Re: [CRTech] CRB changes and U4K reboots

[James Bellaire <jbellaire@tk.com>]

Michael Barnes wrote:
> Perhaps the larger question might be, how are you meeting FCC main
> studio rules or response time requirements if you can't even get to the
> station to reboot a satellite receiver?  There has to be something
> resembling a warm body at your programming origination point.
My station has a full time staff of around 20 people. I must (like it or 
not) trust the "air staff" (operators) with rebooting PCs (and 
occasionally that doesn't work out well). The further I get away from 
the machines they touch on a daily basis the less people there are to 
handle any "odd" task.

Since the satellite receiver isn't part of anyone's  daily or weekly 
routine it could take five minutes to explain where the Unity 4000 is - 
I don't have the menus memorized so finding RESET would be a challenge. 
I'd be going for the power plug, which is even more fun to identify from 
the back of the rack.  "OOPS, that was the Optimod I unplugged --- and I 
dropped the power cable end. When I stood back up I couldn't find where 
to plug it back in for a couple of minutes of dead air."

It would be nice to have a full staff of technically qualified people. 
With a pool of 20 I'd find someone to pull the right plug, if needed, 
before a week was out. But I do feel for a station where the "talent 
pool" isn't as diverse. Every one of our staff is talented in different 
ways. They can do many things I can't - and leave the techincal stuff to 
me (and I leave the heavier technical stuff to the contract engineer).

I can imagine a situation with a small staff that didn't need to 
understand every piece of equipment in the building. As long as the 
secretary shows up during business hours and the manager is based out of 
the building the FCC rule is satisfied - and most stations do better 
than that with staffing. Having a fully qualified tech/engineer on site 
isn't an FCC rule - they just need to know how to broadcast and turn the 
thing off!

James Bellaire
@ CRTech