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Mark_Giardina
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This post was actually started during the discussions about WMJQ in Ontario New York, but I thought I would make it a seperate topic since it apparently has generated some response.
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raymond_shaw
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I interned there in the mid 70s(after an unsuccessful attempt to intern at the old WCMF which was hippie run free form rock in those days). At WBSU(then a carrier current AM) we used to laugh at the place and gossip about them often(we used to skip classes a lot like so many broadcasting majors). Our WBSU facilities, funded by student activity fees, were far superior to WADD's tiny studios. At the end of my internship I was hired to work a weekend shift, which was thrilling at the time...someone was going to pay me minimum wage to spin records. The job never materialized(apparently on grounds that I had only a provisional 1 year FCC certificate, having not passed the test in Buffalo yet for my permanent 3rd class ticket). This was an early lesson in the many disappoints of working in professional radio.
All the dj's at WADD back then were very nice guys. I remember a guy name "Ski" who later did evenings at the old WROC-AM(back when they were trying to immitate WGR's A/C success, complete with reverb, pre Beatle oldies and a strong morning man - the late Jim "JC" Connors). I heard a few years later Ski was a big Top 40 screamer out on the west coast. Another dj, I think his name was Mike Van Arsdale, later became a record promoter in western new york. And a 3rd full timer - I can't remember his name - first name might have been Eric.
I remember the same GM Mark spoke of in the previous WMJQ, Ontario string(on this board) - I remember reading an interview with him in a trade mag in the 80s - he was managing an upstate NY station that at the time with state of the art automation - no need for hardly any human beings. I think I also read(maybe later) he was managing a college station somewhere.
Yes, WADD's signal was badder than bad. A good place for announcers and sales people to get their feet wet and then move on to bigger things.
All the dj's at WADD back then were very nice guys. I remember a guy name "Ski" who later did evenings at the old WROC-AM(back when they were trying to immitate WGR's A/C success, complete with reverb, pre Beatle oldies and a strong morning man - the late Jim "JC" Connors). I heard a few years later Ski was a big Top 40 screamer out on the west coast. Another dj, I think his name was Mike Van Arsdale, later became a record promoter in western new york. And a 3rd full timer - I can't remember his name - first name might have been Eric.
I remember the same GM Mark spoke of in the previous WMJQ, Ontario string(on this board) - I remember reading an interview with him in a trade mag in the 80s - he was managing an upstate NY station that at the time with state of the art automation - no need for hardly any human beings. I think I also read(maybe later) he was managing a college station somewhere.
Yes, WADD's signal was badder than bad. A good place for announcers and sales people to get their feet wet and then move on to bigger things.
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Mark_Giardina
Guest
raymond_shaw said:
I hate to sound cruel, but we got such a laugh out of the fact this guy, thinking he was going to work for WROC radio, burned his bridges, then found out that GM Tom Ryan ordered the sales manager to un-hire this guy. His face was sheet-white when he got off the phone and found out his future with WROC was kaput. He kept on mumbling, "what am I going to do now." One of the announcers said, "Looks like you are up shit's creek without a paddle good buddy." We (the announcing staff) then went outdoors and laughed ourselves sick...right in front of the guy's office window.
The Eric you mentioned was Eric Hardenbrook. Eric did a brief stint at WROC radio then went on to work in real estate. I have no idea what happened to Bob Bittner. As for locking himself out of the station, I can say that would not have surprised me if he did.
Mark Giardina said:
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PaulBWalkerJr
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if this is the Bob Bittner I know, he owns 740 WJIB Cambridge/Boston, MA and 730 WJTO Bath, Maine.
That would be the guy! By all reports, he's doing very well.
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Mark_Giardina
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PaulBWalkerJr said:
I wonder if Bob is still putting cart labels over albums so that announcers can't play songs he doesn't approve of ? Yes I know albums are outdated and everything today is either CD's or satellite music, but I still get shake my head in amazement as to why he would ruin good albums just because he didn't like certain songs.Call Me Sherlock said:
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PaulBWalkerJr
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BOb doesn't have any announcers. He runs both WJIB and WJTO completely automated.
740 in Cambridge is in Concord Avenue, with its 275 foot self-supporting tower in the middle of a self storage facility parking lot. The tower came before the storage facility did. His offices and studio there appear to be in an old self sotrage facility office. The tower is just a few dozen yards from the river, hence his wonderful coverage.
730 in Bath is in a house on some farm type property and Bob owns all the land there, over 150+ acres as I recall. Both stations run somewhat similiar formats.
http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-050826.html
Click the link above for pictures of WJTO during a Fybush "Tower Site Of The Week Tour"
**Note, you don't see WJTO's tower anywhere in there** lol
740 in Cambridge is in Concord Avenue, with its 275 foot self-supporting tower in the middle of a self storage facility parking lot. The tower came before the storage facility did. His offices and studio there appear to be in an old self sotrage facility office. The tower is just a few dozen yards from the river, hence his wonderful coverage.
