The Broadcasters' Desktop Resource

Greetings from your broadcast friends out on the Desert…
This is BDR Newsletter 851, Volume 17, #18 for December 3, 2025

BAD STORMS
One can certainly conclude Winter arrived with all it fury. The upper-Midwest got a lot weather! Thousands of post-Thanksgiving air flights were cancelled, and a tower in Winona, MN was lost, taking five stations (two full power and three translators) off. Fortunately, the tech staff was able to get the full power stations back up very quickly. The bent tower, in an inverted “V” shape can be seen on the KWMN facebook page.

CODERED PROBLEMS
Not a good week for EAS issues: A number of areas have reported CodeRED – used by some cities and counties – is having troubles/interruptions. Some officials have said the problem is a cyber-attack on the system’s vendor, including users and passwords. The ransomware attack caused a system shutdown, with the vendor reportedly trying to rebuild the system on a newer infrastructure.

NO ZOMBIES, BUT PRETTY BAD
The was no zombie attack, but for two stations it was enough to get some very nasty audio on the air, including an EAS set of tones (although the tones were way out of date). At least one other station reported the hack, which did not get on the air. The FCC issued a Public Notice urging stations to secure their STL codecs. Curiously, at least one hack seems to have occurred on a unit where the user/password had been changed.

LOOK AT SECURITY NOW, THEN BUDGET
First things, first. Given the recent news, a review of security protocols is always important. Is your gear “visible?” Can you secure it better? That may tie into your budget goals for 2026. IP security, transmitter site, and studio site security are all important, especially with the reduced staffing at many stations. Where should your attention be focused? Take a moment and join us on Thursday, when Jeff Welton of Nautel helps identify and discuss key points. 

NOTE:  ARIZONA PRESENTATION TIME IS NOW NOON.

As usual, we meet at 2 PM Eastern (11 AM Pacific) on Thursday. Link requests are easily found at www.theBDR.net/TLG/ Our videos are also shown on the youtube.com/thebdrnet channel.