Brian Walker
Chapter Chair
A personal “thank you” to all who joined us for the SBE16 Summer Picnic on Vashon Island at the KIRO-AM Transmitter Site. Okay, KIRO’s transmitter site is on Maury Island… Many thanks to Steve Allen and all the staff at Bonneville who contributed to prepping for the picnic.
This year’s SBE16 Engineer of the Year Award was presented to Dave Ratener, CPBE, CBNT, who recently retired from Salem Media Seattle (KGNW 820 and KKOL 1300). We wish Dave much success in his “retirement”. It was pointed out by many at the picnic that it is actually impossible to completely retire from Broadcast Engineering. Somebody is going to call and saying “no” is so difficult. Dave continues to serve on the board of SBE16 and is a member of the SBE National Board of Directors. He is a Member of the SBE Government Relations Committee that is responsible for the recent publication of the revised Broadcast Self-Inspection Checklist.
The next round of regulations up for deletion by the Federal Communications Commission include a horde of AM- and FM-related regulations. Their present-day aspect is rather minor.
Many are from the 1970s and ’80s and govern aspects like transmitting power measurements, stereo broadcast measurements and affirming that 24-hour broadcasting is, indeed, legal.
But as the FCC continues to pledge to rid its rulebook of those that are “obsolete” and “unnecessary,” there are 98 rules it deems as such up for deletion at its August open meeting Thursday, via a direct final rule.
One of the regulations up for deletion is 73.58, 73.258 and 73.558: These rules, originally from 1976, mandated that AM, FM and noncommercial FM stations install specific types of meters and gauges to measure transmitting power. With modern technology, the commission said, these requirements are no longer necessary. Deleting rule 73.58 may mean that you don’t have to have a common point meter on your AM array anymore, but it doesn’t mean you can operate illegally. Should the FCC drop by for a visit and the station is found operating illegally, they may be inclined to suggest a sizable financial contribution extending back to a time where it can be proved the station was operating within parameters. Yes, Virginia, the sword cuts both ways.
A personal favorite regulation of mine is 73.1710 which is refreshingly brief and to the point dating back to 1978 and is now on the chopping block. “Operation is permitted 24 hours a day.” That’s it. No caveats, no exceptions.
In other FCC News, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) asks the Bureau to substitute Channel 24 for Channel 4 in Jacksonville, Oregon.
The Portland Office of the FCC Enforcement Bureau is investigating a complaint about an unlicensed FM Station operating on 90.5MHz in Quinault. A rather sternly worded letter was sent to the landowner (not the pirate operating the station) suggesting that broadcasts cease immediately or a fine in excess of $2.4 Million could be levied. It’s interesting to see the FCC turn its focus to the landowners who allow illegal activities on their properties instead of those committing the illegal actions.
Moving south, the FCC has requested that the landowner of a parcel in Sweet Home, OR stop allowing illegal broadcasts on 92.1 MHz. As all of us in broadcast know, hiring a lawyer to represent you before the FCC is not a cheap date. I’m guessing that the cost of legal counsel did not cross somebody’s mind when they decided to create their own radio station.
AI or Artificial Intelligence has the possibility to be a great thing. Before everybody gets fuzzed up about how great AI can be, let’s take a moment to consider if it’s AI or Excel. The example I will use is that of a mountain climber who fell in the Italian Alps. Due to severe weather and the onset of winter, search and rescue had to be curtailed after three days last year. Earlier this year, drones were used to photograph the area in the hope of finding the lost climber’s body. By comparing pixel by pixel the color and luminance they were able to spot the climber’s bright red helmet. It was hailed as great breakthrough for AI which found the climber in the course of an afternoon of scanning. This process consisted of analyzing a pixel (grey, 50% brightness) and the next pixel (red, 75% brightness). I use these as examples. It’s pretty easy to write a routine in Excel to flag the red pixel and ask a human to take a closer look at it. My point is this: AI is still very young. It’s a tool with a great many possibilities and could be very powerful, but we have to use it wisely and correctly. It comes down to us “carbon-based-failure-units” known as humans to decide how best to accomplish a task. Does my station need AI to run its automation, or can I get the job done using a spreadsheet? The part that those who are touting AI (especially AI in the cloud) are not sharing is that AI is processor intensive. If the question being asked is a Yes/No answer, then a spreadsheet is very efficient. If the data shows a slow temperature rise in the exhaust of the transmitter over the last week and a slight rise in the VSWR of the antenna that might be a good analysis for AI to crunch on.
A lot of people are jumping on the AI bandwagon. I ask that you take the time to learn more about AI and ask if the same questions could be answered using a more simple and cheaper solution. Something tells me that a lot of AI being sold right now is little more than a spreadsheet in a shiny wrapper.
As my personal hero, Montgomery Scott, of Star Trek fame wisely observed: “The more they engineer the plumbing, the easier it is to plug the drain.”
Let’s talk next month.
Brian Walker
Seattle SBE16 Chapter Chair