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Laura and Louisiana and Radio and the Internet

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

Believe me; there's nothing morbid about my curiosity here. I merely find the sentiments startling.

With Hurricane Laura (275 SSE of Cape Charles now at half past noon Weds, I'm reminded of the time of those April 19th Boston Marathon bombings. My childhood pal and his wife lived right in that zone where the lockdown and search was being conducted. As a reaction, my PC was on the excellent WBZ stream all afternoon into the evening. Riveting coverage. WBZ only starts to come in here around sunset on the radio.

So there was no hesitation, seven years later, in finding WWL 870's stream yesterday to catch the latest about the hurricane from that direction. I have relatives down there.
WWL's newscast coverage was excellent. And they were full, local casts -- no filler. I'll be tuned in again a little later.
I enjoyed the local talk show as well. Some fellow named simply 'Scoot' did that shift.
The only '?' I had was an ad that was played often with the address being of some race track here in Pennsylvania!

It's also ironic that both WWL and WBZ, three letters and two towers each, are located on their respective coasts yet direct the vast bulk of their 50,000 watt signals inland.

Any of you folks interested in covering Laura, here's the link I used.
https://onlineradiobox.com/us/wwl870am1053fm/?cs=us.wwl870am1053fm&played=1
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
The only '?' I had was an ad that was played often with the address being of some race track here in Pennsylvania!
Click to expand...

This question comes up a lot. Your browser tells the station your IP address, which tells them you're in PA, and to play local commercials for you.

The same thing happens for web ads. They know where you are. No point running ads for Louisiana. You're not there.
 
CTListener said:
Harrah's operates horse tracks/casinos in both Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Maybe the wrong ad got sent to WWL?
Click to expand...

No, it was the distributor of the Internet stream inserting more localized ads in the originating station's web stream.

Most stations that carry agency commercials that were recorded using union talent are instructed in the ad buy not to stream; streaming would require the agency and its client to pay additional talent fees.

So in many cases, the station feed to the distributor does not contain the commercials run locally. The web provider will insert their own commercials there; this may be on a corporate level for the group owner of on a station by station basis.
 
DavidEduardo said:
So in many cases, the station feed to the distributor does not contain the commercials run locally. The web provider will insert their own commercials there;
Click to expand...

Although from what I've read, the Entercom feed contains the local commercials, but there's an inaudible tone that triggers the remote commercials. Some have occasionally heard the local spot for a second or two before the remote spot is triggered.
 
TheBigA said:
Although from what I've read, the Entercom feed contains the local commercials, but there's an inaudible tone that triggers the remote commercials. Some have occasionally heard the local spot for a second or two before the remote spot is triggered.
Click to expand...

Yes, there are multiple ways of handling this. It's easier to stream the 100% contents, then the chance of dead air is reduced. However, violations of union agreements can be accidentally violated.

Today, with SAG-AFTRA cutting benefits and insurance coverage plans, one has to consider the possibility that they might increase enforcement when they know revenue may be there for the picking.
 
Another serendipitous time-continuum flashback was back during the interval of those California fires that menaced the Los Angeles radio and TV towers on that mountain (Palomar? Wilson?). First station I thought of to hear on the PC was KNX (yet another 3-letter 50,000 watter). They did the job. Sometimes, the Internet can usurp terrestrial reception quite well.

And I remember you and your clinical posts being all over the message boards on that 'occasion', David, hi.
 
My son was in Santa Rosa when the fires were there last (and again unfortunately). I was streaming KCBS out of San Francisco to see if I could get any information. Found they were on a 20 minute to half hour loop. The same stories kept playing over and over. All were pre-recorded. This is not a good recommendation for 'live and local'.

Fortunately he had cell service so text message was the answer. BTW, a word of advice. In the event of a major disaster, and you have cell service, don't try a voice call. Everyone will be doing that. For non-emergency use, try text messaging. Uses less bandwidth, and once the message goes in, it will pop out at the recipient phone eventually.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Yes, there are multiple ways of handling this. It's easier to stream the 100% contents, then the chance of dead air is reduced. However, violations of union agreements can be accidentally violated.

Today, with SAG-AFTRA cutting benefits and insurance coverage plans, one has to consider the possibility that they might increase enforcement when they know revenue may be there for the picking.
Click to expand...

Would a couple of seconds of accidental verboten audio be enough to render the unfortunate broadcaster liable for the triple fees?
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Believe me; there's nothing morbid about my curiosity here. I merely find the sentiments startling.

