Update: Power was restored to our transmitter at 8:56 PM.  Operation is normal.  Thank you for your patience.

As of this writing (6:45 PM), our main transmitter at 90.1, along with our Richland (90.5) and Prosser (92.3) translators, are off the air due to a power outage caused by severe icing conditions at the transmitter site.  Our Internet stream is still available, so listeners can still enjoy Christian Family Radio online.  Per Federal Communications Commission rules, the translators must automatically shut off when they lose signal from the main transmitter.

An inspection of the area today revealed over 6 inches of ice on towers and power lines in the vicinity.  Rising temperatures turned the ice more brittle, then winds stressed power lines enough to break them.  A PUD crew has been working since this morning to restore power to our site as well as others nearby.

 

Christian Family Radio is honored to add “Fortress of Faith” to our program line-up.  Hosted by Tom Wallace, this hard-hitting program exposes the true goals of Islam and it’s impact on North America and around the world.

The theme of the program is “Resisting Islam, Rescuing Muslims and Reviving America”.  Although he speaks plainly about Islam, Mr. Wallace is very compassionate of Muslims and works to lovingly expose them to spiritual truths.

Tom Wallace grew up in England as a missionary and returned to the States to prepare for the ministry. He studied both at Baptist University of America in Atlanta, GA and Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO.

The program airs on Christian Family Radio Monday through Friday at 1:05 PM.  You can learn more about Fortress of Faith at fortressoffaith.org.

UPDATE 3 (July 19) – We were able to configure the third transmitter to work at the site and it is now installed and operating, although it did indicate a less-than-perfect connection to the antenna.  This transmitter is on loan to us while we work on a more permanent solution.   Currently, we plan to move the antenna to a nearby tower to give it more “space” from other antennas installed at the present location, then thoroughly test the system.  This will take a few weeks as we need authorization from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to relocate the antenna.  Ultimately, we may have to purchase another transmitter.  In the meantime, we expect to continue with good service to the Lower Valley on 92.3.  Please let us know if you experience any problems.

UPDATE 2 (July 18) – With another report of problems, the translator was turned off Thursday night.  We have access to another transmitter that is different from the other two we were working with, and will try it by the weekend.  The most likely cause appears to be the antenna, however, which will require as much as a couple of weeks to repair.  Thank you for your prayers and patience as we work to restore reliable operation.

UPDATE – We visited the site both Thursday and Friday.  Thursday, we placed our alternate transmitter into service and noted that both our transmitters exhibited the intermittent problem.  One transmitter was taken back to our shop and ran flawlessly for over 14 hours using what is called a “dummy load”, which is, in effect, an ideal “antenna” when testing the transmitter.  (It also does not broadcast the signal.)  This led us to suspect that the problem was in the translator’s antenna.  We visited again Friday and climbed the tower to inspect the antenna and cable that leads to the antenna (known as “feedline”).  Before we started our work on Friday, we noted that both transmitters worked without any problems while we were checking out the antenna system.  All connections were tested for a problem, and we were not able to find any.

All this means that we have not found the root of the problem, but left the translator in good working condition.  We do have access to a third transmitter and will try this if we continue to have problems.  We request that our Lower Valley listeners let us know if they hear any problems with the translator, and report to us by leaving a message at 866-800-5658 or through our contact page.

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

Earlier report:

We have been experiencing more problems with our translator in Prosser, with it having an unstable output and working on and off.  I visited the site on Tuesday, July 9 and was able to get it working for a while, but shortly after I left the problems returned.

I will be returning to the site on Thursday with an alternate transmitter that we will use temporarily until we can either repair or replace the present one.  We appreciate your patience, and if you ever experience problems while listening to 92.3, be sure to contact us so that we can correct the problem as quickly as possible.

As a regular listener, you might just recently have noticed your car radio telling you that you are tuned to KOLU rather than 90.1.  Then, there’s other information such as the name of the program you are listening to, or the name of the song and who’s singing it, that scrolls across the front of your radio.  And, you might have been wondering how the information got there.

Well, we didn’t hook up your radio to the Internet.  What we did was install a technology called RDS, or Radio Data System.  This adds a signal that you can’t hear to what we broadcast on KOLU’s main transmitter, but the signal contains a “digital stream” of information about what we are playing.  This technology is built in to many newer car radios, and only needed us to “turn it on” for you to be able to see it.

Typically, systems to “encode” this information cost between $1,000 and $2,000.  We wanted to do this, but we didn’t have an RDS system in the budget.  Recently, however, we discovered a company called “Pira.CZ”, located in the Czech Republic, that had a very sophisticated system for a fraction of this cost.  Thanks to a generous donor, we didn’t have to take money from somewhere else, and were able to purchase this little box that does so much.

Since we were already providing a “Now Playing” list on our web site, it was a fairly short project to create a program that would feed the same sort of information to our new RDS system.  The result is what you see on your radio dial.

We’d love to hear your comments on this, or anything else we do.  You can either comment on this post below, or you can use our contact page to send us a private email.  As always, thanks for listening to Christian Family Radio!

