[BC] State licensing

[Mario Hieb, P.E.]

Good points!

By the way, I don't think a P.E. would be the best license for most 
broadcast engineers. Just license them as Broadcast Engineers, with 
qualifications similar to the old First Phone.

Also, a P.E. is heavy on theory, and IMHO, the best engineers have a good 
balance between theory and practical experience.

Again, state licensing would have +'s and -'s, but it could give broadcast 
engineers more control of their profession.

Mario




At 02:59 PM 5/22/2005, you wrote:
>Message: 22
>Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 10:12:12 -0700
>From: "Burt I. Weiner" <biwa at earthlink.net>
>Subject: [BC] State Licensing...
>To: broadcast at radiolists.net
>Message-ID: <5.1.1.6.2.20050522091907.01cd1640 at mail.earthlink.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>I've been following this thread with interest.  I certainly do not disagree
>with Mario but I look at it from a slightly different perspective; one of
>over fifty years in this business.  I don't know that state licensing is a
>real answer to better pay or even better status.  Think back to when the
>First Phone was a hard requirement for broadcasting and obtaining one
>required not only a test that weeded out the experienced from the
>un-experienced but required apprenticeship to obtain and then actually
>working to maintain it.  Where did it go and why?
>
>I've seen many "state licensed" people that are not craftsmen and have no
>real world experience.  Unless an apprenticeship is required to obtain a
>state license I believe you will eventually run into the same situation
>that befell the First Phone - quickie schools and NAB type organizations
>working to relax the requirements/rules to reduce expenses "in order to
>stay in business".
>
>I too was a broadcast engineer earning low pay and being looked at by most
>managements as an expense rather than an asset.  I look around at qualified
>engineers today and it is no different.
>
>When I had finally had enough and went out on my own, about twenty years
>ago, things changed dramatically.  All of a sudden I found myself on the
>outside with people asking for my help because of what I could
>accomplish.  Some of the same managers that looked at me as an expense were
>now happy to pay me ten fold or more for what they were getting for almost
>nothing before.  I find myself treated with much more respect in general
>and in a much better financial place than I was as an employee and I have
>the ability to turn down a request if it will open me to liability or for
>any other reason that I deem proper.  I am also MUCH HAPPIER!!!
>
>If I were to have a state license would it make me more money?  I don't
>know.  If I had a P.E. would it make me more money?  I don't know about
>that either.  I know many very qualified antenna people that make a great
>deal of money that are not a P.E.  Again, if a state license were a
>requirement would organizations such as the NAB successfully lobby to get
>the requirements loosened or even dropped as they did with the First
>Phone?  Would the quickie schools take away the value and meaning of such a
>license as they did for the First Phone?
>
>If you are a competent technical person and the goal is to raise the level
>of respect that you are met with then I suggest getting on the other side
>of the fence and not being an employee.  Yes, it's scary at first but if
>you have any business and professional sense you can do it.  If you are
>looking for revenge then I would remind you that the best form of revenge
>is success.
>
>Burt

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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