All posts by Gary Stigall

Local News

Imhof Moving to BCA

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.

Local News

KNSD’s Stephen “Randy” Mickler Dead

Past KNSD technical manager Randy Mickler died December 20 at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer. According to his successor Dave MacKinnon, he had retired earlier in 2009. A San Diego Union-Tribune obituary said that Mickler had worked at channel 39 for 29 years and had received several Emmys for his creative work there. His wife Jane Clifford had achieved some notoriety herself as a columnist for the Union-Tribune.

Meetings

January 2010 Meeting – Linear Acoustics

Ed Simeone, K6EGS, from Linear Acoustic will present a historical overview of previous attempts to control broadcast loudness at the monthly SBE Chapter 36 meeting on January 13. Ed will also deliver the latest news on the current state of the CALM Act as it winds its way through the legislative process. The meeting starts at 12:00 noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road, and will end around 1:30PM. Linear Acoustic will provide lunch. Call Eva Langer at 858-650-3155 with any questions

Meetings

Chapter to Honor Bob Gonsett at December Banquet

Fallbrook broadcast engineering consultant Robert Gonsett was honored for “Lifetime Achievement” at the Chapter 36 December banquet. The dinner, at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel at Montgomery Field, had in attendance many of Bob’s local clients and friends.

Bob used his widely published CGC Communicator this fall to coordinate news regarding the Station Fire in Los Angeles that threatened the transmitter sites on Mt. Harvard and Mt. Wilson. Sometimes he sent multiple messages daily to assure word got out about road outages and progress of the fire’s front line.

A southern Californian resident from birth, Bob began his regional frequency measuring and spectrum analysis business in the early 1970s. He helped several FM stations shuffle frequencies or change facilities (or both) in order to improve their coverage while decreasing their RFR footprint. In Tucson, he was able to create a new, more accessible and better located radio transmission site from scratch. And he worked closely with Mexican authorities and broadcasters, including longtime client XETV, whom he convinced to change to circular polarity to improve rabbit ear antenna reception.

A special thanks to TV Magic and SCMS for helping to make this event a success. Chairwoman Gail Pineda and Program Chairwoman Eva Langer put substantial work into the event, including obtaining door prizes that walked away with several in attendance.

Local News

Four Pass Certification Exams

Three engineers from KGTV and one from Cox Media (cable channel 4) passed their SBE certification exams in November 2009. Congratulations to these newly certified engineers:

  • Chief Engineer Andrew Lombard, KGTV, Certified Broadcast Television Engineer
  • Andrew Cole, KGTV, Certified Broadcast Network Technologist
  • Matt Schiller, KGTV, Certified Broadcast Technologist
  • Shane Fortin, Cox Media, Certified Broadcast Technologist

Many thanks to Oscar Medina for proctoring these exams for the past 10 years. I will be taking on that job moving forward. Oscar and I had help with the November exams from Mike Curran. Chapter 36 now has 70 members, with 28 of those holding current certifications.