During the recent absence of Chief Operator Martin Gibbs from late May through early June, many of our programs did not air on their scheduled dates, causing repeats of some programs and others, such as our children’s programs, to air out of sequence.

First, we’d like to sincerely apologize to our listeners and let you know we will do our best to prevent this from happening in the future.

Many years ago, virtually all programming that was not live arrived on pre-recorded tapes through the mail.  Our operators would have to pick the proper program, place the tape on a playback machine, and then start it at the right time.  Since the operator was always present, there was plenty of time to insure the right program played at the right time.  Even though there was an occasional problem, it was almost always a single event.

With the advent of computerized automation, we run the station with far less staff and far better overall reliability.  However, often there is no one is present to “watch” the program and even if they are there, there is no simple “label” to look at to confirm that the correct program is playing.  While we find it convenient to blame the computer, in reality it is the information that people place on the computer that is the root of the problem.

Let me explain how we now receive the programming you hear on Christian Family Radio, which comes in a variety of ways.

A few of our programs, notably  IRN/USA Radio Network News, Crosstalk, and Music ‘Til Dawn, are aired directly off of a satellite receiver at their scheduled times.  The remainder of programs that are not either music or live broadcasts that originate in our studio must be stored on our system and aired at their scheduled times.

About 30% of these programs are placed on our system using the “AMB-OS” system.  This system is sponsored by a consortium of Christian broadcasters and uses a combination of satellite and internet technology to place programming directly on our server.  This system proven to be the most reliable in insuring that the correct program is ready to be played at the scheduled time.  Examples of programs that come to us through the AMB-OS system are Focus on the Family, Love Worth Finding, Unshackled, Adventures in Odyssey and Our Daily Bread.

The remaining 29 programs either arrive on CD or must be manually downloaded from the Internet. These require our staff to perform the transfers and track on log sheets the status of each program.

Christian Family Radio runs on a weekly schedule.  Each month is divided into numbered weeks, Week 1 through Week 5 (for longer months), starting on Monday and running through Sunday.  Early Monday morning, the appropriate week is transferred to the system.  If this is not done, the previous week’s programming would air.  If a mistake is made anywhere along the way, one program or the entire week’s programs would be wrong.

Sometimes programs come in late, just before their scheduled air time.  Such programs require “special handling” for us to manually move them to the proper place on the server.

In these most recent problems, I was able to review the state of our programming on Monday, June 10 while still on vacation.  “Week 2” was scheduled to play, according to our calendar.  While looking at the programs that we received complaints about, I found that “Week 4” from May was actually playing.  So, Monday afternoon, I restored the “Week 2” programs and all appeared to be correct, but this caused another change in the sequence of children’s programs that were reported to me by listeners on Tuesday.  So, to the best of our knowledge, the correct programming is now playing on Christian Family Radio.

We will be reviewing our procedures with our staff and seeing if there is something we can do to better insure that you hear your favorite program on its scheduled date.  Thank you for your faithful listening, and many thanks to those of you that called our attention to our problem.  If you do suspect you hear something repeated or out of sequence, we really do want to hear from you.  Please feel free to use the contact forms on this web site or give us a call so we can quickly fix the problem to keep it from getting worse.

UPDATE – The installation went very smooth with only a couple of short interruptions to our on-air sound.  The new STL transmitter came up with no problems and tested and calibrated fine.  Again, thank you for your support and understanding.

EARLIER POST – We will be completing the installation of our brand-new STL (Studio-Transmitter Link) today (Saturday, May 18) between the hours of 1:30 and 2:00 PM.  During that time, our over-the-air broadcast signal for our main transmitter serving the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla and parts of Northeast Oregon, as well as our translators in the Lower Yakima Valley and Richland, will be interrupted for short periods of time.  Our streaming signal here at kolu.com will not be affected.

The STL transmitter is part of the vital link that carries the programming 11 miles from our studio in West Pasco to our transmitter site on Beck Mountain south of Kennewick.  Our old STL transmitter, in continuous service since 1995, has recently been showing signs of failure.  Replacing it insures that we won’t go off the air unexpectedly and allows us to thoroughly inspect the old transmitter and have it available as a “backup” that can be used should we experience problems in the future with the newer unit.

Thanks to our listeners who have rallied around this important need, supplying the funds necessary for this equipment.  Please keep Christian Family Radio in your prayers and be sure to tell others about the unique Christ-honoring and family-friendly programming!

UPDATE-I was able to visit the site Thursday morning, and found a problem with the receiver that picks up KOLU on 90.1 that was turning the transmitter on and off.  Changing a control wire fixed the problem.  Thank you for your patience.

Older Post: I f you listen to our translator on 92.3 in Prosser, you’ve undoubtedly noticed a noisy and intermittent signal.  We have an engineer visiting the site the night of Wednesday, March 6 to troubleshoot the situation.  If he is unable to fix the problem, Chief Engineer Martin Gibbs will visit the site Thursday morning.

