I suppose I first became interested in Radio when I discovered an Easter egg hidden by Radio Station WACL, 5kw AM, 550kHz, in Mary Street Park in Waycross, Ga during the 1960's. I took the egg to the station and Jim Rivers (later my boss) gave me a check for $50! Big money for an 11 year old. Jim Rivers bought WACL the year I was born.
The next crucial event took place at 8 o’clock on February 9th 1964 when I tuned into the Ed Sullivan Show, along with 73 million other people, and saw something called "The Beatles" perform live. Suddenly, all of the effort my mom had expended trying to get me interested in my piano lessons instantly changed. I saw, and heard, music in a completely different way.
Fast forward to 1969 and I found myself sitting in the WACL Radio control room with Bert James; air name Bob Greene. For about the next year I'd show up as often as I could and Bert would show me the finer points of radio broadcasting with a special emphasis on timing. Bert had worked at 50kw WAPE AM in Jacksonville, Florida where every second counted. Then, I started walking to radio station WBSG, Blackshear, Ga, which was not far from my home. There, I repeated the process of sitting with DJ Troy Mattox and learning everything I could. When the summer after my 11th grade in high school started I took off with a friend, Danny Hendrix to attend the Radio Engineering Institute (defunct) in beautiful Sarasota, Florida. We studied lots about electronics that I mostly already knew such as circuit diagrams and antenna systems but at the very end we cheated by studying 500 questions and answers that were then used on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 1st Class Radiotelephone License; Jimmy Carter axed these in the late 1970's. I returned home in 1970 and was offered a part time job at WBSG, 500W, 1350kHz. My dream from 1964 came true. There I was spinning music for money and I was even able to play a few Beatles songs.
Within a few years I learned about computer systems and joined the U.S. Air Force to obtain training and employment in the field. Eventually, I cemented that areas of study with 4 years at the University of Maryland. I spent the rest of my career working with computer networking standards including the design of the Internet Protocols.
I'm happy to be here and look forward to reading about the radio greats of the USA.
Thanks,
Jason
The next crucial event took place at 8 o’clock on February 9th 1964 when I tuned into the Ed Sullivan Show, along with 73 million other people, and saw something called "The Beatles" perform live. Suddenly, all of the effort my mom had expended trying to get me interested in my piano lessons instantly changed. I saw, and heard, music in a completely different way.
Fast forward to 1969 and I found myself sitting in the WACL Radio control room with Bert James; air name Bob Greene. For about the next year I'd show up as often as I could and Bert would show me the finer points of radio broadcasting with a special emphasis on timing. Bert had worked at 50kw WAPE AM in Jacksonville, Florida where every second counted. Then, I started walking to radio station WBSG, Blackshear, Ga, which was not far from my home. There, I repeated the process of sitting with DJ Troy Mattox and learning everything I could. When the summer after my 11th grade in high school started I took off with a friend, Danny Hendrix to attend the Radio Engineering Institute (defunct) in beautiful Sarasota, Florida. We studied lots about electronics that I mostly already knew such as circuit diagrams and antenna systems but at the very end we cheated by studying 500 questions and answers that were then used on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 1st Class Radiotelephone License; Jimmy Carter axed these in the late 1970's. I returned home in 1970 and was offered a part time job at WBSG, 500W, 1350kHz. My dream from 1964 came true. There I was spinning music for money and I was even able to play a few Beatles songs.
Within a few years I learned about computer systems and joined the U.S. Air Force to obtain training and employment in the field. Eventually, I cemented that areas of study with 4 years at the University of Maryland. I spent the rest of my career working with computer networking standards including the design of the Internet Protocols.
I'm happy to be here and look forward to reading about the radio greats of the USA.
Thanks,
Jason
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