Our goal here is to report what problems we’re aware of regarding the various technical things on KOHM. Whether it’s dead-air, double-audio, or even our webstream being down, please let us know!
DO NOT ASSUME WE KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM.
Unless we hear it ourselves, or you tell us, chances are we don’t know there’s a problem. Call 742-3100, 8am to 5pm M-F, or send us an email.
23 June 2009
Loud buzzing/static sound interfering with KOHM’s main analog signal starting around 5:50am.
CAUSE: Finally traced the problem to our primary Orban audio processor. Not sure why it lost its mind, but suspect the DSP was at fault. Unplugged the unit for a few seconds to reset it, and it appears to be working fine for now. Fixed the problem around 7:30am.
We’ve had this problem before, but I couldn’t recall what the cause was or its solution until we traced it to the processor. A cursory review of this log shows no similar problems listed as of late 2007, so it has indeed been quite awhile since we last saw this problem occur. -DG
8 June 2009
Dead-Air on HD2 from 8pm to 5am weekdays (No BBC Programming)
CAUSE: Switching conflict on our NPR satellite receiver. Believe the problem has been occurring for the last week or more, and directly related to some reconfigurations we made for KTXT-FM. Have made a temporary fix, but are also waiting on word from the PRSS as to why our equipment shows no signal even though BBC programming is properly scheduled to run through it. -DG
23 April 2009
HD2 Webstream unavailable last 20+ hours
CAUSE: Local problem with the encoding end of the webstream. Have installed better equipment to pass signal from studio DIRECTLY into encoder. 60-second latency has also been removed since this feed by-passes the HD Importer unit. Hopefully this will solve many of the drop-out issues we have been having. Web-latency issues are still a problem and will likely continue, but we’ve significantly improved the studio end of things. -DG
20 April 2009
Continued drop-outs on HD2 webstream.
CAUSE: Found that our HD Receiver was dropping packets! Replaced with a different HD Radio (around 10AM this morning) and will see if that helps. -DG
20 April 2009
Drop-outs on HD2 Channel (On-Air AND online stream)
CAUSE: Appears to be an issue with the Importer unit. It’s been rebooted and am currently monitoring the feed. Suspect a buffer overflow in the encoder unit inside the Importer- that would affect both HD2 on-air signal and the online stream. Have dropped HD3 channel for now- not much programming there anyway. On-air feed is rock solid now on 2 different HD Radios, but webstream still suffering drop-outs. Suspect an additional problem between studio and Public Interactive studios- am calling them about that right now. -DG
20 April 2009
Missed 9am top of hour NPR Newscast.
CAUSE: Still tracing this one. ContentDepot seems to be prime culprit, as the network was doing some upgrades over the weekend. No mention of problems on their end however. -DG
8 March 2009
Dead-air at 2am Sunday morning.
CAUSE: Time change played havoc with some computer equipment. This caused a cascading problem with overnight programming playback- Performance Today, which was supposed to start at 5am, started at 5:45am instead. I scrambled to make some last-minute fixes near the 6am hour. Apologies if it sounded disjointed. I’m sure we’ll be having some issues in the coming week related to the time change, and how it USED to occur in April! -DG
February 19, 2009
Dead-air on KOHM main signal during 6pm hour and reports of ATC running during 7pm hour.
Silence alarm system failed as well.
CAUSE: Exact cause unknown. Most likely a switching error with the automation. Alarm failure likely due to absence of battery backup at transmitter site. Hope to have THAT little problem fixed today. -DG
February 15, 2009
Dead-air starting at 6am Sunday morning.
CAUSE: Audio files for second hour of Weekend Performance Today were deleted. Not sure how or when. We’re following up with the network to confirm it wasn’t a problem on their end. The missing files also caused problems later in the day as we run that program twice on Sundays. Used fill music for the missing hour in both instances. -DG
January 16, 2009
Station and Internet streams off-air starting around 5:30pm.
