Hey, how does a TV- or radio station that's moving to a new location, but which also operates 24/7, _

Question

make the move without interrupting the signal? Are they just forced to buy new equipment for the new location so that once they have it installed, they can just throw a switch or two somewhere and switch it over, instead of having to try to move it all over in a few hours of down-time during the wee hours of the night?

There was a time when I heard a radio station move WHILE ON THE AIR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY! The DJs were talking while riding in a dumpster being driven by a garbage truck! I don't remember if they were on cell phone or using some kind of RADIO-to-radio setup. But then when they got to the new building, I didn't notice them skipping a beat to make the transition! I should have called them and asked them how they did that. How do they pull these moving stunts?

Hey, will you come back and see my responses to yours, please?

Answer 1

Been there done that.

Step One

Build the second studios that you will be moving to - takes a lot of work and months of banging and bashing by builders and 'cable' type men.

(a) slowly move in sales, administration etc

(b) move creative and get one production studio operating (so they can produce the ads that make the money for the station) - all of which are on computer network so you do not need to worry about physically taking the adds over there

Step Two

Finish the new studios in the SECOND building. Test and all of that

Step Three

On the day you want to swap - (and it is usually down around 1am or a similar boring time) - swap.

TO DO THE SWAP

Have the announcer in the OLD building doing the last program from there - have the announcer on after him or her ready to go in the NEW building

Have the Technical Director stand in the control room of the new studios - he or she fiddles with the 'feeds or lines' - that just means the programs coming in and out of that control room.  You can get your own program from either location 1 or location 2 - and if you book it anybody elses radio or tv program feed into your control room

At the appointed time the technical director flicks a  switch (usually during the news) the removes the feed from theOLD studio to the transmitter and replaces it with the first program from the NEW studio.

You may hear a couple of seconds of problems - but that is all.

I have worked for three radio stations that moved.

THE DJs IN THE DUMP TRUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY

Clever!  Good way not to have to constantly remind listeners you have moved -  never heard a stunt done along with the move - the technical director usually won't allow it - terrified it will reflect badly on him or her if it fails

Answer 2

This is made possible by the FCC granting a construction permit which last for three years.  We have several station in this market and they're currently four FM stations in the Nashville, TN market that are moving things around.  They get these construction permits to move things around.  Yes, they do buy new equipment, or, they already have equipment lying around.  They set it up while the full-service station is still operating.

As far as your other question...they probably just moved the studio, not the transmitter.  If you don't already know, most if not all stations do not operate the service transmitter at the studio.  They use a microwave S-T-L, or studio to transmitter link and transmit the signal from the studio to the service transmitter.  The distances can be very large, sometimes spanning hundreds of miles.  Moving the studio doesn't mean that the transmitter moves.  As longs as the service contour meets the 70dBu (someone correct me if I'm wrong) service requirement for the city of license, it's fine.

I worked for a station that had to move it's transmitter location two times in a span of two years due to storms.  Once, the wind blew the tower over the highway and a truck ran over it.  We were using the S-T-L at that time.  When we moved it to the campus, we used twisted pair and lowered the TPO (transmitter power output, the actual power output at the back of the transmitter, not the effective power with the antenna).  Once we were granted a construction permit, we moved the transmitter to another tower and increased the power.  We started using the S-T-L again.  Of course the station manager did take us off the air for two weeks because we didn't have any extra equipment.  Then on April16th, 2006 after I have already moved 1000 miles away, a tornado destroyed the studio.  They moved the studio to another building, which meant that they had to move the S-T-L to the other building.  The location of the service transmitter never moved during that time.  While they were moving the studio, they stayed in operation using automation.  They took a computer upstairs every 12 hours and brought the other one down, scheduled everything at the office and 12 hours later take that computer upstairs and switch it.

I hope this clears anything up for you.