Oregon Media Insiders

I believe that Lee was part of the culture at KOIN where you don't have a vision for the future, and you accept being stuck in the present with the half-hearted decisions of the past. One look around the KOIN engineering and Master Control areas confirm one thing in the mind of people walking through; that it looks like it's all been left to fall apart, and no one is leading these folks. I like Lee, have worked with him for over a decade, wish him well - but I could not figure out how he could work in the piles and piles - and piles of broken, trashed equipment. It always left me with the thought that they really don't respect the environment they work in.

Not as chief all the time, but I'd say he's been at the station for at least 30 years

I'm no engineer, but Lee Wood was at KOIN when I started in 1982. Seemed to be a decent guy. His wife Ellen worked in graphics for years at KOIN.

In the old days a 1st class FCC license was a requirement for being a chief engineer. Anyone know if that's still the case, or has the FCC done away with that?

Only Lee is gone.

Yes, to my knowledge, there is no longer an FCC requirement for a chief engineer to have a First Class license.

As for canning individual stations' chief engineers, corporate radio has been doing that for some time now. About ten years ago, back East, I knew a radio engineer I used to work with who was at that point the Chief for all of Clear Channel's stations between Maine and the Carolinas, something on the order of 80-100 stations. He told me he was on the road all the time, shuttling among the stations up and down the coast.

The FCC has been systematically gutting any obligation on the part of TV and radio stations to operate in the "public interest, convenience and necessity" as the rules used to say. If it involves spending money, well, it just has to be chopped out of the budget.

Anyone know where Lee is off to next? Severance?

Great guy, nice guy and well-respected by his colleagues at KOIN.

Speaking of TPS reports, I believe KOIN needs some serious CONSULTANTS just like they had in Office Space.

Lee is a brilliant engineer and well respected among his staff. Any problems with maintenence are related to the downsizing of the workforce by Montecito, and New Vision, and their efforts to keep costs down.

Now Rick Brown can really use his brilliance and get KOIN on the right track.
Did anybody hear why things didn't work out between RB and KPTV?

I believe Lee Wood was an excellent Chief Engineer: That being said, I would not say he was a good manager. There is a difference. Yes, his office was always piled high, and the shop always looked like an EPA super fund site. Having a clean shop was obviously not high on the priority list of the succession of GM's down through the years, or they would have done something about it. What Lee Wood provided was excellence in engineering design and troubleshooting, and he kept up with the rapidly changing technology of broadcast TV. He was able to engineer & design many technology changes over the years, which we all know that the view offices of any TV facility never give you enough time & resources for, and incorporate them into the plant at 222 SW Columbia, an ugly location that short sighted people years ago bound the station to for eternity. Good job, Lee! I hope that in the rush to bolster the corporate bottom line that his years of service earned him a decent severance, if not a lot of respect!

Lee Wood had been at KOIN for 34 years.
And don't kid yourself, his demise had NOTHING to do with his capabilities.
Just another example of Corporate America lopping off "old timers" who have reached the high end of the pay scale. Loyalty and hard work mean nothing. When you get to your 50's ... watch out.

Lee was a well-established leader in the Engineering Dept. at KOIN when I started there in 1980--a totally squared-away guy who worked hard and had an excellent track record. His wife, Ellen was such a sweetheart I named my daughter after her. They are good people--salt of the earth. I hope Lee will be snapped up soon by another station that will treat him as he deserves.

KOIN used to be owned by Emmis, I was a Chief Engineer at another Emmis station and knew Lee, though not all that well. I do know that Emmis fired more chief engineers than any other company that I know of (I'm was one of the replacements brought in). If Lee didn't have his act together (and I always thought he did) he wouldn't have lasted under Emmis, they were a good ownership group, invested in stations that preformed, but they were very picky about how things were done from an engineering perspective, far more so than any other ownership group I have worked for. And if anyone is counting I have worked for 9 different companies over the years, and have gone through far too ownership changes.

Lee Wood could never be accused of being stuck in the past. He's always on top of new trends.
He's lived and breathed TV for decades. NAB has always been one of his favorite events. He was always looking to the future.
And on top of being a tireless worker who often gave up vacation time... he's also a devoted family man with the world's greatest wife (Ellen- who used to work at the station too, but was "re-organized" out by one of the many slash and burn companies that bought KOIN and wanted to save some bucks)and four children who are fantastic human beings.
A messy desk does not define a person's abilities.

To the earliest of posters who think they can blame KOIN's current situation on Lee and certain veterans are symbolic of so many things. Learn your history Junior.

Lee put KOIN on the internet before any other stations in the market.
Lee and his team converted KOIN's towers to digital way before the deadlines and was a leader in the industry for helping other stations meet this mandate.
Lee and his team converted a sad commercial playback operation into a high quality, low error one before it was demanded.

Lee is a good man, his family is wonderful and I know he, like us, will rarely look in the rear mirror.

But, he should be praised for his work, not for what KOIN is not.

fyi...not only is the FCC First class license not required any longer, they no longer exist. Anyone who had a first was required to trade it for a "General class" license now. This change happened several years ago.

ttfn

Perhaps Lee Wood would consider a move to Bend.
KTVZ/KFXO lost their new....less than 4 months...Chief to the local cable company! What does that say for the management at KTVZ/KFXO??

Lee Wood fired? What kind of foolishness is this?

I worked alongside Lee for 13 years, and during that time there was never a technical development in the industry that he wasn't up on. He was extremely forward-thinking, and that troubled station owes him a huge debt. He was a brilliant operating engineer, a thoughtful and caring manager of people, and dedicated to and excellent at every aspect of his job.

I know that the times are a-changin' in this biz, but any organization that can't find a place for the likes of Lee Wood is being short-sighted, to say the least.

Messy desk be damned. Happy landing, LeRoy.

He's going to be heading up enterprising projects as a contract corporate engineer for Fisher. He'll be based out of the KATU engineering department. He starts on the 19th.

According to a post on pdxradio.com, Lee Wood will be a working as a contract engineer at KATU as of Monday, May 19th.