WWUN upgrade

[mikl73]

sounds like WWUN has moved to its new tower near West Helena Ark. as a C3 @14kw
they moved col to friars point.

I can now hear them in memphis

this station is where my radio career began back when i was about 15 years old.

WWUN was possible one of the most intresting stations i have ever heard before.
It was purchased by csn intl. after the prior owner U.J. Gilbert passed away.
J.Boyd who pops up here from time to time also owned the station and it even sported his initials for call letters back in the 70s.

 

[Ken38654]

I Live In Olive Branch, MS. And I Get WWUN As Well.
Remember When Patty Gilbert Was On-Air @ WWUN ?
She Was Such A Nice Lady.

 

[mikl73]

My very first radio job was WWUN. I was in Jr High School.

Patricia and Grey Gilbert were always very nice people to be around and work with. I learned radio on some of the most terrible equipment I have ever seen in a radio station while there. They always looked at me strangly when I cue'd records up the proper way. That was something not ever done properly in the building. They would just put the need on, start playing and fade them up at some point midway through the intro with the jingle ended. They never tried to correct me on my technique however.
One thing I could never grasp was U.J. Gilbert's rule of playing spots after almost every song. I managed to get around it sometime but the spot load was very heavy (you can buy lots of spots when the rate is like a $1.50). There were usually only 2 working cart decks in the 6 stack machine they had. Every once and a while you might have a few weeks with 3 or even 4 working. Those were times where you could double up on spots.
One turntable was slow to start. You either had to slip que with it or queue it back twice the distance you would normally use.

The entire time i worked there we had a major issue with the limiter for the left channel. The left channel was almost not there most of the time. It had 1/2 the low end missing and often had noise or distortion in it. There was a high pitch buzz in the carts and sometimes in the turnables. I am sure this was most certainly caused by high RF and grounding issues as the transmitter was 5 feet away.

They had no sense of what 100% modulation meant in that building either. They all ran the board with the needles pegged out. You could hear clicking and begging for mercy as the metal needles banged on the pins that stopped them. UJ would often walk through and reach over can crack the pot about 40% higher than I would run things.

Horrible as it sounds they were all very nice to me and allowed some young kid start a radio career. I was working and make a small paycheck far long any of my friends had jobs.

I still remember a few names from the building. For a while I followed a gospel show done by Clarence. His son is C.J. Morgan. Later met and became friends with C.J. He got his start at WKDL in Clarksdale. He did mornings here in Memphis for years at Magic 101.1 and K97. Move with Clear Channel to WQUE in New Orleans and now does talk on WBOK in New Orleans.

 

[jboyd]

shows what a poor operator can do to a nice station in just a few years...JBI

 

[Ken38654]

I Can't Understand Why Some Neglect Equipment - I Just Couldn't Work With Junky, Junk Equipment.
When I Had Brief Layover At WVIM- I Don't Think Anything At The Station Worked Except Me! - Well, The Transmitter Did Power Up.
WKZB Had Nice, Well Maintained Equipment.
Gates Stereo 80 Studio Console, Technics Turntables, KLH Studio Monitor/Cue Speakers, Pioneer 5 CD Changers, Pioneer Cassette & Reels. 6 Stack Cart.
We Got Weather Info Off Satellite-Weather Channel & National Weather Service In Jackson.
When Warranted We Would Break Into Programming And Air NWS Jackson Live --When Tornado Warnings Were Coming Down.
WKZB Was ABC Radio, Mississippi Network Affiliate With Exclusive To Paul Harvey In The Area.
We Were The First Radi
Hell, Even WKZBs Emergency Alert Worked !

Michael Do You Know What Date It Was The WAID/Clarksdale Studio Burned ?


Mr. Boyd -- Very, Very Good Point In Your Post.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

I Can't Understand Why Some Neglect Equipment - I Just Couldn't Work With Junky, Junk Equipment.

Ken I worked for a major broadcasting company in a top 50 market that had endless problems. They would never let me "fix" anything, just make it work until it failed again. I only lasted three months with those idiots (my choice) and I don't have any fond feelings for them at all.

 

[jboyd]

For the record, my last name is Ingram, as in J. Boyd Ingram. Pls just call me J. Boyd...my moniker for over half a century...Tnx...JBI

 

[mikl73]

Ken I remember but it was quite a few years before I worked there. It would have been in the mid or late 80s.

When I worked at WAID we had a nice Optimod, Pretty nice board, good turntables Techniques SP-25's. Sennheiser MD421 mic, The Cart decks were pretty worn out and starting to really give problems near the end of my time there just before everything went to computer. The production room was really basic. Mono cart record desk, Reel to reel, turntable. AP news wire. The building was pretty much a dump. It was just in a good location downtown. When I first started there we did sign off at 2am. By the time I left we on the air 24hrs a day and live 18 hours a day m-f. The station sounded good for small market. We could have used new jingles and better production stuff but made the best of what we had.


When I was at WVIM (92-94) things were working pretty well. I was able to get some basic equipment put in the production room. I managed to get Eddie to always have replacement CD Decks on stand by. We used consumer decks but found some that seemed to last a good while and hold up. I pressed until he purchased new back ups each time one failed to have on hand when one started to flake out. The carts worked well and there was an Optimod 8100 in the rack processing the audio. I don't think it had been there too long. The old processing gear was still there but disconnected. That was a pair of CBS Volumax limiters. 1 was connected to the phone line.

