Copyright ©1996, RF Specialties Group.
Consider the Westinghouse/CBS Group/Infinity mergers. When Westinghouse and CBS Radio merged in 1995, Richard Rudman, the director of engineering for the group's Los Angeles region, was suddenly responsible for four major-market stations, and a staff of eight engineers. He now manages a four-station mix of technology, formats and equipment, plus is contemplating options for changes from analog to digital technologies. With the Infinity purchase, announced in June, it appears that two more major-market stations need to be factored in. "I was in the middle of a mass storage project for KFWB when the Infinity deal was announced. None of us really knows yet what it will mean to our engineering efforts in LA. No matter what happens, the best service I can do for whatever number of stations I am responsible for is to be a facilitator for the staff engineers who report to me," he relates.
This, from a 34-year veteran of a profession that once judged the success of engineers based on "what we were able to accomplish, usually the projects we did."
Glynn Walden, director of engineering for Westinghouse/CBS Group, is also feeling the effects of deregulation. With some 39 existing stations and another 40 or so Infinity stations that will add to the group this year, plus the consolidation of multiple stations in at least three major markets, he's had to rethink the business of engineering from the ground up. "Virtually everything runs on computers," he says, observing that engineering teams are replacing the jack-of-all-trades engineer of not so long ago.
Glen Clark, an engineer-turned-manufacturer-turned-consultant engineer, estimates engineers spend almost half their time on digital issues. Other times, engineers are grappling with the changing world as a result of computers. Today, a remote can involve technologies such as ISDN and spread spectrum, and digital compression products on the market number over 20.
Sam Lane, RF Specialist in California, who also finds himself taking on a different role, that of a technology clearinghouse for engineers like Rudman, observes: "Engineers are becoming the eyes and the ears of groups trying to get the latest technology to make their operation more cost effective. In some ways, that requires more management and computer skills than broadcasting skills."
Market size, however, is still the biggest factor in what role the engineer plays. "In the major markets, the trend appears to be more engineering teams-three or four engineers all under one roof and each with their own specialty. In the small markets, they are reverting back to the full time group engineer," says John Schneider of RF Specialties of Washington state. There was an almost wholesale movement toward contract engineering in the small to medium sized markets, but ironically that could swing the other way as a result of market-density ownership. Take Dave Hebert, who spent a good part of his engineering career managing an AM/FM combo in Kennewick, Wash.: climbing towers, fixing cart machines, going on late-night jaunts to the transmitter. In the '70s and '80s, there were at least eight engineers for the 16 stations in Pasco, Kennewick, Richland and Walla Walla, Wash. The population, however, remained constant at 130,000 or so people, so engineers were given their walking papers in an effort to cut operating costs. Those, like Hebert, who could adapt to self-employment, survived.
Today there are four engineers for the same number of stations in the area. And, in a strange twist of irony, Hebert recently returned to full employment, managing not two but six stations purchased within the last few months by Triathlon Broadcasting. Maintenance may not be the main part of his day anymore, thanks to technology, but he says he has other worries. His most immediate: how to keep the stations operating legally -- all six of them --on a budget. Apparently, some things never change.