730 in Bath is in a house on some farm type property and Bob owns all the land there, over 150+ acres as I recall. Both stations run somewhat similiar formats.
http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-050826.html
Click the link above for pictures of WJTO during a Fybush "Tower Site Of The Week Tour"
**Note, you don't see WJTO's tower anywhere in there** lol
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radiomike
Guest
Element9 said:
I can address this from first hand knowledge. I do know that GM Don Fuller used to lock himself out of the office all the time. This was during the WWBK days. He did it ALL THE TIME! He also liked to tinker with equipment, and would constantly take the station off the air, by his poking around.
The incident you heard about was Glenn Garmen, who was still in the Rochester area and on radio for some time, but I am not sure he is still doing radio. Really nice guy, gave me my first job. Again, same GM, who liked to butt in all the time. He finally had it. He put on "Take this Job and Shove it" and walked out. It was not an LP, but the single. ANd there was some dead air, until other people realized what was going on. Complete with the needle at the end of the record noise!
KISS for Bittner
Check the extreme left side of the top picture. The tower's there...
Thanks for the link. Interesting article. It sounds like Mr. Bittner has been very smart at grabbing undervalued properties and either redeveloping or reselling them at a significant profit. He also sounds like he's very bottom-line oriented, and prefers running on a shoestring to offering a full-service facility. Perhaps it's his own version of the KISS principle.
As far as the cart labels over album cuts are concerned, he wasn't the first, or only practitioner. I experienced that in several radio stations. I also saw album cuts that were intentionally scratched in a zig-zag pattern to make them unplayable. Sometimes it was to prevent people from playing the wrong cut. Sometimes it was to prevent people from playing cuts that had objectionable material (try "Star Star" from the Rolling Stones).
You have to remember that replacement albums were easy to come by from the record companies in the old days. Most of the time, we had extra copies in the "vault".
PaulBWalkerJr said:
Check the extreme left side of the top picture. The tower's there...
Thanks for the link. Interesting article. It sounds like Mr. Bittner has been very smart at grabbing undervalued properties and either redeveloping or reselling them at a significant profit. He also sounds like he's very bottom-line oriented, and prefers running on a shoestring to offering a full-service facility. Perhaps it's his own version of the KISS principle.
As far as the cart labels over album cuts are concerned, he wasn't the first, or only practitioner. I experienced that in several radio stations. I also saw album cuts that were intentionally scratched in a zig-zag pattern to make them unplayable. Sometimes it was to prevent people from playing the wrong cut. Sometimes it was to prevent people from playing cuts that had objectionable material (try "Star Star" from the Rolling Stones).
You have to remember that replacement albums were easy to come by from the record companies in the old days. Most of the time, we had extra copies in the "vault".
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anoldguy
Guest
I also saw album cuts that were intentionally scratched in a zig-zag pattern to make them unplayable. Sometimes it was to prevent people from playing the wrong cut. Sometimes it was to prevent people from playing cuts that had objectionable material (try "Star Star" from the Rolling Stones).
I have worked for guys like that. Looking back on it it seems pretty immature to me or a power hungry P. D. that had horrible people skulls. All the P.D had to do was put the cart label across the label and the album cover. Don't play cut # whatever or play cuts #'s ONLY! Back in the day, most promotional albums came with checklists on the album cover for cuts to be played. I can tell you I would never had challanged that and I wasn't regarded as th most mature individual around either. It is known as professionalism folks. If the boss sez don't do it you don't do it where ever you work or do. He (she) is the boss. If you don't respect that then you need to leave. I am sure the P. D has his reasons why he didn't want the song (s) played but communicate it to your staff! Aren't we in the communications business? Bosses like that just take the fun out of the radio biz.
I have worked for guys like that. Looking back on it it seems pretty immature to me or a power hungry P. D. that had horrible people skulls. All the P.D had to do was put the cart label across the label and the album cover. Don't play cut # whatever or play cuts #'s ONLY! Back in the day, most promotional albums came with checklists on the album cover for cuts to be played. I can tell you I would never had challanged that and I wasn't regarded as th most mature individual around either. It is known as professionalism folks. If the boss sez don't do it you don't do it where ever you work or do. He (she) is the boss. If you don't respect that then you need to leave. I am sure the P. D has his reasons why he didn't want the song (s) played but communicate it to your staff! Aren't we in the communications business? Bosses like that just take the fun out of the radio biz.
More Power!
Hey, back in the day it was easy enough to inadvertantly drop the needle on the wrong track. Believe me, it happened more than once. There was no way for that to happen if the track was physically unplayable.
