60 Years of Albert Batts

The second radio station to sign on in Chattanooga was 1420 WAPO-AM in September of 1936. WDOD literally beat them by a decade. It had been on air since 1925. The third was WDEF which signed on in 1940. Radio grew slowly in Chattanooga. It was a city of barely more than 50,000 people. The original studios were on Foust Street off Rossville Boulevard.  WAPO has it's place in history. I;m not as sure about Rev. Albert Batts. More here. 

Rev. Albert Holmes Batts remains an obscure figure. This songbook is undated. But I found a newspaper ads from 1947 and 1965 which match. A 1948 issue of the Church of God Evangel lists it on 1340 WDEF-AM daily at 4:45 with Rev. Batts. [SOURCE] It appears that Batts was on both WDEF and WAPO at the same time, or that he crossed the street multiple times in the 1940s.

The front cover of the hymnal reads "Listen to the Word of God Daily 6:15 AM - Sat. 12:30 PM Over North Alabama network each Saturday 12:30 to 1:15 PM from WAPO Chattanooga"  It gives an address of 411 Forrest avenue, Chattanooga, TN. It's a small but tasteful Colonial brick house. Copies were only 35 cents, and it refers to a monthly paper called The Word of God DEFENDER, spelled just that way. 

On the interior there is a head shot of the reverend himself, and  a group photo of the Bell Avenue Quartet. It's membership included: Mrs. A. H. Batts, Rev. A. H. Batts, Doyle Blackwood, Grady Hurst at piano and Mrs. Grady Hurst. Ms. Hurst I think is actually Ruby Wright Hurst, who taught piano at Lee College 1947 to 1952 and again from 1954 to 1970. For a local piano teacher, Roby is a well documented figure in Chattanooga.  [SOURCE] Ruby died in 2016. Her obit says that she and Albert performed with the “Word of God Quartet.” No word if Doyle was in that troupe. But that obit reports that she and Albert first met at Vaughn's School of Music, prior to working at Lee.  

But the big name there is Doyle Blackwood. He can only be one of the Blackwood Brothers. Their eponymous singing group formed in 1934 in Choctaw County, MS. They broke big in television in 1954 and stayed big on a Quartet circuit. I've written about them before.

I think Doyle appears in the Blackwood Brothers pictures at the Dollywood museum. The KMA guide of April 1946 commemorates his involvement with the radio station. [SOURCE]  The book A History and Encyclopedia of Country, Western, and Gospel Music by E. Linnell Gentry further confirms Doyle Blackwood was an announcer on WAPO. This somewhat dates the hymnal to the late 1940s.

"Doyle Blackwood, who is now an announcer in Chattanooga, TN will visit the Blackwood quartet from April 8 to April 26. He is a brother of Roy and James Blackwood and was former manager and master of ceremonies of the group. While here, he will make guest appearances with the Quartet."

Batt's "Word of God" radio program became a TV program.  They released at least one LP which has one small picture of Batts on WTVC channel 9 and gives the PO Box 21305 in Chattanooga. WTVC signed on in 1953. I'd guess that picture is late 50s early 60s.  But in the top corner of that LP it reads "On radio and television for thirty-five years." But without a date that's not terribly helpful. Few sources help the dating of his career. There was a book published in 1965 transcribing a debate he had with Rev. Harold Sain. Then another published in 1967 of a debate he did with Rev. Gus Nicols. He wrote the forward in 1969, quite lively and even somewhat salty.

 

A 1993 compilation of some newsletter called Evangel [SOURCE] records Batts turning 90 years old that year, and having been broadcasting, in Chattanooga for 58 years. He was now on WFLI-AM 11:00 Saturday mornings. Station 1070 WFLI-AM was a later AM stick, signing on in 1961. Initially a contemporary hits format, it became a christian radio format in 1962. They rebranded as "The Mid South's Most Powerful AM Gospel Station". They played Southern gospel music with some Christian talk and teaching shows. Sounds like somewhere Batts might fit in with his Pentecostal rhetoric. 

