Where will the next generation of radio and broadcast engineers come from? Radio World is answering that question with this series about “Next-Gen Engineers.”
Lucas McElmeel, 22, has radio in his blood. Growing up with two parents in the industry, it was no surprise when he developed an interest in learning how radio stations operate.
For the last year, McElmeel has served as a broadcast field engineer for Family Radio, headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., which owns 58 stations in the country.
“I’ve had many incredible opportunities to visit stations nationwide and learn from the best radio engineers,” McElmeel told Radio World.
Based in Foresthill, Calif., McElmeel covers Family Radio’s northwest stations. He works alongside his dad Thomas, who is the senior director of IT for the Christian radio network.
RW: Can you please describe your responsibilities?
McElmeel: The radio work I do now is maintaining my stations and upgrading outdated equipment. A couple of the biggest stations are KEAR San Francisco and KEBR Sacramento. It’s pretty neat to learn about the history of these sites since Family Radio has had them for so many years.
I have a trip up to Oregon to visit one of our translators soon and will be replacing the old equipment there with new equipment, which will make it sound better on the air. I’m also setting it up with telemetry so we can monitor it remotely and know when there is a problem. I’m looking forward to the work, these types of projects are exciting to me.
RW: What’s the most interesting experience you’ve had in the radio engineering world so far?
McElmeel: I think it was my first trip to [Family Radio’s] headquarters in Tennessee. It’s quite far away from home in California, but I was excited to go see the place and meet the people I only see on my computer in meetings.
I enjoyed learning things about everyone and seeing the studio rooms, the server room and the place all the spare parts are stored. I got to learn about racks that were being built and would be shipped off to sites to get deployed. Everyone was very welcoming and I hadn’t even been with the company for a month.
RW: In general, how do you think radio resonates with peers your age?
McElmeel: I think most people my age aren’t as involved with radio. I just turned 22 years old. As I’ve grown into my role, I see a lot more value in radio and what it can bring to people. It’s more than music and talk — it builds community.
RW: What are your aspirations?
McElmeel: I hope to learn as much as I can to advance my career. I’m computer-oriented so I love learning about the IP parts of the job and what it can do for us. There are a lot of things we can do with remote control and SNMP so I hope to learn more about them to bring some value to the team.
RW: Any other thoughts?
McElmeel: A couple mentors I would like to thank are David Shantz and Harry Schuh. David has helped me so much with learning how our rack equipment works and instructing me on what needs to be done during a site visit. I have been on a few trips with Harry and I’ve learned so much about the hands-on aspect of the job. Harry builds our racks, so there is a lot of knowledge to be gained from trips with him.
Overall, I believe the radio community is very welcoming and is a great place to start a career.
Read more stories in this series.
Want to suggest an engineer for this series? Email [email protected].
