[BC] Class "D" AM Towers

[Dana Puopolo]

George is a great guy-we worked shoulder to shoulder on the KBLA diplex. He's
also an amazing photographer-Google his photos. Things were so bad at MRBI
engineering wise that you had to get a multiple signature (like 5 signatures)
PO done for ANYTHING over ten dollars. This was becases H kept ordering things
like AM transmitters without doing paperwork and $100,000.00 dollar bills
would just show up at NY accounting.
We had a BE AM 1K show up in L.A. one day-to replace the one year old Nautel
J1000 that was running at 500 watts! No advance notice-just a bunch of boxes
showed up at the door. BUT  buying that condiut was like pulling teeth! The
day I was fired, the VP called me into his office and said (I'm paraphrasing
now) "In the past six years there have been five engineers in this position.
Their names read like a 'who's who' in Los Angeles Enginering. You actually
lasted longer then most of them. BUT what you have to ask yourself is this: Is
it you and those other 4 engineers that are screwed up-or is it this job?"
Actually he used a stronger word then screwed.

We remain friends.

If I would offer my critique of H-it would have something to say like: "Unable
to put two D batteries into a flashlight-he'd probably put them in + to +"

But that's just my opinion-and after all he still has a job there and I
don't!

-D

From: Mike McCarthy <towers at mre.com>

My days at MRBI were far less painful.  While my dealings with H. were few
and far between, I made it known to the VP over our station that the
people they bought the the station from were NEEDED to be part of the
their new expanded operation. It was too much for H. and he was no where
near capable of managing the ongoing projects which the old Radio Unica
started. And there were a number of them in various stages of progress
(including KBLA's build)... Some VERY complicated and messy.

With that, George Butch was kept as their special projects and senior
transmission supervisor reporting to someone other than H. Had I needed to
deal with H. on a regular basis, I would have left the station here far
sooner than I did. George is a decent guy.

I only talked with Arthur once. And it was a pleasant conversation IIRC.
Staff looked at me kind of funny wondering why I talked to the big guy,
but the GM didn't.

MM