There's a Problem - Go Back to Sleep: New Radio Engineering Tech

As engineers incorporate new technology into their broadcast facilities, we’re figuring out better approaches to old – and new – problems.

Chris Tarr offers up a boatload of tips, tricks, and tools that make his life easier at both studio and transmitter sites. Chris Tobin chimes in, and Kirk Harnack describes how one TV station in Oklahoma is handling tornado “play-by-play” coverage.

Brett Gilbert, Performance Studios

Decades ago, all radio stations had “performance studios.” Local musicians and actors would perform for some or all of the broadcast day. Today, only a few radio stations have performance studios and even audience seating areas. Brett Gilbert, Director of Engineering at Clear Channel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Chris Tarr, DoE for 88Nine in Milwaukee, share thoughts and stories about these spaces. Plus, Brett introduces us radio engineers to stage lighting with a quick discussion of the technologies involved.

Show and Tell and Dial and Smile - Radio Talk Show Calls

GFQ founder and host Andrew Zarian discusses his thoughts and recommendations on Ethernet routers, and Kirk introduces the authoritative book about the history of Phone Phreaking, “Exploding the Phone” on this episode of "This Week in Radio Tech."

Metadata and More in Audio Engineering

Wisconsin Public Radio Engineer Kevin Trueblood and Chris Tarr of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee are talkin' metadata with Kirk Harnack on "This Week in Radio Tech."

Radio Trends with Rob de Santos

Exactly what is radio these days? Popular Communications columnist Rob de Santos discusses radio trends on "This Week in Radio Tech" with Kirk Harnack.

Direct-Dialing your Z/IP ONE IP Audio Codec

Willem Hoekstra of Media Utilities in the Netherlands writes: "I've got a Z/IP ONE client who wants to connect Z/IP ONE codecs on a private network completely autonomously, without the Directory and NAT Traversal services provided by the Telos ZIP Server. Is that possible?"

A Visit to 4 Times Square

Chris Tobin shows us the FM combiner room at 4 Times Square – a main transmitter site for some and a backup site for other New York City broadcasters. Plus, Scott Fybush is here with transmitter and tower stories, a radio discussion board, and his 2014 Tower Site Calendar.

From A to B via IP Audio

Sacramento's K-LOVE loves Axia xNodes

Sometimes, a leaky roof can set a surprising chain of events in motion. Just ask Alan Guthrie, Engineering advisor for K-Love, 99.5-107.3. “The landlord informed us that the roof of our building needed to be replaced. That, in turn, meant our satellite receiving dish had to come down, and we had to find a temporary location for a new one.”

Quit Streaming with MP3 Audio

Processing and stream encoding guru Greg Ogonowski shares tips on audio encoding on "This Week in Radio Tech."

Vintage Audio: Tektronix Model 105 Square Wave Generator

This trip to the attic brings us a 105 Square Wave Generator.

Mention Tektronix and most people think of world class oscilloscopes. What is less well known is that the Beaverton, Oregon company also made other types of test equipment. As they were constantly pushing the envelope of oscilloscope performance, it soon became apparent that there was a lack of devices in the field capable of keeping scopes in calibration. So Tek got into the test equipment business as well.