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16? Sweet!

16? Sweet!

Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Chriss Scherer
cscherer@radiomagonline.com

With 2008 drawing to a close, we at Radio magazine are looking back on the past year. We’re also looking back at the past 15 years. Why the past 15 years? That goes back to 1994, the year Radio magazine was first published.

So while Radio magazine is celebrating the past 15 years, it actually traces its roots to 1959 when Broadcast Engineering magazine was first published. For 35 years, Broadcast Engineering covered radio and TV. But in 1993, Brad Dick, who is still the editorial director of Broadcast Engineering, and Dennis Triola, who was publisher at that time, realized that while radio and TV share a common history, the two sides of broadcasting were better served by two separate publications. Broadcast Engineering continued with TV, and the radio content was directed into the version you’re reading now.

I wasn’t involved in the foundation plans of Radio magazine, but after several years as a contributor to Broadcast Engineering and then Radio magazine, I was given the opportunity to continue its development when I was hired as the editor in 1997.

I moved to Kansas City that year, which is somewhat ironic since I turned down a job offer a year earlier to work at a radio station in Kansas City. But one day in 1997 while handling several simultaneous crises at WMMS Cleveland, including having to repair the wired-in-place telephone switchboard, I received a phone call asking me if I was interested in the position as editor of the magazine. I looked around at the must-be-fixed-right-now projects that were in various stages of completion, still wondering how I would get it all done, and I thought to myself, �Give all this up? And get out of show business?�

Obviously I took the job, and like you I’m still in show business. While I may work in publishing, I still consider myself a radio broadcast engineer. We all have to adapt to changes, just like radio itself is adapting.

So what’s ahead for the next year (or even the next 15)? The monthly print version is still important, and we’ll continue to develop the magazine to enhance the website and vice versa. We’re also doing more online than ever before. This past summer we redesigned the site to improve how information is organized. We launched blogs and forums, and presented our first live webinars. We have also produced podcasts since January 2007.

We’re building a community for radio media engineers, and I want you to be a part of that. We have more projects and ideas in development, including another online resource that we expect to launch very soon. I hope you’ll participate in this community by posting and commenting. Of course you can always contribute by sharing your ideas for Facility Showcase articles, Field Reports, tutorials and other topics with me.

We have 15 years behind us with a 50-year heritage behind that. As the radio industry continues to evolve, so does Radio magazine. It’s sweet 16 for Radio magazine, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

What’s your opinion? Send it toradio@RadioMagOnline.com

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