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

[radiotvnut]

We lost one here a couple of years ago that really caused an uproar. That station was 670-WYLS. As long as I can remember, that station has played easy listening type music. It finally got to the point where the station was only on the air from 7-10 AM for I'm sure financial reasons. The owner of this station had an R&B / rap FM station that was the "bread and butter." I talked to the owner once and he was a really nice older guy that just wanted to keep the music going, even if for only a few hours a day. Then, some of our old DJ's in this town got together with the owner of this station and got it back up to full speed playing old country, big band, pop, older rock, and some old gospel. There was a Saturday morning DJ that played nothing but R&R from the '50's, '60's, and '70's. The music on this station was not always the tired old top 10 songs played over and over on the FM stations. Finally, decent music on AM again. That really got me motivated to fix more tube radios! Sometime during all this, the original owner passed away and the station went to his son (figured out where I'm going yet). It was the day after New Years a couple of years ago when I sat in my easy chair, flipped on the old Philco, and heard nothing but "hollering and noise." Without warning, this station converted to an African-American gospel format! Now, that move caused a load of phone calls to the station from angry listeners as well as some letters written to the editor of our local newspaper. Do you think the head knockers at that station listened? NO, OF COURSE NOT! Now, all we've got on AM is three African-American / Urban Gospel stations, one Southern Gospel station, and two "news/talk" stations. The talk stations and the African-American gospel stations do nothing for me. I can listen to the Southern gospel station in moderation. I'm a Christian myself; but, I really don't want to hear all the "hollering" on most of the AM gospel stations and I sure don't want to hear the "I know it all and you're an idiot" talk radio shows. When I turn on a radio, I want to hear good MUSIC! The Southern gospel station tends to play more music than the other gospel stations; but, I'd like to hear other types of (older) music on AM as well. My favorite music is R&R from the '50's, '60's, and '70's. If I ever win $10 million; maybe, I can do something.