Lost Another One..

[mr_fixer]

My best Radio memory was when i got a moped at 15 y/o. i went exploring everywhere on that scooter. I grew up about 1 mile from the WLAC am transmitter in Nashville. One day i stopped in and knocked on the door, "these were the days when transmitters had to be manned 24-7" and asked if i could see the transmitter. I think this surprised the engineer on Duty "Chester S." but he was tickled to death to show off the whole site. I got to see the "not too old" Continental tube transmitter, the huge back-up generators, parts of the old back up studio, and the amazing glowing fluorescent light bulbs that lit up in you hand, out at the antenna. and he showed me another cool trick. he gave me a door key and told me to touch it to the ground plane of the main antenna "Its a wide copper strap that wraps around the concrete block at the base of a antenna" When i did that it threw big sparks. He said at the ground point there is 0 volts but alot of amps.
I would drop in from time to time just to talk about radio and stuff, and listen to the big fans cool the transmitter and i would listen to various things echo the audio inside of the transmitter. In the summer time it was really nice to visit him, because that building had wonderful air conditioning! those days ended when they installed a remote control system, laid off the full time engineers, and then switched the music format to talk radio. It made Chet laugh when i said they went from music to 50,000 watts of hot air. I miss those days and i miss the old Western Electric broadcast components they had stored in a back room. If i only thought to ask for that old "junk"
Logan