This Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)

Public radio has an audience size of around 30 million weekly radio listeners with a broader reach exceeding 57 million when including digital platforms. Public Radio engineers play a critical role in building, upgrading, and maintaining the needed facilities and infrastructure. Broadcasters go to the NAB show in Las Vegas to see and hear what’s […]

Never miss a chance to talk with John Bisset, author of the Workbench column in Radio World magazine. John joins us along with Chris Tarr to reveal useful tricks and techniques that any broadcast engineer will find helpful. See this episode’s Show Notes (on this show’s listing on YouTube and at ThisWeekInRadioTech.com). From an easy way to print cable labels, to saving your knees, to marking combo locks with the little-known resistor color code, John brings us some fun and useful ideas for living a better engineering life.

Kathy Stieler and Clark Lindstrom, two prominent leaders in the communication tower industry, are discuss best practices and emerging trends in safety within the broadcast tower sector. Kathy, affiliated with NATE (National Association of Tower Erectors), emphasizes the importance of standardized training and certification programs to ensure worker competency and safety compliance. Clark, who oversees safety initiatives at American Tower, highlights the role of technology in identifying hazards and reducing on-site risks. Both guests promote a proactive safety culture, where regular audits, clear communication, and employee empowerment are prioritized. The conversation underscores the industry’s ongoing commitment to evolving safety standards amid increasing demand for reliable broadcast infrastructure.

Ya gotta love Dustin Tatro’s journey into and through radio broadcasting. Voicing PSAs at 4 years old got Dustin an early start. Then working as a DJ, along with musical interests, honed his technical and operational skills. Now as a General Manager and Ops Manager, Dustin has demonstrably learned the engineering side of radio broadcasting. Indeed, his SBE certification, CBRE, attests to that. Dustin joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack to discuss AoIP, audio processing, work working nicely, even with competing radio stations. Indeed, he joins us from the KORQ-FM transmitter site.

SD-WAN - Software-Defined Wide-Area Network - is a technology implementation designed to bring better reliability and performance to IP connections over distance. Whether across town, to remote offices, or to remote transmitter sites, SD-WAN technologies are gaining interest among broadcast engineers and IT staff. It turns out there are a lot of features - optional but useful features - that can be deployed alongside basic WAN management and monitoring. Dan Merwin and Reggie Jeffery work in broadcast and other industries to offer appropriate technologies and capabilities, improving our critical IP connections.

Megan Amoss is the assistant chief engineer for Baltimore Public Media, which includes FM stations WTMD, WYPR, WYPF, and WYPO. Starting in a Traffic Coordinator role, she progressed to taking on engineering responsibilities, eventually becoming a key figure in the technical operations of Baltimore Public Media. Megan has been instrumental in the integration of WTMD and WYPR, where she is involved in the conversion of WYPR's studios to an Axia AoIP system. Megan joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack, discussing engineering challenges with some focus on metadata, which has become critical for today’s broadcasters.

John Kean, Dave Hershberger, and Tom King recently set out to take measurements of RF noise levels on various roadway types from open interstate highways to city streets, to determine how the noise would affect AM broadcast reception. These environments reflect the current habits of AM radio listening, which is primarily in vehicles. In addition to RF noise level, RF signal levels were measured for three AM stations operating on frequencies in the low, middle and high ends of the AM broadcast band. These measurements provide a better understanding of how AM radio reception is affected by RF signal strength and noise in a range of roadway environments from rural to dense urban environments. On this episode of TWiRT, John Kean and Dave Hershberger join us to describe the testing methodology and the results and conclusions we can infer from them.

Radio automation systems seem daunting at first glance. Those new to their programming and operation are often surprised by the number of pre-requisites and source material needed to put a radio format together, especially when the automation system is thought to do these things for you. Not to worry, Chris Tarr is here to clear up confusion and doubt, and help broadcasters consider some of the key aspects of implementing a radio automation playout system.

When a classic audio mixing console needs to be refurbished and brought back to life in Tennessee, everyone knows to call on Jim Gilmore. One reason is that he may have installed it in the first place! Jim might be a true Renaissance Radio Engineer! From on-air work, to traveling the world for Harris Broadcast, to engineering at The Nashville Network to CMT, to even teaching audio classes at Belmont University, Jim has certainly “been there and done that”. Join us as Jim shows us a totally refurbished audio console, originally built by WSM engineers, and used for a decade at The Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium. Plus, meet Linda Chambers, CEO and Co-Founder of the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, as she takes us through Brian Ahern’s 42-food Encatron Mobile Recording Studio!

Charlie Wooten is usually dealing with tornados, thunderstorms, and hurricanes. But last week brought a rare hazard to the Florida Panhandle - an ice and snow storm. With chunks of ice falling from hundreds of feet above, Charlie was keeping his stations on the air. Let’s find out what Charlie did to prepare for this snowstorm, and how his planning for other bad weather provided more assurance for continued operation for his 12 transmitters in the Florida Panhandle.