[BC] SBE is not AFCCE

[Mario Hieb]

I am a member of AFCCE and can't speak for the organization. If the are 
AFCCE officers/board members on this list, then perhaps they may want to 
chime in.

AFCCE is made up primarily of Professional Engineers and attorneys.  They 
weigh in on the engineering aspects of FCC issues, not the financial ones.

Think about it. If the FCC takes away a 2 GHz. RPU channel, who does it 
affect? Yes, the engineer may be involved, but he/she is not the licensee, 
who may make or lose money on an FCC decision.

SBE is not and should not be (like NAB) a lobbying organization for 
stations. Frankly, the leaders of SBE look pretty silly running around 
putting out every fire that flares up when there other more important 
issues they should be dealing with. Leave the fires to the people who are 
(and should be) getting paid to put them out and let the station owners, 
not SBE members, pay the bill.

As an example, look at NFL Game Day Coordination (GDC). It financially 
affects the NFL, the TV networks, the local stations, but not really the 
engineer. NAB or the FCC should really be doing GDC, but they don't because 
1) They're too smart, and 2) SBE falls all over itself to do it for free.

SBE should look at every issue before it and decide if it is truly an issue 
that directly affects the members financially. This is a good first step 
towards developing a true professional organization.

By the way, would like one of you SBE officer/board types mind telling me 
how much SBE spends on legal fees each year?

Mario




>Message: 19
>Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 08:49:19 -0500
>From: "Phil Alexander" <dynotherm at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: [BC] SBE
>To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <4283188F.28798.13447F8B at localhost>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>On 11 May 2005 at 20:30, Mario Hieb, P.E. wrote:
>
> > Perhaps somebody on this list can explain to me why SBE is spending so much
> > time (and member dues) on FCC related issues. How many SBE members own
> > station licenses? Isn't this the sort of thing that the NAB, and not SBE,
> > should be doing? Or are NAB and SBE one and the same today??
>
>This question should be addressed to Chris Imlay, however IMHO the SBE is
>spending time on those issues that impact the working broadcast engineer.
>Sometimes the FCC listens, sometimes they don't, to our detriment.
>
>The problem with the NAB is there seems to be no one there looking at nuts
>and bolts engineering matters at the FCC and somebody has to do it.
>
>As for the idea that the NAB and SBE may be one and the same today - I
>suppose some might see that as a serious question if they haven't been
>watching the differences - however, IMHO there is NO parallel period.
>
>One question that might be asked is why must the SBE do all the heavy
>lifting? Where is the AFCCE in all this? Why don't they do more,
>especially WRT BAS? (ICR/STL/RPU etc.)