Based on their tower experiences, KSPS’s Bob Wyatt and Mountain Lake’s Alice Recore say it’s time for pubcasters to take a new approach. And they’re stepping up to the plate.
“There are too many nuances and loopholes for public broadcasters to cost-effectively navigate the tower quagmire as individual organizations,” says Wyatt. “I’m calling on others, from both TV and radio to assist me with forming a group to identify areas that need attention and begin taking action, now. I’ll spearhead the initiative, but I need others to join me to make it work.” Wyatt’s e-mail address is
For her part, Recore has been saving information on every step of Mountain Lake’s recovery effort so she can give it to other pubcasters. “We want the lessons we’ve learned to benefit others,” she says.
To get a handle on tower risks, Wyatt says, pubcasters can collaborate on such things as a database on the particulars of towers, guidelines for assembling effective RFPs, a set of best practices for various phases of a structure’s life cycle, and recommendations for disaster recovery. “In other words, we need specific tools and not just a study that sits on a shelf,” says Wyatt.
“When an encoder breaks, you can replace it reasonably quickly and inexpensively,” he says. “But a tower isn’t a commodity product that’s easy to replace. And unlike any individual piece of broadcast equipment, our towers are our livelihood.”
Web page posted Aug. 6, 2007
Copyright 2007 by Current Publishing Committee
