Saturday, February 24, 2007

Jim Somich

His name has been associated with engineering in both New York and Los Angeles, at huge, legendary stations like top 40 WHTZ "Z100", KFI/640 and rocker KMET.

But for Northeast Ohioans with any engineering background or interest, Jim Somich is known for his stints at WMMS/100.7, WHK/1420 and the old WJW/850. OMW hears that Somich has died at the age of 65.

Somich's career did not just include tending to transmitters and tower sites.

He also worked in television, designing a number of stations for Cleveland-based Malrite, where he was also Director of Radio Engineering. (We don't have the timing, so we don't know for sure, but we could guess that he played a role in Malrite's launch of Cleveland's WOIO/19 - which was Cleveland's first FOX affiliate.)

And Jim Somich was also involved in developing new products, and reviewed products right up the present...this review of Sangean's HDT-1 HD Radio unit appeared in Radio World just a few days ago.

There was more about Mr. Somich that many radio folks may not have known.

In addition to his own engineering consultancy, Somich founded Broadview Heights-based MicroCon Systems. A quick Google search shows a much different goal for this company:

Jim Somich is the President and CEO of MicroCon Systems, Inc., a company he created in 1996 to perform basic research into age reversal.

Wow. From radio and TV engineering to age reversal!

Our condolences to Jim's family and friends on his passing...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My condolences to his family.

I met Ray Somich once. I'm assuming he's related as they're both into radio.