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NAB Announces Engineering Awards for 2013
2-12-2013
The NAB announced that radio engineer Frank Foti of the Telos Alliance will receive the 2013 NAB Engineering Achievement Award. The Engineering Achievement Awards are given to individuals who are nominated by their peers for significant contributions to advancing the state of the art in broadcast engineering.
In addition, an NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering award will be presented to Leonard J. Charles, director of engineering, Midwest, at Morgan Murphy Media. The recipients will be honored at the NAB Show Technology Luncheon Wednesday, April 10 in Las Vegas.
The 2013 NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award
A largely self-taught radio engineer, Foti first made his mark on the industry as chief engineer at a number of legendary FM stations, starting in the late 1970s at WMMS/WHK, Cleveland, through KSAN/KNEW, San Francisco, and ultimately to WHTZ (“Z-100”), New York. By the late 1980s, he shifted to full-time manufacturing, founding Cutting Edge Technologies. In 1992, he joined forces with Steve Church’s Telos Systems, rebranding his audio processing line as the Omnia Audio division of Telos. Foti now serves as CEO of the Telos Alliance.
Foti developed a long list of advances to the art of broadcast audio processing. Some of these innovations have subsequently been patented and/or become well established elements within the industry. His efforts did not stop at product design, but extended toward the general improvement of broadcast audio quality. Most recently, he has pioneered the development of Single Sideband Suppressed Carrier (SSBSC) modulation for FM stereo subcarriers.
The 2013 NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering Award
An NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering award will be presented to Leonard J. Charles. The award is reserved for certain individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the industry that may not have been broadly recognized. Charles is credited by his peers for outstanding service to his company and the broadcast industry and for furthering the goals and objectives of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE). His efforts and recognitions in SBE include service on its Board and as an Ennes Trustee, and his naming as a Senior Member, Fellow, and Engineer of the Year (twice).
He has also served on the FCC National Advisory Committee for EAS and its Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), the Wisconsin State Emergency Communications Committee and its Amber Alert Committee, the Dane County (WI) EAS Committee, the MSTV Engineering Committee and the NAB TV Technology Committee. Charles is active in the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and has chaired its Broadcasters Clinic.
Charles is widely recognized for his work in improving the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and for educating broadcasters on EAS compliance.
On the Television side, Jay Adrick of Harris Corporation will also receive a 2013 NAB Engineering Achievement Awards
