This isn't a tech question like most are, but I'm betting there are some fascinating stories on how various engineers ended up doing what they do. In my case, I met a ham operator on 40 meters who worked at WAKW in Cincinnati in 1967. Fortunately for me, WAKW was 4 blocks from where I grew up. He got me a 3rd class study guide, I passed it at age 14 & was placed on the air 3 weeks later. That was 42 years ago yesterday. I met the Chief Engineer (Georeg Waslo R.I.P.) & he took me under his wing & thus began my ongoing education in the School Of Hard Knocks. George helped me get on at WKRC in 1975. Two days before we were to start working together, he dropped dead at a hamfest.
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How Long Have You Been In Radio & What Caused You To Go There?
- Thread starter BobOnTheJob
- Start date
I'm still pretty new to engineering, got into it about a year ago. I was called to a local station, wvbg am and fm to work on some computer issues when I met Bill Fulgham who was a contract engineer travelling about 40 miles to come over. I've always had an interest in the engineering side of radio, my father worked for a communications shop in town back in the 70s to early 90s and built a station or 2 in town as well as a lot of 2way radio stuff.
In less than a year, so far I've taken over engineering for the am and fm here and learning as I go. I have a couple people that have been nice enough to help me out and show me what they know, it has been great learning everything hands-on.
I don't claim to know everything and I know I never will, but I've enjoyed it so far. Right now I'm fortunate enough to be working for a small station where the owner is willing to let me learn. I'm keeping my day job for now, working for my father's company doing computers and networking
On another note, if anyone is interested in an inexpensive way to do high quality remotes over the internet, i'm working on a setup that I believe is going to work very well. We are about to start testing here in Vicksburg, MS using Verizon Wireless.
I've got a usb adapter from vzw, cradlepoint router that accepts the usb adapter, barix instreamer 100 set up for ~80k vbr mp3, 44.1khz mono.
I'm going to feed it with a couple mics going to a rolls rackmount mixer then to a tc electronic c300 compressor/limiter. I'm going to mount it all in a 4u rack case and going to have an antenna on hand that covers both cellular and PCS bands that can be plugged in and stuck outside where the signal is marginal. Preliminary test have shown it to work great, sound every bit as good as the tieline g3 units and total cost is going to be less than $1000. Only downside is the configuration required to get it all working. The good thing is that once its all set up, it is idiotproof for the talent in the field, just plug it in to power and in 30-40 seconds you got audio coming in the studio. I'll update once I get it all assembled and tested thoroughly. we are going to put it through its paces this friday at the first high school football game here in town.
In less than a year, so far I've taken over engineering for the am and fm here and learning as I go. I have a couple people that have been nice enough to help me out and show me what they know, it has been great learning everything hands-on.
I don't claim to know everything and I know I never will, but I've enjoyed it so far. Right now I'm fortunate enough to be working for a small station where the owner is willing to let me learn. I'm keeping my day job for now, working for my father's company doing computers and networking
On another note, if anyone is interested in an inexpensive way to do high quality remotes over the internet, i'm working on a setup that I believe is going to work very well. We are about to start testing here in Vicksburg, MS using Verizon Wireless.
I've got a usb adapter from vzw, cradlepoint router that accepts the usb adapter, barix instreamer 100 set up for ~80k vbr mp3, 44.1khz mono.
I'm going to feed it with a couple mics going to a rolls rackmount mixer then to a tc electronic c300 compressor/limiter. I'm going to mount it all in a 4u rack case and going to have an antenna on hand that covers both cellular and PCS bands that can be plugged in and stuck outside where the signal is marginal. Preliminary test have shown it to work great, sound every bit as good as the tieline g3 units and total cost is going to be less than $1000. Only downside is the configuration required to get it all working. The good thing is that once its all set up, it is idiotproof for the talent in the field, just plug it in to power and in 30-40 seconds you got audio coming in the studio. I'll update once I get it all assembled and tested thoroughly. we are going to put it through its paces this friday at the first high school football game here in town.
How long? 50 years, more or less. Why? Soemthing fun to do, and they will pay you for it. Beats working.
B
bilco
Guest
Almost a ditto of Littlejohn. 46 Years last December. I was a music major in college and sitting in a class of high caliber musicians learning (screeching away on )violin as a minor instrument convinced me that if I had to do that with adolescents for the rest of my life, I'd go nuts. Besides I was having so much fun at the college radio station I decided to try it out full time. Never looked back. I'm having to much fun to go out and work for a living.
Bill Croghan, Las Vegas Lotus.
Bill Croghan, Las Vegas Lotus.