But using this date we can finally work backwards to date the rest of the story. If Batts was truly on air for 58 years then he first was on radio in 1935. But that's before WAPO signed on. I'm assuming there was a little rounding, and he was on air the first year WAPO was broadcasting, which is 936. It also means he was born in about 1903, which matches the one correct obit. He was about 33 years old when he first had a program at WAPO.  It also dates that LP to approximately 1971. 

I found an image of Batts at WBMD, a station in Baltimore. I am assuming that was a guest appearance.

In 1940 WAPO moved from 1420 to 1140 AM at 5,00 watts. Around that time the studios moved to the Read House, a fancy hotel. Today WAPO is WGOW, as it has been since Ted Turner bought the station in 1968. It flipped to a news talk format in 1988. Batts died in 2001 at the age of 98. WDOD signed off the air permanently on May 31, 2011. Thus WGOW became the longest running active radio station in Chattanooga. Next year they will celebrate their 90th anniversary. Hopefully they have something to remember about the long radio career of Rev. Batts.

Lake Fred Radio

 

The popularity of the name Fred has been in decline since 1888. Despite titular Fred's like Fred Flintstone, Fred from Scooby Doo, Fred Durst, Fred Savage, DJ Fred Allen, Fred Schneider, Fred Armisen, Fred Astaire and the Honorable Fred Hampton there are just fewer Freds than there used to be. The Fred thing really got me interested so we're going to have to talk about Fred before we walk about WLFR.

Lake Fred is not technical a lake, but actually a series of interconnected, artificial ponds in New Jersey. It was created somewhere between 1860 and 1880 in the peak Fred years for cranberry farming. [LINK] Dammed for use by a sawmill around 1900.  at the time it was simply called "Saw Mill pond. When Stockton university took over the property in 1971, they initially referred to the property as Lake Stockton but by 1972, through machinations still not fully understood today... it had become Lake Fred. By 1985 there were already inquiries on the origin of the name. More here. 

Like any good mythology, every origin story contains some conjecture. There are stories of the name originating with people named Fred: local residents, neighbors, students, and professors. But my favorite is about the famous DJ, Jean Shepard. Jean Shepherd, used the then common slang “Fred” as a generic name for someone who was a goof or a slacker. The term was popular enough in the moment to appear in the The Dictionary of American Slang 1998 edition and a possibly related entry in the New Hackers Dictionary 3rd edition of 1996.

But in the 1950s and 60s Shepard was pretty famous for his radio show on New York City’s WOR. In the evening he told strange, long-winded by funny tales. He used a lot of hipster slang and in his stories, there was always a Fred. Fred was his John Smith. So the lake was named for Jean Shepard's Fred.  Fred lake was really just a disused cranberry bog i.e. not really a lake.  In Shepherd’s usage Fred was a fraud or a fake. So there you have it: Fake Lake.  

 

So in 1984 when WLFR first signed on, they used the call letters stand WLFR for Lake Fred Radio. But WLFR wasn't the first campus station at Stockton. The roots of the station start in a small cabin on the shore of Lake Fred in 1974 with a Radio Club. The station was called WSSR - Stockton State Radio. This was a low budget carrier current radio station which had 2 QRK turntables, 2 cart machines, a Revox 77 reel-to-reel and a 4-channel RCA mixing board. Some of that gear was built by student Paul Glaser. Glaser once said that it "really just played a lot of Grateful Dead music." One of the early General managers, Olen Soifer, formerly of WMCJ (now WMCX) at Monmouth also mentioned the Grateful Dead which certainly paints a picture.

