The National Association of Broadcasters has announced the recipients of its 2024 NAB Engineering Achievement Awards, which honor radio and TV professionals. Established in 1959, the two awards are given to individuals who have made “significant contributions to advancing broadcast engineering,” according to the NAB.
This year, the radio engineering award will be presented to David Kolesar, who has worked in the broadcast engineering field for more than 30 years. Kolesar serves as a senior broadcast engineer for Hubbard Radio, where he has worked since 2006. He previously was an electronics engineer in the Information Technology Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
“Kolesar is a broadcast engineering pioneer, having commissioned the first full-time all-digital AM radio station in the U.S. by converting, adapting and rehabilitating Hubbard station WWFD in Frederick, Md., serving as the chief engineer as well as the program director,” said the NAB in a press release.
“In addition to his efforts to make all-digital AM radio a reality, Kolesar has been an advocate for all-digital AM within the industry, sharing and documenting his work in numerous technical papers and at conferences, and continuing research on ways to improve all-digital AM performance.”
Over the years, Kolesar has been recognized by other industry organizations for his contributions, including receiving the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award in 2019 and the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 37 Engineer of the Year award in 2020. He also submits occasional commentaries to Radio World.
The 2024 television engineering award will be presented to Winston Caldwell, who has more than 25 years of electrical engineering experience, specializing in network communications, security, spectrum management and standards development, according to the NAB.
Caldwell began his career at Fox Corporation in 2000, spending 23 years there in various engineering roles, including vice president of spectrum engineering. He then became an independent consultant in 2023 with Pearl TV, the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) and NAB among his clients.
He also managed engineering efforts for transitioning Fox stations to the ATSC 3.0 system, and served as chairman of the NAB Next Generation Broadcast Platform Task Force.
“Caldwell’s technical analysis in contributions to development of spectrum policy have been utilized in regulatory matters, domestically at the FCC and internationally at the International Telecommunication Union,” said NAB in the release.
Both Kolesar and Caldwell will be honored at the We Are Broadcasters Awards, held on the Main Stage of the 2024 NAB Show on April 16 at 9:30 a.m.