Since 1960 while in high school. First phone 1962. Liked the wiggling meters and glow of tubes. Interrupted briefly for college, then CE of several smaller stations before landing in Seattle for ten years (KOL/KMPS).
17 long months at TFT working for Joe Wu, then interrupted again for 10 years in the 1980s for self-employment. Then broadcast equipment sales for six years, back in the business in 1997 with purchase of and construction of radio stations.
Now the perfect world... 1) in business successfully 2) do my own engineering for my 4 stations. But I miss the glow of the tubes...
17 long months at TFT working for Joe Wu, then interrupted again for 10 years in the 1980s for self-employment. Then broadcast equipment sales for six years, back in the business in 1997 with purchase of and construction of radio stations.
Now the perfect world... 1) in business successfully 2) do my own engineering for my 4 stations. But I miss the glow of the tubes...
1964 hanging around the local station with other high school kids and setting up equipment for sock hops.
But then I was introduced to the stations CE who was in the process of remodeling the station at the time and I was hooked on the engineering side! Personally the guy was a slob but he did meticulous work. From him I learned one important lesson: neatness counts! Does anyone else have fond memories of soldering patch panels and lacing up the cables with wax lacing cord? Well that was part of my OJT as a 15 year old apprentice (no "interns" back then). I did return to the "dark side" as a DJ for many years, as well as an engineer at various stations, the best of both worlds.
But then I was introduced to the stations CE who was in the process of remodeling the station at the time and I was hooked on the engineering side! Personally the guy was a slob but he did meticulous work. From him I learned one important lesson: neatness counts! Does anyone else have fond memories of soldering patch panels and lacing up the cables with wax lacing cord? Well that was part of my OJT as a 15 year old apprentice (no "interns" back then). I did return to the "dark side" as a DJ for many years, as well as an engineer at various stations, the best of both worlds.
I always played with electronic stuff as a kid. 1971 or so, I helped an older friend set up the first carrier current radio station at a 2 year college in NJ. Went to college in Indiana to be an architect, ended up declaring radio as my major. (Whole other story behind that.) Once in the college I started volunteering at the college FM station in news. The first time I heard a newscast played back that I broadcast, I decided I had better find another area to concentrate in. I started fixing things at the FM station because the full time engineers in the department only wanted to work in the TV side. Only one older engineer had any interest in radio and he took me under his wing and showed me what to do and how to do it in the radio station side. Once I showed an interest in the radio side, the rest of the TV engineers started helping me with other things and coached me on getting my First Class. All of that experience got me my first job in 1975 at graduation in a small AM/FM in Michigan. Was there two years and applied for a job with a group on the east coast. Was hired and have been with them for 32 years now. Started in one of their markets but moved up to VP of Engineering about three years after that. Rest is history. Guess about 36 years total.
And to think I got into radio to avoid working on my Uncle Walter's farm!
Picture it. South Georgia. Summertime. 1980. The air temperature reaches three digits on a regular basis. for three hot summers, I had worked on my uncle's farm loading watermelons and cantaloupes to market. Our next door neighbour, owner of the station and friend of the family, catches me outside one day and asks me if I would be interested in watching the station from 4:30p until signoff. I jumped at the chance knowing I would be in an air conditioned control room watching over the Satellite Music Network and (manually) loading breaks into Harris Criterion cart machines. Thus starts my short lived career as a disk jockey that took me to Hawkinsville, Ocilla and back to my hometown, Vienna.
I was advised by the great Charlie Hill while in Hawkinsville to give up this silly dream of being a jock. Engineering was where the chicks were at! Actually, he saw my technical mind and also saw where the future was for jocks and said I should go to school and get a piece of sheepskin that said I knew something. I did and spent 12 years in TV, another five years as CE at a radio group and here I are today, I run my own engineering gig!
Picture it. South Georgia. Summertime. 1980. The air temperature reaches three digits on a regular basis. for three hot summers, I had worked on my uncle's farm loading watermelons and cantaloupes to market. Our next door neighbour, owner of the station and friend of the family, catches me outside one day and asks me if I would be interested in watching the station from 4:30p until signoff. I jumped at the chance knowing I would be in an air conditioned control room watching over the Satellite Music Network and (manually) loading breaks into Harris Criterion cart machines. Thus starts my short lived career as a disk jockey that took me to Hawkinsville, Ocilla and back to my hometown, Vienna.
I was advised by the great Charlie Hill while in Hawkinsville to give up this silly dream of being a jock. Engineering was where the chicks were at! Actually, he saw my technical mind and also saw where the future was for jocks and said I should go to school and get a piece of sheepskin that said I knew something. I did and spent 12 years in TV, another five years as CE at a radio group and here I are today, I run my own engineering gig!
