The Tom Ray Show

Tom Ray hails from Bloomfield, CT.  He was first on the air – at the age of 4 – on The Dick Robinson Show on WDRC, Hartford when his dad took him to pick up a prize at the radio station and Dick put him on the air to say ‘hi’ to his mother.  He did fill in on-air work in high school and college on Top 40 WDRC and found that he was fascinated with how things work and that he had a talent for fixing most anything, so he got a degree in Communications Electronics and went toward the Engineering side of the industry.  He has been Chief Engineer at several legendary stations such as WDRC, Hartford, and WTIC, and spent 16 years as Director of Engineering of Buckley Broadcasting and Chief Engineer at WOR, New York City.  He had set up and executed many interesting, complex remote broadcasts, such as course play-by-play of the Greater Hartford Open Golf Tournament and putting people on the air from a moving roller coaster before the technology was really there to do so.  He also designed the electronics package for the first-ever on-air traffic-reporting motorcycle.  At WOR, he built the first all-digital Axia Audio studio facility and made WOR the world’s first full-time high-power AM HD Radio station.  He is a frequent speaker at Broadcast industry events and was one of the hosts of the “This Week In Radio Tech” podcast covering various technical topics.  He is also the voice of the syndicated Ron Ananian The Car Doctor radio show heard on Big Country 103-9.  He is an avid New York Giants fan, and he and his son (a New York Jets fan) have been making the pilgrimage to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ to attend the annual Jets/Giants preseason game for over 20 years.  His wife works as the office manager/traffic manager at a radio station.  His son is a television director (whom he got to work with this past Easter as he was the Engineer in Charge of the TV truck).  His daughter is the smart one, literally and figuratively.  She is a Veterinarian.  When he doesn’t have his head in a transmitter or sitting in front of a microphone, he can be found gabbing on the Ham Radio bands (he holds an Amateur Extra license in addition to his Commercial General Class License), fixing things around the house, working on a car, indulging in his photography hobby and going on adventures with his Shih-Tzu, Ted (Why Ted?  Because Ted is an excellent name for a Shih-Tzu!).  He is proud to be taking care of the technical facilities for Global One Media and playing Elko’s Greatest Hits on Kool 94-5.