1110 WPMZ broadcasting after dark

[Deleted member 64531]

[A long time ago when Jay Dunn, Bob Basset and a host of other notables were at WHIM the cleaning lady was Mrs. Pierce. She came in right at sign-off and always waved to whoever was on-air at the time...typically when they were doing the sign-off live from a script (pre-cartridge days). It was late Autumn and sign-off was pretty early (WHIM being a daytimer then). I believe it was Jay who was on the air but it may have been Charlie Jefferds....it's so long ago I have trouble with the fine details.]

Let's see if my memory serves me. I think it was Charlie and not Jay. I began listening to WHIM 1110 in 1958 or so. At any rate, it was when Pappy began the the broadcast day, (depending on the time of year), with "The Engineer's Special" followed at 6 AM by Ken Garland. Jay did middays. Dave McFee was the afternoon host and either he or Jeff Krimm (Jefferson Kaye, Martin J Krimsky) who did the "Compact Show" would run the sign off depending on the time of year. Ken recorded a Sign Off that began with a Cavalry Charge and Ken using a falsetto voice would say "Raise the flags and fire the flares! It's time for the Sunset Scramble". He proclaimed to be "Buckley J Bunkey" in reference to the then owners Buckley-Jaeger Broadcasting. Now I may be wrong, but I believe this mess ended with another voice saying.."and a very special goodnight to Mrs. Pierce". I vaguely remember a door slam but I'm going back aways so correct me if I'm wrong

 

[VelvetR]

Let's see if my memory serves me. I think it was Charlie and not Jay.

Yes, I believe you are right about it having been Charlie.

Somehow I associated "Jeff Krimm" with WICE (1290) but, at the time, it and WHIM (1110) were the music alternatives to the networked WJAR (NBC); WPRO (CBS); WEAN (Mutual) and, though the memory is vague, WPAW (550) with ABC, notably Don McNeil's "Breakfast Club" which continued after the call was changed to WXTR and there were successive all-News, "Demand Radio", and (for a year or so until ABC did away with McNeil), The Wonderful World of Music (though with Fred Grady after 7pm).

Now, help me out here: Just prior to the Jeffreds/Dunn/Basset era there was another person who, I believe was also GM and went on to Hollywood and some big-time voiceover stuff for TV and possibly movies. Anyone remember who that was?

I was last in the old Eastern Avenue building in about 1958 and don't recall what consoles were in use. I do recall there being alternate main transmitters; one an old (even then) Collins and one other but can't remember what it was. A few years later the new tower replaced the original; it was tall to accommodate the FM and had a folded unipole hanging off it for the AM. Anyone know if that's still the case or has all that been replaced?

 

[chrish]

When I was a young kid we would often drive down to Rumford or Pawtucket, on those trips after dinner my uncle Norman would take me and my younger brothers out for a ride and it would always include a radio or TV tower visit for me, Rehobeth, Neutaconkanut Hill, Wampannog Trail, and WEAN WRIB and WHIM. One Easter I went up to the door at WHIM, the announcer brought me inside for a tour and gave me a WHIM calendar it had a picture of a Mexican dancing girl twirling so that her skirt was was up exposing her rear end. The line above said "For complete coverage listen to WHIM" When we returned to the house it had the relatives roaring with laughter and it came up with amusement for many years. In those more innocent days it was a bit risque.
The WPRO FM and TV engineer on duty gave me a bunch of old tubes, I had never seen a tube with double grip attachments on top. All those great relatives are long gone, it seems like another lifetime ago

 

[tony r]

The person you are referring to is Ernie Anderson. He was very popular is the early fifties on WHIM. He became the voice of ABC TV in the seventies when it was the top network.

 

[DG02816]

I remember WRIB still having a Mutual line for Billy Graham's Hour of Decision when I was there in the 80s.
550 was ABC: I remember it being American Entertainment on the half-hour. When did WPRO drop CBS, and when did 790
pick it up?

