Clear Channel Radio Engineer Dean Imhof will join the expanded six-station Broadcasting Company of the Americas group as Director of Engineering beginning Monday, January 18. He and veteran engineer Bill Lipis will have to move the Finest City Broadcasting studios on Granite Ridge Drive to the Sorrento Mesa BCA studios by the end of the month.

Dean and the Clear Channel engineers had been hired to maintain the FCB technical facilities after they broke away from the larger Clear Channel group in December 2005.

Dean began his career at KOZN radio in Imperial at the age of 15. He has extensive experience with the automation systems at Clear Channel and Finest City Broadcasting after starting with Jacor in 1997.

Clear Channel Director of Engineering John Rigg said he will definitely miss Dean’s talents at the group facility.

Local Media of America, backed by Thoma Bravo, on January 7 took over operations of Finest City Broadcasting. FCB  had operated Mexican-licensed radio stations “Z-90” XHTZ 90.3 FM, “91X” XETRA 91.1 FM, and “Magic” XHRM 92.5 FM. Broadcasting Company of America, led by CEO John Lynch, convinced LMA to back taking over the FCB financial obligations and grow the stations. They will join “XX Sports Radio” XEPRS 1090 AM, “the Walrus” XHPRS 105.7 FM, and San Diego 1700 XEPE AM.

Lynch had been head of Noble Broadcasting when it operated XETRA AM and FM before its sale to Jacor in 1997.