Early records for WSSR are few. The Federal Register records a request for $41,524 by Stockton state college in March of 1984 to extend the signal of WSSR. This had to have been filed before WLFR was granted call letters indicating that WSSR was still at least nominally active. A February 1980 issue [SOURCE] of the Argo describes a "newly organized" WSSR. The station was at least 5 years old at that time. So perhaps they only meant that the station was decidedly disorganized before 1980? But it also refers to an existing radio station in the library. Regardless, GM Jeff Louis seemed to have big plans. The 1976 IBS radio annual lists the station with no metadata. A simple entry: "WSSR, Richard Stockton State College" But in November of 1983 Michelle Mclelland managed to submit a chart to CMJ. For once the Grateful Dead were not in heavy rotation. But the inclusion of both Leo Kottke and Spandau Ballet speak to their tradition of free form radio. [SOURCE].

 

Purportedly it was the mischievous Professor Claude Epstein who completed a hydrological survey of the area, and on his maps in 1972, he labeled that bog "Lake Fred." Epstein equivocated when asked about the etymology decades later, but he also named a tributary stream Cedick Run (“see Dick run”)  inspired by the Dick and Jane readers of the 1930s thru the 1960s. Epstein definitely had a particular sense of humor.

In one interview, Epstein told a story about Jean Shepherd, It was after Shepherd had been fired from WOR, when he was hosting a TV show in the 1970s on the New Jersey Network, Shepherd’s Pie. In 1977 Shepherd encouraged viewers to send in common items for a the “People’s Bicentennial Time Capsule,” and Stockton students sent in a t-shirt from one of the early and popular Lake Fred Folk Festivals. On the next episode Shepherd held up the t-shirt and exclaimed, “It figures there would be someplace named Lake Fred in New Jersey.”  The name had stuck.  Epstein's memory may be off. Jean Shepard did a Time Capsule event in 1977; but it was while he was still on WOR. There's even a recording. [SOURCE]  The Lake Fred Folk Fair started as early as 1974 so the timeline still works. [SOURCE].

WLFR celebrated it's 35th anniversary in 2019, The Atlantic City Press covered the event, but not their 40th anniversary in 2024. [SOURCE]  The campus publication, The Argo did of course. [SOURCE]. The station remains devoted to it's free form format. As I listen to WLFR now, the DJ is playing the Kinks "Sunny Afternoon" on a chilly but in fact sunny day.

WTSR vs. WTSR

When you look back at your life you can gain perspective and reassess events, small and large. So let me tell you the tale of two WTSRs. Recently while discussing carrier current radio stations with a colleague I realized that I personally disturbed the timeline. While writing this paragraph the memory is a bit hazy but I think I can give you the highlights.

Sometimes around 2002, I was at my desk reading CMJ magazine and I noticed there were two different radio stations using the WTSR call letters and for reasons that seem unimportant now, it was something that I did not like. Their geographic proximity made it likely they were aware of each other. So I contacted the carrier current station and proposed, somewhat forcefully, that they needed to change their call letters. Then, for reasons I cannot fathom... they actually did. Thus was born XTSR.

So let's first discuss WTSR classic, the original WTSR in Ewing (Trenton) New Jersey. One of the earliest documents I've found that mentions this WTSR, is the seminal Educational FM document, the Hearings report on the Public Television Act of 1967. They also appear in the IBS annual in 1966 and 1967 (below). The station was a 1 year old FM stick at that time, and it's studios sparking and new. Their listing reads: Trenton, WTSR-FM, Trenton State College, 89.7 mc., 10 w. It's the earliest incarnation of the station I was aware of...  (foreshadowing)

Until I found the IBS Journal of College Radio October 1972 Annual, which lists them as having been founded in January of 1959. How incongruous. The 1970 issue is missing that tidbit and the 7-year gap stands out. So I checked the 1965 issue. WTSR is not listed, but at Trenton College a WTSC is listed!  In fact both call signs appear in different IBS Annual and the National Radio Publicity Directories until 1974.  I think there was a period of time where the carrier current station and the 10 watt FM station both operated. 

To confuse the matter, another carrier current, WTSC appears in the 1976 IBS annual but only at Tri-State University in Angola, IN. Today it's known as Trine University. That station still exists today as the "Podcasting Station" TBN for Trine Broadcasting Network. [LINK] Between then and now Trine built 88.3 WEAX a station in 1979, and sold it off in 2020. 

