Live radio, much like live television, is one of those things that can be fraught with unexpected happenings, as triple j’s Richard Kingsmill discovered during a routine broadcast this evening.
As Richard Kingsmill ventured into the final half hour of his weekly ‘2018’ program on Sunday night, it appears that technical difficulties plagued the station, with listeners forced to listen to a variety of static and other intriguing sounds until attempts were made to fix the issue.
https://twitter.com/triplejtheking/status/982929264625397761
“Apologies. We’ve blown a router,” explained Kingsmill. “If I knew what one was, I would try to build it. But smarter people than me are trying to fix the massive transmission probs that some of you are now hearing.”
Of course, some listeners took it upon themselves to explain away the sounds they were hearing, with some describing the sounds as “new Aphex Twin”, “EDM bangas”, or even the sound of Daleks invading the station.
I thought i was listening to some new aphex twin
— Edmund Griffin (@EdmundGriffin) April 8, 2018
So we’re not being invaded by Daleks? That’s a relief.
— Simon Evans (@Se77Evans) April 8, 2018
However, despite the valiant efforts to fix the issue at hand, it seems that many of those who tuned in to hear some new tracks this week were met with more static. “Just a show of hands please. How many of you can hear me at the moment?” asked Kingsmill, before being met responses that varied from “You’re back,” to “now dropping in and out.”
https://twitter.com/triplejtheking/status/982930853213814784
Of course, this isn’t the first time that triple j have had similar issues. In fact, while The Preatures were in the middle of a stunning Like A Version performance last October, transmitter issues brought down the entire station for an extended period of time, leaving fans unable to hear Isabella Manfredi belt out the lyrics to Arcade Fire’s ‘Everything Now’.
Just back in February, triple j also explained how they’re unable to play the regular version of N.E.R.D.’s ‘Lemon’, because the protracted portion of silence in the middle of the track is long enough to flip triple j’s Emergency Tape, which only happens when there’s dead air, and the technical powers that be assume that a bit of a foul up has occurred. So as you can see, radio broadcasting can be a fickle business at times.
While triple j seems to be back to normal broadcasting once again now, it just goes to show that you never know what you’re going to get when you listen to a live broadcast.
Check out The Preatures’ cover ‘Everything Now’ on triple j’s Like A Version:
