B. Mitchel Reed

Burton Mitchel Reed was the host of the all-night Birdland Jazz Show on 1280 WOV-AM in New York City in 1956. For this razzmatazz, fast jive-talking persona he became famous. But he also was a figure in the burgeoning free-format world of FM radio.

Reed started out doing overnights in Baltimore and picked up the all night Birdland show in 1956. He took over for Symphony Sid who had hosted the program for only a couple years. Reed only stayed about a year himself. (Some sources incorrectly put the show on 710 WOR-AM. (In August of 1959, WOV was sold to Bartell Broadcasters, who changed the call letters to WADO.)

In 1957 he took a job at KFWB in Los Angeles doing evenings. Within a year the station flipped formats to Top 40, it's most popular DJs were known as "The Seven Swinging Gentlemen." The seven also included Bruce Hayes, Al Jarvis, Joe Yocam, Elliot Field, Bill Ballance, and Ted Quillan. More here.

Reed left KFWB for WMCA, moving back home in his home in1963. Two years later Reed returned to LA and returned to KFWB. But then come one of those game-changers. He attended the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and something clicked. He met with Tom Donahue the Program Director of KMPX, the hit it off and then it's owner Metromedia took over KMET Reed became it's PD. Reed programmed it as a 24 hour automated AOR station. Its studio was located on Wilshire Blvd.Reed took over the station in 1969, and stayed until 1971, when he left for a spin on KRLA. But He went back to KMET in 1972 staying on for an additional six years. Donahue died in 1975 at only 46 years old. In 1978, Reed had coronary bypass surgery and shortly thereafter left KMET for KLOS. He stayed at KLOS from 1979 to 1981. He died on March 16, 1983, he was only 56. NY Times obit here.

VINYL UP CLOSE!

Chris Supranowitz, a researcher at The Insitute of Optics at the University of Rochester has taken an excruciatingly close look at the grooves of a vinyl record using the institute's electron microscope. These are magnified up to 1000 times so even particles of dust look like a greyhound bus parked in the groove. MORE HERECREDIT: I originally found this on the Posterous page of Reckon.

Su Alegre Despertar

The Guinness Book of World Records has only a handful of records in the area of radio. Several of the records are held outside the United States. On December 10, 1898 Puerto Rico became a part of the United States, thus making this record indisputably American. Tu Alegre Despertar is translates literally to "Its Happy one to Awake." But the real meaning is more like "Joyful awakening." The Guinness Book record is for the following:

"Longest running daily radio programme - same host. The longest-running daily solo radio programme is Tu Alegre Despertar , originally Despertar Colgate presented by José Miguel Agrelot (Puerto Rico), first broadcast in January 1949."

Host Giuseppe Michael Agrelot was known as Don Cholito; and "The Puerto Rican Bob Hope" by journalists. He was born in San Juan in 1927 and he started working in radio when he was 14 years old. He was on WITA, WIAC, WKAQ, WPAB, WKJB and others. It was at WIAC-AM that Don Cholito debuted his first long-running comic character: Torito Fuertes. Fuertes was ostensibly 8 years old and so popular Agrelot became the center of a new program El Profesor Colgate, sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive of course. In this program Agrelot portrayed Tommy Muñiz, a schoolteacher.Agrelot and his Torito character crossed the street to WKAQ-AM, where he partnered with Luis Vigoreaux on a program named Torito & Company. This was all while he was still in school. He didn't get his Bachelors Degree until 1949. But before finishing college Agrelot began the program Tu Alegre Despertar which would win him a world record. Other characters were played by Orlando Rodríguez and Aurora Previdi. But only Agrelot is eligible for the award. Previdi joined the program in 1958, nine years after the start and Mr. Rodríguez died in 1991 leaving Agrelot the sole senior voice. Agrelot was on the program voicing character for over 54 years only stopping when he died in 2004. the program was canceled upon his passing.

But why is his picture on that car registration?

Transcription Mystery Disc #73

I bought this Disc at a flea market. There was a filing cabinet and each drawer was full of discs. I bought half a dozen, and this one because it was odd. This is a particularly strange transcription because it is so well labeled, but none of it led to anything. What is The Abbott Champion?

That big label you see above was stuck on right over an Audio Disc label. There's a blank Audiodisc label on the b-side. The b-side is blank. As the label suggests it was recorded from the outside edge and spins at 33.3 rpms. This dates it to the 1950s which is congruous with the date on the disc of July 1958. There are two takes of the song on side A, I include them both. the second one has a sax intro instead of piano. Vocals are by District 12, wherever or whoever that may be. It's not a high school, these are clearly adult male voices. Perhaps a union? One hint is the label itself. Clearly many copies were made. I'd guess enough for the choir members, maybe extended family, maybe more but nothing retailable.
The lyricist and conductor is Ralph Spence. the song "The Happy Wanderer" was a popular song written by Friedrich-Wilhelm Möller after World War II. In 1953, BBC Radio aired the Obernkirchen Children's Choir performing the tune. It made the UK singles chart in 1954. In reading the original lyrics it's clear that this recorded version has slightly different words but I cant make them all out. So I know when, but not who or why or where.

