Indianapolis - Apr 12, 2011 - At its annual spring membership meeting, SBE President Vinny Lopez, CEV CBNT, announced that the SBE Lifetime Achievement Award will be renamed the SBE John H. Battison Award for Lifetime Achievement. Battison is credited as the founder of the SBE for his organizational efforts in the early 1960s. Battison urged the creation of the society in a 1961 editorial in Broadcast Engineering magazine. He also served as the SBE's first national president.

Battison served as Radio magazine's technical editor, RF for many years until he retired in 2009.

Battison was recognized with the SBE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Others to have won the award include Terry Baun in 2010, Richard Burden in 2005, Richard Rudman in 2002, Morris Blum in 1998, Philo and Elma Farnsworth in 1997, and Jim Wulliman and Ben Wolfe in 1995.