TWiRT - This Week in Radio Tech - Podcast

Ya gotta love Dustin Tatro’s journey into and through radio broadcasting. Voicing PSAs at 4 years old got Dustin an early start. Then working as a DJ, along with musical interests, honed his technical and operational skills. Now as a General Manager and Ops Manager, Dustin has demonstrably learned the engineering side of radio broadcasting. Indeed, his SBE certification, CBRE, attests to that. Dustin joins Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack to discuss AoIP, audio processing, work working nicely, even with competing radio stations. Indeed, he joins us from the KORQ-FM transmitter site.

Also on today’s show, we talk with David Bialik. He and Fred Willard are coordinating the SBE Ennes Workshop in Las Vegas. Their track is “Media over IP”. David gives us information and plenty of reasons to sign up and be there!

Show Notes:Register for the SBE Ennes Workshop @ the 2025 NAB Show

Guests:Dustin Tatro, CBRE - Radio Station Manager, Chief Engineer, Sports OrganistDavid Bialik - Director of Engineering for MediaCo NYHosts:Chris Tarr - Group Director of Engineering at Magnum.MediaKirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas, & Akamai BroadcastingFollow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.TWiRT is brought to you by:Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console. The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

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The Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program (ABIP) was created around 1989 to aid the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in making sure all broadcast operations are in compliance and to help stations understand the rules in a one-on-one setting. In the beginning, the ABIP inspectors were retired FCC engineers. As the program began to expand around the country, other engineers were recruited and trained by regional FCC inspectors. ABIP inspectors have long used a basic Self Inspection Checklist that became woefully out of date. Tom Ray, working with other committee members at the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) has rewritten and greatly expanded these checklists for AM, FM, and TV stations. ABIP inspections are an excellent tool for broadcasters to assure compliance with FCC Rules, and do so in a friendly, non-adversarial encounter.

Show Notes:Society of Broadcast Engineers Releases Broadcast Station Self-Inspection GuidesSBE Self-Inspection Guides Download (must be an SBE member to download)Description of the ABIP program from the Alabama Broadcasters Association (PDF)Stay on the Good Side of the FCC - Radio World article

Guest:Tom Ray - President of Tom Ray ConsultingHost:Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas BroadcastingFollow TWiRT on Twitter and on FacebookTWiRT is brought to you by:Nautel and the HD Digital Radio Test DriveBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console. The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

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Today we're diving into a critical topic: the evolution from solo engineering efforts to collaborative support models in broadcasting. Just as a one-person band can only play so many instruments at once, a single engineer can't tackle every technical challenge alone. By banding together and working in groups outside traditional broadcast companies, we can support one another, foster career growth, and achieve a healthier work-life balance. Our guests Rob Bertrand and Shaun Dolan aim to do just that at Inrush Broadcast Services,, a 14-person broadcast technology service provider.

Show Notes:Inrush Broadcast Services is a consulting engineering firm serving the radio industry and adjacent media fields.Shaun mentioned PagerDuty, a web platform designed to coordinate working teams and their efficient response to customers’ needs.
Shaun likes CoScreen, a multi-user screen sharing platform that makes collaboration truly efficient.
Rob is delighted with the Scout Pro 3 Ethernet cable tester and identifier from Klein Tools. Kirk loves it, too.

Guests:Shaun Dolan - Partner at Inrush Broadcast ServicesRob Bertrand - Partner at Inrush Broadcast Services

Host:Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, South Seas Broadcasting, & Akamai BroadcastingFollow TWiRT on Twitter and on Facebook - and see all the videos on YouTube.TWiRT is brought to you by:Broadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Aiir, providing PlayoutONE radio automation, and other advanced solutions for audience engagement.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console. The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

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We radio engineers who aspire to be fondly remembered in our careers should take a few notes from Ed Glab. Ed engineered the studios and the remote broadcasters for WLS, Chicago, for over 40 years. His career and his positive ingenuity are fondly remembered by the DJs and radio hosts who worked with him. On this episode of TWiRT, we get to talk with Ed and hear his perspective and stories about engineering at “Music Radio - WLS”.

Show Notes:YouTube playlist of WLS air checksEd Glab engineering a remote with Don and Roma on WLSRadio World - Ed Glab Calls It a Day at WLSInstagram - Ed “The Professor” Glab on location at Marriott’s Great America in 1977

Guest:Ed Glab - Studio Supervisory Engineer at WLS, Retired

Host:Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas BroadcastingFollow TWiRT on Twitter and on FacebookTWiRT is brought to you by:Nautel and the HD Digital Radio Test DriveBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console. The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

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Listen fast, because George Whittam reveals a LOT of gold nuggets of useful audio capture and production information in this episode of TWiRT. Just look at the long list of Show Notes below! George is the engineer to the Voice Over stars, and the rest of the voice talent world, too. We engineers can learn a lot from George’s tireless efforts to help voice talent get the most from their equipment and studios, and modify or build new spaces when needed. Check out George’s advice, then follow him on other podcasts and his website to dig into solid audio engineering advice.

Show Notes:Centrance PASport - Voiceover Actor's Audio Interface with dual USB interfacesGeorge highly recommends the Apollo Twin family of audio interfacesGeorge is a fan of the very solid Earthworks Audio ETHOS micThe R0DE NT1 mic is also popular among George’s clientsThe Austrian Audio OC818 mic boasts an impressive lineage and design heritageSource-Connect is a longtime favorite remote audio connection software among VO artistsipDTL is another favorite software service for remote audio connectionsAnd Cleanfeed.net is an industry standard for remote audio productionGeorge highly recommends Twisted Wave audio editor, now for Windows, too - and even offers a free training seminar on Twisted Wave setup and use.

Guest:George Whittam - Owner a GeorgeThe.Tech - Consultant at Tri-Booth, Co-host VOBS.TV and Pro Audio Suite Podcast

Host:Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas BroadcastingFollow TWiRT on Twitter and on FacebookTWiRT is brought to you by:Nautel and the HD Digital Radio Test DriveBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc.

Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console. The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output.

Subscribe to Audio:iTunesRSSStitcherTuneInSubscribe to Video:iTunesRSSYouTube