11 December 2012

The Big Apple

Good news 100 Yards fans! Just as our frequent caller, Mel, is known to bet "apples" on games; we invite you to check out an apple of a different kind. The Apple iTunes store now carries the podcast, which is free. Two ways to subscribe: first, scroll down the <deleted link>  page and click on the  subscribe in iTunes link in the sidebar or go directly to the iTunes store and search "100 Yards of Football" and subscribe there. Either way you'll get the show as soon as we publish it. Bonus content is added to each week's live episode. Speaking of the live show, we're on again this Saturday morning at 10:00 am EST (heard in Atlanta on 1010 AM.) Outside the listening area try our streaming Internet feeds at <deleted link> or <deleted link>
—Jim O'Neal

Behind the scenes the Peanut Whistle Blogger is wearing many hats, so posts have been few and far between.
Stay tuned.


03 October 2012

(Another) Grand Experiment

Here we go again. In March, 2009, Grin Radio was born. A month later it was kaput. By the summer of this year I was inspired to start up the the GRIN—again! This time the music was different, then the same as the old incarnation, then flipped again to, quoting Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “…something completely different.” Classic Rock and sports was on the GRIN. We invested at least a hundred bucks in the new Internet stream and thought that the second chance would have at least some return on investment. Wrong! The first version of the station was on a free server, cost me only my labor and non-financial resources, and had quite a few listeners (not a bad return). This time around, relatively few people tuned in (at a cost of about $25 per listener average; me being one.)

In the traditional radio industry, my real day job, Internet streaming is looked upon with tepid contempt, especially with the bean counters. Honestly, they have a valid point. I believe in streaming as a concept, but see it as a fledgling technology. Radio, on the other hand, is a fully mature medium. Streaming will not truly compete until the average Joe in his average 10 year old automobile can follow an Internet stream from his car to his trusty clock radio reliably without interruption. True portability might eventually happen. Right now streaming, at best,  only augments old fashioned broadcasting.

Having said all that, as of mid-October the Grin will once again be shelved. With respect to the few that did tune in, my sincere thanks are in order.

Stay tuned

10 September 2012

Radio for Real Men

Labor Day on the Grin behind us, the Peanut Whistle moves on to the next building phase of a once abandoned career. Starting summer 2011 this blogger was eventually  persuaded out of retirement into a struggling diamond-in-the-rough, broadcasting with 50,000 watts—seemingly limitless potential.

Over the years I found myself “town to town, up and down the dial” (thanks WKRP!). Never had a 50 kW  found its way on the old resume. Meanwhile, retirement allowed me some time to reflect. It seasoned me. Radio evolved while I languished: some good changes, some not so much.

One change I noticed from circa 1983 until now is that the airwaves have become decidedly geared more toward the female listener. That’s okay, but in the process we men have become underserved. It’s high time for a format dedicated to the American male. As a result, Grin Radio becomes radio for men: Guy’s Radio Internet Network. Classic Rock and Sports/Talk, streaming 24/7 on the Peanut Whistle. One of our first shows is produced by me on its flagship station, WGUN-AM, here in Atlanta: 100 Yards of Football. Not only do we cover my favorite sport, but, as demonstrated in the example below, covers most sports. (just make sure to mute the Grin, above, while you listen to the recording below.) Tune in live Saturdays at 10:00 am Eastern time too.

100 Yards of Football from Saturday, September 8, 2012

Oh Yeah!

Stay tuned.

28 August 2012

Smile

Although the Peanut Whistle blogger is now on the engineering side of radio, with rare deejay duties; every once in a while I like to return to my music disk jockey roots. Well, Monday (Labor Day, here in the states) it’s back to the air-chair. This time my Southern Gospel Favorites radio show returns to our very own Internet radio stream, Grin Radio. Tune in here, iTunes, or the Tunein radio app on your phone.

Stay tuned.

