Answering the Unasked Question
March 2021
Wednesday March 31, 2021 8:09 AM CDT -- Staying Out of It
KDX joined the many who protested separation of parents and their children as a Trump directed border cruelty, but in the new time under Biden we hear of thousands of unaccompanied minors arriving at the border, which constitutes children and parents self-separating. By comparison, when children of U.S. citizens separate we call the children runaways or their parents derelict, but we go too far drawing comparisons because border policy isn't based on equal treatment. In any case the unmanageable and unmanaged population problem evident in South America is a product of church missionaries having effectively deprived peoples of biology education and forced contraceptive-abortion prohibition resulting in an over abundance of fertilized sperm now being sent here while the church goes about tax free luxury living and continuing a tradition of lies and deception as godly imposters. Except to recommend that the border patrol send all these asylum seekers to the nearest churches, KDX is staying out of it.
Wednesday March 31, 2021 6:49 AM CDT -- On This "New" President
As the front man or figurehead of government, the President pulls most attention away from the massive bureacratic government that actually carries on with federal business. The last President kept attention through his trademark orange and cavalier golfing while this new one is known for tripping up stairs and foggy lapses of attention but has not played golf nor appointed family members to key advisory roles. Being president of the United States is one of the toughest acting roles in history because it requires acting as if not acting and as if it were all real.
Wednesday March 31, 2021 6:47 AM CDT -- William Shatner
The actor William Shatner remains active and involved at age 90 and makes this appearance on the Dennis Miller Show.
Monday March 29, 20221 8:47 AM CDT -- Like a Cargo Ship Blocking a Canal
No matter how we do it, we've found ourselves unable to wedge the 3-hour 'No Agenda' program into a 1/2-hour slot, so as to make way for the live edition of 'Free Talk Live', so here's what we'll do...
Both tonight (Monday) and Friday we'll place 'No Agenda' with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak, at 5:30 PM CDT following RT News, to be followed at 8:30 PM CDT by the last half-hour of the live 'Free Talk Live' and thereafter the playback of the opening hours of 'Free Talk Live' recorded earlier. The whole intention is to learn the latest developments in the legal case involving jailed members of the 'Free Talk Live' team.
We now know their apparent "crime" was lying to a bank, which reminds me of lies told me by banks, but that would be inadmissible this far removed in time, and it's probably not a crime for banks to lie, just as courts have ruled that law enforcement can use lies and deceptions in the cause of justice. Above it all the main thing is that The Blog never bends nor conceals the truth which is what makes us so special.
Sunday March 28, 2021 7:22 PM CDT -- Details of the FBI Raid on the Free Talk Live Radio Studios
Sunday March 28, 2021 9:44 AM CDT -- It Seemed Like Being Awake
At 9:20 this morning I wondered why I was hearing the Stuph File Program with Peter Anthony Holder, which is scheduled to start at 10. It seems that the station operator, Carl Blare, started the days program lineup an hour early, as has happened several times before. The solution, the way of covering up so as not to draw conspicuous attention, will be to run (repeat) the Stuph File at its regular time and never mention this again. But life is never so simple. By writing about the incident in The Blare Blog there will be a permanent confession in publication searchable by future investigators.
And there's other program business. KDX won't be able to carry the first two hours of tonight's Free Talk Live as we'd planned because the Deustche Welle Festival Concert is contractually presenting during that time. What we'll do is switch at 8 PM to the last hour live of Free Talk Live followed immediately at 9 PM by the first two hours of the program by delayed recording. The Ralph Nader Radio Hour will be aired earlier at about 5 PM and Harry Schearer's Le Show will be aired Tuesday at 2 PM following Thom Hartmann. All times Central Daylight.
Sunday March 28, 2021 8:17 AM CDT --
Saturday March 27, 2021 6:31 PM CDT -- Breaking News from Free Talk Live
Free Talk Live is a nightly talk show carried on over 200 stations from studios in Keene, New Hampshire. KDX carries only the Saturday evening edition of the show, and so are slow to learn of any program related events, and have only now become aware that the Free Talk Live studios were raided by the FBI several days ago. Details are sketchy for now as we have more to learn about what's transpiring, but we understand that the main host, Ian Freeman, is in jail awaiting appearance before a judge. Other clues indicate the trouble might stem from the program's employment of bitcoin in conjunction with the 501(C3) church founded by the program as the central business agency handling donations and business transactions. Effective immediately KDX will carry the live show everyday from 6 PM to 9 PM CDT as we await developments.
Saturday March 27, 2021 4:35 PM CDT -- WiFi Radio Update
As reported here on The Blog , Universal Radio is selling out and closing shop, so we looked at C.Crane, leading source of radios, and here's what we found regarding
Saturday March 27, 2021 2:00 PM CDT -- Time Out for Dream Talk
Given a splendid day prior to predicted storms my guilt had me out trimming greenery so the neighbors wouldn't speak badly of me. On the Sangeon WorkSite Radio KDX delivered Rev. Billy's weekly extinction sermon, preaching that it's too late for us but life would survive on earth as it always has. This could be my excuse if yard work becomes too imposing. I believe that extinction would be a good reason to stop working on endless jobs. But for now extinction provides no transition into dreams as a blog topic.
There I was in spacious corporate offices with busily employed women up and down aisles, all happy that I'd stopped by. One dreams with many underlying sensations, and I felt this was a professional courtesy call on my part; that I wasn't employed per se at this place. I was also inwardly aware that the better looking women were far down the way toward the back wall, but the three women nearby were eagerly telling me things so it would have been rude to walk away anytime soon. Then I happened upon a lone woman sitting at a table not apparently doing a job. It was my late wife and I quickly realized that seeing her warranted stopping and wondering over the fact that this is where she was but she didn't recognize me and I wasn't certain how to explain the situation so I stood around until the dream faded away.
You're tuned to 'Dream-to-Dream A.M.' and the phones are full so let's talk with Ned from Wisconsin. Ned? Tell us your dream.
Saturday March 27, 2021 11:20 AM CDT -- Fragmental Dabblings
The appearance of the Wi-Fi radio seemed like it might offer new territory for part 15 development, but mention of such radios seems to have subsided. Later today we'll take a moment to search around to ascertain the state of the art for such devices, but for now we'll lean on what Bruce MICRO1700 told us about his Wi-Fi radio. He told us that such radios ('such' is not a brand) offered thousands of incoming radio streams based on "aggregators", defined as services that ranked and listed the IP addresses of select stations. Therefore independent streaming stations hoping to hold a place on the list needed either to apply with the aggregator or be fortunate enough to be selected by one. A later report from Bruce suggested that some aggregators were dropping out from lack of acceptance leaving the radio manufacturers adrift without a source of available stations. What little we know ends here, but we'll actually look something up before the next report. Since radio for us is a hobby and not a job we don't work very hard at it. Even the ignorant have freedom of the press.
Saturday March 27, 2021 9:03 AM CDT -- A.I. in the House
Speaking as a mere human being with estimated self-intelligence, I seem to have built a radio station that has developed its own artificial intelligence which is more active and eager than mine. Attempts to paper train the station have resulted in a lot of spoiled paper. Take this morning for example. I shuffled into work a half hour late, turned on the computer screen, and was puzzled that the radio station was churning away spitting out programs which contradicted the fact that last night I turned it off because it was doing things on its own that weren't authorized. Well, the computer server was left on or the website would have been closed but the Icecast radio stream server was turned off as well as the AM FM transmitters. It was the Zara Automation Program that had reared itself from the stopped position and was ambitiously sending programs to nowhere. I can remind Zara that I'm the boss, but she finds that highly amusing. It's probably time for me to sign up with Linked In to sniff around for another opportunity.
Friday March 26, 2021 5:26 PM CDT -- The Public and Broadcasting Manual
A copy of this manual is found in the public files of FCC licensed radio stations.
Friday March 26, 2021 2:02 PM CDT -- Zara Spelled Backwards is Araz
Last night our Zara Automation System came up with a new malfunction we hadn't previously experienced... audiofiles started talking over each other at certain times creating the sensation of a rebellion among audiofiles. Rather than treating it like an emergency we took the easy way and shut the streaming down until morning, when we watched for recurrence, and Zara faithfully remembered to mess up, spewing voices on top of each other. Right away we determined that the word-splatter was happening at the junctions between audiofiles, and clear-headed logic took us right to Tools/Options/Overlap, a setting commonly used by music stations to start the playing of another song mixed together with the fading of the previous song. For us the overlap trick has always been left at zero so that a new program waits until the previous program has come to a complete finish, but now the overlap box indicated 8-seconds, which we came to realize is exactly what sets by pressing the Default button, which must have been bumped somewhere in recent past. For the sake of play we tried setting overlap to 2-seconds and for spoken programs it's working nicely. It makes the crossover between programs sound sharp like our whole staff is on their best alert ready to shoot out the gate. We're very happy now and expect to have a wonderful weekend until eventually we remember the pandemic.
