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WOMC Audio Issue

Theater of My Mind said:
It honestly just sounds like an underpowered PC trying to playback audio while other tasks are competing for CPU or drive access cycles. That, or network congestion trying to access remote files.

Audio compression on that station sounds awful if the recording is a true representation.
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Typically PC's running automation aren't struggling from a processing perspective. Most of the automation software doesn't require much in the way of math coprocessing or heavy amounts of RAM. That said, it could be a sound card problem assuming they're using one instead of IP like Livewire.
 
K8PLW said:
The KJKK audio clip sounds *Identical* to the issue WOMC is experiencing.
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100 percent agreed. The two are indeed identical.

I'm now thinking it is an automation system issue, especially given Audacy's prior history of issues with automation systems (e.g. their alternative stations back in 2021).

Now that I think of it, I've not noticed the popping issue ever during Sunday morning syndicated programming (Scott Shannon), which perhaps lends further credence to the automation system theory.
 
MarkW said:
100 percent agreed. The two are indeed identical.

I'm now thinking it is an automation system issue, especially given Audacy's prior history of issues with automation systems (e.g. their alternative stations back in 2021).

Now that I think of it, I've not noticed the popping issue ever during Sunday morning syndicated programming (Scott Shannon), which perhaps lends further credence to the automation system theory.
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It appears to be present 100% of the time, regardless of the audio source. I listened on my way in to work this morning, and heard momentary dropouts during commercials, studio mic audio, etc.

I emailed the station last weekend and advised them of the problem. No response thus far.
 
Kelly A said:
Years ago I had an intermittent STL issue that was doing something similar. Damn near drove me to drink. The symptom was a random audio pop, the STL receiver would mute, then the audio would return a second later. The TX site was about an hour drive away, and this happened so randomly, that it took much longer than I'd like to admit to troubleshoot. I finally told the GM I needed to spend the following two days at the transmitter site in a effort to catch what's going on. I literally sat there looking at the STL receiver for hours when I saw it; the signal meter would start to climb above the normal receive level until it pinned at the top of the scale. About the time the signal pinned, the receiver couldn't decode the stream anymore and "POP". I grabbed my spectrum analyzer and started looking at the IF into the receiver. Just before the receiver unlocked, I saw another very hot carrier come up right next to our STL frequency, and literally crawl 5MHz right over the top of our incoming signal, then disappear.
Grabbed the yagi and started walking around the site compound and caught it coming from a building right next to ours. Come to find out, it was a 800 MHz land mobile link amplifier that was getting RF turn-around from another link transmitter. When both transmitters came up at the same time, that caused a spurious mix that was right on top of our STL.
In the end I spent probably ten days up on the mountain solving this problem.
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Are most stations utilizing a radio link for their STL? Or Internet/wireline, or both? The STL antenna can be clearly seen on the Google Street view images of this station's transmitter site. Not implying this has anything to do with their issue, just curious since I'm not in broadcast radio.
 
K8PLW said:
Are most stations utilizing a radio link for their STL? Or Internet/wireline, or both? The STL antenna can be clearly seen on the Google Street view images of this station's transmitter site. Not implying this has anything to do with their issue, just curious since I'm not in broadcast radio.
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It depends. Some newer installations, or stations that have given up having local studios/offices even use Internet connections as STL's. Point to point wirelines are pretty much a thing of the past, so anymore you'll see either legacy radio STL paths, or Internet.
 
I was listening to a YouTube video I recorded and I noticed that EXACT same sound from KJKK Chris posted in his audio. This is an OTA capture of Audacy’s WSPA-FM in Greenville-Spartanburg, SC 5 or 6 weeks ago. Now that I’m listening for it, I’m noticing it on occasion.


Happens around 0:13 in the video (and note how horrible the liners sound with the distortion/noise, that’s how poorly processed they have the audio)
 
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WOMC seems to be sounding better. I've not noticed any audio hiccups the past few times I've listened. Hopefully this longstanding issue has been resolved.

Edit - this morning, am once again hearing a minor flicker in the audio at times during music. It is not as obtrusive as before, though.
 
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