TWiRT 760 - Live from the 2025 TAB Show in Round Rock, Texas

TWiRT is live at the Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB) 2025 convention.  This year TAB chose the Kalahari Resort & Convention Center in Round Rock, TX, for their convention location. What a huge turnout of radio and TV broadcast engineers!  It’s a social event, learning event, BBQ eating event, and a time to meet with broadcast technology manufacturers.  Join us as we talk with nine broadcast engineering and tech professionals who are attending, speaking, and displaying the latest tech at this year’s TAB Convention.

Show Notes:
Texas Association of Broadcasters - TAB
Texas Association of Broadcasters 2025 Convention

Guests:
Bob Stroupe: Regional Engineering Manager at iHeartMedia (retired)
Clay Walker - Vice President of Content Operations
Greg Siddons - Director of Sale - Telos Alliance
Chris Roth - VP of Business Development at The MaxxKonnect GroupHans van Zutphen - CEO at Thimeo Audio Technology B.V.
Jim Armstrong - Director Of Eastern US Sales
Paul Shulins - Co-owner Over the air RF Consulting LLC
Chase Daniels - Senior Support Specialist - Aiir / On Air - WALL Radio & Lake FM
David Smedley - Senior Customer Support Specialist at Aiir.com

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas, & Akamai Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.

TWiRT is brought to you by:
Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. 

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.
Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.
Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
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TWiRT 760 - Live from the 2025 TAB Show in Round Rock, Texas

TWiRT 759 - Fiber is (Mostly) Great - with Dave Anderson

Dave Anderson, Chief Broadcast Engineer at WUSF, Tampa - brings us two tales of two fibers. One tale surrounds the fantastic utility, capability, and flexibility of using fiber to connect different radio studios to the central rack room. The other tale describes the dangers of having diverse IP connection services that all use the exact same cross-country or last-mile fiber bundle. Either way a fault in the fiber can take out multiple services that were thought to be “diverse”.  Dave shares his recent experience and advice for using fiber’s clear advantages while avoiding service pitfalls.

Show Notes:
Introduction to Livewire+ is a guide to installing AoIP, including using fiber to transport it.

Guest:
Dave Anderson - Chief Broadcast Engineer at WUSF Public Media

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas, & Akamai Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.

TWiRT is brought to you by:
Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. 

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.
Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.
Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
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TWiRT 759 - Fiber is (Mostly) Great - with Dave Anderson

TWiRT 758 - Professional Radio Listener, Nick Dee

Most of us radio people - whether engineers, owners, programmers, or sales reps - tend to work in the same market for quite a while. It’s rare that we get a chance to listen to many other stations in other markets to see what’s going on in programming, processing, transmission, and so forth.  Nick Dee, however, is making a career of traveling thousands of miles every month and listening - really listening - to hundreds of radio stations on each trip. This exposure to many stations in many markets gives Nick a unique perspective on what’s right and what’s wrong with radio programming, audio, and transmission.  With his engineering education he understands when something isn’t right, and even carries a spectrum analyzer to make quick analyses on stations that seem to be transmitting a little more than they should.  

Show Notes:
RadioLand app for radio station info - for Android and iOS
ooTunes app for stream listening - for iOS

Guest:
Nick Dee - Professional Radio Listener

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas, & Akamai Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.

TWiRT is brought to you by:
Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. 

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.
Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.
Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
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TWiRT 757 - Unscripted with Chris Tarr

Chris Tarr is one of the busiest broadcast engineers you’ll ever meet. He loves radio engineering, and he’s highly motivated to work hard and keep learning more about his profession. Chris has assembled some recent experiences into some lessons for all of us on this episode.  From guiding some new broadcasters into legal and effective operations to modifying an older FM transmitter for additional years of reliable service, Chris has a lot to share this week.  

Show Notes:
Chris likes the Necto wireless monitor for temperature, humidity, and power. It’s promoted as a monitor for your unattended pet’s environment, but works great to unattended broadcast sites, too.

Guest:
Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum Media, Inc.

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas, & Akamai Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.

TWiRT is brought to you by:
Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. 

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.
Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.
Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
Subscribe to Audio:
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TWiRT 757 - Unscripted with Chris Tarr

TWiRT 756 - The Three Layers of Redundancy with Chuck Bullett

This Week in Radio Tech dives into how broadcasters can build rock-solid, multi-layered broadcast plants that keep them on the air and their audiences happy, even when equipment fails. Chuck Bullett, Director of Technology at Audacy San Francisco, shares his modular “backup B and C” philosophy—designing independent, mutually exclusive systems that can stand in when a mic arm snaps or a transmitter tower goes down. This episode discusses practical strategies like retaining reliable legacy gear as a parallel safety net while integrating new technology investments. Listeners walk away with a “what-if” mindset and concrete steps to harden their facilities against catastrophic, revenue-draining outages.

Show Notes:
Create a Weekly Report for Your Stakeholders - Contribution by Chuck Bullett to John Bisset’s Workbench column in Radio World

Guest:
Chuck Bullett, CPBE - Director of Technology | Engineering at Audacy, San Francisco

Host:
Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas, & Akamai Broadcasting

Follow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.

TWiRT is brought to you by:
Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. 

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.
Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.
Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console.
The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

 
Subscribe to Audio:
iTunes
RSS
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TuneIn

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TWiRT 756 - The Three Layers of Redundancy with Chuck Bullett