Radio World is proud to introduce a new series of stories that profile the next generation of radio and broadcast engineers. “Next-Gen Engineers” looks to raise awareness of the broadcast engineering profession for young people, shine a light on the new talent entering the workforce and hear fresh takes on the future of the industry. Have an engineer to nominate for this series? Email us at radioworld@futurenet.com. Rachel Haggerty, during her apprenticeship in 2019 with the NAB, soldering cables for the first time. For Rachel Haggerty, radio engineering is quickly becoming a lifelong passion. Haggerty is a regional engineer for iHeartRadio in New York City. At age 29, she helps oversee seven stations — five FM and two AM signals. That includes heritage stations like 100.3 WHTZ(FM) “Z-100” and 106.7 WLTW(FM) “Lite FM.” “I truly enjoy what I do and can’t picture myself doing anything else,” Haggerty told Radio World. It all began with her college radio days with WSOU(FM) at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. Then, upon graduation, Haggerty kickstarted her career with the help of the National Association of Broadcasters’ Technology Apprenticeship Program. “I’m very fortunate to still be working with most of the engineers I met during my apprenticeship,” she said. We caught up with Haggerty via email to learn more about her college radio days, as well as her passion for the industry and future aspirations. Radio World: How did you get interested in radio? Where did you get your start? Rachel Haggerty: Growing up, I always remember listening to the radio in the car, and my dad had a radio in his shed that was always on. As a kid, I would call in and make requests and try to win ticket giveaways. When I got to college and I found out I could be a part of that [with student-run WSOU], it was a no brainer. I got more and more involved and asked our engineer a lot of questions. Haggerty shown on-campus at Seton Hall University with the WSOU radio tower in the background. When graduation was approaching, my general manager recommended a program the National Association of Broadcasters was running called the Technology Apprenticeship Program. TAP gave me the tools to start my post-college career. We started at the NAB Show in Las Vegas where we attended sessions, networked with radio and TV engineers and toured a local… [TheTopNews] Read More.
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