ID10T Techcast
ID10T Techcast is a weekly podcast where Tyler Woodward, a broadcast engineer, goes over the past week's news in Linux, tech and broadcasting and tells you what he thinks about it. Episodes run 15 to 30 minutes.
Every episode runs through the week's stories, like Linux security holes and open source, Big Tech and AI companies, the FCC, and radio and TV, then ends with one longer opinion piece. Some weeks it's a security hole, some weeks it's why radio isn't dead yet.
The show is for right to repair, privacy, a real nationwide US privacy law like Europe's GDPR, decentralized social media like Mastodon and Bluesky, and independent and community radio. It's critical of big corporations, tech billionaires and AI companies, and it calls out both political parties when they earn it. Everything's explained in plain English, no jargon.
More at ID10T.fm.
Episodes
53 episodes
Burnout, Fear, and Getting Back to Broadcast Engineering
In this episode, Tyler shares his recent career transition from a broadcast network engineer role back to field engineering, reflecting on his experiences and challenges in the broadcasting industry. He discusses the importance of autonomy in h...
Could Radio Make a Comeback by Learning from Vinyl and CDs?
The conversation explores the resurgence of physical media, particularly vinyl, CDs, and cassettes, and discusses the growing consumer preference for ownership over subscription models. It highlights the unique position of radio in the media la...
Meta's AI gave a stranger his home address
Meta's new Muse AI agent handled a Facebook Marketplace sale for a guy named Matt Rob, and it gave a complete stranger his home address without asking first. The guy shows up expecting to buy a keyboard, and Rob has no idea any of this happened...
Supra 89.7 thinks the atmosphere is out to get them
A low power FM station in Valdosta, Georgia has a real interference problem. Instead of accepting the engineering explanation, they decided to accuse broadcast engineers, large radio conglomerates, and apparently the atmosphere itself of runnin...
Kids turned NPR's comment section into a secret group chat
Kids are not going to stop talking to each other just because you blocked an app. I get into the story of how a group of teenage girls turned NPR's podcast comment...
Stop selling radio like a fire extinguisher
Radio loves patting itself on the back for showing up during hurricanes and tornadoes. I grew up in Florida watching cones of uncertainty aim at my house, so I get why that story feels good. But building your entire pitch around being useful on...
Diesel prices don't just hit truckers, they hit your cell and radio signals
Diesel prices are all over the news right now, but everyone's talking about it like it's just a trucking story. It's not. I'm a broadcast engineer, and I'm here to tell you diesel is the thing keeping radio transmitters and cell sites alive whe...
Why the whole country is about to hear that emergency alert tone at once
On November 17th, every radio and TV station in the country is going to interrupt whatever you're doing with that awful screeching tone. I'm breaking down what that nationwide
Radio can't out-Spotify Spotify, so stop trying
Radio keeps trying to beat Spotify at being Spotify, and it's losing, because that was never a fight it could win. I lay out why the actual advantage terrestrial radio has always had isn't the music or the transmitter, it's the human relationsh...
Fiber powered is a lie: how ISPs sell you coax and call it glass
There's a box on my basement wall where light turns into internet, and most people paying for "fiber" don't have anything close to it. I break down the term "fiber powered," why Spectrum is selling coax as if it's the real thing, and how the FT...
Stop renting your own life back from Google, Apple, and Meta
Everyone repeats the line that the cloud is just someone else's computer, and then keeps handing over their whole life to it anyway. I get into what that actually means once you stop laughing at it: they write the rules, they change them whenev...
Nobody can actually hear lossless audio, including you
That lossless badge on your music app feels like a promise, until you realize it's probably not reaching your ears at all. I break down what lossless, lossy, and high res audio actually mean, why almost every pair of Bluetooth headphones includ...
You don't own your movies, your games, or your music
Tyler digs into why phones, earbuds, and even video games are suddenly going backward, dumb phones, wired earbuds, and vinyl are all trending up while smartphones and streaming keep getting more bloated and expensive. He walks through the polli...
Shrinkflation is a lie: how companies used inflation as cover
Ever notice your chip bag feels lighter but somehow still costs the same? Tyler's had it with companies calling that inflation when it's really just shrinking the product, keeping the price, and quietly banking record profits. This episode walk...
What actually killed Blockbuster (it wasn't Netflix)
Tyler takes a trip down memory lane through video rental stores, sparked by a random Nova Scotia reunion and his kid watching a video store simulator game on YouTube. He walks through the whole Friday night rental ritual, the smell, the ps2 sle...
Why internet radio got too expensive for regular people
Tyler breaks down why running a small internet radio station went from a fun hobbyist project in 2009 to a legal and financial minefield today. He walks through what changed after the small webcaster provisions expired, why licensing now means ...
The MySpace bug that taught a generation web design
Tyler digs into the one MySpace bug that accidentally taught a whole generation how to code: that infamous About Me box that let you paste raw HTML and CSS to completely override your profile. He walks through how millions of teenagers turned c...
My hobby became my job, so I'm blowing up the format
Tyler hits pause on the usual format to explain why he's blowing up the show again. He walks through the moment he realized his supposedly personal podcast had quietly turned into a second shift of his day job, and what that means for where the...
STL Redundancy: Radio's Forgotten Infrastructure Crisis
The STL, or studio to transmitter link, is the unglamorous connection that keeps a radio station on the air, and when it fails everything goes dead silent even if every other piece of gear is working perfectly. This episode covers why most stat...
Plex vs Jellyfin: The Real Cost of Self-Hosting Media
Plex just tripled its lifetime pass price and put remote streaming of your own files behind a paywall, so this episode digs into what it actually takes to switch to something like Jellyfin instead. Tyler walks through the real headaches of self...
iHeartMedia layoffs: how private equity gutted local radio
iHeartMedia just laid off hundreds of on air staff this week, wiping out local radio in markets like Springfield, Erie, and Spokane. Tyler traces how the 1996 Telecommunications Act opened the door for private equity to buy up stations, load th...
HD Radio Hijacking: When Big Stations Steal Your Frequency
HD radio hijacking happens when a distant station's digital signal takes over a local frequency the moment that local station's own HD signal goes dark. Tyler breaks down how this happened to him on his commute, why small and low power FM stati...
HD Radio: How Media Consolidation Killed It
HD radio was pitched as the FM upgrade that would save terrestrial radio from satellite and streaming, but two decades later most listeners have never heard of it. Broadcast engineer Tyler Woodward traces the FCC's 2002 approval, iBiquity's roy...
Spotify Grades Its Own Homework: Streaming Royalty Math
Spotify decides what counts as a stream and there is no outside auditor checking the number that decides how artists get paid, unlike broadcast radio which uses Nielsen ratings and portable people meters. This episode breaks down how a 30 secon...
How A UK Radio Broadcast Controls Household Heating
For over 40 years, a radio signal in the UK has been quietly switching household heating systems on and off. It's called the Radio Teleswitch Service, and it's one of the best examples of hidden data riding on broadcast signals that most people...
