[BC] Ed Burkhardt

[Broadcast List USER]

Odd.  I never talked politics with Ed.  If he was uber conservative, I  
would have made fun of him from time to time.  If he was uber liberal,  
I would have made fun of him nearly all the time.  If he was  
Libertarian (live and let live), I would have had fun too, but we both  
would have enjoyed it, and I would have had a drinking buddy.

Initially, I didn't appreciate the "YOUR FALING ARE THE FOLLOWING:"  
comments on a FREAKING POST CARD mailed to the station.  However, I  
soon came to appreciate them, and used them.  I would copy them, along  
with corrective action in order to let the GM, and sometimes the PD  
know what I was doing.  Working in the background all the time does  
not fly one's flag.

I expanded this to copy the GM, and depending on the PD, the PD, all  
discrepancy reports or even notes of complaint to the GM and the PD,  
along with the corrective action.  This would often include the jock  
memo in response to the jock problem.  Often it was best to try to fix  
the jock.  Recall the "round mound of sound, the steam roller of love"  
who would "fix" cart machine phase during his on air shift.

I always felt I have nothing to hide.

I didn't talk to him often, maybe once a month, and we had no long  
conversations, but I always respected him, and what he sent me.  I was  
SHOCKED by his passing as it was sudden.  We both know a guy who  
wanted out of the CE grind who almost bought his business.  Had I  
known sooner, I would have invested too.  Another good engineer.  We  
would have done OK for a while, but would, of course, likely been out  
of business now.

By the way, the ARRL does frequency test contests at least once a  
year.  (Mostly) hams measure the frequencies the ARRL puts on the air  
in the ham band, and the closest get awarded in _QST_.

--chip

On Nov 20, 2010, at 2:54 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 1
> From: Edwin Bukont <ebukont at msn.com>
>
> Chip,
>
> there are so many good Burkhardt stories.  Some are even proper to  
> repeat.  I have a few...
>
> [BIG edit.]
>
> In spite of his politics, he was a good friend to this business, he  
> kept the back of many engineers and always encourged the highest  
> accountability on technical issues.  He knew that the engineer's  
> problems usually began with management directives.  He would put  
> little notes, good or bad, on his reports to help you explain to the  
> GM or owner what the significance of the report was.  If he said  
> 'very good' on that post it note, you knew you had done real good. I  
> kinda miss the crusty old guy.
>
> Edwin Bukont CSRE, DRB, CBNT
> V- 240.417.2475; F- 240.368.1265