Dead air: what the hells with that?

Just a quick introduction before I get this whole dog and pony show on the road. My name is Pat Craven and for the past two years I have been a disc jockey at CJAM 91.5 University of Windsor campus radio. Over the past two years I think I have witnessed just about everything there is to see when it comes to how a college radio station works. And although I would say 9 out of 10 North Americans are exposed to radio on a weekly basis, a lot of them probably have no idea about half the stuff that goes on. And with that, I present: SOUND OFF: what's the deal with college radio?

For my first entry I am going to talk about dead air and how it affects radio. Wikipedia states "Dead air is a phenomenon whereby a broadcast which normally carries audio or video unintentionally becomes silent or blank (also known as unmodulated carrier). The term is most often used in cases where programme material comes to an unexpected halt, either through operator error or for technical reasons, although it is also used in cases where a broadcaster has 'dried up'."

At CJAM dead air is not your friend, it is actually your arch enemy. Dead air is the equivalent to the black plague for radio hosts. If you encounter it, fix it, or run away before you can be seen my others.

There are a few reasons why the airwaves become dead, some the fault of the dj and some aren't.

1) Song ends and another one is not queued up/ dj is not ready to go on the air. This problem is probably the most common. It probably happens once or twice a show without people realizing it but trust me, the dj is in the studio frantically trying to fix the problem. The only time dead air becomes a problem and listeners are affected is usually when a dj will throw on a cd for the over night shift and does not select repeat on the cd player. This can lead to hours of dead air and a lot of unhappy listeners and board of directors.

2) The other reason why dead air might occur is because of faulty equipment. For example, last year a lot of the in studio microphones were not working and dj didn't know of this problem. So when they thought they were broadcasting out onto the airwaves, they were really just talking to each other in a small enclosed room. This is not a regular occurance, but just another example of how dead air occurs.

Finally, the age old question, how would a dj know there is a dead air problem. Well good question. CJAM is equipped with a dead air alarm which sends off a really annoying high pitched ring when there is dead air over the air waves.

So that should answer your question, what the hells with dead air?

till next entry,

Pat