Ever wonder how FM radio works? It’s all about harmonics! The 19kHz pilot tone keeps everything in sync, while RDS at 57kHz shares the same clock. This clever setup lets your radio decode stereo and RDS effortlessly. #RadioTech #RDS

Ever wonder why AM radio doesn't have RDS? It's all about bandwidth. FM can stack subcarriers without interference, but AM's 10 kHz channel leaves no room. Physics wins this round! #RadioTech #RDS

The industry isn’t dying because people stopped caring about local news. It’s dying because owners treat stations like a real estate flip with a transmitter attached. Buy. Cut staff. Centralize content. Collect political ad money. Sell. Byron Allen just described it out loud and called it humane.

Ownership groups are treating AM as a land bank, not a broadcast medium. The move is offloading the land for redevelopment, prioritizing real estate over signal lifespans. 🤑 🚧 🏚️  https://tylerwoodward.me/p/whats-really-happening-to-am-radio-cac 

In emergency infrastructure, AM radio’s real strength isn’t audience size but resilience. It can operate without power, internet, or cell networks, making it a lifeline when everything else fails.

AM radio's decline isn't about listeners but real estate. The stations stay, but the land under them is worth more than the signal, making shutdowns a financial calculation, not a popularity contest.

The AM radio story isn't about who stopped listening. Transmitter sites are selling to homebuilders for $74 million. FEMA has 77 AM stations hardened for national emergencies. The infrastructure is the story. 🔗 https://tylerwoodward.me/p/whats-really-happening-to-am-radio-cac 

Mandatory cybersecurity training today. It’s DnD themed. These script kiddies have no idea what’s coming. Fireball goes brrr.

Radio companies are selling transmitter sites to homebuilders and warehouse developers for $50-75 million. The broadcast license is basically paperwork at that point. #radio #media

Turner bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976. Same year WTCG went national via satellite. That wasn't a coincidence. The team was the programming. Vertical integration before anyone called it that. #broadcast #radio #media

CBS News Radio shuts down May 22. Nearly 100 years of broadcast news, 700 affiliate stations, and the network Edward R. Murrow first reported on. Gone because it stopped penciling out. #radio #broadcast youtu.be/UOJMLNbEIGY?...

ESPN, MTV, The Weather Channel -- all of them owe their cable distribution model to the loophole Ted Turner found in 1976. Satellite is distance-agnostic. He just noticed first. #broadcast #broadcastengineering #media

ESPN, MTV, The Weather Channel -- all of them owe their cable distribution model to the loophole Ted Turner found in 1976. Satellite is distance-agnostic. He just noticed first. #broadcast #broadcastengineering #media

Some people collect baseball cards. Me? I collect radio station bumper stickers. Got some? DM me. 😄

Broadcast eng median: $56,600. IT median: $105,990. Then everyone wonders why nobody's entering the field. The math isn't complicated. #broadcastengineering #radio

Median wage for broadcast technicians: $56,600. Median for IT: $105,990. That pay gap is the pipeline problem. #broadcastengineering #radio

Ted Turner didn't ask permission to put WTCG on a satellite in 1976. The FCC just hadn't written a rule against it yet. That's how you get a national cable network out of a broke UHF station. #broadcast #broadcastengineering #tv #tedturner #wtbs #tbs

Median wage for broadcast technicians: $56,600. Median for IT: $105,990. That pay gap is the pipeline problem. #broadcastengineering #radio

Ted Turner didn't ask permission to put WTCG on a satellite in 1976. The FCC just hadn't written a rule against it yet. That's how you get a national cable network out of a broke UHF station. #broadcast #broadcastengineering #tv #tedturner #wtbs #tbs

TikTok engagement is great. TikTok comment sections are a different story. People just show up to be cruel for no reason. Anyway. #podcast #media

iHeartMedia: 860 stations, 160 markets, 1 person overseeing all of engineering. That's the model now. The FCC enforcement calendar is starting to reflect it. #radio #broadcasting

iHeartMedia: 860 stations, 160 markets, 1 person overseeing all of engineering. That's the model now. The FCC enforcement calendar is starting to reflect it. #radio #broadcasting

Copper thieves cut a guy wire on a 500-foot tower in Oklahoma. Tower fell. They got under $100 for the copper. Damage: $500,000. That’s what happens when nobody’s watching the plant anymore. #radio #broadcasting

Months of scripts and produced episodes. A 1999 Simpsons clip goes viral. My wife says I’m being relatable. I did not start a podcast to be relatable. 😂 #podcasting #radio #broadcasting

Copper thieves cut a guy wire on a 500-foot tower in Oklahoma. Tower fell. They got under $100 for the copper. Damage: $500,000. That’s what happens when nobody’s watching the plant anymore. #radio #broadcasting

Some people collect baseball cards or stamps. I collect radio station stickers.

