saga of WRNO's coax-line meltdown, just before the book, back in the days when it was written only twice a year, and for only three weeks at a time. But I'll bore you with THAT one, another day.
Then there's the saga of WRNO's coax-line meltdown, just before the book, back in the days when it was written only twice a year, and for only three weeks at a time. But I'll bore you with THAT one, another day.
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