WideOrbit sent Google Radio Automation customers
a "Welcome to WideOrbit"
email August 4, 2009.
Google had sent customers an email July 16 advising it would soon
sell the part of its radio operations that had not already shut down.
Both emails cautioned that anyone other than Google and WideOrbit
is incapable of providing support to SS32 automation customers
"because we are the only ones to have the source code."
Several SS32 stations thinking of switching to
Scott-ENCO support have asked for our response, which follows.
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How Important Is SS32 Source Code?
Before we delve into radio automation, let's put the real question in
perspective. Think about your car: What will you do when
your car's warranty expires? Will
you take your car back to the dealer for another $79 "deluxe"
oil change, non-warranty service labor at $110 per hour and
non-warranty parts at full retail? Or, will
you get a $35 oil change at Jiffy Lube and go to Firestone,
Pep Boys or a friendly neighborhood mechanic for
service labor at $59 per hour?
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The same business decision applies to service for your SS32. When the
software support included with your purchase ends and
you have to pay cash to talk to a tech, will you
stick with the dealer? If so, why?
And...what if that dealer
had changed owners, managers and company names three times since you
bought from them?
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Whether
it's your car—or
your SS32—there are very good service
alternatives after
the warranty's over. In fact, Scott-ENCO's service is better, faster
and cheaper.
Mr. Matthewson, CEO of WideOrbit, says other service people (such
as Scott-ENCO's) "...can help you to identify a problem, they
just can't fix it."
With all due respect, Mr. Matthewson, that's just not
true...and I think you're smart enough to know it.
Scott-ENCO certainly can get any SS32 installation back to
working the way it did in its best days. We can do so quickly,
economically, and without any need for source code.
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Who Knows More: The Student...or the Teacher?
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I'm Dave Scott. I owned and was CEO of Scott Studios and
personally invented SS32...and
most of the features in it.
I worked long hours
enhancing SS32 for 12 years. My Scott-ENCO techs and I have more knowledge in our heads
about what really makes your SS32 tick than 99.999% of all
the people who ever worked at
Google or who now work at
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WideOrbit. I could
start from
scratch and create a new SS64 faster and
better than most anyone at WideOrbit could
find the appropriate part of "their" source code to
understand any problem
that might come up at your stations.
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So...What Is Source Code? And...Why Should I Care?
Source code is the computer equivalent of a blueprint,
those big drawings looked at during construction of
your house when it was first being built.
But today...not so much. You don't use a blueprint to live
in your house...or eat, sleep, enjoy, clean, paint, repair,
or anything else you do in your house. Even if you commissioned
an extreme makeover remodel of your house, the builder would
create
new blueprints. The original 'prints
probably wouldn't be used at all.
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Will the Last to Leave, Please Turn Out the Lights
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It's a fact: In February, March and April 2009
Google fired 40 of their
best radio automation
technicians, system builders, support staff and—yes—all but
one of the software developers who wrote any SS32 source
code. Since Google's decision to exit radio in February, the majority
of the brains of SS32, Scott Studios and
dMarc Broadcasting have been fired. We can show you the
press reports, LinkedIn
and Facebook pages of most of the 40 people Google terminated.
Even now, WideOrbit hasn't announced it has hired any
of them.
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WideOrbit's Experience is Virtually All
In Television...and they Charge TV Prices
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Just like your car dealer wants you
to keep coming back after the end of your warranty for those $79
"deluxe" oil changes and $110 per hour service labor, WideOrbit
wants you to spend
money for their support.
Pointing to
source code is a shell game
to take your attention away from the real question:
Based on price and quality, will WideOrbit be your
best choice
for SS32 support?
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After all, WideOrbit has zero experience in
radio equipment. Who are these guys?
What do they know about radio studios or DJs?
Go With the Teacher...Not the Student of the Student of the Student
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WideOrbit didn't invent or sell you your SS32. Google
didn't invent
your SS32. dMarc didn't create your SS32. Each
merely bought certain assets of a business formerly known as Scott Studios,
which I created and is now a part of Scott-ENCO. These new guys did buy
my source code, but they didn't buy my brain.
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Auto Mechanics Don't Send A Car Back to
Detroit (or Japan) for Repairs
Neither you, nor any support tech who
will talk with you on the phone or come to your station
will ever get to look at—or
otherwise use—any SS32 source
code. If you're paying WideOrbit for
support, ask them to show you their source code and
explain how it fixes your equipment. Also, ask the
WideOrbit support tech how long they've
worked hands-on with SS32 systems. Find out how many computers they've
personally opened up in racks at SS32 stations. Every one of us
at Scott-ENCO has more than a decade of experience with Scott
SS32 systems and personally worked on well over a thousand SS32's. (Over 13,500
workstations were sold to 4,600 radio stations.)
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Remember, their "official"
SS32 service department has now changed owners
and managers three times
in the last five years.
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Scott-ENCO: The Smart Choice
Can you get better
SS32 support from Scott-ENCO? Absolutely. We have more
SS32 brain power and more years of SS32 experience per
tech...by far!
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Once your support contract expires, we can
get you better service and hardware for less.
Feel free to check out WideOrbit's support details and
prices.
Then get ours. We invented SS32...and we reinvent cheaper,
faster and better every day.
Call for details at 1-248-603-2400 or email sales@ENCO.com.
And when your traffic/billing software contract comes up
for renewal, check out my RadioTraffic.com.
It's better,
faster and cheaper too.
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