When stations go off the rails.. dead air, double audio, the wrong thing playing....

[K.M. Richards]

Even better is when there's a sponsor attached. I recall a couple of times when a 50kw heritage news/talk station (I won't name call letters) would run an "up to the minute" sponsored forecast.

It was "up to the minute" in the overnight hours, too... even when it was still sunny and 85. Oops. That was the daytime forecast still running overnight...

Stuff like that erodes listener's trust. If there's a liner proclaiming "up to the minute," there'd better be a warm body reading that weather forecast. If it's automated from hours earlier, that's just plain dishonest. Just call it a weather forecast.

The way we do it in Albuquerque is by contracting with Jim Covington, who assigns different filenames to the morning, afternoon, and night forecasts, and our log templates have those filenames baked in. Our system also FTPs Jim's server hourly, about five minutes before air, so any last minute changes result in downloading an updated file.

 

[KC8UOK]

So how does one contact a radio station at 3AM to report dead air or a transmitter down? I'm an amateur radio operator not a broadcaster but I do like to keep tabs on what's going on. In the past I've tried calling but nobody answers. I'm not even sure if stations are required to be monitored 24/7

 

[radiofan2023]

So how does one contact a radio station at 3AM to report dead air or a transmitter down? I'm an amateur radio operator not a broadcaster but I do like to keep tabs on what's going on. In the past I've tried calling but nobody answers. I'm not even sure if stations are required to be monitored 24/7

Use the Contact Us link from the station's website.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

You dont need that.... the late tom churchills digital weatherman and weatherology/weathereye can have an up to the minute forecast with a current temp attached.. .every hour, even overnights.. and its automated. and with a little work sounds damn near live

That's fair, and also works for me.

What I was getting at is that calling a pre-recorded forecast from hours ago "up to the minute" is just plain dishonest and deceptive.

The tech you're describing sounds like it could legitimately be "up to the minute" and would be legitimate to call that.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

The way we do it in Albuquerque is by contracting with Jim Covington, who assigns different filenames to the morning, afternoon, and night forecasts, and our log templates have those filenames baked in. Our system also FTPs Jim's server hourly, about five minutes before air, so any last minute changes result in downloading an updated file.

And that's fine, so long as they aren't called "up to the minute" or whatever. The stations I work for also pre-record forecasts for the evening overnight hours, though we do it in-house. I actually record some of them. Nothing wrong with that at all, so long as they aren't trying to be something they aren't. I'd never expect a small-market station to have a live forecast in the overnight hours. Really, outside of drive-time.

 

[kevtronics]

And that's fine, so long as they aren't called "up to the minute" or whatever. The stations I work for also pre-record forecasts for the evening overnight hours, though we do it in-house. I actually record some of them. Nothing wrong with that at all, so long as they aren't trying to be something they aren't. I'd never expect a small-market station to have a live forecast in the overnight hours. Really, outside of drive-time.

You could somewhat justify calling it "up to the minute" if you have a pre-recorded forecast followed by an automatic reading of the current temperature and condition. Not too hard to have someone record a bunch of canned lines like "It's 72 and cloudy at the WXYZ studios", "It's 72 and clear", "It's 72 and raining", etc., and then have the automation system play them as needed.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

That's fair, and also works for me.

What I was getting at is that calling a pre-recorded forecast from hours ago "up to the minute" is just plain dishonest and deceptive.

The tech you're describing sounds like it could legitimately be "up to the minute" and would be legitimate to call that.

Ive worked at 2 stations that used weatherology and ive heard it in action. a batch file exe automatically goes out and about 55 after to download a forecast that was uploaded about 50 after.