Indianapolis, IN - May 25, 2011 - The board of directors of the Society of Broadcast Engineers has appointed Leonard Charles, CPBE, of Madison, WI, to serve as a trustee of the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust. Charles is director of engineering at Morgan Murphy Media, Midwest, overseeing the technical facilities of its TV and radio stations in the upper midwest.

The Ennes Trust is the non-profit, charitable arm of the SBE organized in 1980 by SBE Chapter 25 in Indianapolis, to memorialize the educational legacy of broadcast engineer, author and SBE member, Harold E. Ennes. Its singular purpose was to grant scholarships to those interested in continuing education within the technical broadcast field. In 1981, Chapter 25 gave the Ennes Trust to the national SBE to increase its outreach and fundraising potential. Since then, the Ennes Trust has expanded its scope to include educational programming and financial support of education-related projects in the broadcast engineering field.

Charles joins Ennes Trustees Frederick Baumgartner, CPBE CBNT, of Elizabeth, CO, and Douglas Garlinger, CPBE 8-VSB CBNT of Fishers, IN, who oversee the operations of the Ennes Trust.

Charles has been in broadcast engineering for 37 years and is a member and past chair of SBE Chapter 24 in Madison. He holds the Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer certification from the Society. He has served two terms on the national SBE board of directors and was the first national SBE EAS committee chair. Charles has won several local and national SBE awards, including being named twice as the SBE Broadcast Engineer of the Year. He was elected a SBE Fellow in 2008.

Charles currently serves on the MSTV/NAB Engineering Committee and on the Mobile DTV OTAG Committee, and has served on numerous FCC EAS related industry committees. He is chairman of the Broadcasters Clinic, an annual broadcast engineering regional conference held in Madison, WI, and underwritten by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. Charles sits on the State of Wisconsin Emergency Communications Committee and on its Amber Alert Committee.