This Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)

Some of the most useful and helpful broadcast equipment we’ve ever used is designed and built by a company named “Inovonics”. Founded by Jim Wood, the President and CEO now is Ben Barber. An experienced broadcast engineer himself, Ben joins us with terrific tales of his early days with Inovonics, and the backstories on several key pieces of gear that most of us engineers have used!

Show notes:

* Inovonics - Company History* Inovonics online live demo center

Guest

Ben Barber - President / CEO of Inovonics Inc.

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.

George Whittam is one of the foremost engineers building home studios for radio, TV, and Hollywood voice-over talent. Many of his clients were doing some work in their home studios prior to the COVID pandemic. However, the lockdowns of the past 18 months - particularly in California - have made it absolutely necessary for the quality of home studios to rival that of commercial facilities. This is where George’s expertise has been proven time and time again. "Home Studio Perfection" is what we're discussing on today's "This Week in Radio Tech"!

Show notes:

* GeorgeThe.Tech - Voiceover and Podcasting Tech Support and Studio Design* Voice Over Body Shop - The Best Shop Talk on Voice Over* TriBooth - Portable Studio For Recording* MICPORT PRO - Mic Preamp + USB Audio Interface* Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Mic Preamp & USB Audio Interface* Sennheiser MKH416 shotgun mic* R0DE NTG5 shotgun mic* R0DECaster Pro integrated podcast production console

Guest

George Whittam - Founder at Georgethe.Tech audio consultancy

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...

It’s been well over 20 years since some radio stations began streaming their audio on the Internet. And these days, most stations do have a streaming presence. But, is that enough with so much competition? Is there more in terms of convenience and utility that we broadcasters can provide to our listeners? Ed Martinez, Robert Minnix, and David Bialik sure think so - and hundreds of radio stations agree. From automatic content archiving to instant rewind and even “access control” using tokenized streaming, we’re talking about the next generation of streaming features.

Show notes:

* Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) - an open source media transport protocol* HLS - HTTP Live Streaming* SGrecast - The Podcasting Platform for Broadcasters* SGrewind - Lets your listeners rewind your stream* SGPassKey - Conditional Access to streams and stored content

Guests

Eduardo Martinez - Director of Technology at StreamGuysRobert Minnix - Product Manager at StreamGuysDavid Bialik - Streaming Consultant to Broadcasters & Webcasters

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

It’s likely impossible for a true “Master Class” in anything to be done in 1 hour. However, Matt Gholston does take us through some of the key concepts that Chief Engineers must heed. From AoIP ideas to managing tower crews, Matt emphasizes some of the most important skills for today’s broadcast engineer. From teaching school to consulting hundreds of broadcasters, Matt’s wealth of knowledge is easily shared on this episode!

Show notes:

Matt highly recommends these two products for metal restoration & maintenance:

* Evapo-Rust* ZRC Galvilite® Galvanizing Repair* Matt discussed a variety of essential outdoor coax management parts such as these:* RF Parts Company - Coaxial Cable & Accessories* Coax Grounding Kits from Talley* Tessco Tower Grounding Products

Guest

Matt Gholston, CSRE,CBTE,CBNT - Chief Engineer Townsquare Media - Lafayette

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.

One of the most clever engineering technicians we’ve met is also a bar and hotel owner and tour boat operator. So why wouldn’t he operate some hip radio stations as well? Sean Kelly is here to update us on virtualizing the operation of several online radio stations. Sean is running HITz Digital, KISS Digital, and PALM Torbay - and doing so with little more than an off-lease Dell R710 server with both free and commercial software.

Show notes:

* HITz Digital: http://loverradio.stream:8000/hitz * KISS Digital: http://loveradio.stream:8002/kiss * PALM Torbay: http://loveradio.stream:8012/palmtorbay * Plus we carry a friends country station http://loveradio.stream:8010/theranch out of Mesa in AZ because of Geo-Lock

Guest

Sean Kelly - Freelance DJ & Radio Host/Tech

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.

Sydney, Australia, is on another pandemic lockdown, but this time broadcasters are better prepared. Stephen Wilkinson is Technical Operations Manager at Hope Media in Sydney, and is responsible not only for keeping this important community radio station on-the-air, but also for keeping the IT systems safe from cyber attacks. Stephen joins us to talk about Covid workflows, specific equipment and software, and several key points for reducing the risk of malware and ransomware at broadcast facilities. Plus we talk about “P.I.E. Racks” and DAB receivers in new automobiles.

Show notes:

* Essential Eight Maturity Model for IT Security* Digital Radio in Australia - DAB+ information* Stephen used an e-mail phishing test from Trend Micro

Guest

Stephen Wilkinson - Technical Operations Manager at Hope 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 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.

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.