My second tour of duty with KLTI
After running around a couple of stations seeking my fortune, I was down in Beaumont working for KFDM TV, I received a call from my old chief engineer, Kenneth Maxwell.
He informed me that the CE position there at KLTI was coming open as he was going to work for Texas Instruments in Dallas. He informed me that I would be just the man to take this job at KLTI. I came up to Longview for a visit and talked to the Manager, Jim McClain, and accepted the position. This was in the summer of 1956.
I was familiar with everything there as I had just been there a couple of years earlier. Well, I came back home and hung my license back on my same nail in the front of that even older Raytheon 1 KW transmitter. One Thing I must say about that old transmitter, you knew it was going to come on each and every time you punched that power button. Back in those days only the Engineer could turn the transmitter on or off. You know, it does give you sort of a feeling of power over the whole world. Well after I was only 23 years old. I am looking back now from the age of 78. You know there is something special about your first love, beside your wife. KLTI was my first love.
I was still the remote engineer. I headed back down town to the First Baptist Church every Sunday, and the DJ would throw me the signal to switch on the remote. What fun times these were. We also did remotes from a shopping center called Pinewood Park. I don’t know why, but the PD seemed to think that we could get more visibility if we were seen parked in the parking lot. After all, it was just a magnetic sign on our cars with KLTI REMOTE UNIT. It was only a car with the amplifier hooked to a telephone line. Have you ever worked with a Program director with strange ideas?
As the only engineer on site, every time a request came up, it was under the jurisdiction of the engineer. One day I was told to pick up some recording equipment and some tape and go to R.G. Letourneau’s office. I had been called to the Managers office before but what could I have done to be called to the Presidents office.
I gathered up a Magnecord unit, and headed down to the plant. R.G.LeTourneau had an office in the front of the big steel plant. He told me that Edward R. Murrow had requested that R.G. send in a short tape about himself. He was about the easiest man that I have ever worked with.
Our studio equipment was all original as of 1948. The board was an old monaural, needless to say, GE console. Some of you DJ’s will remember, switch on right to cue, and on the left to air. My how little things keep coming back to my mind? I am sure that some of you will correct me if my mind slips a little.
We were having a group of Gospel singers in one Sunday afternoon, and about half way through, the DJ lost the main mike amplifier from the studio. I was there at the time and determined that it was the mike amp in the console, I lifted up the front of the console grabbed a couple of tubes in about two minutes we were back in business. The Gospel sure didn’t know what to think when they looked through the window and saw the console upside down. Oh, were we having fun.
After running around a couple of stations seeking my fortune, I was down in Beaumont working for KFDM TV, I received a call from my old chief engineer, Kenneth Maxwell.
He informed me that the CE position there at KLTI was coming open as he was going to work for Texas Instruments in Dallas. He informed me that I would be just the man to take this job at KLTI. I came up to Longview for a visit and talked to the Manager, Jim McClain, and accepted the position. This was in the summer of 1956.
I was familiar with everything there as I had just been there a couple of years earlier. Well, I came back home and hung my license back on my same nail in the front of that even older Raytheon 1 KW transmitter. One Thing I must say about that old transmitter, you knew it was going to come on each and every time you punched that power button. Back in those days only the Engineer could turn the transmitter on or off. You know, it does give you sort of a feeling of power over the whole world. Well after I was only 23 years old. I am looking back now from the age of 78. You know there is something special about your first love, beside your wife. KLTI was my first love.
I was still the remote engineer. I headed back down town to the First Baptist Church every Sunday, and the DJ would throw me the signal to switch on the remote. What fun times these were. We also did remotes from a shopping center called Pinewood Park. I don’t know why, but the PD seemed to think that we could get more visibility if we were seen parked in the parking lot. After all, it was just a magnetic sign on our cars with KLTI REMOTE UNIT. It was only a car with the amplifier hooked to a telephone line. Have you ever worked with a Program director with strange ideas?
As the only engineer on site, every time a request came up, it was under the jurisdiction of the engineer. One day I was told to pick up some recording equipment and some tape and go to R.G. Letourneau’s office. I had been called to the Managers office before but what could I have done to be called to the Presidents office.
I gathered up a Magnecord unit, and headed down to the plant. R.G.LeTourneau had an office in the front of the big steel plant. He told me that Edward R. Murrow had requested that R.G. send in a short tape about himself. He was about the easiest man that I have ever worked with.
Our studio equipment was all original as of 1948. The board was an old monaural, needless to say, GE console. Some of you DJ’s will remember, switch on right to cue, and on the left to air. My how little things keep coming back to my mind? I am sure that some of you will correct me if my mind slips a little.
We were having a group of Gospel singers in one Sunday afternoon, and about half way through, the DJ lost the main mike amplifier from the studio. I was there at the time and determined that it was the mike amp in the console, I lifted up the front of the console grabbed a couple of tubes in about two minutes we were back in business. The Gospel sure didn’t know what to think when they looked through the window and saw the console upside down. Oh, were we having fun.