Re: Jocks on a Hard Drive

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 12:11 AM 5/4/98 EDT, you wrote:
>
>I did evenings on the hard drive for a couple of months at WCLZ.  I was not
>good at it.  Doing one break after another without hearing the music is hard
>to get used to.

Isn't the "jock interface" to the HDD-automation system very much a function
of the system design? It seems entirely possible to let the jock hear the
last few seconds (or more, if that's the jock's preference) of each music
cut before the jock records the breaks. I guess this wouldn't work if you
were recording a break between two long music sweeps, but the programmers
who design the system software ought to at least provide the jock with the
option. I guess the problem could be cost to the station (or at least it was
probably a problem a couple of years ago when computer hardware was much
more expensive). It would probably be necessary to synchronize the content
of the hard drive in the production setup with that of the hard drive that's
used over the air. Some setups probably use RAID hard-drive arrays
(redundant arrays of inexpensive disks) for reliability. This might be a
plus for an over-the-air system, but would probably be unnecessary in a
production setup. With 6.4-Gbyte drives selling for $300 retail now, I
suspect most stations would find the cost tolerable, although I'm sure that
some owners would balk.

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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