Garrison C. Cavell
Garrison C. Cavell is the President of Cavell, Mertz & Associates, Inc. and has worked in management and technology positions in communications and broadcast systems for over 40 years. At Cavell, Mertz, in addition to being the general regulatory knowledge resource, his strength is in RF systems, with a particular love for AM antenna arrays. As such, he has designed, built and certified countless station RF systems over the years.
Gary was a cofounder of Cavell, Mertz and its predecessor firms in 1989, after having worked with the engineering firm of Lohnes & Culver for nine years. Before coming to the Washington, DC area, he worked in New Orleans for several years in the radio and television industry in the areas of general and engineering management, facility design and construction, program production, and station systems development. He and his team supported radio and TV productions for local and national networks in the areas of sports, entertainment, live concert events, including classical, jazz, big band, and other genres. In addition, he found time to teach classes in electronic technology and broadcasting in two local trade schools. He attended the University of New Orleans, and has an EIT certification. Gary has also been a radio station manager in his home town of New Orleans (WWIW), and has experience as a successful small market radio station owner/operator in central Pennsylvania.
In 2019, Gary was honored with the NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Radio and the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society’s Jules Cohen Award for Outstanding Broadcast Engineering. He also served as Editor-in-Chief for the 11th edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook. Gary was a contributing author for the 10th Edition of the NAB Engineering Handbook, and has published many articles on practical aspects of broadcasting and related technologies.
Gary also serves as a lecturer for, and is a faculty member of, the NAB Educational Foundation’s Broadcast Leadership Training Program (BLT) and has been a lecturer for the NAB’s Broadcast Technology and Engineering Internship Program.
He also has been a developer and co-presenter for three years the day long “RF Bootcamp” session during the Spring NAB convention, was a co-panelist in a session on TV/Radio Station Power Efficiency for an NAB Radio Show, and lectured on the topic of leasing space on AM towers at the NAB Radio Show in Austin. For several years, Gary was also a lecturer for the Voice of America’s / International Broadcasting Bureau’s US Technical Training Institute (USTTI) assisting with the training of international broadcasters in studio and transmitter facility technologies. Gary also was a panelist at the 2015 North American Broadcasters Association “Future of Radio Audio Symposium” at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Canada addressing the topic of revitalizing the AM broadcast band.
Gary is a member of several professional organizations including the IEEE, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), and is a Life Member of both the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and IEEE. He is a Past President of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society.
His other professional organization memberships or associate memberships include the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association, the Royal Television Society, the Radio Club of America, and the American Meteorological Society. 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.
Gary is also a musician, an instrument rated private pilot, and also holds a “Drone Aircraft” Pilot Certificate (or in FAA parlance, a “Remote Pilot Certificate with Small Unmanned Aircraft System Rating”). He holds an amateur radio Extra Class operator’s license (call sign K4MRL) and an FCC General Radiotelephone (formerly first class) Operator’s License.
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