You Can’t Repair Your Car While Driving It
I’ve learned that radio station transmitters are like that. You might learn that the signal doesn’t seem as strong as it should, or as clear as you’d like it. But to really check it out, you have to turn things off, and there never seems to be a good time for that. Well, until you’re forced to.
What we thought was simply a blown fuse that took us off the air for multiple hours one day was actually a sign of something worse…because something very similar happened one evening a week later…and again overnight last weekend. We have been on a different signal path and power since the second incident a couple of weeks ago. Our engineering team purposefully took us off the air Sunday night and learned that the problem stems from a controller board that needs to be replaced, and that means the company literally creating a new one…you can’t just go to a big box store and pick one up. By the way, I have no idea what replacing a controller board entails, but it’s apparently a huge issue and probably expensive.
So our team has again altered our signal pattern, which provides temporary relief so we can consistently stay on the air. It may mean that some of you listening in the southern part of the state find the signal a little weaker than normal…but it will be a more consistent signal day and night, as opposed to a great signal for some of you during the day, and virtually no signal at night.
If you’re having a problem getting us, please let me know because that helps us troubleshoot things … jeff@kxel.com or by text at 319-235-1540. And you can still listen to our webstream at kxel.com or via the free KXEL mobile app…we’re still “on the air” there even if AM 1540 is off the air.
Again, you can’t fix your car while you’re driving it…and we can’t fix a radio station transmitter while we’re on the air…but hopefully we can soon make repairs with as little further interruption as possible. We thought you’d want to know what’s going on, and that we’re working on it.
