Featured Media Information Bureau columnist Ken Benner has been “very fortunate” to have met “many awesome people” in the broadcast industry during his 50 years of inspection services for AM and FM stations.
Today, Benner pays tribute to seven individuals who he calls “America’s Finest Broadcast People.” Who are they?
Meeting America’s Finest Broadcast People
By Ken Benner
Sometimes, it is nice to look back over a long career. It’s sweeter when we recall those who truly made a difference to the industry you’ve served during all of those years.
W.D’Orr Cousins was my first mentor from whom I learned more in the first two days I spent with him than from any training program. He was the expert for AM directional antenna designs serving the 67 stations of the Intermountain Radio Network that covered most of the Southwestern U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s. He was assisting me to bring back to life a dead transmitter in Butte, Montana. Observing his work was one of the real inspirations of my life. He was also my first experience with AM multiple tower systems. He was always available to answer any question.
John Battison is a consulting engineer with whom I had the pleasure of working with to establish the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) in the 1960s. Together we designed the first membership certificate and created its first canon of ethics that, for the most part, continues to this day. Battison is truly one of the most unselfish, dedicated professional engineers in history.
Carl E. Smith was the founder of the Cleveland Institute of Electronics, which offered excellent correspondence training programs that enabled many of us to obtain our FCC licenses while serving in the U.S. Armed Services. There was one thing about Carl few people ever knew. I was inspecting stations in Alaska when I found a non-profit station with his signature on substantial engineering documentation. Twice he had traveled from his home in Cleveland, at his expense, to put this little station on the air.
Jerry C. Whitaker has likely produced more professional written training material than anyone. He’s penned almost one dozen technical books with such titles as The Standard Handbook of Audio and Radio Engineering and The DTV Handbook, along with countless articles in the trade journals. Whitaker’s material has long been a primary reference source for broadcast engineers. His SBE Broadcast Engineering Handbook is an absolute “must have” for anyone in broadcast engineering.
Now, I turn my attention to Jack Layton. The most complex item involved with the Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program is directional AM antenna systems. Layton’s book Directional Antennas Made Simple has long been the standard, most professional guide to understanding, maintaining and proofing such systems. His book has saved licensees for such stations substantially in design and maintenance costs.
Bill Hayes, Director of Engineering and Technology for Iowa Public Television, also deserves mention. Hayes has written substantially, including a portion of the NAB Engineering Handbook. His training programs for his large staff of engineers for over a dozen transmitter sites under his responsibility is most commendable. He has appeared with me for seminars related to FCC technical compliance and is always available to lend a helping hand for even the least of us.
Lastly, I give my tip of the hat to Ron Ramadge, who has long served as an FCC Engineer in charge of the FCC’s Kansas City Office. My admiration for Ron has long been his development of the AM/FM/TV FCC self-inspection checklists. On more than one seminar he joined me to answer questions from the audience. I once asked him to provide a list of items he and his colleagues found frequently non-compliant. He provided a most comprehensive booklet that we will cover in future columns.
Trust me, our greatest wealth is the trusted friends we meet in our path though life. My wife Karen and I enjoy an infinite wealth in people such as those listed in this column.
Broadcasting has provided us with a life of pride in our ability of assist others and receive their inspiration and mutual assistance over our past 56 years. We hope others in the industry experience this same level of affinity for those who have made a difference for radio and TV station owners, managers and staff across the U.S.
Ken Benner is an independent Alternative FCC Compliance Certification Inspector and a research analyst for the Coalition for Transparency, Clarification and Simplification of Regulations pertaining to American Broadcasting. Benner has more than 55 years of experience providing service to the broadcast industry.
