The Michigan Association of Broadcasters have named the recipients of its 2026 Carl E. Lee Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award.
The radio recipient is John S. Martin, retired transmitter maintenance engineer with WCMU Public Media. On the TV side the honoree is Richard Thomas II, telecom technician with WKAR Public Media.
The awards were presented during the Michigan Broadcasters Engineering & IT Summit this week. The association has been giving the awards since 1997.
Here are the biographies as provided by MAB:
John S. Martin — Transmitter Maintenance Engineer (Retired), WCMU Public Media (Mt. Pleasant).
John, who grew up in suburban New York City, got his start in broadcasting after visiting his brother Ed, who was a board operator of WTHE(AM) in Mineola, N.Y. Soon thereafter, John acquired his amateur radio license and then his FCC “First Phone” and started a career in broadcast engineering, all before finishing high school!
John’s career took him from various Long Island radio stations, some part-time work at a couple of NYC stations, to landing his “dream job” (at the time) as a maintenance engineer at the NBC Radio Network at “30 Rock.”
In 1984, he decided that it was time for a new life dream. He soon thereafter found himself in rural northern Michigan living the new dream as a small manufacturer of accessories for radio hobbyists.
After a few years, John decided to make another change, becoming an Arizona-Michigan snowbird and getting involved in television. While also selling children’s toys online, he found himself working full-time at KPNX(TV) (Phoenix) during most winters and WPBN/WGTU(TV) (Traverse City) during many of the summers.
In 2013, he returned to Michigan and the following year, joined WCMU Public Media as a transmitter maintenance engineer. Based from home, he was able to travel the states to visit the various transmitter sites of the WCMU network in Northern Michigan. John retired in 2024.
Richard Thomas II — Telecom Technician (Senior Broadcast Engineer), WKAR Public Media (East Lansing).
Rick is a second-generation broadcaster at WKAR. His father had been working for WKAR Radio from 1951 through 1992. Rick studied electronics at Lansing Community College during a time when the FCC First Class License was a requirement. He notes that in those days, taking the test required driving to the nearest FCC office, which was situated on the 10th floor of the Detroit Federal Building.
Rick became a student employee of WKAR(TV) in February 1978. Then a full-time opening became available in April of that year, he applied and was hired. He’s been on staff ever since. During that time the university merged its separate broadcast departments into a single department. Rick told the MAB that as technology keeps changing, he still feels like a student of whatever comes next.
He was also one of the charter members of Chapter #91, which was formed in 1982. With the chapter, Rick has at times served on the program committee and as a chapter officer.
Rick suggests that all younger people in this career field seek out and join either or both SBE and SMPTE, whichever is most readily available.
