I asked my older brother (born in 1939) what station he listened to growing up in Louisville during his high school years. He only recalled that it played popular music and was on AM. Does anyone have a good recollection of what formats were on 790, 840, 970, 1080, 1240 & any other relevant signals back in that era? I leave 1350 off of the list as I recall it was a daytimer in the 60's & assume it was the same in the 50's. Obviously somebody played Rock Around The Clock in 1955...
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Louisville Ancient History
- Thread starter BobOnTheJob
- Start date
BobOnTheJob said:
I wasn't around but from what I read......
790 started Top 40 in 1958, before that it was WGRC doing radio for the time (block programming).
1080 WKLO might have been playing contemporary music during some parts of the day before going full Top 40. It seems like 840, 970 and 1240 were still doing network and long form programming. WAVE was NBC, WHAS was ABC before dropping affiliation in the very late 50's and WINN was CBS.
As far as daytimers, I believe WLOU was soul from day one. Of course another daytimer that tried to compete was WKYW 900. They couldn't make it as a daytimer doing general programming so they became religious with the call letters WFIA. WTMT signed on by the end of the decade.
I remember listening to WHAS from here in Cincinnati in the 1950's, but as the previous thread indicated they had network programming. However, I remember it as from the CBS Radio Network. Early in the morning, there was live country music on WHAS. Of course, that station also had the football and basketball play-by-play of the University of Kentucky with Cawood Ledford. I remember in the mid-1950's when Louisville was on Central Standard Time or one hour behind Cincinnati.
I remember hearing about WAKY - 790-AM ("Wacky Radio") and their Top 40 format. In the early 1960's I met a guy from Louisville who maintained that WKLO - 1080-AM was the better rock station. My guess would be that WAKY would have been the first rock station listened to by younger people with WKLO coming after that.
I remember hearing about WAKY - 790-AM ("Wacky Radio") and their Top 40 format. In the early 1960's I met a guy from Louisville who maintained that WKLO - 1080-AM was the better rock station. My guess would be that WAKY would have been the first rock station listened to by younger people with WKLO coming after that.
A few dates and items of clarification:
WLOU-AM and WKLO-AM both signed on Thanksgiving Week, 1948 (as did WAVE-TV on its original Channel 5).
WLOU switched to full-time R&B October 21, 1951, gained a power increase from 1kw daytime to 5kw daytime with 500w PSA (6:00 am-local sunrise) April 1, 1958, and gained 500 w nighttime service-with a screwy pattern that throws a huge null over downtown Louisville-on March 8, 1984. WLOU has since been lowered to 2200 w days non-D, 500 w Directional nights. WLOU was the sixth all-R&B station in the US.
WGRC-AM changed calls to WAKY on July 7, 1958 immediately after the sale to The (Gordon) McLendon Station group from Dallas and the next day went to the now-legendary Top 40 format.
WLOU-AM and WKLO-AM both signed on Thanksgiving Week, 1948 (as did WAVE-TV on its original Channel 5).
WLOU switched to full-time R&B October 21, 1951, gained a power increase from 1kw daytime to 5kw daytime with 500w PSA (6:00 am-local sunrise) April 1, 1958, and gained 500 w nighttime service-with a screwy pattern that throws a huge null over downtown Louisville-on March 8, 1984. WLOU has since been lowered to 2200 w days non-D, 500 w Directional nights. WLOU was the sixth all-R&B station in the US.
WGRC-AM changed calls to WAKY on July 7, 1958 immediately after the sale to The (Gordon) McLendon Station group from Dallas and the next day went to the now-legendary Top 40 format.
K
kyscott
Guest
The King Bee said:
WLOU's nighttime pattern has a major lobe over the west and south end of Louisville, where it's target demographic is. The daytime power was lowered to 2200 watts when it moved it's daytime site behind the University of Louisville to the night time site, which is the current site off of the Shawnee Expressway. The power was lowered to 2200 watts because the towers are quite tall for 1350. The efficiency on them required the power to be lowered, however the coverage is the same as if it was still 5000 watts.
