Broadcast, cable media leap into new technology

by Michele Skalicky

SBJ Contributing Writer

Technology is changing the way radio and television stations operate. Computers are replacing much of the traditional equipment in radio, and television stations are planning for the day when they will go digital.

"The whole goal of additional technology for most stations is to become more efficient," said Arlen Diamond, general manager of KSMU-FM.

That is just what new equipment has done for KGBX-FM and KGMY-FM (My Country), according to the stations' operations manager, Mitch Baker. New technology was installed when the stations moved to the Tower Theater last August.

The Audiovault system from Broadcast Electronics "does everything," Baker said. "It's designed to network programming with production and scheduling and traffic."

The system is in all control rooms of Springfield radio stations owned by Sunburst Media, including KGBX, KXUS-FM, KGMY-FM and KTOZ-FM, Baker said. Audiovault stores music for all the stations on hard drive. It also holds the commercials and serves as an automation system so the station doesn't have to have a disc jockey present at all times to operate. "It allows you to walk away from it," Baker said.

Audiovault features expanded storage and has resulted in improved sound quality, according to Baker. "The audio quality is to the point where you can't tell the difference between hard drive and CD," he said. The sound is more seamless than with a compact disk, he said, because there are no skips.

KGBX uses mini-disk recorders and portable digital audio tape recorders in the field.

Public radio station KSMU uses computers for much of its on-air operation. Last year, the station installed SAW, a PC-based audio editing system, which "replaces the old razor blade and splicing block," Diamond said.

SAW allows for non-destructive and cleaner editing. When used with a hard drive audio storage system, SAW allows those in production to record something, edit it, and broadcast it without ever using magnetic tape.

KSMU uses Audio Wizard, which is able to record and store programs received via satellite and play those programs back over the air. Programs edited on SAW also can be sent to Wizard for playback.

Wizard also is used to automate the station, freeing up announcers to work on other projects. "Computers don't mind doing the same things over and over again routine tasks that people used to do," Diamond said. "It gives people time to be more creative and to be more productive."

KSMU recently purchased mini-disk recorders which eventually will replace cassette players, according to Diamond.

One downside to new technology is the time required to learn it, Diamond said. "Technology is supposed to save you something time, money but there's such a big learning curve. It slows down, in a lot of stations, the integration of technology." But Diamond said the new technology should pay off in the long run, because it allows for more flexible staffing and fewer employees.

KTTS-FM and KLTQ-FM use the DCS computer system, which keeps all music and recorded commercials on hard drive, said Vice President Curt Brown, who is constantly looking at new technology. But technology will never replace live disc jockeys, he said, because "programming is the key we do a lot of local programming and our DJs are very personable."

Brown said his stations have "some of the best production equipment in existence today." They have not gone completely digital, but they use digital equipment for production, according to Brown.

Brown is concerned big station ownerships will buy up several stations in a market and run them using computers in one room. "The public will lose immediately if that happens," he said, because the local element will be reduced or eliminated.

Local television stations are planning for a future when they'll be required to broadcast digitally. Stations won't be required to do that for about four years, said KOLR Chief Engineer David Smith, but the station must begin buying equipment soon. "You basically have to replace the entire station and start all over," he said. "But, you can do it incrementally."

At first, a portion of the programming will be completely digital from start to finish, according to Smith, but some of the existing analog system will be converted to digital, too. "Digital will eventually phase the existing analog system out."

The station's analog and digital systems will operate simultaneously in about four years, Smith predicted, and will remain that way until the market changes over. "The present system will go dead, hopefully 10 years from now ... but the market's going to drive it."

Digital broadcast will mean better sound and picture quality and will give stations the ability to broadcast more than one program in a bandwidth, Smith added.

TCI of Springfield currently offers digital cable, which is different than broadcast digital. TCI is using digital compression technology, which allows the cable station to put multiple channels in a space where before it could only get one, said TCI General Manager Ross Summers.

TCI customers who choose that service must get set-top digital boxes, which decompress the signal once it reaches their homes, but the service can be used with existing television sets.

TCI plans to add more digital channels this year, but it is unknown what those will be and when they will be added, Summers said.

The cable company plans to get into the high-speed data business in the second half of 1998 by offering a new product, according to Summers.

At Home will deliver download speeds "several hundred times faster than what's currently available," Summers said. The product will be available to those hooked up to the Internet and working off a 14.4 or a 28.8 modem, he said.

Cable customers who also choose to buy At Home will receive one bill.

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