Fully Modulated

Ever switch sources in your car and feel the sound collapse as soon as you tap over to satellite? We pull back the curtain on why Sirius XM can feel flat and “blanketed,” tracing the problem to low bitrates, legacy codecs, and a hard ceiling on satellite bandwidth that forces tough choices. You’ll hear clear comparisons—48 kbps music channels and even lower talk channels versus 320 kbps streaming and lossless options—and what those...

Radio stations across America are getting hacked through vulnerable Barix audio codecs, and your station could be next. In September 2025, hackers hijacked KPOG in Des Moines and KRLL in Missouri during Labor Day weekend, broadcasting explicit content and fake Emergency Alert System messages. Over 600 Barix Instreamer and Exstreamer devices remain exposed on the public internet, discoverable through Shodan searches by anyone with b...

The October 2025 AWS outage that took down major internet services for hours proves why broadcasters need multi-cloud redundancy and hybrid infrastructure to protect both revenue and emergency alerting capabilities. When automation goes down, commercials don't air, programming stops, listeners tune out, and advertising revenue disappears. Tyler breaks down why radio stations need backup systems using an analogy everyone unders...

The Box Music Network was the interactive TV channel that let viewers pick the music videos — years before YouTube and streaming. Launched in Miami in 1985, The Box gave communities real control over what played next, from underground hip-hop to banned Madonna videos. By the mid-1990s it was reaching 30 million homes and even beating MTV in viewership. So why did MTV buy it in 1999 and shut it down?

In this episode of Fully Modulate...

What happens when a professional poker player spends decades hoarding billions of dollars in spectrum licenses? In this episode of Fully Modulated, we follow Charlie Ergen’s incredible rise from selling backyard satellite dishes to running Dish Network, his bold $13 billion bet on 5G, and the $23 billion spectrum sale that just ended his dream of becoming America’s fourth wireless carrier.

You’ll hear how the FCC, AT&T, T-Mobile...

In 2000, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich got the shock of his life: their unreleased song "I Disappear" was playing on radio stations across America - before they'd even finished recording it. This is the wild story of how a leaked demo ended up on Napster, radio DJs started downloading it illegally, and one phone call triggered the biggest lawsuit in digital music history. 

Discover how radio stations accidentally beca...

Ever tune into a radio station and hear the same song playing... for hours? That's called radio stunting, and it's one of the weirdest, most effective tricks in broadcasting history.

This episode digs into the crazy world of radio stunts - from a Louisiana governor who played an obscure song for almost 60 hours straight in 1955, to the California station that somehow found 823 different versions of "Louie Louie" ...

Ever wonder what's behind that perfect radio voice that draws you in during your morning commute? This episode takes you on a fascinating journey through nearly a century of radio microphone technology, from the massive, temperamental ribbon microphones of the 1930s to the sleek digital mics powering today's podcasts and broadcasts.

You'll discover why early radio hosts had to stand perfectly still like statues, how t...

KSDP 830 AM serves just 600 people in Sand Point, Alaska—one of America's most isolated communities. But this tiny radio station is a lifeline, broadcasting everything from tsunami warnings to local fishing reports across the Aleutian Islands. Now, federal budget cuts threaten to silence KSDP forever, potentially leaving an entire community without their main connection to the outside world. Join Tyler as he explores the 40-ye...

Howard Stern just reminded the world why he’s still the master of media. After months off the air, Stern’s return to SiriusXM started with a prank that had Andy Cohen taking over his channel, news outlets reporting he was gone, and fans convinced it was the end.

But it was all Stern’s idea, a perfectly timed stunt that exposed how fast rumors spread and how easily the press can be fooled. In this episode, we break down what happened...

Tyler previews the upcoming Midwest Regional Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin (September 15-17, 2025), highlighting the sessions he's most excited to attend in his professional capacity.

Topics Covered:

• Audio Processing: Finding That Elusive Signature Sound with Mike Erickson (Orban Labs)
• Workbench Tips to Improve Engineering Efficiency with Kirk Harnack
• Hardening the Transmitter Site for reliability and protection
• The...

Got pushback on my last episode calling HD Radio a complete failure? You were right to call me out. While HD Radio's original consumer vision crashed and burned spectacularly, the technology quietly found success in ways nobody predicted. 

In this follow-up episode, I break down where HD Radio actually succeeded after failing as a consumer product:

• FM Translator Revolution - How one radio station can become four different st...

Ever wondered why HD Radio never took off despite being technically superior to regular FM? This might be the most tragic story in broadcasting history - a technology that had everything going for it but still managed to fail spectacularly.

In this episode, we explore how HD Radio went from revolutionary promise to comprehensive disaster. We'll cover the brilliant engineering behind OFDM technology, why it cost stations up to $...

Ever wondered how rock and roll conquered British radio? It all started with rebellious DJs broadcasting from ships in the North Sea. In this episode, we dive into the wild world of pirate radio - from Radio Caroline's first broadcast in 1964 to the underground stations that introduced reggae, house music, and hip-hop to British audiences.

We'll explore how a loophole in international law led to floating radio stations, wh...

On this bonus episode of Fully Modulated, Tyler drops the curtain on the weirdest holiday in broadcasting: National Radio Day. Why August 20th? Who actually invented radio? And what happens when the whole country suddenly remembers the tower selfie folder on their phones?

Tyler digs into the chaotic, disputed origins of National Radio Day, spins stories about how radio became the most personal mass medium on the planet, and shares w...

In this final chapter of our special series, The Story Behind EAS, Tyler Woodward explores how emergency alerting is moving beyond familiar tones and crawls into a new era of rich data and smarter delivery. From the Common Alerting Protocol to NextGen TV, the systems that warn us are becoming faster, more precise, and more connected than ever.

You’ll hear how artificial intelligence is helping emergency managers detect threats in re...

Ever wondered who actually pushes that button sending jarring alerts over your radio and phone? The answer might surprise you - it's usually not someone in Washington, but your neighbors working in county emergency operations centers.

Most county EOCs aren't glamorous command centers but rather ordinary rooms in courthouse basements or sheriff's departments. Inside, dedicated professionals monitor weather ra...

Have you ever wondered what happens when a tornado warning is issued while you're deep in a Netflix binge? Our emergency alert infrastructure, designed for the broadcast era of the 1990s, faces a critical challenge in today's digital world.

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) was built when everyone gathered around TV sets at scheduled times to watch their favorite shows. Today, with over 60% of Americans primarily ...

What happens when the systems we rely on to keep us safe suddenly fail? That moment when a Hawaii missile alert sends an entire state into panic because someone selected the wrong menu option. Or when a critical warning never reaches you because your favorite podcast app isn't required to interrupt your listening experience like traditional radio.

Emergency alerts represent a fragile chain of trust—one that's inc...