Brad on Broadcast

Now that you’re comfortable with your DTV and HD build out, it’s time to sit back and relax, right?

Not if you believe the headlines. A brief tour of news related to 3D television may tempt you to head to the bar for an adult beverage. Broadcast engineers are about to have their entire facilities challenged with the need to handle 3D programming. more…

I’ve written previously about social networking and how tomorrow’s audiences will be vastly different from those we serve today. One goal may then be to build and adapt our facilities to move as expeditiously into that arena as possible. Let’s review some research on social networking and those who compose these general groups to better attract them to our stations.

A research project titled “Creating & Connecting/Research and Guidelines on Online Social — and Educational — Networking,” by the National School Boards Association and funded by Microsoft, Verizon and News Corp., revealed some astonishing facts about young viewers. more…

We’ll look back on 2009 as the year when social media became legitimate. There has been explosive growth in the social media landscape. YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and many other sites now command more eyeballs than television ever did. These spaces are personal and immediate, and they connect on an intimate level. more…

Jim was elated when he told his wife about his promotion to chief engineer. He had worked hard at the station for several years and saw the new assignment as his just reward. His 7-year-old son was listening to the conversation. After a time, he asked, “Does the mean you don’t have to fix things now, Dad?” “Not exactly,” his father replied. “Now my problems will be with people, not equipment.” Little did he know then how true that statement would be.

As the leader of a group of people, Jim will be faced with resolving software (people) problems rather than hardware (equipment) problems. It goes without saying that Jim will no longer be able to apply the engineer’s time-tested repair techniques of hitting, kicking or just replacing the defective device. more…

In part I and part II of this series, different types of problem-causing behavior have been described, along with some tips to manage them. First you need to recognize your own behavior; then you need to recognize the behavior of the other person. Now, let’s look at some of the triggers that launch people into their “difficult behavior” mode. more…

I wonder how many Broadcast Engineering readers have lost their jobs because of the economic slump. Are you now unemployed because your radio or TV station laid you off? If not you, then I’ll bet you know someone who’s lost their job because of cutbacks.

Times couldn’t be much worse for broadcasters (and most other businesses). Yet, there continues to be an unending drumbeat to give more “free” money to certain segments of our economy. more…

In last week’s article, we introduced seven common types of workplace behavior that can cause problems: hostile/aggressive, complainer, unresponsive, super agreeable, negative, know-it-all and indecisive.

If you encounter problems with a coworker because they have a difficult personality, there’s more at stake than your own good mood. Your job could be on the line. It is in your own best interest to learn specific skills to help you interact more successfully with these people. Now let’s look closer at some ways to better handle folks who just hack you off! more…

The good ol’ days aren’t coming back. Good!

Few would call me an optimist, but don’t put me in the sky-is-falling category either. Even so, trying to remain positive with negative economic headlines isn’t helping my attitude.

Never following the left’s mantra of bigger government is better than smaller government, practitioners of that philosophy were pretty much off my reading list. One of those people is Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. Now, however, I’m willing to give him an ounce of credit for sanity. more…

Chris could barely restrain his anger as he returned to the ENG truck. He’d held his anger in front of the gathering crowd, but the slamming van door left little doubt that he was plenty pissed off.

Just moments earlier, the station’s latest news star had criticized him because the microphone cut out on her first live shot of the evening. It had only been a momentary drop, but the newscaster took the outage personally and launched into Chris as the cause. “I told you yesterday this mike cable needed to be fixed. How come you didn’t replace it or fix it or something?” she intoned. Now, Chris was going to be saddled with her witchy attitude for the entire evening shift. Gawd he hated her smart ass attitude. more…

“I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that,” said HAL the omnipotent computer in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The computer’s every-seeing eye looking back at Dave resembles so closely the Google Chrome icon that the comparison is eerie. If that’s not enough to make you wonder what the company has in store next, read on. more…