Thursday March 25, 2021 5:58 PM CDT -- -- -- -- -- A Poem Storm
Thursday March 25, 2021 10:47 AM CDT -- NEWS from Information Station Specialists
Submitted by Bill Baker
Wednesday March 24, 2021 12:54 NOON CDT -- Total Success
The C.Crane FM1 Transmitter opens like an egg, the two halves fitting together very snugly. What we discovered was that the hair-thin input wires were cramped by the battery compartment and the shield wire was shorting with components on a circuit card causing crippling of stereo audio. Fortunately no permanent damage was done and full stereo modulation has been restored. The other problem, Realtek HD Stereo Audio 2 being lost as the default hardware setup, we found that this is caused by unplugging of the FM1 audio cable. The desired default depends on the cable being attached, and if lost, requires a computer reboot. A fuller explanation of why this situation exists is more complex than described here.
Monday March 22, 2021 5:29 PM CDT -- Program Re-Schedulings
Last night was Sunday night and KDX was absent from the air due to concentration on audio problems we're working to solve, and several key programs did not air. Those programs have been rescheduled so we can catch up and they include the Ralph Nader Radio Hour which was already heard early this morning (Monday), the Deutsche Welle Festival Concert which started airing four minutes ago and is being broadcast as I type this message, and Harry Schearer's Le Show set to be heard tomorrow (Tuesday) following Thom Hartmann at 2 PM CDT. Next Sunday (March 28) we expect to be back on schedule but following the conclusion of the Deutsche Welle Festival Concert series on the night of Sunday May 9th KDX will discontinue Sunday evening broadcast until the fall. There are no refunds.
Monday March 22, 2021 2:30 PM CDT -- Audio Ventures
As so happens the C.Crane FM1 problem already mentioned is not the only difficulty unearthed. It was also discovered that the Realtek HD Audio 2 hardware output jack was malfuntioning in several ways. For our complex and elaborate setup Audio 2 needs to be marked as the default output, but under certain circumstances it looses its designation and the default reverts to a different output, eventually causing Audio 2 to vanish entirely from the output list in Windows audio settings, requiring a reboot. And there's another thing, something we've ignored until now... in the Windows audio setup controls is a section labeled 'SRS Premium Sound' with a batch of audio processing adjustments, including one that allows setting the vocal (movie dialogue) prominence on a scale from 0 to 100%. Good news now... setting it to 100% satisfies our complaint about hard to understand speech within films and brings a perfectly clear voice jumping out to the listener. We're getting closer to technological perfection.
Monday March 22, 2021 12:16 NOON CDT -- -- -- -- On Spring
Monday March 22, 2021 10:20 AM CDT -- Monkey Has Good Day At Typewriter
A Blare OnAir program more than half-way good.
Sunday March 21, 2021 4:12 PM CDT -- Findings Pertaining to Our C.Crane FM1 Transmitter
Quite recently we repaired the dangly antenna and placed the FM1 back in service as the official sub-channel, the audition channel for hearing movie audio and Audacity edit sessions. We have complained about poor audio quality from movies streamed from YouTube and movie sites. Then we ran a simple left/right test of the transmitter's audio channels and were surprised to discover that the right channel audio is not present, and seemingly listening to only the left channel presents poor quality sound. In a moment we will start a series of tests to determine where the right channel is being blocked. We assume the transmitter is at fault, but perhaps the hardware output from the computer's audio 2 is at fault. What will we find? Bets are being placed in states where online gambling is legal. Keep watching The Blare Blog for updates on your life and that of small transmitters.
Sunday March 21, 2021 9:58 AM CDT -- Thinking Things Through
A very small mall would be called a minimal mall. Say that 5-times.
Saturday March 20, 2021 4:10 PM CDT -- Now a Poem by Hermann Hesse
Saturday March 20, 2021 2:09 PM CDT -- It's All Over Nothing to See Here
What we missed is the vernal equinox at 9:37 UTC this morning, marking the astronomical end of winter and start of spring.
Friday March 19, 2021 3:32 PM CDT -- A Homodyne is Not a Gay Reception
No need for demolition squad -- it's Boomer!
KRRL,
I too like the Schlockwood website, but not as much for their processor sales, it's the Projects page that I like, and especially the updated 'Homodyne' regenerative radio. It has a schematic, and tells clearly how to build the radio, the theory of operation and how to tune it.
The Schlockwood processor seems to be a good product too, if someone favors an analog product, though if you're running a simple computer playback to a transmitter, audio processor software might work for you, some is even Freeware, and it's less equipment to run and be another fail point in a system, like any extra equipment can be.
Night Light all night KDX programming. I too have thought of playing around with station concepts and IDs, and having my station change to WBED, The Station For Sleep, with relaxing programming in the late hours when you should be sleeping, like the set of nature sounds CDs I have, and new age music. The nature sounds borders on the avant-garde, with the sounds of water flowing, birds and frogs, and starts with a saxophone playing in echo at a distance, like someone is walking through a deep forest blaring out on their horn, and I find that funny.
I have also wanted to do a station based on facts about the neighbor's dog, Racey, and call certain sets Racey Radio.
More privately I feel some of what you do about quarantine ending, it's been something different than typical life, making it a new experience. I noticed the quiet, especially during lock down, and it felt my area was countryside again, with only natural sounds.
I find it harder to bring up the good points about the 'now normal' to some of my friends who have been suffering from social withdrawal, that I might be thought of as ungrateful for their friendship, and times spent going to coffee or shopping.
As for time change, I'm hoping that the Sunshine Act goes through and we can do away with the time changes, and stay on DST. I've still been feeling the effects slightly, getting hungry at the wrong times, for one thing.
I use the Events function on my playback program too, having a bank of shows in a folder, and to choose one to cut into the playlist at a certain time. I still haven't tried it for stream URLs yet, starting the few a week manually.
The Blare shows are a mixed bag of ones I've downloaded over the past years when they've been offered, and they run occasionally, as random events. Some titles are Blare OnAir Lite, State Of The Station, Blare, Blare Blog Blog Day, Blare Breakfast, Blare On Air New Series, Summer Solstice, Carl's Food Truck, Low Power Hour, Blare's Symphony, The Sunday Morning News, C Blare Everyday. Those are some titles in the folder. Some of the shows are older, with personalities no longer in the low power radio scene, like RF Burns from KROCKS Radio, which you introduced as "Crocks Radio", to which he had to correct you, K-ROCKS.
Glad that you're trying different audio bandwidths on your station. I too hear the difference between 10 khz and 15 khz audio, even on a Panasonic boombox that has a fairly wide bandwith, though it isn't true wide band, hi-fi standard reception. It's a delicate effect, just a little more high end clarity and sparkle, unvoiced sounds like breaths, and instrument harmonics. With that extra top end, the audio sounds flat, in the good way.
The frequency response standard for AM broadcast should still be 10 khz audio response, I think 5 khz bandwidth was one of the big radio companies' ideas, like iHeart, that wanted to set all of their AM stations to 5 kc across the board. Now TIS stations are allowed 5 khz audio, up from the 3, that it used to be. If they pre-emphasize (turn up the treble), it can sound clear on voices, at least as I've heard in recordings.
On commercial radio, I've heard all kinds of different frequency response, from phone quality sports stations, and WJR Detroit, big station, but it sounds muffled in the overnights, to WSM Nashville at 650, that must be full frequency, it's crisp and clear, especially on Willie Nelson era songs, when recordings were nicely balanced and dynamic.
I use 15 khz audio on AM, same as FM stations have. It's a little wider, but I find it doesn't cause more interference in the daytime. At night in theory there's encroachment on the second adjacent channels, but I find it rapidly drops as my station's signal strength gets lower.
I don't really see evidence of the need to lower bandwidth, I thought it was a dumb idea to make it a rule, but the smart minds at the National Radio Systems Committee said we must do it. One of the ideas was a standardization of broadcaster sound quality, so that better sounding radios could be built, with tonal balance and frequency response conforming to the standard, like FM radios have since the beginning.
Sounds good in theory, but broadcasters effectively lost 'real estate' for their signals, with barely a peep by AM radio stations, they didn't even put up a fight.
- Boomer
Carl's reply to Boomer: I think so too.
Friday March 19, 2021 9:51 AM CDT -- Something Entirely New
It might appear that every radio program/format idea has already been tried, but this might be a whole new idea...
If you're like me, and thousands of people probably are, you avoid sports programming when listening to radio, and chart out other non-sports programs and stations for those times when avoiding sports. How about a station/program that positions itself as the counter-sports station, (it probably wouldn't do to call it 'anti-sports') ...
For the next five hours while station X is airing the Cardinals Game, KDX presents The Non-Sports Zone!
We will tell you when the game is finally over and it's safe to go back to station X.
By overtly admitting that your station is ALSO avoiding the game, listeners will feel welcome and understood.
I'm Carl Blare and I approve this message.
Friday March 19, 2021 9:30 AM CDT -- Down TECSUN Way
For KDX the TECSUN PL-310 continues to be an essential part of the station's tools for keeping a semi-sientific view of transmitter/antenna performance, with it's dBu and S/N field-strength readings. It's one of the most sensitive and solidly built radios we have, but some troubling symptoms have arisen. Foremost the power ON/OFF button doesn't always do what's expected. The red button in the upper right-hand corner turns the radio on when pressed once and off when pressed again. Except that at random times it does nothing. At those moments the radio will not turn on. But by waiting a few minutes, pressing the button works again.That's not the only odd behavior and we'll be back to say more.