CAUSE: Power failure at studio. The bank building where our studios are located lost power after 5:30. This of course played havoc with our equipment and we lost a battery backup unit at the satellite dish. The transmitter stayed on, but without a signal from the studio, we were broadcast stereo silence. We were able to return to the air about 10 minutes before 6pm, but we still had problems at our satellite dish. The battery backup at the dish burned out causing us to lose the last segment of All Things Considered for Friday afternoon. After swapping out a PC power supply, I was able to restore the online streams early Tuesday morning. -DG
January 10, 2009
Station off-air at 6:36pm and most of 7pm hour.
CAUSE: Battery backup at transmitter site failed. Removed unit from service, and moved protected equipment to ancillary outlets. All signals back on-air around 7:45pm. -DG
January 2, 2009
Both KOHM webstreams were down, and likely down most of the weekend.
CAUSE: Fault at Public Interactive, the streaming service we utilize. Streams were returned to service Monday morning. -DG
January 1, 2009
Dead Air following All Things Considered at 6pm.
CAUSE: Failed Macro on automation. Rest macro and special New Year’s programming returned. -DG
January 1, 2009
Program dropouts during the final hour (4AM?) of KOHM overnight. Reported by Dr. Jim Brink.
CAUSE: Exact cause unknown. Suspect a corrupt audio file played during that last hour. -DG
November 16, 2008
Problems with St. Paul Sunday and Pipedreams starting at 2pm.
CAUSE: Blame NPR. Actually blame the Public Radio Satellite System folks at NPR. They scheduled a major overhaul of their distribution system this weekend that had some interesting results at our station and many others too evidently.
The main system used by producers to send their shows to stations was closed for maintenance. For programs that were normally sent during the period of that closure, PRSS told those producers to send their shows a bit earlier than usual. That created problems all across the network- the shows we get from NPR are saved into our automation system, held until time for broadcast, played automatically over the air, then get over-written with next week’s show and the cycle repeats.
When the producers sent their shows early, those programs OVERWROTE the shows that were set to air this weekend. Thus, the soundfiles that were supposed to air Sunday afternoon were replaced by next week’s shows. Well, the airdates for those files are set for next week, so they were unavailable for broadcast yesterday. Starting at 2pm we had dead air because none of the files in the automation were available!
I had to manually reset the airdates, not knowing that they were for next week. That made them available for broadcast yesterday, but again, not until today (Monday, 17 Nov) did I realize they were actually for NEXT WEEK. So, blame NPR. Blame PRSS. That’s what we and several hundred other NPR stations did. We have enough problems with Mr. Murphy ourselves; we certainly didn’t need the network helping him out. I suspect that next weekend’s shows are likely to be repeats… -DG
November 16, 2008
MIssed WESUN lead-in and top of hour newscast at 7am.
CAUSE: We reprogrammed some macros (computer instructions) for our automation 2 weeks ago and apparently missed one. The macro for Weekend Edition Sunday has been fixed. -DG
November 10, 2008
Main KOHM and HD2 Internet streams down.
CAUSE: Power failure at studios this weekend. Exact cause unknown. Several computers in the studio were down as a result. A reboot of the streaming PC appears to have fixed that problem.
Also discovered that remote control at transmitter site was unresponsive via telephone. TTU Comm Services advises that “someone” disconnected the line leading to our transmitter site. AT&T is working that problem and hopes to have service restored later today. -DG
October 19, 2008
No APHC at Noon. Have had this and other issues with HD2 on Sundays past several weeks.
CAUSE: Exact cause is unknown, but suspect either a corrupt log file that instructs the automation what file to play, or perhaps a problem with the program file itself. Could also be related to on-air problems we had late yesterday (see below). Our thanks to Bobby Williams for bringing this to our attention as it had been an issue for quite sometime now. Reviewing the logs shows a great mess that has been occurring on HD2 Sundays around noon, the last 2 weeks anyway. It will take some detailed review and some calls to our automation vendor to find the source of this problem. Clint advises he did manually start the 2nd hour of APHC around 1:15 pm yesterday. Very confusing, but we’re working the problem. Note: I also fixed the link above so that on-air problems can be directly emailed to me; no telling how long THAT link didn’t work! My apologies… -DG
October 18, 2008
No Broadway & Beyond program at 8pm Saturday.
