Broadcast engineering managers who get hired from outside the company have to spend some time becoming familiar with the plant. Not so with Fred Swift, who took over as Chief Engineer at KUSI after 29 years of building much of the facility. Fred succeeds Richard Large, who retired February 1st.

Like most older broadcast engineers, much of Fred’s knowledge is self-taught. “I took ROP electronics Junior and Senior year of high school at Santana. I got up at 5AM everyday to catch the bus to Santana from Mt. Miguel. I got my [Third Class] FCC License at 16, had an A.S. equivalent when I graduated high school, then worked at Conic Data Systems about a year on L-band FM video transmitters. A guy in the calibration lab told me about a job at KCST-TV (now KNSD). I applied, and Tom Wimberly, the chief then, hired me. That’s when Richard and I met. Tom hired Richard from WAND-TV. He came in about a year after me and left after a couple of years to work in Philly at WPHL-TV. Then He was Hired to put KUSI on the air.

“A lot of my education was self-taught. The most beneficial part was freelance work. I’ve done Atlanta Olympics, two Super Bowls, Oscars red carpet wireless HD cameras, New York Marathon, NBC Golf, etc. Those shows teach you a lot technically and a lot about your abilities and confidence.”

When Fred started at KUSI in 1984, the station was outfitted as an RCA package of 1/2″ reel VTRs, Plumbicon cameras, telecine, Grass Valley switcher, and big TVU-55 UHF transmitter. But Fred embraced change and taught himself the technologies necessary to eventually integrate high definition file-based streaming and transmission systems. You always see him at local high tech seminars.

At channel 39, Fred met his wife who continues as Production Manager at KNSD after 36 years. They have one son Daniel who is a student and works at Sea World.

When asked about career highlights, Fred mentions moving to Viewridge Avenue location and starting newscasts in 30 days. More recently, their conversion of master control and news studio to HD. The trademark of KUSI is their low-cost, high local content news with its many live on-location shows, and Fred was always part of those behind the scenes.

Fred and Richard battled the effects of the 2003 Cedar and 2007 Harris and Witch Creek fires, when their ENG relay sites were going down one by one, backup generators running out of fuel, phone lines failing, burnt telephone poles falling.

During the 2007 Harris fire, the Mt. San Miguel site Proscan antenna rotator stopped turning. “It was the only site still up for us. I was at Jamacha junction watching the site at midnight from below, on the phone with Richard telling him it looks like the fire went past our site and south west toward Otay Ranch because some genius thought a back fire in Proctor valley was a good idea.

“Richard and I went to Miguel around 9 AM (the next morning) and wanted to go to our site. We were stopped by US Forest Service brush truck with four firefighters. We requested they escort us up to the site. Their reply was, ‘No way—it’s too dangerous—but you can go by yourselves!’

“We got up to site through fire tornadoes in the canyons. It was very surreal, like the moon. Scorched earth and dead wildlife everywhere. We entered our site and found the cable company building collapsed, still smoldering. We went to our building and noticed our roof cap was smoking pretty well. I called our assignment desk to have CDF come up and put some water on the fire. [CDF] basically said, ‘You’re on your own.’

“Richard got the ladder out. I found a five gallon bucket and some RG-59 for a rope, and I bucket brigaded water up to him on the roof and we put it out ourselves. We fixed the bad relay in the Troll [controller] and came back to studio. Wow–what week that was!”

In spite of their tight budgets, Fred and Richard managed an almost complete upgrade to high definition video. Their current news operation uses JVC GY-HM-700’s that output .MOV files directly to Apple Final Cut Pro. They play out video with a Bitcentral system.

Their channel 18 ATSC transmitter is a Harris Diamond Solid State with Apex exciters. Fred says that next on the horizon is a bonded cellular field video transport backpack system.

KUSI is looking for an Assistant Chief Engineer. And no, you don’t have to commit to 29 years.

Talk about a clean break. Friday, February 1st, McKinnon Broadcasting’s VP of Engineering Richard Large appeared on KUSI briefly as the station celebrated his retirement. The next week he was settling into his new home in Idaho Falls with his wife of 44 years, Edith.

He learned electronics in the Air Force and wisely took courses that would lead to an FCC First Class Radiotelephone license–a ticket to a good job in 1968. He first worked at WBTW (TV) in Florence, SC weekends while still in the Air Force.

After his discharge in 1970, Richard went to work in Decatur, Illinois at ABC affiliate WAND. What he remembered most about his years there was an ice storm in 1978 that took down the tower and destroyed the transmitter building.  He and the other engineers managed to salvage the RCA transmitter and build a new shelter for it, having it back on the air in four days.

In 1980, Tom Wimberly, who had worked with Richard in Decatur, hired him to work at KCST in San Diego. He stayed about a year before moving on to WPHL in Philadelphia.

Richard answered an ad and put KUSI on the air in 1982 with a leased package of gear from RCA that included a TTU-55 channel 51 UHF transmitter, three TK-760 studio cameras, a TK-86 portable camera, and a TK-27 telecine system.

Richard helped the McKinnon family plan and oversee construction of a TV station in Austin to add to the group’s properties in Corpus Christi and Beaumont, Texas. And he was given the title of Corporate Chief Engineer.

In 1990, the McKinnon’s bought out the remaining financial interest of the United States International University, freeing them to invest in a news department. Richard was challenged to create a news facility on Viewridge Avenue in Murphy Canyon and have the news on the air within six weeks. With only his crew, they installed everything including the electrical wiring and had their first newscast on September 13, meeting the challenge.

He was given the title of Vice President of Engineering for the McKinnon group and oversaw the Corpus Christi station move to another site.

Richard saw two fires overcome Mt. San Miguel where the KUSI transmitter is located. During the first one (he doesn’t remember the year), Tom Wimberly of KNSD and he were taken to the top to survey the damage. Neither had lost their building, but neighboring buildings were destroyed. In 2007, he drove up the mountain with Fred Swift through the Harris Fire and found smoke billowing off of the roof. He lifted buckets of water that Fred filled and put out the fire, saving the building and its contents.

KUSI’s trademark has been its low cost but highly watched newscasts, and Richard has always come through with ways to stretch the dollar, most recently with JVC high definition cameras, Bitcentral file management system, and HD production system.

Besides his wife Edith, Richard has two daughters–Laura and Rachael, their husbands and grandkids living in the Idaho Falls, Idaho area. He looks forward to a restful retirement.

Two former employees of the defunct TV Magic, Inc. are creating a new systems integration company in San Diego they call Pacific Design and Integration, Inc. Bob Anderson expects to perform business development and management duties, and Steve Sagady will be principal engineer. Bob says they have strategic alliances with an equipment supplier and an installation specialist to help fulfill projects.

Kevin Schrader began his full-time engineering position with KPBS this month. He was formerly Chief Engineer at Cox Media channel 4 downtown, where he took care of its studios and the Cox HD vehicle. When Fox Sports won the Padres contract, he…well, yeah. In a bit of refreshingly creative management, KPBS and Cox transitioned him between jobs for several months during which he worked part-time at each.