This Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)

What a joy to see old friends and colleagues - and make a few new friends, too! The annual NAB Show had to take two years off due to the worldwide pandemic. And, due to the timing of the pandemic onset, it’s been three years since the last NAB Show in Las Vegas since 2019. Attendance was reported to be about half of 2019’s turnout, and the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) added a huge new section - the West Hall. Somehow, between customer meetings, SBE functions, and conference papers, we managed to corral thirteen guests on this episode of TWiRT! This is an hour well-spent, as you’ll meet some of the best and most clever people in broadcasting. Plus, Chris Tarr joins us from his home office in Mukwonago, Wisconsin.

Guests

Bill Bennett - Media Solutions & Accounts Manager at ENCODavid Bialik - Owner, David K. Bialik & AssociatesSimon Jackson - Chief Executive Officer, AVC Group, Auckland, NZChristian Brenner - Founder at GMC & GTA & NexCast - owner of radio.cloudAndrew Scaglione - Account Director at Radio.CloudChriss Scherer - Member Communications Director at Society of Broadcast EngineersJoe de Max - Founder and Developer at Central ControlEgor Tyagunov - Business Development, Europe, CIS & APACJesus Mantoo - VP Sales India and MENA for AVC-IndiaJim Ragsdale - Executive Director for the Society of Broadcast EngineersDan McQuillin - Managing Director at Broadcast BionicsJim Offerdahl - Chief Engineer at Offerdahl Broadcast Service, IncGeary Morrill - Regional Director of Engineering - Midwest at Alpha Media USA

Host

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

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

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It’s a conference full of smiling faces and hearty handshakes! The Public Radio Engineering Conference (PREC) is back for nearly 2 full days of technical sessions and reconnecting with broadcast engineering friends. Tech presentations included sessions on Audio over IP, RF network design for Single Frequency Networks, infrared inspections with aerial drones, maintaining FM & HD transmission systems, and using Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) for better IP-Audio over imperfect IP paths. We pulled a few attendees away from the action and got their thoughts on broadcast engineering projects and challenges today.

Guests

Scott Fybush - Editor/Publisher at NorthEast Radio Watch/Fybush MediaJim Gray - Managing Partner at Optimized Media GroupCharles Sather - Chief Operating Officer @ Koahnic Broadcast CorporationPaul Shulins - Founder of Shulins Solutions broadcast consultingJohn Antonuk - Owner at John Antonuk Technical ServicesPierre Lonewolf - Broadcast Engineer at Kotzebue Broadcasting Inc.Richard Parker - Director of Engineering at Coast Alaska, IncStephen Lockwood - President at Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers

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.

After building out many dozens of radio studios in the past few years, Dave Supplee has been upgrading older transmitters with new, solid state units. Transmitter replacements provide a rare opportunity to focus on the entire transmitter facility, including the building, foundation, walls, floor, electrical, and other fairly permanent fixtures. These foundational parts of a transmitter site often go without proper upkeep; “out of sight, out of mind.” But Dave says that replacing a transmitter affords just the right scenario for management to approve other much needed upgrades.

Guest

Dave Supplee - Director of Engineering, Cumulus Media, Harrisburg, PA

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.

Les Kutasi is a business developer - and that’s a title he’s taken working at several broadcast equipment companies. When your customers are broadcast engineers you have to know your technology. Les understands broadcast antennas from yagis to log-periodics to multi-station TV master arrays and FM panel antennas. A popular speaker at SBE meetings, Les joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack for a humorous yet educational discussion on today’s antenna scene.

Show notes:

* We spoke about the SCALA PR-450U antenna, now dubbed the SCALA PR-900* Not often seen in the USA, these Kathrein master FM antennas are popular throughout Europe* FCC Looks to Update Directional FM Antenna Rules - InsideRadio article* Radio & TV transmitters at Farnsworth Peak, Salt Lake City, Utah - Wikipedia* Deep snow covers transmitter site at Farnsworth Peak, Utah (photo)

Guest

Les Kutasi - Broadcast Business Development at Kathrein

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,

As many of us, Randy Gardner has done a little of everything in radio broadcasting. But also like many of us, he's happiest doing radio engineering - and especially "projects." Now Director of Engineering for JVC Broadcasting, Randy's got fascinating insights and some smart tips for us. Lots of eye candy engineering photos, too!