In the meantime, if possible, you can listen on the web right here at kolu.com.  We’ll work to fix the problem as soon as we can, and update you as to the status of the Christian Family Radio translator in Prosser, and have it back to a clear signal as soon as possible.

Thank you for your prayers, concern and support.

We will be working on our automation computers at the studio from 2 to 4 PM on Friday, February 22, installing a new router that will help to isolate the computers that keep Christian Family Radio on the air from the rest of our offices.  We may not be able to air all our regular programming during this time.

Please note that streaming will not be functioning during certain portions of this time period.

This installation will ultimately help keep us on the air 24 hours a day, with problems that sometimes happen on the office network less likely to take our computers off line.

We appreciate your support of KOLU Christian Family Radio.

We’d like to apologize to our listeners for the loss of much of our Saturday morning programming today.

Nearly all the sound you here on KOLU comes from a “trio” of computers that must communicate with each other to operate properly.  Occasionally, the link between the computer that is the “master controller” and the one that provides the sound stops working.

When this first happened, I was busy tending to another station that is in addition to my Christian Family Radio responsibilities.  Available staff tried resetting both computers, but the reset sequence did not properly bring things back to normal.  When I did have a chance to tend to the problem, we fully reset both computers and restored normal programming around 11:20.

This is a rare but occasional problem that would be difficult to completely fix due to fact that it doesn’t happen very often.  We appreciate your patience and understanding.

If you read my post last month, “Of Windstorms, Processors and Dishes”, you may have wondered what the big deal about “hoar frost” was when it comes to radio stations.  In light of the three power outages we had this past week, I figured it was time to expound on that thought a bit more.

At around 11:45 Sunday night while I was enjoying a restful sleep, my phone vibrated with a text message from our transmitter monitoring software alerting me that the power at our main transmitter site on Beck Mountain south of Kennewick had just gone out.

Now, as an aside, when this happens, our “backup” transmitter automatically comes on, running on batteries at low power (100 watts instead of 4100 watts), but keeping us on the air with a signal that is adequate for many of our listeners.  This backup will run about 5 hours, normally enough time for power to be restored.

Rising from bed, I made a few quick checks on the readings through my computer at home, and then called Benton PUD to report the outage.  After reaching the call center that covers overnight outages, I described our location and was assured that a crew would be investigating shortly.  That was all I could do for now, so it was back to bed for me with a plan to check on things in the morning.

Looking over the logs Monday morning, I noted that power was restored around 2:00 AM and everything appeared to be back to normal, except for the reading we see during much of the winter that ice was built up on our antenna

Another aside here, the antenna we use was chosen because it can keep on broadcasting even with a lot of ice on it.  It has indeed performed very well under those conditions, as years of service have proven.

This Monday was a work-at-home day, so I was refining some software we use on our network while the radio was playing.  All appeared normal until around 7:40 when a sudden burst of static on my radio followed by a return of a “noisier” signal told my what I would find out by text message in a couple of minutes…power was off again.

Another call to Benton PUD confirmed that they were working with power lines that had heavy loads of ice.  I know that lots of ice could build up enough to break the power lines, as we had experienced a few years ago.  With a few questions for the dispatcher, I learned that it was indeed icing that was causing the problems.  However, it was more likely that it was just causing the lines to “fault” (or short), rather than breaking them.

Once again, the PUD had us back to full power at 11:45 that morning, and all was well again.

Wednesday night, just before the 7:30 live broadcast from Riverview Baptist Church, I was in the studio and had the same indications of a loss of power, which I promptly confirmed.  This time, though, it was much more widespread, affecting not only our site on Beck Mountain, but also TV and radio stations on Jump-Off Joe.  Noting my fellow broadcast engineers in this area were working on it, I was again resigned to wait until power could be restored.  This time, it took longer than the 5 hours our backup was designed to run; we were completely off the air just after midnight.  Power was restored at around 2:15 and has been on continuously as I write this.

Now, how can we get so much ice here in the Tri-Cities to cause problems like this?  After all, this isn’t Alaska or some far-north place where hundreds of inches of snow are falling…

This was a lesson I learned when we first expanded to Beck Mountain in 1995.  That fog with freezing temperatures we frequently experience becomes even worse at the elevations in the hills above the Tri-Cities.  What happens is that the droplets forming the fog are still liquid, while the power lines, tower, etc are just below freezing.   These are called “supercooled” droplets, a condition well known to pilots whose airplanes become covered with what is known as “rime ice” rapidly in the same conditions. Each droplet that strikes a sub-freezing structure instantly freezes, building up over time.  Compared with aircraft, ice builds up very slowly in the under-5 mph winds that accompany the fog, but over time huge amounts of the stuff accumulate.  This ice is often called “hoar frost” but the name “rime icing” is actually a more accurate description.

I’ve posted a picture taken in 2004 just outside the gate of our tower.  The ice buildup is so heavy that the guy wires are sagging under the load and the antennas on the tower look like they are growing beards!  Indeed, ice in the Tri-Cities can be a very big issue when it comes to power lines, towers and transmitters!