AM radio as a job

[Opcom]

We've all seen the things that have glorified AM broadcast stations over the years, WKRP being one of the funniest.. I'd work there.
But what is it really like to work on the technical side of an AM BC station? Or just work at one in general?

[W1EUJ]

Once got a local radio station engineer in to speak at a Northeastern U. engineering club. Told us it was shit work (literally, told us about doing plumbing and carpentry on top of the engineering duties, spread out over several stations) and scared all of us away from it. Boy do I wish I had done a pre-interview on that guy...

David Goncalves
W1EUJ

[WA1GFZ]

pay may also compete with wall mart

[W9GT]

I have not done it myself, but know several people that have.  Many, if not most small stations now use part-time engineers or "consultants" to keep things running.  Pay is low.  Larger stations usually have technical staff, but pay is still low with long hours and most of the work is in the studio and on remotes, not much transmitter stuff to do anymore.  Lots of work on computers and automated systems.  Most transmitters are largely solid state and remote-controlled. Only challenge is to do "proofs" at whatever intervals required by FCC...more of a challenge for directional antenna stations.  Seems like a neat job, but maybe not what its cracked-up to be.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[WA1GFZ]

I learned my lesson working for the skrotorola JS artests crap work for crap pay dealing with mostly crap people.

[K1JJ]

pay may also compete with wall mart

Frank, I know you'll appreciate this:

It's always amazed me how the hands-on "techies" of the world, (and to a lesser extent, engineers) the ones who could really fix something down to the component level, were always so under appreciated and under valued. 

It takes a lot of time and schooling to get good at servicing complex gear, but for some reason the business bean counter educations always commanded the money and social status... :-)

I'm not talking about bean counters who start their own businesses, for they are heros. I'm talking about salaried beaners.


I've lived in both worlds in spades and feel one is as difficult as the other to master... and should be paid equally.  Top bean counters and top techs are both rare breeds.  But equality will never happen.

It's only a matter of time now before the pendulum swings the other way and people with REAL skills and the ability to SERVICE others will become highly valued again. The top bean counters have really screwed up - and it's up to the working crowd to support the ongoing circus for a while. (As it always has been)

T

[W8IXY]

Hello KD5OEI (and everyone else),

I have spent most of my working life taking care of AM (and FM)radio stations.  My full time job still consists of working with broadcast audio equipment, especially AM audio processing.  On a contract basis, I maintain several stations' transmitters in the Cleveland area.   Don't let some others scare you about bad working conditions.  If you accept a job with bad conditions, that was your choice.  Just don't sell yourself short.  I have built and maintained many AM sites, up to 50,000 watts, and using multiple towers in a directional array.  If you are able to achieve a good level of expertise, handle high power, and nowadays keep a directional antenna system running in spec, you can still command a good price for your labor.  The going price for many contract engineers who know directional antennas, phasors, and transmitters is around $75.00 per hour, for the guys who have the ability and the experience.  Its up to you to determine if the available working conditions suit you.  You don't HAVE TO accept poor pay and poor conditions.  If the radio station receives a good return on the investment you give them, you still can make a decent dollar.  If you can trace problems to the component level in transmitters, antenna systems, and associated equipment, you will be in demand.  In my recent experience, very few engineers under the age of 50 have acquired the level of expertise you need for such a job, but....how fast can you learn?   Its sometimes quite amazing that a radio station owner can somehow find $75.00 per hour to get his station back on the air after his transmitter smoked.

73
Ted  W8IXY

[w3jn]

Good techs are hard to find.  I manage about 80 field techs and a like number of engineers.  Any with a good troubleshooting mentality (find WHY something breaks and address that, rather than fixing the same thing over and over again by rote) are hard to find and pay off handsomely.  As a federal law enforcement agency, we're run by special agents - but rare indeed is the SA who doesn't highly value having a tech on his staff.

