5 ms·

This is one of the most interesting things I've read on HN in weeks. Awesome to see this kind of success story, and it's super fascinating to get insight into h

This is one of the most interesting things I've read on HN in weeks. Awesome to see this kind of success story, and it's super fascinating to get insight into how radio works behind the scenes. I'll be honest, I had no idea all of this goes into radio. I thought there were just, err, towers?, that broadcast... radio waves, and that was kind of it? I mean, I knew on some level it had to be a tad bit more complex than that, but you never see or hear about it.

Piskvorrr 11y ago
Well, I'd assume that the reason for radio silence (ahem) on broadcasting tech would be various NDAs.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  It has been claimed that a literal radio silence of BBC could cause a nuclear strike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4 (C-f nuclear)
  - elbigbad 11y ago
    Here's the article it links to, pretty interesting in and of itself: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/radio-silence-puts-subs-on-nuclear-1157478 http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchest... "Secret orders to the captains [of the nuclear subs] say that these deadly instructions are to be opened and acted upon only if the submarine cannot tune in to Radio 4’s Today programme for a given number of consecutive days. That is a reliable sign that Britain has been hit by a nuclear attack."
    - msh 11y ago
      Que new James Bond plot, the bad guy disables radio 4 to launch nuclear armageddon - Bond in race against time to find the spare parts needed to restore the radio.
  - gpvos 11y ago
    The operative words there are "it has been claimed that". This may have been true in the past (although really no official confirmation has ever been given), but it most probably is not true anymore, as the valves of the 198 kHz transmitter at Droitwich are of a design that is not available anymore and there is a limited supply left; when that is depleted, the transmitter will shut down. Although there are claims otherwise, see the note at the bottom of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch#Transmitter_Obsolescence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch#Transmitter_O...
- buro9 11y ago
  On consumer radio, silence does not exist. The emergency system kicks in and plays Oasis.
  - Piskvorrr 11y ago
    Sorry for the pun. What I meant was "I think people usually don't publish broadcasting technology details because it's covered by their NDAs."
  - vonderwaater 11y ago
    Anyway, here's Wonderwall.
delinka 11y ago
Compared to U.S. radio in my area, this is indeed fairly complex. In my "market" we have mostly local stations and the complexity is minimal: rent office space for offices and DJ booths, send mix to a directional transmitter on the roof pointed at the tower site, tower decodes and blasts a 100K watt signal. Of course, Clear Channel also has lots of robot stations in many markets in the country, which seems like it might approach similar complexity. However, of the few I've experienced, Clear Channel don't handle the complexity well and there's nowhere near the BBC's level of professionalism: they'll overlap commercials and songs for the entire duration, drop off the air (no signal) or broadcast dead air for 15min at a time ...
- MistahKoala 11y ago
  That's pretty much how it works in UK independent local radio (ILR). There's been a fair bit of change over the past decade, resulting in a lot more network programming and automation amongst stations established prior to 2000 or so. Core programming hours can be 7am-6pm, with local presenters, news, sport, traffic and weather, but that's it. Post-2000 stations seem to be a lot more local, they only appear to serve larger cities - smaller towns are stuck with carbon copy stations. Specialist and talk radio stations are virtually non-existent. It sounds like Clear Channel's problem is with automation and production. It's really not that hard to automate a station such that it sounds like it's being produced live. I would take a guess that they're using some early 90s - maybe even 80s - tech to drive their automation. One thing you've got going for you in the US is local TV. It's something that's only just started to be done in the UK and it's pretty amateurish stuff. I can't see it succeeding - wrong era and stations exist on their own channels, rather than as network affiliates.

Piskvorrr 11y ago

Well, I'd assume that the reason for radio silence (ahem) on broadcasting tech would be various NDAs.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
It has been claimed that a literal radio silence of BBC could cause a nuclear strike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_4 (C-f nuclear)
- elbigbad 11y ago
  Here's the article it links to, pretty interesting in and of itself: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/radio-silence-puts-subs-on-nuclear-1157478 http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchest... "Secret orders to the captains [of the nuclear subs] say that these deadly instructions are to be opened and acted upon only if the submarine cannot tune in to Radio 4’s Today programme for a given number of consecutive days. That is a reliable sign that Britain has been hit by a nuclear attack."
  - msh 11y ago
    Que new James Bond plot, the bad guy disables radio 4 to launch nuclear armageddon - Bond in race against time to find the spare parts needed to restore the radio.
- gpvos 11y ago
  The operative words there are "it has been claimed that". This may have been true in the past (although really no official confirmation has ever been given), but it most probably is not true anymore, as the valves of the 198 kHz transmitter at Droitwich are of a design that is not available anymore and there is a limited supply left; when that is depleted, the transmitter will shut down. Although there are claims otherwise, see the note at the bottom of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch#Transmitter_Obsolescence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_teleswitch#Transmitter_O...
buro9 11y ago
On consumer radio, silence does not exist. The emergency system kicks in and plays Oasis.
- Piskvorrr 11y ago
  Sorry for the pun. What I meant was "I think people usually don't publish broadcasting technology details because it's covered by their NDAs."
- vonderwaater 11y ago
  Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

delinka 11y ago

Compared to U.S. radio in my area, this is indeed fairly complex. In my "market" we have mostly local stations and the complexity is minimal: rent office space for offices and DJ booths, send mix to a directional transmitter on the roof pointed at the tower site, tower decodes and blasts a 100K watt signal. Of course, Clear Channel also has lots of robot stations in many markets in the country, which seems like it might approach similar complexity. However, of the few I've experienced, Clear Channel don't handle the complexity well and there's nowhere near the BBC's level of professionalism: they'll overlap commercials and songs for the entire duration, drop off the air (no signal) or broadcast dead air for 15min at a time ...

MistahKoala 11y ago
That's pretty much how it works in UK independent local radio (ILR). There's been a fair bit of change over the past decade, resulting in a lot more network programming and automation amongst stations established prior to 2000 or so. Core programming hours can be 7am-6pm, with local presenters, news, sport, traffic and weather, but that's it. Post-2000 stations seem to be a lot more local, they only appear to serve larger cities - smaller towns are stuck with carbon copy stations. Specialist and talk radio stations are virtually non-existent. It sounds like Clear Channel's problem is with automation and production. It's really not that hard to automate a station such that it sounds like it's being produced live. I would take a guess that they're using some early 90s - maybe even 80s - tech to drive their automation. One thing you've got going for you in the US is local TV. It's something that's only just started to be done in the UK and it's pretty amateurish stuff. I can't see it succeeding - wrong era and stations exist on their own channels, rather than as network affiliates.