[BC] SX5 Bites the dust.

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

Why hire somebody to maintain the equipment?
If the station runs a transmitter until it burns out,
then buys a new one, they are ahead of the game
as far as expenses  are concerned. Your wages
are "thrown away," as far as the accountants are
concerned. In Massachusetts one is now even
required to have medical insurance and the
employer is required to contribute.

I first saw this coming when, in order to make
a living, a previously-employed Chief Engineer
in a major market needed to work for five stations
part-time and be on-call 24/7. Without FCC
enforcement of the few remaining regulations,
the art and science, the career we once enjoyed,
is gone forever. 

I once thought that after I had "done my time,"
competing with the brightest MIT grads, I could
retire to the Broadcast Industry, maintaining
a studio and transmitter complex, hanging around
at the transmitter site, telling stories about the
"good old days." I can't! The transmitter sites
have been paved over for Wall Mart parking lots,
the transmitters buried in little doghouses with
leaky roofs, and the remaining studios are all
in a backwater lot in Washington, D.C.

BTW, I found a radio station that needs a new
owner. I hired a lawyer and the negotiation
is on-going. If I were to acquire the station,
I'm not sure the locals would support it,
even though it is in a major northeast metro
area. Radio just doesn't have the clout it
used to have.   

--
Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Read about my book
http://www.LymanSchool.org


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Dana  Puopolo" <dpuopolo at usa.net>
> Tom is right!
> 
> I "worked" for a station that is licensed for 5 kW DA-2. They have been
> running on night pattern for the past three years, because the day pattern
> doesn't work. No matter anyway, because they didn't have a remote control or
> antenna monitor either!  Both their tower lights were dark for over a year.
> Finally, the FCC came in to inspect (by appointment) - but they had got one
> tower lit an hour before the Inspector arrived.  The day before I had got
> their EAS unit working properly-again they knew the inspector was coming. The
> last test it had shown before I fixed it was 2003! When the inspector came
> everything was working well. After that, his checks began coming later and
> later and I found he was 'nickel and diming' me to death.
> With all this stuff wrong, what did he want me to do? Install a Barix link s
> he could save $$ on his program line! Finally I quit-aand he now has a guy
> coming in once a MONTH!
> 
> There are LOTS of smaller statios that operate just this way...
> 
> -D
> 
> ------ Original Message ------
> Received: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:10:09 PM EDT
> From: "Thomas G. Osenkowsky" <tosenkowsky at prodigy.net>
> To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
> Subject: Re: [BC] SX5 Bites the dust.
> 
> > the other thought that comes to mind... ignorance?   or sabotage?
> > Ugly thoughts generated by an ugly result....
> 
> The first mentioned may not rest with the engineer.
> Have you not considered that the owner/operator
> only calls upon the engineer when something fails?
> No routine maintenance or monitoring? Have you
> ever been inside the transmitter house and witnessed
> the conditions therein, or in the antenna field?
> 
> The engineer would not have bypassed circuit breakers
> or performed other unsafe modifications. In fact, there
> may have been another person who performed
> emergency repairs in the past.
> 
> The engineer in question filled in for me ten years ago
> when I was hospitalized for five weeks. I started
> babysitting for his daughter when she was one month old.
> That was far easier than now when she can be a cranky
> 3 1/2 year old.
> 
> Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE
> _______________________________________________
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