50 episodes
Bonus 18:15
A low power FM station in Valdosta, Georgia has a real interference problem. Instead of accepting the engineering explanation, they decided to accuse broadcast engineers, large radio conglomerates, and apparently the atmosphere itself of running a coordinated campaign against them. I break down…
EP 45 23:15
Kids are not going to stop talking to each other just because you blocked an app. I get into the story of how a group of teenage girls turned NPR 's podcast comment section on Spotify into a full blown underground group chat, complete with its own routing system, and why they picked the most…
EP 44 16:57
Radio loves patting itself on the back for showing up during hurricanes and tornadoes. I grew up in Florida watching cones of uncertainty aim at my house, so I get why that story feels good. But building your entire pitch around being useful only when everything else breaks is a terrible way to run…
Bonus 17:13
Diesel prices are all over the news right now, but everyone's talking about it like it's just a trucking story. It's not. I'm a broadcast engineer, and I'm here to tell you diesel is the thing keeping radio transmitters and cell sites alive when the power goes out, and right now that backup power…
EP 43 10:04
On November 17th, every radio and TV station in the country is going to interrupt whatever you're doing with that awful screeching tone. I'm breaking down what that nationwide Emergency Alert System test actually is, how a warning message travels from a federal agency all the way to your car radio…
EP 42 23:42
Radio keeps trying to beat Spotify at being Spotify, and it's losing, because that was never a fight it could win. I lay out why the actual advantage terrestrial radio has always had isn't the music or the transmitter, it's the human relationship, and why chasing efficiency has quietly stripped…
EP 41 38:00
There's a box on my basement wall where light turns into internet, and most people paying for "fiber" don't have anything close to it. I break down the term "fiber powered," why Spectrum is selling coax as if it's the real thing, and how the FTTH, FTTN, FTTC alphabet soup exists to hide exactly…
EP 40 34:20
Everyone repeats the line that the cloud is just someone else's computer, and then keeps handing over their whole life to it anyway. I get into what that actually means once you stop laughing at it: they write the rules, they change them whenever they want, and they can lock you out of your own…
EP 39 21:08
That lossless badge on your music app feels like a promise, until you realize it's probably not reaching your ears at all. I break down what lossless, lossy, and high res audio actually mean, why almost every pair of Bluetooth headphones including AirPods can't deliver a true lossless stream no…
EP 38 24:56
Tyler digs into why phones, earbuds, and even video games are suddenly going backward, dumb phones, wired earbuds, and vinyl are all trending up while smartphones and streaming keep getting more bloated and expensive. He walks through the polling data on Gen Z and millennials wanting simpler tech…