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Galaxy IV & public radio
- Subject: Galaxy IV & public radio
- From: "David W. Harris" <dwh@totalnetnh.net>
- Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 23:03:03 -0400
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It appears public radio has recovered from the Galaxy IV
failure--the best evidence being that New Hampshire Public Radio is on
the air tonight! I was listening to NHPR (specifically, to WEVO
Concord) at 6:13 pm Tuesday when I heard that little crackle followed by
silence that told me something was wrong with the satellite feed. After
listening to a minute or two of musical filler, I tuned over to WGBH in
hopes of hearing the rest of "All Things Considered" but found only dead
air. Sort of dead, I should say--I think I heard an open mike with some
rustling in the background but can't swear to that as I was using a
table radio. That's when I turned on the tuner in the living room
that's hooked up to the rooftop antenna and heard WBUR carrying on with
"ATC" as if nothing had happened. A front-page article in today's Globe
would have you believe WBUR almost immediately switched over to ISDN-fed
programming from something called the British Broadcasting Service; I'm
sure they switched to an ISDN line but that was definitely NPR they were
carrying. It was WGBH which, after 7 minutes of silence, gave up on
"ATC" and joined "The World" (which 'GBH co-produces with the BBC) at
6:20 pm. As for NHPR, the music just kept going and Patricia Murphy
would come on every 5 to 10 minutes and explain that there were
satellite difficulties and "we'll return to our programming as soon as
possible." Not "our regular programming," just "our programming."
Maine Public Radio also used music as filler until 7 pm when they put on
a tape of "Selected Shorts" in place of "Fresh Air."
On weekdays NHPR airs satellite-delivered classical programming from
9 pm to 5 am; Tuesday night they had a locally hosted classical show
until about 10:45 when they just gave up for the night and turned the
transmitters off. "Morning Edition" was there Wednesday morning with
the sort of noise characteristic of regular phone lines. At 4:01 pm
Wednesday when Patricia Murphy potted up the network all I could hear
was Niagara Falls. Oops! After a very brief period of silence, the NPR
newscast came up, albeit with a major hum on the line. This must have
been a satellite feed, though, as I found the NHPR feed running about a
second behind WBUR, Maine Public Radio, and Vermont Public Radio, which
probably all were using land lines. WGBH also had a satellite
delay...they may have been picking up a feed piggybacked on PBS
satellite channels (an item on Wednesday's "ATC" explained that NPR
stations coupled with TV outlets had that option).
The quality of the feed NHPR was airing Wednesday afternoon was
acceptable for news programming but clearly wouldn't work for classical
music...so they signed off when the news/talk block was over at 9 pm!!!
The Maine and Vermont networks use a different overnight classical
service (WFMT's Beethoven Satellite Network out of Chicago) and it was
coming in fine Wednesday night. With WEVO (89.1) off the air last
night--the transmitter is just a couple miles away from me--I had a rare
chance to hear what a great signal WVPR (89.5) Windsor VT puts into
Concord NH.
This afternoon's broadcast of "All Things Considered" found all the
outlets mentioned above in synch so I guess the delivery problems have
been resolved in this neck of the woods. The satellite classical is
back on NHPR and WEVO is once again stomping all over WERS (88.9) and
making WVPR a tough but achievable catch if the antenna is pointed just
so.
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<HTML>
It appears public radio has recovered from the Galaxy
IV failure--the best evidence being that New Hampshire Public Radio is
on the air tonight! I was listening to NHPR (specifically, to WEVO
Concord) at 6:13 pm Tuesday when I heard that little crackle followed by
silence that told me something was wrong with the satellite feed.
After listening to a minute or two of musical filler, I tuned over to WGBH
in hopes of hearing the rest of "All Things Considered" but found only
dead air. Sort of dead, I should say--I think I heard an open mike
with some rustling in the background but can't swear to that as I was using
a table radio. That's when I turned on the tuner in the living room
that's hooked up to the rooftop antenna and heard WBUR carrying on with
"ATC" as if nothing had happened. A front-page article in today's <I>Globe</I>
would have you believe WBUR almost immediately switched over to ISDN-fed
programming from something called the British Broadcasting Service;
I'm sure they switched to an ISDN line but that was definitely NPR they
were carrying. It was WGBH which, after 7 minutes of silence, gave
up on "ATC" and joined "The World" (which 'GBH co-produces with the BBC)
at 6:20 pm. As for NHPR, the music just kept going and Patricia Murphy
would come on every 5 to 10 minutes and explain that there were satellite
difficulties and "we'll return to our programming as soon as possible."
Not "our <I>regular</I> programming," just "our programming." Maine
Public Radio also used music as filler until 7 pm when they put on a tape
of "Selected Shorts" in place of "Fresh Air."
<BR> On weekdays NHPR airs satellite-delivered classical
programming from 9 pm to 5 am; Tuesday night they had a locally hosted
classical show until about 10:45 when they just gave up for the night and
turned the transmitters off. "Morning Edition" was there Wednesday
morning with the sort of noise characteristic of regular phone lines. At
4:01 pm Wednesday when Patricia Murphy potted up the network all I could
hear was Niagara Falls. Oops! After a very brief period of
silence, the NPR newscast came up, albeit with a major hum on the line.
This must have been a satellite feed, though, as I found the NHPR feed
running about a second behind WBUR, Maine Public Radio, and Vermont Public
Radio, which probably all were using land lines. WGBH also had a
satellite delay...they may have been picking up a feed piggybacked on PBS
satellite channels (an item on Wednesday's "ATC" explained that NPR stations
coupled with TV outlets had that option).
<BR> The quality of the feed NHPR was airing Wednesday
afternoon was acceptable for news programming but clearly wouldn't work
for classical music...so they signed off when the news/talk block was over
at 9 pm!!! The Maine and Vermont networks use a different overnight
classical service (WFMT's Beethoven Satellite Network out of Chicago) and
it was coming in fine Wednesday night. With WEVO (89.1) off the air
last night--the transmitter is just a couple miles away from me--I had
a rare chance to hear what a great signal WVPR (89.5) Windsor VT puts into
Concord NH.
<BR> This afternoon's broadcast of "All Things Considered"
found all the outlets mentioned above in synch so I guess the delivery
problems have been resolved in this neck of the woods. The satellite
classical is back on NHPR and WEVO is once again stomping all over WERS
(88.9) and making WVPR a tough but achievable catch if the antenna is pointed
<I>just so</I>.</HTML>
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