I thought it was interesting to see the way the radio stations in New Orleans handled Katrina a few years ago.
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I thought it was interesting to see the way the radio stations in New Orleans handled Katrina a few years ago.
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Groove1670
Guest
On the Radio World article: Most small market stations can't afford a full time engineer. The contract engineer is the new reality just like the new DJ is now a voice track contractor and works with several stations. I can't speak for the big groups. I think what the author is trying to convey is that the current crop is not going to last forever (sorry) and no one wants to take on the next chapter. It looks like the solution will be to replace those transmitters with solid state plug and play stuff.
I believe a lot of good potential engineers became disgruntled back when many stations consolidated under 1 owner, and in many cases several stations' studios that were once in separate areas of town began to consolidate under 1 roof. Instead of each AM/FM having its own engineer on staff who did everything from repairs to studio maintenance to remotes to fixing the coffee maker and even maybe the VCR at the station manager's house, there were suddently maybe only one or a few engineers for a whole group of stations - and this was occurring in many cities. At that point, it seemed many engineers felt guarded, perhaps threatened and were hesitant or in some cases refusing to share knowledge with younger guys who were entering the business and eager to shadow and learn from them. As a result, many potentially solid engineer candidates became disgruntled and left the business or felt they were chased away. Less than 20 years later, the industry was asking why more younger people weren't interested in the business and why there were no middle aged folks at that point who were ready and willing to step in and take over as the more seasoned guys retired or moved on. In many cases, they did it to themselves and had only themselves to blame.
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Keep in mind that the author of this article isn't an owner or a representative of the industry. He's another engineer. One who survived what you're talking about. So I wouldn't blame him for circumstances that exist. He's simply a weatherman who is predicting some snow. As for "the industry," whatever that means, they likely don't see this as a problem. Or as much of a problem as the author sees it.
Contract engineers have been a reality back to the 70's at many stations, some big and some in smaller markets.
The big issue is that many newer engineers don't understand higher power RF, propagation, antenna tuning, directional systems and a whole lot of related items.
But they will not pay for the lost audience, some of whom will never return after a long failure.
I'm definitely not blaming the author, TheBigA - Sorry if I gave that impression. My comments were intended to be more general. Radio World and other publications have run several stories and editorials over the years asking where the younger/newer breed of engineers are and my thoughts are often the same. Why did many (not all or even most) in the industry refuse to teach, cultivate and nurture younger talent when they had the opportunity to do so, yet now seem to struggle to understand why there aren't a batch of younger guys in place and ready to take over.
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Isn't that where SBE comes in? They used to be pretty active.
I remember years ago, our CE at a station I was briefly with had his tech center in the back of the second-floor station studio and office location.
One day a salesperson brought their cassette recorder to the engineer to be fixed.
The next day, the salesman asked about it and was told, "It was broken so I threw it out". The engineer then put a sign over the trash chute that said, "Put all home electronics that are broken here" with an arrow pointing to the trash chute. No more home electronics were ever brought in.
They are... even scholarships and ongoing training and certifications.
I see it slightly different. What I see at radio stations today is airstaffs filled with boomers. They wonder where are the young DJs. The answer is there are no open slots because the boomers have held down all the best jobs for 40 years or more. So there's a thread about who will replace Rush Limbaugh. The answer is no one.
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kenglish
Guest
Our SBE chapter hasn't been active in years. I started to decline as people became too busy to meet.
I'd like to just have a Christmas lunch and a summer picnic...but, it snows at Christmas time, and there's lightning in the summer 🙄 .
I'd like to just have a Christmas lunch and a summer picnic...but, it snows at Christmas time, and there's lightning in the summer 🙄 .
And, in my market, neither do the broadcasters. We had a major ice storm several years back, causing utility power to be severely interrupted for over a week. And when I did a band scan during what would ordinarily have been morning drive the first morning. Most of the AM/FM broadcasters were off. Maybe they had gensets which ran out of fuel. Maybe they had icing problems and the transmitter shut down. But the bottom line was, they were off. My employer at the time was on the air, but we only briefly lost utility power.
Since you brought up mobile, that's another reason the "old goats" aren't being replaced in broadcast: the wireless carriers are competing for the talent, and winning. I applied for a job with Verizon as an RF engineer once. They didn't call me back for an interview, but the salary was significant and the benefits were appealing.
I would think that the main reason for that is post-1996 Telecom Act there are less airstaff slots than there were in previous times.
There's nothing in the Telecom act that mentions staffing.
Staff reduction is mostly due to the technology that allows one person to do shows on multiple stations with minimal distribution costs and easy to use software to make it possible.
Engineering jobs started disappearing once the FCC eliminated a lot of engineering requirements in the 80s. That happened long before consolidation. Airtime jobs didn't really start to disappear until the money for those jobs started disappearing in the leadup to the 2008 crash. that was ten years after consolidation.
That was going on prior to consolidation even with small owners that had stations in multiple markets. We were doing that with the Salsoul Network in Puerto Rico in the mid-80s on a network that was linked with microwave and used Harris System 9000 automation.
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