Author: Tyler Woodward

I’m Tyler Woodward, a lifelong radio nerd who got hooked at age 5 with a simple AM/FM radio. I grew up in Tampa, took media classes, interned at local stations, and eventually moved to Wisconsin, where my radio career really took off. I now work as a Broadcast Engineer for Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin. Fully Modulated is my way of sharing the behind-the-scenes world of broadcasting with anyone curious about how it all works.

Opinion

Time to Let AM Radio Evolve — Why All-Digital May Be Its Only Future

Posted on 06/21/2025by Tyler Woodward

The recent debate over mandating AM radio in all new cars has brought fresh attention to the AM band. Industry voices, like Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Technology Association, caution that such mandates are costly. These mandates will even stifle innovation. Instead of fighting to preserve AM in its current noisy and analog state, it’s time to consider new possibilities. What if AM didn’t have to be the scratchy, staticky, afterthought in the dashboard? What if AM sound clean, deliver metadata, and offer a compelling user experience again?

That’s not a pipe dream—it’s already possible through all-digital AM broadcasting.

Opinion

How FCC Deregulation Could Harm Local Radio and TV

Posted on 06/20/2025by Tyler Woodward

In June 2025, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) initiated major changes. These changes affect how many broadcast stations a single company can own. The review, under Docket 25-133, will lead to a rollback of long-standing media ownership limits. These rules were designed to protect local news, viewpoint diversity, and competition in radio and television.

Opinion

When NOAA Weather Radio Goes Down, EAS Must Step Up

Posted on 06/19/2025by Tyler Woodward

Lately, NOAA Weather Radio transmitters have been dropping off the air across the country — from Montana to Florida. Some have been out for hours, others for days. Equipment failures, broken microwave links, and even upgrade-related issues have all played a role. For broadcasters, it’s a reminder. When one piece of the emergency alerting chain breaks, the others have to be ready.

News

Tragic Fall from WAMU Tower Sparks Mental Health Discussions

Posted on 06/18/2025by Tyler Woodward

On Friday, June 13, 2025, a man who had been perched on the WAMU/WTOP radio tower in northwest Washington, D.C., for nearly three days fell to his death. The incident began on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 10. It ended in the early hours of Friday morning. This was after an extended standoff involving law enforcement, emergency personnel, and mental health crisis negotiators.

The broadcast community, university officials, and local residents are now reflecting on what unfolded. They are considering what can be done to help prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Opinion

Transforming Radio: Connecting with Today’s Audiences

Posted on 06/16/2025by Tyler Woodward

Radio’s not dying. But it is moving — out of the dashboard, off the dial, and into every connected device we own. What was once a background medium is now ready to connect with listeners everywhere. This includes on their TVs, their smart speakers, their mobile phones, and in their cars.

And yet, too many broadcasters are still thinking inside the FM box.

That’s why a recent example from Pillar Media is so exciting. It’s not just exciting for what they did. It is also exciting for what it shows.

Episodes

Emergency Alert System: The Lifesaving Broadcast You Need to Understand

Posted on 06/16/2025by Tyler Woodward

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a critical infrastructure element that most Americans recognize but few truly understand. As explored in our recent podcast episode, this mechanism serves as a vital communication channel. It connects government authorities and the public during emergencies. This mechanism’s importance can’t be overstated—it provides immediate, reliable information when other communication ways fail during crises.

News

House Passes $9.4  Billion Rescission Package, Targets Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting

Posted on 06/14/2025by Tyler Woodward

In a closely divided 214–212 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $9.4 billion rescission package aimed at reclaiming earlier allocated funds for foreign aid and public broadcasting programs . The White House initiated this measure. It strives to solidify budget reductions already put forth by the Department of Government Efficiency—also known as DOGE cuts. These cuts were prompted in part by pressure from Elon Musk.

Episodes

Mailbag: When Engineers Collide: A Facebook Fact-Check Gone Wild

Posted on 06/12/2025by Tyler Woodward

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is one of those broadcast technologies that most people recognize but few truly understand. As a broadcast engineer, I’ve noticed widespread misconceptions about how these alerts actually work. I recently encountered these misconceptions firsthand after posting a simplified explanation on social media.

A fellow engineer named Joe Fleming made a minor technical correction. This turned into a valuable opportunity to clarify how emergency alerts actually work. The interaction highlighted an important distinction: what triggers EAS equipment isn’t what most people think. The iconic two-tone attention signal – that jarring sound we all recognize – doesn’t actually start the alert system. Instead, it’s the less-noticed digital data burst at the beginning of the transmission that holds the crucial triggering information.

Episodes

Cable Giants Merge, Local TV Fights Back: Why OTA Still Matters

Posted on 06/09/2025by Tyler Woodward

The cable television landscape is undergoing dramatic shifts as major providers combine their power. The proposed $34.5 billion merger between Spectrum and Cox Communications is one significant industry deal. It will fundamentally change how viewers access local television. Alongside this, Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications further concentrates market power among fewer companies. These mega-mergers raise serious questions about the future of local broadcasting. They also bring up concerns about retransmission agreements. Ultimately, this affects viewer access to critical local content.

Episodes

Unraveling the Puzzle: When HD1 Drops But HD2 Doesn’t

Posted on 06/02/2025by Tyler Woodward

The Mystery of HD Radio Dropouts: When Digital Isn’t Always Better

In the world of broadcast engineering, few technical challenges are as frustrating as intermittent audio problems. Recently, we encountered a particularly perplexing issue with our HD Radio transmission that left us scratching our heads for weeks. Our HD1 audio signal would randomly drop out for brief periods—anywhere from 0.3 seconds to 3 seconds—while the HD2 signal continued operating flawlessly. This contradiction immediately caught our attention because conventional wisdom suggests that if there’s an issue with the transport stream or the exciter, all HD channels should be affected. But that wasn’t happening in our case, making this technical mystery even more intriguing.

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