Known Technical Issues
Our goal here is to report what problems we’re aware of regarding the various technical things on KTXT-FM. Whether it’s dead-air, off-air or double-audio, please let us know!
DO NOT ASSUME WE KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM.
Unless we hear it ourselves, or you tell us, chances are we don’t know there’s a problem. Call 742-5898, 8am to 5pm M-F, or send us an email.
Please note that if the station is OFF-AIR, you will hear static on 88.1 FM. If the station has DEAD-AIR, you will hear silence (in stereo!) on 88.1 FM.
22 July 2016
Dead air from approx. 11:06 through 11:23.
CAUSE: Failure of Axia mix engine. Same issues as before, but this time, we had tech-support tracing some items. We’re reviewing logs to see if we can find the source of the problem. We may also have a temporary fix until a more permanent solution is found. -DG
22 July 2016
Dead air from approx. 19:45 Thursday evening (21 July) through 04:43 Friday morning (22 July).
CAUSE: Failure of Axia mix engine. Still exploring the exact cause. However, we have loggers in place and hope to see where the problem occurred. Was able to reboot the console and restore studio audio. This is the 4th such failure in a week. -DG
20 July 2016
Dead air from approx. 23:43 Tuesday evening (19 July) through 04:39 Wednesday morning (20 July).
CAUSE: Failure of Axia mix engine. Exact reason unknown. Was able to reboot the console and restore studio audio. Now suspect power supply or other component in audio mix engine is failing. This is the 3rd such failure in a week, and apparently is not a coincidence. -DG
19 July 2016
Dead air from approx. 17:42 Monday afternoon (18 July) through 04:50 Tuesday morning (19 July).
CAUSE: Failure of Axia mix engine. Exact reason unknown. Was able to reboot the console and restore studio audio. -DG
18 July 2016
Missed BBC network feeds resulting in dead air from 05:00 to 09:00 and from 12:00 to 13:00 Saturday, July 16th, and again from 05:00 to 09:00 Sunday, July 17th. Local spots and legal IDs at the top of each hour were broadcast, but no BBC feed.
CAUSE: Failure of ISDN link to KTTZ-FM studios. Exact reason unknown, but may be related to power problems experienced on their end Friday. We have had continued problems with the ISDN link to the other station, especially after heavy rain and lightning events. ISDN support is being phased out and plans are already underway to replace this link with an Internet-based alternative. -DG
15 July 2016
Dead air from approximately 08:24:07 through approximately 08:35.
CAUSE: Loss of BBC network feed from KTTZ-FM studios. A police chase near 19th & University Avenue resulted in the fleeing suspect driving his car into a utility pole, causing live power lines to fall onto the car setting it on fire. The suspect was rescued before the car was fully involved, but the accident knocked-out power to the immediate area, including Texas Tech Plaza at 19th & University, where the KTTZ-FM studios are located. 89.1 FM was off-air due to the outage, and our network feed from them was also affected. I was able to switch to a back-up feed of the BBC for the remainder of the hour before KTXT programming switched to UnderCurrents at 9am. Power has since been restored. -DG For more info: http://lubbockonline.com/crime-and-courts/crime/2016-07-15/man-flees-police-crashes-utility-pole-setting-car-fire#.V4kRwqK2rCM
13 July 2016
Dead air from approximately 20:47:40 12 July through 04:50:00 13 July.
CAUSE: Failure of Control Room audio console, exact reason unknown. May be due to power problems experienced on campus yesterday, or possibly human error. Board of Inquiry will investigate. Audio console rebooted and audio restored around 04:50 Wednesday morning. -DG
2 June 2016
Temporary audio outage around 08:45 am.
CAUSE: Replaced rack-UPS at tower site providing electrical protection for Microwave STL receiver. Lightning strike killed the previous UPS yesterday. Audio outage was minimal, lasting approx. less than a minute as STL receiver was unplugged from MAINS power, and plugged into new UPS. -DG
1 June 2016
Dead air from approx. 13:00 to 13:50.