06 July 2012

Mouse Jockey

Back from a longer absence than we care to admit, the Peanut Whistle blogger is catching up to all the new ways of doing things in radio. Back in the dark ages we had separate machines that had specialized tasks. Tape machines, record players, live sources: all compartmentalized and each one doing its job very well.

Now days computers and highly complicated software have replaced both physical machines and human beings. Don’t get me wrong, I am no Luddite. I have always embraced new technology. In fact, you could call this blogger an early adopter.

What I take issue with is that we now over rely on one central computer to deliver all our content. There is no safety net anymore. No back up. Newbies to the business are not trained on legacy equipment, so they’re lost when the software crashes. With no physical interaction with our playlists, they’re screwed if something goes wrong. A computer mouse makes a poor replacement for a cart tape machine.

To me the term disk jockey is passé. To this generation the Peanut Whistle proposes a new handle: “Mouse Jockey.” Although getting a saddle on those critters will be tough.

Stay tuned.

02 July 2012

A.W.O.L.

So the Peanut Whistle blogger has been missing in action of late. With the best of intentions, our little blog has been overlooked due to my real world engineering demands. That, of course, is a good thing. Right now we are in the midst of rewiring our control room. The current wiring is, ahem, substandard: pro XLR connections improperly adapted to consumer RCA hookups, bad wire splices. It’s all in a day’s work.


The “Hi-Fi” project is over. We’ll make a return to that subject in a future post. You will be surprised at the results: guaranteed!

Stay tuned

31 May 2012

Audio Band-Aid

Sometimes in the field, one has to improvise. Lately the Peanut Whistle blogger has found himself seeing this in practice. Our latest venture at the new radio station involves a funny contraption that reminds this blog of a Rube Goldberg Machine.

We were called to fix the audio from the control room computer. It runs a version of Adobe Audition that is used to record satellite shows for later broadcast. The audio into and out of the machine was distorted—badly. Prior to the Memorial Day holiday, it was imperative that we get the audio fixed. Toolkit in hand, the hunt began for the gremlin that invaded the board, once again.

The console is an ancient, but serviceable,  mono 10-channel rotary pot LPB Signature III that has extra inputs on select channels. For whatever reason, previous engineers had placed conflicting sources on the same pot. For example, the Enco DAD presenter feed was on the same switch as the satellite feed. That was corrected.

First thing, the Adobe Audition computer, an E-machines brand, was rerouted so we could eliminate possible crosstalk. That was not the problem. The wire pulled away from the source and it was discovered that the computer tower had been placed on the floor! A great location for board ops to kick it. The audio was coming from the soundcard port on the back of the tower (arguably, not an ideal pro connection.) The speaker port had been damaged inside, as well as the odd jack and assorted adapters. A 1/8” to 1/4” stereo phone plug adapter into a 1/4” phone to stereo RCA phono plug, then into a stereo to mono y-adapter and finally an RCA cord to the board. No wonder the jack had been damaged; all the length and weight not only had bent the 1/8” plug, the jack on the sound card had been virtually hollowed out. (See the photos below)

Audio Patch

Emachines Rear Tower

In the example above, we recreated the adapter “pigtail” with a mono phone adapter, otherwise, it is the same as the studio’s.

The repair session took place afterhours and Radio Shack was closed. Bummer, so we frantically rummaged through the parts attic and found a new mini-plug in a plastic bin full of random electrical stuff. This was lucky, to say the least.

After recreating the improvised circuit, the connection had to be replaced to the front of the computer where an extra speaker terminal was placed (more good luck.)

Levels had to be tweaked in Windows. The line in jack, although noisy due to electrical and RF interference, was okay, required electronic adjustments as well. Oddly enough, the connection from the board was a straight wire, terminating in a mini-plug (1/8”). A return trip is guaranteed. The repair is only a Band-Aid. Next we will relocate the E-machine higher and provide a USB interface with pro XLR and RCA connections for a noise free balanced circuit.

Stay tuned.

