[BC] Some perspective on the list

[DANA PUOPOLO]

I had a similar thing happen to me when I worked for 1510 in Boston back in
the late '70's. The 50 kW Ampliphase blew a cap right when they were getting
out of delay before starting the Red Sox game. The TX operator was fast at
getting the 5 kW standby on, but on the air you heard silence, then audio,
then a tape rewinding then the pre-game show theme starting.

I called the TX and they told me that a cap had blown in the left PA cabinet
and oil was all over the inside of the cabinet. 

I drove to the TX and found the .01 20 kV plate bypass cap had popped and
sprayed oil (likely PCB oil, but back in the '70's no one knew)everywhere. I
began cleaning it up with acetone and rags. The GM was calling up every 10
minutes asking: "Will we be back at 50 kW tomorrow?".

Finally, I said: "No!". 

He asked why and I told him: "Because some ASSHOLE keeps calling me, and it's
keeping me from repairing the TX".

I never heard from him the rest of the night. I found a .01 at 20 kV mica
doorknob cap and mickey moused it into place as a temporary repair. 

Of course, the station was back up at 50 kW in the morning. It was 5kW at
night anyway and we only lost one hour of 50 kW time due to the part blowing.

My hands were numb from the acetone for about an hour after I was done. Of
course, no one knew how bad acetone was then either.

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 05:43:02 PM PDT
From: "Sid Schweiger" <sid at wrko.com>
To: <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: RE: [BC] Some perspective on the list

>>Within the first five minutes of the TX
shutting down, I had already answered no fewer than FOUR calls from the
owner asking, "What's wrong? When can you get me back on the air?" I
finally reached the "snapping point" and told him, "I don't know what's
wrong because I'm spending more time telling you that I can't answer
your questions than I'm spending in getting answers to give to you. I
can tell you whether this will be a quick-fix or a major outage after at
least five to ten minutes in which you LEAVE ME ALONE!" He didn't call
me again until I called him with news of the tube failure (about 10
minutes to be sure). This leads me to believe that GM's (and owners) can
be made to "see the light" (for just a brief instant) if circumstances
happen to be "just right" at just the right time. But, it usually
doesn't last...<<

For the years when I was doing strictly engineering, that was my stock
answer for ANYONE who called me while I was trying to diagnose a
problem:  "How long is it going to be?  Well, I can tell you one thing:
It won't be any faster while I'm talking to you"...inevitably followed
by a click and dial tone.



Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom Boston LLC
WAAF - WEEI AM/FM - WMKK - WRKO - WVEI
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Boston MA  02135-2040
Phone: 617-779-5369
Fax: 617-779-5379
E-Mail: sid at wrko.com

_______________________________________________
This is the BROADCAST mailing list
To send to the list, email: broadcast at radiolists.net
For sub changes, archives and info on this other lists:
http://www.radiolists.net/