What were YOU were doing Saturday, November 12th? You might have been staring at your radio, trying to figure out why you were hearing dead air instead of "Car Talk." If you were Public Radio Tulsa Chief Engineer Brad Newman, you were watching your nephew play football, until your phone rang: Public Radio Tulsa was off the air! Brad high-tailed it to our transmitter site, discovered equipment failure, and several exhausting hours later, had us back on the air. So, what broke and kept you from hearing "Wait...Wait...Don't Tell Me?"
The culprit is our studio-to-transmitter link (STL). This twelve-year-old microwave system relays sound from our studios at The University of Tulsa to our transmitters, seventeen miles away in Coweta. These signals are then sent out over the air on Public Radio 89.5 and Classical 88.7 to your radio. On the "How Radio Works" illustration at the top of this page, it's the hot air balloon that needs replacing. (Don't worry; the dragon is doing fine.) We have future plans to replace this unit, but for now we have shipped off the STL for repairs. Repair costs are still pending, but are estimated in the $1,000 to $3,000 range, depending on the damage.
How can you help, you ask? Your #GivingTuesday gift will help pay to repair this crucial piece of equipment, and keep the rest of Public Radio Tulsa's complex physical plant maintained and on-line, 24x7x365. ClickHERE to make your investment in Public Radio Tulsa today!