30 May 2012

Hear Me Now

Telephone hybrids are a godsend. What they do, to you less technical types, is separate audio. They are especially useful in talk radio formats. When a listener calls a radio station the sound of his voice is sent along  a path from the phone line to the “hybrid” to the “board”. This little black box keeps the phone sound from looping thus causing feedback while at the same time sending clean audio to the caller so a meaningful conversation can ensue between host(s) and caller.

My new station had been experiencing problems. Callers were getting terribly distorted audio from the studio. Two way communication was impossible. This had remained unrepaired for a year. The station had recently flipped to a Progressive Talk/brokered time/Gospel music hybrid (pun) and were past due a fix. That’s where I came in.

DSC01434My 8 year old son (pictured, left) and I found the station in a strip of offices about 45 minutes from our home. My old radio friend is now the GM.

That first try was my engineer test, apparently. Taking about two hours of tracing wires, trying a spare hybrid (which worked, kind of), then reassigning board inputs. Nothing satisfied me until I noticed on the back of the Telos On-x-Six Telephone Hybrid (now reinstalled), an inconspicuous switch. telos back panelA mic-line level switch (above) set on “microphone level”. Oops! An entire year and no one had noticed. Could this be the problem? Sad to say, it was. My lesson for next time: check this switch first. What my son would call a duh moment. Next time I will look at my latest engineering challenge: computer audio running Adobe Audition.

Stay tuned

29 May 2012

Return to Radio

I have been busy lately. That’s news, both good and bad,  for the Peanut Whistle.
When it seemed that my former career had come to an end, opportunity called—literally.
  Some quick background: I began a 12 year career as a disk jockey exactly 29 years ago today (May 29, 1983). By 1995, I left broadcasting for a more lucrative endeavor—retail store management. My passion for those days were buried until one day in 2008 a dreadfully boring job ended and I began writing about and researching my old life. It became an obsession that, by 2012, culminated in yet another burnout. I had overloaded myself—this blog became one of four I wrote, plus my book still in the works.
Back to the present. My old station manager phoned me in June of 2011, while  my family and I were vacationing in Florida. We had just entered the gates of marvelous Sea World Orlando when my cell rang. The voice on the other end was unmistakable; She and I had worked together in my formative years at my first radio home in historic Savannah, Georgia. My old friend needed an engineer pronto and thought I could recommend someone in the Atlanta area—my home for the last 26 years. She was in town helping out our former bosses, once owners of a regional radio empire with stations from Memphis to Miami. They had sold off almost all of their properties (including our old AM/FM in Savannah in 1998). These owners now retained only Atlanta and Valdosta in the great state of Georgia. Poor timing notwithstanding, I gave her a name from my past, the only engineer I could remember by name. It never crossed my mind that I might be considered a contender for the task.
Over the next several months we corresponded via e-mail and Facebook, never quite able to mesh schedules. The Atlanta station was a 50,000 watt daytimer with the same owner since its inception in 1947. Back in 1986, when I moved from Savannah to Atlanta, my station offered transfer there. I didn’t take the job and wound up at a 5,000 watt church owned Christian station. Long story short, I finally toured the facility on May 8th (a quarter century later). My friend is now general manager. To be kind, they have some technical issues.
I’ve said all this as introduction to my next blog series—a worm’s eye view of radio or my new gig as consultant slash engineer for a true diamond in the rough and how I intend to bring back and maintain the equipment. The format is someone else’s concern, for now…
Stay tuned.

04 April 2012

♫Name that Tune

While searching the Peanut Whistle archive I stumbled upon some long, long forgotten recordings of our jingle package that was part of our imaging at my first radio station, WEAS-AM in Savannah, Georgia. Most modern stations consider these singing radio legal ID’s passé. I agree, but it was refreshing hearing them again.