There is of course a "real" 91.1 WTSC-FM at Clarkson University, which has been operating since 1963. The 1971 IBS annual lists it as founded in 1953 but I think that's a typo. Today it's a 700 watt station in an Arbitron-rated white space called St. Lawrence county, NY. In 1971, IBS listed them as a carrier current station on 560. But Broadcasting yearbook already had them on 91.1 FM. The 1968 IBS annual lists them on AM & FM. The AM is clearly carrier current on 540. The FM is listed at 5 watts, which could only be "leaky" FM if it was a legal operation. The October 4th, 1963 issue of Broadcasting lists WTSC Potdam's license being granted. But that conflicts with the FCC record.  (There was previously a commercial AM/FM WTSC in Stamford, CT though about 1950.) The Broadcasting Yearbook lists them at 2.5 watts until 1974, which agrees with the FCC that their CP was granted in 1974. Thereafter it was a 700 watt FM station. 

But getting back to the two WTSRs. I spent some time flipping through old issues of CMJ to confirm the timeline. Stations don't always report every week so checking multiple issues is important. When WTSR became XTSR CMJ itself was already faltering. By 2004, it was no longer on newsstands, It went bi-weekly, subscription-only that year. Charts were available online but then the publication stopped entirely in 2008. The first issue with the XTSR calls was March 25th, 2002. Despite the chaos, XTSR continued to report through at least 2006.  They launched a new website in 2008 www.xtsr.org, though it is offline as of this writing.

 Older versions of their Wikipedia page actually had a typo in their URL which they probably only realized in '09. It should have been www.new.towson.edu/xtsr/. Even on that early version they are already streaming and available on Channel 42 of the Towson university cable system. The "about us" blurb on the various versions of the site have no station history. The university site merely states "The station has been broadcasting from the Towson University campus since 1971." There isn't a word about their old calls WTSR, or the even earlier incarnations, of which there were many.

Their history dovetails with their big sister station 89.7 WTMD, whose history also states that it too has its origins in a network of closed-circuit carrier current transmitters on the Towson campus, beginning in the Spring 1972. That original carrier current station was named WVTS for the "Voice of Towson State." Never mind the other WVTS operating commercially in Terre Haute, IN. [SOURCE]

In 1974, the FCC granted Towson a CP to build an FM station. That signed on as WCVT in 1976. The calls stood for "Communications Voice of Towson". The carrier current station was renamed WCVT-AM but used as a training facility. The FM station was upgraded to 10,000 watts in 1981 and the carrier current network supposedly became known as WTSR 56 AM ("Towson State Radio") fully disentangling from the FM station. The carrier current station became the college radio station and the FM station became a more professional operation.

But the old call sign seems to persist for a long time. They are listed in SPIN radio concerts lists as WCVT in 1985 and 1986. In 1989 they were still listed as WCVT in the book Gigging by Mike Dorf.  The Gebbie Press All-In-One directory also uses the WCVT calls in 1992. They may not have been consistently operating. That's common in carrier current. Their 560 carrier current signal was shut down in 2003 and they switched to pure webcast. That's 20 over years later. Their official history says they became XTSR in 2004. That's close but the correct answer is 2002 at least on their charts. Their Instagram was still active through November 2024.

Looking for funding, big sister WCVT-FM flipped to smooth jazz in 1991 and changed calls to WTMD.  By 2002 it was a popular but bland AAA station. In 2021 the Your Public Radio Corporation, bought WTMD for $3 million. Their calls remain the same, but the students are long gone. Long live WTSR.

**Because the WTSR black triangle logo is so ubiquitous, I spent some time digging up a couple more obscure and less polished incarnations as you see above. Let a hundred flowers bloom.