CAUSE: Unknown- suspect corrupt audio file; it shows to be playing and of 57 minutes length, except no audio. Also noticed another music file set to play in its absence also “acts” corrupted. No rest for the weary… -DG
October 17, 2008
No NPR newscasts at 11:01am, 12:01pm and 1:01pm today.
CAUSE: DERRICK cut the wrong wire from the satellite receiver! Yep, it was me. And it was a stupid mistake. Next time I’ll cut the red wire first. I did manage to hardwire the receiver again. Plans to re-wire that entire rack will be implemented soon. -DG
October 13, 2008
Air conditioning units failed at transmitter site around 12:30am Monday.
CAUSE: Coil fan motor on one of the 2 units failed during the night. High temp alarm called me around 1:07am and by the time I got to the transmitter building at 1:30, the room temperature was about 98F. Best guess is that first unit kept working for about 45 minutes after second unit failed, then it failed too. I did manage to reset first unit, but heat load was too great for just one unit. Ironically, it was a nice and cool 65F outside. After hours maintenance was called and we managed to get some outside air into the building. Had to wait until new motor could be procured and installed. New fan motor replaced just before noon. Heck of a way to start a Monday! My thanks to Chris from TTU HVAC for the early morning visit. Also see the entries for May 31/June 1st below for the last time we had such fun with the transmitter A/C units. -DG
September 20, 2008
Dead-air beginning at about 9:03am and no Car Talk program Saturday.
CAUSE: Transfer error in moving network program files from Content Depot receiver to KOHM’s automation system. The error actually occurred just after 7am Friday morning, but due to the lack of an alerting system in the software, we didn’t learn of the problem until the Car Talk outage Saturday morning. System was reset and subsequent file transfers were successfully accomplished. Had to fill broadcast time with music instead. -DG
August 16, 2008
Station off-air for about 2 hours Saturday morning.
CAUSE: Heavy thunderstorms moving through the area. Lightning struck a transformer bank at LP&L’s Holly Plant in SE Lubbock. That took the power plant offline and supposedly brought the entire LP&L grid down. Power was out at Texas Tech and a major portion of Lubbock from about 5:45am until about 7am. Both our studios and transmitter site were without power during this time. The back-up battery units we use to maintain our studio operation through minor outages were completely depleted. Power was back on by the time I arrived at the office around 7:15am. I managed to reboot everything and get our main signal back on air around 7:30am. The HD Channels and webstreams were restored by 8:30am.
The lightning strike at LP&L was spectacular judging by reports in Sunday’s paper. Witnesses said the lightning continuously struck the transformer bank for about “20 to 30 seconds”. Methinks LP&L must have offended the gods somehow… -DG
August 8, 2008
Music Made For Movies stopped playing about 13 minutes into program.
CAUSE: Suspect same fault as last week’s Celtic Shores program. Same PC was used to rip both shows into automation. Change needed in entering programs into automation in less than realtime.
August 2, 2008
Celtic Shores program stopped playing about 13 minutes into program.
CAUSE: Fault in audio file stored in automation. Used fill music for remainder of hour. Suspect bad CD during ripping process. -DG
June 12, 2008
Chiller at the Bank has failed again…
June 1 & 2, 2008
KOHM website down.
CAUSE: Off-site server experienced a security issue. What little evidence we have suggests a malicious hack of the website. Don’t think it was a hack against KOHM per se, but more of a broader hack against the popular blog software, Word Press. Still troubleshooting this one after 3 days. -DG
May 31 & June 1, 2008
KOHM & KTXT-FM off the air Saturday evening and most of the day Sunday.
