Welcome to our Chapter!

Our new, interactive website is now available to better serve the great technical people in our electronic media industry who participate in the food, fun, and fellowship the group offers each month. We have many participants, both local and from around the state that enjoy the networking and information exchange that comes from participation in the SBE meetings and programs.

History

The Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter number 85 was officially announced as a Chapter on September 30th, 1981, by our first Chapter Chair, Chester Grubbs. The history of SBE Chapter 85 begins in the late 70’s when the Oklahoma SBE contingent was known as the Oklahoma Chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (northeast) 56. Chapter 56 headquartered out of Tulsa. To facilitate the organizational needs of the Oklahoma engineers, the meetings were held at Hillcrest Recreational Center, in Stroud, Oklahoma. Stroud is the half way point between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. By 1980, discussions to split Chapter 56 were opened to facilitate a new Chapter in Oklahoma City. It took over a year to finalize the concept and an organizational meeting was called on August 4th, 1981. The focus of this meeting was to increase membership by reducing the driving distance for potential members. The leadership then brought the issue before the membership on August 26th, 1981 and ballots were mailed. Announced on September 30th, 1981, it was unanimous, SBE Chapter 85 had been born.

Purpose

Today, SBE Chapter 85 is a non-profit engineering chapter society which gives its members the opportunity to develop and improve their engineering skills and knowledge through local chapter meetings, training seminars and workshops. SBE Chapter 85 is a professional organization for members of the broadcast industry.

National

The Society of Broadcast Engineers maintains chapters in more than 100 cities across the United States. All major broadcasting markets have a chapter, as do most medium-size markets. Even some smaller markets have active chapters. The SBE was established in 1963. With more than 5,000 members, SBE National provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and the sharing of information towards helping its members keep pace with the rapidly changing broadcast industry. SBE members are made up of studio and transmitter operators and technicians, supervisors, announcer-technicians, chief engineers of commercial and educational stations, engineering vice presidents, consultants, field and sales engineers, and anyone interested in furthering their knowledge of the technical aspects of media and broadcasting. Many broadcast engineers from recording studios, schools, CCTV and CATV, production houses, corporate audio-visual departments, Government audio/video and research departments and other facilities are also an important part of the group. Youth interested in the broadcast engineering profession are also encouraged to apply for the inexpensive youth membership.

Local

Anyone interested in keeping up with the rapidly changing broadcast industry or who wants to sit in on a forum for the exchange of ideas or simply just wants to network, is welcome to join us at any of our monthly meetings. We meet on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 1PM except Novembers and Decembers when we meet the third Wednesday of the month and except for the month of the OAB Convention when we hold our meeting there. Everyone is welcome!