KOIN has dumped their Chief Engineer of 25 years.

From http://www.oregonmediainsiders.com/node/1562 Lynnn Siprelle quoting KOIN GM Chris Sehring:

"The Chief Engineer’s former duties will be re-assigned to New Vision Television’s new Corporate Chief Engineer. The Corporate Chief Engineer, whose name will be announced shortly, will work closely with all New Vision TV stations but plans to operate out of our KOIN/ Portland location.

"All of us at KOIN appreciate Lee’s many efforts on behalf of our station. We thank him for his hard work and wish him well in his future endeavors."


A new Corporate Chief Engineer has been named:

(From http://tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/05/05/daily.8/)

NEW VISION NAMES GROUP ENGINEERING CHIEF

TVNEWSDAY, May. 5, 12:06 PM ET

David Bird is former regional chief engineer for Clear Channel Television. He'll be based at KOIN, the CBS affiliate in Portland, Ore.

By Staff

New Vision Television has hired a corporate chief engineer for its growing TV station group.

He is David Bird, formerly regional chief engineer for Clear Channel Television (now Newport Television) while based at KTVX Salt Lake City. Previously, he served as chief engineer at KSAS Wichita, Kan., and WFTC Minneapolis.

As New Vision’s top tech, Bird will be based at KOIN, the CBS affiliate in Portland, Ore. “I think it’s important … to work out of a television station,” said Bird. “This has always helped me stay close to daily challenges our operations face.”

New Vision is headed by CEO Jason Elkin and COO John Heinen.

In addition to KOIN, New Vision currently owns WIAT Birmingham, Ala. (CBS); WKBN/WYFX Youngstown, Ohio (CBS/Fox); KIMT Mason City, Iowa-Rochester, Minn. (CBS); KHON Honolulu (Fox), KSNW Wichita, Kan. (NBC); and KSNT Topeka, Kan. (NBC).

Lee Wood was in my class at Benson (1967), and we considered each other friends. I knew that he had 4 kids and some may still be in college. I've been hosed by employers, too, but not as shamelessly as what happened to Lee.

Lee has impeccable credentials...and will find a job consulting. He is one of the counties foremost authorities on HDTV. He is most likely feeling a sense of relief that he is out of the corporate grinder.

WKBN/WYFX Youngstown, Ohio......

They cleaned house here as well two stations sharing a newsroom and a buch of techies and news peeps on the street. It shows too. bad audio, wrong camera, wrong video, dead air, spots not cued. Not occasionally, frequently. Delivering and inferior production with no interest in QUALITY.....

Just goes to show you that corporate goals and common sense are not all that congruent with each other.

Lee Wood took this sophomore under his wing when I entered KBPS... Gave me "the business" when needed, and always provided encouragement.

If one has the committment to make it happen, I highly recommend the consulting route... After 30 years in broadcasting, and seven years in e-learning, I was tossed out due to the sale of the company I worked for to another competitor. (Consolidation and downsizing are NOT limited to broadcasting!) I started my own home studio, specializing in narrating corporate training materials. I can't live off of it yet, but I'm darned close...as of May 17th, my company is one year old! And I did turn a profit last year.

Was it worth it? The answer is YES!!!

With his skills and specialized knowledge, Lee will do just fine; he's one of the very best... And it's 6's loss...

If you turned a profit your first year, I'd say you're ahead of the game! Congratulations!

Something similar was going on at KPTV Sunday night... all the locally inserted spots/promos had no audio! Nice work guys!

TV is now looking more like radio, isn't it gang!

It's always hard to hear this kind of news.

Some of the comments posted after the article didn't have the nicest things to say about Lee's office organization. But you know what, creative types have their own filing system and it doesn't always jive with the more anal type A's out there.

Mark-congrats on your turning a profit. I know just how hard you have worked and it's good to hear things are coming along. Continued success.

Thanks, Chris...Semoochie, too...but it ain't outta the woods quite yet! A lot of the success is due to the networking I've done over the past 10 to 15 years. A lot of valuable advice, support and referrals have come from those wonderful contacts... It's priceless.

With Lee's integrity, skills, and tenure at KOIN, he's gotta have an incredible network of associates to draw from. That's why he'll do just fine...

I've been wondering for the last year or so if we're to the point now in TV Automation that there are TV Stations on the air overnight in Portland that are no longer Manned, or maybe just on the weekends.

Craig...I don't think so...yet. But it's only a matter of time. I fear that before I have a chance to retire from the industry, the TV station will be little more than a server in a closet.

And when we automate everything else, like the retail business...all us/you former engineers can be retrained as NETWORK ANALYSTS. Because everything will be on a network and we will need experts on Networks....So put in some hairdye , smooth out the wrinkles or get BOTOX...get retrained and have a job for the ages....

Lee Wood will be joining KATU as a contract engineer on Monday.

Will the re-trained broadcast engineers be competing with "kids" coming out of school with bachelor's degrees in IT for those "network analyst" positions? Will the the pay be that of an entry level IT job?

One could also say that because technology is overtaking broadcasting so rapidly that the need for broadcasting itself may soon be "shown the door" in the near future.