Nighttime WPGA Blues

[kyscott]

Re: Nighttime WNEX Blues

$20 an hour? ***, I wish I made $10 an hour as a DJ!

The great Charlie Hill at WCEH told me back in the mid 80's that being a DJ is a dead end job. Jocks would soon be replaced by automation (like what we were running in Hawkinsville). He advised me to be an engineer. I did, and I'm forever grateful for his advice.

Eh, I agree to a point.. but I love what I do. However, I'm slowly but surely learning little bits and pieces of engineering know-how in addition to being an on air/production guy.

I loved it too. But it's not like it used to be. The satisfaction of running a tight board. Hitting breaks at the right time during a live broadcast. Back timing to the news so well you are giving the legal ID over the ABC sounder. Interaction with the listeners on the request lines. Every time I get in front of a rotary pot console I want to be a DJ again. Until radio gets back to that, stock will still trade lower than a Diet Coke. Wall Street discovered radio as a cash cow, and it's been all downhill from there.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Re: Nighttime WNEX Blues

$20 an hour? ***, I wish I made $10 an hour as a DJ!

The great Charlie Hill at WCEH told me back in the mid 80's that being a DJ is a dead end job. Jocks would soon be replaced by automation (like what we were running in Hawkinsville). He advised me to be an engineer. I did, and I'm forever grateful for his advice.

Eh, I agree to a point.. but I love what I do. However, I'm slowly but surely learning little bits and pieces of engineering know-how in addition to being an on air/production guy.

I loved it too. But it's not like it used to be. The satisfaction of running a tight board. Hitting breaks at the right time during a live broadcast. Back timing to the news so well you are giving the legal ID over the ABC sounder. Interaction with the listeners on the request lines. Every time I get in front of a rotary pot console I want to be a DJ again. Until radio gets back to that, stock will still trade lower than a Diet Coke. Wall Street discovered radio as a cash cow, and it's been all downhill from there.

I think to say that "until radio gets back to that, stock will trade lower then diet coke" is an unfair assesment..... but I see your point.

At several of the stations I've worked for, we didn't even carry news.. so I didn't have to backtime.

But at another, the news was recorded.. and the AM would simulcast the FM for 20 minutes at 5pm and I had to set it so the FM would met the AM right on time, so you don't get more then a second or two of music from the FM on the Am signal.

 

[Powell]

Car radios are better than what you can generally purchase in a store, but the AM sections have been deafened. Now you also have to take into consideration all the stuff causing interference, and it seems power companies have let their lines make noise by no upkeep. The noise level is way higher than it used to be. My bedside radio is an early 1960's Zenith High Fidelity model X-337. I leave a Sony Tr-712 called the Handy Personal on all day for the dog to listen to. It sounds good, had decent sensitivity and runs forever on 3 D cells. I am trying to kill off some of those old red Panasonic 4 for $1.00 batteries that appear to be 5 years after the best by date and the radio just plays on.

As for the BE transmitter if the power supply fails you send it back to them. I guess you could rebuild the RF modules but it's quicker and probably less expensive to swap them out.

And soil conductivity in South Carolina and Georgia is awful with Atlanta being the worse, Stone Mountain....granite = NO conductivity!


Powell

Powell

 

[daryll]

Lacy Worrell

He's enjoying retirement out in the country just to the east of Tifton. I saw him in March '07 at Irene Ray's retirement and he looked like Lacy of old. He retired from 13WMAZ at the end of 2001.

BTW, Tifton spelled backwards is "not fit". Personally, I like that part of our state. There's lots of great agriculture and all those nifty town names like Ty Ty and Climax and such. Oops, this is a radio board isn't it?

 

[BarryATL]

Class C stations used to all be 1000 watts day and 250 watts night. At some point the FCC changed the class to 1000 watts 24 hours and of course that created all kinds of night problems that did not exist before.

You left the front end off your history lesson. Before they were allowed 1kw day /250 night, they were 250 day/250 night. (The 1kw day came about 1961, maybe 1962?) And, there were a few that were only 100 watts.

Now that you say it, I was told about the 250 day and night for class C, but that was many years ago. I was born in 1962, so I did not experience it first hand. Translation... too old to remember everything and not quite old enough to have experienced everything.

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

Re: Lacy Worrell

He's enjoying retirement out in the country just to the east of Tifton. I saw him in March '07 at Irene Ray's retirement and he looked like Lacy of old. He retired from 13WMAZ at the end of 2001.

