'At this convention we’ve had more trouble with ISDN than anyone can recall'

As news began to circulate on Tuesday morning of SBE “Member #1” John Battison’s death at age 96, colleagues remembered fondly the broadcast engineering vet’s contributions to the industry over the last seven decades.

This afternoon, Radio World spoke with SBE President Ralph Hogan, also director of engineering at KJZZ(FM) in Phoenix, for his thoughts on the legendary Battison.

Did you know Mr. Battison personally?

RH: He was not only the founder of the society, but I considered him to be a cherished friend. He attended national meetings when he could during his later years, and he was always very much a gentleman and an excellent engineer, always excited about talking about engineering and training and how to form our membership. He gave me some guidance.

What are your favorite memories of him?

RH: Just sitting in a meeting room with various other engineers around and he and I talking...

Paul McLane is editor in chief. The news about an Apple patent that involves radio is intriguing. As we’ve reported on our website, the company just received a patent for “seamless switching between radio and local media.” This raises a host of possibilities; and one of the most obvious is that it presumably will make it easier for consumers to avoid commercials, and that presumably is a bad thing for the traditional revenue-based radio model (sample headline this morning: “New Apple Patent Could Kill Commercial Radio”). But before we hyperventilate, the news could also be seen as positive. Radio advocates have long urged Apple to incorporate radio into its products more widely. Here we see Apple giving signs that it is thinking about how radio fits into media products, and how to better integrate it. This development could imply broader interest on the part of Apple in incorporating radio functionality more widely. Yet again, reading patent tea leaves always is a dangerous hobby,...

Hey, radio history buffs! Here’s a note from a Radio World reader, maybe you can help.