It’s no secret to our listeners that the last week or so has been “technologically challenging” at our studios and at Lowell’s “Broadcast Hill.” It has tried my patience more than you can know, even though I’ve shared some of the frustrations with you during the J and J Midday Show.
First it was Spectrum’s poorly-deployed/poorly designed system that needs a SECOND box attached to our cable modem to provide our now nearly 19 year old static IP address. It failed, then it worked when the tech was here, then it failed again…then it was over a day for the “callback” tech to come and replace both boxes. Sheesh! While it was down, we couldn’t serve Lowell as we rely on Spectrum on this end, and Comcast on THAT end to keep WION’s 100.3 operating, so we shut down 100.3 until this was fixed. We have to to be legal.
During that time, our streamer’s artist and title also quit. This is a requirement to be legal for reporting to the (starving, hurting, money-losing/greedy) music industry. Our internet manager had to install that function on a SECOND computer and literally “sling” it to the streamer over the local network to restore this needed service for streaming, and for you, our listeners. This was a symptom of the streaming machine developing issues, so THAT was replaced this evening and the new “box” is online and sounding GREAT on my home’s ECHO SHOW as we speak.
The only way this station EXISTS is because of the talents of people like Scott G. of Satelliteguys.US/Satelliteguys.com who knows how this all works, how to keep us legal, and how to fix problems. He deserves a huge round of applause, and, if you’re a streaming listener, an email thanking him for his talents at WION would be INCREDIBLE if you feel inclined. Reach out to him by clicking here.
Other thanks go out with this post to our Engineer, Greg…who takes frantic calls from this announcer and blog-poster about how to fix older transmitting equipment on short notice, and to our Engineer Ralph Haines, both of which you can meet on our Team Members page of this website Ralph is working on helping us get a backup transmitter for Lowell, and Greg just knows what to say to keep me from a meltdown when things are not going well in the technology department.
Also a huge thanks to our Associate Engineer Paul, also on our staff pages for his ideas on how to keep things running, and…his upcoming help re-tuning a small backup transmitter for Lowell. You are appreciated.
It takes some remarkable people to make WION run behind the scenes. Please take the time to meet them on our staff (team) pages on this site…and consider that this is a 24/7 business in which equipment ages faster than any business that gets to close it’s doors and shut down 12 or more hours a day. I’m telling you this publicly so you know how grateful I am for each and every member of our team that contributes to WION’s success as a local radio station serving it’s communities LOCALLY from our own studios, not from some town in another state with playlists handed down from “on high” and nobody home at the studios when you need us the most. We’re here. And, we try hard to be the BEST station we can be.
Whether you listen online with the (new) streaming equipment, or on any of our signals, THANK YOU for your loyalty, and thank you goes to our TEAM who helps, each in their own way to keep WION performing at it’s best for YOU, our LISTENERS.
Jim