CAUSE: Lightning struck the broadcast tower just as programming was transitioning from BBC to music programming. Station went off-air momentarily, then came back, but with no audio. Discovered that batteries in rack-UPS failed, killing the power to the Microwave STL receiver at the tower site. Bypassed UPS until replacement can be procured. Audio signal was restored around 13:50pm. -DG
12 May 2014
Dead air from 5am until 5:45m. Missed BBC feed.
CAUSE: ISDN link to KTTZ-FM studios failed causing us to miss our BBC feeds. Signal restored around 5:45am Monday morning. -DG
10 & 11 May 2014
Dead air from 5am until 9am both days and from Noon to 1pm Saturday due to missed BBC feeds.
CAUSE: ISDN link to KTTZ-FM studios failed causing us to miss our BBC feed. Signal restored around 5:45am Monday morning. -DG
21 January 2014
Dead air from 10am until 10:20am (online stream unaffected)
CAUSE: Replaced microwave link connecting studio to transmitter site. Signal restored at 10:19am. -DG
13 November 2013
Lost BBC feed at 7am with about 10 minutes of dead air.
CAUSE: The NPR network satellite delivery system failed nation-wide at 8am Eastern Time. The satellite receivers NPR uses at its various stations receive hourly tuning commands, and the tuning command failed at 8am Eastern leaving most NPR stations without satellite feeds of Morning Edition, BBC WorldService or Classical 24. Since KTXT receives its BBC feed via KTTZ-FM, when their receivers went dark, so did our feed of BBC. Concurrently, but an unrelated problem, the main KTXT studio computer also failed, delaying our ability to get a backup feed of BBC on the air. The computer was rebooted and we were able to resume BBC broadcasts around 7:12am. -DG
September 2nd & 3rd, 2013
Lost BBC feed sometime after 9am Monday. Missed BBC’s World Have Your Say program at Noon on Monday and also missed most of 5am hour of BBC World Service Tuesday morning.
CAUSE: Lost ISDN connection with KTTZ-FM. Satellite downlink antenna and receivers are located at KTTZ-FM, and network feeds are sent to KTXT-FM via ISDN links. There was a problem with the ISDN link at KTTZ-FM. Problem was resolved Tuesday morning around 06:30. -DG
May 18-20th, 2013
Lost BBC feed sometime on Saturday, May 18th. Problem continued Sunday and Monday.
CAUSE: Lost ISDN connection with KTTZ-FM. Satellite downlink antenna and receivers are located at KTTZ-FM, and network feeds are sent to KTXT-FM via ISDN links. There was a problem with the ISDN link at KTTZ-FM. AT&T was notified and the problem was resolved Tuesday. -DG
April 7, 2013
Major problems during TTU Softball Broadcast.
CAUSE: Same issue with the audio console malfunctioning. Audio console had to be rebooted several times during the afternoon. Axia has been contacted and a new module is being shipped. -DG
April 4, 2013
Dead air for 10 minutes during SGA recess around 7:34pm.
CAUSE: Had to reboot both the audio console again AND the control room PC. For some reason, the PC speaker was muted thus preventing audio from the automation from making it to air. Both the audio console and the control room PC were rebooted. Also firmware updates were installed for the console. -DG
April 3, 2013
Dead air for about 2 minutes prior to 8am.
CAUSE: Had to reboot the Power Station unit to restore functionality of the main audio console. Half the channels on the console stopped working and forcing a reboot was the only solution. Since the station audio runs through the Power Station, there was dead-air until it rebooted. -DG
March 28 2013
Loss of BBC programming at 08:00 hrs.
CAUSE: Loss of signal at the head-end. This was NOT a local problem. Journalists, Technicians and other union employees of the BBC are on strike today. As a result, the BBC has had to modify their regular program schedule with alternate shows. There was 1-minute of silence starting at 08:00, then BBC News came on at 08:01 and continued until 08:06. After that, there was silence from the network again so local music was played. The network feed was restored around 08:18 and we then rejoined BBC. We received a notice from the network informing us the problem was on the London-end of the feed and not stateside. I suspect the current strike most likely played a role in the problem, and we may experience other BBC outages as a result. -DG
March 4-8, 2013
Loss of BBC programming from about 12:45pm through 12:50pm.
