Chapter 36 Names New Officers

Members of SBE Chapter 36 have elected a new slate of officers to serve in 2018. The new leaders include:

Chairman: Tony McDaid, IT Engineer at iHeartMedia.
Vice-Chairman: Mike Curran, contract engineer.
Secretary: Jessica Colyer, Director of Business Development, D2D Technologies.

The three uncontested candidates each received 15 votes from the 37 members who received the electronic ballots.

The chairman can appoint various positions, including Program Chairman. Bart Schade of Path1 volunteered for, and will likely serve, that position.

The new officers will be inducted at the December 20th luncheon.

FCC Approves Entercom Takeover of CBS Radio

The FCC approved Entercom’s merger with CBS Radio, making it the second-largest broadcasting company after iHeartMedia with 235 radio stations in the USA. The merger is expected to formally occur this week as the offer expires November 16th.

Locally, CBS stations KYXY 96.5 and KEGY 103.7 join Entercom stations KBZT 94.9, KSON 97.3, and KXSN 98.1. In order to keep from exceeding the FCC-imposed limit of owning five FM stations in a single market, Entercom sold KSOQ 92.1 Escondido to Educational Media Foundation (EMF).

The San Diego Entercom stations are planning to move to a new studio and office facility on Granite Ridge Drive across the street from iHeartMedia and NBC 7.

KSON has been advertising a mysterious Reset Our Preset move scheduled for Friday, November 17. We hear that KSON is moving its country format from 97.3 to 103.7 due to its better coverage of North County from Mt. Soledad since KSON’s Class A satellite station KSOQ near Escondido was sold. KSON’s main transmitter is at the KOGO towers in Emerald Hills, San Diego.

UPDATE: KSON moved to 103.7 MHz Friday, November 17, 2017 as speculated. The station began running a loop telling listeners of 97.3 to tune to 103.7 and Energy listeners to “set a preset” to 97.3 (though they aren’t playing that format at this time). 

November 15 Meeting: Caig Labs

One of the biggest causes of grief for any broadcast engineer has been corrosion of dissimilar metals and its effect on circuits that are supposed to conduct. We’re talking switch contacts, insulation displacement contacts, and connectors of all kinds. Caig Labs, based right here in Poway, has made chemicals for treating contacts with anti-corrosion and lubricating qualities for some time. What goes into these products? Which ones are right for which problems? How did Caig Labs get started?

Join us at Wednesday, November 15th at 12 noon at iHeartMedia, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego as Jimmy Hong of Caig Labs gives us a presentation. We’ll provide a simple lunch.

Jimmy Hong has been with Caig Labs as a Sales Rep. for a year, servicing retailers, repair and maintenance shops, and OEMs.

Jimmy Hong has been with Caig Labs as a Sales Rep. for a year, servicing retailers, repair and maintenance shops, and OEMs.

KFMB Stations Up for Sale

According to staffers, KFMB-AM-FM-TV has been put up for sale by Midwest Television owner Elisabeth Kimmel. August Meyer, grandfather of Kimmel, bought the stations in 1964. KFMB-TV has been a strong competitor in local news and a CBS affiliate since its sign-on in 1949.

Market conditions for the sale have improved since the FCC eased ownership and local studio rules recently.

Society of Broadcast Engineers