CAUSE: Loss of air conditioning at the transmitter site. Cooling units failed sometime around 4:30pm Saturday. Units were reset but failed again around 10:30pm. Backup cooling units were then requested and installed by TTU maintenance personnel. Transmitters were then placed back into service at 1:30am Sunday morning. KOHM transmitter was cycling on and off during Weekend Edition Sunday. Backup cooling units failed sometime between 2am and 8am Sunday. Building temperature inside was 123 degrees! Maintenance was called again and after about 3 hours of working on the primary units, they were restored to working condition. On a related note, the chiller at the Bank building failed sometime Saturday too, resulting in no A/C at the KOHM studios over the weekend. -DG
May 20, 2008
Dead-air on all channels of KOHM from about 7:30pm until 9:17pm.
CAUSE: Complete power failure at KOHM Studios. Approx. 2 square miles of central Lubbock lost power for 2 hours last night. Lubbock Power & Light says a transformer failed and caught fire at its substation at 32nd St & Elgin Ave. The transmitter site still had power so we were broadcasting stereo silence for 2 hours on all channels.
Does KOHM have a backup generator? No we do not. At about $45K+ a unit, we cannot afford one right now, but it is on our wish list! There is a generator at the tower, but it is only there to power the TTU Police radio system and the tower lights. We use battery backup units at the studio.
Battery units at the studio? Yep! We did an exhaustive study which essentially proved that there isn’t anyway to get a generator here at the bank building, at least not in any cost-effective manner. Turns out fuel storage is the problem. The State and Feds have lots of rules pertaining to how diesel and other fuels may be stored. And we can’t store such fuel anywhere near or on the building. That means putting the generator way out in the parking lot, which means we lose quite a bit of power in the long run of cable it would take, thereby needing a bigger generator to take that into account, etc, etc. The cost is literally too prohibitive for something we need maybe twice a year.
Instead, we use battery backups at the studio to provide just enough time for our automation system to shut itself down. We have about 10 minutes time after the power goes off before we lose the studio. Even if we could power things longer at the studio, it would be difficult to work under such conditions. Everything else needed to run things would still be out- no lights, no phones, no Internet access, no desktop computers, no air conditioning and no elevators. Heat builds up in this building very quickly and the studio gets quite warm- not a good idea to keep running expensive electronics in that kind of heat.
What’s even more strange is that our transmitter site and studios are on two completely different parts of the city power grid. It is possible for the transmitter to be on the air and running normally, but have power out at the studio ( like we did last night) or vice-versa. Occasionally we’ll lose both, but that is rare.
There’s nothing like running up 6 flights of stairs in the dark, in a hot office building with no phones or air conditioning and waiting for 2 hours for the power to come back. Good thing my cellphone was charged when I left the house! -DG
May 9, 2008
HD2 channel dead since about 2pm this afternoon.
CAUSE: Appears that the audio server for HD2 experienced some sort of hard-drive failure. The PC then locked up and the HD2 scheduling log was “lost”. The automation, lacking both the scheduling log, and the computer to play it from, locked up. The result was dead-air on HD2 for about 8 hours this afternoon/evening. Successfully rebooted the computer and it appears to be running now. Have no idea what would cause the drive to crash, but that is not usually a good sign… -DG
February 24, 2008
About 9 minutes of dead-air starting at 3:30pm.
CAUSE: Most likely human error. Clint says he may have forgotten to setup the final segment of PipeDreams from the new Content Depot System. I was able to login remotely and fill the remainder of the hour with music. -DG
February 10, 2008
Automated break played over interview with Barack Obama during 8am hour of Weekend Edition Sunday.
CAUSE: NPR decided to do a format-breaking piece and didn’t give sufficient notice for stations (like KOHM) to make the change. Please see my KOHM story regarding BONEHEADS for background. -DG
February 10, 2008
KOHM analog signal off-air again around 7:45 this morning.
