[BC] Female engineers

[Margaret Bryant]

Hi Kim-
And welcome! I may have left the business after 30 years of broadcast 
engineering, but I still read this list! I too have never heard any knob, 
shaft, screw, and rack jokes from guys. Back in the 1980s I wrote a story 
for Radio World about me being the "broad in broadcasting". I got a lot of 
letters about it, all of them fun. If you can find a copy of the article, 
you might find some similarities and enjoy the laugh.

During my career, I spent almost 10 years with Westinghouse and yes, they 
were quite progressive in trying to find women to fill engineering jobs. 
But the women needed to be qualified; they weren't just filling a job with 
a female. Jan Kowalczyk was engineering manager of Westinghouse's KYW-AM in 
Philadelpia for a very long time. Before that she was a KDKA. I think she 
was a radio engineer for well over 30 years. She retired a couple of years 
back. Fay Morris worked in my shop when I was at WMAQ in Chicago (then 
owned by Westinghouse). I hired her away from the Johnson Publishing 
stations. She'd already worked as an engineer for several years before I 
hired her. She stayed at WMAQ for a few more after I moved on to ABC Radio 
Networks and I believe is retired now.

Kim, if you want to meet a woman engineer who is still working, go to ABC 
Radio Networks in Dallas. My replacement there is Leslie Kveton. Leslie has 
over 30 years in broadcast engineering, most of them at ABC and KVIL in 
Dallas. She is the Director of Engineering and Technical Operations there 
and believe me, is not just a paper pusher, she gets down in the trenches 
with the guys to work on equipment too.

So Kim, yes there are not a lot of female engineers out there, and many 
have come and gone, but a few of us made a long career out of it.
And you can too, if you want too (the problems with the business in general 
notwithstanding). Best of luck to you!

Margaret Bryant


>Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 15:48:12 -0700
>From: "Kim Sacks" <radioctrldwife at gmail.com>
>Subject: [BC] Female engineers
>To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>
>No one has heard of me, I'm still a broadcast newbie, but I have 5
>years under my belt so far.
>
>I've yet to meet another female broadcast engineer face to face, I'm
>sure I will one day. Since were on the subject... During an interview
>for a job (not broadcast centric, electronics related) the fact that
>I had a ham license was a big plus, but there was concern if the
>"guys in engineering" would be "comfortable" with me as part of their
>crew, and vice vesa. I responded by saying "I work with boradcast
>engineers. I've heard every knob, shaft, screw, and rack joke you can
>think of. I think I'll be just fine." Unfortunately, I never heard
>back from them. I guess I was to confrontational.
>
>-Kim