Starting a radio station might sound simple at first: set up an antenna, hook up a transmitter, and hit the airwaves. Easy, right? Well, not quite – especially when the station is operated remotely, like in the case of Radio Blacksmith Knoll.
Our programming is streamed to the station over the internet, which brings its own set of challenges – particularly when it comes to audio quality and precise timing. Everything has to work smoothly, even though there’s a jungle of cables, software, and automation between the studio and the actual transmitter.
And then comes that moment when everything almost works. It finally feels like we’re ready – or at least as ready as one can be – and we decide to make one last tiny tweak… and that’s when something breaks. This time, it was the automation system that decided to throw in the towel.
The cause? Still unknown. The scheduling has completely stopped functioning, and nothing is being triggered as it should. Fantastic!
There’s no immediate fix on the horizon, so for now we’re running the station on backup arrangements. Unfortunately, that means station IDs and program markers aren’t being played at all – or if they are, they’ll likely play straight on top of the content. Not ideal.
But hey, this is what experimenting and tinkering is all about! We’ll poke around, figure out what went wrong, and fix it when time allows. Sometimes this hobby really is just a never-ending series of repairs – but that’s part of the fun.
We’ll keep going, make improvements as we can, and marvel at the fact that any of this works at all – even occasionally.