This Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)

Making money from Internet streaming has a key prerequisite: Getting the tech right! These days, broadcasters’ streaming audio can encompass a lot more that just encoding the Program feed. With proper metadata signalling a broadcaster can insert targeted ads - just what advertisers are looking for. Sam Sousa is the Senior Solutions Consultant at Triton Digital and joins us to explain what makes this targeting possible.

Many broadcast engineers received training at the Cleveland Institute of Electronics - and many people still do - but the radio engineers we know mostly learned by reading and by doing. Jeff Welton has been part of engineers’ specialized education for years now. He shares insights on learning and specifics about keeping broadcast transmitters happy.

What does an award-winning broadcast engineer do with a hurricane? Whatever it takes. Charlie Wooten is Director of Engineering and IT at iHeartMedia in Panama City, Florida. He plans ahead to keep iHeart’s AM and FM transmitters and studios on-air. But, a hurricane is difficult to plan for. Charlie joins us with photos and stories from Hurricane Michael’s devastation to broadcast facilities and infrastructure in Florida.

You can always make something better than it was before - and that’s what Mike Dosch is doing with “Gadgets” and “Gizmos” from Angry Audio. By re-thinking the analog audio and logic devices we’ve known for years, he’s developed new, useful gadgets that perform better than any older ones. And, new gadgets can bring broadcast-style functionality to pro-sumer audio mixers. Plus we talk about Audio over IP and where that’s headed.

Wherever you travel there’s probably a radio station nearby. Mark Humphrey took some vacation time to travel out west, stopping on the way to visit a radio museum and radio and TV stations. Plus we talk about how FM translators are providing what’s essentially “Primary” service to one rural Pennsylvania valley.

The Giz Wiz, Dick DeBartolo, joins us for TWiRT, on location in New York City! We check out some audio gadgets, talk about the AES and NAB conventions, and play a few rounds of Match Game. Andrew Zarian joins us, too!

What are today’s trends in FM audio processing? Is it cleaner? Less smashed? More thoughtful? Paul Kriegler, former Program Director and now Omnia’s factory rep for the US, joins us for an update on FM and streaming audio processing. Plus we delve into AES192, and how it can make a positive difference for FM signals.

Chris Tobin reviews some of the best broadcast engineering info from the Central Canada Broadcast Engineers conference (CCBE). Plus, winners from the SBE 2018 Annual Membership Meeting, and RF spectrum repacking - lots of transmitter site work to make way for about 50 MHz of new mobile carrier spectrum.

Anthony Kuzub is a solid proponent of AES67 for Audio over IP. As IP Audio Product Manager at Ward-Beck Systems, he’s helping bring networked audio products to market, and showing engineers how to use them to make better audio in broadcast facilities. Anthony joins Chris Tobin at the Central Canada Broadcast Engineers Conference this week.

Perhaps the best-known pirate radio station anywhere - Radio Caroline - is legendary! For many years the Ross Revenge, an Icelandic fishing trawler, has been home to Radio Caroline’s studios and transmitters, and the transmitting mast, too. Rob Ashard and Nick Jackson join us live from the Ross Revenge, anchored off the English Coast on this episode of TWiRT.