L&R is pleased to announce that co-owner Aaron Read is a recipient of a 2024 Tech10 Award. As Rhode Island Monthly puts it:

Meet the innovators in the information technology field who are embracing the latest technology that impacts the way we live and learn about the world. For the past decade, Rhode Island Monthly and the Tech10 Advisory Group have partnered to highlight the work of these tech pioneers, as well as the winners of the Next Tech Generation, who represent the future of the industry, and to distribute the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Below are the questions all ten recipients were asked, and Read’s answers are quoted. The full article can be found at RI Monthly’s website.

Explain your job title and what it entails.

I manage and maintain pretty much all the technical aspects of The Public’s Radio’s studios and transmitters. If it breaks, I fix it. If it might break, though, I try to stop it from breaking. 

What skills are you currently developing?

I’m a longtime radio engineer, but due to our recent merger with Rhode Island PBS, I’m trying to broaden my knowledge base a bit more into video and television engineering. I’m also doing more deep dives into specific applications of point to point/point to multipoint wireless networking.

Do you have any hobbies?

I’m a true nerd at heart: The work is my hobby. But I do rather enjoy the ocean part of being in the Ocean State. Any day I get to be on the beach, even in the winter, is a good day. 

What was your favorite work-related project?

Moving and expanding WNPN 89.3 FM to its current home in Tiverton was a graduate-level course in FM facility construction and project management. That was a year of prep and six months of intense effort, and it cost nearly $900,000 on top of what we paid to buy the license. 

Who or what inspired you to get into the tech industry?

There are three people you can thank — or blame — for getting me into the industry: John Devecka of WLOY at Loyola University, Baltimore, encouraged me greatly in college. David Maxson of Isotrope in Medfield, Massachusetts, took a chance and gave me a real engineering job soon after college. And Michael LeClair, former chief engineer of WBUR, has been a friend and mentor for more than twenty-five years.

Had you not discovered the tech world, what would you be doing now?

Ugh, that sounds awful; I can’t imagine it!