WMFO 91.5 FM Transmitter Problems

[jake1966]

WMFO, Tufts University freeform radio station, is having problems with the transmitter. It has to shut down FM broadcasting to fix the situation.

The station will still be broadcasting online while the repairs take place.

The following is the noticed sent to all DJs.

Dear WMFO Community,
Due to emergency transmitter repairs, WMFO will be switching to
Internet-only broadcast for the next several weeks. We will cease our FM
transmission between 3:30 and 4:00 PM EST on Wednesday, July 22nd. We will
be resuming FM transmission by Saturday, August 16th at the latest.

Until then, all of WMFO's great content
will continue to be available via our live stream at http://www.wmfo. org/.

 

[Laurence Glavin]

WMFO, Tufts University freeform radio station, is having problems with the transmitter. It has to shut down FM broadcasting to fix the situation.

The station will still be broadcasting online while the repairs take place.

The following is the noticed sent to all DJs.

Dear WMFO Community,
Due to emergency transmitter repairs, WMFO will be switching to
Internet-only broadcast for the next several weeks. We will cease our FM
transmission between 3:30 and 4:00 PM EST on Wednesday, July 22nd. We will
be resuming FM transmission by Saturday, August 16th at the latest.

Until then, all of WMFO's great content
will continue to be available via our live stream at http://www.wmfo. org/.

What do you mean "between 3:30 and 4:00 pm EST"? In July, Massachusetts obrserves Eastern Daylight Saving Time.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WMFO, Tufts University freeform radio station, is having problems with the transmitter. It has to shut down FM broadcasting to fix the situation.

I've heard WMFO off the air a lot lately. I didn't know if it was because of students being away for the summer, or if it was because something technical was being intermittent...

 

[robotique]

WMFO, Tufts University freeform radio station, is having problems with the transmitter. It has to shut down FM broadcasting to fix the situation.

I've heard WMFO off the air a lot lately. I didn't know if it was because of students being away for the summer, or if it was because something technical was being intermittent...

im surprised any college station goes off the air for summer since most have an automated system in place to feed music without a dj

 

[Eli Polonsky]

im surprised any college station goes off the air for summer since most have an automated system in place to feed music without a dj

I believe WMFO does have one now, but some of the larger signaled college stations, including WMBR and WZBC, still don't yet.

 

[robotique]

im surprised any college station goes off the air for summer since most have an automated system in place to feed music without a dj

I believe WMFO does have one now, but some of the larger signaled college stations, including WMBR and WZBC, still don't yet.

interesting. i know brandeis' WBRS does, but their program is well funded

 

[jake1966]

WMFO did go automated in March of this year when we went from analog to digital. Where still trying to work out the kinks. Unfortunately we had to shut down the transmitter to repair it. (Which will take a little while) But we are still streaming on the web.

http://www.myspace.com/striketheboxradioshow

 

[aaronread]

If WMFO is off the air for 10 days or less, no notification to the FCC is required. If it is expected to more than 10 days, but less than 30 days, you need to send a letter to the FCC informing them of the outage. Do not send it USPS...it'll get the DHS cavity search...send it FedEx. The FCC must receive the letter before the 10 days is up.

If you're off for more than 30 days, you need Special Temporary Authority to remain dark. These are granted as a matter of routine, but you still need to file it. STA's are good for six months and can be renewed (file for renewal no later than a month before expiration). If you're off for more than 12 months, kiss your license goodbye!

Having said all that, the FCC allows non-commercial/educational licenses to "go dark" without requiring notification or STA's if it's during a time when the parent college is considered "on break"...summer, Christmas, spring break, etc. So WMFO can stay off the air until about Labor Day before the filing rules mentioned above start to kick in.

I believe WMFO does have one now, but some of the larger signaled college stations, including WMBR and WZBC, still don't yet.

It is surprising, but not totally unexpected. It requires installation of a remote control system that can monitor various statuses of the transmitter system, and either call for help when something goes wrong or automatically shut down. Such devices are not cheap; they tend to run at least $850 or so, plus another few hundred for a silence sensors which is money well-spent...and figure another several hundred dollars for an engineer to come in and properly install it. Then you need to pay good money for a server-grade computer with a lot of redundant backups; a $300 Walmart special is a bad idea for such a mission-critical piece of equipment...so that's probably going to run you another $2000 or so. Plus the cost of automation software...which can be free (WBRS uses the freeware Winamp Radio Scheduler) or could be several thousand dollars (like an Enco or AudioVault). Depends an awful lot on what you're trying to do with it.

And finally, you've got to get the music into the automation system! This can be a damnably difficult process for a college station that needs at least 5000-10000 tracks to avoid sounding like a Top40 station. At WEOS we use a Robostation from MoonDogDigital. It works pretty well but even so there's a lot of tracks that don't rip properly because the CD isn't in any database that MDD has. And thanks to the streaming reporting requirements, you've got to track a lot of that info.

Since the demand for airtime by live DJ's is very strong at WMBR and WZBC pretty much year-round, it's not hard to see why they just don't bother with automation.