Clyde Scott, a broadcast engineer and consultant, has died at age 70.
According to his obituary, he passed away Tuesday in Georgia.
Scott was the owner-operator of technical consulting firm EME Communications. “He was well-known throughout the southeastern United States for troubleshooting radio transmitter issues,” the obituary states. “He was sought after to research and file new applications and worked closely with the FCC attorneys in Washington, D.C.”
He also was active in amateur radio (W4CCS) and established the online station Bluegrassradio.org as well as low-power FM station WLOV, Colquitt Community Radio, in Moultrie, Ga.
His friend Robert Combs, director of engineering at Cumulus Media, told Radio World that Clyde Scott graduated from the University of Tennessee with an electrical engineering degree. His first job was as a transmitter site engineer at WSB(AM) in Atlanta.
“Besides working in radio, he worked at a Procter & Gamble plant in the engineering department on the third shift so he could work on radio stations during the day,” Combs said.
“Clyde was the go-to engineer in southern Georgia and northern Florida when you needed help with filing paperwork with the FCC or if you need some troubleshooting help that required heavy equipment. He was the guy with all the test gear that was always willing to help,” Combs said.
“He was an avid ham operator and had three towers, a long-wire and satellite dish in his back yard for his hobby. He also enjoyed rebuilding 1940-era John Deere tractors.”
Combs called him a mentor and friend to many engineers who began their careers in the Southeast.
“Clyde took me, an overnight DJ in Bainbridge, Ga., under his wing and helped me with my career every step for the last 32 years,” Combs recalled.
“The funniest story he ever told me was of the time he and some fellow college students ‘accidentally’ connected the ground system of a small Tennessee AM station to a railroad track one Sunday morning and had the citizens of that town thinking it was God’s voice talking to them through every appliance, radio and TV in their house.”