We pay pretty well (about $50K to start, automatic promotions within 3 years to about 60-70K) and provide outstanding benefits including worldwide travel, life overseas, and paid furnished housing overseas.  The last several we interviewed failed miserably though.

[K1JJ]

we're run by special agents - but rare indeed is the SA who doesn't highly value having a tech on his staff.

Have any of these special agents ever met the most special agent of all, The BJB?

[John K5PRO]

I did a stint of broadcast engineering in the last 1970s, working for three AM and two FM stations, all part time, while in college. I found the work, back then, quite stimulating, once you dealt with the GMs questions about why tubes cost so much, or why the toilet in the station keeps overflowing. Or why the lawn wasn't mowed, the transmitter kicked off during the ball game, etc...These were all small town stations in SW Virginia, so one understands that level of work. I never worked for a major B'dcast chain, although I have friends who did - or still do. But doing proofs in the middle of the night, and having DXers send in letters, building a new local control panel that was idiot-jock proof, and spending the night inside a BC1G alone, trying to get it to play again, those were fun times. Pay wasn't great, but work was right up my alley at the time.

Fast Forward to now, after working in Rf power industry including broadcast tx manufacturing, I look back and laugh at the simple pleasures and pains of that work. Now, with so many safety requirements from OSHA, beauracracy, and cost of overhead in large organizations, the simple life in a small market AM plant sounds wonderful again. But I have seen local small town stations struggling to keep alive. Transmitters and audio equipment are now coming in surface mount boards that can be replaced by factory without much field repairable components. You don't build so much hardware anymore, I would guess. Keeping the thing on the air, though, is still the same mantra.

Life is full of trade offs.

[Jim, W5JO]

I have watched BC engineering jobs as well as land mobile repair jobs morph into not much more than clerical jobs.  The reason is really quite simple.  Money!  Any corporation that hires some efficiency expert will find the BC engineer job #1 on the report of what is not efficient.

So manufacturers of equipment have spend an inordinate number of hours designing equipment that can be maintained by the clerk or station manager is a small town.  It is sad because these types of jobs were the heart of a small town and mid-sized city.  Same for two-way radio.

Will it return? I doubt it for most of the repairs require equipment that is so costly that an individual needs to hit the lottery to afford the equipment to do those repairs.  And who would spend good lottery money on equipment that will turn a large fortune into a small one.

The engineer of today will have to travel, which when gas goes to 3 bucks a gallon the station manager doesn't want to pay that travel expense.  That is why so many local stations have sold to big corporations who make enough gravy in the big markets to keep the smaller ones going.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

But the proof is that most radio stations remain on the air. If the loss of tech/engineers was really so bad, we'd hear tons of stations off the air for extended periods of time.

[Opcom]

Such a pity about the bean counters. The station engineer or technician's position is not supposed to be efficient. It's a cost center intended to provide a service. But I suppose that concept has gone out the window long ago. Well I was thinking about it, mainly because I want to stop traveling inconveniently by air, pushing e-paper, and doing endless reports that are read only to confirm that I've parroted what the readers already know and then rubber stamped. These days I seek to use my real skills on something I like for making a living. I have always done component level repairs. Board-replacers do not impress me. I have no problem doing what I am doing now, it just is very boring. Transmitters and studio gear are not a problem. I would need to learn about the ways BC antennas are directed but I don't think it would be that hard; done by phase, no? I've seen the full range of sites from haywired racks enclosed in junk filled shacks that would give OSHA a fit, to fine buildings with tile floors and the transmitters fitted into the marble walls on either side. Just never worked in either kind.

[W1RKW]

I have a friend, Jeff, who started 2 radio stations (an AM and FM) back in the 90's. This was back when I was working on audio and video gear for a local repair shop. He had a full time "engineer" and for the most part was pretty good at what he did but unreliable. Jeff always called on me when he had a piece of gear his engineer couldn't get going and would bring it to the shop for me to look at.  I'd turn it around in a day and he was happy. One day Jeff got pissed at his engineer and brought me in to fix stuff in the stations.  I ended up with more side jobs working at his stations than I knew what to do with as time went on. Most of my work was studio related but could always get him going in a short amount of time.