CAUSE: Spring solar outage. Twice a year, around the time of the equinoxes, the sun passes directly behind the satellites used to deliver our BBC programming. Radiation from the sun completely blankets-out the signal from the satellite causing an outage. It takes about 5 minutes for the sun to transit the satellite window and the programming resumes once the signal is restored. We’ve been airing some student music during the outage periods. -DG
February 1, 2013
Dead-air at 4:55am.
CAUSE: 4am hour was shorted by about 5 minutes. Students are still learning to double-check what the computer does. -DG
January 14-27, 2013
Dual audio at 9am. This problem has occurred on various dates, but always at 9am. Program switch at that hour results in Undercurrents and BBC airing simultaneously.
CAUSE: Unknown, but NexGen automation system is highly suspect. First noticed this problem back in December of 2012, but it has gotten progressively worse. Program Macros are correct and set at proper time- it’s unknown as to why they are no longer working. Have added Source Off commands at 9am to kill BBC at 9am so that Undercurrents can run unimpeded. -DG
December 25/26, 2012
Dead Air from approx. 23:13 on 25 December to 04:45 26 December.
CAUSE: Audio server crashed and its RAID Array failed. New hard-drive installed. -DG
December 14, 2012
Dual audio from 09:00 to 09:44. Audio from BBC and UnderCurrents was playing simultaneously.
CAUSE: Unknown. Probably a missed macro by the automation. -DG
November 15, 2012
10-minute outage of BBC from 05:37 to 05:46.
CAUSE: The microwave studio-to-transmitter-link was reset. -DG
November 5 and 6, 2012
Missing 3rd hour of UnderCurrents at 11am. BBC aired instead.
CAUSE: A clock on one of the computers failed to switch to CST over the weekend. -DG
November 5, 2012
Off-air outage for seveal minutes this afternoon.
CAUSE: Firmware on the Axia switch was upgraded and required a reboot. Since all audio is routed through this particular switch, there was dead-air until it completed rebooting. This was an unplanned but necessary outage. -DG
October 24, 2012
Sporadic outages today from 17:26 to 17:34, 17:57 to 17:59, 18:37 to 18:41 and 18:57 to 18:59.
CAUSE: Planned outages. The installation of studio furniture is complete, and the outages were necessary as studio equipment was reinstalled. Work continues in completing the studio build-out and no further outages will be required. -DG
October 24, 2012
Lost BBC and had dead-air for about 2 minutes at 05:32 this morning.
CAUSE: Planned outage. We’re finally getting our studio furniture installed today which requires all studio equipment be relocated elsewhere. Relocating the equipment caused the outage. A similar outage will be necessary once the equipment is moved back into the studio. -DG
October 18, 2012
No BBC at 06:00 this morning with dead-air for about 8 minutes.
CAUSE: Problem at the network. Filled a few minutes with UnderCurrents until BBC was restored. Received the following network message confirming the outage:
From: BBC APM World Service Weekday 0700
Subject: Alert – Impairment: BBC (APM) World Service Weekday 0700, 121018 MessageID(700608)
Date: Thursday, October 18, 2012 6:13:32 AM
There was an outage for the first 8 min 30 secs of this transmission. The problem was prior to the uplink, NOT in your receive equipment.
rk/NOC
-DG
October 13, 2012
No BBC and dead-air for most of the morning.
CAUSE: Overnight thunderstorms knocked-out the ISDN link to the KTTZ-FM studios. Filled with UnderCurrents for the 9am hour, then students did a live morning show at 10am. Left message with TTU Communications Services to contact AT&T to open trouble ticket. ISDN link was up and running as of 6pm. -DG
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