(Submitted by Jon Crick, ex-son-in-law and KFMB veteran.)

Retired KFMB engineer Bob Crotinger passed away at a hospital in Tucson, Arizona September 16, 2013 at the age of 88.

Born on a farm in Oskaloosa, Iowa on April 7, 1925, Bob was the only child of Harold (Buck) and Marguerite Crotinger.

Bob’s passion in life was electronics in general, and radio/TV broadcasting in particular. He took his first job in 1943 working for KANS radio in Wichita, Kansas, where he met his wife, Pearla Godinez. They moved to Dayton Ohio in 1948 where Bob helped build one of the country’s first television stations, WHIO-TV.

Suffering from pollen-induced asthma, he was compelled to escape to the ocean breezes of San Diego in 1956 and took a position with KFMB-AM/FM/TV, which he held for the next 25 years. After a short stint of retirement in Prescott, Arizona, he returned to San Diego and worked for the San Diego County Communications Department for 10 years, finally retiring for good in 1992.

A life-long ham radio operator, K6PC delighted in talking with other hams around the globe. To make things interesting, he would pack up his gear and set up in ghost towns in the desert, sending out QSL cards from these towns to those lucky individuals he “worked” from these very unusual locations.

Bob returned to Prescott for a time, but eventually moved to Tucson where he established his KBOB low-power FM station, broadcasting from his house entertaining old-time radio style programs to the whole neighborhood. The announcer was, of course, none other than “Dirty Bob”.

Bob is survived by his only child, Florence Crotinger Meeds, and his two grandchildren Ian Crick and Trevor Crick.

A memorial service will be held for him October 13th in San Diego. For updated information on the San Diego service, inquire at crottymemorial@san.rr.com or visit his memorial Facebook page.

The progression of large scale integration has made it possible for minority broadcasters to find audiences while making their on-air product barely distinguishable from what the traditional “big four” network affiliates put out. Entravision has taken advantage of this trend better than just about anyone–their local outlet programs six streams with some in HD to seven transmitters in the US and Mexico.

Management at Entravision invites SBE Chapter 36 for a complete tour and lunch at their Kearny Mesa facility. How do they handle so many signals in a cost-effective way and how do they distribute their signals?

Please join us September 18 at 12 PM at 5770 Ruffin Road, between state highway 52 and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. Take the Kearny Villa Road exit from SR-52 and drive one block straight south.

Karl Voss knows “white space.” He’s not only a recognized engineer from PBS affiliate KAET in Phoenix, but a busy technical advisor to the NFL Game Day Coordination team. Recently, he filled in as presenter for a no-show at a Phoenix chapter meeting and did so well, we’ve ask him to give us an encore in San Diego.

We’ll learn about the new FCC rules regarding wireless microphone devices that use UHF TV channels. The smart ones supposedly know if a channel is occupied by looking it up in a database. Cool. How does that work? And how does it in fact work on the border with Mexico?

Join us Wednesday, August 21, at noon at Clear Channel Communications, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, off Aero Drive at I-15. Doug Tharp of SCMS is sponsoring lunch and will have some wireless microphone products to look over. Members and guests welcome. Expect the meeting to last till 1:30 PM.

Local broadcasters, consultants, friends, and family of former San Diego FCC District Director Hal Grigsby are planning a retirement luncheon for July 26th in San Diego.

Writes Richard Rudman:

We want to let Hal know how much we appreciated his many contributions to spectrum cooperation in our region while he was with the FCC in San Diego. After facing many technical and diplomatic challenges with demonstrated successes, his skills came to the attention of the U.S. State Department leading to a distinguished second career there. Time to celebrate with Hal and wish him well for the future.
Please RSVP by noon, Friday, July 19. Restaurant space at Godfather is limited to 40 attendees, so please make your reservation now.