In August 1980 I was in my second year of TV engineering at KTVZ Bend when my boss Jess Ortega and I were to be on a live, local call-in TV show at 7pm at the station, talking about TV reception. About 30 minutes before air time, the transmitter dumped. As in—we were off-the-air. We jumped into the truck dressed in our suits, drove to the transmitter site, and were able to immediately put it back on-the-air because it had cooled during our drive. The show was re-scheduled for the next evening. Continue reading Making Waves Editorial: To Chill or Not to Chill
Homegrown Pico Digital to Talk About Their Station in a Box
Many, if not most, radio stations these days have an Xpress box to bring them some flavor of satellite-delivered content, whether a talk show or syndicated music broadcast. But did you know these receivers are made in San Diego? Did you know they can be programmed to operate as self-contained radio automation systems? What can networks do with these store-and-forward devices?
Damon will talk about their watermarking and monitoring technology as well.
Pico Digital started as Pico Macom in 1969, selling TV modulators and related RF devices for the cable TV and hospitality markets. They still make and sell sophisticated cable RF modulators, but have widened their offerings to include radio and TV IRDs.
Damon Semprebon of Pico Digital will give a talk on the capabilities of the Xpress line of receivers and other Pico products of interest to TV and radio broadcasts Wednesday, August 10th at 12 noon at KFMB, 7677 Engineer Road in San Diego. We’ll have a small lunch provided by Pico Digital, then the presentation. Members and guests welcome.
About Our Presenter
Damon Semprebon has 30 years experience in technical project management, product development, and other technical services. Before coming to Pico Digital a year ago, he spent 25 years at the San Diego company variously known as Comstream, Tiernan, Radyne, Comtech, and International Datacasting.
Andrew Moore Assigned ACE Role at KGTV
IT Manager Andrew Moore is widening his responsibilities again as he takes the Assistant Chief Engineer KGTV, the San Diego ABC affiliate. Andrew had moved from sister station KERO Bakersfield as Maintenance Engineer in 2011, but was promoted to IT Manager in 2014. He reports to Director of Engineering Bob Vaillancourt.
Gangitano Rejoins KFMB
John Gangitano recently returned to KFMB Stations as Broadcast Engineer.
He had specialized in IT services during his stay from 2006 to 2008 and left to join L-3 Communications during the recession. He has over 16 years of widely varied IT and broadcast experience in San Diego, and has an MA in Educational Technology and BS in Business Administration from SDSU.
Scottie Rice to Take CE Helm at KSDS
Scottie Rice will take the Chief Engineer job at City College’s KSDS and Radio, Television, and Film Department August 1st, 2016, the position left vacant after Larry Quick’s recent arrest on theft charges. Scottie has served as staff broadcast engineer at KFMB Stations since 2011, but also working part-time as engineer at KSDS. Since filling in, Scottie has made a noticeable improvement in audio processing at KSDS.
Before his stint at KFMB, he had worked for two years at Clear Channel with John Rigg, and at KHOU-TV in Houston.
Larry Quick is serving a probation term for theft of City College property.
Gary Stigall is Scottie’s supervisor at KFMB and wishes Scottie great success at KSDS.