 

[VelvetR]

550 was ABC: I remember it being American Entertainment on the half-hour.

When ABC split itself into four networks (then) WXTR chose to go with the Entertainment Network (it was to continue carrying Breakfast Club for another year or so). But, at least during the "Wonderful World of Music" days it ran at five minutes BEFORE the hour. After the format and call letter change to WGNG it may have gone to the half hour but by then I was long gone from Providence radio.

 

[chrish]

WGNG (quickly hidden pawtucket) RHODE ISLAND

 

[Deleted member 64531]

[ A few years later the new tower replaced the original; it was tall to accommodate the FM and had a folded unipole hanging off it for the AM. Anyone know if that's still the case or has all that been replaced?]


Here are some pics of the WHJY - WBRU (formerly WHIM, WHIM-FM) and the WPMZ towers courtesy of NECRAT

http://www.necrat.us/whjy_pro.html

 

[VelvetR]

Here are some pics of the WHJY - WBRU (formerly WHIM, WHIM-FM) and the WPMZ towers courtesy of NECRAT

Thanks. Looks line the folded unipole hung off the FM tower is still in use. The second tower seems awfully close to the tall one but that may just be lens distortion.

 

[iyiyi]

.......To our friends in The East, good night! If radio is an image game, that incarnation of WLKW 990 gets an A+! Before they even signed on they pissed off a lot of people when "Frank Sinatra is an excellent singer but not good enough to be played on our station!" was used by WLKW when asked "What is Beautiful Music?" (or something along those lines). A noted jazz DJ would fill in lulls in conversation with the time WLKW called him on the carpet for playing a musical selection that contained "A solo instrument"!

Pappy said that the folded unipole was erected in 1964. The highway construction made necessary the removal of the original (1948) tower for 1110. If anyone gave the final "Good night..." signoff, Paul Payton would be the logical man. He fought very hard to keep WHIM country when they tried taking it Top 40 in 1967. In (Feb) 1966, WHIM flipped from "Tempo 1110" (Beautiful music) to Country and went big with the 50,000 watt 94.1 FM signal. They called themselves "The Country Giant". "51,000 watts of Country Power" (they added 1110's 1kw). Since WHIM was now 24 hours, signoff for 1110 was: "It's time to put little brother to bed. He'll be on and waiting for you to wake up in the morning!"

All the years WHIM-FM was country, the microphone switch always placed the audio in mono anytime it was energized. I guess so many receivers were mono in those days that they didn't get too many complaints.

In 1980, Outlet broadcasting (same folks who unloaded 95.5FM 20 years earlier "because there's no future in FM") decided to sell WJAR 920 to Franks broadcasting, owners of WHIM 1110 and WHJY 94.1. Outlet owned Channel 10 WJAR-TV. This type of deal was a no-no in 1980. Outlet wanted to purchase 93.3 WRLM in Taunton and raise power to 50kw and site the transmitter at the Channel 10 towers in Rehoboth, MA. A minority owner was found to purchase 1110 from Franks Bdcstng. Since a minority owned radio station would be established, FCC allowed Outlet to sell 920 to Franks, purchase 93.3 and operate it as WSNE-FM, and 1110 to be sold as a stand alone to minority ownership.

Franks could have kept the WHIM calls and moved the country music to 920. They flipped the format to talk and changed 920's calls to WHJJ, to appear next to sister WHJY in the Book. The WHIM calls and 14 year old country format remained with 1110, which had been successfully operating as a daytimer since WHIM-FM was flipped to Beautiful Music WHJY (JOY) in Oct 77. The new ownership of 1110 were able to raise power to 5,000 watts quickly in the early '80s. The small tower close to the unipole provides a small null to protect 1110 in Salem, NH.

