Today, Sept. 11, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the Society of Broadcast Engineers.
John Henry Battison began his career working in and around radio stations. He founded the SBE in 1963, targeting station-level broadcast engineers, filling a gap. Battison also went on to hold management and engineering positions in the world of TV, and he also did consulting work. On the regulatory side, he was nominated as an FCC commissioner in 1961 and 1973.
Battison was also a prolific writer; he authored 15 books and over 500 technical journal articles. In addition to working as editor of Broadcast Engineering, Battison also served as a contributing editor for Public Telecommunications Review and former technical editor of Radio magazine.
In 1998, Battison was recognized with the NAB’s Engineer of the Year Award for radio, and he was honored with the SBE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006, and that same award was renamed in his honor in 2011. Battison died Aug. 28, 2012, and a memorial scholarship was established that same year.
To learn more about Battison, read this SBE remembrance, which includes a detailed history of his accomplishments and a video tribute from the 2012 SBE National Meeting.