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Broadcast Engineering Page


Tweakin' a transmitter.
Having grown up in the 50's & 60's in a southeast Kansas farm home without a TV, I find it somewhat ironic that I have ended up following a career in the business of television broadcasting. I am not one who really enjoys watching TV. I'd much rather spend my time surfing a billion pages on the internet than flipping through a few dozen TV channels. I'd rather pursue my interests than have others entertain me. Other than a few aviation programs on The History Channel, The Discovery Channel or NASA-TV, I find most TV fare of little interest. The news media specializes in bad news and disaster because it brings high ratings. Entertainment programming is often no better. In fact, I am convinced that obsessions fed by today's TV programming bear much responsibility for many of the ills our society is facing. It didn't take me long to learn that I'd much rather be on the transmitting end than the receiving end of broadcasting.


KWHK - where it began
After finding I didn't care a lot for college, I took a correspondence course in electronics from Cleveland Institute of Electronics and passed the test for what was then the FCC's First Class Radiotelephone license. My first job was babysitting a one thousand watt AM radio transmitter and its three tower directional array on the Plains of Kansas. It was my introduction to the world of live radio, disc jockeys, and news reporting. From there I moved into television engineering at a local non-commercial educational station. Relocating to a large network station a year later gave me the chance to learn about every aspect of broadcasting from the microphone to the antenna to the news chopper, and meet some very interesting people along the way. Over the next thirty years I was presented with opportunities to try my hand at everything from operating a camera - to producing, directing, and editing programs - to managing a Christian television station. I can say the journey has seldom been boring.


Helping out with Good Morning America

Returning to KOAT for a visit 20 years later

Balloon microwave engineer taking off

180 feet above the ground without an airplane.
One of my more unusual adventures in broadcasting.
Scenes from
my 38+ years
in TV

Sheila Bing's page
Operating a camera as KTAJ-TV Public Affairs Director Sheila Bing interviews a pastor.

Getting to work the fun way.
My interest had been captured in high school by shortwave radio listening, and the process of a signal traveling halfway around the world was far more fascinating to me than the content of the programming. Therefore, it's no surprise that I eventually made a decision to return to the strictly technical side of broadcasting. That's where the intrigue lies for me. Though I understand the technical principles, the idea that sound or pictures can be encoded onto invisible waves and sent through the air, to be recreated at the receiving end is magic to me to this day. The same can be said for flying, another consuming passion in my life - and still nothing but pure magic. Fortunately, I have often been able to combine my two interests by using airplanes to travel to transmitter sites around the country. I feel truly blessed. ;)

Transmitters across America - Texas, New York, Florida, Tennessee, California, and Indiana
I finally acquired my Technician class amateur radio license, KB0NNN, a few years ago, but haven't been active so far.

My Broadcasting Employment History
KWHK-AM1260 Transmitter engineerHutchinson, KS11/70 to 12/71
KPTS-TV8 - PBSTransmitter engineer/switcherHutchinson, KS1/72 to 1/73
KOAT-TV7 - ABCStudio engineerAlbuquerque, NM1/73 to 10/86
Competitive EdgeProduction studio engineerAlbuquerque, NM10/77 to 3/78
KTAJ-TV16 - TBNStation manager & Chief engineerSaint Joseph, MO10/86 to 8/96
All American NetworkAATV Director of EngineeringSaint Joseph, MO8/96 to 7/00
Trinity Broadcasting NetworkTV engineerSaint Joseph, MO7/00 to 5/02
Trinity Broadcasting NetworkAssistant RF ManagerSpringfield, MO
Edwardsville/Bethalto, IL
Eldridge, MO
5/02 to 1/03
2/03 to 12/17
12/17 to 1/20
There's nothing real about reality TV

You only need 2 things in life.....
WD-40 to make things go and duct tape to make things stop.

Broadcast.Net
Society of Broadcast Engineers
National Association of Broadcasters
Sun Outage Calculator
Satellite Angle
Television Engineering Books
FCC Website
FCC Rules
TV Database
FM Database
AM Database
Radio Info
Gary Kelly
RJ Communications

Optimist: The glass is half full
Pessimist: The glass is half empty
Engineer: The glass is too big
Ohm's Law
Volts (E) = Amps (I) * Ohms (R)
Watts (P) = Amps (I) * Volts (E)

Enter any two values and press "Calculate" to solve for the others.
Volts (E)
Amps (I)
Ohms (R)
Watts (P)
Flying Stories
A book I've written about my flying experiences.
The dangers of High Voltage.

Gene & Sue's Home - Airplanes - The Farm
E-mail gene@pad39a.com
Click for Airplane Pages
Thales of Miletus was one of the 7 Sages of Greece. He lived from 640 BCE to 546 BCE. In 600 BCE he rubbed amber with a piece of fur and the amber could pick up light objects like straw. The word electricity comes from the Greek word elektron, which means amber.
Thales (formerly) Broadcast and Multimedia