You're dead on about the WLOU towers. Did you know that the old omni tower behind U Of L Belknap Campus was actually built for TV? Rounsaville Radio, the licensee of WLOU from 1951-1975, had a television CP for Channel 41 in 1952 and 1953. If you've ever seen the tower or photos thereof, you'll see the top mount spike for an FM or TV antenna on this self-supporting tower.
They had progressed far enough into TV construction to erect the tower, but the then-tenuous state of UHF prompted them to surrender the CP back to the FCC. The TV tower was then "shunt-fed" (a process to vary the electrical length and phase angle of the tower to suit operating frequency) for 1350 kHZ AM. WLOU operated omni off of this tower until 8 March 1984, when their new array with nighttime authorization was OKd for operation.
Before the old tower was taken down in the late '90s, I took a look at the system and really learned things about alternative antenna configurations-it was very interesting.
They had progressed far enough into TV construction to erect the tower, but the then-tenuous state of UHF prompted them to surrender the CP back to the FCC. The TV tower was then "shunt-fed" (a process to vary the electrical length and phase angle of the tower to suit operating frequency) for 1350 kHZ AM. WLOU operated omni off of this tower until 8 March 1984, when their new array with nighttime authorization was OKd for operation.
Before the old tower was taken down in the late '90s, I took a look at the system and really learned things about alternative antenna configurations-it was very interesting.
K
kyscott
Guest
Yes, I was aware that was to be the transmitter for channel 41. Like the owners of WKLO, they found out quick that it was expensive to put a TV station on the air. I never got a chance to look at the site. What kind of eccentric engineering practices were use?
As you know, the site was behind the Speed School buildings on Eastern Parkway at Third. The doghouse still had some ATU and coupling gear inside, with what appeared to be some kind of tower lighting relays and lightning protection apparatus. Besides that, the site had been stripped of any other components.
A piece of the antenna feedline dangled from the tower at the point of attachment (about 50' above ground), along with what I can only guess was a ground jumper. Since the site was right up against a railroad embankment, I couldn't see if and how a full ground system could be used.
When I was a teenager in the '60s, I met the late Steve Dawson, then the CE for WLOU. He was very, very good at keeping that cranky RF system in working order. He and the late John W. Smith, Sr. were wizards with exotic AM rigs...John was particularly keen with complicated directional arrays. After looking at the old 'LOU system, I respect these engineers even more.
A piece of the antenna feedline dangled from the tower at the point of attachment (about 50' above ground), along with what I can only guess was a ground jumper. Since the site was right up against a railroad embankment, I couldn't see if and how a full ground system could be used.
When I was a teenager in the '60s, I met the late Steve Dawson, then the CE for WLOU. He was very, very good at keeping that cranky RF system in working order. He and the late John W. Smith, Sr. were wizards with exotic AM rigs...John was particularly keen with complicated directional arrays. After looking at the old 'LOU system, I respect these engineers even more.
K
kyscott
Guest
The King Bee said:
As I understand it, that was one of the first unipole antennas. John Mullaney (I know I misspelled his last name) was a major proponent of folded unipole AM antennas. He was the consultant that worked with Rounsaville when they put it on the air from there. He was also the consultant that put together the current site off of the Shawnee. In my opinion, the site should have been a little further north, possibly in southern Indiana. That would have put the major lobe over Louisville. They could have pulled in the null to protect Bedford Indiana if they had to. I don't think that nighttime service WLOU has now would be approved today, it does not cover all of Louisville.
The King Bee said:
I don't believe John Smith EVER got a directional array right in this town or any other.
He left 680 a mess and never could get it on the air. (He did the application and was supposed to build it)The phasing system he made out of lumber, copper tubing from Ace hardware, and aquarium sealer had to be ripped out and replaced with something that actually worked.
He left 620 a disaster, with his RG-8 Radio Shack CB coax running across the fields and a night time pattern that couldn't possibly work.
And my understanding of the WLOU array is that he put one of the towers in the wrong place...like 50 feet off, and they had to license a signal that was less than it was supposed to be.
As far as I know those are the only directional patterns he worked on in Louisville.