One day his FM station studio took a direct lightning hit.  It took out about $50K or so of gear. The transmitter was up but no audio. The studio was toasted. We were in scramble mode.  In order to get Jeff going I pulled a portable CD player ( A Sony Walkman type CD player) that I used in my car at the time and had a cheap Radio Shack DJ  type mixer kicking around at home. He had another CD player. We tied the system to the phone lines and got audio to the transmitter. We were back on the air.  We went in minimal electronics mode.  There was no automation as the computers took a big hit too.  He got his folks in and the station was up.  For about a week and a half he operated on this setup until new equipment could be installed.  Eventually we got back to normal. 

I worked for him on a consulting basis and he was confident in me. In the end though he dumped his engineer and put me on call for a period of time   The gig with the stations was short lived however, he ended up selling both stations to the big boys and that ended my little broadcasting career. The big boys had their own people.  It was fun while it lasted. I didn’t have to clean toilets or any non-technical stuff. The girls were great! And pay was decent too.  Took a whole different direction after that.

[w3jn]

Have any of these special agents ever met the most special agent of all, The BJB?

Our agents are special indeed.  But not THAT special

[Bill, KD0HG]

I am seeing that at least the larger radio groups treat their engineers fairly and offer fair pay. An engineer with a few years of experience under their belt can make a decent living. Often, station owners give their CEs a station vehicle to get to their tower sites and other needs.

There is a reality with AMs, industry-wide, it's the FMs that are the cash cows, with a few exceptions in the larger markets, AMs are not so profitable. Not every AM is a WGN (top biller in Chicago). Because of this, most BC engineers need to be focused on *both* FM and AM and will likely be responsible for at least one of each.

On the AM side, it's expected that one does proofs, or partial proofs of directional arrays and knows how to tune one properly. AMs today are almost exclusively solid-state, so you need to know how to trouble shoot the various modulation schemes. OTOH, modern AM transmitters are so bloody simple to routinely troubleshoot, with multiple redundant RF modules and power supplies, you got to look for the module with the red light lit first- LOL. On the FM side, vacuum tube experience is still relevant- For now.

You will also likely be designated Chief Operator, which means you are the party legally responsible for FCC compliance. That covers everything from the RF side to making sure that the staff knows how to operate the profanity delays..And not allow George Carlin's words on the air. You will be responsible for insuring and maintaining a log of EAS alerts and making sure the station does in fact receive and send same. (This is the #1 thing the FCC busts broadcast stations for!)

Yes, you will likely need to do everything from changing studio light bulbs to working on Microsoft networks, your LAN and WAN, and providing computer support to the station staff. NO ONE will hire a full-time engineer that doesn't have a decent set of IT skills. Everyone plays music off of hard drive now. I know of maybe a half dozen stations in the entire country that are still manned 24x7 and where the DJs play CDs.

The crazy thing-- 10 or 15 years ago, about 30% of my time was dedicated to RF-related issues, 30% on studio equipment, and the rest paperwork and etc.. Now it's more like 70% computer stuff. Barely 10% up at the stick..Transmitters are like plug-in appliances now. Not only hard drive based music systems, but several channels of streaming audio and the computers that make HD radio happen. It's like many more radio stations now.

The job is a lot of FUN interrupted by moments of terror. You need *excellent* communications skills. That ability is highly prized by station managements.

[KE6DF]

I hope I don't get into too much trouble for posting something not quite on the topic of jobs in AM stations.

But I figure this is the QSO section, after all.

Generally, in my career as a engineer (computer hardware/software, not radio), I have found that the farther you get from actually doing anything hands on, the more money you make.

I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's.