Friday March 19, 2021 9:25 AM CDT -- Artisan Radio Status Update
From Artisan Radio...
I have reinstated my OTR (Old Time Radio) programming, both over the air and streaming, and brought my website up to date. The Opera thing is on hold for awhile.
Pay a visit to Artisan Radio on the KDX Demand Radio page.
Thursday March 18, 2021 11:17 AM CDT -- Steady and Stable
Following three days of immersive study and trial the Zara Automation is running nicely thus freeing much of the time previously spent manually controlling the program.. This morning at 6 a station ID happened at the exact time followed by the Fault Lines program streaming live from RT America while Carl was able to listen from bedside without needing to report for duty. Same at 9 AM when Zara switched to the usual news programs. The daily running of the radio station has become less time intensive for the human operator.
What qualifies Zara as 'professional' software and makes it more than a playlist-based audio player is the Event Window which provides precise scheduling of audio content compared with the much simpler function of the ordinary playlist which merely plays audio in sequential order without reference to real clock-time.
Wednesday March 17, 2021 1:22 PM CDT -- Carl Found His Way Home
It started as a simple Duck Duck Go search, wanting to see where the studios of local AM 1600 were located. He had it in his head that they were ensconced in a particular building north of the big park. But when he looked on their website it said the studios were south of the park, and he also noticed a Google Map icon at the side of the page, which he clicked. Expecting to find himself looking at one of four radio facilities known to be south of the park, instead Carl found himself in unfamiliar territory looking at unfamiliar street names. By maneuvering the terrain westward by mouse the Mississippi River came to the screen and Carl knew he'd been sent to the transmitter site located across the river. Rolling further west we eventually found our home town and using the same remembered street map ordinarilly applied to driving a car we made it to the sky space above the Internet Building looking down upon the forested campus of Home School College, home of KDX Worldround Radio.
Wednesday March 17, 2021 9:34 AM CDT -- Carl's Opinion on Things Beyond His Expertise - a Series
Hello.
This Blog entry is brought on by the raging argument over meat-eating
versus vegan diets for our species. Let me tell you, human beings are
omnivorous, meaning that we're able to consume a large palette of food
choices which is not the case with many animals. Meat is absolutely on
the menu for us whether we choose to select it or not. The main
'problem' with meat as well as with many other foods are certain
processes used to produce and preserve those foods. This is a difficult
situation to navigate. There are no easy answers and just as often
there are no complicated answers.
Wednesday March 16, 2021 7:12 AM CST -- Stop Playing With Toys During a War
The pandemic isn't a vacation. We are at war against a microscopic enemy and it's time to wake up, get up, and go full scale space force. The Corona Virus is an extinction event but the human species is responding by wearing dinky facemask costumes and daintily hand-santizing while binge-watching movies and drowning in booze and edible crunchies. Stand at attention! Suit up!
Tuesday March 16, 2021 7:16 PM CDT -- Part 15 Gets a Mention in RADIOWORLD
Page 12 of the January 20th edition talks about Jim Wood, "active on a couple of part 15 experimentor sites online". Mr. Wood builds and markets a tidy audio processor called Schlockwood SW200.
Tuesday March 16, 2021 10:21 AM CDT -- Know Your Audience
The idea of 'plain writing' might be thought of as "keep it simple" but subjects and topics aren't always simple, and simplicity is very much determined by the audience, but an audience is a generality and to paraphrase Mark Twain:
Even within philosophy circles a reading from John Paul Sartre might need an intermission to ponder what's been said:
In writing for our Blog the main thing is radio, but almost anything can be broadcast and the subject exists even aside from actual wireless transmission and may not always be explicitly referenced but implied through inference.
One person's plain language might not be another person's cup of tea.
Tuesday March 16, 2021 9:32 AM CDT -- Radio Law Talk
Radio Law Talk is a website, a radio program, a streamer and a blog.
Tuesday March 16, 2021 8:57 AM CDT -- The Plain Writing Act
After writing the preceeding blog entry titled "Fair Play Medical Decision Policy Recommendation" we began wondering if perhaps some of what we said in unintentionally cryptic language is not what we strove for at The Blare Blog. The problem with that particular commentary, according to our own review, is that what we intended conveying was difficult to express in plain language, and so quite naturally the phrase plain writing leapt out to us while visiting the FCC website.
Monday March 15, 2021 6:49 PM CDT -- Zara School
At first it seemed like authors of Zara automation software must have skimped on cleanup of their product over the fact that some time length windows show 12-hour AM/PM time format whereas other time windows appear as 24-hour format (e.g., 1:00 PM equals 13:00:00 o'clock). But upon close study and clear-headed thought we realize the 24-hour windows save on having to add an AM/PM extension. But it does get confusing while trying to make the conversion during command entry.
Sunday March 14, 2021 12:47 NOON CDT -- Fair Play Medical Decision Policy Recommendation
So many people are ditching their sanitary masks and huddling close together party-style thumbing-noses at COVID-SARS but many of those same free-facers will end up hospitalized begging medical personnel "Please save me! My dog needs me!" and the beleaguered doctors and nurses will find themselves obligated to administer the best care possible to save the lives of idiots while more reasonable patients who followed the guidelines but fell upon sorry luck will find their care siphoned away. That is why we propose moving the morons all the way to the end of the queue not out of meanness but owing to obligatory respect, albeit bordering on sarcasm, for the lunk-headed belief systems the shirkers impose on us. The honoring of our neighbor's stupidity is another name for 'tolerance', preached by the selfishly superstitious. We honor their fervent (science) denial by enabling that denial even even as it fails.
Sunday March 14, 2021 12:10 NOON CDT -- Lifted On the Air by His Own Boot Straps
Blare OnAir "Just Saying" returns to its own KDX time slot every Sunday at 2 PM CDT/3 PM EDT utilizing the Lost Hour switch-knifed by Daylight Saving Time. Saving daylight since last night.
Other changes, however minor... Our all night programming shall now be collectively called NIGHT LIGHT, just in time for the closure of most overnight broadcasting from KDX. And the station gains a new slogan: KDX Has It! alternating with We've Got It at KDX!
Sunday March 14, 2021 9:47 AM CDT -- One Category Short
While people are in touch they are correspondents. Put when out of touch are they dispondents? Perhaps expondents? If you know the answer contact Carl Blare care of this station.
Sunday March 14, 2021 9:05 AM CDT -- Oh Me My Goodness I Totally Forgot
The utter silence brought on by the COVID quarantine contributes to ultra deep dreaming and thinking that seem a lot like traveling to far flung parts of the world across multiple time zones leaving one in the clouds as to when it is at any given moment. Just now, for example, while typing the time up above my memory woke up and knew that we are no longer in standard time and have automatically been forwarded bluntly across the lost hour into today, with the computer having reset itself without indicating as much in such a way that it could be described by even a fairly competent writer in the English language which also seems to be disoriented along with other lost control. But that's not why I called.
As regular subscribers know, KDX operates from a sophisticated automation system known as Zara and this weekend we've stepped beyond the fundamental Playlist Window over into the Upcoming Events Window which puts the programmer's job in requirement of further education and sharper intellectual skill so as to avert... avert?, I think that's the right word, but we're not sure what follows, so we'll leave it at avert and come back later.
Saturday March 13, 2021 12:26 NOON CST -- Shallow Thoughts with Occasional Sinkholes
I'm really going to miss the pandemic. The deep silence is so peaceful, the absence of door to door solicitors, the standoffish avoidance by cautious neighbors, the empty sky. But we're reminded that some people are anxious to start it all up again by yellow school buses tooling around and the daily sirens right about the time schools let out, whatever that portends.
Meanwhile, we did a frequency response experiment with the radio station, wondering how best to set audio bandwidth to serve three different transmitter/server arrangements. The audio processing device Stereo Tool allows fine-tuning the audio spectrum at both ends to best meet the requirements of whatever it feeds down the line, and in our case that includes the Procaster AM transmitter, C.Crane FM2 transmitter and Icecast stream server. Of course everyone knows that AM radio on this continent has a 5 kHz bandwidth, which sounds slightly better than a phone call, FM a 15 kHz stereo audio bandwidth and internet streaming depends on bit and sample rate settings. Thing about it is that for us one setting has to suffice for all three destinations. So we tried 10 kHz (really 44Hz to 10 kHz because frequencies below 44 Hz include no voice and in the case of music most loudspeakers don't go much below), and everything sounded half-decent. General AM stations vary as to how they manage their bandwidth. Some strictly adhere to 5 kHz, a few dare to transmit 10 kHz which splashes into the next adjacent channels, and if there are no local stations utilizing them, the 2nd adjacent channels are there for sprinkles from the highest frequencies of a 15 kHz setting. After all, AM stations employing IBOC HD hybrid digital spew massive hash over almost 5 channels! So, after a week at 10 kHz we cranked it up to 15 kHz and distinctly heard the other half of decency; it sounded live as if even previously recorded programs were happening right now in clean studios!
