The Superadios that only go to 1600 were more sensitive than the newer ones that go to 1700. Shame...the first batch of SR's were awesome.
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WLW Off and On
- Thread starter RATCISDJ94
- Start date
BobOnTheJob said:
TRUE, Bob... I have both versions. The "SR-1" is AWESOME in AM catch and quality.
Back to topic... Seriously, there is VERY-LITTLE current technology that can mitigate a significant portion of an AM station's utility bill [past the 1990 introduction of digitally-assisted modulation such as provided by the Harris DX and the-like from BE]. IF one is *lucky-enough* to fire FIFTY KILOWATTS – they have to "pay to play".
The electric bill becomes a consideration when a higher-powered AM at the upper-expanse of the dial [1200+] or a station circulating current into poor ground conductivity keeps the green button illuminated in vain. High-powered AM radio is costly, and that may provide a reason as to why so-many of those have disappeared in the "third world". The SABC [South Africa] elliminated AM transmission over a decade ago.
I LIKE AM RADIO, like its well-presented sound, and consider it to be a "domestic natural resource"; but when do you juxtapose diminishing ratings and a demo that is next to the funeral home, and face-fact that some technologies wane?
As George Harrison named a pop-icon album—cuts played on AM radio in the early 1970s—"All Things Must Pass".
:'(
All, I checked with a good friend at CC Cincinnati on this entire thread, the posts on this could not be any further from correct. CC Cincy has a dedicated full time engineer that handles all of the transmitter sites in the market (AM and FM), he lives at the WLW site and I am told you could eat off the floor in the WLW transmitter room, takes care of the site completely including keeping the landscape up to code for the city of Mason, he even goes in everynight and puts the transmitter to bed before he calls it a day, and then gets up in the morning and checks on it (wakes the site up) before heading out. At 700 The blips on and off were related to the HD transmission gear having issues causing transmitter muting on the main. (WLW has 3 full power transmitters available for air 2 solid state rigs and one tube) When 550 was off the air it was a planned outage to work on the antenna system, CC corporate engineering was in to help. I think you will find that all though many people complain about CC there engineering is very top shelf, they acutally have the ability to repair gear and get capital to add new gear as technology advances (even in small markets).
Wut?
As of 2010 they still had five transmitters; the Western Electric, Crosley, Continental and a couple of Harris'. Then there is the blowtorch in the back for decorative purposes. So did they house clean some transmitter since 2010?
CleanAudio said:
Really? Wasn't like that when I was there in 2005. There was junk all over the place.
CleanAudio said:
Judging from your 27 previous posts on the Indiana, Chicago, Memphis, Cleveland, Classic Rock, and Engineering boards, I've come to the conclusion that you are a Clear Channel apologist. Which is fine and all.
And it may be true that WLW has 3 full power transmitters sitting in the most sanitary conditions at a site with an impeccably manicured lawn that meets or exceeds all applicable city of Mason and Warren County, Ohio ordinances, rules, and regulations; with a dedicated engineer that tucks the transmitter in every night and kisses it's reactance knob every morning.
But what we're saying, and a lot of people are saying, is that it's been going off the air a lot, and sounding like butt at other times. And I'm pretty sure their engineering staff would agree with that, as most everybody else has noticed. Not saying that's their fault. It's probably not. (I know enough about that team that I can say that with confidence.)
But that is the basic premise of this thread. And for you to say that "the posts on this thread could not be any further from the truth" really fails to notice that the main point of the posts on this thread is that these issues on WLW are, in fact, happening.
Now *why* it's been happening is the subject of our speculation, which may be a bunch of hogwash. But I'm not buying your explanation either, because it went on for far too long for a bunch of really good engineers with 3 transmitters and darn near unlimited resources.
I am not a CC shareholder or employee (they did buy a station that I worked at
sorry about the incomplete post, If WLW is running HD could an errant 100% peak messing up the HD and confusing the silence detector?
secondchoice said:
silence detectors normally don't turn a transmitter off. They call the engineer at 3am when the PD forgot to take a pause out of the log!
My mistake, I thought silence detectors were suppose to cut the station off as part of the relaxing of radio rules allowing "unmanned" (sorry to sound sexiest but what is the PC term for human beings being present?) stations.
The fan speaks the truth...you couldn't pay me enough to be a PD.Bengalsfan said:
BobOnTheJob said:
I found the errant silence sensor calling me and it's been disabled. This engineer does not take calls from PDs mistakes.
CleanAudio said:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Hate to break it to ya, but WLW is largely the exception, and not the rule. CC is king when it comes to deferred maintenance of real estate. You don't have to look far to see CC sites that are absolutely derelict, and an eyesore to neighboring property owners. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it 1530 that had a fire a few years ago? If you really want to see something that's a shame, check out the once beautiful facilities that CC owns in Des Moines, complete with a green, moldy swimming pool outside the GM's office. Ghetto fabulous. :
"Well, in our "call chain" the Chief is on the list, near the bottom. In our group, if he didn't take the calls, we'd be looking for a new chief or contract chief.... "
Silence sensors, if possible, should only go to those that are responsible for them. That's programming. The transmitter drops off, that should go to the guy that handles that part of the deal. Engineering isn't usually included in programming so why should they take their screw ups? Likewise, most programming people can't even find their transmitter site so why should they get the transmitter alarm?
Silence sensors, if possible, should only go to those that are responsible for them. That's programming. The transmitter drops off, that should go to the guy that handles that part of the deal. Engineering isn't usually included in programming so why should they take their screw ups? Likewise, most programming people can't even find their transmitter site so why should they get the transmitter alarm?
Ultimately, you're right that everyone is either in it together or not. With that being said, programming, if possible, should get programming issues first for darn sure, as you have your stuff set up to do. What you DON'T want to do is have poor programming of automation by programming people wear out the engineering guys. At our place, our ops guy and I both get the silence sensor. I only get the transmitter. There's no need to wear him out with something he cannot fix anyway. The flip side of all of this is he tries his very, very best to keep the automation running 100 percent right. He rarely screws up. Engineers at some of the big groups elsewhere here in don't have it nearly as lucky as I do. The engineers there have purposely took them out of the silence sensor loop because, honestly, programming isn't part of the "team" there and let dead air happen. It would be preferable that everyone would be notified, but when you can't get people to things right, the next step is self-preservation. Also, if you're a "contractor", you really shouldn't be forced to take transmitter or silence calls at all. If you choose to, so be it. They aren't paying for a staff person, so let a staff person take the first level of calls, then call for the contractor. I only take calls for one of my contract stations. I might as well be staff there. They treat me almost like staff... I'm at their Christmas party and station functions. I'm part of their broadcast "family".
Back on track to WLW, and AMs in general, flaky issues that don't drop the carrier for very long at a time can be VERY hard to properly set up to alarm. Most of us really don't want to hear about a power bump so we set a slight delay before the alarm is tripped. That's great unless something happens that causes it to drop off and on that's not just the power winking once. Also (not WLW), stations that get to change patterns at night have a ton of contactors and stuff to screw up, and, of course, mute while the contactors make up. So, you can't really even have it alarm when a slight bump happens or you'll get a false alarm twice a day. The best alarm is actually someone paying attention to their station. With 6-8 stations deep like some guys are having to deal with these days, that's not easy.
Darryl...Randy on line 1.
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