John H. Battison receiving the SBE Lifetime Achievement Award last month at NAB2006 in Las Vegas.
John H. Battison, P.E., CPBE, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Society of Broadcast Engineers, the very organization he helped start.
Recognized around the SBE as its “Member #1,” Battison moved to the United States from England in 1945. Two years later he worked for ABC in New York City, where he designed network TV and FM stations. In 1952 he became the Director of Education for the National Radio Institute in Washington, D.C.
During the 1950s and 1960s he produced Burl Ives on the ABC Network and produced two shows on Dumont, CBS and NBC Networks. From 1968 to 1970 he worked in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as chief engineer of Saudi Television. Years later Battison designed a 1200kW directional antenna system in Yugoslavia and was a consultant to the Ugandan government in planning their national TV system.
Much of John's career has been as a consultant. His clients included Bing Crosby, owner of KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, the former Governor of New Mexico, John Burroughs, and American University.
Battison has authored more than 15 technical books and more than 500 technical articles. From 1964 to 1967 he served as editor of the Journal of Society of Broadcast Engineers and was a former editor of Broadcast Engineering magazine, a contributing editor for Public Telecommunications Review and technical editor of Radio magazine.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented during the SBE's spring Membership Meeting, held during the NAB convention last month.
For more information, visit www.sbe.org.
