All posts by Gary Stigall

Rick Bosscher Leaves KFMB After Four Decades of Work

We’ve learned that Rick Bosscher, longtime RF Supervisor at KFMB-AM-FM-TV, turned in his keys for good in mid-December 2018, less than a year after Tegna bought the stations. He was hired by Chief Engineer Charlie Abel in 1977 after installing and servicing the FM and TV transmitters in 1976 as a technician for RCA.

Charlie recognized in Rick a deep knowledge of electronics given him by RCA as well as an attention to detail that would serve him throughout his career. He started in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a young technician at a local broadcast station and decided to further his training with RCA.

His job became unique in San Diego. As the KFMB Stations RF specialist, he installed all of their radio and TV transmitters, microwave and satellite systems, and related control systems. He oversaw much of the station facilities management and news mobile technical maintenance as well. His sites were known for their tidy and high-quality “fit and finish.” Because of his maintenance skills, the equipment he oversaw tended to last longer than standard. The KFMB-AM Harris and Collins transmitters, for example, are 27 and 37 years old and still operate like new.

Bosscher is an amateur metallurgist who’s made his own automobile engines in his spare time. He recently restored a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray he inherited from a neighbor.

He’s a ham radio operator, callsign K6FMB, who owns and modified for use on the lower HF bands a Bauer 707 AM transmitter that KFMB staff had originally assembled as a spare in 1959.

Bosscher told me he is relaxing and completing some projects around his Clairemont home and taking his Stingray for drives to the beach.

2018 Annual SBE Holiday Luncheon

We always have a great time sharing good cheer and shop talk. This year’s holiday luncheon is sponsored by our friends at RF Specialties, so no cost to you. No presentations, either.

Please join us Wednesday, December 19th at 12 noon at Souplantation, 6171 Mission Gorge Road in Mission Valley.

KZSD-LP Granted Displacement on Channel 20

On October 10, 2018, EW Scripps Broadcasting, licensee of KGTV and KZSD-LP, was granted a Construction Permit to operate on channel 20. This is to remedy a displacement by telecom from their temporary home on channel 39. The 7.3 kW ERP signal will have a westward directional signal.

This should be an interesting one to watch because it is the only San Diego station given FCC permission to occupy a Los Angeles/Orange County T-band channel used by first responders there. A previous attempt by Televisa’s XHUAA to occupy channel 20 in 2006 was met with resistance by land mobile operators in the L.A. metro area and Televisa moved that operation to channel 22.

KZSD was purchased by Scripps to broadcast Azteca America programming, but with that network’s broadcast being taken over by Entravision’s XHAS Tijuana, KZSD has been translating the KGTV ABC subchannel. To date, the signal is analog.

SBE November 14th Meeting – RF Site Planning

How do you control and monitor your RF plant? Do you have an integrated method for monitoring transmitter power and switching between transmitters or antennas? What do you know at any given time about the health of your cooling system? How are you handling transmission of your FM stereo multiplex over AES?

Broadcast Devices, Inc. Bob Tarsio of Broadcast Devices, Inc. gives us a presentation on these and related topics at our SBE Chapter 36 meeting November 14 at 12 noon at iHeartMedia, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego.

About Bob Tarsio

Bob has served as President and CEO of Broadcast Devices, Inc. since 2002. Previously, he was Director of Engineering for Viacom’s WLTW/WAXQ in New York City. His career has spanned 40 years as broadcast engineer, circuit designer and technical sales engineer.