Harris selling its broadcast business

[Bengalsfan]

From the tone of your posts (past as well) regarding brand H I would conclude that they are better off not having to deal with you. They probably fired you as a customer long ago.

I was wrong, you work for Harris.

[Woody]

Could be true bengalsfan. There is afterall 17,000 employees that work at brand H.  What's you point ?

[OKCRadioGuy]

I agree support will likely go towards worse at H in the transisition/sale period.  There's little incentive to "do the right thing" while in flux.  Support over the past few years at H HAS got a ton better, but that's only after we, the customers, put pressure on them.  In fact, comments right here on Radio-Info helped in that fight.  Some good guys from the sales wing of things took it upon themselves to go get it straightened out.  For the sake I certainly hope the radio broadcast division gets bought by someone that actually will continue their work at achiving better support.  The the idea of Continental buying the group is the most appealing to me.  The tube transmitters at H might go away, but I don't think they'd be missed.   

[Woody]

I agree support will likely go towards worse at H in the transisition/sale period.  There's little incentive to "do the right thing" while in flux.  

Really ? I disagree .. Do you think anyone working in the service/parts department in Quincy wants to go out and find another similar job with the pay and benifits they have now ?  Do this .. Call the director of service & parts, Don Carpenter, at 217-221-7520 and run that by him.. I challenge anyone here to make that call and report back your impression afterwards.

[JRZFM100]

RE: Harris Broadcast Technical Support

I've heard and seen that same attitude in the industry, Harris products are inferior / Harris support is inferior.  An attitude I associated with the veterans of the industry who had had earlier experience with Harris than I.

However, I also know that I always liked calling BE or Continental support better because of the smaller size of the support staff and the personal nature of the relationships.

It's almost like when dealing with BE and Cont EC by phone they were friendlier or I knew them on a personal level. Perhaps the answers were faster and better. Probably true also.

I think this was driven by the size of the companies and the size of the product lines.    

[frankberry]

Hopefully, the experienced Harris Tech Support people will transfer to the new owners.  That's a pretty good incentive to "do the right thing."

[frankberry]

Many years ago, I contacted Continental and arranged for them to send J. Fred Riley to one of my stations to help me tune and tweak a 50kw Continental 317-C transmitter.
Fred did a wonderful job.  While there, he noticed an old Gates BC-5H transmitter and asked me if anyone had properly tuned the third harmonic resonator on the transmitter.  I told him that we had not.
Fred got out his Vector Impedance Bridge and quickly tuned the old transmitter.
When I fired-up the Gates transmitter, I was shocked that the PA efficiency was better than 85%. 
I doubt that I could have done a better job of tuning the transmitter.

This simple deed speaks volumes about the quality of service from Continental.

[OKCRadioGuy]

CE has always went above and beyond for their customers, regardless of how old the stuff is.  Sadly, over the years, Big H has had way too many "Woodies" that carry a bad attitude around with them.  For the most part, that attitude has went away.  They still have a fairly tarnished image with especially older guys in the industry that remember the screw-job they got from H or the horrible attitude.  I stand my ground that the attitude will get worse again while they wait.  It's just the way humans are.  They now realize that things aren't necessarly going to be going right within the company and their employment is uncertain.  I'm sure many will be fearing for their jobs, but when things are in flux, it won't help them all that much to "care".  You're a name on a list with a salary when it comes to this kind of deal.

[OKCRadioGuy]

Many of the decent people that actually care will bail out when they can leaving the bad humor folks that can't leave (and are pissed about life in general) to hold the fort down...

[Woody]

OKCRadioGuy,

PM me your phone number. I'll call you to dicuss.