Correspondent Bruce reminded us that he continues reliving the great Flav-O-radio experience he's previously talked about (somewhere in the November 2020 Blog) and continues to amass these Radio Shack items in multiple colors, the more recent models having an additional transistor for which he has not yet explained the purpose but eventually will.
Somewhere on another website Boomer mentioned that his station carries the Carl Blare Show. That interested me since it might pertain to shows I did actually called Blare OnAir, and wondered where he found them since the links have disappeared due to mis-management. It's been so long ago that I no longer recall what was said on those programs. It might be a good time to post them again for desperately vaccine terrorized quarantiners. Alright, put her there (your hand, for a shake).
There are a couple new program placements on the KDX schedule proving to be delightfully wonderful, both from Reverend Billy's CHURCH OF STOPSHOPPING and celebrating Earthalluliah. The ensemble performance, audio quality, originality and importance of the earth loving message is worthy of a Grammy, Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar, Nobel and Olympic award. Watch our Blog for all the link information needed to carry these excellent programs on your station. If you don't have a station, now would be the time to build one.
Saturday March 13, 2021 9:16 AM CST -- What's the Deal About UHF Channel 37?
Thursday March 11, 2021 6:43 PM CST -- Making Time Stand Still
If this happens we'll all be very grateful.
Thursday March 11, 2021 3:07 PM CST -- College Question
Is it possible to conspire without also colluding?
Thursday March 11, 2021 10:56 AM CST -- Storm Time
Things became very noisy at 6 this morning mostly from rain blowing sideways against windows of the Internet Building here in the center of North America and distant rumbling could be heard, so we consulted the Lightning Map and realized that the only electric storms in the U.S. were encircling our location. As per policy we closed the website and radio servers and decoupled transmitters from the outdoor ground system as a protection against disaster. The uproar subsided quickly and back we came with programming ready to go from KDX Worldround Radio. How is your reality?
Thursday March 11, 2021 9:51 AM CST -- The Inventor of the Tape Cassette Has died
Tuesday March 9, 2021 1:56 PM CST -- Mr. Biden Bring Us Our Vaccine
Tuesday March 9, 2021 1:43 PM CST -- The Future of Broadcast Engineering
Tuesday March 9, 2021 11:15 AM CST -- Forgettable History
And another poorly-thought quote attributed to President John F. Kennedy...
Tuesday March 9, 2021 7:34 AM CST -- Further Exploration
Thursday March 4, 2021 7:19 PM CST -- Vaccine Recipe
Why can't we get the formula and mix our own vaccines? What's in that stuff, anyway? The little vial I saw pictured on a website looked like clear liquid, transparent like water. So there's probably no cranberry juice in it which would likely be red but there could be ginger and banana extract and possibly refined walnut dust. All the experts say nothing about the ingredients but why can't we know at least something about what it is? What is the connection with the Mars missions, which happen to coincide in time with the Coronavirus? George Noway on Shore-To-Shore AM, the allnight radio show, has one guiding belief and that is that he doesn't believe in coincidences and while that makes no sense he goes on to say that coincidences are planned by fate and should be properly called syncronicities which resembles something my uncle used to say that got him put in the asylum. Come to think of it my uncle has not gotten COVID and so maybe the vaccine he claims to have concocted might be working, except he brewed it two years before the pandemic which I think is outside of the time-frame for a true syncronicity. Let's include the white pulp from the underside of grapefruit peelings.
Wednesday March 3, 2021 4:25 PM CST -- This Is What We've Said All Along
Tuesday March 2, 2021 2:56 PM CST -- False Alarm
KDX has learned that the Air Raid-Tornado Warning siren heard at 10 this morning was a mistake. No technical description was given as to what triggered the mistake.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 12:36 NOON CST -- Copyright Law and Your Radio Station
This article from the E.F.F. (Electronic Frontier Foundation) provides a briefing on the state of copyright obstacles encountered through online socializing and communicating. We're too late for the February 26th town hall but a recording of the event is available.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 10 AM CST -- It's 10 AM Sharp and Air Raid Sirens Are Blaring
If this is a nuclear attack then goodbye everyone and thanks for reading The Blare Blog. If it's a weather emergency isn't it amazing how it's so calm, sunny and not too cool at 50oF. If this is the Rapture then it looks like we've been left behind. Yesterday was the first Monday of the month and we heard the ordinary monthly test of the sirens at 11 AM, so maybe today is a double-check for the benefit of the field technician who overslept yesterday. As the siren ground down into silence a loudspeaker man could be heard reading a script: "BIFFHADNIKBLUHGARRSLUDDYPOP!!!" Sounds like aliens from Mars are here. We should probably be wearing pants.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 9:32 AM CST -- Turn On the News
Boomer responds to his master's voice:
I like the joke in their name, Turn On The News. Grab the dog's tail and he'll turn on you. That's what I think they're getting at.
You've mentioned that their news is 'insanity expressed as kids cartoons', but Isn't that the way that school student radio is supposed to be, amateur beginnings in the audio arts? I've listened to those stations a good bit on AM and FM for new voices and music, and they can be sophomoric and tend to run through the same jokes as earlier generations of starters, but that seems normal for the format.
I don't have a solution except more learning and life experience. How should they be doing the news?
I ran Turn On The News here, it was wacky, but I thought they must have put a good bit of work into editing it.
- Boom
I agree with every point you make, Boom, and I feel that my main point was missed, but I take the weight in thinking perhaps I didn't communicate well enough. Going through your note, 'Turn On the News' is a good double entendre title and is the best part of the whole joke. The contents of the program amount to one joke repeated over and over, the use of sound samples from rock songs to fling incoherence, as I said an unoriginal gimmick made famous in the 1950s by a 45RPM hit record by David Barsamian or someone of a similar name. By now it's been done so many times it's no longer funny, besides which modern rock lyrics are undecipherable because the singers have not studied the art of vocal rendition and are basically screaming against an instrumental slaughter at maximum decibel level, slurring speech as the standard 'style' of contorting the voice in 'all-alike' rock tradition. My point to begin with is, why would the general public want or need to hear it? Would we want to broadcast dog barking from a pet training school? Human students aren't yet educated and are generally not interesting except to their parents and perhaps each other, so why would putting them on the public airwaves make any sense? You say "normal for the format" but it's only normal because you've become accustomed to the status quo and unfortunately there's little or nothing of worth on radio in most places so there's no higher standard for comparison. As to how they should be doing the news, they probably shouldn't because even if they're in journalism school they're not graduates and we don't need to listen in on their classwork. My conclusion is the right one, they should have a public address system for critiqueing each other and carrier current would be good into the dorms.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 9:23 AM CST -- Single Frequency Networks (SFN)
Something we've been talking about in low power radio for awhile:
SFN KDX joined the many who protested separation of parents and their children as a Trump directed border cruelty, but in the new time under Biden we hear of thousands of unaccompanied minors arriving at the border, which constitutes children and parents self-separating. By comparison, when children of U.S. citizens separate we call the children runaways or their parents derelict, but we go too far drawing comparisons because border policy isn't based on equal treatment. In any case the unmanageable and unmanaged population problem evident in South America is a product of church missionaries having effectively deprived peoples of biology education and forced contraceptive-abortion prohibition resulting in an over abundance of fertilized sperm now being sent here while the church goes about tax free luxury living and continuing a tradition of lies and deception as godly imposters. Except to recommend that the border patrol send all these asylum seekers to the nearest churches, KDX is staying out of it.
Wednesday March 31, 2021 6:49 AM CDT -- On This "New" President
As the front man or figurehead of government, the President pulls most attention away from the massive bureacratic government that actually carries on with federal business. The last President kept attention through his trademark orange and cavalier golfing while this new one is known for tripping up stairs and foggy lapses of attention but has not played golf nor appointed family members to key advisory roles. Being president of the United States is one of the toughest acting roles in history because it requires acting as if not acting and as if it were all real.
Wednesday March 31, 2021 6:47 AM CDT -- William Shatner
The actor William Shatner remains active and involved at age 90 and makes this appearance on the Dennis Miller Show.
Monday March 29, 20221 8:47 AM CDT -- Like a Cargo Ship Blocking a Canal
No matter how we do it, we've found ourselves unable to wedge the 3-hour 'No Agenda' program into a 1/2-hour slot, so as to make way for the live edition of 'Free Talk Live', so here's what we'll do...
Both tonight (Monday) and Friday we'll place 'No Agenda' with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak, at 5:30 PM CDT following RT News, to be followed at 8:30 PM CDT by the last half-hour of the live 'Free Talk Live' and thereafter the playback of the opening hours of 'Free Talk Live' recorded earlier. The whole intention is to learn the latest developments in the legal case involving jailed members of the 'Free Talk Live' team.
We now know their apparent "crime" was lying to a bank, which reminds me of lies told me by banks, but that would be inadmissible this far removed in time, and it's probably not a crime for banks to lie, just as courts have ruled that law enforcement can use lies and deceptions in the cause of justice. Above it all the main thing is that The Blog never bends nor conceals the truth which is what makes us so special.
