Ron Rackley, a luminary of the U.S. broadcasting engineering community, has died.
Rackley passed away Friday at his home in Florida, according to an announcement by the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, of which he was a former president.
Current AFCCE President John Lyons shared the news with colleagues via email on Sunday. “I first worked with Ron in the early 1970s in a project at WWRL(AM) in New York,” Lyons wrote. “Since that time, we worked on several projects over the years and spoke regularly about issues affecting broadcasters.”
Rackley was AFCCE president in 1987-88 and was the 2006 co-honoree with colleague Ben Dawson of the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award. Rackley also was a board member and as vice president of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. In 1983, he co-founded duTreil-Rackley, which later merged with A. D. Ring & Associates to form duTreil, Lundin and Rackley.
Lyons said he saw Ron Rackley just a few days earlier at the recent NAB Show.
Radio World is gathering memories and reflections about Rackley’s career. We welcome yours via email to radioworld@futurenet.com.
Consulting engineer and Radio World contributor Buc Fitch said, “One of the giants has passed.”
Rackley worked in radio and television stations from an early age, according to a bio on the duTreil Lundin & Rackley website. He attended Clemson University. “His natural progression and graduation made him attractive as an engineer to consulting firms,” the site states. “He eventually went to work as a staff engineer at Jules Cohen & Associates and that is where he met Bob du Treil. The two would pair up for a life-long professional relationship.”
He was considered one of the country’s premier experts in AM engineering, and was vocal on AM regulatory issues including the FCC’s “revitalization” initiatives in recent years.