Not to say that there weren't/aren't power-hungry PDs, GMs, OMs, DJs, etc.
anoldguy said:
Hey, back in the day it was easy enough to inadvertantly drop the needle on the wrong track. Believe me, it happened more than once. There was no way for that to happen if the track was physically unplayable.
Not to say that there weren't/aren't power-hungry PDs, GMs, OMs, DJs, etc.
I spent some time working for the guys who owned WADD briefly in the later 70's (Warren Haas & Frank Penny) I worked for them at their Owego, NY station, and Frank was legendary for taking screwdrivers, solder guns and other items of destruction to records to keep you from playing them. He would come in on weekends and go thru albums gouging out cuts.anoldguy said:
One famous story is how he came in while someone was playing an unauthorized cut that he hadn't managed to get the screwdriver to yet, and just yanked it off the turntable in mid-play, flung it across the control room into a wall, where the record broke into a million pieces. The stunned jock just sat there not knowing what to do, while Frank proclaimed..THERE! you won't play that (insert nasty word of your choice here) AGAIN!! And then just walked out of the studio. Ah..the memories!
WADD? Oh, sure, I remember that place.
Worked there in the 70's. And again, in the 80's later on.
By that time, the place had already burned down once, and rebuilt.
Bittner had been PD for a while, and the place still had a lot of his records in the station collection.
Eric Hardenbrook was doing morning through that period. Duane Sheppler at the time was general manager. If I recall rightly, they were on 1560 with a kilowatt out during the day. They were essentially pointed dead north, which meant that they were able to cover Brockport fairly well, and to the north of that, they had very good coverage of the lake. They had more listners north of the lake than in the states.
The pattern was kind of a strange one but it was intentional on the part of the original owners to limit their coverage to Brockport and vicinity, thinking that the big deal for them would be strictly local coverage for the Brockport region. The pattern is fairly analogous to W. Thiel are on 77 which runs and a timer of Lewiston pointed at Dorothy and has more listeners and a two router region than it does in Lewiston. If I'm not much mistaken they also have studios in Toronto. Another such station, I'm told, has been granted a CP for Webster, pointed again, due north... away from any stateside population centers.
Now, WADD could've had 5000w on 710 with far better coverage both of the region and into the city of Rochester. Ironically, today, the station on 710 of them in either falls region is the most powerful tourist information radio station in the world so far as I'm aware running 5000 Watts. You could hear them down here without too much difficulty.
Being on 1560 meant second fiddle to WQXR in New York. both day AND night. Which also explains the shot to the north in day mode... They shut down at night. For a while there, they were running 331 spree sunrise authority, though I don't remember whether it was there or on 1590.
They eventally moved to 1590, running 237 degrees days and into the original due north three-bay at night, both at full power. Because of the type pattern though they never really did make any money with the place. About the time Scheppler quit, the ownership did too, And the place went dark.
Now you guys who have worked their know the story of that building. It's in the middle of a swamp. When the place one dark RG&E, ...or actually I think Niagara Mohawk.... Pulled the power off the place. This meant that the sump pump didn't have any power at all and the resulting flood had that studio setup downstairs along with the transmitter run under about five and a half feet of water ultimately.
I got hired to run the place immediately thereafter. We pumped it , dried out the transmitter as best we could, essentially abandoned the studios downstairs building new ones upstairs something that hadn't happened since before the 1977 fire. There still using these studios today as we built them.
It should be noted, however that the transmitter has never been right since it was flooded out. It's a Harris MW-1, Which is at best I can tanker is little based if it's been played with. I would say being 5ft. underwater would easily fall into that category. It was transistor I, in the final amplifiers and the thing had a tendency to pop very quickly under mismatch conditions. As it stands right now it's the place is making in hundred Watts I'd be very surprised. I was out that way about a month ago, and the thing an absolutely no positive swing to it all.... distorted as all heck. When running right the old MW has a nice clean signal... WROC still uses one, for example, on 950 these days, unless they've switched recently. They still have never managed to fix the poor thing out at Brockport.
Some religious group is running the place these days and are simulcasting with WR see beyond 1310 out of Canandaigua. The 1310 outlet is by far the better signal , which is odd considering they're both running 1000w.
Worked there in the 70's. And again, in the 80's later on.
By that time, the place had already burned down once, and rebuilt.
Bittner had been PD for a while, and the place still had a lot of his records in the station collection.
Eric Hardenbrook was doing morning through that period. Duane Sheppler at the time was general manager. If I recall rightly, they were on 1560 with a kilowatt out during the day. They were essentially pointed dead north, which meant that they were able to cover Brockport fairly well, and to the north of that, they had very good coverage of the lake. They had more listners north of the lake than in the states.