During that time, there was a strong focus in society on science and engineering. I think it really went back to the 1930's and 1940's at least when the first step towards television, radar, rapid advances in aviation, computers, much better telecommunications, advances in radio, etc. were occurring.

As a country, we all knew that we won WWII in part because of the advances brought by science.

Engineers and scientists were in great demand, and after Sputnik, a lot of money went into training more. In the 1950's there was constant talk about faster airplanes, nuclear ships and submarines, nuclear power replacing fossil fuels some day, and then the space program. Remember slogan like "Progress is our most important product"

Somewhere around 1970, however, was a turning point.

Concerns about nuclear war, Vietnam, the environmental movement, worries about Nuclear power plants, etc. caused the nation to move a little away from a scientific/engineering focus.

Scientists and engineers were thought to create as many problems as they solved.

Money for space exploration dried up.

The 50's idea of "progress" was viewed as causing more problems than it was worth.

Slowly there was less and less status associated with being a scientist or an engineer.

Money for educating scientists, bit by bit was reduced.

And gradually, it became less attractive for college students to major in the hard sciences and engineering.

We have now reached the point were we are not training enough scientists or engineers in universities -- and an ever increasing percentage of the students majoring in these areas in our US universities are from foreign countries.

I don't have statistics, but I suspect the salaries of engineers, scientists, and MDs has been greatly reduced when compared to national average income over the last 50 years.

Meanwhile, for the children of well-to-do parents now days, instead of considering science, engineering, or medicine as a career opt to become financial managers or investment bankers or attorneys.

Why spend all the time studying calculus, physics, and chemistry when you can get a business degree, work on wall street trading bonds or stocks, and make five times more money?

But over time this has left the country in a state where we can do financial engineering, but not mechanical engineering. Where we can do political science but not computer science, and where we can sue people really well, but no longer create technology.

Anyway, I wonder if perhaps we have reached a turning point in this 50 year long trend.

In five years it may no longer look so attractive to a smart 18 year old to plan a career on Wall Street when jobs there are rare and the managers are going to jail in big numbers. And the people still employed on the Street are finding the $5M bonuses are long gone.

On the other hand, if we start a major program for energy independence and drive toward the next step in energy supplies beyond fossil fuel, a career in EE, CS, Petroleum Engineering, ME, Civil, Physics, Chemistry, or Chemical Engineering might look a lot more attractive.

But then again, maybe we go in another direction as yet unforeseen.

[W2DU]

A few words on the subject from an old fossil:

My first full-time job was baby-sitting a 250w on a local channel, WMFJ, Daytona Beach, a one-man operation. Announcing, reading commercials and news, setting up the 16" disks on the turntables, reading xmtr meters, recording the readings into the log every 30 minutes, etc.

This was in 1940 when I was 21 years old (had been a ham for seven years). Wanna guess my pay?

$16/week, seven days a week with one Sunday off per month. Each shift was 10 hours. This amounted to 23 cents/hr.

Would you believe I found it fun?

Walt, W2DU

[WA1GFZ]

So true ith

Bean counters seem to have plenty of time to kiss the boss's ass while the workers sweat.
What really gets me is the bean counter projects created to make work for them to do at the expense of everyone else. Real no vlaue added efforts.
Since shit floats most bean counters float to manager positions where they don't have real talent to lead so they call themselves managers and create teams to assert blame when things go bad. Then the next thing to do is move to another project before crap hits the fan.

[WA1GFZ]

Walt, How much was gas selling for in 1940?

[k4kyv]

My very first real job with a regular salary was in 1964-65, as CE of a local 1 kw AM daytimer.  $50 per week for 20 hours of work.  I thought I was into big bux.  Money went a long way back then.  Plenty for beer, chasing girls, indulging in ham radio, paying basic necessities, and I usually had a little left over every week to stash away in the bank.