K
kyscott
Guest
greg.hahn said:
And it was all mounted to the wall, out in plain site, in the very tiny transmitter shack. I have heard some very interesting stories on 680. I'm surprised it does as well as it does covering Louisville. The north tower has maybe a third of the ground that it needs because the land it sits on is too small. The south tower has half a ground system.
Ironicly, guess who gets to maintain all of them today... ;D
R
radiohawkins
Guest
kyscott said:
Cool KY, you're the CE of 620 and 1350?
I know Smith worked on the WDGS directional system in the Eighties. They had to protect WHIO, Dayton to the northeast. As I remember it, they had a dependable, trouble-free system. They also were unique in that they raised power at night from 500 W days to 1 Kw nights, possible because of the difference in the day and night patterns (WHIO and WDGS' night pattens rotated the main lobes away from each other, allowing the power increase for WDGS). I saw the WDGS RF gear and phasor cabinet, and it was all built to industry standards...I don't doubt you all about lesser-quality Smith installations, but I never saw them myself.
WDGS threw a very good directional signal over the city day and night from their site at north Clarksville, IN, giving format competitors WJYL and especially WLOU fits. They had a new Harris transmitter and CRL processing. Too bad nothing was being paid for!
I too always wondered why WLOU didn't locate their new array farther north and shut off the back (north) to protect the adjacent channel Bedford station and co-channel WIOU, Kokomo. WLOU's current nighttime pattern makes them simply disappear over a large swath of the central city of Louisville, and sister station WLLV seems to have probems keeping their modulation up near the allowable maximum.
WDGS threw a very good directional signal over the city day and night from their site at north Clarksville, IN, giving format competitors WJYL and especially WLOU fits. They had a new Harris transmitter and CRL processing. Too bad nothing was being paid for!
I too always wondered why WLOU didn't locate their new array farther north and shut off the back (north) to protect the adjacent channel Bedford station and co-channel WIOU, Kokomo. WLOU's current nighttime pattern makes them simply disappear over a large swath of the central city of Louisville, and sister station WLLV seems to have probems keeping their modulation up near the allowable maximum.
K
kyscott
Guest
The King Bee said:
So what happened to WDGS? One of the base piers and several of the concrete anchors are still out behind the 1570 building.
Two words, cheap property. LOU's antennas sit on an old city landfill.
With good program material (and attentive operators), WLLV modulates 97% negative and 122% positive. HOWEVER there are some program suppliers that still send out material on cassettes. CHEAP cassettes that is.
One thing that hurts WLLV into the west end is the transmitter is in the east end and 1240 is a class C frequency. They run a kilowatt day and night.....so does everyone else on 1240. One thing working on their side is the tower and ground radials are located in a very swampy area. It floods about once a year. The flood in September a couple of years ago took them off the air when water got into the tuning unit.
Mortenson would have been better to leave 1350 and 1570 together as sister stations since 1570 can cover the nulls of 1350. I understand the reasoning behind getting 1240, but it does not do as well as 1570 could do.
K
kyscott
Guest
radiohawkins said:
I have been known to go kick the transmitter when they go off the air, among others.
As I remember, Archie (nee Argie) Dale, dba Dale Broadcasting, took WDGS dark in October of '87. The license somehow got into the hands of some outfit named BBH&H Broadcasting. Next thing anyone knows, the 1290 KHz allocation to New Albany was deleted around 1990-91. The guy anchors you see on the site are what's left of the tight 3-tower array that WDGS used. WDGS was a 500 w directional daytimer (with 500w PSA) until November 22, 1985 when they commenced 1kw directional nighttime service.
Have you had a chance to enter the 220 Potters Lane building that WDGS built in 1985? When I visited a few times at the invitation of a couple of announcers who were friends of mine, I was amazed at how much studio and office space the building had. The main control room and adjacent talk studio were huge!
I figured that WLOU's West End tower range was once city-owned property, available for a pittance. It made no technical sense to me to locate there (off Gibson Lane near Algonquin Parkway on part of the old State Fairgrounds property). I remember WLOU frantically trying to get the site finished in early 1984 in order to blunt the effect of WJYL-FM's format change to Urban on April 1 of that year.