Sunday March 28, 2021 7:22 PM CDT -- Details of the FBI Raid on the Free Talk Live Radio Studios
Sunday March 28, 2021 9:44 AM CDT -- It Seemed Like Being Awake
At 9:20 this morning I wondered why I was hearing the Stuph File Program with Peter Anthony Holder, which is scheduled to start at 10. It seems that the station operator, Carl Blare, started the days program lineup an hour early, as has happened several times before. The solution, the way of covering up so as not to draw conspicuous attention, will be to run (repeat) the Stuph File at its regular time and never mention this again. But life is never so simple. By writing about the incident in The Blare Blog there will be a permanent confession in publication searchable by future investigators.
And there's other program business. KDX won't be able to carry the first two hours of tonight's Free Talk Live as we'd planned because the Deustche Welle Festival Concert is contractually presenting during that time. What we'll do is switch at 8 PM to the last hour live of Free Talk Live followed immediately at 9 PM by the first two hours of the program by delayed recording. The Ralph Nader Radio Hour will be aired earlier at about 5 PM and Harry Schearer's Le Show will be aired Tuesday at 2 PM following Thom Hartmann. All times Central Daylight.
Sunday March 28, 2021 8:17 AM CDT --
Buy for now
Because you may not have a chance to buy for tomorrow.
- The Firesign Theatre
Because you may not have a chance to buy for tomorrow.
- The Firesign Theatre
Saturday March 27, 2021 6:31 PM CDT -- Breaking News from Free Talk Live
Free Talk Live is a nightly talk show carried on over 200 stations from studios in Keene, New Hampshire. KDX carries only the Saturday evening edition of the show, and so are slow to learn of any program related events, and have only now become aware that the Free Talk Live studios were raided by the FBI several days ago. Details are sketchy for now as we have more to learn about what's transpiring, but we understand that the main host, Ian Freeman, is in jail awaiting appearance before a judge. Other clues indicate the trouble might stem from the program's employment of bitcoin in conjunction with the 501(C3) church founded by the program as the central business agency handling donations and business transactions. Effective immediately KDX will carry the live show everyday from 6 PM to 9 PM CDT as we await developments.
Saturday March 27, 2021 4:35 PM CDT -- WiFi Radio Update
As reported here on The Blog , Universal Radio is selling out and closing shop, so we looked at C.Crane, leading source of radios, and here's what we found regarding
Saturday March 27, 2021 2:00 PM CDT -- Time Out for Dream Talk
Given a splendid day prior to predicted storms my guilt had me out trimming greenery so the neighbors wouldn't speak badly of me. On the Sangeon WorkSite Radio KDX delivered Rev. Billy's weekly extinction sermon, preaching that it's too late for us but life would survive on earth as it always has. This could be my excuse if yard work becomes too imposing. I believe that extinction would be a good reason to stop working on endless jobs. But for now extinction provides no transition into dreams as a blog topic.
There I was in spacious corporate offices with busily employed women up and down aisles, all happy that I'd stopped by. One dreams with many underlying sensations, and I felt this was a professional courtesy call on my part; that I wasn't employed per se at this place. I was also inwardly aware that the better looking women were far down the way toward the back wall, but the three women nearby were eagerly telling me things so it would have been rude to walk away anytime soon. Then I happened upon a lone woman sitting at a table not apparently doing a job. It was my late wife and I quickly realized that seeing her warranted stopping and wondering over the fact that this is where she was but she didn't recognize me and I wasn't certain how to explain the situation so I stood around until the dream faded away.
You're tuned to 'Dream-to-Dream A.M.' and the phones are full so let's talk with Ned from Wisconsin. Ned? Tell us your dream.
Saturday March 27, 2021 11:20 AM CDT -- Fragmental Dabblings
The appearance of the Wi-Fi radio seemed like it might offer new territory for part 15 development, but mention of such radios seems to have subsided. Later today we'll take a moment to search around to ascertain the state of the art for such devices, but for now we'll lean on what Bruce MICRO1700 told us about his Wi-Fi radio. He told us that such radios ('such' is not a brand) offered thousands of incoming radio streams based on "aggregators", defined as services that ranked and listed the IP addresses of select stations. Therefore independent streaming stations hoping to hold a place on the list needed either to apply with the aggregator or be fortunate enough to be selected by one. A later report from Bruce suggested that some aggregators were dropping out from lack of acceptance leaving the radio manufacturers adrift without a source of available stations. What little we know ends here, but we'll actually look something up before the next report. Since radio for us is a hobby and not a job we don't work very hard at it. Even the ignorant have freedom of the press.
Saturday March 27, 2021 9:03 AM CDT -- A.I. in the House
Speaking as a mere human being with estimated self-intelligence, I seem to have built a radio station that has developed its own artificial intelligence which is more active and eager than mine. Attempts to paper train the station have resulted in a lot of spoiled paper. Take this morning for example. I shuffled into work a half hour late, turned on the computer screen, and was puzzled that the radio station was churning away spitting out programs which contradicted the fact that last night I turned it off because it was doing things on its own that weren't authorized. Well, the computer server was left on or the website would have been closed but the Icecast radio stream server was turned off as well as the AM FM transmitters. It was the Zara Automation Program that had reared itself from the stopped position and was ambitiously sending programs to nowhere. I can remind Zara that I'm the boss, but she finds that highly amusing. It's probably time for me to sign up with Linked In to sniff around for another opportunity.
Friday March 26, 2021 5:26 PM CDT -- The Public and Broadcasting Manual
A copy of this manual is found in the public files of FCC licensed radio stations.
Friday March 26, 2021 2:02 PM CDT -- Zara Spelled Backwards is Araz
Last night our Zara Automation System came up with a new malfunction we hadn't previously experienced... audiofiles started talking over each other at certain times creating the sensation of a rebellion among audiofiles. Rather than treating it like an emergency we took the easy way and shut the streaming down until morning, when we watched for recurrence, and Zara faithfully remembered to mess up, spewing voices on top of each other. Right away we determined that the word-splatter was happening at the junctions between audiofiles, and clear-headed logic took us right to Tools/Options/Overlap, a setting commonly used by music stations to start the playing of another song mixed together with the fading of the previous song. For us the overlap trick has always been left at zero so that a new program waits until the previous program has come to a complete finish, but now the overlap box indicated 8-seconds, which we came to realize is exactly what sets by pressing the Default button, which must have been bumped somewhere in recent past. For the sake of play we tried setting overlap to 2-seconds and for spoken programs it's working nicely. It makes the crossover between programs sound sharp like our whole staff is on their best alert ready to shoot out the gate. We're very happy now and expect to have a wonderful weekend until eventually we remember the pandemic.
Thursday March 25, 2021 5:58 PM CDT -- -- -- -- -- A Poem Storm
100% percent chance of rain is coming true
It's so dry in here compared to out there
And we want a poem about rain
But that's silly because
Rain expresses itself
Every drop ryhmes with every drop
The whole day grays accordingly
Yet I look in the book...
First look goes to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's
'A Coney Island of the Mind' then we'll move on to
Rainer Maria Rilke, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Bukowski,
and a rare book by a recluse deep in the Arkansas woods,
but strictly poems about rain.
Rod McKuen did a poem on "Rain"
but it's on an RCA record somewhere in the collection
of 10,000 discs unless its been lost, taken or given.
Hold my place while I flip pages...
Here its is! A poem about rain!
ON A RAINY DAY by Mick Daugherty
On a rainy day, on a rainy day
Life is an old sweet lovesong
Played by an old sad horn:
Jazz running down in glissandos
From ghetto bricks or forest trees.
Didn't she know I left because
I loved her too much to watch us
Both grow old and so soon?
Didn't she know that I loved her
Too much to live our love to death?
On a rainy day, on a rainy day
Life is remembering too well and long
With no one but us two in a daydream
Being glad somewhere in a lonely place
That there was only the two of us.
It's so dry in here compared to out there
And we want a poem about rain
But that's silly because
Rain expresses itself
Every drop ryhmes with every drop
The whole day grays accordingly
Yet I look in the book...
First look goes to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's
'A Coney Island of the Mind' then we'll move on to
Rainer Maria Rilke, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Bukowski,
and a rare book by a recluse deep in the Arkansas woods,
but strictly poems about rain.
Rod McKuen did a poem on "Rain"
but it's on an RCA record somewhere in the collection
of 10,000 discs unless its been lost, taken or given.
Hold my place while I flip pages...
Here its is! A poem about rain!
ON A RAINY DAY by Mick Daugherty
On a rainy day, on a rainy day
Life is an old sweet lovesong
Played by an old sad horn:
Jazz running down in glissandos
From ghetto bricks or forest trees.
Didn't she know I left because
I loved her too much to watch us
Both grow old and so soon?
Didn't she know that I loved her
Too much to live our love to death?
On a rainy day, on a rainy day
Life is remembering too well and long
With no one but us two in a daydream
Being glad somewhere in a lonely place
That there was only the two of us.