One day the boss made a surprise visit to the transmitter site to check things out.  The place was exactly the way I found it when I started working there, a cluttered up mess.  He told me my engineering  work was OK, but that my housekeeping left something to be desired, and directed me to clean up the clutter, and informed me that in one week he was coming back out to re-inspect the site.  So I loaded all the extraneous stuff into my car - a spare 1 kw plate transformer for the old transmitter now used only as a stand-by, a bunch of UTC LS series audio transformers, spare tubes for equipment that was no longer at the site, good pull-outs from the transmitter that was in use at the time, numerous junkbox components like resistors, caps, tube sockets, several panel meters, etc.  A better haul than what I would have ever dreamt of from a hamfest! 

The following week just as he promised, the boss came out to inspect.  He was impressed at how clean and uncluttered the place looked, and thanked me for taking all that junk to the "dump".  The only tubes on the shelf were new spares for the equipment in use and the only components lying around were a few spare resistors and capacitors for the transmitter, and those were stored away neatly in the spare parts cabinet.  The boss patted me on the back and said "well done".

We were both left the site happy campers.

[W3RSW]

Yeah, you guys are right. Good engineers and professionals are very hard to recruit. Salary is commensurate.  For good ones, always has been, always will.

-Particulary in the Petroleum business.  Regardless of current oil price salaries will continue to climb, primarily because finding resources can't be entirely relegated to machine intelligence.

http://www.spe.org/spe-site/spe/spe/career/salary_survey/08SalarySurveyHighlights.pdf

IEEE's for electical engineering professionals.  http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug08/6481
As mentioned,  today's engineer is expected to be versant in a wide range of discliplines.
For example if a communication engineer works in the natural gas business then he also better understand electronic measurement instrumentation, such as flow meters, calibration of instrumentation both primary and secondary standards, and so forth. All this stuff is IT related and digitized to the max.

Almost anyone can spec out stuff to buy off the shelf. The real skill is making it do something economically, efficiently and timely. The grid depends on it. 
One errant switch and 'yer out.' 

[K1JJ]

Many interesting comments about the broadcast industry and past work situations, guys!

I hope I don't get into too much trouble for posting something not quite on the topic of jobs in AM stations.

David:

Your posting was very well stated. Sounds like you gave it some good thought. I'd agree with most everything.

I, too, believe we have just finished a major 68 year economic prosperity cycle and "major change" will be the key words for some time to come.

(The cycle was from 1932 - 2000.  Contrary to popular opinion, the economy peaked in 2000, not 2008. The last 5 years, 2003-2008, was the sucker/fiat rally before the real damage is done)

Tom, K1JJ





Yaz under my desk in his sleeping spot - modeling his new, homebrew coat:
"Judge, I swear I didn't do it!"

[Bill, KD0HG]

Many interesting comments about the broadcast industry and past work situations, guys!

I hope I don't get into too much trouble for posting something not quite on the topic of jobs in AM stations.

David:

Your posting was very well stated. Sounds like you gave it some good thought. I'd agree with most everything.

I, too, believe we have just finished a major 68 year economic prosperity cycle and "major change" will be the key words for some time to come.

(The cycle was from 1932 - 2000.  Contrary to popular opinion, the economy peaked in 2000, not 2008. The last 5 years, 2003-2008, was the sucker/fiat rally before the real damage is done)

Tom, K1JJ





Yaz under my desk in his sleeping spot - modeling his new, homebrew coat:
"Judge, I swear I didn't do it!"

Tom, we need to discuss on 75 this weekend..

[AMroo]

Here's the secret why techos get such low pay when I got onto this I improved my lot  and now have position, status, much improved pay, free beers, women and all those important matters in life.


Its simple technical people are their own worst enemy look at how they dress, the types of conversations they have with others, how they bore others, their interests in life and in general how they represent themselves.

And I have worked in an AM station and you can keep it its a rubbish job, I stayed a few months.
Only went because of the AM broadcast station attraction.

Where are the real technicians? the few good ones that are left are in well paid secure positions and if you cant find them your not offering enough.

If you offer peanuts only monkeys will come.