INDIANAPOLIS — The Society of Broadcast Engineers has honored Mark Persons (CPBE, AMD, CBNT) as the Robert W. Flanders SBE Engineer of the Year for 2018. Additionally, the society has named Jeff Welton (CBRE) as the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year. The third national award recipient is Davicom, recognized with the 2018 SBE Technology Award for its Cortex 360 Site Management System.
Mark Persons lives in Brainerd, Minn., and is a current member of SBE Chapter 17. His father was also a broadcast engineer and exposed him to the profession at an early age, according to the announcement. During the course of his five-decade career, he helped to build 12 new commercial AM and FM stations, as well as “countless” station rebuilds and upgrades.
He is recently retired but continues to be active in the industry, currently mentoring four broadcast engineers.
Persons is also a longtime Radio World contributor, writing the popular Tech Tips column. According to the SBE, between 1980 and 2018, Persons wrote more than 175 articles for Radio World and other publications, and presented 27 talks.
Jeff Welton is based in Hackett’s Cove, Nova Scotia, and Nautel’s sales manager for the central region of the US. He began his professional career in 1970 as a Nautel field service engineer. Currently, he also serves as co-engineer for Hubbard, Nova Scotia, community station CKVE(FM).
Welton has presented at many SBE Ennes Workshops, as well as Nautel-specific seminars, participated as an instructor at the Alabama Broadcast Association Engineering Academy and served as a presenter at the NAB BEIT conference. He is also known as an advocate for transmitter site safety.
Davicom’s Cortex 360 Site Management System is based on the latest hardware processors running a Linux operating system. The SBE says the system “incorporates 30 years of experience and knowledge in the remote site management industry.”