WLOU finished the proof in late February, bulled the papers through the FCC's Broadcast Bureau and got word from their DC lawyers that the license to cover the CP was issued right before Noon on March 8. That evening they started nighttime service with awful audio and remote control problems-it took a week to get the nighttime system sounding even passable.
Due to management's insistence on cranking the bass frequencies too high on the processors, WLOU sounded muddy and almost distorted a lot of the time, whether they were using their old GE tube transmitter or the newer one (I believe they had a Harris MW-5...check me on this). To their credit, WDGS' processors were brand new CRL units, and more importantly, they were properly set up through a broadbanded system driven by a Harris SX-1 solid state transmitter-they always sounded clearer and sharper than WLOU.
Have you had a chance to enter the 220 Potters Lane building that WDGS built in 1985? When I visited a few times at the invitation of a couple of announcers who were friends of mine, I was amazed at how much studio and office space the building had. The main control room and adjacent talk studio were huge!
I figured that WLOU's West End tower range was once city-owned property, available for a pittance. It made no technical sense to me to locate there (off Gibson Lane near Algonquin Parkway on part of the old State Fairgrounds property). I remember WLOU frantically trying to get the site finished in early 1984 in order to blunt the effect of WJYL-FM's format change to Urban on April 1 of that year.
WLOU finished the proof in late February, bulled the papers through the FCC's Broadcast Bureau and got word from their DC lawyers that the license to cover the CP was issued right before Noon on March 8. That evening they started nighttime service with awful audio and remote control problems-it took a week to get the nighttime system sounding even passable.
Due to management's insistence on cranking the bass frequencies too high on the processors, WLOU sounded muddy and almost distorted a lot of the time, whether they were using their old GE tube transmitter or the newer one (I believe they had a Harris MW-5...check me on this). To their credit, WDGS' processors were brand new CRL units, and more importantly, they were properly set up through a broadbanded system driven by a Harris SX-1 solid state transmitter-they always sounded clearer and sharper than WLOU.
R
radiohawkins
Guest
kyscott said:
You're correct about some churches still using cassettes and WLLV airing them! I know Jay Ford over there.
If I were running WLLV/WLOU, knowing a lot of my clients were small churches with little or no recording expertise, I would make as part of the basic service to my clients a fact sheet on how to maximize recording quality. A properly-recorded cassette would be OK for my air, but you've got to show folks that recording through an open mike stuck in front of a PA speaker just won't cut it.
Too many church audio operators don't know mike level from line level, or whether their audio board even has a tape in/out section, or what aux buses on their board can be used for, don't properly maintain their cassette or CD recorders, and so on. What would really help would be a personal visit by a station rep with the know-how to new clients and clients with problems making acceptable recordings.
At least an easily-produced tip sheet on how to make better recordings would help. You'd be amazed at how jury-rigged some PA/recording setups at some houses of worship, big and small, are! Many could be improved just by re-wiring some things or adding an inexpensive Behringer or Mackie mixer to provide a clean mix to the cassette or CD recorder...I've worked wonders with a $100 Behringer unit in the right place!
Don't just take their airtime money and slap it on the air...give 'em some help.
Too many church audio operators don't know mike level from line level, or whether their audio board even has a tape in/out section, or what aux buses on their board can be used for, don't properly maintain their cassette or CD recorders, and so on. What would really help would be a personal visit by a station rep with the know-how to new clients and clients with problems making acceptable recordings.
At least an easily-produced tip sheet on how to make better recordings would help. You'd be amazed at how jury-rigged some PA/recording setups at some houses of worship, big and small, are! Many could be improved just by re-wiring some things or adding an inexpensive Behringer or Mackie mixer to provide a clean mix to the cassette or CD recorder...I've worked wonders with a $100 Behringer unit in the right place!
Don't just take their airtime money and slap it on the air...give 'em some help.
R
radiohawkins
Guest
The King Bee said:
LOL totally agree!
K
kyscott
Guest
The King Bee said:
Yep, it was an MW-5 which has, thankfully, been replaced with a Nautel Ampfet 5. Still has the old RCA BC1A as a backup (and it still works). The SuX-1 is still being used for 1570 with the same processors most likely. WLOU is using an Optimod 9000 that's driven lightly. The wideband AGC just touches -5db compression.
- Status