The Broadcasters' Desktop Resource

Greetings from your broadcast friends out on the Desert…
This is BDR Newsletter 775, Volume 15, #48 for June 26, 2024

Here are some things you might want to know about:

SUMMER KICKS OFF WITH A BANG!
What a year! Tornados, lightning strikes, heavy rain, flooding, and now 3/4 of the US is over 90 degrees – and in many places the power service is spotty. Wow! Reports of tower and transmitter failures are coming in from all over. With many stations struggling without a full time engineer, the manufacturers and vendors are busy trying to help stations recover. This is a time when companies really show true customer support. The BDR is happy to point you to those companies we can heartily recommend in difficult times.

By the way, just a tip to those of you in unusually hot areas: heat really stresses solid state components. Check your air handling systems – including air filters – to ensure the temperature does not get too high in the transmitter room. Worst case: temporarily cutting the power output down a bit can often reduce the heat load while not affecting coverage excessively.

TAKING TIME TO REPORT
When dealing with a disaster, the first priority is the safety of staff, then staying on the air, or getting back on the air. The FCC seems a bit unhappy that only 20-35% of stations stop dealing with the emergency to file a DIRS report on the FCC server – that is, if there is power and Internet to even to do that. While the FCC does make an effort to stations with STA as needed, the NAB is against the current FCC notion to make DIRS reports mandatory, saying the FCC might be just a bit too concerned with paperwork.

Q2 I&P
Speaking of paperwork, yep, it is time again for the quarterly Issues & Programs list to be posted to each station’s OPIF. This report has a deadline of July 10th. But here is what is different: the FCC has been making it known that they are ready to become more aggressive in finding – and fining – stations with incomplete files. With the long weekend next week, let this reminder spark you to get the filing done!

REWINDING RADIO PROGRAMS
Stations and individuals who are running streams on the Internet have seen various improvements in the services and audio quality. What else can be done? How about letting listeners “replay” a segment? And, while a lot of stations do use the Internet for STLs, are there ways to improve the links?

Eduardo Martinez and Tim Labelle from StreamGuys will be with us during this week’s Virtual Lunch Gathering. They will discuss the newest features of streaming, as well as answer any questions you might have on the topic itself.

THURSDAY: 2 PM Eastern and 11 AM on the West Coast. Join us and learn things! The link request is at www.theBDR.net/TLG/ –