Waco radio silence

[50kguy]

As soon I heard about the explosion in West, I dialed into the KWTX webstream. To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. A 2.1 magnitude blast, blocks of the city aflame and the likely loss of many lives was carried live for hours on CNN. But at the "Talk of Waco," NewsTalk1230 KWTX, the top of the hour was Dave Ramsey, Fox News Radio, a TV weather guy's recorded forecast and back to Dave. Somebody was sending out tweets from the station's account, but he or she was not getting the story on the air. This brings to mind Minot in 2002, when first responders could not reach a live body at the Clear Channel cluster there following a freight train accident and ammonia cloud.

 

[bhenslee]

What you heard on the stream Wednesday night was different from what was actually on the air.

Their coverage on Wednesday night was from KCEN-TV (the local NBC affiliate), but must've only been heard "on the air."

Their coverage all day Thursday was heard on Iheartradio, as well.

 

[bhenslee]

???

 

[Jay Walker]

In addition to catching the coverage on KRLD, for both the Boston and West events, I used the Police/Fire/Public Services stream available on Radioreference.com. With the Live streams that were available from local police and fire, I was pretty much on top of both stories. It's a great resource.

 

[Kent]

Don't know what 1230 had, but, according to a friend in the area, KWTX-FM 97.5 was airing coverage from KCEN. KBRQ, which is the Clear Channel station closest to West, was apparently going ahead with classic rock.

Just for the record, the person who said KBRQ was airing classic rock was apparently listening online. KBRQ, I've been told, was also airing KCEN's coverage of the explosion.

 

[Jay Walker]

Don't know what 1230 had, but, according to a friend in the area, KWTX-FM 97.5 was airing coverage from KCEN. KBRQ, which is the Clear Channel station closest to West, was apparently going ahead with classic rock.

Just for the record, the person who said KBRQ was airing classic rock was apparently listening online. KBRQ, I've been told, was also airing KCEN's coverage of the explosion.

I'm betting that since this is a smaller market, there was limited staffing available. Most likely they were focused on getting info out for the local audience ON-AIR and streams, twitter, facebook, were not even on the To-Do list. There's also the possibility that they were unable to stream the TV simulcast due to contractual issues or possibly no one was available to handle the audio routing.

As an aside, I remember working as a contract Chief Engineer in the 80's for KBRQ AM/FM when the calls were assigned to the old KTLK AM in Denver..

 

[bhenslee]

As I mentioned on the Texas board, all of CC's stations in Waco aired the same wall-to-wall coverage from KCEN-TV from Wednesday night through morning drive on Thursday.

Some of the Waco CC stations were active on Facebook and Twitter Wednesday night. Of course, you don't have to be in a studio for that.

That building is empty nights and weekends. The TV station can likely take-over with the flip of a switch. Obviously, that the audio is overridding the on-air broadcast without going through the contol room audio consoles (there's nobody there to "pot 'em up")....therfore, it's not on the streams(?). On Thursday, I would guess that the audio was being "potted up" through the consoles to be included on the stream(?).

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I've said this before - the priority at "news" talk stations isn't news. It is talk. Piddle, drivel, and swill. Right wing, left wing, center wing, it is so much entertainment. Far be it for any "news" talk station to interrupt Rush or whoever that pays for the time on the station. I have very seldom gotten anything useful from one of these stations, especially breaking news stories demanding coverage in the public interest. My favorite hall of shame was KRLD during the ice storm New Years Eve 2000. They were re-playing some pre-recorded talk show while the staffers attended a New Year's Eve party. There was a life threatening weather situation going on. KTRH Houston, I found out, was on the air every few minutes warning people not to travel to the Dallas area. Not one announcement on KRLD about the ice storm in over two hours of listening. Of course by that time I was in the area, having not been warned, and couldn't have heard the KTRH warnings even if I wanted to, because of interference from Tulsa.

Contrast that with my own, personal work ethic on WAPN in Holly Hill, FL. We had a tornado ripping through town, heading straight for the station. I stayed on the air, with live reports about the tornado. It lifted into the cloud at the last minute. THAT is what broadcasting in the public interest means. You put the public safety ahead of your own. I was warning people to get to shelter. Maybe I saved lives. Broadcasting in the public interest does NOT mean going to a New Year's eve party during a life threatening weather emergency.

