A love and aptitude for broadcast engineering, combined with a passion for story-telling puts Marcos O’Rourke in a unique position. He’s single-handedly educating and entertaining our community of broadcast engineers and enthusiasts. O’Rourke’s YouTube channel, Socal Broadcast Engineer, has over two thousand subscribers and about 250 videos. While these numbers are modest in the YouTube creator community, they’re huge in our relatively small broadcast engineering base. Plus, O’Rourke’s efforts drew the attention of the Society of Broadcast Engineers this past year, which is honoring him as “Educator of the Year”. Marcos joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack to look at a few fascinating videos and get a behind the scenes look at how he records and edits them.

Show notes:

* What does it take to lift a new generator to the roof?* The dangers of transmitter sites* Tour of one of the oldest stations on the west coast - KNX 1070* My process in making a video* Socal Broadcast Engineer - YouTube channel* We discussed LUTs and how they’re used in video production* SBE announcement of Marcos O’Rourke receiving the James C. Wulliman Educator of the Year award for 2022

Guest

Marcos O’Rourke - Broadcast Radio Engineer and Chief Engineer at KWVE-FM

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

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.

John Bisset is back with radio engineering tips, techniques, and trinkets to make our lives better and our jobs more complete. Need to level a heavy transmitter or break into a locked car? John says the Air Wedge Alignment Tool is what you need. An IR camera can show you which FET is dead. And John believes that a polite and informative sign has kept a transmitter site break-in-free for thirty years.

Show notes:

* WinBag Air Wedge Alignment Tool* Chris Tarr reports excellent results getting IT services to his facilities using an IT services broker. He suggests IQ Wired in Denver.* John was impressed by this line of small mini-split window A/C units from Oslo. Different, for sure.* Lower-priced IR camera attachments for phones have very low pixel resolutions. This FLIR ONE Pro is a best seller on Amazon.

Guest

John Bisset - Western US Sales at Telos Alliance and “Workbench” columnist in Radio World magazine.

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

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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.Angry Audio - with StudioHub cables and adapters. Audio problems disappear when you get Angry at AngryAudio.com. And MaxxKonnectWireless - Prioritiz...

Chuck Condron once wrote some popular call screening software for Telos (and other) phone systems. Seems a particular talk show host just had to have some custom software to do his job well, so Chuck learned to code and wrote it. After many years with Clear Channel and iHeart, Chuck is now the Chief Engineer for Starnes Media Group and the nationwide Todd Starnes Show. Plus, he’s now responsible for a "challenging" AM transmitter site - KWAM - in the Mississippi River flood plain near Memphis.

Show notes:

* Chuck likes the BroadcastTools I/O Sentinel® 4 G2 – Web-based GPIO Interface* Chuck also likes Macrium Software backup solutions for critical on-air computers

Guest

Carl Campbell - Director of Engineering at Salem Music Networks, Nashville, TNShane Toven - Senior Broadcast Engineer at Educational Media Foundation K-LOVE & Air1 Media Networks

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

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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.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.

Kirk Harnack says he’s getting burned-out on virtual SBE meetings. After experiencing the enthusiasm of the NAB Show and the Public Radio Engineering Conference this past April, Kirk wanted to restart in-person meetings of the Nashville SBE chapter. Many chapter members agreed and fifteen SBE members showed up for lunch and dinner meetings at Kirk’s Nashville home. Carl Campbell, Chapter Chair for Nashville, is delighted with the turnout! Shane Toven, also an SBE Board of Directors member, adds his own thoughts and experiences about restarting chapter meetings. And Chris Tarr reminds us that we’re not out of the woods yet as COVID cases do continue, and not everyone needs to be meeting in person again. It’s great episode with plenty of opinions and ideas!

Guests

Carl Campbell - Director of Engineering at Salem Music Networks, Nashville, TNShane Toven - Senior Broadcast Engineer at Educational Media Foundation K-LOVE & Air1 Media Networks

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

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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.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.

Most radio stations are streaming their live audio these days, and many of those are sending metadata for title, artist, album art, and short messages. But in our non-linear, fragmented entertainment world, many listeners want to your show at a different time; or just hear the highlights; or simply replay the artist interview they heard yesterday., Today’s audio curation and publishing tools and platforms are the next innovation that’s already here. Jon Stephenson noticed this fragmented marketplace and brought several technologies together under one umbrella called SoundStack. Chris Tarr and Jon, along with Kirk Harnack, explore and discuss these audio publishing tools and take a look into Audio as a Service.