Show notes:

* Video: 2021 Engineering Year End Review - JVC Broadcasting in Fort Walton Beach, FL* Randy loves the Megmoki FRM01 12V Multifunction Relay Cycle Timer Module

Guest

Randy Gardner - Director of Engineering at JVC Broadcasting

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 Radio-Guide magazine.

The telegram from the FCC is dated March 15, 1922, and reads, in part, “THE ATLANTA JOURNAL IS AUTHORIZED TO … BROADCAST … STATION MUST USE CALL LETTERS W S B REPEAT W S B AND EMPLOY COMMERCIAL SECOND CLASS RADIO OPERATOR LICENSED BY THIS DEPARTMENT.” One hundred years later broadcast engineers, friends, and colleagues gathered for a barbeque lunch at the WSB transmitter site in Tucker, Georgia - an Atlanta suburb. Kirk Harnack has the pleasure of introducing several of these engineers and station friends on this episode of TWiRT. Among our guests (listed below) is Charles Kinney, Director of Engineering for Cox Media Group, Atlanta.

Show notes:

* Michael Gay mentioned his family’s broadcast solutions business, Not A Bot Yet.

Guests

Josh Bohn - President/CEO at The MaxxKonnect GroupCharlie Wooten - Dir of Engineering and IT at iHeartMedia, Panama City, FLGary Kline - Broadcast Technology Strategist, Engineer, & IT ConsultantMichael Gay - Vice President, Engineering at Cumulus Media, Inc.Mark Goins - Vice President, North America Sales at GatesAirPaul Barzizza - Territory Sales Manager/Channel Manager at GatesAirTim Neese - Owner at MultiTech Consulting, Inc.John George - Sales Engineer at RF Specialties - SouthDavid W. Wesley - Retired BroadcasterCharles Kinney - Director of Engineering at Cox Media Group AtlantaJim Armstrong - Director Of Eastern US 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

Nautel and the continuing informative live webinars. Sign up for free!Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support.

Now responsible for about 50 radio transmitters plus radio studios across Wisconsin, Chris Tarr builds up more radio engineering experience in a few months than most of us do in a couple years! Recently he’s worked through an AM tower falling down and putting several new FM translators on-air. Chris also discusses his methods for feeding program audio to his translators, and keeping tabs on them by remote control.

Show notes:

* Here’s the stable of stations for which Chris Tarr is the Director of Engineering - Magnum Media* Quick, We Need a Temporary AM Antenna - RadioWorld article by Mark Persons* Chris mentioned the Justin 808 HD Alignment Processor from Inovonics

Co-Hosts

Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media 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.

Whatever you think you know about FM boosters and Single Frequency Networks (SFNs) is probably based in 1980's tech. And it's wrong. Bert Goldman and Rich Redmond are talking to us about technologies that enhance FM broadcast radio coverage using Boosters and Single Frequency Networks (SFN), “cellular” and broadcast topologies, and geo targeting of audio and data. The technology to virtually eliminate reception interference zones has just become available in the last few years. Indeed, a couple of USA FM broadcasters are now reaching over 1 million more potential listeners than they were using a single transmitter site.

Show notes:

* Webinar: New FM On-Channel Booster Technologies with Keyur Parikh and Hal Kneller* Blog: “Giving Boosters Their Best Shot”* Chris Tarr mentioned his preference for refurbished SonicWall Internet Routers - here’s one source: Network Tigers

Guests

Bert Goldman - President, Goldman Engineering Management, LLC

Rich Redmond - Founder & Managing Partner at Strativa Advisors

Co-Hosts

Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media 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.

Tim Braddock is the kind of engineer with that unique combination of "Let's do it right - but let's have a blast while doing it!" From small town radio to America’s number 1 market, Tim’s radio engineering adventures are laid out for us to enjoy, laugh at, and learn from.

Guest

Tim Braddock - Radio Broadcast Engineering & Marketing Consultant

Co-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.

Patrick van den Hoek lives in Amsterdam, yet he owns and engineers his 13 radio stations in Spain. What’s more, Patrick has implemented several clever engineering techniques to solve audio and listener experience problems on these stations. See if Patrick’s engineering “hacks” might be useful for you and your radio stations!

Show notes:

* We started with Chris Tarr referencing Dr. Clayton Forrester from MST3K* Chris mentioned the DEVA Radio Explorer II* Patrick uses the Diversity Delay on the Omnia.9sg to sync his STL links.* Basic info on RDS (Radio Data System) 

Guest

Patrick van den Hoek - Radio Consultant and Engineer

Co-Hosts

Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media 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