CD-jays: WSUI and KSUI go digital

Using computer automation, Joan Kjaer can juggle production of her live KSUI program with preparation of pre-recorded programming. Photo by Helen Spielbauer.

Even an early 20th-century medium like radio has been turned on its ear thanks to digital technology. And the winners in that development may be the listeners.

The idea of a digital transformation for UI stations WSUI-AM (910) and KSUI-FM (91.7) had been on staff members’ minds as early as the mid ’90s, according to John Monick, director of Broadcasting Services.

"Automating radio by computer was especially popular in commercial radio as a means to save costs," Monick says. "We’re finding an increase in quality and efficiency going along with cost savings."

Two years ago the station invested $80,000 from a reserve fund, earmarked for new technology, into a radio software/hardware package called Audiovault. The system consists of a server, a local area network, and a user interface that helps long-time radio producers, accustomed to tape machines and teletype printouts, do some creative and innovative production with keyboard and mouse.

Producer Joan Kjaer, a 22-year veteran at KSUI, likens the digital radio production to the switch that many of us familiar with typewriters made to word processing and desktop publishing.

"Where in the past you might have laid out your brochure or newsletter with scissors and glue, hoping you’d get the lines straight, today your computer assures that it’s all in alignment," she says.

"Our job, too, required a lot of physical cutting and pasting of tape, and you had to listen carefully to hear whether everything ‘lined up’ properly.

"Today, because much of the content of our satellite programs and our introductions to them have been recorded onto the computer’s hard disk, I can literally call up a picture of the sound on my screen and change it so it meets my specifications," Kjaer says.

But the computer doesn’t stop with being a glorified tape editor, she adds.

"In the past we would have to hire people to work long evening shifts to simply push a button once an hour or so to keep our pre-programmed shows playing in sequence.

"Today we assemble those programs on our computer screens the way you might assemble files in a folder."

She describes how she and other producers have precise timings on each segment, absolute control over the delay listeners hear between the national announcer’s words and the recording of the local announcer’s words, and the ability to package it all in a sequence that’s ready to play at the time they designate. That means many hours of evening and weekend programming can be prepared ahead of time and set in motion with the click of a button, and nobody needs to be in the studio when it’s being broadcast.

Listeners are the beneficiaries of this technology, according to several of the station’s full-time professionals.

Engineer Tom Spaight describes the smooth flow of a digital signal off a computer hard drive compared to the "hazards" of tape machines.

"In the old days—about five years ago—we spent a lot of time maintaining tape machines," he says. "We used to record on reel to reel or DAT tape units, and you physically had to carry your tapes to the studio and have them ready for your broadcast, and sometimes you would lose a tape. With the hard drive system, all your inventory is in front of you at all times," he says.

The computer screen displays automated programming for KSUI. Photo by Helen Spielbauer.

KSUI program director John Fischer points to the bank of demodulators that capture programming content from the 12-foot satellite dish on the north end of the studio parking lot. The facility’s computer handles the whole operation of scheduling when programs like "Adventures in Good Music," "Morning Edition," and "A Prairie Home Companion" are recorded from the satellite feed. It stores them in memory and plays them back when directed.

	John Monick

"Recently I had to go back and do a project on audio tape," Fischer says. "I found myself thinking, ‘This is a bizarre way of doing this.’ Now that we have the computers I wouldn’t go back to tape for a million bucks."

While not invulnerable (hard drives can crash, and it’s still easy to accidentally erase things off the drive) the digital technology of ones and zeros has Monick assured that things behind the scenes at KSUI and WSUI will continue going well.

"I hope listeners won’t have any hint of what technology is doing for them," he says. "And that’s how it should be. If things are running smoothly, the new technology is doing its work."

Article by Greg Johnson