Hello! Is it Spring yet? Mother Nature sure has been playing with us lately, but we'll take it! I would rather pretend it is Spring on a day by day basis, than shovel snow. Let's hope the Summer will be as good as the Winter.
MOVED
Yes, we have completed our move. We are now located at 2508 West Main Street in Emmetsburg. The new facility gives most of us separate offices and a quieter work space, plus ample parking. We still have some loose ends to tie up. This was a massive move and
required the coordination of several service companies at some pretty unusual hours. That work should be completed in the next week. We will be having an open house on Friday, March 24th at 10 am. If you are in the neighborhood, we would enjoy seeing you and providing the grand tour. Remember to use the new address as the shipping address from now on.
TRAINING
There will be a SMARTCASTER training session in May. This is an excellent way to improve your knowledge about your unit or educate someone new to the station. Further information will be available in future newsletters.
VIRUS
March is the month when the virus Michelangelo is activated. This is a good time to remind stations that they should have a virus detection program, and use it regularly. It is also a good time to consider having a policy where no outside disks are brought into the station without being scanned, and no games are put on any of the business machines.
WEB PAGE
We apologize for any inconvenience you might have had accessing our home page – smartsbroadcast.com. We are switching to a new Internet Provider, and have had some difficulties in doing so. Once we are back up on the Web, the site will be a source of Sales and Support information. However, it will not work until we get our complete service from the new Internet Provider. Feel free to check it in the next few weeks to see what it offers.
DETAIL
When we call to offer support to a station, we usually need to have someone in front of the SMARTCASTER. I recently ran into a situation where they didn't know how to transfer the phone to that room. Make sure your staff knows how to use the phone system, and where the various parts of the SMARTCASTER are located. While this seems like minor knowledge, knowing these details can speed up the process of getting the station back on the air.
COMPUTERS
There have been several instances lately where someone at the station has been tinkering with the SMARTCASTER. Please remind your staff that the SMARTCASTER is a broadcast tool that HAPPENS to be a computer. Years of research, design, and development
have 
gone into its crafting to make it an efficient and dependable tool. When someone who THINKS they know computers starts to meddle with the equipment, trouble follows. Most of them wouldn't tinker with the transmitter, STL's, or Control Board. They shouldn't tinker with the SMARTCASTER either.
See you next month. Oh yeah, feel free to pass this newsletter around the station.