Building out an FM Station - Part 2

Now that I had the transmitter part of the build done, it was time to focus on the studio/STL/automation part. I had a head start, in that the AM had automation that I could lease, as well as studio space. Automation through Wideorbit was pretty fast, and has worked really well. The Axia board and Orban processing keep it sounding clean.

Programming? ESPN's product fell fast and hard in late 2015, and Fox Sports had added Colin Cowherd, who is an Oregon guy, so I switched networks. Besides the 90 day notice, there's a bunch of templates and closures (boring technical stuff) that had to be reprogrammed, and the imaging of the station was totally changed. New logo (above) and streaming, and website www.foxsportsco.com were implemented.

  The Studio to Transmitter Link (STL) was another issue. The Bend market is out of frequencies, since there's a bunch of FM translators that take up much of the frequencies available. Since that wasn't an option, the only other ways were through T1 or other telephone lines, or Sutdio to Transmitter Link (STL) over IP. Since there's an internet service provider hub at the site, I decided to go STL over IP.

  Ahhhh......risk. STL over IP is not totally proven, and is typically used as a backup. Since Telco was way more expensive, and microwave wasn't on the table, I went with STL over IP. With the exception of a couple of hiccups in the first couple of months, it has worked flawlessly. I do have to route through a couple of ISPs, and there's a certain lack of control over part of the audio chain that keeps me up at night.

ON the air! Now just need some more advertisers.