With Hurricane Laura (275 SSE of Cape Charles now at half past noon Weds, I'm reminded of the time of those April 19th Boston Marathon bombings. My childhood pal and his wife lived right in that zone where the lockdown and search was being conducted. As a reaction, my PC was on the excellent WBZ stream all afternoon into the evening. Riveting coverage. WBZ only starts to come in here around sunset on the radio.

So there was no hesitation, seven years later, in finding WWL 870's stream yesterday to catch the latest about the hurricane from that direction. I have relatives down there.
WWL's newscast coverage was excellent. And they were full, local casts -- no filler. I'll be tuned in again a little later.
I enjoyed the local talk show as well. Some fellow named simply 'Scoot' did that shift.
The only '?' I had was an ad that was played often with the address being of some race track here in Pennsylvania!

It's also ironic that both WWL and WBZ, three letters and two towers each, are located on their respective coasts yet direct the vast bulk of their 50,000 watt signals inland.

Any of you folks interested in covering Laura, here's the link I used.
https://onlineradiobox.com/us/wwl870am1053fm/?cs=us.wwl870am1053fm&played=1
Click to expand...

Nothing ironic about it, they choose to be directional so the signal doesnt go out to the water where itd be wasted
 
CTListener said:
Would a couple of seconds of accidental verboten audio be enough to render the unfortunate broadcaster liable for the triple fees?
Click to expand...

The union fees are not triple if a spot is streamed as well as OTA broadcast. The issue is that agencies don't want "little extra fees" for every station on the buy, so they prohibit it. They'd also want the station to pay for its mistake, too.
 
The minima of WWL are the equivalent of about 3 kW, across marsh and then seawater. Still gets out well. I may tune in to WWL tonight to see whats going on.

10 kW DA-D WKAR signs off at 8:45 EDT, 7:45 CDT for the many Illinois people here who might hear it during CH. So after that, WWL should be there, even if its 25 kW again.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
10 kW DA-D WKAR signs off at 8:45 EDT, 7:45 CDT for the many Illinois people here who might hear it during CH. So after that, WWL should be there, even if its 25 kW again.
Click to expand...

WWL is typically one of the better skywave signals in the Chicago area. IME, WWL usually overtakes WKAR during CH. I had friends living in New Orleans at the time of Katrina and listened to their coverage during that storm....as well as other storms before and since. WWL-TV also historically streams excellent coverage.

Full disclosure: I'm a little prejudiced. My friend worked in management at WWL-TV at the time of Katrina. But happened to be out of town when the storm hit.
 
I was just listening to WWL at my home just north of Chicago and they sound like they're running the full 50KW. The signal is as good as usual.
 
Seems to me WWL had to evacuate during Katrina. I think all the stations pooled their resources for that hurricane. This storm seems to be west of New Orleans aiming at Lake Charles.
 
TheBigA said:
Seems to me WWL had to evacuate during Katrina. I think all the stations pooled their resources for that hurricane. This storm seems to be west of New Orleans aiming at Lake Charles.
Click to expand...

Not "all" the stations but mainly iHeart (Clear Channel at the time) and Entercom formed the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans along with a couple of other AM/FM stations. World Harvest Radio also had one of its transmitters put coverage of Katrina from URBNO on the 7 MHz band on shortwave for a couple of days as well.
 
TheBigA said:
Seems to me WWL had to evacuate during Katrina. I think all the stations pooled their resources for that hurricane. This storm seems to be west of New Orleans aiming at Lake Charles.
Click to expand...

They evacuated the main studios. The transmitter site was built to resist an atomic bomb, and had double reliability on everything.

IIRC, not only could they broadcast from the transmitter site, they had the facilities to link to the site from most anywhere.
 
TheBigA said:
Seems to me WWL had to evacuate during Katrina. I think all the stations pooled their resources for that hurricane.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the logistics or how they pulled off the technology involved, but WWL-TV news and weather staff were broadcasting (or at least streaming) from Jackson, MS. I do remember the pooled resources on the radio side.
 
cyberdad said:
I'm not sure about the logistics or how they pulled off the technology involved, but WWL-TV news and weather staff were broadcasting (or at least streaming) from Jackson, MS. I do remember the pooled resources on the radio side.
Click to expand...

A transmitter can be fed, today, from almost anywhere.

In fact, in many smaller TV markets "local" newscasts are done from a centralized studio complex. And even in huge markets, Master Control is often done at central locations where they may manage many TV stations in different locations and can even originate live programming if needed or in an emergency such as a fire or evacuation of the station's local studios.

This type of remote operation was put into effect when a NYC TV channel had a Coronavirus shutdown in the studios, so all the local NYC news was done live from the West Coast.

WWL worked with the staffs of other radio stations on content, since nearly all others were, at least initially, off the air.
 
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