Having kicked off in March 2024 for Women’s History Month, Radio World’s “Women in Engineering” spotlight, written by Assistant Editor Elle Kehres, features women in broadcast engineering roles and other technical positions, highlighting their work and growing careers in a male-dominated field. This is an ongoing feature, as women’s industry contributions extend far beyond the month of March.
It’s safe to say that not every little kid grew up dreaming about becoming a radio engineer. But, for those of us who serendipitously stumbled upon the world of radio later in life, it didn’t take long to fall in love with the profession.
Megan Amoss is assistant chief engineer for Baltimore Public Media, which includes FM stations WTMD, WYPR, WYPF and WYPO. She has been in the business about 12 years now, having started her radio career in 2012, fresh out of college.
While finishing a second bachelor’s degree in fine art at Towson University in Maryland, Amoss noticed that university-licensed station WTMD was looking for a traffic coordinator.
“I applied and I was hired,” said Amoss. “I didn’t know a thing about radio. But I loved it. Radio has the right combination of creativity and technology, a fascinating history and a real-time aspect that makes it exciting. I knew I had found the industry I wanted to work in.”
Over the next couple of years, WTMD moved from the basement of the university’s media center into a large facility a mile away from campus.
“I was there for the move and conversion of systems,” said Amoss. “We changed the traffic system, music scheduler, automation — everything. I turned out to be really good at getting all those systems to talk to each other, and they changed my job so that I could do the technical work officially.
“I was lucky that whenever Ed Bukont, our contract engineer, was in town, he let me look over his shoulder. I learned a ton that way, and by reading all the manuals.”
In 2018, Amoss took over responsibility for all the engineering aspects of the station. And when WYPR bought WTMD in 2021, she was hired by WYPR as assistant chief engineer, working under WYPR Chief Engineer Ray Hepner.
“I remember in the interview Ray asked me if I could solder and I had to say no … WTMD was all structured wiring and StudioHub, so I went home that night and learned how,” said Amoss.
Since those initial days at WYPR, Amoss has added plenty more skills to her engineering toolbelt … with her years of experience at WTMD coming in handy.
“We are currently in the middle of fully integrating WTMD and WYPR,” said Amoss. “This past spring and summer we moved WTMD to WYPR’s building. It was my job to design and plan the new Audio over IP network — building in capacity to integrate WYPR later on — and the rack layouts.”
With WTMD now settled in, Amoss and her team have been converting WYPR’s studios and air chain from a legacy system using serial communication and a lot of analog wiring to WTMD’s Axia AoIP system, mostly reusing WTMD’s equipment from the Towson studios. As of January 2025, the first control room/studio pair has been completed.
“I am doing all of the systems design and planning for that project,” she said. “A lot of wire is coming out of there and only a little is going back in.”
Amoss said WYPR needed a couple of small, temporary studios in the building to handle demand for studios while she took the big control rooms offline for demolition and rebuilding. So she converted one small talk studio and one office supply closet into mini production studios.
“Instead of using physical mixing boards in the mini studios, I gave each one an xNode for the mixing and a virtual console built as a Pathfinder Core Pro user panel to control it,” said Amoss. “That was super fun to do, and I am very pleased and proud that one of the virtual consoles is used live on a national program when it is hosted from Baltimore.”
Amos added: “One of the exciting parts of the WTMD move project was that we decided to move the WideOrbit automation system while it was live on the air, during the daytime. That was daunting and took a lot of careful planning, but it went smoothly.”
As the New Year begins, Amoss said WYPR is about to pause its studio conversions to replace three transmitters. The station will be replacing its Continental 816 HD with a GatesAir FLX, and will also be installing new GatesAir FAX transmitters at WYPO and WYPF.
“This will be my first new transmitter installation experience and I am looking forward to it,” said Amoss.
While projects like the integration of WTMD and WYPR are rewarding … Amoss said the road to becoming assistant chief engineer wasn’t without its challenges.
“I came into the job with zero knowledge beyond generic IT experience, and I had to learn everything as I went along,” she said. “The rewarding aspects are realizing how much I have now learned, and looking at all the things I have built, from physical wiring and studios to virtual logic and software, that are now on the air delivering our programming to listeners.”
“As a music station, WTMD puts on live broadcasts from our studios and venues in the surrounding areas, and seeing the community interact with us in such a positive way always really touches my heart.”
Of course, Amoss wasn’t alone on her journey rising through the engineering ranks of Baltimore Public Media. She says mentorship has played an invaluable role in furthering her career.
She recognizes WTMD’s contract engineer, Ed Bukont of E2 Technical Services, as a key mentor. “[He] really took me under his wing once he noticed that I had the interest and the aptitude,” said Amoss. “I got to learn AoIP and systems integration from day one working alongside Ed.
“His thirst for knowledge is insatiable, and in between working on projects he is always studying or taking courses and learning the latest standards, codes and technology. Seeing that has been a great example for me.”
Amoss found another mentor in WYPR Chief Engineer Ray Hepner, “who has the deep old-school knowledge, curiosity and excitement for innovation,” she said. “Ray can fix anything, and he has the resourcefulness and imagination to devise ingenious solutions to problems. I have learned a ton about installation, repairs, wiring, breadboarding and more from Ray.”
When it comes to making space for women in STEM careers — or allowing little girls to dream big engineering dreams — Amoss said a lot of work has already been done … but there is always more to do.
“I find myself often not being taken as seriously initially as my male counterparts in situations like calling in service requests or making observations or recommendations,” said Amoss. “People can also assume that credit for women’s work in engineering goes to the men in the room.”
“It’s important to speak up and get the credit you have earned for your hard work.”
For women who are interested in starting a broadcast engineering role, Amoss offers the following advice:
“Don’t worry if you don’t have the radio-specific knowledge when you start out. If you have a technical knack and a motivation to learn, it’s easy to build up the knowledge, and the rewards are awesome.”
Want to nominate someone for the next Women in Engineering spotlight? Email Elle at [email protected].
[Related: “Women in Engineering: Amanda Hopp of Crawford Broadcasting“]
