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Dead air, KNHC and KXSU

valvashon

valvashon

Dead air this morning on KNHC and KXSU. I left the house about 0600 and listened to dead air on both of them for about 10 minutes and then switched over to KUOW for the rest of the commute into my broadcasting facility. Found a bunch of windows updates either having been done and waiting for a restart or wanting to be done. Guessing that is the issue here, too.

With windows being nothing but a nightmare of updates and restarts, why don't stations use Linux or Mac for playback, and if you have to use windows why not keep these machines off the network, or disable auto-updates?

And aren't stations supposed to have a fail safe type of thing if you lose control of your transmitter, like a silence detector to shut the thing off after say 10 or 15 minutes?

I noted that KNHC still had the RDS info scrolling from the last song.

Val
 
There's no professional grade Mac OS broadcast automation, to my knowledge. Radiologik is suitable for LPFM or streaming, but for whatever reason, there's never been a product developed for Mac that is suitable for full power and commercial stations.

There's some Linux software I believe, but not familiar with it personally.
 
I've always wondered how stations handle computers that need to be restarted, whether for updates or they're just acting up. Does Audio Vault or any of the other big systems have the ability to switch to another system without causing any disruption to the broadcast?
 
Depending on the budget of the station there are one or two backup machines. Basically a log can be played from most any (windows) machine with the proper sound card... Just let a song or other element end on one machine and start the backup with the next element and you can then take down the main machine.
 
Pretty Stupid to have on-air devices open to the internet.
If they're doing windows updates it won't be long until they get a message on the screens that their files are encrypted and to sent $$$ to Russia.
 
boiseengineer said:
Pretty Stupid to have on-air devices open to the internet.
If they're doing windows updates it won't be long until they get a message on the screens that their files are encrypted and to sent $$$ to Russia.
Click to expand...
Okay this discussion is rapidly going down a weird accusatory rabbit hole. We've gone from dead air, to Windows vs. Linux, to an assumption of lax network security. Could it be that their automation stopped because someone didn't create and move the log into the folder for the next day? We're talking about high school students here, and a non-commercial-educational station.

If you're really interested or concerned about what occurred, rather than spending time typing conspiracy theories here, why don't you send KNHC an E-mail and simply ask what happened?
 
bobdavcav said:
I've always wondered how stations handle computers that need to be restarted, whether for updates or they're just acting up. Does Audio Vault or any of the other big systems have the ability to switch to another system without causing any disruption to the broadcast?
Click to expand...
Some radio stations don’t have any sort of backup, so you would have to use music from a CD, or another computer that is already linked to the board. Talk about a stressful 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
 
bobdavcav said:
I've always wondered how stations handle computers that need to be restarted, whether for updates or they're just acting up. Does Audio Vault or any of the other big systems have the ability to switch to another system without causing any disruption to the broadcast?
Click to expand...

The station im on in Wyoming reboots its main automation system, Playout One once a week or every other week... and when they do that, theres a backup system, Station Playlist sitting on a back counter they fire up.. the transition, thanks to automatic switcher commands is seemless. Station playlist gets the logs daily just like Playout one and gets all the same files too.

Here in Alaska, if we need to reboot, we just slap in a CD of whatever is closest.. usually 50s or 60s rock.. I've done it when Fresh Air was over at 7pm and the computer needed a reboot to get the satellite reciever hard drive to reconnect to the automation.

When I was in PA, wed grab a CD and do the same thing. In PA, no back up automation but if we had an inklin the system would be down awhile, liek when AudipVault had to do some work on it.. we had a 60 minute emergency cd with ever green imaging and commercials on it... all slickly produced like the automation would make it sound
 
Kelly A said:
Okay this discussion is rapidly going down a weird accusatory rabbit hole. We've gone from dead air, to Windows vs. Linux, to an assumption of lax network security. Could it be that their automation stopped because someone didn't create and move the log into the folder for the next day? We're talking about high school students here, and a non-commercial-educational station.

If you're really interested or concerned about what occurred, rather than spending time typing conspiracy theories here, why don't you send KNHC an E-mail and simply ask what happened?
Click to expand...
Kelly is spot on. Just ask the station what what happened. But to address some of those theories...

Windows updates are simple to control. I have computers running single-purpose tasks (i.e. automati0n systems) that never reboot on their own. They are also shielded from the internet.

As to the Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux discussion - no OS is 100% protected from attacks. A simple Google search will bear that out. Windows is simply more prevalent in the workplace. Macs and Linux aren't.
 
Kelly A said:
Okay this discussion is rapidly going down a weird accusatory rabbit hole. We've gone from dead air, to Windows vs. Linux, to an assumption of lax network security.
Click to expand...
This is so similar to the occasional comments and editorials in the press in the 1800's about bank robberies. Not enough police, not enough security at the bank, not enough guards, bad training of the bank staff.

The more things change...
 
I was live until 2013. Oh, wait I tracked my last hour. I think I may have been one of the last in my market to be live. In essence, most (not all) smaller markets are tracked today. I know most larger markets still run live today. Smaller and Medium markets is another story. I have given up complaining about this because it is sadly the new reality.
 
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seatownmedia said:
I was live until 2013. Oh, wait I tracked my last hour. I think I may have been one of the last in my market to be live. In essence, most (not all) smaller markets are tracked today. I know most larger markets still run live today. Smaller and Medium markets is another story. I have given up complaining about this because it is sadly the new reality.
Click to expand...

I track afternoons in Laramie, WY from McGrath, Alaska. Winter weather descended upon the city and made travel a bear.. in 2-3 mintues i was able to update a few VT's with traffic and road info from my web browser using the automation systems remote VT thats done in a browser.

I'm on a bunch of stations overnight, tracked... and i regularly update thing late if somethings worthy of it
 
Yep, this is smaller market radio today. Hang in there. But realize most stations will not try to update. Either they don’t care or simply don’t have the staff. The ladder is more common.
 
seatownmedia said:
I know most larger markets still run live today. Smaller and Medium markets is another story. I have given up complaining about this because it is sadly the new reality.
Click to expand...
Lots of large markets are also tracked. In Seattle the live-and-local midday show on The Bull formerly hosted by Wingnut is now tracked out of West Palm Beach. I wonder how that will be handled the first time we get a nasty storm during the day when it's sunny and 80 in Florida.
 
bobdavcav said:
I've always wondered how stations handle computers that need to be restarted, whether for updates or they're just acting up. Does Audio Vault or any of the other big systems have the ability to switch to another system without causing any disruption to the broadcast?
Click to expand...
In the 2000s, the AudioVault was one channel on the board in many (if not most) stations. If the computer needed to be restarted, they would undoubtedly had air staff play CD's. I would guess that stations today probably have some sort of backup audio sources. When I see pics of modern day stations' studios, I see computers and computer screens, but I still see boards in a lot of them. I would guess that AudioVault and other systems have a form of computer backup for the times that computers need re-booting.
 
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