This Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)

For almost 40 years broadcast engineers have been using those blue boxes from Henry Engineering. One engineer says, “Henry Engineering boxes solve acute problems at a reasonable price.” Hank "Henry" Landsberg joins us on TWiRT.! His stories will bring a smile to your face and understanding of the inspirations for those useful "Henry" boxes.

The NAB Radio Show started with Tech Tuesday, a day-long event for radio engineers. We’re wrapping up the exhibit hall with special guests Brittany Hilton, Paul Kriegler, Daniel Hyatt, Tommy the Hacker, Dave Kolesar, Russ Mundshenck, Greg Dahl, John Lackness, Jeff Williams, and Chris Tobin in New York!

Grady Moates is a “hands-on” broadcast engineer. Known widely for his audio processing expertise, Grady’s attention has more recently been on proving the performance of a novel antenna design. The High Efficiency Broadband Antenna (HEBA) - after years of additional research and real-world testing and proving - is now FCC approved. Grady explains how a HEBA help AM stations, especially those with real-estate opportunities.

Some people in Radio wear a few hats; that’s been part of the business since its beginnings almost 100 years ago. Meet one radio guy who’s on the air in Rochester, NY, publishes a beautiful tower calendar annually, runs an informational subscription website, interviews broadcaster engineers and talent, brokers broadcast properties between buyers and sellers, produces his own broadcasting podcast, and keeps up with FCC Rules to help us navigate the regulatory landscape? Oh, and he’s following his wife’s footsteps as a stand-up comic! It could only be Scott Fybush!

Most of us enjoy air-conditioned casinos or convention halls, or perhaps sunny swimming pools and golf courses. But the like of broadcast engineer, Tracy Teagarden, is often starkly different. As the Chief Engineer for Entercom in Las Vegas, Tracy recently found himself working in dangerous heat for several hours, with only the supplies he brought. On the other side of town he’s been building a mutli-station AM & FM transmitter site with high-reliability built right in; perhaps good enough for a zombie apocalypse!

Remember the Texar Audio Prism? Did you know that Glen Clark had some partners in the development and rollout of the Prism? Jim Hoge worked with Glen on the Texar Audio Prism. Jim also founded WPOZ-FM, often the #1 station in Orlando. Brian Kerkan is another talented engineer, also known for excellent audio processing and and professional approach. Brian and Jim join us on TWiRT to talk about breakthroughs in older technology, and today’s new operating paradigms as we move toward sensible virtualization.

Driving to meet Jeff Heins at MyBridge Radio Network, I couldn’t believe it; the building at the studio address had no STL tower, but another building just ½ block farther had a big STL tower, full of antennas. Despite feeding seven full-power FM transmitters and ten FM translators, MyBridge Radio uses no traditional STL microwave links. Every audio link, whether contribution, distribution, or in-house mixing and routing, is entire in the AoIP domain. (The other building with the traditional STL tower is "Broadcast House" - a multi-station commercial radio cluster.) Jeff Heins joins us along with Mark Voris, Chief Engineer at Spirit Catholic Radio.

Traveling to mountaintop transmitter sites allows for some "road thinking". Shane Toven is analyzing listeners' habits and loyalties, and joins us with thoughts and advice about OTA transmission and streaming to smart speakers. Plus, Chris and Shane discuss the engineer’s role in broadcasters’ efforts to make their content easily findable on digital platforms. And, what can go wrong at transmitter sites that may only get one engineering visit each year.

From Scott Shannon and Z100, New York, to the most critical recording and audio in popular music, Frank Foti is relentless in pursuit of clean audio that stands above the crowd. Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack welcome Frank in discussing the audio processing that helped Z100 go from “worst to first” and has lifted thousands of radio stations to commanding positions on the radio dial.

Can fine studio mics, designed decades ago, be improved? John Peluso says, “Yes!!” John owns Peluso Microphone Lab. He and his family build world-class microphones, designed to equal or better the performance of classic recording studio mics. They’ve also developed new mic designs for special purposes. John Peluso and Chris Newitt join us on TWiRT!