Re: WDEA Open House tomorrow!!

[rjoc@webtv.net (Rod O'Connor)]

You'e right, everthing is controled from the Cumulus Megaplex in Brewer
most of the time; download, production, etc. Only between 6-9 weekday
mornings does Rick actually go to the Ellsworth mini-studio and
broadcast from there. After 9, he basically flips a switch and turns
things back over to the Brewer studios.

WDEA's satellite feeds comes into the Brewer
facility and is fed via digital phone line to the Ellsworth mini-studio,
then by another non-digital  phone-line out to the Surry transmitter.

Unfortunately the phone lines are of varying quality, often times with
annoying hum, clicks, digital distortion and cutouts. But since it is a
30 mile hop from Brewer to Surry with many mountains in the way, an STL
is not an option.

If it were an FM operation I am sure they would have a better
arrangement and higher fidelity links. But being AM I have a feeling
they are the Black Sheep of the Cumulus cluster.

I didn't make it up there today, but Rick was saying during his show
that there were a lot of folks there, and last year when I did visit
there were over 100 people who showed up during the 3 hour Open House.

Rod O'Connor
Southwest Harbor, Maine