BTW, Tifton spelled backwards is "not fit". Personally, I like that part of our state. There's lots of great agriculture and all those nifty town names like Ty Ty and Climax and such. Oops, this is a radio board isn't it?

There's a GAY, Georgia somewhere too!

 

[Ben Sandifer]

And while we're on the subject of great radio engineers, let's include Billy Sowell - WMAZ. If you ever had the pleasure of touring the transmitter site on Forsyth Road, you experienced a real treat. Billy knew the history of every tube in the place, and loved to go into great detail about the 5-tower array. Does anyone know if the FEMA fallout shelter-studio is still in place out there? Another point about the Big X nighttime signal, I seem to recall that the 250-watts at night was no big deal. Ground system in the 70's was probably better then, but also Macon was not as big. What's now Tom Hill and Bass Road were waaaay out in the country. And I don't think Eisenhower Parkway was developed much past Bloomfield Rd. then either. Like Bill Elder, I also remember calls at night from Warner Robins. And speaking of "Lake Lowe," when I first got interested in radio I remember hearing Dan Donovan, Tom Healy, Ted Clark, Paul Peyton, F.C. Franklin, Mel Miller, Mac Graham and others talking about "beautiful radio park" and "Lake Lowe." In my mind I pictured something similar to Tobesofkee or Sinclair, with motorboats, water skiers, picnic tables, a playground and a white sandy beach with lots of activity. I could also envision a nice building that would rival "White Columns on Peachtree," with a state-of-the-art studio and a huge glass window overlooking this paradise for water enthusiasts. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I finally talked my mom into driving down Rogers Place, only to find a small converted house sitting next to an overgrown cess pool not even big enough to call a pond. I didn't know anything about the process of getting a signal from Rogers Place to my radio, but I had pictured something that might rival any Georgia Power sub-station, rather than the tiny transmitter building and single tower across the lake. Theater of the Mind - ya gotta love it!

 

[kenglish]

That's very similar to what I used to dream about "Radio Park". I still think it was sorta cool looking back in the late 60's, but not like the "Lakeside with a radio station" that I envisioned while listening at bedtime.

 

[billelder]

I hope this isn't a thread jack. Thank you Ben Sandifer for correcting my huge omission by remembering Billy Sowell. The first radio console I ever used was the slide pot board he designed at WMAZ in the Southern Trust Bldg in 1970. Billy was also very generous to give me one of my prize possessions. It's the On air light from outside that studio which is working and in my home today. That's right! Every time Chris Krok opens his mic, that damn thing comes on. LOL!!! OK. Joking about that part. It IS hooked to a clapper...which is a scream if you're watching American Idol.

...and I'm not even going to try to explain about being attacked by Ted Clark's monkey before an air shift when I was 16. LOL!!!

 

[kenglish]

... Now you also have to take into consideration all the stuff causing interference, and it seems power companies have let their lines make noise by no upkeep. The noise level is way higher than it used to be.
Powell......

Ain't that the truth! Here in Salt Lake City, the power lines are so bad that AM is nearly dead. Even the VHF TV channels are unwatchable (our OTA monitor for channel 5 analog won't even stay locked, due to 3-phase AC static). Rocky Mountain Power, which SHOULD fix these problems, refuses to do anything right now, because they asked for a huge rate hike and didn't get all of it. So, they declared a moratorium on Customer Service until they get their way. They pout and we suffer.

 

[kyscott]

... Now you also have to take into consideration all the stuff causing interference, and it seems power companies have let their lines make noise by no upkeep. The noise level is way higher than it used to be.
Powell......

So, they declared a moratorium on Customer Service until they get their way. They pout and we suffer.

Customer service from the public utilities has been dead long before this. Bellsouth recently tried to charge one of my clients for fixing their telephone line after it was cut between the pole and my transmitter building. They have guts, I give them that, but I told them there is no way I'm paying to fix their line on their side of the demarc point.

 

[BSteve]

I vote Billy Sowell as one of the best engineers, too. He was also a good cabinet maker.
He built and installed a control room console and board at MAZ during my air shift one week. Or it seemed more like a month. While the records played he sawed and hammered and wired and when I opened the mike to speak he paused for a moment and then back to work. I don't understand why they didn't do that on Bill Powell's shift instead of mine. But seriously, Billy was great to work with.