Regards to the the topic of this thread, the first night of the "new" WHIM ownership I listened to them sign off. Then I waited for them to kill the carrier. 20 minutes later I pulled into a Cumberland Farms convenience store in West Warwick and used the pay phone to call WHIM. It took another 20 minutes for me to attempt to get him to understand how to shut it down, finally sending over to 115 Eastern Ave. to have someone manually shut down the transmitter. Great entertainment for the customers in the store. Not too often some clown walks in, calls a radio station, tells them to turn it off, and then spends 20 minutes describing in detail how to do it. The next night, again after sign off, an unmodulated carrier. This time I didn't call.

In the last 32 years, one might think a timer would have been installed. Or a NAL...


-

 

[VelvetR]

.......To our friends in The East, good night!

"....and to all our friends everywhere, Good Luck."

And then the engineer at the transmitter site (no combo for directionals back then) would kill the plates and all the co-chnnels would rush in to fill the void.

I had it down to being on the elevator off the 4th floor within one minute of "Good Luck". Darn good thing on the night of The Great New England Blackout. I had just cleared the elevator at ground level when everything went dark.


The Sinatra thing was real. It was one of the many musical prejudices of Mowry Lowe who was GM. There was a long list of forbidden music. A couple I remember: "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening"; "Yes, We Have No Bananas". I worked hard to find instrumentals of both to use as the last pieces prior to sign-off the evening I worked my final shift at 'LKW.

Bob Basset used to do a Sunday feature in which he'd play the music of a particular year and fill with news snippets from that year. It was his "cover" for playing "forbidden" music and Lowe had no valid complaint unless he wanted to change history. It's how he sneaked in the occasional Sinatra vocal and even Cab Calloway's "Minnie The Moocher".

There was also a Sunday Feature which ran Broadway Cast albums with commentary for an hour. I'm not going to tell you who produced it (no, it wasn't me) because of one outstanding performance. The featured show was: "Irma la Douce" - the story of a French policeman who falls in love with a prostitute. Sadly, the title was mispronounced through the entire hour as "Irma la ******". There was never a comment made about it by anyone on staff but everybody was sort of standing by for flack for days after.

The original air staff included Pete Barstow, Tony Rizzini, Dave Wolfenden and Basset. When Pete left to go with an agency Tony became PD. George Allen came in to fill the void. Basset left to go over to TV so George moved up and I came over from WXTR. Joe Postar was ND; he had learned under Harry McKenna at WEAN but knew he was not going any higher there. Joe Connell, another ex-print reporter, was the afternoon news-writer but never was on air. He and I used to drink lunch at an old bar on Richmond Street, just around the corner from the studio (then in Loew's Theater Building). News on weekends was written by Len Yanku, great character but also never heard on-air. George always signed off with "As Time Goes By"; when I took after the sign-off shift from him I closed out with Errol Garner's "Dreamy" which I've used everywhere else I've worked since....but it and I have been retired for a long, long time.

Oh, and at WLKW, the word "O'clock" was absolutely forbidden. It was never, for example, Two O'clock....it was Two PM. Another Lowe-ism.

As to unmodulated carriers.....Big Ange (then known as Jack Andrews) was the KING. Many a night he'd sign off WYNG (1590) and go home with the carrier on all night. Finally I got him to turn it off but he figured that a lot of "off" was better than a "little bit off" and he killed the filaments in the old Gates transmitter as well. A no-no in winter since the transmitter was in an un-insulated aluminum shack on top of a brick former wood-bending oven on Chepiwinoxet (sp?) Point in East Greenwich. When I tried to sign it on the next morning, no luck. Though I had only a Third-Phone at the time and the contract C.E. was an hour and a half's drive away, I took a shot at. The power supply used 8008 mercury vapor rectifiers and the mercury had become liquid shorting them all out. I found two spares and warmed them with the heater of my MG-A (no mean feat!) until the mercury vaporized. Replaced a couple of blown fuses and carried the tubes back upstairs wrapped in an old Army blanket...stuck 'em in a fired it up. Luck was with me and it worked!

I gave the dead 8008's to Jack as a reminder......

He kept 'em in his car and when he saw them each night he'd remember to check to be sure he had left the filaments on.

Radio used to be fun.