Dan Slentz
Dan Slentz is now vice president of technology and broadcast operations at non-commercial KERA(TV/FM), Dallas.
He told Radio World his first big project is the design, build and launch of a recently purchased 100kw FM non-commercial religious station slated to become a AAA-formatted music station for the KERA organization and begin broadcasting in the fourth quarter of this year.
North Texas Public Broadcasting, owner of KERA(FM) and KERA(TV), purchased the KVTT frequency at 91.7 MHz for $18 million in June from non-commercial religious broadcaster Covenant Educational Media, according to KERA and Public Radio Capital, which brokered the deal for the buyer. The KERA Web site includes a Q&A about the purchase.
The purchase included some of the studio gear, STL, and transmitter chain. The transmitter/antenna is at a leased facility and KERA is assuming that lease, according to Slentz. The new station will be housed in KERA’s existing facility in Dallas.
Slentz was previously director of engineering for Tribune’s WSFL(TV) in Miami where he built a full HD TV facility in the space of about a year so the station could launch a weekday-daily morning show with the Sun-Sentinel sister newspaper.
Prior to Miami, Slentz was chief engineer at WHIZ AM/FM/TV in Zanesville, Ohio and other stations, including Colorado FMs KAZY, KTRR and KGLL in the Denver/Fort Collins/Greeley metro.
He began his broadcast engineering career while in Armed Forces Radio & TV in Madrid, Spain serving as a military broadcaster. Prior to engineering he worked in TV and radio, both in on-air capacities and in production.
Slentz has written for Radio World about wireless broadband technology and designing and building your own studio.