As Recorded June, 1983

Stay tuned

09 March 2012

Really Big Boombox

Ever bucking the trend toward miniaturization I’ve decided what it would take to make a (virtually) no cost entertainment system for my kitchen. As a stay-at-home dad, I spend most of my “workday” there. Seeing that music helps breeze the day away, I have come up with a easy solution to bringing my tunes into an often hostile environment:

Interface my old JVC car stereo/CD player to a pair of Yamaha  speakers which are already transplanted into a 50 year old GE console stereo we spoke of in yesterday’s post. Merging all my junk electronics into a Frankenstein’s Monster boombox gets this tinkerer’s creative juices flowing.

The old head unit runs on 12 volt power, so rain or shine, AC or DC; this huge system will play. I’ll keep you posted.

Stay tuned.

08 March 2012

High Fidelity

Let’s face it, I screwed up. How?  The domain name of my Aircheck blog expired, so many of the links to specific posts and pages became invalid. Today Peanut Whistle is re-posting (in all its parts) one of my favorites: The Hi-Fi


Back in the late 1950’s or early 60’s my paternal grandparents bought a new General Electric stereo. It contained an automatic record changer, AM/FM stereo tuner, amplifier (not solid-state, but genuine tube electronics), and loudspeakers. All of these components were housed in a massive, handsome wood veneer cabinet.

Flash forward to Independence Day 2009 my dad’s younger sister asked me if I wanted the Hi-fi that their parents owned. I had been eying the unit for many years: in its various homes, near and far. Honestly, I was afraid the console had been lost over the years but was surprised that it had found its way into my Aunt Bonnie’s storage shed.

GE Rim-drive Turntable TireLong story short, that fourth of July, I became heir to the stereo. I was not expecting the nearly 50 year old relic to even turn on. To my surprise, after replacing the frayed power cord, the old GE energized and was soon filling the air with high-fidelity music. The FM and AM worked well. The Turntable was a different story. Records played off-speed and faint. Ever the tinkerer, over the next weeks, I disassembled the electronics. The “head” unit (pre-amp / tuner) was problematic. Most of the contacts needed cleaning. The wiring was suspect. I discovered that the record player was rim-drive. The “tire” (illustrated above right) that turns the platter was way out of round; a part probably not currently available. The left speaker sounded cracked. Sure enough, it had some irreparable moisture damage. I decided the the cabinet was the only part worth saving, so I gutted the ancient electronics. Most purist collectors might cringe, but I replaced the tube amp and speakers with (relatively) newer solid-state electronics: a 100 watt Sony receiver, belt-drive turntable, and dropped in a pair of Yamaha bookshelf speakers inside. The one remaining original speaker, which I kept as a souvenir,  is in fairly good shape. Besides the cracked woofer, I did not throw away anything. I just threw the old parts inside. I intend to make future improvements to the Hi-fi. I consider this project a restomod, similar to the way car builders take a rust bucket, add modern performance speed parts and produce a classic with new guts.

The cabinet is currently being used as a TV stand. The console stands at 30 inches, is 16 inches deep, and about 54 inches long; more than adequate as a make-do entertainment center. And, the main problem with it is the low quality materials it is made of: ply-wood and mystery wood skinned with a rosewood veneer. Frankly, the cabinet is not worth saving. However, it serves as a superb prototype for woodworkers interested in mimicking early 60's style. I have drafted plans for a new credenza/entertainment center based on the hi-fi. It would be a great project. I have yet to work out the internals; but, inspiration is found on certain furniture store websites. Most of the credenzas I have seen are superior to our model in question in terms of materials.

A skilled craftsman could render a cabinet better than mass produced retail offerings, I'm sure.

Console Retouched

This stage in the game is my planning phase: taking photos and making measurements. Some of the crazy things that I have considered for the 50 year old cabinet are; a complete restoration of the original tube electronics, dropping in new “guts”, replacing the old works with a professional grade turntable of the period, or just modifying the case for a more universal purpose.

