1 of 1- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline 
More Technical Weirdness at AM 640
For the second day, I ask: what in the world is going on at AM640? On Thursday, the station was plagued with an all day static that went through multiple shows, lasting at least 10 hours before it ended.
On Friday, the last 15 minutes of the Alex Pierson Show disappeared, and left nothing but a quarter hour of complete dead air, with nothing on from around 11:45 AM. But then it got even stranger. When the clock hit noon, the silence ended. But instead of going to the scheduled top-of-the-hour news, listeners heard "The Alan Carter Radio Show."
The problem? That show was cancelled months ago by the station, and no longer airs. So not only did they have dead air for an elongated period, when they came back they put on a show that no longer exists! (My guess is the Carter Show was the emergency stand-by back-up for just such an occasion and they never bothered to replace it when the program was cancelled.)
Another strange day at Corus Quay.
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: More Technical Weirdness at AM 640
At some point Rubina Ahmed-Haq's show, subbing for Kelly Cutrara, began to air live. I can only imagine what was going on in the engineering department while all this was going on. Good thing the weekend is almost here!
- •
Thread Starter- AspectRatio
- Member
Offline
Re: More Technical Weirdness at AM 640
RadioActive wrote:
(My guess is the Carter Show was the emergency stand-by back-up for just such an occasion and they never bothered to replace it when the program was cancelled.)
Agreed on this theory. Lots of radio has a "safety" re-roll (backup program) that's automatically initiated (or manually triggered) that is never heard, but can be toggled over to immediately in case they lose the connection with the live program (especially when the host is doing it remotely) or have other technical problems. Since it usually kicks-off at the top of the program and is just a previous broadcast, the segment durations are generally correct. Looks like what they had was old.
- Glen Warren
- Member
Offline
Re: More Technical Weirdness at AM 640
further example of "cost containment" currently in-play at Corus...
Present economy is weak, sales are down, revenues are reduced... so, wage increases for the general rank and file are deferred to the beginning of Q3 2023...
But on the bright side, Corus was able to pay bonuses to the well deserving senior managers and executives...
"God bless us everyone"
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: More Technical Weirdness at AM 640
I continue to be puzzled by some of the strange things I'm hearing on 640 - and I'm not referring to the programming!
By now you've probably heard what John Moore calls the "Mr. Roboto" effect that happens when someone on Zoom or going on air some other way via the Net has a dropout of the signal and they begin to sound like electronic fuzz. Usually, it only lasts a few seconds, but it's quite noticeable when it happens.
For the past few days, when they go to a spot break, I've been hearing this same effect on 640 - but mostly on their commercials! How is that possible? These are pre-recorded ads and I would imagine are put into the system with perfect quality. Yet somehow when they get on air you hear those bizarre artifacts normally associated with live remote interference.
I'm not the most technically inclined but I'd be curious - why is this happening? It's been a constant in interviews or reports since COVID entered our lives, but in all this time, I've never heard it during the taped commercial breaks before.
- •
Thread Starter