Having kicked off in March 2024 for Women’s History Month, Radio World’s “Women in Engineering” spotlight, written by Assistant Editor Elle Kehres, features women in broadcast engineering roles and other technical positions, highlighting their work and growing careers in a male-dominated field. This is an ongoing feature, as women’s industry contributions extend far beyond the month of March.
Lindsey Lounsbury, CBT, is a regional field support engineer for The MaxxKonnect Group, which is based in Pelham, Ala. Like many of the other wonderful women featured in this series, winding up as a broadcast engineer wasn’t exactly in her master plan.
Having attended St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minn., from 2017 to 2022, Lounsbury obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Elective Studies.
What does that mean you may ask? It meant that Lounsbury graduated with three different minors — one in mass communications, one in psychology and another in technology studies.
Spoiler alert: That minor in technology studies would come in handy.
During her college years, Lounsbury volunteered with St. Cloud States’ student-run radio station KVSC(FM), first as a volunteer on-air host, then as assistant program director, then traffic director before finding her way to station’s engineering team.
The switch in roles, she said, was unexpected.
“I never really knew anything about computers or how anything worked,” she said. “But seeing the engineers running around, I started asking questions … and they started realizing that I just wouldn’t stop asking questions.”
While slowly immersing herself in the world of radio engineering, Lounsbury attributes a lot of her growth to Alex Hartman and Jim Gray of Optimized Media Group (OMG) — the former of which is also project analyst at KVSC, the latter the station’s operations director.
Lounsbury worked alongside the pair at KVSC — where she eventually became chief engineer — and as a part-time engineer at OMG, a role she held for three years while pursuing her degree and shortly after.
“They helped me grow, not just in my career, but as a person, too,” she said. “And even though I’m not working with them now, I still talk about them like they’re my mentors, because I wouldn’t be where I am today if they hadn’t taken me under their wing.”
As Radio World readers know well, the importance of mentors and industry connections cannot be overstated. Lounsbury said she found her way to The MaxxKonnect Group by word of mouth.
“Optimized Media Group and MaxxKonnect had known each other and had been talking back and forth,” she said. “I had met [MaxxKonnect President] Josh Bohn at NAB the first year I went, and everybody was kind of looking at me like I was a unicorn — like, ‘oh, a female engineer.’”
Lounsbury said Bohn knew she was graduating in 2022 and got her number during NAB.
“And that was basically it,” she said.
The Minnesotan joined the MaxxKonnect and MK Technical team in July 2023.
Deciding to move from Minnesota to Alabama to begin her role at MaxxKonnect, however, was a difficult decision to make. “But I knew that I was at the point where I just needed a new environment to push me to that next step of learning,” said Lounsbury.
“Moving is a big deal, and I had never moved out of state before. But it ended up being a great decision, and I don’t think I’d be the engineer I am today if I had not moved.”
Her initial days with MaxxKonnect featured both a learning curve and a culture shock — working with all southerners versus midwesterners — but the engineering team was more than willing to help.
“They just threw me right on in,” she said. “I knew that, no matter what, I always had someone to call for questions, and they were just so accepting of that.”
[Related: “MaxxKonnect Promotes Lounsbury, Appoints Hutchens to Engineering Team“]
These days, Lounsbury’s work covers Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana — no small feat for a 26-year-old.
“I knew growing up I could never do a desk job,” she said. “I knew that in middle school. I could barely survive sitting in a chair in class. So it just works out so great, all the traveling. That’s just one of the best parts is seeing all the new places.”
At MaxxKonnect, Lounsbury said there are no other women engineers … a fact that does make her something of a company unicorn.
Most days, she works with local clientele doing maintenance engineering. And for some of those station calls, Lounsbury said her gender has been an asset.
“I have a few clients that I worked with in Alabama that were women owners, and they really liked working with a woman engineer,” she said.
“Speaking with them about it, they just said it’s different because there’s more understanding woman-to-woman — being able to talk to me about issues they were having.”
When looking at ways to fill the broadcast engineering gap, for those considering a job in the field, Lounsbury’s advice is simple: “Just try it.”
“It’s not as hard as some of these people make it seem,” she said. “There’s a lot more resources out there for us, and these older engineers are becoming a lot more willing to share their knowledge and their expertise.”
Lounsbury said this expertise from longtime engineers is becoming increasingly important as so much of the engineering world focuses on IT, and the know-how of monitoring analog, RF systems is being lost.
“I think I was able to join at the perfect time, where I was able to learn the IT side and the audio over IP, and the analog and more physical side of it all at the same time,” she said. “And a lot of the work I do ends up being RF and dealing with transmitters more than anything.”
On the road to learn more about RF engineering, one thing Lounsbury wishes there was more of was … YouTube videos. She recalls a paper she wrote on the subject in college, primarily focusing on AM broadcast antennas, and found the online materials she dug up rather lacking.
Later, when she presented her findings to the class, Lounsbury used a “Jesus stick” made out of an old tube transmitter as her makeshift screen pointer.
“It’s a ground stick, basically. We call it the Jesus stick, because if you don’t use it and you touch something, you might see Jesus.”
Jokes aside, a good engineer knows to never ignore a piece of safety advice — especially for those, like Lounsbury, who are looking forward to a long career.
“Obviously [engineering] has its ups and downs, and I do get burnt out sometimes from it, but it hasn’t kept me away,” she said. “It keeps me coming back. And I heard that from the beginning — once you get bit with the radio bug, it’s really hard to get out. It’s a lifelong thing.”
As a self-described introvert, when she’s not tinkering with transmitters or facilitating studio moves, you might find Lounsbury playing video games or relaxing at her home in Alabaster, Ala. — located 25 miles south of Birmingham — with her husband Dylan.
Want to nominate someone for the next Women in Engineering spotlight? Email Elle at [email protected].
[Related: “Women in Engineering: Michele Grove of Bonneville Denver“]
