[BC] Making engineering pay

[Chuck Lakaytis]

I recently had a station that went off the air.  The little FM had been
perking along for years until, one day it stopped perking".

In this case it was an idiot general manager that tried to "save money".

One of the PA's died.  He jacked up the power level of the remaining PA to
make power.  The reject load then died.  Then the remaining PA died.

The cause?  He thought I had a maintenance schedule that required too much
time and money.  I had a schedule for them that required the use of high
effiency pleated filters, changed monthly in the winter and weekly in the
summer.

He thought once a month was ok and that furnace filters were ok.  After all,
"I am a ham and know about those things".

More and more, GM's in radio are morons.



Chuck Lakaytis
Director of Engineering
Alaska Public Broadcasting, Inc.
Anchorage, Alaska
907 277 6300
907 301 4339 (cell)


-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Sid Schweiger
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 11:09 AM
To: broadcast at radiolists.net
Subject: Re: [BC] Making engineering pay

>>The real problem is the equipment is so much more reliable, that 
management thinks that they can get by, for long periods of time without 
an engineer.  The bad side of this is if you installed it all correctly 
it's a good chance that they will not have any problems without you.<<
 
That's fine, as far as it goes.  The rest of that "problem" is that more
reliable equipment stays that way ONLY with regular attention and
maintenance.  You can have a radio station full of the latest equipment, but
if it's never tended to, never cleaned, never checked for proper
performance, it will be more unreliable than the stuff we were dealing with
30 years ago.
 
 
 
Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom Boston LLC
WAAF - WEEI AM/FM - WMKK - WRKO - WVEI AM/FM
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Boston MA  02135-2040
Phone: 617-779-5369
Fax: 617-779-5379
E-Mail: sid at wrko.com

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