December 2017 edition of Clay's Corner

[DMK]

I haven't seen these pop up, so I though I would post Clay's December newsletter. For us radio geeks it is interesting stuff.

http://nwbroadcasters.com/clay12-17.html

 

[KXA]

I haven't seen these pop up, so I though I would post Clay's December newsletter. For us radio geeks it is interesting stuff.

http://nwbroadcasters.com/clay12-17.html

His columns always make me chuckle.

 

[Bongwater]

Sometimes I wonder the average age of RF engineers these days and when they go, who will replace them? There's not many younger people picking up the torch anymore.

 

[Kelly A]

Sometimes I wonder the average age of RF engineers these days and when they go, who will replace them? There's not many younger people picking up the torch anymore.

There aren't any new ones, actually. That said, a lot has changed over the years:

1. Newer solid state transmitters require less fussing-with. Many of the new ones come equipped with more internal diagnostics and internal redundancy that allow for simple board-swapping when things break.

2, Lower power 'cellular-style'; radio designs are making it easier to just replace the entire transmitter. For example, the next generation of DTV stations are giving a serious look at using multiple lower-power synchronous transmitters around the market, rather than one high power site from up high. Implementation cost is lower and you get the redundancy advantage.

I suspect most of the grizzled RF guys will probably fade away with the form of media they've been maintaining.

 

[swhyde1980]

There's still towers that have to be climbed.

 

[Kelly A]

Very few Broadcast Engineers ever climb towers. That work is typically done by professional tower crews. The same sort of crew that today, install and maintain cell and PCS sites.

 

[xmtrland]

I have a no climb policy myself. Interesting though I have pictures of Jim Hatfield senior and Bill router at standing on the top of the KIRO AM towers.

When I was 14 my dad and I were walking back from the KIRO AM SE tower, I asked him what would happen to the transmitter site when no longer needed. Fast forward to now and I may find out. It may be the last thing I do when I retire, literally.

Back in the 50's Vashon had at least 10 engineers living on the Island. Now just me. My dad and Jim Tharp are still around but not active, Sinclair has an engineer that lives on island but he works at the Seattle studio location.

The New Nautel very plug and play, spare parts kit is network cables, a fan, a battery and a PA module.

 

[notalent]

Back when owners had one or two stations per market, there were two to six engineers per station... Now there are six to eight stations and one or two working engineers in the average group in this market. There are still a few DOE's who are desk pilots but most of them have to be hands on now too. As radio companies increase debt and cut costs they only retain the staff who either know nothing else or are willing to work cheap.

Good young engineering minds have many other options that pay much better than radio these days.

A similar scene is playing out in TV right now with automation, etc.

Of the literal dozens of skills a broadcast engineer must be good at, a person can now make more money specializing in just one or two of those skills.