A radio station was off the air for 6 months and the owner didn't know. The FCC docket on this is bleak. New episode on where the broadcast engineers went. #radio #broadcasting

Do normal people actually not have an internal monologue? No voice, no narrator, just… nothing in there? I genuinely don’t know how that works.

WKRP is now a real radio station in Cincinnati. 97.7 FM adopted the call letters this morning after acquiring them from a North Carolina nonprofit. As God as my witness… #radio

Former KNX anchor Rob Archer got laid off, started a podcast, and just dropped a fictional “what if Trump gets impeached and convicted” episode that turns into a full constitutional crisis. Worth your time. #radio #news

A radio station was off the air for 6 months and the owner didn't know. The FCC docket on this is bleak. New episode on where the broadcast engineers went. #radio #broadcasting

A transmitter drops to low power overnight and nobody catches it until a listener calls in. That used to be a 2am phone call to the guy who built the site. Now it's a ticket in a queue for someone who's never been to the tower. The institutional knowledge didn't retire. It just didn't get replaced.

Cable news channels dumping their TV audio on TuneIn or SiriusXM and calling it radio content is embarrassing. You have the money. Make an actual audio product. #radio #audio @ms.now @cnn.com @cnbc.com

Most people have no idea their car radio can display more than just a frequency. Did you know radio stations are supposed to be sending song titles, artist names, and even station branding directly to your dashboard? Some do it really well. A lot of them just… don’t bother.

The broadcast industry lobbied to mandate AM receivers in cars while simultaneously filing to go dark on AM stations. Protect the hardware, drain the band. Great plan. #radio #broadcasting

If your file’s not complete, your license renewal can get denied or shortened. Even a missed quarter can tank your renewal. These rules aren’t new; they just got real. Check your public file today! #RadioEngineering

Quarterly issues list: Miss one? Fines, renewal problems. It’s a slow burn, but the fines stack fast. Every slip is huge now because anyone can be watching — watchdogs, opponents, even the FCC. #MediaOps

You know you’re a radio nerd when you have a dream about a tornado outbreak and your first thought is “I need to find the LP1 or LP2 station so I can hear the EAS alert.” Not survival instincts. EAS reception. Now all PN stations SHOULD have it, but IYKYK.

The political file is where you go broke. National issues, campaigns, anything hot-button, it all lives there permanently. Screw it up and you’re not just dealing with the FCC, you’re dealing with every activist group and news outlet ready to bury you. Keep it tight. #BroadcastLaw

Radio doesn't have a marketing problem. It has a positioning problem. "More music, better variety" worked when the competition was the station across town. That's not the competition anymore. Radio's actual advantage is that it removes the pressure to choose. That's worth saying out loud.

The political file is where you go broke. National issues, campaigns, anything hot-button, it all lives there permanently. Screw it up and you’re not just dealing with the FCC, you’re dealing with every activist group and news outlet ready to bury you. Keep it tight. #BroadcastLaw

KNX News is leaving 97.1 FM on May 11, heading back to AM-only after less than 5 years on FM. Audacy’s own exec called FM revenue “challenging.” At least they’re being honest about it.

Every time I post about loving radio, there’s at least one guy in the comments who needs me to know he hasn’t listened since 1999. Okay. Then what are you doing here? This video was not made for you. Nobody asked you to care about something you checked out 25 years ago.

Radio doesn't have a marketing problem. It has a positioning problem. "More music, better variety" worked when the competition was the station across town. That's not the competition anymore. Radio's actual advantage is that it removes the pressure to choose. That's worth saying out loud.

Your station’s FCC public file is online right now and anyone can look. A lot of stations have no idea what’s in there. New episode on why that keeps costing people six figures. #broadcasting #FCC #radio

Posted on TikTok about radio imaging, got dogpiled, then found the folded comments were full of people agreeing. The algorithm just put the negativity on top. Not playing that game. This is the train for my autistic brain. #Radio

Jacobs Media’s latest listening stats just confirmed what everyone in radio’s been dreading: traditional AM/FM dropped below 55% for the first time ever. It was 85% back in 2013. Digital’s at 44% and climbing. Nobody should be shocked, but watching the number actually cross that line hits different.

The FCC’s public file is basically a permanent, searchable record of every mistake you’ll ever make, accessible to literally anyone. One slip-up and you’re not just fined, you’re also permanently indexed on the internet for competitors and lawyers to find. Deadlines are blood sport. #FCCcompliance

New episode is up. 15 minutes on FCC public inspection files, which sounds boring until a station gets hit with a five-figure fine for ignoring them. This stuff matters a lot more than most operators realize until it's too late.

There’s a public folder on the FCC’s website with your station’s name on it. Anyone can open it. Has been since 2018. Cumulus paid over half a million to remember that. New episode tomorrow. #broadcasting #radio