B
bilco
Guest
a Private email asked me to explain the missing 9 years in my profile. 3.5 years in the Air Force as an Electronic intellignece instructor during Vietnam (a six month early out with honorable discharge rather than re-enlist). 3 + years as a Radio Shack manager when I got tired of the hollowness of being a TV news man, and 2+ years of Proffessional Photography when I got tired of Radio Shack. I bummed around the Colorado Mountains working as a DJ/News director for a while in between those gigs. Came back in as an Engineer something like 30 years ago, less than thirty days unemployed since then with only four jobs and never regretted it.
Bill
Bill
It all started when I was dropped head first when I was about 1.....
My first full time air work was for a station that was off the air more than it was on. I went out to seee what was going on at the transmitter, I would get screw-drivers, hold the flashlight etc. I had an electronics background, so this was just plain fun for me.
One day they fired the CE, I cannot remember why. They came to me (mostly because i KNEW how to get to the transmitter sites) and asked if I wanted to be CE---in addition to my airshift---they would pay me 10 extra bucks a week. I jumped at the chance.
I just passed 30 years of this stuff.
Most of the time "they" have no concept of what I do, but "they" pay me to do it. It beats ditch diggin.
My first full time air work was for a station that was off the air more than it was on. I went out to seee what was going on at the transmitter, I would get screw-drivers, hold the flashlight etc. I had an electronics background, so this was just plain fun for me.
One day they fired the CE, I cannot remember why. They came to me (mostly because i KNEW how to get to the transmitter sites) and asked if I wanted to be CE---in addition to my airshift---they would pay me 10 extra bucks a week. I jumped at the chance.
I just passed 30 years of this stuff.
Most of the time "they" have no concept of what I do, but "they" pay me to do it. It beats ditch diggin.
First: I live in the Netherlands. Commercial radio wasn't allowed here until about 1990. Before that there were only 3 public national stations, so getting a job as a broadcast engineer was somewhat difficult... But from 1960 up to 1980 there several offshore pirates and after that until about 1990 a lot of FM pirates. (And I do mean A LOT!) For me it was 1975 when I had my first encounter with a transmitter (well, sort of...). I was 10 years old and my friend had one. If you held it in front of the speaker you could hear it on an FM radio a block away. From that moment on it all went downhill... ;-)
Built my own transmitters, started several pirate stations, got caught several times, escaped several times, joined a major pirate station. Quit school (no time for that...), went into sales and joined a legal local station and after a while I, started my own legal local station. Worked in Sales for 12 years when a dream became true: I could get a job as an engineer at a TV station. severely underpaid off course but I loved it. But... it wasn't radio. Now, 8 years later, I am Chief Engineer at an FM news station.
What caused me to love radio so much? Dunno... A serious malfunction in the brain probably ;D
Built my own transmitters, started several pirate stations, got caught several times, escaped several times, joined a major pirate station. Quit school (no time for that...), went into sales and joined a legal local station and after a while I, started my own legal local station. Worked in Sales for 12 years when a dream became true: I could get a job as an engineer at a TV station. severely underpaid off course but I loved it. But... it wasn't radio. Now, 8 years later, I am Chief Engineer at an FM news station.
What caused me to love radio so much? Dunno... A serious malfunction in the brain probably ;D
Dad bought me a radio when I was in 3rd grade. In 1969 I got to hear memphis, Nashville, Indianapolis, Cincinatti, louisville, and many other places far away from our little town. Moved to Columbus (Indiana) and fell in with a local Sheriff who built his own station rather than pay for commercials on the local stations. It wasn't a pirate station, it was a county authorized facility...he was the Sheriff. Got a job at a real station.
Local Engineer (Bob On The Job) let me wire things, let me know when NOT to mess with things, and STILL bails me out. That started in 1977. Got my Amateur License, still Licensed as a General. Bob also did a fun airshift from time to time. HE was the one who said it was okay to play "One Toke Over the line" after the First Christian Church Men's Bible Class because it talked about Jesus. Bob has been a wealth of knowledge and still is training me.
Got my first FT ENG job in 1986 working for Randy Bell (Jam Jingle Fame) at WGBF. Also did an air shift. Got to work there with Irwin Schoeny,RIP. HE worked for WGBF from 1923 until the 1990s and helped wire their early home made transmitters and their home made coaxial cable. (6 #6 ground wires surrounding a single #6 ground wire set apart with insulators on 8 foot high concrete posts feeding the two self supporting towers in the DA). When I started he'd been there 63 years! Never ever told me how to do something but ALWAYS was there when something broke and offering to impart knowledge if I was interested.
