On Thursday, the Alabama Broadcasters Association named Carl Sampieri as its 2024 Engineer of the Year.
The distinction was given during the group’s annual conference on Aug. 8; this year held at the Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa in Birmingham, Ala.
In a statement announcing the award, the ABA said Sampieri has always loved radio.
“He started as a HAM radio enthusiast as a teen and still carries the call sign ‘N4NRE,’” the group wrote. “He’s been a contract engineer since the 1980s and built most of the radio stations in the Tennessee Valley.
“Sampieri earned his First Class Radiotelephone License at age 18 (they don’t issue those anymore). He then joined the Air Force as an airborne radio repairman and got the commendation for working with the Armed Forces Radio Thailand Network.”
The ABA said Sampieri’s first broadcasting jobs were at WRSA(FM) and WSLV(AM) in 1967. After leaving the Air Force, he moved back to Huntsville, Ala., to work for WAAY(TV) as an engineer.
“He also worked at WZYP for 19 years and was known as ‘Carl The Engineer’ on the morning show,” wrote ABA in its press release.
Sampieri recently retired as the engineer at Huntsville’s iHeart Radio cluster after 26 years, and has worked for nearly 20 years as chief engineer at WLRH Public Radio.
Fun fact: The ABA says Huey Lewis’ “Heart of Rock and Roll” is the first song played across every new transmitter Sampieri has turned on.
“The Walker County native’s future plans include finishing renovations to his 100-year-old house in Madison, which features two 60-foot Ham radio towers in his backyard.”