 

[Kent]

I'm betting that since this is a smaller market, there was limited staffing available. Most likely they were focused on getting info out for the local audience ON-AIR and streams, twitter, facebook, were not even on the To-Do list. There's also the possibility that they were unable to stream the TV simulcast due to contractual issues or possibly no one was available to handle the audio routing.

I'm sure you're right about the limited staffing. Between the smaller revenue stream and ongoing cuts at most of the clusters, you're not going to have much left when stuff goes down, especially after hours. I am, however, surprised the stream didn't reflect the on-air product. When I've worked at streaming stations, I've always found it easier to stream the on-air product as opposed to offering separate web-specific programming. However, you probably know more about that than I do since you're an engineer. Also, I suppose people listening to the iHeartRadio streams could have heard specific iHeartRadio programming if they were listening in the overnight hours. I remember reading that Clear Channel was going to national programming during overnight hours on certain iHeartRadio streams.

As an aside, we had a tornado warning here Wednesday afternoon. I tuned into both clusters (both of which I've worked for in the past). One did coverage from the local studio while the other simulcasted TV news coverage. While I was disappointed at first to find the heritage news/talk station airing TV news coverage, it really sounded better than the local coverage at the other cluster once I got over the memories of covering weather live in that studio. It wasn't, and never will be, the coverage we used to offer when we had our own radar and could use it to show even which intersections the storms were threatening, but it was good coverage.

As an aside, I remember working as a contract Chief Engineer in the 80's for KBRQ AM/FM when the calls were assigned to the old KTLK AM in Denver..

That would be a Great Empire Broadcasting station at 1280 and 105.1!

 

[Jay Walker]

As I mentioned on the Texas board, all of CC's stations in Waco aired the same wall-to-wall coverage from KCEN-TV from Wednesday night through morning drive on Thursday.

Some of the Waco CC stations were active on Facebook and Twitter Wednesday night. Of course, you don't have to be in a studio for that.

That building is empty nights and weekends. The TV station can likely take-over with the flip of a switch. Obviously, that the audio is overridding the on-air broadcast without going through the contol room audio consoles (there's nobody there to "pot 'em up")....therfore, it's not on the streams(?). On Thursday, I would guess that the audio was being "potted up" through the consoles to be included on the stream(?).

Seems like Cousin Artie nailed it! Right down to the TV station having remote access to the radio station's program line to the transmitter. That explanation makes the most sense to me.

rbrucecarter5's story from WAPN in Holly Hill, FL demonstrates the right broadcaster's ethic regarding breaking Life and Death events that affect local listeners. I agree with and admire that type of ethic which to my jaded eyes and tired ears doesn't appear to be the case with some operators these days.

During life and death breaking events, the number one priority is getting useful information ON THE AIR. Streaming, Twitter, Facebook, and the various other social/new media are useful, BUT we should never forget our priority is useful information coming out of the transmitter for our local audience.

 

[johndavis]

When I've worked at streaming stations, I've always found it easier to stream the on-air product as opposed to offering separate web-specific programming.

In a lot of stations, the emergency bypass switch was installed long before any streaming computer was ever put in the rack, and unless you sat down and planned it out carefully, the bypass switch would indeed bypass the stream but put the critical information on the air.

 

[Jay Walker]

When I've worked at streaming stations, I've always found it easier to stream the on-air product as opposed to offering separate web-specific programming.

In a lot of stations, the emergency bypass switch was installed long before any streaming computer was ever put in the rack, and unless you sat down and planned it out carefully, the bypass switch would indeed bypass the stream but put the critical information on the air.

Depending on a specific station's need/requirement for covering on-air commercial "spots" with additional "cover" programming determines where streaming audio is picked up. In the very beginning days of commercial broadcast streaming we did, as Kent has mentioned, stream processed on-air content from an off-air receiver directly to the stream.

When the issue with SAG/AFTRA came up we changed the origination point of the stream from a receiver output to "dry" program audio. This was done to facilitate smooth "spot injection" using the Start/EOM information from the audio play-out system. If we had not made the audio path change cover spots would start approximately :30 seconds late due the obscenity delay and the need to delay analog by :08 seconds for HD blending. Taking audio from a "dry" program line required additional and separate audio processing for the stream as well.

Ain't nothing easy these days ;D

 

[xmusicmatt]

Most Clear Channel owned stations (Major or small market) run alternative programming on their iHeart web streams over night that is completely different from what you hear on the AM/FM broadcast.