Show notes:

* Launch PR: Audio Brands Unite to Launch SoundStack, a New Audio as a Service Company (AaaS), to Simplify Audio* Jon mentioned the importance of having a Status page for your audio and revenue streams.* Chris mentioned a Chrome browser extension, Radio Receiver, for use with SDR USB turners* Jon’s tips included Redundant Power Supplies for Servers

Guest

Jon Stephenson - CEO at SoundStack

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

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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.

One of TWiRT’s original co-hosts, Tom Ray carved out an hour to join us on this episode. As a broadcast engineering consultant, Tom truly sees the good, the bad, and the ugly at broadcast facilities. And, he’s usually hired to correct the problems he finds. From HD Radio, to EAS systems, to AM towers to FM transmission lines, Tom really does get hands-on with most every technology applicable to radio stations. We invited viewers of our live video stream to post their questions for Tom to answer. Plus Kirk Harnack supplied a few questions for Tom that engineers and station owners have been asking lately.

Show notes:

* Monitoring LED tower lights with their much lower current than incandescent lamps led to this sensor & alarm from SSAC.  Look to pages 26 & 26 of this PDF document for the data sheet.

Guest

Tom Ray - President at Tom Ray Broadcast Consulting, LLC

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 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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.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.

Does your radio station have a water well on the property, or do you pay for water from your water company? Do you have a septic system out back, or do you pay for sewer service? What about trash pickup; do you burn or bury your own trash as we did decades ago, or do you pay for a trash pickup service? What if your tower lights were offered as a guaranteed service, and you never had an unexpected tower light repair bill again? Chuck Kelly joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack to explore this intriguing idea of “Tower Lights as a Service” on this episode of TWiRT.

Guest

Chuck Kelly - Broadcast Marketing Consultant

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

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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.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.

When you look after nearly 50 transmitter sites you’re going to be upgrading them; it’l be a fairly constant part of your work. Chris Tarr’s recent work has been installing new AM and FM transmitters, and getting them connected to his company-wide remote control and monitoring system. Chris shares his wisdom about systems that really should be consistent from site to site, and which systems or equipment don’t need to be all the same. Oh, and we’ll find out what happened to that Broadcast Electronics FM 5B transmitter that we last saw on a forklift!

Show notes:

* IP Radios: Ubiquiti AirMax line * VPN Routers/firewalls: SonicWall SOHO * Remote: Burk ARCPlus Touch (master) Plus-X 300/600 (remote sites for devices without SNMP)* TDR: RigExpert AA-230 Zoom

Guest

Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media

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 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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.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.

It's off-season for the NFL, but this is when broadcasting's remote engineers prep for the Fall season. Robert Carroll is the Game day Engineer & Producer for the New Orleans Saints Radio Network. No matter whom you cheer for, behind-the-scenes engineering is physically demanding and requires quick, clear, and creative thinking as well. Robert Carroll joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack on TWiRT.

Show notes:

* New Orleans Saints Radio Network* We mentioned IDB Communications several times. Here’s a brief history of IDB - a company that many broadcasters depended upon for remote communications.* ISDN was fondly recalled in this episode. Here’s some info on this nearly-gone telco service.* REMI - Remote Live Production - explained by LiveU

Guest

Robert Carroll - Gameday Engineer & Producer, New Orleans Saints Radio Network

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

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.

When leading broadcasters are “pushing the envelope”, Gary Kline is usually there to find out how and why. And wherever possible, Gary shares that business and technical knowledge with other engineers. We caught Gary just long enough between international broadcast conferences to tell us what’s going on with leading broadcasters in other parts of the world. He joins us from the Ryan Seacrest studios at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Show notes:

* Radiodays Europe - 2022 Conference just completed* Radiodays Europe - 2023 Conference will be in Prague* Paris Radio Show - June 2 & 3, 2022

Guest

Gary Kline - Founder, Kline Consultingmation

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.Nautel and the regular Transmission Talk Tuesday series of online engineering roundtable events.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