[BC] SBE & state licensure

[Mario Hieb, P.E.]

You make some good points; state licensure would have plusses and minuses.

The main reason I brought up the idea of exploring state licensure is that 
it gives the profession "leverage." Most other professional engineering 
groups get their authority from state regulations, which have been upheld 
in the courts as being in the best interest of  public "life, safety and 
property." A group like SBE doesn't have (right now) this authority, and 
could get squeezed out by other professions.

Incidentally, most hairdressers and morticians need to have a state 
license. In Utah you need a license to install a burglar alarm.

One way to make things more "uniform" from state to state would be to adopt 
a model law. This is used in many other professions. Also, SBE 
Certification could be the criteria for licensure.

By the way, an electrician is not really a professional, but a tradesman. 
Educational and licensing requirements for professionals tend to be more 
rigorous.

Although the airwaves are federally regulated, all professions I know of 
are state regulated. In the past, broadcast engineers were regulated at the 
federal level. Station owners, who had more clout than the engineers, were 
able to get the licensing requirements dropped.

To survive, state licensure may be something SBE needs to do.


Mario






At 04:10 PM 5/19/2005, you wrote:
>Message: 30
>Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 17:59:19 -0400
>From: Fred Gleason <fredg at salemradiolabs.com>
>Subject: Re: [BC] My SBE Suggestions
>To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <200505191759.19750.fredg at salemradiolabs.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Have *really* been trying to stay out of this, but...
>
>On Thursday 19 May 2005 17:25, Mario Hieb wrote:
> > 9. Explore state licensure for broadcast engineers.
>
>I think 'state licensure for broadcast engineers' would be an absolute
>disaster.  Fifty different versions of what constitutes 'qualified'?  We've
>already seen how the states do with areas like RFI compliance -- what makes
>us think they'd do any better here?  Broadcasting is a Federally licensed
>endeavor, and any government-sponsored personnel certification should
>properly come from that same level of government.
>
>And, before we cite 'related' fields that are currently state-regulated (like
>electricians):  it's a totally different situation.  Electricians perform
>work in virtually every structure erected today.  This makes for a huge
>number of people in the regulated field, and hence the state and local
>governments concerned have ample resources to develop the necessary expertise
>(and even then, the results can be none too impressive -- ever go through an
>electrical inspection of a new radio facility?).  Broadcast engineering is a
>tiny field by comparison, and so very little knowledge or understanding of it
>exists below the Federal level.  Do you really want the same people
>responsible for doing the electrical inspection for your last project to be
>the ones drafting and enforcing a 'code' for broadcast engineering?  That is
>the way it would play out, in every locale outside of (perhaps) LA and NYC.
>
>Cheers!
>
>
>|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. | Director of Broadcast Software Development  |
>|                           |             Salem Radio Labs                |
>|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>|     Government [is] an illusion the governed should not encourage.      |
>|                                         -- John Updike                  |
>|                                            "Couples"                    |
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>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mario Hieb, P.E.
Consulting Engineer

36 H St. #2
Salt Lake City, UT 84103

e-mail: mario at xmission.com
text: 8015546069 at mmode.com
cell: 801-554-6069

NSPE ~ AFCCE ~ SBE