The pattern was kind of a strange one but it was intentional on the part of the original owners to limit their coverage to Brockport and vicinity, thinking that the big deal for them would be strictly local coverage for the Brockport region. The pattern is fairly analogous to W. Thiel are on 77 which runs and a timer of Lewiston pointed at Dorothy and has more listeners and a two router region than it does in Lewiston. If I'm not much mistaken they also have studios in Toronto. Another such station, I'm told, has been granted a CP for Webster, pointed again, due north... away from any stateside population centers.
Now, WADD could've had 5000w on 710 with far better coverage both of the region and into the city of Rochester. Ironically, today, the station on 710 of them in either falls region is the most powerful tourist information radio station in the world so far as I'm aware running 5000 Watts. You could hear them down here without too much difficulty.
Being on 1560 meant second fiddle to WQXR in New York. both day AND night. Which also explains the shot to the north in day mode... They shut down at night. For a while there, they were running 331 spree sunrise authority, though I don't remember whether it was there or on 1590.
They eventally moved to 1590, running 237 degrees days and into the original due north three-bay at night, both at full power. Because of the type pattern though they never really did make any money with the place. About the time Scheppler quit, the ownership did too, And the place went dark.
Now you guys who have worked their know the story of that building. It's in the middle of a swamp. When the place one dark RG&E, ...or actually I think Niagara Mohawk.... Pulled the power off the place. This meant that the sump pump didn't have any power at all and the resulting flood had that studio setup downstairs along with the transmitter run under about five and a half feet of water ultimately.
I got hired to run the place immediately thereafter. We pumped it , dried out the transmitter as best we could, essentially abandoned the studios downstairs building new ones upstairs something that hadn't happened since before the 1977 fire. There still using these studios today as we built them.
It should be noted, however that the transmitter has never been right since it was flooded out. It's a Harris MW-1, Which is at best I can tanker is little based if it's been played with. I would say being 5ft. underwater would easily fall into that category. It was transistor I, in the final amplifiers and the thing had a tendency to pop very quickly under mismatch conditions. As it stands right now it's the place is making in hundred Watts I'd be very surprised. I was out that way about a month ago, and the thing an absolutely no positive swing to it all.... distorted as all heck. When running right the old MW has a nice clean signal... WROC still uses one, for example, on 950 these days, unless they've switched recently. They still have never managed to fix the poor thing out at Brockport.
Some religious group is running the place these days and are simulcasting with WR see beyond 1310 out of Canandaigua. The 1310 outlet is by far the better signal , which is odd considering they're both running 1000w.
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radiomike
Guest
Duane Schelpler as GM was after I was there. I was hired by then GM Don Fuller, who with Warren Haas and Frank Penny, owned the station. It was daytime only on 1560, as has been said. I satrted working there while a senior in high school, board opping Blue Jays and a handful of Mets games. A lot of Labbatt spots. We had Mutual, but would not carry all the newscasts, and evetually, stopped doing them at all, but still had the inventory to carry in terms of spots. Used to tape them on an old Ampex Reel Deck and play them back. At the time, Duane was the news director, Glenn Garmen was the PD, and Mike Doyle (yes, of Rochester Entercomm) was there part time as well, while going to college. The station also had on air Jay Stevens of both WHFM Moonchild fame and later WMJQ when they were at 92.5. We also had Tom SanFalippo, who used Tom Scott on the air and Mike Grabik?. Another Classmate of mine, Bill Ryan was also on the air for a spell. Gary Arnold, was both on air and the Chief Engineer, until he quit. At the time, studios were in the basement, except the Phasor was upstairs still, right next to the secretary's desk. The control room had a really crappy BE console, that the mice continually would build nests in. Production was an old Tube RCA board. News used a Shure M67 mixer and switch box. Bill Sitzman did most of the studio wiring and RF design. The station also went to 1590, including adding two towers. New Owners made this happen, and at that time, a guy by the name of Barry Rimler came to be GM. There were so many messed up things that occurred as a result of trying to get the pattern on the air, including the fact they were in such a hurry to put the towers up, they did not get the trenches dug for the new towers for the RF and sampling line cables from the building, that they had to dig them afterwords, and then silver solder back the cut ground radials. I left during this period. My last time there was in 1982. I had heard Duane was GM for a stint, and that Dave Mance was involved or had interest in it, before it went into disrepair. There are some intersting stories of Snakes, mice, and skunks, deer hunters shooting at the building, and a lot more. There was a PD after Glenn, Mike something, and he used Michaels as his last name on air. He went to Buffalo, and I think to the station in Cheektowaga, maybe WECK.Bithead said:
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Mark_Giardina
Guest
You know after reading the numerous posts here I was amazed at the number of talented people that actually worked at WADD.
Well that's all history now. The station will never go anywhere. It's shame too because it might have had potential at one time.
Well that's all history now. The station will never go anywhere. It's shame too because it might have had potential at one time.
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