[BC] faking out the competition

[Bill Croghan]

 > Favorite Larry Nelson story is where he and the traffic reporter pulled
off
 > a good one. KOMO had the only airplane back circa 1972 and all the other
 > stations gleaned traffic reports from the two-way... until one day Larry
put
 > the traffic reporter up to reporting a "fake" accident on the two-way
 > only... KIRO, KOL, KAYO, etc all had egg (well fish oil) on their faces.
 >
	Reminds me of the stunt Don Martin and I pulled 25 + years ago at
KIMN radio in Denver.  Since we knew everyone's news department  monitored
our two way frequency, Don and I started sending digital data back and forth
to each other during drive times on the two way.  It was really just some
garbage stuff I'd recorded off the Ham bands, inverted (by playing the tape
backwards) and played back on cassette recorders since all our two ways had
a tape input wired up.  Total BS, but we had the other guys jumping!  (Today
I'd probably use Packet bursts.)  Drove a couple of the competing tech types
and all of the news types nuts trying to figure out what we were doing.  We
got bored and quit it after the other stations got tired of listening to the
Data.

	On the automation question I can very heavily recommend the Air
Force system by Tim Valley.  It uses entirely off the shelf hardware, very
high quality audio cards recommended, and Tim's support is excellent.  He
works mostly late in the day and evening, but if you have a problem at 2 AM
he'll be there to help.  John Harronian's version is good also.  I have had
no experience with the Storq, but hear that it's pretty good, though I know
nothing about it’s support.  Tim has been doing most of the things the
others are claiming as new and improved for many years.

Bill

Bill Croghan CPBE WBØKSW
Chief Engineer,
KOMP/KXPT/KENO/KBAD/KWWN
Lotus Broadcasting, Las Vegas, NV