Accidental Stereo
There are times that I use this space to talk about things related to the radio station. This is one of those times.
As you might expect, there are a lot of moving parts to keeping this or any radio station on the air. And sometimes we miss something, and when that happens, it’s on us and I tell you that.
But twice in the past week, you may have heard a problem that is actually not our fault, and to those of you who expressed concern, here’s why.
Our national programming—Beck, Hannity, Levin, Starnes—comes to us via satellite. The national program provides time for local stations to include their material, such as news and weather, local commercials, and the like. And it’s all run by computers…the national program’s computer sends an inaudible tone down the line to our computer, which tells it to turn off the network and turn on the local stuff for a designated time. The network is supposed to take these local breaks at designated times, and the local breaks are of different lengths depending on whether it is, for example, half past the hour as opposed to a quarter ’til.
In an effort to bring you important breaking news as it happens, Sean Hannity will decide to delete commercial breaks, both national and local. While that brings you a Trump news conference or something similar, the computers don’t know how to react. Despite all the technological advances, the computer is still only as good as the humans who tell it what to do.
Last Tuesday, and again yesterday, when Hannity cleared out the breaks, there was no way for the computer to know and so it played what it was supposed to…but that led to silence at times, and two things going on the air at the same time at other times. That’s not the “stereo” radio signal anyone had in mind.
Sometimes if I’m at the studio, I can catch it and fix it before there’s a problem. But I was on the road both these times, and suffered along with you when I heard it in the car.
We’ve talked to the network about the problem. And I’m always appreciative when one of you calls, sends a text, or emails to tell me about it, because that may be the only way I know. Again, we, and I, make plenty of mistakes, and we own up to them. This one was not ours, and I hope it doesn’t become a habit.
