[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 14, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING A BROADCASTING PIONEER

 Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I rise today to 
recognize a Floridian who has made significant contributions to his 
community through the field of broadcasting and communications.
  A resident of St. Petersburg, Patrick L. McLaughlin is a broadcast 
engineer whose career began after service in the United States Navy in 
World War II and culminated with this retirement from the television 
industry in 1985.
  He, and many radio-and-television pioneers like him, literally helped 
get television off the ground, laboring behind-the-scenes to usher in 
the dawn of modern, electronic television. For the technicians and 
engineers of those early days of TV, it often was a low-budget, low-
glamour profession. But they pressed on and built an extraordinary 
industry.
  In 1954, Mr. McLaughlin helped build up West Central Florida's first 
television station, WSUN-TV, Channel 38. Later, he served as chief 
engineer at WFLA-TV, Channel 8, in Tampa, now one of the country's 
largest media markets.
  Under his guidance, WFLA and other television stations initiated 
important technological changes that have been models for later 
industry transformations. Along the way, he made sure local stations 
remained on the air during times of crisis to provide an essential 
lifeline and source of information for dispersed Tampa Bay area 
communities when they were hit by hurricanes and riots.
  Nowadays, we take television so much for granted that it's easy to 
forget that innovative technicians and engineers, such as Mr. 
McLaughlin, helped transform broadcasting stations into a source of 
entertainment and education for current and future generations, as well 
as a powerful medium that helps shape both popular culture and 
contemporary history.
  For this, we owe that early generation of broadcast engineering 
pioneers our gratitude.
  I ask my Senate colleagues to join me today in recognizing one of 
them, Patrick L. McLaughlin.

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