Only a couple times did we need help from an engineer. Kirk Harnack was called to help me with a control board issue once. We would have been off the air but the moment the issue happened I came in the studio and turned the board off. Grabbed a spool of wire spliced the ends and ran it from the Optimod to the production room board. 10 mins later we were back on the air from the production room. We got Kirk on the phone and he walked me through the board with precision just like he was sitting right in front of it. Everyone was pretty amazed when I was able run down to radio shack and come back and fix the board.

I did refuse to do work inside the transmitter the other time something came up. Kirk probably wouldn't have let me get fried but it was just more than I felt comfortable doing at the time.

I did also climb the tower like a monkey and hang an antenna about 60 feet up once too. I think I'm too old and scared to do that again now.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

I did refuse to do work inside the transmitter the other time something came up. Kirk probably wouldn't have let me get fried but it was just more than I felt comfortable doing at the time.

I did also climb the tower like a monkey and hang an antenna about 60 feet up once too. I think I'm too old and scared to do that again now.

I doubt Kirk would have encouraged you to get inside a transmitter without absolutely knowing what you're doing. Too many inexperienced and unknowledgable people have been killed trying to save an engineers fee.

 

[Ken38654]

For the record, my last name is Ingram, as in J. Boyd Ingram. Pls just call me J. Boyd...my moniker for over half a century...Tnx...JBI

Hi J. Boyd, I've Not Had The Pleasure Of Meeting You, However I Knew J. Boyd Was James Boyd Ingram. I Have Heard That Your Initials Were Call For WJBI.
Nice Talking With You, Sir.
Ken

 

[Ken38654]

shows what a poor operator can do to a nice station in just a few years...JBI

Amen, J. Boyd !

 

[Ken38654]

Ken I remember but it was quite a few years before I worked there. It would have been in the mid or late 80s.

When I worked at WAID we had a nice Optimod, Pretty nice board, good turntables Techniques SP-25's. Sennheiser MD421 mic, The Cart decks were pretty worn out and starting to really give problems near the end of my time there just before everything went to computer. The production room was really basic. Mono cart record desk, Reel to reel, turntable. AP news wire. The building was pretty much a dump. It was just in a good location downtown. When I first started there we did sign off at 2am. By the time I left we on the air 24hrs a day and live 18 hours a day m-f. The station sounded good for small market. We could have used new jingles and better production stuff but made the best of what we had.


When I was at WVIM (92-94) things were working pretty well. I was able to get some basic equipment put in the production room. I managed to get Eddie to always have replacement CD Decks on stand by. We used consumer decks but found some that seemed to last a good while and hold up. I pressed until he purchased new back ups each time one failed to have on hand when one started to flake out. The carts worked well and there was an Optimod 8100 in the rack processing the audio. I don't think it had been there too long. The old processing gear was still there but disconnected. That was a pair of CBS Volumax limiters. 1 was connected to the phone line.

Only a couple times did we need help from an engineer. Kirk Harnack was called to help me with a control board issue once. We would have been off the air but the moment the issue happened I came in the studio and turned the board off. Grabbed a spool of wire spliced the ends and ran it from the Optimod to the production room board. 10 mins later we were back on the air from the production room. We got Kirk on the phone and he walked me through the board with precision just like he was sitting right in front of it. Everyone was pretty amazed when I was able run down to radio shack and come back and fix the board.

I did refuse to do work inside the transmitter the other time something came up. Kirk probably wouldn't have let me get fried but it was just more than I felt comfortable doing at the time.

I did also climb the tower like a monkey and hang an antenna about 60 feet up once too. I think I'm too old and scared to do that again now.

LOL ! Were The Cart Decks Your Talking About Blue ?
Galtellie Broadcasting Gave Our Old Carts To WAID When The Studio Burnt. I Was So Happy To Get Rid Of The Dinosaur's In The Control Room! They Weighed A Ton Each. If I Could Have Picked Them Up Myself --Probably Would Have Thrown Them Out The Front Door.

I Was AT WVIM Long Before You.
Dave Black And A Guy Named Stan Were G.M. & P.D. Or Whatever!
Crappy Equipment.
The Push & Pray Stuff !
I Don't Push & Pray Too Long---Then I'm Gone.
Just Can't Handle A Job With Inadequate "Tools" To Work With.

I Am Terrified Of Heights!
I Would Never Think About Going Up A Tower- I Would Panic & Fall-- I Know!
WKZB Tower Light Went Out (1) Time While I Was There. Paul jokingly Told Me One Morning I Needed To Get Up There & Change Out Bulb.
As I Remember He Actually Called Some Guy In From ---Seems Like Jackson Or Memphis.
The Local Farmers, I'm Sure Knew Where The Tower Was Lit Or Not, But I Wold Never Have Pushed It .
They Would Scare Me While Crop Dusting- Plane Doing Nose Dives Toward Studio & Pull Up Just In Time To Miss Tower. IIRC, KZBs Tower Was 467'.
Thank God Nobody Was Injured Or Killed When She Came Down. I Never Thought About It Really, But As Close To The Studios Were To Tower --Man That Would Have Been Horrific Had It Landed On Building!