Rich Parker is planning a big move — to Alaska.
Parker has accepted the director of engineering position for Coast Alaska, a partnership of public radio stations in Southeast Alaska.
He’s has been at Vermont Public Radio for 17 years. For much of that time he was director of engineering. Most recently he was appointed Senior Broadcast Strategist and Engineer, working with VPR Development and Engineering to lead VPR’s strategic optimization of coverage and effectiveness for the two statewide networks.
Of his time at VPR, he tells Radio World he’s most proud “of the opportunity to work with a talented management and engineering team to realize a grand vision — taking VPR from three stations in 1997 to a two-program service network of what will soon be 14 full-service FM stations and 13 translators. But my best days are still when I’m able to solve a particularly difficult problem and get a station back on the air for our listeners, or when I can help a listener to solve a difficult reception problem — because in the end, the listeners are really what it is all about.”
Parker tells RW he’s thrilled with the opportunity, and his exact departure timetable is being worked out, though he plans to be at his new job by the end of March. Parker will be based in Juneau.
His responsibilities will be providing engineering management and technical support services for the studios, transmitters and translators of the seven member stations’ located in Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka and Wrangell.
Parker began his radio career at WHYY(FM), Philadelphia. He worked there for 10 years in a variety of roles like radio production and studio maintenance, as well as radio master control engineer. He was also one of the principle production and live broadcast engineers for NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross.”