I try to pass along any knowledge I have to those who ask. I have at least two people I have tutored who are full time engineers now. Seems this is a common theme. Also the Amateur Radio Background.
Local Engineer (Bob On The Job) let me wire things, let me know when NOT to mess with things, and STILL bails me out. That started in 1977. Got my Amateur License, still Licensed as a General. Bob also did a fun airshift from time to time. HE was the one who said it was okay to play "One Toke Over the line" after the First Christian Church Men's Bible Class because it talked about Jesus. Bob has been a wealth of knowledge and still is training me.
Got my first FT ENG job in 1986 working for Randy Bell (Jam Jingle Fame) at WGBF. Also did an air shift. Got to work there with Irwin Schoeny,RIP. HE worked for WGBF from 1923 until the 1990s and helped wire their early home made transmitters and their home made coaxial cable. (6 #6 ground wires surrounding a single #6 ground wire set apart with insulators on 8 foot high concrete posts feeding the two self supporting towers in the DA). When I started he'd been there 63 years! Never ever told me how to do something but ALWAYS was there when something broke and offering to impart knowledge if I was interested.
I try to pass along any knowledge I have to those who ask. I have at least two people I have tutored who are full time engineers now. Seems this is a common theme. Also the Amateur Radio Background.
What got me into radio? Major lapse of sanity? Like TomT (hi Tom from WJR Toledo)I got my first class license studying on the beach. But I was already a lost cause. I got my ham ticket when I was in the 8th grade, and became fascinated with AM rigs on 75 meters, and those things called directional antennas. It was just a matter of time to get out of high school, get some college, and get my first job at a 250w daytimer in Florida. After that, one job folowed another and I'm still insane today!
I got in because I was building radios and transmitters in my youth years starting at 10. My first radio was a razor blade receiver with a coil of litz wire wound on a toilet paper tube and a pair of Philmore headphones from VanSickle radio. My first transmitter was an old stand-up Zenith radio that I connected a carbon microphone element out of our phone to the oscillator. My neighborhood freinds could pick me up on their sort-wave radios. That was a shocking experience for me teaching me early how important insulation is and to keep one hand in pocket when working with high voltage.
I played with ham radio and built a bootleg station before I was 18. I decided to go legal and see if I could get a "Maytag repair man's radio job" and went to Chicago and got my 1st Class in 1974. I've worked in and out of broadcast engineering ever since. Much of that time period was also studio design, large-venue professional sound and architectural acoustics work.
It has been a lot of fun with the exception of dealing with PMs that don't have their ears attached to their brain and like to tell me how to do my job.
I played with ham radio and built a bootleg station before I was 18. I decided to go legal and see if I could get a "Maytag repair man's radio job" and went to Chicago and got my 1st Class in 1974. I've worked in and out of broadcast engineering ever since. Much of that time period was also studio design, large-venue professional sound and architectural acoustics work.
It has been a lot of fun with the exception of dealing with PMs that don't have their ears attached to their brain and like to tell me how to do my job.
Long before I set foot in a radio station (age 9 or 10?), I took my mom's Farnsworth "portable" radio (tube numbers that began with 1 & used a Filament battery & B+ battery) apart & she caught me in the act. In typical mom fashion, she indicated that my rear end would end up on the receiving end of some unpleasantness if the radio wasn't receiving when my dad got home. I put the tubes back in, the radio worked & my gluteus maximus was spared. Not only did my dad not get mad, he saw the interest in radio as a good thing & was soon taking me to auctions & letting me buy radios for a quarter & soon I had enough used tubes in my collection that I could repair most of the radios. Then it was TV's...I still remember buying one at an auction on Friday for 25 cents, putting a used 5U4GB in it & taking it back the next night & selling it for $13...a lot of money to a 12 year old in 1965. Next, dear old dad put an ad in the neighborhood newspaper saying that a young electronic hobbyist would appreciate donation of used TV & radio sets. My mom was an angel...soon there were up to 15 TV sets in the living room....she never once griped. I still have a few hundred of the tubes I harvested from those old sets. Dad did one other thing...anything I made from selling TV's & radios at the auction was matched dollar for dollar as long as I banked it. Smart man...when I was old enough to drive, I paid cash for my first car.
Excellent point from Chief Engineer...always freely share what you know. If we lead just 1 person into this profession, we have done the industry a true service, plus improved the odds that if each of us someday wishes to walk away from it, perhaps someone we are comfortable with will be there to take over.
Excellent point from Chief Engineer...always freely share what you know. If we lead just 1 person into this profession, we have done the industry a true service, plus improved the odds that if each of us someday wishes to walk away from it, perhaps someone we are comfortable with will be there to take over.
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