This Week in Radio Tech HD guysfromqueens

Dan Case just retired from full-time broadcast engineering - and some key projects are fresh on his mind. Dan started his radio career in Erie, Pennsylvania, and quickly moved up with more responsibility and some engineering management. Dan believes in fixing audio problems right at their source and never trying to fix bad audio with more audio processing. And Dan’s passion is developing customer local solutions where they’re needed. From a custom telephone hybrid in the early 1970s, to building a solid, reliable AM station pattern controller. He coined the term “Revenue Insurance” as a way to validate and justify capex expenditures designed to keep revenue flowing in the midst of other failures or disasters. This is an informative interview with with both technical advice and business acumen shared for your benefit.







Guest







Dan Case - Director of Engineering (Retired)







Host







Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting







Follow Kirk on Twitter - @kharnackFollow TWiRT on Twitter - @TWiRTshow and Facebook







Sponsored by







Nautel’s HD Digital Radio Test Drive unlocks content, revenue, & ratings potentialBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

Boasting 17 signals in 4 radio markets - in New York and Pennsylvania - Radigan Media represents the kind of local radio that’s not only serving its local communities, but doing so with newer technologies. Dave Radigan wears many hats in his growing network of stations, including Chief Engineer. He’s implemented Audio over IP (linear Livewire) between studio and transmitter site, partly because he needed a bi-directional link with no audio compromises - and contact closures. And, Dave has recently opened the door to the “flexible studio”. Using AoIP audio routing tech he’s providing his staff with convenient options for live talk shows, voice-tracking, and production from the same studio, as needed. Let’s check out Dave’s reasoning about implementing the latest tech, when it makes sense to do so.







Guest







Dave Radigan - Owner / CEO at Radigan Media







Host







Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting







Follow Kirk on Twitter - @kharnackFollow TWiRT on Twitter - @TWiRTshow and Facebook







Sponsored by







Nautel’s HD Digital Radio Test Drive unlocks content, revenue, & ratings potentialBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

Many radio engineers love to visit other radio stations. We get ideas to perhaps implement in our own stations. Or sometimes we may get a sense of satisfaction thinking that we’ve done a superlative job in our own facilities - compared to others. Today we’re honored to visit the studios of 100.1 FM in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. OMG! What a drop-dead gorgeous studio! Rafael Recio is the Chief Engineer at 100.1 FM. He shows-off this beautiful and effective working studio, which is home to live shows in morning and afternoon drive every day. Rafael worked with the station’s Program Director, Harold, to design and build this world-class radio studio + control room.







Guest







Rafael Recio - Chief Engineer at 100.1 FM, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic







Hosts







Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting







Follow Kirk on Twitter - @kharnackFollow TWiRT on Twitter - @TWiRTshow and Facebook







Sponsored by







Nautel’s HD Digital Radio Test Drive unlocks content, revenue, & ratings potentialBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

Chris Tarr just finished a long-anticipated FM transmitter move. Big implications attended this move all the way across a metro area. The new site needed a directional FM antenna, and they decided that a new transmitter made more sense than moving the old one. Chris covers a lot of ground when contemplating any transmitter site move. Kirk Harnack touches on a few pointers for IP radio microwave links, including not trusting the existing infrastructure too much!







Show Notes:









* Planning Transmitter Moves



* Facilities - Building, road, fencing, parking, HVAC, roof, ice protection







* Legal including FCC







* Permitting - local zoning, building, etc.







* Safety - fencing, insurance requirements, guy anchors, tower base







* STL considerations & options







* Frequency coordination for 950 & IP STLs







* Fiber internet availability







* AC Power - service sizing, etc.











* Executing the move



* What can be built and ready beforehand







* What has to move overnight or a weekend







* Absolutely no off-air time? Or minimal?







* Actual cutover







* Moving audio processing if needed







* What if something goes really wrong? 







* Plan to go back if needed?











* After the move (should have been before the move)



* Tying up all the loose ends







* Grounding, lightning protection







* Putting redundancy in place at the new location







* What if Internet installation is late?  Wait or move ahead?













Hosts







Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.MediaKirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting







Follow Kirk on Twitter - @kharnackFollow TWiRT on Twitter - @TWiRTshow and Facebook







Sponsored by







NUG@NAB Radio Technology Forum  is almost here! Register for this free event at NAB!Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new a href="https://angr...

What’s happening at NAB 2024 in Las Vegas? No way can anyone bring you ALL of the highlights, but we’re bringing seven outstanding engineers and corporate leaders to you on this episode of TWiRT! Our broadcast studio is the Bionic Table at Broadcast Bionics in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Thanks to Broadcast Bionics for the bandwidth and studio space.







Guests







Darnell Forde - Broadcast Engineer at Salem Media Group, San Diego, CABob Stroupe - Regional Engineering Manager at iHeartMedia, Houston, TXFrancis (Frank) Martin - Owner of MPH Broadcast ServicesDan McQuillin - Managing Director at Broadcast BionicsScott Stiefel - Chief Executive Officer at Telos AllianceJeff Schick - Chief Technology Officer at Sprite Media, Inc.George Whittam - Owner GeorgeThe.Tech, Co-host VOBS.TV and Pro Audio Suite PodcastJohn Bisset - Director, Western US Sales at Telos Alliance







Hosts







Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting







Follow Kirk on Twitter - @kharnackFollow TWiRT on Twitter - @TWiRTshow and Facebook







Sponsored by







Nautel’s HD Digital Radio Test Drive unlocks content, revenue, & ratings potentialBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. 







Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

The Public Radio Engineering Conference (PREC) seems to get better and better each year. Attendees were frequently held in wrapped attention by captivating and informative presentations about audio and RF technologies and techniques.  Our guests on TWiRT each took a few minutes away from the conference sessions to give us their impressions of the technologies being discussed and what’s ahead for Public Radio Engineers.







Guests







Cornelius Gould - Audio Processing Architect at Angry AudioScott Fybush - Editor/Publisher at NorthEast Radio Watch/Fybush MediaJim Gray - Managing Partner at Optimized Media Group - OMGJoseph Williams - DIrector of Engineering & Technology at WRTI, Temple UniversityRichard Parker - Director of Engineering at Coast Alaska







Hosts







Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting







Follow Kirk on Twitter - @kharnackFollow TWiRT on Twitter - @TWiRTshow and Facebook







Sponsored by







NUG@NAB Radio Technology Forum  is almost here! Register for this free event at NAB!Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.