Thursday March 25, 2021 10:47 AM CDT -- NEWS from Information Station Specialists
Submitted by Bill Baker
Wednesday March 24, 2021 12:54 NOON CDT -- Total Success
The C.Crane FM1 Transmitter opens like an egg, the two halves fitting together very snugly. What we discovered was that the hair-thin input wires were cramped by the battery compartment and the shield wire was shorting with components on a circuit card causing crippling of stereo audio. Fortunately no permanent damage was done and full stereo modulation has been restored. The other problem, Realtek HD Stereo Audio 2 being lost as the default hardware setup, we found that this is caused by unplugging of the FM1 audio cable. The desired default depends on the cable being attached, and if lost, requires a computer reboot. A fuller explanation of why this situation exists is more complex than described here.
Monday March 22, 2021 5:29 PM CDT -- Program Re-Schedulings
Last night was Sunday night and KDX was absent from the air due to concentration on audio problems we're working to solve, and several key programs did not air. Those programs have been rescheduled so we can catch up and they include the Ralph Nader Radio Hour which was already heard early this morning (Monday), the Deutsche Welle Festival Concert which started airing four minutes ago and is being broadcast as I type this message, and Harry Schearer's Le Show set to be heard tomorrow (Tuesday) following Thom Hartmann at 2 PM CDT. Next Sunday (March 28) we expect to be back on schedule but following the conclusion of the Deutsche Welle Festival Concert series on the night of Sunday May 9th KDX will discontinue Sunday evening broadcast until the fall. There are no refunds.
Monday March 22, 2021 2:30 PM CDT -- Audio Ventures
As so happens the C.Crane FM1 problem already mentioned is not the only difficulty unearthed. It was also discovered that the Realtek HD Audio 2 hardware output jack was malfuntioning in several ways. For our complex and elaborate setup Audio 2 needs to be marked as the default output, but under certain circumstances it looses its designation and the default reverts to a different output, eventually causing Audio 2 to vanish entirely from the output list in Windows audio settings, requiring a reboot. And there's another thing, something we've ignored until now... in the Windows audio setup controls is a section labeled 'SRS Premium Sound' with a batch of audio processing adjustments, including one that allows setting the vocal (movie dialogue) prominence on a scale from 0 to 100%. Good news now... setting it to 100% satisfies our complaint about hard to understand speech within films and brings a perfectly clear voice jumping out to the listener. We're getting closer to technological perfection.
Monday March 22, 2021 12:16 NOON CDT -- -- -- -- On Spring
A poetry by Carl Blare
Spring is when
I like to wine
and sing all the time
Spring is when
I like to flirt
and chase after skirt
Pour some more
because it's spring
Let's us have a youthful fling
Drink and love
and dance all day
The sun shines on our fun and play
Days grow longer
Bills come due
Who was I with - maybe you
Fall is when
shadows cast
on memories past
Fall is when
Harvest comes in
Offspring of spring
Runs poems aground
Spring is when
I like to wine
and sing all the time
Spring is when
I like to flirt
and chase after skirt
Pour some more
because it's spring
Let's us have a youthful fling
Drink and love
and dance all day
The sun shines on our fun and play
Days grow longer
Bills come due
Who was I with - maybe you
Fall is when
shadows cast
on memories past
Fall is when
Harvest comes in
Offspring of spring
Runs poems aground
Monday March 22, 2021 10:20 AM CDT -- Monkey Has Good Day At Typewriter
A Blare OnAir program more than half-way good.
Sunday March 21, 2021 4:12 PM CDT -- Findings Pertaining to Our C.Crane FM1 Transmitter
Quite recently we repaired the dangly antenna and placed the FM1 back in service as the official sub-channel, the audition channel for hearing movie audio and Audacity edit sessions. We have complained about poor audio quality from movies streamed from YouTube and movie sites. Then we ran a simple left/right test of the transmitter's audio channels and were surprised to discover that the right channel audio is not present, and seemingly listening to only the left channel presents poor quality sound. In a moment we will start a series of tests to determine where the right channel is being blocked. We assume the transmitter is at fault, but perhaps the hardware output from the computer's audio 2 is at fault. What will we find? Bets are being placed in states where online gambling is legal. Keep watching The Blare Blog for updates on your life and that of small transmitters.
Sunday March 21, 2021 9:58 AM CDT -- Thinking Things Through
A very small mall would be called a minimal mall. Say that 5-times.
Saturday March 20, 2021 4:10 PM CDT -- Now a Poem by Hermann Hesse
Spring Day
Wind in bushes and bird piping
And high in the highest fresh blue
A haughty cloud ship, becalmed...
I dream of a blond woman,
I dream of my youth,
The high heaven blue and outspread
Is the cradle of my longing
Where I choose to lie calm
And blessedly warm
With the soft humming,
Just like a child held
On his mother's arm.
Wind in bushes and bird piping
And high in the highest fresh blue
A haughty cloud ship, becalmed...
I dream of a blond woman,
I dream of my youth,
The high heaven blue and outspread
Is the cradle of my longing
Where I choose to lie calm
And blessedly warm
With the soft humming,
Just like a child held
On his mother's arm.
Saturday March 20, 2021 2:09 PM CDT -- It's All Over Nothing to See Here
What we missed is the vernal equinox at 9:37 UTC this morning, marking the astronomical end of winter and start of spring.
Friday March 19, 2021 3:32 PM CDT -- A Homodyne is Not a Gay Reception
No need for demolition squad -- it's Boomer!
KRRL,
I too like the Schlockwood website, but not as much for their processor sales, it's the Projects page that I like, and especially the updated 'Homodyne' regenerative radio. It has a schematic, and tells clearly how to build the radio, the theory of operation and how to tune it.
The Schlockwood processor seems to be a good product too, if someone favors an analog product, though if you're running a simple computer playback to a transmitter, audio processor software might work for you, some is even Freeware, and it's less equipment to run and be another fail point in a system, like any extra equipment can be.
Night Light all night KDX programming. I too have thought of playing around with station concepts and IDs, and having my station change to WBED, The Station For Sleep, with relaxing programming in the late hours when you should be sleeping, like the set of nature sounds CDs I have, and new age music. The nature sounds borders on the avant-garde, with the sounds of water flowing, birds and frogs, and starts with a saxophone playing in echo at a distance, like someone is walking through a deep forest blaring out on their horn, and I find that funny.
I have also wanted to do a station based on facts about the neighbor's dog, Racey, and call certain sets Racey Radio.
More privately I feel some of what you do about quarantine ending, it's been something different than typical life, making it a new experience. I noticed the quiet, especially during lock down, and it felt my area was countryside again, with only natural sounds.
I find it harder to bring up the good points about the 'now normal' to some of my friends who have been suffering from social withdrawal, that I might be thought of as ungrateful for their friendship, and times spent going to coffee or shopping.
As for time change, I'm hoping that the Sunshine Act goes through and we can do away with the time changes, and stay on DST. I've still been feeling the effects slightly, getting hungry at the wrong times, for one thing.
I use the Events function on my playback program too, having a bank of shows in a folder, and to choose one to cut into the playlist at a certain time. I still haven't tried it for stream URLs yet, starting the few a week manually.
The Blare shows are a mixed bag of ones I've downloaded over the past years when they've been offered, and they run occasionally, as random events. Some titles are Blare OnAir Lite, State Of The Station, Blare, Blare Blog Blog Day, Blare Breakfast, Blare On Air New Series, Summer Solstice, Carl's Food Truck, Low Power Hour, Blare's Symphony, The Sunday Morning News, C Blare Everyday. Those are some titles in the folder. Some of the shows are older, with personalities no longer in the low power radio scene, like RF Burns from KROCKS Radio, which you introduced as "Crocks Radio", to which he had to correct you, K-ROCKS.
Glad that you're trying different audio bandwidths on your station. I too hear the difference between 10 khz and 15 khz audio, even on a Panasonic boombox that has a fairly wide bandwith, though it isn't true wide band, hi-fi standard reception. It's a delicate effect, just a little more high end clarity and sparkle, unvoiced sounds like breaths, and instrument harmonics. With that extra top end, the audio sounds flat, in the good way.
The frequency response standard for AM broadcast should still be 10 khz audio response, I think 5 khz bandwidth was one of the big radio companies' ideas, like iHeart, that wanted to set all of their AM stations to 5 kc across the board. Now TIS stations are allowed 5 khz audio, up from the 3, that it used to be. If they pre-emphasize (turn up the treble), it can sound clear on voices, at least as I've heard in recordings.
On commercial radio, I've heard all kinds of different frequency response, from phone quality sports stations, and WJR Detroit, big station, but it sounds muffled in the overnights, to WSM Nashville at 650, that must be full frequency, it's crisp and clear, especially on Willie Nelson era songs, when recordings were nicely balanced and dynamic.
I use 15 khz audio on AM, same as FM stations have. It's a little wider, but I find it doesn't cause more interference in the daytime. At night in theory there's encroachment on the second adjacent channels, but I find it rapidly drops as my station's signal strength gets lower.
