RADIO
REDUX—WHITHER TOMORROW’S BROADCAST ENGINEER?
Well, here we are in
the new millenium, and everything technical is
supposed to be better. All our stations
are automated; the cartridge machines have all disappeared. Commercial audio files automatically arrive
in our e-mail baskets, as if by magic.
If we desired, we could burn the files onto audio CD’s, full broadcast
quality, which would last for a century or so, for about a buck per CD. Unbelievable!
Come to think about
it, what exactly do we mean by “broadcast quality?” The
phrase used to mean high quality, built
to last, and usually, expensive.
Nowadays, “consumer quality” is often higher than “broadcast
quality.” But that’s okay, it’s
happening everywhere: a quality timepiece used to connote high
quality workmanship, as well as accuracy.
Nowadays a $40.00 Timex probably keeps time as well as that Rolex you’ve
always wanted. Let’s face it: our old quest for high quality technical
standards, that used to burn up all of our engineer’s waking working hours, has
largely been reached: high quality audio
and video can be almost trivial in the digital age.
Yet technical people
are more overworked than ever. The
cartridge machines disappeared, but in each one’s place up sprouted half a
dozen PC’s. At most stations, the
engineer is now much more involved in programming and operating the radio
station, because of the intricacies of the automation system. Meanwhile, the transmitter site has not gone
away, though it is much more likely to be ignored while the engineer edits the
day’s logs, or tries to figure out why the automation insists on crashing each
Tuesday morning at
Curiously, it’s not
the new skills that are hard to cover:
there are, perhaps not lots, but there are some
computer-literate potential radio station workers around. But as colleges and technical schools have
increasingly focussed on information technology, RF
and component-level troubleshooting skills have gotten progressively less
attention. It’s surprising to many to
realize that broadcasting is one of the few remaining areas of electronics
where technicians are expected to troubleshoot right down to the component. We live in an age where most electronic
devices are more economically repaired by swapping whole circuit boards. And while that’s certainly true of PC’s,
broadcast consoles and transmitters are mostly too expensive to be repaired
that way. Component-level
troubleshooting and repair is an art all of its own—an art at which fewer, as
the years progress, will be adept.
Broadcasters hastened the attrition by largely eliminating assistant
engineer positions throughout the eighties and nineties. Now the chief engineers are starting to reach
retirement age, and the skill shortage is becoming more apparent to all.
What to do? Well, we should start by encouraging young
technicians to enter broadcasting. The
field offers challenging work that is far more varied than most technical
employment. And maybe it’s time to
increase the number of technicians on staff—if they’re so busy, perhaps
increasing their number will help improve their lot. Frankly, it’s probably the only way to create
an entry-level job in broadcast engineering today. And without entry-level technical jobs, there
will be no new broadcast technicians.
Dan Roach works at S.W.Davis
Broadcast Technical Services Ltd., a contract engineering firm based in