Splicing Tape

Today when I say "splicing tape" people assume magnetic tape or film. But the term goes back much further. In my career I've mostly used 3M scotch splicing tape when editing 1/4" recording tape. But a bunch of other companies sold it: GE, Sony, Ampex, Silvertone, Hitachi, BASF, Audio Devices and of course Radio Shack. I saw a roll once from the Burroughs Corp. It's sometimes unclear if it's intended to splice film tape or magnetic tape from the packaging alone but in a pinch, either would probably work. I think TME and Splicit, are the popular makes today.

The patent for the modern splicing block was filed in 1950. It's patent # US2599667, granted in 1952 to audio engineer Joel Tall. [LINK] He called it an "Edi-Tall" and it was an aluminum block with both of the standard 90 degree and 45 degree slots you'd immediately recognize. But his tape groove was slightly concave, some makes are flat. The Edi-Tall was sold through Xedit and also sold Editabs, precut segments of splicing tape.  

Obviously magnetic tape already existed as did the splicing tape. The block solved a problem that already existed. In the prior art he cited miter boxes and a film splicer US2552148 (below) which he basically copied. In 1949 R. H. Carson invented a "Tape Splicer" whose design is very similar to Tall's but was meant for film!  Around 1952 the "Jifffy Splice" hit the market which also looks derived from the Carson patent.

How far back does splicing tape go? Not as far back as magnetic tape. Fritz Pfleumer invented magnetic tape in 1928. Fritz was using paper tape which is not very durable. But it was still used into the 1940s along side early plastic tapes, but there was no dominant standard. In 1947 Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing introduced a polyester based tape. That's polyethylene terephthalate for the plastic fans out there. That material rapidly became the standard. 

Minnesota Mining didn't have a completely clear ownership of the innovation, hence a lawsuit with Technical Tape Corp in 1954. That suit spells out how narrow their claim is, competing patentees, other manufactures of similar plastic tapes: Van Cleef Bros, to whom they even had to pay a royalty. it also names some of the few competing products, what it calls "homart" plastic tapes which are basically electrical tape. It contains some genuinely funny testimony:

WWII delayed the introduction of magnetic technology to the west. Some enterprising folks shipped home equipment from Germany like Jack Mullin, who took a Magnetophon K4 to AMPEX who then created the Model 200 in 1948. That narrows down our time window quite a bit. Only after 1948 could  a market develop for a polyester-backed adhesive tape that will stick to polyester-backed magnetic tape. That cellophane tape is probably what you would have used before the polyster was available. 

Early documentation is poor. Splicing tape is a only supporting character in the story of magnetic recording. I found a 1959 military manual that describes the splicing kit used by Air Controlman. The 1952 book, Making Radio Work for You aimed at U.S. Dept. of Agriculture extension agents doesn't specify polyester, just the distinction between plastic and paper.

I found an advertisement in Electrical Industries magazine from 1945 about the Magnetophon. It describes the demonstration, where they break the tape and splice it with what sounds like an adhesive, or solvent. There is no splicing tape used because it didn't exist yet!  The timing also means that it must be  a non-polyester plastic. Had it been paper I think they would have described it as a glue. At that time, PVC existed but if the tape was celluloid (cellulose acetate), that material can be melted and fused with common acetone; which sounds more like the demo scenario described. 

"The American broadcasters were amazed by a recording of a musical program being transmitted. It was played back immediately and the quality was better than good. There was no surface noise. The tape was purposely broken and spliced immediately with a dab of chemical. Recordings can be edited to the syllable by splicing. Tape seldom breaks, however."

1945 is as far back as the trail goes. If you look at the term "splicing tape" in any document from before about 1945 it will refer to electrical tape. This is a non-vulcanized "rubber" tape. You will see brands like Okonite, Okoprene, and Kerite to name a few. 

