Issue 56		SMARTS Broadcast Systems		   April 1999

Greetings, Spring is definitely on the way. I actually saw a groundhog in a local store buying tanning butter. Does that mean it will be a warm summer? SUPPORT Can we talk? It has come to our attention that some stations are concerned that SMARTS Broadcast Systems will not support our older units. Quite to the contrary, we support even our oldest systems, and will continue to do so to the best of our ability. We will warn you that it becomes harder to do with the early systems since we work more with the newer systems and might eventually forget details of the older units, plus staff turnover can affect our brain trust. As a company, we are here for the long haul. We also feel that our Support Department is the best in the industry. We are here nine hours a day for standard questions and daytime emergencies, and we are available evenings and weekends for off-air emergencies. During the day, we respond within an hour for standard questions, and within five minutes for emergencies. After hours, we respond within 15 minutes for off-air emergencies. SUBROUTINES We talked about Subroutines in a recent newsletter; how they won't be checked by the system when going back into the program in the middle of a Subroutine's activation period. We also need to remind you not to use a Subroutine across Midnight. Midnight is the change from one day to the next, and a lot of different things happen. Subroutines are not intended to cross Midnight. In fact, they work best if limited to ten minutes or less. LISTEN Do you actually listen to your station? I have recently become aware of two stories. One, the station finally realized that none of their commercials were playing. And hadn't for three months! It turned out that their music network had made changes three months before and the paper warning had been lost on a desk somewhere. The second story involved dead air on a station from Midnight to 1 am. That occurred for six months before someone became aware of it. This was from a Subroutine that shouldn't have been running across Midnight. At 1 am, the Timed Events put the network back on the air. While no one should have to listen 24 hours a day, someone should be paying attention throughout the day. And there are Verification Logs that are easy to check and can point out problems without having to stay up until O'dark thirty. Hopefully, you're not having a problem like this at your station. HELP! We have run into a problem in the Support Department lately. While we are so good that you sometimes think we use smoke, black magic, and mirrors, there are some things we cannot do...and for that, we need your help. We use the phone to help you, our customers. If you don't leave us a phone number to call you back, we spend valuable time looking up your number and getting back to you. And since we need to talk to you in person, hitting voicemail when we call doesn't help you. Please remember when calling, that we need valid phone numbers that will get around voicemail, or you need to turn the voicemail off until we can get to you. We realize that you are under some pressure at the time you make the call and sometimes it is hard to remember all of the details. Still, if you remember the number, you can help us help you, and we will be able to get to you quicker. SPRING IS SPRUNG As we move from one season to another, we leave the static behind in exchange for its big brother, lightning. We're already getting calls from stations that have become the victims of early thunderstorms. You can protect yourselves by scheduling your engineer to check ALL of your grounding as a part of preventative maintenance. While many systems have surge protectors and uninterruptible power supplies on their units, they may not have a surge protector on the monitor. We urge you to quickly get a surge protector on the monitor to limit this avenue of access in case of a lightning strike. And while you're at it, double-check to make sure your unit is insured. Should it be struck by lightning, this is the easiest way to replace it. Doug Burton

     OFFICE: 800-747-6278	     SUPPORT: 800-765-2930         

     SALES: 800-498-0487             E-MAIL: support@smartsbroadcast.com

				 WEBSITE: http://www.smartsbroadcast.com