Public Radio Engineering Conference 2009

Click for the Agenda

PREC 2009 Support Provided by the following (in alphabetical order):
Axia, Broadcast Electronics, DTS Neural Surround, ERI, Harris, Nautel, NPR Labs, Omnia, PRSS, and Telos Systems.
(See the company logos below the Agenda for their web links)

2009 APRE SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY !

The Association of Public Radio Engineers (APRE) is offering a limited
number of scholarships to cover registration and some travel costs for
public radio engineers wishing to attend this year's Public Radio
Engineering Conference, to be held on April 17-18, 2009, at the Las
Vegas Convention Center. Made possible through a grant from Harris
Corporation, the scholarships are targeted at public radio engineers who
are new to the field and have never attended a PREC before.

Nominations for scholarships must be received no later than 2100 EDT,
Monday, April 6, 2009.

We are very excited about being able to do this again - the APRE board
of directors originally thought that because of the economic uncertainty
facing many stations that we would not be able to continue the
scholarship project this year; in large part, because we know these are
challenging economic times for all of us, we did not ask for donations
from our peers in public radio engineering for the fund this year.

In fact, a number of APRE board members who work for companies which
have travel and conference restrictions in place are personally funding
their own expenses to attend and host PREC this year because of our
belief in the importance of this conference for our industry.

The good news is that Harris Corporation's generous donation to
APRE/PREC will allow us to once again offer a limited number of modest
scholarships to this year's APRE Public Radio Conference. (as an
example, I was able to book a flight and a hotel on Freemont St - old
Las Vegas - for about $400 this year...)

Even though some of us 'old heads' in Public Radio may not be able to
attend this year, the scholarship fund will allow APRE to continue our
efforts to provide opportunities for new engineering and technical
operations staff to experience the training and face-to-face meetings
with experienced engineers and equipment vendors at the PREC.

Because of the fact that this last minute donation has made the
scholarship possible after all, the time frame is exceptionally short
this year - the deadline for applications will close at 2100 EDT Monday,
April 6, 2009. Because of this very short notice, we hope that perhaps
folks who submitted recommendations last year might wish to resubmit
those nominations at this time.

To be quick and fair, the APRE Scholarship committee will select a
number of applications based on the following criteria:

1) Full-time employee of a public radio station

2) Engineering or operations staff member

3) Never attended a PREC before

4) Preference will be given to those who are new in the field and who
are interested in a career in broadcast engineering or operations

5) Some technical aptitude and/or experience with broadcasting, computer
operations, and related technologies (in order to benefit from PREC)

6) Otherwise unable to attend PREC because of station or personal budget
constraints

7) Permission and support from your manager or supervisor to attend PREC

8) Ability to fund any additional costs (food, etc) not covered by the
scholarship - we don't want you living in your car, eating out of a
dumpster in Las Vegas during PREC - this isn't COMDEX-'76....! :)

From the pool of applicants who, in the opinion of the committee, best
meet the above qualifications we will literally draw names from
a 'hat' (or a virtual hat based on industry standard randomness
algorithms) and contact the recipient as soon as possible so that they
may make travel arrangements for PREC.

A portion of the scholarship will be applied to the PREC registration,
and the Saturday evening PREC Dinner - we believe that one of the
functions of the PREC is to have time to meet and socialize with your
peers, so the Dinner is an important component. There will also be a
pizza and beverage Night-Owl session on Friday sponsored by DTS/Neural,
so food costs will be minimal for the attendees.

Interested applicants should send a brief (no more than 50-100 word)
application explaining why you would like to attend PREC, how you think
you and your station would benefit, and a short description of your
duties, experience, and future aspirations in radio.

Managers, supervisors, mentors and friends may recommend applicants, but
be sure you can verify and provide the items above.

Please send applications/recommendations as soon as possible to:

rparker@vpr.net

Because of the short time frame, email is preferred - please put the
following in your subject line: PREC Scholarship Application

Also, please, no attachments - just plain text is much preferred.

In particular xxx.doc, xxx.docx, and especially .rtf files generated by
Microsoft Exchange servers will be sent to the spam bucket by our spam
filter and never read by anyone - you have been warned!)

Also, the decision of the 'hat' is final - and again please note - the
deadline for applications/nominations is 2100 EDT Monday, April 6, 2009.

Click here to download the 2009 PREC Registration Form (word doc, 564kb) or Click here to download it as a .pdf document

PREC 2009 Agenda

Friday and Saturday 17–18 April 2009
Las Vegas Convention Center
North Hall, Room N232 (2nd Floor)
3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas NV  89109