Certification

Certification is always a touchy subject in the radio engineering community. SBE certification is up this year among station chief engineers, and other titles, but down among regional directors of engineering and station/staff engineers/tech titles. Overall however, all respondents still average 23 percent certified, the same as last year.

Estimated Median Salaries by SBE Certification (click to enlarge)

And even though it is proven statistically that SBE certified engineers earn more salary ($20K more for Top 50 and $15K more below Top 50), some respondents still don't find it necessary. In fact, 49 people specifically stated they saw no need for certification in our write-in answer portion. Others mostly cited money and time as reasons they are not certified.

Percent Holding SBE Certification (click to enlarge)

Training and program delivery

When it comes to training, most respondents prefer taking online courses/seminars, reading trade publications and books. However, probably due to the economy, fewer are able to attend regional/local conventions, SBE meetings and national conventions. Still, 43 percent of you have not attended a broadcasting and/or educational seminar in the past two years.

Training Preference (click to enlarge)

For the most part, respondents would like more training in IT and networking, RF, HD Radio, automation, streaming and new technology in general. Radio magazine will try to help with these topics in the upcoming year.

As for new methods of program delivery, the use of both Internet streaming and podcasting has stabilized after the dramatic growth seen between 2007 and 2008. An emerging technology, doubling in usage since last year, is the use of cell phones for delivering live information.

Method of Program Delivery (click to enlarge)

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The entire report is available for purchase through Penton Media.