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98 Years Ago Today "The Grand Old Opry" Began at WSM

Kelly A said:
As I recall, WSM and WLW are the only stations that still have their original Blaw-Knox diamond towers.
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How about WBT and the station in New Hampshire whose calls I forget?
 
fybush said:
Hi there!

Yes, WFEA in NH has its 1931-vintage Blaw-Knox, still upright 92 years and counting. One of the WBT B-Ks is original but the other two were rebuilt after Hurricane Hugo. There's also WBNS in Columbus.
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So that makes four Blaw-Knox diamond towers still in use? I can't imagine rebuilding one of those things. Believe those were all black-iron vintage.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And it was based, initially, in the offices of their 880 kHz AM daytimer in Columbus, Ohio. At age 16, I visited those offices and that was the beginning of my career in Latin American radio!

("Hey, let's send this pesky kid as far away as we can! How about Mexico? That will cure his adolescent fascination with radio for sure!")
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WNCI was and is grandfathered in as the highest powered station in the state.
 
The studios for WFEA (what is now just the transmitter building, with a small "back-up" on-air studio still in place....) were practically UNDER the Blaw-Knox! The station was originally non-directional, but at some point they went directional , using a Lingo antenna.
BTW....I was the LAST announcer at the old studio, when they made the switch-over to the new facilities on Commercial Street in Manchester back in the late 80s...the transmitter and old studio are actually in Merrimack.
 
radiofan2023 said:
Are those towers heavier than current ones of the same height?
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It depends. All towers back then were made from solid 'black iron', which was naturally heavier than tubular or more modern galvanized steel. The diamond design was wider for the same height, so I suppose there was naturally just more weight of material involved. One of the mechanical design advantages of the Blaw-Knox diamond shape was the reduction in guy wires required to hold up a taller antenna. Because the design involved two self-supporting towers stacked on top of the other, the only guy points were in the middle. No need for multiple levels of guys.
Years ago was talking with a retired tower worker who used to maintain the WLW Blaw-Knox tower. He said the design was much more difficult to maintain, especially when it came to guy wire replacement. Like any tower temporary guys were required during work, and one needed to be extraordinarily careful not to allow the tower to lean even a fraction or risk damaging the base insulator.
 
Cordelia Chase said:
I also sometimes watch the Circle Network but that will soon be gone as Ryman is pulling out of the linear TV portion of that venture at the end of the year. Based on the post below from the National TV thread, I take it the network was not cleared in many areas.
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It isn't even in the lineup of YouTube TV or any of the major FAST operations (Xumo, Sling Free, Pluto, Tubi). It is on Peacock, however, buried near the bottom of the lineup after all the major-market news channels Peacock carries.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And it was based, initially, in the offices of their 880 kHz AM daytimer in Columbus, Ohio. At age 16, I visited those offices and that was the beginning of my career in Latin American radio!

("Hey, let's send this pesky kid as far away as we can! How about Mexico? That will cure his adolescent fascination with radio for sure!")
Click to expand...
Yup. WGAR 1220 was IIRC their first expansion out of Columbus when they bought it from George A. Richards' estate (WJR, The Goodwill Stations). At the time it was the largest purchase price for a radio station at $1.75M ($19M today).
 
Kelly A said:
It depends. All towers back then were made from solid 'black iron', which was naturally heavier than tubular or more modern galvanized steel. The diamond design was wider for the same height, so I suppose there was naturally just more weight of material involved. One of the mechanical design advantages of the Blaw-Knox diamond shape was the reduction in guy wires required to hold up a taller antenna. Because the design involved two self-supporting towers stacked on top of the other, the only guy points were in the middle. No need for multiple levels of guys.
Years ago was talking with a retired tower worker who used to maintain the WLW Blaw-Knox tower. He said the design was much more difficult to maintain, especially when it came to guy wire replacement. Like any tower temporary guys were required during work, and one needed to be extraordinarily careful not to allow the tower to lean even a fraction or risk damaging the base insulator.
Click to expand...
Thanks for explaining all this
 
I'm 22 and DX the Opry quite frequently up here in western PA! Even found a friend here at school who also DX's the Opry from a little transistor radio.

My first year at school, I had a girlfriend at another school an hour away. I spent many a Friday night with the Opry on in the car as company for the ride up. Aside from 740 CFZM, there's little on in the overnight hours that's of any interest to me. The Opry made for some great company on those road trips. Sunday nights home I'd also often tune into WSM.

Funnily enough, I didn't even really like the music when I first started tuning in. It was more for the company (because everything else is just syndicated - meh). But within a few weeks, I was really diggin' it!

I got to see the original Blaw-Knox antenna last January on a trip south, which was pretty doggone cool! Sadly, I never got to see the KQV array before it went down...

Thanks for the great times & music WSM! Keep up the good work!
 
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