TWiRT - This Week in Radio Tech - Podcast TWiRT

Many radio engineers love to visit other radio stations. We get ideas to perhaps implement in our own stations. Or sometimes we may get a sense of satisfaction thinking that we’ve done a superlative job in our own facilities - compared to others. Today we’re honored to visit the studios of 100.1 FM in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. OMG! What a drop-dead gorgeous studio! Rafael Recio is the Chief Engineer at 100.1 FM. He shows-off this beautiful and effective working studio, which is home to live shows in morning and afternoon drive every day.  Rafael worked with the station’s Program Director, Harold, to design and build this world-class radio studio + control room. 



Show Notes:
Time Lapse video of 100.1 FM’s studio construction
Rafael is using Axia iQ AoIP audio mixing consoles.
100.1 FM - “Santo Domingo’s Greatest Hit Music Station”
We mentioned the Museo de los Telecomunicaciones, noting the early and continuing technical advances in the Dominican Republic.

Guest:
Rafael Recio - Chief Engineer at 100.1 FM, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas Broadcasting

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TWiRT is brought to you by:
Nautel’s HD Digital Radio Test Drive unlocks content, revenue, & ratings potential
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 and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
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Chris Tarr just finished a long-anticipated FM transmitter move. Big implications attended this move all the way across a metro area. The new site needed a directional FM antenna, and they decided that a new transmitter made more sense than moving the old one. Chris covers a lot of ground when contemplating any transmitter site move.  Kirk Harnack touches on a few pointers for IP radio microwave links, including not trusting the existing infrastructure too much!




Show Notes:



Planning Transmitter Moves



Facilities - Building, road, fencing, parking, HVAC, roof, ice protection



Legal including FCC



Permitting - local zoning, building, etc.



Safety - fencing, insurance requirements, guy anchors, tower base



STL considerations & options



Frequency coordination for 950 & IP STLs



Fiber internet availability



AC Power - service sizing, etc.




Executing the move



What can be built and ready beforehand



What has to move overnight or a weekend



Absolutely no off-air time? Or minimal?



Actual cutover



Moving audio processing if needed



What if something goes really wrong? 



Plan to go back if needed?




After the move (should have been before the move)



Tying up all the loose ends



Grounding, lightning protection



Putting redundancy in place at the new location



What if Internet installation is late?  Wait or move ahead?





Hosts:
Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas Broadcasting

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TWiRT is brought to you by:
NUG@NAB Radio Technology Forum  is almost here! Register for this free event at NAB!
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 and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
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What’s happening at NAB 2024 in Las Vegas? No way can anyone bring you ALL of the highlights, but we’re bringing seven outstanding engineers and corporate leaders to you on this episode of TWiRT! Our broadcast studio is the Bionic Table at Broadcast Bionics in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Thanks to Broadcast Bionics for the bandwidth and studio space. 



Guests:
Darnell Forde - Broadcast Engineer at Salem Media Group, San Diego, CA
Bob Stroupe - Regional Engineering Manager at iHeartMedia, Houston, TX
Francis (Frank) Martin - Owner of MPH Broadcast Services
Dan McQuillin - Managing Director at Broadcast Bionics
Scott Stiefel - Chief Executive Officer at Telos Alliance
Jeff Schick - Chief Technology Officer at Sprite Media, Inc.
George Whittam - Owner GeorgeThe.Tech, Co-host VOBS.TV and Pro Audio Suite Podcast
John Bisset - Director, Western US Sales at Telos Alliance

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook

TWiRT is brought to you by:
Nautel’s HD Digital Radio Test Drive unlocks content, revenue, & ratings potential
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 and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

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The Public Radio Engineering Conference (PREC) seems to get better and better each year. Attendees were frequently held in wrapped attention by captivating and informative presentations about audio and RF technologies and techniques.  Our guests on TWiRT each took a few minutes away from the conference sessions to give us their impressions of the technologies being discussed and what’s ahead for Public Radio Engineers.



Guests:
Cornelius Gould - Audio Processing Architect at Angry Audio
Scott Fybush - Editor/Publisher at NorthEast Radio Watch/Fybush Media
Jim Gray - Managing Partner at Optimized Media Group - OMG
Joseph Williams - DIrector of Engineering & Technology at WRTI, Temple University
Richard Parker - Director of Engineering at Coast Alaska

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas Broadcasting

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TWiRT is brought to you by:
NUG@NAB Radio Technology Forum  is almost here! Register for this free event at NAB!
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 and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
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Search the web and you’ll find hundreds of articles videos - and thousands of opinions - on the best mics to use for radio and podcasting. One of our sponsors is Angry Audio, makers of two novel mic processors to improve and control the sound of two popular microphone families. Our longtime friend and colleague, Cornelius Gould, designed the audio processing algorithms behind these specific mic processors. “Corny” joins us to talk about this rather unique approach to mic processor design and implementation. Plus Tom Ray pops in to discuss microphone choices with Chris Tarr. Plenty of opinions and some solid advice!




Show Notes:
Cornelius Gould is also the founder & host of The Rocketry Show podcast.
The mic pre/processors for which Corny wrote the algorithms are the REbel & SMooth from Angry Audio
Tom Ray’s microphone is a PreSonus PX-1 condenser mic with a dbx 286s processor
Chris Tarr is liking his Electro-Voice RE20 with a RØDECaster Pro
Kirk is currently using a Sennheiser MKH 416-P48U3 with a PreSonus Revelator iO24
Article: The 4 Different Types of Microphones for your Studio

Guests:
Cornelius Gould - Audio Processing Architect at AngryAudio
Tom Ray - President of Tom Ray Consulting

Hosts:
Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook

TWiRT is brought to you by:
NUG@NAB Radio Technology Forum  is almost here! Register for this free event at NAB!
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 and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

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Can you imagine installing 60 broadcast transmitters over the past 8 years? Robert Combs, Corporate Director of Engineering at Cumulus Media has been doing exactly that. Transmitters of all sizes and from several major manufacturers. The most recent transmitter replacement is at WZYP-FM in Huntsville, Alabama. Market Engineer, Dominic Mitchum, is taking care of much of the local work and logistics, alongside Robert’s work. The project also includes replacing the RF coaxial transfer switch, main coax, and even the main and backup FM antennas.  Robert and Dominic give us a very informative video tour and discussion of this project on Capshaw Mountain. Plus, Chris Tarr relates his own recent transmitter installation experiences and has developed some advice on purchasing used transmitters.




Guests:
Dominic Mitchum - Director of Technical Operations at Cumulus Media, Huntsville, AL
Robert Combs - Corporate Director of Engineering at Cumulus Media

Hosts:
Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.Media
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook

TWiRT is brought to you by:
NUG@NAB Radio Technology Forum  is almost here! Register for this free event at NAB!
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 and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output. 

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