CAUSE: Fault in analog transmitter. Suspect a power anomaly caused a trip in the power supply, but because switchover has been bypassed, transmitter went down. It did come back up on its own at reduced power, and I was able to reset alarms, but suspect it will repeat this problem again until new parts come in. -DG
February 9, 2008
KOHM analog signal off-air for several hours beginning sometime around 10am.
CAUSE: Fault in analog transmitter. Think it may be a failing switching module. Won’t really know until we can swap out the part. Bypassed faulty part and inhibited redundant switchovers. Was able to get transmitter backup around 2:30pm. -DG
January 21, 2008
Dead-air beginning at 10:00pm, no Harmonia program.
CAUSE: Our automation system choked early Monday morning. The system that imports network programs from the satellite receiver into our automation experienced some sort of error during the 4am hour Monday morning. Fortunately, Performance Today and some other shows had already been imported so that most of the programming over the MLK holiday went without a hitch.
Unfortunately, no other program files were transferred since 4am yesterday and we only learned of the problem this morning. After a hectic half hour or so, we fixed the glitch that prevented the remaining files from being imported, and it looks like today’s shows are all ready to go. Still have no idea what caused the fault Monday morning. -DG
January 4, 2008
Dead-air on HD2 beginning at 10:00pm. BBC programming absent.
CAUSE: Another of those marvelous failures at the NPR head-end. From Ralph Woods at NPR:
“The NOC experienced multiple tuning errors on all streams starting at
2300 ET (C-24, BSN, JSN, Radio Bilingue, BBC World Service) as well as
the 2301 ET NPR Newscast. The problem was corrected by 2320 ET for all
streams except the BBC World Service, which was corrected at 2326 ET.
We regret the interruption in service.”
December 11, 2007
No NPR Newscast at 12:01pm and dead-air on KOHM HD2 throughout the Noon hour. CAUSE: “Massive” failure at the program distribution head-end at NPR:
“The PRSS experienced a live stream outage today at 1300(ET) affecting
several programs. We are investigating the root cause of the issue.
ContentDepot live streaming services for the 1400 feeds are functioning
normally. We sincerely apologize for the disruption in service. More information
will be provided as it becomes available.”
Looks like it’s going to be a “ContentDepot” Christmas. Bah-humbug! -DG
November 24, 2007
Dead-air on KOHM main Channel starting at 11am.
CAUSE: Looks like the KOHM staff apparently forgot to load the Celtic Shores program into the automation. Was able to get some fill music on around 11:20am. No other problems noted over the holidays. -DG
November 18, 2007
Dead-air on KOHM main channel starting at 7pm.
CAUSE:Looks like Clint forgot to put music in that hour of automation. Was able to fill with music beginning around 7:30pm. -DG
November 18, 2007
APHC failed to play on HD2 resulting in promos being played for the two-hour time block.
CAUSE: Appears to be another quirk between NPR’s Content Depot program delivery system and our automation. CD says the files for playback were available; automation says they were not and played 2 hours of promo spots instead. This is the second week of this failure. -DG
November 17, 2007
Dead-air instead of NPR Newscasts from 0201 – 0206 and 0301 – 0306 this morning. Possible outages to BBC Worldservice broadcasts on HD2 as well.
CAUSE: This was due to head-end equipment failure at NPR and not a local problem. Here’s a notice that was sent to the entire network:
“The PRSS has experienced a failure of the NOC automation system that has resulted in no stream tuning commands being sent for the 0300 and 0400 ET hours. Audio was routed manually to the individual streams during those hours. NPR NEWSCASTS ARE *ALSO* BEING ROUTED TO THE BREAKING NEWS CHANNEL (stream #7) IN ADDITION TO THEIR NORMAL STREAM.”
Unfortunately, the Breaking News Channel is not an option for us, and by the time I was notified of the outage, we were back into overnight programming. As for HD2, there is no solution- NPR has invested heavily in a new prog