Interview with Jeffrey Riman

 

Professor Jeffrey Riman was kind enough to make time to talk with me about reporting for Billboard back in the early 1970s while he was music director at WPIR. He endured numerous follow up questions and even remembered that he reported to Billboard by phone!  That's a detail I've missed in other interviews. I learned that Sam Sutherland made an appearance at an IBS conference at the March 23rd 1973 at the Shoreham Hotel. Sutherland even mentions his appearance in his Billboard Campus News column in the March 24th issue. 

The hotel that hosted the conference is located at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Calvert Street by Rock Creek park in downtown D.C. Just for fun I dug up a few postcards of the hotel. While it's very fancy today it was distinctly upscale even in the 70s. 

JF: Can you tell me about how you first became involved with WPIR?

JR: I was at Pratt studying fine arts but was also very interested in music. WPIR had a an extensive library with new music arriving daily it was exciting and interesting. I soon found out that with training I could have my own show. Having worked in theater in high school I  found the idea enticing. So I trained and practiced and did ultimately pass a test to do my own show which was mostly jazz, blues and some popular music. I enjoyed it even though our reach was minimal. I also made some good friends and had a sense of belonging that was a nice counterpoint to the highly competitive fine arts area where all of us young painters where chasing out dreams.

JF: Are you the same Jeffrey Riman who is the Chairman of the Newark Public Radio Community Advisory Board for WBGO?

JR: Yes, I participated in the CAB and was its Chair for a couple of years,. I wanted to see how we can better connect radio to the community.  Radio these days is a having issues connecting in a streaming world. I am no longer affiliated with WBGO as their programming is in a different direction then I would prefer although they seem to be doing well.  I like WKCR more.

JF: How did you start reporting airplay to Billboard? 

JR: I went to an [IBS radio event] in Washington. I think it was in 1973 and I met lots of A&R people from many record labels and there I met Sam Sutherland. A super nice guy who told me about Picks and Plays. When we returned to Brooklyn. Sam and I stayed in touch. ...he also was supportive of the station by sharing contacts that could help get us a more robust library. He was a great advocate for college radio and one day he just called and asked me what new record looked like a winner and all of the sudden I got those calls regularly. 

JF: Bob Glassenburg was the College Radio editor for Billboard. Did you have much interaction with him or Sam Sutherland?

JR: Sam was a great friend and enthusiastic supporter. I remember his enthusiasm and kindness.

JF: Per the Billboard "What's Happening" column of May 1973, WPIR hosted a programming seminar. How did that go?

JR: We were disappointed in the turnout But it was a great day Pete Fornatale of WNEW came out as did other guests and although under attended it was still a great outing. The article reflects my memory of it.

JF: In the February 10th issue of Billboard,  Dave Weinstein announces that you are the new Music Director. What was the transition like?

JR: Because of my connection with Billboard and my growing interest in all kinds of music David made me Music Director. I had no idea what to do but set about augmenting our library by reaching out to as many labels I could in search of building up our library of 50’s and 60’s music including Jazz, Soul and R&B and improving the pipeline of current music. The early 70s were rich with all genres (except disco)

JF: The latest record I can find has you reporting in the November 24th issue. In the following February the column was converted to move of a chart format. Was WPIR still reporting? 

JR: There seemed to be pressure to justify the college circuit and I could see that there was pressure to try different strategies. It just changed without explanation  and I was too busy to look back.

JF: There was another change in the June and July 1974 issues where airplay was completely removed and it re-focused on campus tour appearances. Do you know anything about the change?

JR: Only that it happened. I did notice that we began to get calls to pick up surplus concert tickets for give-aways. And there were lots of tickets for awhile. But hey I was in college and too busy to care much. Personally I was not a fan of many of those groups like J Giles, Doobie Bro, Yes and ELP I preferred mainstream Jazz, Early and current blues artists.

JF: I found an old RSS feed (XML) that records a Jeffrey Riman on the Podcast "Tea For Teaching." I'm pretty confident that was you. Was that your most recent radio experience?

JR: Yes,  But it’s not something I pursue. I like teaching more than anything else I have done. However I did guest host on WBGO several times but although it was great fun it was enough.