To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

[IBadget]

I think that that radio stations' staff should babysit automation at all times, including the overnight hours. That way, we would never have dead air. At about 1:10 AM this morning, there was dead air on KIPA AM 620 and the music didn't come back on till about 8:58 AM. If someone was available to babysit the automation of KIPA, there would never have been the dead air. What is your take on babysitting automation.

[pzarquon]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

Um, if you had to pay someone to babysit, what would be the point in investing in automation? Removal of people is why you get machines to run the show.

I doubt KIPA AM is upsetting too many listeners at 1 a.m. That said, I would think stations would have some sort of automated monitoring that would, for example, listen for more than a minute of silence, and if triggered, page someone somewhere.

[LikaNui]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

Back in the day when automation was first starting up, the chief engineer for our major station bought a small radio station in Santa Barbara and automated it. He then hired operators at a telephone answering service to monitor the meters and to call him if there was any trouble!

I agree with Ryan -- it's really simple to have someone paged when there are technical difficulties. No need at all for "babysitting".

['79 KUAI Jock]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

It's a cost thing...

Automation's automated...

hiring folk... that's cost (bad)

letting the listeners hang

on dead air- no cost (not so bad)

Overnight's bad enough-

but when that happens all

weekend long...

or after 5pm when the station clears out...

that's painful.

At least for us oldtimers that had a

program director who'd fire you for

a moment of "dead air" in the old days...

painful!

;-)

[Linkmeister]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

Back when I was DP Manager at the Honolulu Club our bill-printing took about 6 hours; the lead-up to it took about 4. So I'd watch the first box of bills print, be sure the next box was printing/stacking correctly, and go home. Sometimes this worked fine; other times I'd get back in the morning and it was a total mess in the back of the printer.

I should say this was after the first 3 years or so, when it became somewhat of a routine. Those first few years anything and everything could go wrong somewhere, and often did, so I'd sit and babysit the whole process. At the salary I was getting paid, the Club got off cheaply enough for my time.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

I remember when KHNR was on the Audio Vault on Richard's street. I always had my clock radio playing it softly as I slept. One weekend just past midnight the inevitable dead air permeated my bedroom. Like a deafening roar I woke up instantly and made it to the studio to reboot the computer that had locked up. Those were the early days of automation.

Now automation like Prophet the system can re-sync at predetermined times so dead air wouldn't last more than 20-minutes depending on how the playlist was programmed. And that's why CC for the longest time used Windows 3.11 as their OS as it was pretty much bulletproof and less prone to crash than it's successors.

Too bad though for automation, when there was a live human-being you could count on some weird events like the click-pop, click-pop, click-pop of the record needle as the end of the album played and the jock was fast asleep in the green room on the sofa.

[mel]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

For the past 2 weeks during the 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning break on the syndicated "Kim Komando" computer talk show aired on KHBZ 990 (Clear Channel) something has gone wrong with the automated local news break. What happens is that there is about 10 minutes of dead air, and then the news which is supposed to come on at 7:30 am airs. This is also about the same time the Kim Komando show (which is being broadcast on a live feed) comes back which means both Kim and the news are on the air at the same time! For about 10 minutes I get a garbled mix of "taped programming" and the live feed which also features the local segments of commercial spots that are supposed to air right after the news.

Garbled for the listeners and I am sure if any of the local sponsors are up, they should be angry to have their commercials all scrambled with the programming.

[LikaNui]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

when there was a live human-being you could count on some weird events like the click-pop, click-pop, click-pop of the record needle as the end of the album played and the jock was fast asleep in the green room on the sofa.

Back in the mid '70s, still playing vinyl records. Had to go shishi. Popular potty-break album was by "Mountain", with almost every track at least 6 minutes long and some almost 12 minutes. Started the track, moseyed down the hall to the bathroom. Had plenty of time, so took a few extra minutes to read a trade mag. Back into the studio only to hear ka-chick ka-chick ka-chick as the record had a scratch at the very beginning of the song... about 8 minutes of nothing on air but the scratch. All phone lines lit up and flashing like a Christmas tree.
Opened the mic, announced that that was a new single by Yoko Ono, and segued into another song.

Scary part was that I got a couple of calls from people asking where they could buy Yoko's single.

Next day, had the engineer install speakers in the bathroom.

[Linkmeister]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

John Cage "wrote" a song that was nothing but 4:33 of silence. Sounds like a good choice for a bathroom break.

['79 KUAI Jock]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

Click-swish
Click-swish
Click-swish
Click-swish

Guilty


The PD never found out... or was just being nice...

knowing him- he musn't have heard about it.

What woke me up from deep ZZZZs on the studio floor?
A call from my father- which was real freaky 'cause
he never listened to me... at least that he would fess
up to


Pre automation, it was a whole different ball game...
especially at 2 or 3 in the morning...

[LikaNui]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

Pre automation, it was a whole different ball game...
especially at 2 or 3 in the morning...

That is so true.
I opened the door of the studio to walk out around 3am and there was a big spooky guy standing right in the doorway... with a small, lit blowtorch!

Turned out to be harmless. He'd been sitting there making a bong to give to the station. (We were AM/FM simulcast, so he was making the bong with two bowls.)

[craigwatanabe]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

One night at KGU one of the show hosts of an ABC talk radio show in NYC (WABC) went out for a cigarette and locked himself out of the studio with no one to let him in. His theme music played for about 7-minutes giving me the opportunity to take that music bed and use it for local promos for that show.

One thing about working overnights was the weird calls you'd get. And one bet: to play the long version of Layla at 3am on a conservative talk radio station (KGU in the 80's) and not get fired for doing so. Needless to say Eric Clapton sounds better on FM but hey I got a free dinner!

[islands]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

I remember hearing the vinyl record coming to the end and hearing the click-pop as I was listening to Casey's Top 40 (late 1980's)? when that show was on I-94. It went on for several minutes.

[mel]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

American Top 40 used to be sent to radio stations on vinyl records. I have 3 boxes of this stuff.

['79 KUAI Jock]

Re: To babysit automation or not to babysit automation? That is the question.

I've got the "US" concert on vinyl... the whole thing! circa '84 i think..
and I don't even own a turntable anymore!

That and a whole mess o' '78's from before recording commercials
and programs "to tape"... even some presidental speaches and such...

they're huge and heavy... everytime my wife says- take 'em to the
dump will yuh?... and I of course being the perfect Hawaii born pack-rat reply... could be worth somethin'.... someday...

as far as the AT40 playing till the end and "click-swishin'"... yeah-
that was me...

Although you'd have to been listening to a Kauai signal... to hear my
sin...