Kearney-based broadcast engineer inducted into Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame
KEARNEY, Neb. — From Valentine to Superior and Kimball to Omaha… Nebraska broadcasters know who to call when things go wrong.
“He’s the guy you turn to at anytime when you need to get back on the air. AM or FM, he’s got you covered,” KNLV AM-FM owner Mark Jensen said. “If I’ve called a friend who owns a station and I say, ‘what’s going on?’ ‘Oh, I’m having a horrible time, Val’s on his way.’ That’s what you hear, is Val’s on his way.”
“When that white van shows up with the 9-county plates, this sense of relief comes over me because I know that there’s a solution in sight," Flood Communications owner Mike Flood said. "Even when it doesn’t seem possible, Val always pulls it out.”
Before Val Lane became the man who rescues of Nebraska broadcasters, he was a five-year-old kid tinkering with transistor radios.
“I just seen all the little parts, little transistors, little capacitors, how you could hook a couple of batteries up, turn a dial, and there’s someone talking on the speaker," Lane said. "So it was very interesting.”
Not long after graduation from Kearney High School, Val turned his interest into a job.
“I landed a job at Stanal Sound and Radio Shack in Kearney, Nebraska," Lane said. "My first job there was just sweeping floors.”
Pretty soon, the company put him on their tour crews and he was working as a sound tech on the road for the world’s biggest performers.
“Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Johnny Cash,” Lane said.
Val’s name is credited on three albums: Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night ll and a pair of Bob Dylan albums.
After six years on the road, he turned to entrepreneurship, starting several businesses. He found a hit with Central Electronics, which got him working with Nebraska broadcasters. He quickly earned respect for more than just his technical skills.
“He always impressed me as a non-traditional engineer in that he had a certain depth to understanding the broadcast business and how important it is to have your radio stations on the air," former Platte River Radio owner Craig Eckert said. "Without a working transmitter, everything else you do is kind of a rumor.”
“All the little things that an engineer normally wouldn’t do, he was there on it. I truly appreciate Val more than he knows,” Jensen said.
Radio engineering was a natural fit for Val, drawing on his radio repair experience and his professional sound work.
“Broadcasting engineering for radio stations was really just a perfect marriage with RF, radio frequencies, and audio," Lane said. "Delivering a strong RF signal for the broadcasters and good quality audio.”
Even with the perfect marriage of knowledge, Val needed the perfect partner by his side to make the radio engineering business work. He’s been married to Sherry for 44 years.
“She’s helped do tower work, painting, wiring, soldering, cleaning, mouse disposal," Lane said. "She’s a true anchor, keeps me going.”
“I think that’s one of the things that we all know that they’re just good people," KCNI/KBBN owner Dave Birnie said. "You don’t have to worry about anything with Val and Sherry. They’ll do it right and fair with you.”
Their reputation grew and so did the business. In 35 years, Val has worked for nearly 100 radio stations and 15 TV stations…. All while being on call 24/7.
“I’ve actually texted him at 2:00 in the morning and asked him to get ahold of me in the morning because we had a problem," Birnie said. "Then the phone rings and it’s Val. I said to him, ‘don’t you ever sleep?’ He says, ‘not very often.’”
He’s on call for disasters, like fires, thunderstorms, ice storms and floods.
“I remember the day I called him and we had a tower that collapsed in Lincoln," Flood said. "I was nearly hysterical, Val was just calm. He’s like, ‘well I’ve seen this before, it happens.’ I was like, ‘well, It’s really bad.’ He’s like, ‘well, we’ll fix it.’”
“While I was distraught, he was putting together a plan in the back of his head about getting me on another tower in a matter of days to get back on air with equipment I didn’t even know we had from the junk pile that he keeps in Kearney.”
Val started his own tower company, which he sold to his employees three years ago. Many count him as a mentor.
“From boss to my mentor, I just wanted to say congratulations, Val. This is something you definitely have earned," Jason Gartner with No Limits Tower Service said. "I can only hope that one day I will have the knowledge you have in your little finger in my entire body.”
He’s known for his vast library of parts.
“He always has a spare for everything. You call him and tell him what blew up and he’s like, ‘oh I think I got a spare for that. I’ll look for it, I’ll find it and I’ll be on the way in about an hour.’ That’s just an incredible resource,” Flood Communications Director of Engineering Brad Beahm said.
“I was busy ripping everything out of the racks and putting it in the dumpster in the back," Flood said. "I come the next morning and Val’s digging it all out of the dumpster. He’s a scavenger. He harvested all that equipment and I think he keeps like a warehouse full of this stuff. It’s amazing to me, I’ll need a part and he’s like, ‘well I think I’ve got something that we took out of Nebraska City five years ago.’ I was like, ‘oh, you mean the stuff in the dumpster.’"
The feeling of getting stations back on the air or getting them on the air for the first time is what keeps him going.
“That’s one of the joys," Lane said. "Seeing the final outcome, everything goes on the air, everything is legal, everything is working and everything sounds good. That’s probably the best reward.”
It’s a mindset that’s putting him in the hall of fame.
“He’s a guy on a mission to keep Nebraska radio on the air and Nebraska TV on the air," Flood said. "There’s no problem too small or too big that he can’t deal with.”
“He always knows in the back of his mind that he’s affecting the listener," Eckert said. "That’s why he is a broadcaster, not an engineer. He’s a broadcaster who happens to do engineering.”
“We’re all proud of you and you deserve this," Jensen said. "And by the way, I apologize for not being there tonight, I’m in South Carolina. But I guarantee you, if a transmitter goes down, I’ll be calling you.”
Congratulations to Val Lane on his induction into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame class of 2023.