Being a tale of community radio engineering daredevilism...
In our last episode you may remember our intrepid technical and air talent volunteers broadcasting live from remote locations such as the Occupy Encampment, the Waterfront Blues Festival, PDX Pop Now, The Q Center and Pickathon. We link back to the station using audio streaming equipment connected to the Internet. The Real Life environments outside of our studios always present engineering challenges that often become epic adventures in broadcasting. Broadcasting from a tent in the rain using RV batteries in a little red “Radio Flyer” wagon at Occupy was a real slice of life for all of us on site and for our listeners. There are no second takes here, no safety net, taking our KBOO listeners out to remote locations is truly an adventure in broadcasting. We hope our listeners appreciate the efforts we make to engage with our community and support us as we fulfill our 44-year-old KBOO mission.
We continue with our summer series of live remote broadcasts. This year we have upgraded our audio mixer to a new digital console and have updated our audio streaming equipment to connect to a 4G LTE network. This gives us better audio quality and higher bit rates for an overall better sound.
We are always looking for new and interesting ways to engage our listeners in our community. Our efforts at Occupy have resulted in a second audio stream devoted exclusively to the Occupy movement. It is now accessible on the KBOO website 24/7. We are considering launching a third audio stream to accommodate additional remote broadcasts and special programming.
Should you have suggestions for an interesting, radio friendly, remote broadcast event that serves our community, feel free to contact us here at the station. We encourage you to join us on our KBOO remote team and offer free training workshops on remote broadcast production.
Stay tuned for the 2012 Pickathon remote broadcast August 4th when we go live with the Music From The True Vine program at 9AM. We will broadcast three hours of incredible talent direct from the Pendarvis Farm.
Tom Hood
KBOO Engineer
Click these links to hear audio from The Waterfront Blues Festival and PDX Pop Now!