I received a text recently from a Chief Engineer I placed with a television station several years ago.
“Hey, let’s chat.”
Uh oh.
I texted back: “Free when you are.”
My phone rang about 12 seconds later.
Before I tell you what he said, some context.
Broadcast engineering has a talent problem. A big one.
Experienced engineers are aging out of the business rapidly, and younger engineers aren’t coming in nearly fast enough to replace them. I recruit in this space every day. Finding experienced engineering leadership is difficult. Finding younger engineering talent with real broadcast experience is even harder.
This guy?
He’s exactly who everybody wants.
Which brings me back to the phone call.
He wants out.
He was underpaid to begin with. Then came a cost-of-living increase so small it did virtually nothing to change that.
Meanwhile, his department has been cut. He’s now essentially the only person on his “team” with meaningful broadcast engineering experience.
Read that again.
One person carrying the responsibility of helping keep a television station technically operational 24/7/365.
And while he’s doing that, he’s also supposed to be upgrading the station’s infrastructure.
Except that budget has been cut, too.
So instead of replacing aging technology, he’s keeping it alive.
Band-Aids on Band-Aids.
With some duct tape thrown in for good measure.
And somehow we’re surprised when these people leave.
Look at the signals.
Scarce younger talent. Below-market compensation. Reduced staffing. Reduced capital investment. More responsibility. Aging infrastructure.
Now add one more.
He’s looking.
That’s the exit signal.
The resignation isn’t the signal. By the time the resignation hits someone’s desk, the signal has become an outcome.
The signals came earlier.
They were the budget cuts. The staffing cuts. The tiny raise. The growing workload. The deferred upgrades. And maybe most importantly, the assumption that because he kept figuring it out yesterday, he’d keep figuring it out tomorrow.
Until he doesn’t.
There’s another part of this story that’s uncomfortable for me.
I placed him.
Carver Talent generally doesn’t recruit people away from clients after placing them. That’s a line I’ve respected for years.
But I didn’t call him.
He called me.
It’s a gray area recruiters occasionally have to navigate. And, for what it’s worth, I actually tried to talk him out of leaving.
I don’t think it worked.
He’s going to leave.
And here’s where television executives should pay attention.
Another station or broadcast group is eventually going to look at this same person and see something completely different.
Not an expense.
An investment.
They’ll see younger engineering leadership in an industry desperate for it. They’ll see somebody who understands legacy broadcast infrastructure but can also help build what’s next. They’ll see experience that can’t simply be replaced by posting a job and waiting for résumés.
And they’ll pay accordingly.
Then the station losing him will begin its search.
That’s when the real market lesson arrives.
Because finding another person with his experience, age profile and capabilities won’t be easy. It may take months. It may cost considerably more than retaining him would have. And while that search is underway, somebody still has to keep the station running.
This isn’t just a recruiting problem.
It’s a succession problem.
It’s an investment problem.
And increasingly, it’s a leadership problem.
Television has spent years talking about the coming shortage of broadcast engineers. The shortage isn’t coming anymore. It’s here.
You can’t complain that younger engineering talent doesn’t exist and then underpay, understaff and underinvest in the younger engineering talent you already have.
Those two things don’t work together.
The irony is that this Chief Engineer hasn’t resigned yet.
The station is still on the air. The equipment is still working. The problems are still getting solved.
From the outside, everything probably looks fine.
It isn’t.
Because one of the hardest people in the building to replace just called a recruiter.
That’s the exit signal.
About Carver Talent
Carver Talent specializes in recruiting high-impact leaders across local television, digital media, revenue leadership, news management and broadcast operations nationwide.
We understand the media business because we work inside its talent market every day — talking with the leaders running stations, newsrooms, sales organizations and operations, including many who aren’t actively looking for their next opportunity.
In a media landscape changing this quickly, finding the right leader matters more than ever.
Ty Carver is the Founder and CEO of Carver Talent and brings more than 30 years of recruiting, HR, sales and leadership experience, including the last 15 years focused specifically on the broadcast media industry.
Before founding Carver Talent, Ty served as Head of Talent Acquisition for Raycom Media, where he developed deep relationships throughout the industry and gained a unique perspective on the people and leadership challenges facing local media companies.
Today, Carver Talent helps media companies identify and recruit management and executive talent nationwide, with a particular focus on passive candidates who may never respond to a traditional job posting.
Have a corporate executive or television station management recruiting need? Contact ty@carvertalent.com to learn how Carver Talent can help.