Garrison C. Cavell

Garrison C. Cavell is the President of Cavell, Mertz & Associates, Inc. Gary has worked in management and technical positions in communications and broadcast systems for over 31 years. Although his first love is medium wave and short wave (AM) radio, he now focuses principally on fostering communications between engineering professionals and their counterparts in finance, government and the executive suite. Along the way, Gary has gained experience as a witness before FCC Administrative Law Judges and zoning boards, and is regularly engaged to speak at industry functions both on engineering and executive management topics.

He has published many articles on practical aspects of broadcasting and was a contributing author for the 2007 NAB Engineering Handbook (on the topic of Regulatory Compliance). He serves as a lecturer on the faculty of the NAB Educational Foundation's Broadcast Leadership Training Program and has been a lecturer for the NAB’s Broadcast Technology and Engineering Internship Program. Additionally, he has been a participant in the NAB Educational Foundation's Ownership Forum and its Counsel of Professionals. In 2008, he was a lecturer on the topic of leasing space on AM towers at the NAB Radio Show.

Gary is a member of several professional organizations including the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He is Senior Past President of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and is presently serving as the Institute’s representative to the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ATSC) Technology and Standards Group (TSG) which is presently working on new Mobile/Handheld standards for digital television broadcasting. He also is currently serving as Chair of the AFCCE AM "Moment Method" Proof of Performance Best Practices Committee.

His professional experience includes over nineteen years as a principal with Cavell Mertz and its predecessor firms, and nine years with the engineering firm of Lohnes & Culver. Before coming to the Washington, DC area, he was a technical services coordinator in New Orleans and worked for several years in radio and television in the areas of general and engineering management, program production, and systems development. He attended the University of New Orleans, has an EIT certification, has been a radio station manager, and has experience as a successful small market radio station owner/operator.

His other professional organization full and associate memberships include the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers, the Royal Television Society, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officers (APCO), the National Fire Protection Association, the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, the International Broadcasting Idea Bank, and the Federal Communications Bar Association. He was formerly the chair of the New Orleans chapter of the IEEE Communications Society and was President of the Bull Run Chapter of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers. Within the IEEE, he is a member of the Broadcast Technology Society, the Communications Society, and the Antenna and Propagation Society. He is an instrument rated private pilot, holds an amateur radio Extra Class operator’s license (K4MRL) and an FCC General Radiotelephone License.

Updated April 19, 2010