[BC] No More Remotes

[Rockwell Smith]

I have to agree that the "boring" remotes in the presentation were probably 
just that.  Boring.  Lame talent with a lame promotion.  We do 20 + remotes 
a week during the peak remote season.  Of our 6 stations, the 4 FM's do 
99.99% of the remotes.  Policy is a 2 hour separation for remotes on the 
same station -- and this was for set-up reasons to allow the remote tech to 
tear down one, get the van and logos and inflatable to the next and be ready 
to go.  Our record for one day across the four stations was 12 remotes. 
That many in a has only happened once, but 7-8 in a day is pretty common.

This done with five vans, 4 part-time remote techs, 4 part-time board ops, 
and a lot of coordination.  Most are Marti.  We have two Marti channels 
repeated from our mountain top (450 band) and a vhf channel direct to the 
studios.  We can time-share the repeaters if we need to with multiple 
transmitters from more than one site (we have some older gear used for back 
up and/or if we need to be on the same channel from two locations).  When 
Marti is not an option we use a TieLine codec.  Cell phone is used only in 
case of catastrophic failure of one of the regular systems.  In a years time 
we've had to revert to cell phone less than half-a-dozen times.

We try to make the remotes an "event".  Some remotes will draw well over 100 
people at a time.  Some others, at the clients request, are more low-key. 
We cater to what the client wants, and our repeat remote appearances seem to 
be an indication of their success.

We have created our own acronym to track how busy we are --  TTRB's  (Things 
That Require Bodies).  A remote usually racks up 2 -- a tech and a board op. 
If done during a live show (yes, we still have some live shows !!) it would 
only count 1 for the tech.   For TTRB's, I don't count the talent.  Other 
TTRB's might include setting for an appearance (much like a remote, without 
the on-air part) or helping out at a concert.  Last year we tracked over 
1100 TTRB's.  Yes, a few of those were board-ops for ball games on the AM's.

Done right, remotes are successful and build customers for clients, and 
hence, make money for the station.  Done half-*** they are a bother, and a 
drag, and probably don't make money.

Remotes are what you make them to be.......

Rockwell Smith
Radio Engineering Manager
Journal Broadcast Group - Idaho
KJOT,  KQXR,  KRVB,  KTHI,  KGEM-AM,  KCID-AM
(208) 344-3511 - Main      (208) 947-5624 - Direct Line
(208) 947-6765 -Fax         (208) 869-6413 - Cell
Email:      rockwellsmith at journalbroadcastgroup.com
Personal website: http://www.engineer-exchange.com


< Original very much edited >

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Croghan" <loteng at lvradio.com>
To: "'Broadcasters' Mailing List'" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 12:42 PM
Subject: RE: [BC] No More Remotes


I can't conceive of not doing remotes.  If their remotes were as
boring as they appeared, then I'm not surprised. We do from 30-40 remotes
each and every week from our 4 (soon to be 5) stations.