I don't really see evidence of the need to lower bandwidth, I thought it was a dumb idea to make it a rule, but the smart minds at the National Radio Systems Committee said we must do it. One of the ideas was a standardization of broadcaster sound quality, so that better sounding radios could be built, with tonal balance and frequency response conforming to the standard, like FM radios have since the beginning.
Sounds good in theory, but broadcasters effectively lost 'real estate' for their signals, with barely a peep by AM radio stations, they didn't even put up a fight.
- Boomer
Carl's reply to Boomer: I think so too.
Friday March 19, 2021 9:51 AM CDT -- Something Entirely New
It might appear that every radio program/format idea has already been tried, but this might be a whole new idea...
If you're like me, and thousands of people probably are, you avoid sports programming when listening to radio, and chart out other non-sports programs and stations for those times when avoiding sports. How about a station/program that positions itself as the counter-sports station, (it probably wouldn't do to call it 'anti-sports') ...
For the next five hours while station X is airing the Cardinals Game, KDX presents The Non-Sports Zone!
We will tell you when the game is finally over and it's safe to go back to station X.
By overtly admitting that your station is ALSO avoiding the game, listeners will feel welcome and understood.
I'm Carl Blare and I approve this message.
Friday March 19, 2021 9:30 AM CDT -- Down TECSUN Way
For KDX the TECSUN PL-310 continues to be an essential part of the station's tools for keeping a semi-sientific view of transmitter/antenna performance, with it's dBu and S/N field-strength readings. It's one of the most sensitive and solidly built radios we have, but some troubling symptoms have arisen. Foremost the power ON/OFF button doesn't always do what's expected. The red button in the upper right-hand corner turns the radio on when pressed once and off when pressed again. Except that at random times it does nothing. At those moments the radio will not turn on. But by waiting a few minutes, pressing the button works again.That's not the only odd behavior and we'll be back to say more.
Friday March 19, 2021 9:25 AM CDT -- Artisan Radio Status Update
From Artisan Radio...
I have reinstated my OTR (Old Time Radio) programming, both over the air and streaming, and brought my website up to date. The Opera thing is on hold for awhile.
Pay a visit to Artisan Radio on the KDX Demand Radio page.
Thursday March 18, 2021 11:17 AM CDT -- Steady and Stable
Following three days of immersive study and trial the Zara Automation is running nicely thus freeing much of the time previously spent manually controlling the program.. This morning at 6 a station ID happened at the exact time followed by the Fault Lines program streaming live from RT America while Carl was able to listen from bedside without needing to report for duty. Same at 9 AM when Zara switched to the usual news programs. The daily running of the radio station has become less time intensive for the human operator.
What qualifies Zara as 'professional' software and makes it more than a playlist-based audio player is the Event Window which provides precise scheduling of audio content compared with the much simpler function of the ordinary playlist which merely plays audio in sequential order without reference to real clock-time.
Wednesday March 17, 2021 1:22 PM CDT -- Carl Found His Way Home
It started as a simple Duck Duck Go search, wanting to see where the studios of local AM 1600 were located. He had it in his head that they were ensconced in a particular building north of the big park. But when he looked on their website it said the studios were south of the park, and he also noticed a Google Map icon at the side of the page, which he clicked. Expecting to find himself looking at one of four radio facilities known to be south of the park, instead Carl found himself in unfamiliar territory looking at unfamiliar street names. By maneuvering the terrain westward by mouse the Mississippi River came to the screen and Carl knew he'd been sent to the transmitter site located across the river. Rolling further west we eventually found our home town and using the same remembered street map ordinarilly applied to driving a car we made it to the sky space above the Internet Building looking down upon the forested campus of Home School College, home of KDX Worldround Radio.
Wednesday March 17, 2021 9:34 AM CDT -- Carl's Opinion on Things Beyond His Expertise - a Series
MEAT!
Wednesday March 16, 2021 7:12 AM CST -- Stop Playing With Toys During a War
The pandemic isn't a vacation. We are at war against a microscopic enemy and it's time to wake up, get up, and go full scale space force. The Corona Virus is an extinction event but the human species is responding by wearing dinky facemask costumes and daintily hand-santizing while binge-watching movies and drowning in booze and edible crunchies. Stand at attention! Suit up!
Tuesday March 16, 2021 7:16 PM CDT -- Part 15 Gets a Mention in RADIOWORLD
Page 12 of the January 20th edition talks about Jim Wood, "active on a couple of part 15 experimentor sites online". Mr. Wood builds and markets a tidy audio processor called Schlockwood SW200.
Tuesday March 16, 2021 10:21 AM CDT -- Know Your Audience
The idea of 'plain writing' might be thought of as "keep it simple" but subjects and topics aren't always simple, and simplicity is very much determined by the audience, but an audience is a generality and to paraphrase Mark Twain:
"No generalizations are completely true,
not even this one."
If
the audience is a police department one might fail to connect if the
topic is "ways in which police steal money and property from everyday
citizens". If the audience is a philosophy society we might
assume that philosophy would go over quite well, but some in the
audience might have brought guests very far removed from even knowing
what philosophy is. The woman, for example, who brings her sport loving
boy friend to the lecture might be put upon when he whispers, "Can't we
ditch this stuffy drivel and get us a couple schooners at the sports bar?" not even this one."
Even within philosophy circles a reading from John Paul Sartre might need an intermission to ponder what's been said:
"By
not considering being as the condition of a revelation but rather being
as an appearance which can be determined in concepts, we have
understood first of all that knowledge can not by itself give an
account of being."
In writing for our Blog the main thing is radio, but almost anything can be broadcast and the subject exists even aside from actual wireless transmission and may not always be explicitly referenced but implied through inference.
One person's plain language might not be another person's cup of tea.
Tuesday March 16, 2021 9:32 AM CDT -- Radio Law Talk
Radio Law Talk is a website, a radio program, a streamer and a blog.
Tuesday March 16, 2021 8:57 AM CDT -- The Plain Writing Act
After writing the preceeding blog entry titled "Fair Play Medical Decision Policy Recommendation" we began wondering if perhaps some of what we said in unintentionally cryptic language is not what we strove for at The Blare Blog. The problem with that particular commentary, according to our own review, is that what we intended conveying was difficult to express in plain language, and so quite naturally the phrase plain writing leapt out to us while visiting the FCC website.
Monday March 15, 2021 6:49 PM CDT -- Zara School
At first it seemed like authors of Zara automation software must have skimped on cleanup of their product over the fact that some time length windows show 12-hour AM/PM time format whereas other time windows appear as 24-hour format (e.g., 1:00 PM equals 13:00:00 o'clock). But upon close study and clear-headed thought we realize the 24-hour windows save on having to add an AM/PM extension. But it does get confusing while trying to make the conversion during command entry.
Sunday March 14, 2021 12:47 NOON CDT -- Fair Play Medical Decision Policy Recommendation
So many people are ditching their sanitary masks and huddling close together party-style thumbing-noses at COVID-SARS but many of those same free-facers will end up hospitalized begging medical personnel "Please save me! My dog needs me!" and the beleaguered doctors and nurses will find themselves obligated to administer the best care possible to save the lives of idiots while more reasonable patients who followed the guidelines but fell upon sorry luck will find their care siphoned away. That is why we propose moving the morons all the way to the end of the queue not out of meanness but owing to obligatory respect, albeit bordering on sarcasm, for the lunk-headed belief systems the shirkers impose on us. The honoring of our neighbor's stupidity is another name for 'tolerance', preached by the selfishly superstitious. We honor their fervent (science) denial by enabling that denial even even as it fails.
Sunday March 14, 2021 12:10 NOON CDT -- Lifted On the Air by His Own Boot Straps
Blare OnAir "Just Saying" returns to its own KDX time slot every Sunday at 2 PM CDT/3 PM EDT utilizing the Lost Hour switch-knifed by Daylight Saving Time. Saving daylight since last night.
Other changes, however minor... Our all night programming shall now be collectively called NIGHT LIGHT, just in time for the closure of most overnight broadcasting from KDX. And the station gains a new slogan: KDX Has It! alternating with We've Got It at KDX!
Sunday March 14, 2021 9:47 AM CDT -- One Category Short
While people are in touch they are correspondents. Put when out of touch are they dispondents? Perhaps expondents? If you know the answer contact Carl Blare care of this station.
Sunday March 14, 2021 9:05 AM CDT -- Oh Me My Goodness I Totally Forgot
The utter silence brought on by the COVID quarantine contributes to ultra deep dreaming and thinking that seem a lot like traveling to far flung parts of the world across multiple time zones leaving one in the clouds as to when it is at any given moment. Just now, for example, while typing the time up above my memory woke up and knew that we are no longer in standard time and have automatically been forwarded bluntly across the lost hour into today, with the computer having reset itself without indicating as much in such a way that it could be described by even a fairly competent writer in the English language which also seems to be disoriented along with other lost control. But that's not why I called.
