Does anyone find humor and joy in broadcast engineering like Jim Grum Graham does? I don't think so!! Through flood, heart attack, crazy contests, and fun radio remotes, Jim Graham's engineering experiences have reduced him to the man he is today! What’s more, we can learn some important engineering lessons from Jim’s mistakes - and from his triumphs! Enjoy an hour with Jim as he recounts some crushing defeats as well as the occasional victory in his illustrious radio career.

Show notes:

* Fun Radio WFOX* Fun Radio on Facebook* WANS is one of the stations where Jim worked

Guest

Jim Grum Graham - “Flunky” at Fun Radio

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 and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!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 - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts. Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

Phil Larsen used to fly drones to pick up bad guys discussing their evil plans. Now he runs the QForce Airborne Division of QCommunications, listening to radio and TV stations while measuring transmitted signal patterns. Aerial signal measurement has been around since an engineer carried an RF field strength meter into a helicopter. But, today’s measurements using custom-built drones are far superior to earlier methods. Phil explains what goes into drone-based RF measurements to assure accuracy and integrity of the measurement results.

Show notes:

* QForce - Airborne Division of QCommunications* Tower videos by Phil Larsen on YouTube* Sample Report from Aerial Measurements (PDF)

Guest

Phil Larsen - Vice President of QForce - division of Qcommunications, LLC

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 and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!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 - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts. Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

Some days you’re the windshield, and some days you’re the bug. And some days you experience some of each. Tom Ray’s recent experience with a 4-tower AM directional array new New York is a study in “surprise” and “relief” as he dealt with half of a tower collapsing. These AM towers are in suburban wetlands, surrounded by residences, a city park, and protected waterways. Tom describes how, with a little luck and some expert help, a tower catastrophe got resolved and further problems were solved as well.

Show notes:

* WWRL-AM - A New York area radio station with 6 decades of broadcasting history* WWRL is featured on Scott Fybush’s Fybush.com web site* The WWRL transmitter site on Google Maps* Tom mentioned Tony Fonseca, PE, who advised on repairs at WWRL

Guest

Tom Ray - President at Tom Ray Consulting

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 and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!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 - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And

From modifying off-the-shelf audio processors, to hand-building his own designs, to overseeing the most successful radio audio processing company in the world, Frank Foti has both predicted and created the future of audio enhancement. In this episode we’ll hear about Frank’s collaboration with great record producers and how that work has continued to inform the development of broadcast audio processors. Loudness targets, a peak unlimiter, and a density detector - all discussed right here.

Show notes:

* A History Of Audio Processing Part 6: In Their Own Words – Learning From The Pioneers - an article by Jim Somich and Barry Mishkind* Cover Story : Omnia – From Frank Foti to Team Omnia in 27 Years - an article by Howard Mullinack* HOW TO GIVE YOUR STATION AN AMAZING ON-AIR SOUND - by Thomas Giger

Guest

Frank Foti - Founder of Omnia Audio and Chairman of the Board at Telos Alliance

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 and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!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 - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts. Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

The satellite C-Band repack is upon us. Indeed, some 5G carriers are already operating just below the satellite C-Band and have caused interference. More such interference is on the way and broadcast engineers need to act now. Mark Johnson with LinkUp Communications joins us to outline the C-Band repack timeline and share photos from recent filter installations.

Show notes:

* “The C-Band Repack”* “Essential Info to Choose the Right C-Band Filter”* “What’s Next if you Chose the Lump Sum Option”

Guest

Mark Johnson - President at Linkup Communications Corp.

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 and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!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 - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts. Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

Tony Dimsdale loves RF. And he loves the plumbing it takes to transport high-power RF energy from one place to another without “spilling” any! Working with GatesAir during the TV repack put Tony in the middle of the action, moving FM station antennas, installing RF combining and switching systems, and learning the nuances and “gotchas” of the art of RF plumbing. He shares his knowledge and experience with us on this episode of TWiRT.

Show notes:

* Tony’s Radio Transmitter Site Photos* Tony’s TV Transmitter Site Photos* Tony’s Studio Photos* Examples of fixed flanges for brazing - from Spinner

Guest

Tony Dimsdale - Owner at Dimsdale Technologies - Market Chief Engineer at Audacy, Greenville & Spartanburg, SC

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 and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!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 - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts. Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

Four years ago Philipp Schmid at Nautel introduced HD Radio technology allowing up to 15 digital program feeds on one FM channel. They called it “Multiplex FM”. Now the idea and technology have expanded to include the DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) transmission system. What’s more, Nautel and Telos Alliance have demonstrated a cloud-based system for processing multiple HD channels along with the analog FM program, with reliable Internet delivery to transmitter sites. Philip and Alex fill us in on this technology on TWiRT!

Show notes:

* Cloud-based FM air chain - Radio World* All-Digital HD Radio - Field Tests at KKLZ (PDF slide deck)* Explanation of DRM at Wikipedia

Guests

Philipp Schmind - Chief Technology Officer at NautelAlex Hartman - Support & Research Engineer at Nautel

Host

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

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

Sponsored by

Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, a social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com.And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts.Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

With urban sprawl, property values escalating, and AM stations having a more difficult time financially, sometimes it makes sense to combine one or more AM transmitters at a common transmitter site. Certain technical criteria must be met for this to happen, and combining AM directional stations can be challenging. Mike Patton has helped several AM stations move onto “common ground” and teaches about the key technical aspects to consider when combining transmitters.

Show notes:

* Diplexing AM transmitters - by John Battison [Radio World]* AM Stations Have New Options - Cris Alexander [Radio World]* Diplexed Directional AM stations - Paul Thurst, Engineering Radio

Guest

Mike Patton - Owner, Michael Patton & Associates

Host

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

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

Sponsored by

Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, a social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com.And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts.Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.

Too many FM antennas on one tower? They’re (maybe) creating intermod products? No room or structure for more tenants? It may be past time to consolidate all the FM signals onto a master FM antenna. WAMU-FM and WTOP-FM in Washington, DC, did exactly this - and worked with other FM tenants on the same tower to create such a combined, master FM antenna system. Rob Bertrand, CTO, and Andy Gunn, DoE, tell the story and give us a tour of the combiner room at American University.

Show notes:

* WAMU-FM on Wikipedia* WTOP-FM on Wikipedia* WAMU’s Master FM Antenna Assembled and Erected for Final Tuning and Test* New Master Antenna System Serves D.C.

Guests

Rob Bertrand - Chief Technology Officer at WAMU 88.5Andy Gunn - Director of Engineering at WAMU 88.5

Host

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

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

Sponsored by

Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, a social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com.And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts.

Heads-up, broadcast engineers! Docker is coming your way. What's Docker? It's a brand name that's part of "containerized software" - and broadcast equipment is already moving there. Your audio consoles, talkshow system, and IP intercom can all run on PC or servers - on-site or in a data center. This is happening now! Cam Eicher with Telos Alliance gives a great tutorial on Docker containerized software and more on this episode of TWIRT.

Show notes:

* What’s a “Bare-Metal Server”?* Let’s define “Cloud Computing”* Let’s be clear on what a “Virtual Machine” is.* Hypervisors - Type 1 and Type 2* Software container engines run on Linux* Let’s get on the same page about Docker.* OS-Level Virtualization* Fun to say, but what is Kubernetes?* What is Quay.io?

Guest

Cam Eicher - Executive Director of Worldwide Sales at Telos Alliance

Host

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

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

Sponsored by

Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, a social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com.And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritized High Speed Internet Service designed for Transmitter Sites and Remote Broadcasts.Look for in-depth radio engineering articles in Radio-Guide magazine.