[BC] Future of Radio Eng. /was/ Computer based audio

[Tom Bosscher]

Sid Schweiger wrote:

 >This is one IT manager with over 35 years of broadcast engineering under
 >his belt, and you couldn't be more wrong.

    Actually Sid, you make my point. You, Lamar and the IT folks who 
post here are not the typical IT type folks. Looking at the old bell 
curve, you are hugging the high side of that upper 95% segment.

    I have worked around several different organizations IT departments, 
and most of them only "know what they know". Throw them a curve, and if 
it wasn't in the certification manual that they studied from, and they 
are lost.

    There is no doubt that the line between old fashioned broadcast 
engineering and the original idea of what an IT department has blended. 
But again, the average IT department or IT person just can't see beyond 
what they were taught. Like the story about the guy who used eight 
asterisks as his password. His IT department could not figure that one out!

    There are also many cases of the same type of short sighted thinking 
folks in broadcast engineering. In my market, fifteen years ago, one of 
the CE's stomped his foot and said that computers had nothing to do with 
broadcast engineering. So an overnight jock, with computer background 
started to work on the stations computers. Guess who has a larger 
department today? This guy is good because not only does he know his 
computers, but he came from a broadcasting background. The head in the 
sand engineer is now wondering what happened.

    I'm one of those who started in the radio business 35 years ago. But 
when the Commodore VIC-20 and 64 came out, I got one. When I could first 
afford a PC, I got one, for $ 2500! In my facility, if it has anything 
to do with broadcasting, with or without a hard drive, it's in my domain.

    I rather convinced that you have heard stories about some rather 
silly IT folks right in your town, just like there are stories of silly 
engineers in each town.

       But if you would compare the problem solving capabilities of the 
middle of the bell curve of IT folks verses broadcast engineering folks, 
I will wager that the broadcast engineers can figure out solutions a 
whole lot better and faster. Again, just from what I have seen from your 
posts on the forums over the years, you just are not the average IT guy.

    tom bosscher