SBE “Member No. 1” John Battison was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award during NAB2006 at the society’s membership meeting.
The Society of Broadcast Engineers presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to John Battison, P.E., CPBE on April 25. The award was presented at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the society’s spring membership meeting, held during NAB2006 convention.
As “Member No. 1,” Battison is well known among members and the broadcast industry as the founder of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. That, in itself, is a monumental accomplishment, but Battison’s career has been long, diverse and full of accomplishments that have spanned the globe.
Battison moved to the United States from England in 1945 and went to work in 1947 with ABC in New York, 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.
In 1954 he became the director of engineering and general manager of CHCT-TV in Calgary, Alberta. During the ‘50s and ‘60s 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.
Battison has written more than 15 technical books and 500 technical articles. From 1964 to 1967 he served as editor of the Journal of Society of Broadcast Engineers and is a former editor of Broadcast Engineering, a contributing editor for Public Telecommunications Review and technical editor of Radio magazine.
While editor of Broadcast Engineering, he was instrumental in founding the Society of Broadcast Engineers. His leadership in the early days set the course for the organization, one that would grow to more than 5700 members in the United States and 25 other countries in 111 chapters.
For more information, visit www.sbe.org.
