[IMC-Tech] Re: [RFU] SERIOUS PROBLEM

[Mike Lehman]

Ray,
I don't know what the problem was either, other than our transmitter was 
off the air. I was home and had the station on, although I was 
downstairs and couldn't hear as well as I could, I do know that the 
transmitter went off the air around 10pm. It sounds like however things 
were being set-up for your live broadcast, it took our transmitter off 
the air instead. Which brings up a couple of points.

One, calling the other station in Springfield is a waste of time. They 
have nothing to do with whether our transmitter is on the air or not. If 
they are being heard in stead of WRFU, it is only because our 
transmitter is off the air. Certainly, anyone who is the DJ at that 
station will not know anything more about their transmitter than the 
average person at WRFU knows about our transmitter. So they wouldn't be 
able to help anyway. It is also highly unlikely that anything they do 
will interfere with us anyway.

Second, when doing remote broadcasts, it is almost a necessity to have a 
person back at the studio who can analyze and handle problems with the 
feed at that end and, if need be, take over from there and broadcast if 
the feed doesn't work out. Instead of all that dead air last night, we 
could have at least had something on the air. I don't necessarily think 
we need to impose this as a requirement for live broadcasts, but the 
lack of anyone at the studio prevents even being able to properly 
analyze what the problem may be with a remote broadcast.

Whether any of this is related to the problems we've been having with 
the server/transmitter room upstairs is a different matter. I'm cc-ing 
this to the IMC-Tech list in case that had something to do with the 
issues you had last night.
Mike Lehman

Raymond Morales wrote:
> Last night, I found the computer connected to the studio OFF
> the internet when I first started. I didn't think much of it.
> However, I opened the Nicom Transmitter and the values were
> all 0 when turned on. I do not know if this means that the
> transmitter was actually off or what. However, throughout the
> night WFMB 104.5fm could be heard on our frequency. I could
> not be heard at all. With the help of Chris, I figured that
> either we weren't transmitting or they made some change that
> interfered with us. I called the station and the guy was
> pissed that I was asking so many questions and being "pushy".
> I kept asking him if he knew how much power his tower was
> reflecting or if anyone was present that could address the
> issue. Needless to say, he hung up on me.
>
> REGARDLESS DO NOT DISCONNECT THE INTERNET FROM THE STUDIO
> COMPUTER!
>
> I am pissed that I spent all this time in setting up this
> remote broadcast and not a single thing could be heard. Plenty
> of folks came down and literally went to their cars after
> being interviewed and CAME BACK to tell me I wasn't on the
> air. It was the most disheartening thing for that to happen.
> If possible, I would like to try again TONITE to see if I can
> remdedy the problem.
>
> -Ray
>
> PS I turned the Nicom transmitter on Again after I was in the
> studio cleaning up and it looked like it was fine once I
> turned it on so I am not sure who caused what, but you can
> hear us again.
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