Broadcast television engineering related tech topics, rants and outright pontifications.
I’m a dedicated Capitalist. I work for money. Money pays my mortgages and rent, keeps my fridge full, and house warm in the winter. Obviously, money is important and I want to earn as much of it as I can before I decide I’ve had enough of this “work” thing. That said, there are times [...]
They don’t watch TV. Mostly. Get it? OK, I’ll repeat myself. Broadcaster’s (and many cable networks) are not relevant to young people most of the time. This is not news any longer, however it bears repeating, because thick-headed, narrow field-of-view TV execs, GMs and news directors keep fooling themselves into believing they are just one [...]
For those of you that recognize the ‘Heathkit’ reference you get a cookie. Well done. Unlike the Heathkits of yore I”m using some nice, mostly modern test gear here and servicing a fairly modern transmitter (circa 1998). This is one of those occasions where broadcast engineers get to leave the desk, the whiny news department [...]
I remember the day I lost any faith in local or national news. It wasn’t when the Colombia Space Shuttle exploded and CNN put this erroneous ‘factoid’ on the air: A few years ago I was sitting in a department head meeting when the news director piped up about a story of significant public safety [...]
It’s a new year and as of the first of the year every Sally-Shopper and Johnny-Bag-O-Donuts is eligible for their two free coupons good for $40 towards the purchase of a set-top DTV converter box. Too bad it’s $30 short of the retail price of the box when it becomes available in mid February… Although [...]
Today I made the plunge and finally got off the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format fence and bought a PS3 system. There were several reasons for this; first I did NOT buy it because I love Blu-Ray. I like that it has multiple studio and vendor support as well as about 25GB storage per layer, but the hardware [...]
Today PaxTV (Paxson Communications – my current employer) begins to dig itself out of the ratings hole it has worked its way into over the years by implementing a new brand and programming outlook. PaxTV is now “i: Independent Television” or just “i”. While the concept of providing “wholesome” entertainment primarily devoid of sex and [...]
Here is a project that we desperately need to do for some time! Programming and monitoring for two stations was absolutely awful and inefficient from the old area that the MCO worked at. It was made from mostly plywood into a custom cabinet years prior with no room for expansion or thought regarding future possibilities [...]
What follows is a blow-by-blow retelling by Larry Friddle (my Asst. Chief Engineer at the time) on 10 JAN 2001 of a very difficult and stressful couple of weeks where everything seemed to be going wrong and the weather was definitely set against us… My name is Larry Friddle. I am the Assistant Chief Engineer [...]
The existing news and weather sets at KHBS were in a small set adjacent to the newsroom, called studio ‘A’ and overdue for an updated look and layout since they had been in use for over 10 years. The new sets were built in the ‘studio next door’, studio ‘B’. Most of that studio was [...]