Basic MeasurementsConsidering budget and the fact that the console was water damaged during long storage, the latter option was the preferred route. I intend to reinterpret the design and use the hi-fi as a home for my present am/fm receiver, speakers, HDTV, and Blu-Ray player.DSC00238

Appraisal

I’m underway first with the rat’s nest of wiring. The half century old harness is in surprisingly good shape; all solder joints still intact. Very little rust is present. Dust and grime are abundant. Using this unit daily would be problematic, so I choose to trash this fire hazard wiring.DSC00208

When I energize the unit in 2009, the radio performs well on both AM and FM although the switching between sources is quite scratchy and inconsistent (volume, tone and selector switches need contact cleaner). The ancient tube amplifier powers the built in speakers just fine with more than acceptable fidelity. Audio out of the left side of the cabinet is distorted on bass sounds (I suspect a cracked woofer.) The left loudspeaker is water damaged beyond repair. I keep the right one for a souvenir. The automatic record changer is useless. Even when new it was not exactly state-of-the-art. By 2011, I need a new game plan as far as the electronics are concerned. I decide to purge the contents and start with an empty carcass. What is left concerns me.

Conclusion

DSC00212On close inspection the hi-fi actually looks better than it is. The unit is made with birch plywood with a rosewood veneer, mostly ½” with a few ⅛” panels. The only solid wood appears to be a long board that reinforces the back and the 4 tapered legs turned in late ‘50 modern style. The top is distressed from years of storage and abuse. The finish has long lost its sheen. A peek underneath the lid reveals what the cabinet must have been in its former glory.

The deeper I dive into the console, the more I am convinced to scrap it altogether before drowning in an unrewarding money pit. Realizing that the old GE console is more of a family relic than a truly vintage representation of hi-fi art, my mission now is to find a better example then restore it. Better yet, I will design and build my own.

Stay Tuned.

07 March 2012

Continue the Legacy

Now entering the latter half of my 40’s, the realization hit me: I’ve spent far too many hours mired in the past. To quote famous 20th century humorist, Will Rogers, “Just don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.

For three years, I failed to heed that sage advise. My New Years resolutions start mid-January, around my birthday. This year is going to be a re-start. What I mean is: all that I have obsessed over for the last 4 plus years will be minimized in favor for what is truly relevant in my life now, in the moment and proceeding forward.

Having said all that, the blog you are reading now has become my only Blogger blog going forward. Aircheck, Gospel Aircheck and the short-lived the Board blogs have been retired. Why I had so many similarly themed weblogs running concurrently in the first place is a mystery, anyway. There is no master plan for the Peanut Whistle: it continues to be an organic process. In the next few post I will attempt to share the sequence of events that unfolded in 2011 which brought about my decision; that’s a work in progress.

Stay tuned.


By the way, I’ve started a new Tumblr account. Check it out: jimoneal.tumblr.com

11 January 2012

Stop the Ringing!


So long, 2011. Let’s bring on the new year. The last few posts have been few and far between; so sue me.

I go through cycles of obsession and revulsion with my interests: my four blogs included. Since October, blogging in general has been cast aside for the noise of the holiday season that began with Halloween and ended around January 9th. Last year still ringing in my ears, I swear ‘12 will be a moving forward year concerned with the here and now building a better future for my family. The Peanut Whistle will attempt to reflect the change.

2011 overwhelmed me with looking back at my past; so I have, at least metaphorically, turned down the static. I will continue to post articles that inform young readers who have an interest broadcasting based on my old war stories (after all, that is the subject of this blog.)


Speaking of blogs, let us welcome into the Peanut Whistle archive all of last year’s posts from the Board and Gospel Aircheck, both of which I have discontinued. I’ve cut back the workload from 4 to 2 weblogs.

As promised, I will tell about my most recent radio related foray which unfolded last Autumn. With some of the events yet to play out, it seemed premature posting it. In fact, the experience soured me on the radio subject in general. (This may be the reason this blogger needed a sabbatical.)

Stay tuned

©2012 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle Weblogs. All Rights Reserved.

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