[BC] Radio training

[Scott Bailey]

First, it's a State College. There are NO outside donors to it. It now sits 
there, running automation, and maybe one kid helping out.  They don't teach 
engineering at that school!  And no, it does not serve the community. It's too 
worry about being a "Metro Nashville" station, than our towns station. The 
people here in town, if they want local, listen to the two AM Stations. To my 
knowledge, there has never been an engineer come out of that school. It's was 
designed strictly to learn mass communications classes. The school has a "paid, 
on staff" engineer that fixes the equipment if it goes down. He's been there for 
about 25 years or so.  The students are NOT allow to fix anything!  This is a 
situation that is out of date.
 Scott Bailey
WMRO-AM, Gallatin, TN 

----- Original Message ----
> From: Alex Hartman <goober at goobe.net>
> 
> Wow, tell us how you really feel. That little community station might produce 
>some pretty useful people. Engineering especially. It may be a waste of taxpayer 
>money to you, but i bet that the people who donate to the station sure don't see 
>it that way. 
>
> 
> IT people in this industry are dangerous. I'm one of them. But without someone 
>competent enough to diagnose a gunshot in the coax on the RF side of things (or 
>diagnose a bad rectifier in a power supply, or someone who knows how to simply 
>change a fuse!), radio is dead.
> 
> More and more of a radio station is coming around to the IT world, most 
>stations now are built like data centers than radio stations. But the core of 
>the station is still the fact that it IS a radio station. Without having a 
>breeding ground, where will you find your next engineer? You honestly are going 
>to tell me you're going to hire a kid out of college with an EE degree and whom 
>has NEVER seen the inside of a transmitter? That kid will kill himself without 
>proper field training. And an IT monkey is going to settle for replacing CD 
>players, consoles, and audio processors? Not without any sort of passion for the 
>music they won't. 
>
> 
> The era of people like Steve Jobs is over, kids these days are taught how to 
>just replace, not repair. I started in IT at 16, got into radio at 20, and have 
>been merrying the 2 ever since. Why? Because i loved radio before computers. :)
> 
> So saying the public station is a waste of money may be correct, but it's the 
>only outlet for the TRUE public, not what corporate goons want you to hear. 
>Besides, without public radio and wasteful taxpayer grants, who else is going to 
>be your beta tester group? :)