More Automation Problems on WXCT

[GreatCalloftheNE]

Two weeks ago I was out driving and I caught WXCT 990 AM out of Southington doing a simulcast of WWPR-FM in New York. I posted that on this board and Charlie Profit, the GM of the station, posted back that it was a problem with the automation system.

This morning I was out again and caught the end of a brokered show about home improvements at about 10:58am. At that point there was dead-air for two minutes until their network news came on at 11:00am. The news lasted five minutes and ended at 11:05am and once again there was dead-air until 11:07am when the brokered show came back on the air.

I'd like to know what automation system they're running. It's probably something still running on Windows 95. Either that or the person programming it is totally inept. Maybe both.

 

[MarcB]

The home improvement show is not a brokered show it's a real legit talk show. It's the same one they ran when I worked there 3 years ago. It's The Handyman Show with Glenn Haggee. (http://www.masterhandyman.com/) It airs live Saturdays 10AM-12Noon Eastern. It's distributed through Syndication Solutions. (http://www.syndsolutions.com/) As for the dead air what's likely the cause is that the file for the commercial, psa, or promo is missing or corrupt because it happened to me during my show a couple times a few years ago. The clock for the Handyman show is supposed to be Local Break @ 58:50 then a 10 Second Legal ID at 59:50 - "Central Connecticut's Talk Radio For Women WXCT Southington. Real Interesting Talk. TalkRadio 990". Then IRN News/IRN Commercials at 00:00-00:05. Then a local Break (Proabably for ShopNaked.Biz) is supposed to be played 00:05-00:06. Then the Handyman Show is suppoosed to Come Back.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

I rememebr when I was at the station several times, I htink it's a DOS version of WIRE READY.. but I could be wrong. I do know for sur eit was DOS based, just don't remember the name of the program.

 

[Oldbones]

I rememebr when I was at the station several times, I htink it's a DOS version of WIRE READY.. but I could be wrong. I do know for sur eit was DOS based, just don't remember the name of the program.

Isn't the DOS version called Cart Ready? Back in the 90s I worked at a station that used it on the (mostly satellite) AM. Kind of clunky to program and not very versatile but it never crashed. Any screw-ups were almost guaranteed to be the network not sending a closure/tone (or sending the wrong one).

Isn't Wire Ready the newswire database program?

 

[MarcB]

Any screw-ups were almost guaranteed to be the network not sending a closure/tone (or sending the wrong one).

That has happened before numerous times. : Mostly happens during Dr. Laura too, which is supposed to be TalkRadio 990's Flagship Show. (not counting the local AM Drive and the local early afternoon show). If I'm home and not working I listen to lots of AM radio in the afternoon including: Mega 910, Dr. Joy on 1150, and the Oldies Format on 1320. Numeorus times while scanning from 910 to 1150, the scan will stop on 990 and there'd be dead air during Dr. Laura. (I'm gonna leave my personal opinion out of this thread only because me and Charlie Profit are good friends, besides he already knows what I think that show).

 

[cabradio]

Two weeks ago I was out driving and I caught WXCT 990 AM out of Southington doing a simulcast of WWPR-FM in New York. I posted that on this board and Charlie Profit, the GM of the station, posted back that it was a problem with the automation system.

Not so much the automation as the satellite feed. However the program scheduled at the time this "simulcast" happened stated to me they had no problems reported from any other affiliates. I checked, and double checked the automation. There were no changes or strange commands that weren't supposed to be there. I made no changes at that time and everything continues to work fine. It was a strange anomaly.

This morning I was out again and caught the end of a brokered show about home improvements at about 10:58am. At that point there was dead-air for two minutes until their network news came on at 11:00am. The news lasted five minutes and ended at 11:05am and once again there was dead-air until 11:07am when the brokered show came back on the air.

We have FEW brokered shows. There is a problem with the closures on the Handyman Show that I have not been able to correct. It is on our end, not theirs. It involves other hardware...

I'd like to know what automation system they're running. It's probably something still running on Windows 95.

It is Wireready, it is a DOS program. And for those who care so much about our wellbeing, we are looking at some kind of upgrade. No need to send suggestions or recommendations...I am well versed on what's available.

Either that or the person programming it is totally inept. Maybe both.

Why the jab? While we are a smaller operation than most, without huge corporate budgets, I am still living my dream. I'd rather have a problematic automation system on a small station serving the community in bite size pieces, rather than working for a huge conglomerate that has taken the station out of the community. I take one day at a time with the station because I don't have 10 people around to fix the hiccups we experience. I have no reason to gripe about others, nor do I care to. If it empowers you to nit pick, feel free to continue. I prefer to treat others the way I want to be treated. I wish you the best GreatCall; I hope we will meet your standards one day and then maybe you will call and chat!

As always I invite ANYONE to contact me if you have comments or questions. I'm not hard to get a hold of.

 

[MarcB]

Right on Charlie. You already know what I think about the station.

Bottom line is that WXCT is serving its City of License. For twenty minutes or show on his show on Friday, Charlie interviewed the director of the current production going on with the Southington Community Theatre. How else would the public know about what's going on with it? Which is better a 20 minute interview on a 2.5 KW AM Station or a small tiny mention in the little Weekly Free Newspaper? The Southington Community Theatre does both, but a tiny little mention doesn't tell the readers what they play's about, how the auditions went, the struggles of local community theatre groups, how they go about what shows they're gonna put on, etc, etc, etc.

 

[GreatCalloftheNE]

Either that or the person programming it is totally inept. Maybe both.

Why the jab?

I apologize for the jab. I should have just stuck to the facts.

 

[GreatCalloftheNE]

Just sticking to the facts here... Yesterday (2/17) the exact same scenario as described in my original post last week. Multi-minute dead-air between network events like a satellite delivered show and network news.

 

[cabradio]

If you ever get a diary, I hope you're as honest. ;D

 

[GreatCalloftheNE]

If you ever get a diary, I hope you're as honest. ;D

In all honesty I don't listen that often. I can't get the station early in the morning when I'm on my way to work and Dr. Laura is just not my cup of tea in the afternoon.

I was deliberately listening Saturday just to see if you had managed to fix the problem.

I don't envy you. I'm not sure how you make a living or pay expenses for this type of operation. I was in radio for a good many years of my life and I only worked in small operations like yours for a short while. I had the luxury of working in larger, more profitable enterprises so I was spoiled. I still love radio but I'm not sure I could endure the aggravation of trying to run your shop.

 

[MarcB]

Question for Charlie

Charlie,

Is everything gonna be all right with the station come Sunday March 11th? That's the day we're changing the clocks forward by one hour instead of the 1st Sunday in April, which is how it's been for the past many years. Are we gonna wake up on March 11th and find the building housing the station has grown legs and find it running down Old Turnpike Road? ;D

 

[cabradio]

In all honesty I don't listen that often. I can't get the station early in the morning when I'm on my way to work and Dr. Laura is just not my cup of tea in the afternoon.

I was deliberately listening Saturday just to see if you had managed to fix the problem.

I don't envy you. I'm not sure how you make a living or pay expenses for this type of operation. I was in radio for a good many years of my life and I only worked in small operations like yours for a short while. I had the luxury of working in larger, more profitable enterprises so I was spoiled. I still love radio but I'm not sure I could endure the aggravation of trying to run your shop.

If you ever get a yearning, I'd be happy to give you the $10.00 tour (inflation, ya know ).

I appreciate the *heads up* on my automation hiccups.

 

[MarcB]

If you ever get a yearning, I'd be happy to give you the $10.00 tour (inflation, ya know ).

Dang Charlie. A 50% increase because of inflation? I could've sworn you only charged me $5.00 for the tour 5 years ago . That was right before I started working for you, which btw was 5 years ago this past Thursday.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

I'm going to take Mr. Profit's side on this one...

I know just HOW HARD it is to run and manage a station. I do it here all by myself, I have no support staff and no full time local engineer around.

Sure, an automation problem is frustrating and can be fixed usually, other times it can't. When you've got 10 other jobs at the station during the week, sometimes things fall by the wayside or you just plain old can't figure it out.

Those of us(Charlie, Me)... don't work in "small" markets like this because we're looking to get rich. Yeah, sometimes money is tight.......

I'm soryr, but we're actually in the business because we LOVE what we do, unlike some people............

 

[CTListener]

If you ever get a yearning, I'd be happy to give you the $10.00 tour (inflation, ya know ).

Dang Charlie. A 50% increase because of inflation? I could've sworn you only charged me $5.00 for the tour 5 years ago .

$10 is 100 percent more than $5.

 

[MarcB]

$10 is 100 percent more than $5.

I'm glad my boss at Price Chopper Supermarket doesn't read this board. If he saw that post he wouldn't let me be a cashier anymore.

 

[On_Radio]

I'd have to take Charlie's side on this as well.. I run a small group of stations in several small markets. I do it because I love it.

Charlie, we have lost touch over the years, but I am glad to see you are doing well in CT.

[email protected]

 

[Turntable]

Thom Morgan And Charlie are doing a wonderful morning show on 990-- going on 2 months or so now... I listen Monday mornings on my way back home from weekends with my girlfriend in Southington. I leave around 8am Monday mornings and listen to the show the entire way back to Newtown. There's something really great about this show... just two guys bantering back and forth about opinions, personal lives, telling stories about recent and past events, and the local callers are usually very entertaining. I wish they'd go till 10 with it. Probably doesn't hurt that I've been in the studios and even on the air there so it's almost like I'm in the studio with them as I listen. It's also really great hearing Thom again after listening to him in my youth on WICC.

Charlie, you know I love what you are doing with the former WNTY. More local stuff like this PLEASE!! There's really something draining and hokey about the syndicated likes of Laura Schlessinger and Joy Brown that sends my dial spinning, almost as if it were tuning itself! There must be some local Southington area women who could host a tag team show locally. Such a dissappointment to hear the station go from a couple of local guys discussing life and family with their listeners over bagels and coffee, to some syndicated crap I could hear anywhere!

I hope as word gets out that this current formula works out for you and CABradio, but I think you should extend the morning show, and follow it with even more live and local programming. "Live, Local, and Latebreaking! Intellegent talk for Women *AND* Smart Men-- 990 WXCT... Southington!"

-A

 

[MarcB]

Alan,

What I'd do is have Thom and Charlie on until 10. Keep Sally Jessy on 10-12. (I like it. It's something totally different). Then I'd put the local programming that gets displaced from 9-10 to 12PM-1PM. Then I'd extend Charlie's 1-3 show to 4PM. And I'd bring in Mary Jones from WDRC to do a local show 4PM-7PM. I'll keep 7PM-1AM the same with Bruce Williams and Rollye James. Then I'd put Roy Masters on 1AM-5AM and Good Day USA on 5AM-7AM.