Wayne Pecena At its Sunday meeting in Las Vegas, the Society of Broadcast Engineers’ Board of Directors elected three new SBE fellows: Wayne M. Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE; Joseph L. Snelson, CPBE, 8-VSB; and Jay Adrick.
Fellow is the highest membership level in the society; only 75 people have achieved this rank since the organization’s founding. In order to qualify, members must be nominated by their peers and have made significant contributions to the broadcast engineering industry and/or the SBE.
“I have worked directly and indirectly with these three outstanding broadcast engineers,” said Jerry Massey, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNT, president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. “They all possess the skill, attitude, professionalism and dedication to broadcast engineering that is the signature of an SBE Fellow.”
Pecena is the assistant director of educational broadcast services in the Office of Information Technology at Texas A&M University, in College Station, Texas. He has been a member of the SBE since 1978 and has served on its board of directors since 2012, when he was also appointed the chair of the Education Committee. In that time, he has conducted webinars, Ennes Workshops and Technical Presenters Groups. In 2012, he received the James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year award and was named the recipient of the 2014 Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award.
Joe Snelson Snelson is vice president of engineering for Meredith Corp. in Las Vegas. He has been a member of the SBE since 1978. He is also the immediate past president of the SBE, serving from 2013 to 2015. He was vice president from 2011 to 2013. He has served on the national Certification Committee and Nominating Committee, and has chaired the national Frequency Coordination Committee. He is currently the chair of the national Government Relations Committee. He was an active member of the MSTV Engineering Committee, has served on the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference Committee, including terms as chair, and is active in the ATSC.
Jay Adrick Adrick is based in Cincinnati and has been an independent broadcast consultant since 2013 after he retired from Harris Broadcast. He now consults for GatesAir. He currently serves as the chairman of the ATSC Mobile Emergency Alerting System Integration Team. He is a former member of the board of directors and vice chairman of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, a past chair of the Open Mobile Video Coalition Forum and has served on both the FCC Media Security and Recovery Councils. He is also a SMPTE Fellow and a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. He was the 2013 recipient of the NAB Television Engineering Achievement Award.
The recipients will be recognized during the SBE National Awards Dinner on Oct. 26 in Columbus, Ohio, during the annual SBE National Meeting, held in conjunction with the Ohio Association of Broadcasters Engineering Conference.
