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)

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.

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.

My 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. A 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

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.