As regular subscribers know, KDX operates from a sophisticated automation system known as Zara and this weekend we've stepped beyond the fundamental Playlist Window over into the Upcoming Events Window which puts the programmer's job in requirement of further education and sharper intellectual skill so as to avert... avert?, I think that's the right word, but we're not sure what follows, so we'll leave it at avert and come back later.
Saturday March 13, 2021 12:26 NOON CST -- Shallow Thoughts with Occasional Sinkholes
I'm really going to miss the pandemic. The deep silence is so peaceful, the absence of door to door solicitors, the standoffish avoidance by cautious neighbors, the empty sky. But we're reminded that some people are anxious to start it all up again by yellow school buses tooling around and the daily sirens right about the time schools let out, whatever that portends.
Meanwhile, we did a frequency response experiment with the radio station, wondering how best to set audio bandwidth to serve three different transmitter/server arrangements. The audio processing device Stereo Tool allows fine-tuning the audio spectrum at both ends to best meet the requirements of whatever it feeds down the line, and in our case that includes the Procaster AM transmitter, C.Crane FM2 transmitter and Icecast stream server. Of course everyone knows that AM radio on this continent has a 5 kHz bandwidth, which sounds slightly better than a phone call, FM a 15 kHz stereo audio bandwidth and internet streaming depends on bit and sample rate settings. Thing about it is that for us one setting has to suffice for all three destinations. So we tried 10 kHz (really 44Hz to 10 kHz because frequencies below 44 Hz include no voice and in the case of music most loudspeakers don't go much below), and everything sounded half-decent. General AM stations vary as to how they manage their bandwidth. Some strictly adhere to 5 kHz, a few dare to transmit 10 kHz which splashes into the next adjacent channels, and if there are no local stations utilizing them, the 2nd adjacent channels are there for sprinkles from the highest frequencies of a 15 kHz setting. After all, AM stations employing IBOC HD hybrid digital spew massive hash over almost 5 channels! So, after a week at 10 kHz we cranked it up to 15 kHz and distinctly heard the other half of decency; it sounded live as if even previously recorded programs were happening right now in clean studios!
Correspondent Bruce reminded us that he continues reliving the great Flav-O-radio experience he's previously talked about (somewhere in the November 2020 Blog) and continues to amass these Radio Shack items in multiple colors, the more recent models having an additional transistor for which he has not yet explained the purpose but eventually will.
Somewhere on another website Boomer mentioned that his station carries the Carl Blare Show. That interested me since it might pertain to shows I did actually called Blare OnAir, and wondered where he found them since the links have disappeared due to mis-management. It's been so long ago that I no longer recall what was said on those programs. It might be a good time to post them again for desperately vaccine terrorized quarantiners. Alright, put her there (your hand, for a shake).
There are a couple new program placements on the KDX schedule proving to be delightfully wonderful, both from Reverend Billy's CHURCH OF STOPSHOPPING and celebrating Earthalluliah. The ensemble performance, audio quality, originality and importance of the earth loving message is worthy of a Grammy, Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar, Nobel and Olympic award. Watch our Blog for all the link information needed to carry these excellent programs on your station. If you don't have a station, now would be the time to build one.
Reverend Billy
Saturday March 13, 2021 9:16 AM CST -- What's the Deal About UHF Channel 37?
Thursday March 11, 2021 6:43 PM CST -- Making Time Stand Still
If this happens we'll all be very grateful.
Thursday March 11, 2021 3:07 PM CST -- College Question
Is it possible to conspire without also colluding?
Thursday March 11, 2021 10:56 AM CST -- Storm Time
Things became very noisy at 6 this morning mostly from rain blowing sideways against windows of the Internet Building here in the center of North America and distant rumbling could be heard, so we consulted the Lightning Map and realized that the only electric storms in the U.S. were encircling our location. As per policy we closed the website and radio servers and decoupled transmitters from the outdoor ground system as a protection against disaster. The uproar subsided quickly and back we came with programming ready to go from KDX Worldround Radio. How is your reality?
Thursday March 11, 2021 9:51 AM CST -- The Inventor of the Tape Cassette Has died
Tuesday March 9, 2021 1:56 PM CST -- Mr. Biden Bring Us Our Vaccine
Tuesday March 9, 2021 1:43 PM CST -- The Future of Broadcast Engineering
from the Engineering Radio Blog
Tuesday March 9, 2021 11:15 AM CST -- Forgettable History
Non-Thinkers are still saying:
Those who don't know history are bound to repeat it.
But if they don't know history
How would they know it was repeating?
Those who don't know history are bound to repeat it.
But if they don't know history
How would they know it was repeating?
And another poorly-thought quote attributed to President John F. Kennedy...
Ask not what your country can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your country.
But think again...
The purpose of a country is to do things for its citizens.
Ask what you can do for your country.
But think again...
The purpose of a country is to do things for its citizens.
Tuesday March 9, 2021 7:34 AM CST -- Further Exploration
Thursday March 4, 2021 7:19 PM CST -- Vaccine Recipe
Why can't we get the formula and mix our own vaccines? What's in that stuff, anyway? The little vial I saw pictured on a website looked like clear liquid, transparent like water. So there's probably no cranberry juice in it which would likely be red but there could be ginger and banana extract and possibly refined walnut dust. All the experts say nothing about the ingredients but why can't we know at least something about what it is? What is the connection with the Mars missions, which happen to coincide in time with the Coronavirus? George Noway on Shore-To-Shore AM, the allnight radio show, has one guiding belief and that is that he doesn't believe in coincidences and while that makes no sense he goes on to say that coincidences are planned by fate and should be properly called syncronicities which resembles something my uncle used to say that got him put in the asylum. Come to think of it my uncle has not gotten COVID and so maybe the vaccine he claims to have concocted might be working, except he brewed it two years before the pandemic which I think is outside of the time-frame for a true syncronicity. Let's include the white pulp from the underside of grapefruit peelings.
Wednesday March 3, 2021 4:25 PM CST -- This Is What We've Said All Along
Tuesday March 2, 2021 2:56 PM CST -- False Alarm
KDX has learned that the Air Raid-Tornado Warning siren heard at 10 this morning was a mistake. No technical description was given as to what triggered the mistake.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 12:36 NOON CST -- Copyright Law and Your Radio Station
This article from the E.F.F. (Electronic Frontier Foundation) provides a briefing on the state of copyright obstacles encountered through online socializing and communicating. We're too late for the February 26th town hall but a recording of the event is available.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 10 AM CST -- It's 10 AM Sharp and Air Raid Sirens Are Blaring
If this is a nuclear attack then goodbye everyone and thanks for reading The Blare Blog. If it's a weather emergency isn't it amazing how it's so calm, sunny and not too cool at 50oF. If this is the Rapture then it looks like we've been left behind. Yesterday was the first Monday of the month and we heard the ordinary monthly test of the sirens at 11 AM, so maybe today is a double-check for the benefit of the field technician who overslept yesterday. As the siren ground down into silence a loudspeaker man could be heard reading a script: "BIFFHADNIKBLUHGARRSLUDDYPOP!!!" Sounds like aliens from Mars are here. We should probably be wearing pants.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 9:32 AM CST -- Turn On the News
Boomer responds to his master's voice:
I like the joke in their name, Turn On The News. Grab the dog's tail and he'll turn on you. That's what I think they're getting at.
You've mentioned that their news is 'insanity expressed as kids cartoons', but Isn't that the way that school student radio is supposed to be, amateur beginnings in the audio arts? I've listened to those stations a good bit on AM and FM for new voices and music, and they can be sophomoric and tend to run through the same jokes as earlier generations of starters, but that seems normal for the format.
I don't have a solution except more learning and life experience. How should they be doing the news?
I ran Turn On The News here, it was wacky, but I thought they must have put a good bit of work into editing it.
- Boom
I agree with every point you make, Boom, and I feel that my main point was missed, but I take the weight in thinking perhaps I didn't communicate well enough. Going through your note, 'Turn On the News' is a good double entendre title and is the best part of the whole joke. The contents of the program amount to one joke repeated over and over, the use of sound samples from rock songs to fling incoherence, as I said an unoriginal gimmick made famous in the 1950s by a 45RPM hit record by David Barsamian or someone of a similar name. By now it's been done so many times it's no longer funny, besides which modern rock lyrics are undecipherable because the singers have not studied the art of vocal rendition and are basically screaming against an instrumental slaughter at maximum decibel level, slurring speech as the standard 'style' of contorting the voice in 'all-alike' rock tradition. My point to begin with is, why would the general public want or need to hear it? Would we want to broadcast dog barking from a pet training school? Human students aren't yet educated and are generally not interesting except to their parents and perhaps each other, so why would putting them on the public airwaves make any sense? You say "normal for the format" but it's only normal because you've become accustomed to the status quo and unfortunately there's little or nothing of worth on radio in most places so there's no higher standard for comparison. As to how they should be doing the news, they probably shouldn't because even if they're in journalism school they're not graduates and we don't need to listen in on their classwork. My conclusion is the right one, they should have a public address system for critiqueing each other and carrier current would be good into the dorms.
Tuesday March 2, 2021 9:23 AM CST -- Single Frequency Networks (SFN)
Something we've been talking about in low power radio for awhile: