Category Archives: Local News

Local News

And the Winner is…

The Society of Broadcast Engineers has had a long history of recognizing engineers for their professional and personal accomplishments.  Earlier this year, the SBE announced the creation of the Chapter Engineer of the Year award as a way for each local chapter to “recognize the efforts of a specific individual who best furthers the goals and objectives of their SBE Chapter, and provides an outstanding example of local/regional leadership and ethics.”

With this new charter, the San Diego chapter officers decided to solicit members to nominate a fellow engineer deserving of this award.  An announcement was made in the monthly newsletter along with an email request to all San Diego SBE members to send nominations directly to the chairman.  Nominations were then evaluated by a committee of well-respected engineers from the local television and radio broadcast community that were currently not serving as chapter officers.  After the votes were tallied, the award nomination was sent to SBE national office for final approval.

Speaking candidly about the award program and the importance of recognition, I had a bit of trepidation going into this process.  Mainly because the San Diego SBE chapter has a quite large cross-section of outstanding engineers and leaders to consider as potential award recipients.  My other concern was whether or not there would be any nominations at all.  Let’s face it; most of us have day jobs.  Although recognition programs are important, they frequently take the backseat to whatever is paying the bills.  Having said that, I can say I am proud that the San Diego SBE chapter was one of 12 local chapters out of 146 that nominated a Chapter Engineer of the Year.

Drum roll!  Please join me in congratulating Gary Stigall as the 2013 Chapter Engineer of the Year!

When you consider the criteria for this year’s award, it is no wonder why the members of the San Diego SBE chapter unanimously voted for Gary.  Quoting a fellow member, “Gary is the glue that keeps the chapter together.”  Although Gary presently holds “appointed” positions for the chapter (Certification Chair and Webmaster), he has served in virtually every position of leadership for the chapter during the past fifteen years.  Throughout his tenure with the San Diego chapter, Gary has coordinated over 100 meetings, seminars and functions.  He is also an elected member of the SBE National Board of Directors (2011-2013) – a first for our chapter!

Gary’s background includes working as an engineer, manager, consultant, and executive in the radio and television broadcast industry for over 35 years.  In 2012, Gary launched his own broadcast engineering/technical services business.  He also presently works for the National Football League as the Game-Day Frequency Coordinator for local San Diego Chargers’ games.

There is much more to say about Gary contributions and accomplishments, but I will close with offering my personal thanks for his outstanding leadership towards improving and promoting our local chapter.

Local News

Hal Grigsby Retires and You’re Invited

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.

Commentary, Local News

Making Waves: Our Summer Jobs

(Commentary) For better or worse, I share much of my DNA with my father, Herb, who has throughout his 84-year life so far, insisted mostly on doing everything himself. The story I often tell to illustrate this point is about when we lived on a 40-acre ranch in Central Oregon requiring constant fence and pasture upkeep during the hours he wasn’t driving an oil truck full-time. He found termites in the bathroom of the old homestead and learned that they came from a path of dirt and wood from the ground. This wouldn’t do. So he reconstructed the substantial foundation, lifting the house with jacks and spooning mortar in the small spaces between lava rocks that he had dragged under the house one at a time. I know because I helped mix the mortar and pushed rocks through the vent openings to him.

You can run a broadcast engineering business like this, doing it all yourself. You can run cables and terminate them, install and configure equipment, assemble satellite dish kits and climb towers. It’s mostly intellectually engaging, you accumulate experience and leave each project with a pride of ownership.

It will also drain you because you can never keep up with all the work, you can’t take time off really, and you will limit your income potential greatly. This is  because you can’t charge enough for the installation work to cover all the overhead you don’t get paid for, like accounting, marketing, and purchasing.

This is one of the basic tenets of small business. Basically, if you are doing the busy work, you’re doing it wrong. A small business owner should be tending to strategic planning and business development, leveraging income by hiring good help to handle the day-to-day activities that make up the foundation of your technical service business.

Employee #1

As much as it goes against my instinct, I decided that when young students were between college terms earlier this month, it would be a good time to hire. I listed in Craigslist an opening for a broadcast engineering “apprentice.” I didn’t want to say “intern” because this is a real job and a paid position and in California the term intern has legal limitations when you are not paying (even though most employers seem to ignore the rules at their own peril). I believe that students or those looking todevelop careers deserve to be paid for their work, whether they are bringing real talents to the job or just working hard. In my opinion, there’s entirely too much slavery going on, and it’s hurting our economy by cutting off the income of people who should be out there consuming.

Within a few minutes of posting the opening, I got a resume and cover message from Julio Ramirez, a young man who seemed to fit my three needs: (1) self-initiated computer hobbyist who had dabbled in programming and/or networking, (2) a customer service attitude of respect and friendliness, and (3) long-term interest in broadcasting or something like it. I hired him the next day even though responses were still piling in. Some resumes were short on something, some were vastly overqualified and might suit a future full-time opening (or they should work independently!), but this one was just right.

So Julio and I have had our first week together, running and punching in UTP cables with another helper one day, finishing for me a complex batch file for a CALM Act audio monitoring program another day, and assisting with a commercial cueing problem I had been dealing with. Once a graphics student, he even had a logo designed for my badly ignored website before we could even get started. He’s learning new skills faster than a classroom lecture would give, and I’m clearing my TO DO list with rapid relief.

If you have some work to do that you’ve had to sideline while you grapple with your day-to-day, consider hiring someone from that huge pool of underemployed technicians out there. While you aren’t likely to find someone you can send to the transmitter for a quick fix, most broadcast work these days involves microprocessors and the kind of technical problems you can solve with Google searches, a technical mind, and time.

I took the big step to employer, and we’re going to have a terrific summer.

Local News

KNSJ Getting Ready for Air

According to their website, new non-comm KNSJ installed their antenna at Monument Peak and expect to hit the air on 89.1 MHz as soon as they install their transmitter.  The FCC lists the station as having an ERP of 330 watts and city of license as Descanso, but the elevation will give the station a decent signal to line-of-sight locations throughout San Diego County. The organization behind the new station says in their mission statement:

Activist San Diego is a social justice organization that promotes and facilitates the development of an active, inter-related, progressive community in San Diego through networking, culture and electronic technology.

For the time being, listeners in the Pacific Beach, La Jolla, and University City areas shouldn’t expect much reception due to co-channel 4-watt K206AC in La Jolla that rebroadcasts KPBS-FM.