L & R Broadcast Services

Your Intrepid Engineer breaks down how to "pimp your ride", nerd-style.

L&R Mobile Engineering Setup When you’re a contract engineer driving 60+ minutes to locations all over your region, it pays to keep a little bit of everything with you. But it really pays to have a way to keep it all org…

In August 2024 we performed a major project for WMVY, installing several acoustic panels all over their air studio, production studios, and the MPR (multi purpose room) which is right next to the air studio. It cleaned up the sound inside each room considerably, making a very audible reduction in slap echoes and other, related, acoustic distortions.

https://landrbroadcastservices.com/2024/08/14/acoustic-panel-treatment/

Since long before your Intrepid Engineer started working for The Public’s Radio in 2012, the WNPE 102.7FM facility had a Scala CA2/FM (PDF) antenna about 70ft up the tower. The precise details aren’t known, but it’s reasonable to assume it was tuned to 95.5 MHz for reception of then-WBRU (now WLVO) for purposes of receiving the In-SIGHT Radio Reading Service (for the blind), and rebroadcasting it on WNPE.

A Delightful Reception…Hors d’Oeuvres Not Included After many years of faithful service, an old Scala CA2/FM antenna is retired and replaced, with favorable reception (of the desired signals).

In the last few years, I’ve discovered something interesting. Perhaps obvious in retrospect, but interesting nonetheless: “Hassle Doesn’t Scale.”

It doesn’t matter all that much whether it’s a 50,000 watt Class B FM blowtorch, or a 100 watt minimum-Class A FM facility; it is (relatively speaking) the same amount of time, money and effort…not to mention pounding your forehead against your desk…to put any new FM station on the air. I learned this with W275DA in 2021, but it wasn’t until I brought WNPW 89.5FM Westerly on the air in 2024 that it really coalesced for me.

Putting WNPW 89.5FM Westerly On the Air Small signal. Big…errr…”normal sized” headaches! Construction concerns do not scale with FM facilities…and putting WNPW 89.5FM Westerly is proof of that.

I've been remiss in not adding blog posts to our FB page. Here's a story from earlier this summer about relocating the South County News Bureau for my day job at The Public's Radio.

https://landrbroadcastservices.com/2024/06/16/south-county-bureau-ver2-0/

South County Bureau ver2.0 Relocation and rebuilding of the TPR South Coast News Bureau in Westerly, RI.