Blog
Pirates Break the Law — But Are the Rules Fair?
He's not here to defend pirate broadcasters, but the Wandering Engineer does have a...
Blog
Should the FCC Always Have a Commissioner With an Engineering Background?
O'Rielly called this an "artificial requirement" — but would it really hurt to have...
Industry
Gifts for Engineers
If you are a broadcast engineer, your life has been a pin-ball game of...
Industry
Broadcasting Is Intimate — and Will Become Interactive
Radio was (and in many stations still is) all about customer relations
Industry
Put the “A” in “EAS”
Emergency communications are a complex topic, and an arena filled with special interests
Industry
Under the Hood
In the era of components and wires, every piece of equipment came with documentation...
Industry
The Coming IT Apocalypse
The equation is simple: Maybe waste resources or risk being culpable when an IT...
Industry
Wanted: Broadcast Gypsies
Sometimes, while we’re good with the status quo — ownerships and goals change and...
Industry
2017 NAB Show in Retrospect
The Wandering Engineer is lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to be above the line...
Industry
Loving the Manual
When hiring broadcast engineers, there are two particulars to which we give special attention.
Industry
Growing Old on the Radio
The Wandering Engineer first met Garrison Keillor in that most intimate of settings… on...
Industry
Historians All
There are a lot of tasks in my informal job description that don’t appear...
Industry
Opening a Window
Electronic media always involve a chicken and egg scenario in which the consumer has...
Industry
The Weaponized Internet
Media is a powerful tool for good and for evil — radio, especially so....
Industry
From Trade to Profession
In the future, this will be a better profession than it currently is
Industry
The Allure of Tall Things
I like towers. Eiffel tower, CN Tower, Sutro, Freedom Tower, Devil’s Tower, Tower of...
Industry
Lowering the Bar for Community Radio
The thing about pirates is that they love radio. They literally will pay to...
Industry
Gain the World, Lose Your Soul?
When this broadcast thing started, there was a social contract
Industry
Serendipity and the Spring Show
My GM can’t figure out why I’d go to the NAB Show and burn...
Industry
This Kind of Nesting Makes Your Life Easier
It all has to do with how you see the transmitter site
Industry
Of Hyperbands and Hams
We don’t talk often of the Hyperband or the role amateur radio plays in...
Industry
Advanced Advertising for Radio
Internet struggles with buffering and access times, and it breaks under the stress of...
Industry
The Myth of Channel 6
Former VHF TV channels have no intrinsic value for “mobile” communications
Industry
The Beauty of Tiger Teams
In most endeavors, like banking, manufacturing or pharmaceuticals, a reduction in regulatory force would...
Industry
Social Media Is Impermanent, But Broadcast Spectrum Is Forever?
Traditional broadcasters have social media envy
Industry
The Analytics of Things Means Taking a Calculated Risk
Routine maintenance schedules are a pretty dull tool
Industry
Engineering Is an Empire of Equipment
And the GM is more a function of corporate culture than anything else
Industry
Understand Product Life Cycles
It is tempting to see an increase in production as the answer to both...
Industry
Engineers Act as Historians
By tradition and practicality, broadcast engineers are the station historians
Industry
The Price Goes Down; The Cost Skyrockets
Broadcast business departments have come a long way.
