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WBT on Friday morning?

C

Call Me Sherlock

What was the deal with WBT this morning? I went out to pick up a cup of coffee around 8:45 and the signal was all but obliterated by a very loud hum. The hum was at least 3-4 times louder than the station audio. I hope the advertisers get makegoods!

It all seemed to be cleared up by the time Keith Larson came on at 9:05. Larson was on a remote from the Speedway, I don't where Gardner and Sims were, but it wasn't good.
 
The loud buzz started around 8:25 or so. When I first turned on the radio in the car the signal was normal and clear.

Al made a comment about the buzz and said the engineers were working on it. Must have been a problem in the Transmitter, or the STL because it was not on the FM.

It was gone by the time Larson came on.
 
Did anyone check to see if 99.3 WBT-FM was having a problem?

WBT 1110 has two transmitters a Harris DX-50 main that is only a couple of years old and the aux a trusty Harris MW-50. I doubt it was a transmitter problem. Maybe STL or audio processing but they should have backups there as well. AM drive time, not a good time for a failure!
 
Yes, Mike and 99.3 was fine. Your point's a good one. I can't imagine that WBT, the money maker that it's reported to be, wouldn't have a suitable backup in place. While the station remained on the air, it was absolutely unlistenable. Only radio geeks like us, would suffer through it just to find out how long before it got fixed! I can't imagine the average Joe listener hanging in there!
 
Well that rules out anything at the studio.

I must say during the 5 years I worked there part-time the place NEVER had a failure except for the occasional cart machine (what's that?). Even that was dealt with swiftly. Engineering wise (and otherwise) it was the best station I ever worked for.

The only thing I can pick on is their lack of a working studio at the transmitter.
 
What's happen to WBT? It was always a heritage first class operation. But now..... :( Sad to see corp greed continue the cost cuts that created this problem!
 
It might be a little early to say that. I'm not ready to jump to that conclusion...stuff happens.
 
The technical staff at Julian Price place is first class, and there are plenty of them. I wouldn't fault the engineering staff for equipment failure. Even brand new equipment sometimes fails. Plus-Morning drive traffic in Charlotte is horrendous on a good day, so I can easily see it taking Jerry or one of the other guys a little extra time to get to a transmitter site or studio to move a patch or replace a piece of gear. It certainly doesn't indicate lack of talent or manpower.
 
No matter how much you plan or how much backup you have, there will always be something you haven't considered that will bite you. The only thing you can do is make sure that scenario won't happen again.
 
ncradioeng said:
No matter how much you plan or how much backup you have, there will always be something you haven't considered that will bite you. The only thing you can do is make sure that scenario won't happen again.
Click to expand...

That is exactly correct, and the biggest reason is because of the person / being that stalks all radio engineers 24/7/365.

Who is it? Why Murphy of course, and I am not speaking of Robert Murphy.

Murphy's Law: "If anything can go wrong, it will, and usually at the most inopportune moment."
 
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