One-on-one with Jason Quinn, director of engineering at NMPBS

Jason Quinn is a do-it-yourself man through and through. He’s able to fix anything mechanical and climbs translator towers. His answer to the question, “Can you do this?” has always been “Yes.”

He joined New Mexico Public Broadcast Station 11 years ago as a lead engineer, ensuring translator towers didn’t go down, to keep the station broadcasting. After a couple of years, Quinn worked his way up to manager, leading a team of five studio and field engineers.

Now, he is the director of engineering at the station, in charge of the information and technology department on top of his engineering crew.

Part of his leadership style is that any work his employees are doing is probably something he has done himself.

He’s also a tinkerer with many hobbies. He cycles and builds trail signs, lathes wood and paints.

“Anything that makes me think (with) my hands has always been my hobby,” Quinn said.

How did you learn to climb towers?

“Years ago, a job opportunity came up and someone said can you climb towers? And I said well, of course I can. I taught myself to climb towers on the way up my first tower.

Actually, (the) very first tower I climbed, when I got to the top there was a nest of hawks up there. So we had to call the (Environmental Protective Agency) and shut that tower down for six months.”

Why do field engineers need to go out to translator sites?

“Best case, you go out there and some things went into default because maybe there was an electoral storm or there were some power spikes. Or, for whatever reason, you go out there and you turn the switch off and you turn it back on or maybe reset a breaker, you walk out. The worst case scenario — and it happened to us just two years ago — is you climb up the top of the mountain and it has fallen over (because of) 170-mile-an-hour winds. Okay, another worst-case is fire.”

What can you do when a whole tower is down?

“If the tower is still standing and there was power, we could put ourselves back on the air in a couple hours — maybe at a limited service, maybe lower down on that tower, but we could do it.”

Why does NMPBS have translator towers on mountains?

“We’ve got what we term as an 11,000-foot tower because we’ve got a roughly 11,000-foot mountain and on that mountain, I’ve got a 180-foot tower. We are going to call that an 11,000-foot tower because it is straight up in the air. That tower can reach out a long way. It can reach all the way out to Colorado and beyond. ... What’s happening is there are a lot of mountains that I’m going over and there is a town behind that mountain. It is what we call a shadow. ... All we’re doing with those (translator towers) is gap filling, filling in those shadows.”

How do you know if a translator site is down?

“Great viewers that you call in those areas. Old men love to be helpful engineers. They really do. So these (people) will really watch out. ... It is great because nobody is better than someone who is watching (NMPBS) in that area.”

What is your favorite hobby?

“I love old vehicles and old motorcycles. I do a lot of four-wheeling, and I do it in a classic Jeep — a 1980 Jeep that I maintain myself. I weld it when it breaks.

(I’m) very hands on; I don’t hire people at home to do something I can do it myself. Oftentimes I feel like I can do it a little better because I can do it my own way. Maybe that is better for me but not better in general.

And then art; I love art.”

Can your art be seen in the NMPBS station?

“Yeah, every Christmas we do a white elephant, and two years ago now I started bringing in some of my bowls. I turn a lot of bowls and I like to use New Mexico native woods. I bring (wood) in that I picked up out of the Calf Canyon Fire or wood near a (translator tower) — just things that have meaning. Then I give it as a white elephant gift and watch it get argued over the whole party.”

Tell me about the signs you craft and put on biking trails.

“Bike communities, we love to have wild-colored clothing. The crazier colored your bike is, the cooler you are. We’re not roadies riding on the street. ... We have a lot of fun and all the trails have crazy names. ... I just take the names, think about what I want to do for that and create either a carving on a boulder or make a sign ... or I carve tree stumps into shapes.”

Allison Carpenter covers retail for the Albuquerque Journal. She can be reached at acarpenter@abqjournal.com.