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.
Walking around KYGO’s studios in Greenwood Village, Colo., a series of smiles greet Michele Grove in every room.
Grove is chief engineer of Bonneville Denver, covering KKFN 104.3, KOSI 101.1 and KEPN 1600, in addition to KYGO 98.5. And per the on-air talent scattered among the halls of their shared building, she is very, very good at her job.
With more than 30 years of engineering under her toolbelt, Grove is a well-known figure in Denver’s radio scene, having first started as an intern at KYGO’s former sister station, KIMN 950, while still in high school in the early ‘80s.
While her 16-year-old self initially wanted to do on-air work, Grove soon found a different calling.
“This was back before we had automation systems, and I’d sit there and play the records and carts and think, you know, there’s a lot more to this,” she said. “I wanted to know how everything worked.”
Grove’s first escapades into the engineering world began at KYGO, and involved driving big RVs with 30-foot masts to set up live remote broadcasts with station talent.
After going on hiatus to raise her three children, Grove rejoined KYGO in the early ’90s, facilitating more live broadcasts in the field.
“Then I just started fixing everything — fixing what went wrong in the mobile studio, or if some of the equipment broke. And then coming into here [KYGO], they wanted me to do more help with building the studios.”
And build the studios she did. Grove stayed with KYGO for 20 years. During that time, she attributes a lot of her learning to former KYGO Chief Engineer Brad Hart, who was with the station for 50 years.
Grove eventually stepped away from her work at KYGO to spend a decade bouncing between Audacy (then Entercom), Westwood One and freelance work, picking up more IT skills along the way.
Naturally, she found her way back to KYGO in 2022 after her mentor, Hart, offered her a new position.
“It felt like coming home,” she said.
When Hart retired shortly after, Grove stepped into the role of chief engineer; and while she has built up quite the legacy for herself over the years, making space in a male-dominated workforce wasn’t without its challenges.
Whether or not her engineering colleagues showed surprise that she could make a Cat-5 cable or use a soldering iron, part of Grove’s career has been spent inadvertently easing the stigma around women in STEM roles.
“I think sometimes it surprises them when you go into it,” said Grove “They say, ‘You don’t look like somebody that would do this.’ It took a while for them to warm up and understand that I could do this as well.”
Today, Grove is looking to finish installing a brand-new GatesAir Flexiva Fax30 (30 kW) transmitter located on Green Mountain in Lakewood, Colo.; however, with an extremely limited staff, the process has been slow-moving.
“This used to be a department of six or seven people, and now we’re down to two,” she said. “You don’t have the time to physically work on everything like you used to.”
When asked what her role as a broadcast engineer looked like when she first started versus what it looks like now, Grove said gone are the days when engineers got to focus on that physical, hands-on work.
“Before you’d have to drive to the transmitters. Now, everything’s just remote,” said Grove. “I’d hate to see the terrestrial radio stations go away because we are going so digital and going online. I just hope that the future generations see how important the terrestrial radio stations are still.”
As for the next generation of RF engineers, Grove fears those skills are being lost — maybe for good.
After three months of searching, Grove just recently found a new assistant engineer to join her (formerly) one-woman team. She said it wasn’t an easy process, especially when conveying the demands of broadcast engineering to younger prospects.
“For people that I’ve interviewed for the position, they ask, ‘What do you mean I’m on call 24/7?’, and I say, ‘Well, it’s radio. We run 365, 24/7 and you’ve got to be there to fix it. We’ve got to be on the air.’”
She said tackling the engineer shortage, and inspiring future talent, as many in the current workforce retire is no small task.
“Reality is, over the last five, six years here in Denver, we’ve had so many good engineers retire,” she said. “And I’m sad to say that I’ve been personally touched by at least three engineers that have passed away over the last few years as well. We’ve lost a lot of their knowledge in radio, losing them.”
As the radio industry continues to shift, and with her career having come full circle, Grove looks back on her initial days as an engineer fondly.
“I will say, it was a lot more work back then, but it was fun,” she said. “Nothing ever seemed like work. Now, everything is easier, but yet still more complex.”
But no matter the technological changes, for Grove, the most gratifying part of the job has stayed the same.
“What’s most rewarding is being proud to listen to how wonderful you sound on the air. And in going around to our studios — how the talent loves you. That makes you feel good, that they know that I’m taking care of them.”
Want to nominate someone for the next Women in Engineering spotlight? Email Elle at [email protected].
[Related: “Women in Engineering: Megan Amoss of Baltimore Public Media“]