RADIO BOARD GAME

This post comes to you courtesy of a gift from Aleta Meadowlark at Omnomicon. It was made by Milton Bradley and bears the number 4625, which is a catalog number and not a serial number. The first thing I learned in my research is that there was in fact more than one radio-themed board game. I found this page which listed a number of other similar games.

The Website Old radio parts dated it to the 1920s.. But there's enough information here to narrow that down I believe. Milton Bradley made a few radio board games including one themes for Fibber Mcgee. There was another game #4674 which may even be a revamped version of the one above. The Elliott Avedon of the Virtual Museum of Games wrote the following about his own copy of this game.

"As has been pointed out by game ethnologists, one of the things people seem to do to become comfortable with new technology is play with it, or play a game based upon the new technology! And so it was with radio in the early years of the 19th century. A number of games in playing card format and boxed board games appeared on the market concerning the subject of radio."

Game play is made clear by the directions. The game board is a stylized map of the United States indicating the boundaries of each State, time zones and the rough locations of about 55 radio stations. Some of these locations are a bit off. For example, KPO a San Francisco station is positioned over the Mojave Desert. The distribution was probably somewhat altered to avoid clutter. Red and blue lines connect strings of stations probably as a quiet reference to the Red and Blue NBC Networks, thought the member stations do not match. The time zones on the map are identified by colors matching the pieces: Red is Pacific Time, Green is Mountain Time, Blue is Central Time and Yellow is Eastern Time. The pieces match those colors so that a spinner can determine turns and movements.

The calls on the map are as follows: KTW, KFIF, KFDJ, KFFR, KPO, KFDH, KZN, KFAU, KFBB, KFDO, KFBU, KFEL, KFDH, KLZ, WCAT, KFJM, WLB, WCAL, WOI, KFKX, KFHX, WKY, WRAA, WFAA, WIAO, WOG, KYW, WRAF,WWJ, WTAM, WHAS, WCBQ, WOK, KFNG, WAAC, WBY, WMAZ, WABI, WCAX, WBZ, KDKA, WOO, WNYC, WBBL, WBT, WQAZ, WOAH, WSB, and WDAE

Every source I read dates it to the 1920s, some more specifically to 1925. Using the call letters we can get much more specific. Milton Bradley was incorporated in 1860, much too early to give us a start date. So I'll start with 1060 KYW-AM. The map put KYW in Illinois, which was accurate in the 1920s. KYW went on air in Chicago in 1921. So this can be no older than that. In 1934 clear channel assignments moved it to Philadelphia so the game must have been conceptualized in that 13-year window. KFIF went on air in March of 1923, WABI was a bit later in May of 1923. WFAA on June 26, 1922, KLZ, WHAS, WMAZ and WLB were in 1922 as well. that gives us somewhat of an early number.

My best guess on the late date is based on KFHX and WIAO. They date to 1921, with the latter changing calls to WSOE in August of 1924. Now we're down to a window that clearly predates the 1925 estimate. The list must of call letters used in the design of the game must have been compiled in the 14 months between May of 1923 and August 1924.

The Gavin College Panel

I found this deep in my archives. It's a complete list from 1994 of all the GAVIN reporters to their College Radio chart. At the time, it was very similar to the CMJ CORE Chart. (that fax # is no good by the way.) You can see that The document from 1994 was being faxed to me in 1997. Love that old technology.

You can download all 4 pages HERE

Gavin ceased to exist in February of 2002 so I think it's safe to release this now. I recall that in 1998 the website www.arancidamoeba.com released the CMJ panels publicly and caused a bit of a stink. I don't have any of those shit-stirring intentions. The website credited the leaked information to Team Clermont, promotions company in Athens Georgia. I cant speak for Antone's intentions. But I can say that it's very novel information to a college radio station. College stations are by definition local, insular even. Usually their concept of the industry, and their role in it is vague. So to see a list of reporters is like opening Pandora's box except the person opening the box has no idea what they're looking at.

So I chose to wait for this list to go stale. Arancidamoeba vanished in the Spring of 2008 having had essentially no updates for a decade. Leaving panels back in the hands of trade magazines, or the few that are left. Being from 1994 I cant confirm that it was precisely correct in 1997, nor in 2002. These things were somewhat fluid. The list of 64 stations is as follows, it has 100 watt stations, 100,000 watt stations and even a closed cable station. I have preserved old calls and typos as is, the meta data is behind the link. My only mystery is that the print out says there are 68 records... I only count 64.

KALX, KCMU, KCOU, KCPR, KCRW, KCSB, KCSJ, KDVS, KFJC, KFSR, KGLT, KGRG, KJHK, KSJS, KTRU, KTXT, KUCI, KUGS, KUNV, KUSF, KVMR, KVRX, KWBU, KWVA, KXLU, KZSC, KZSU, WBNY, WBRU, WCBN, WCDB, WDCR, WEGL, WFDU, WFMU, WICB, WITR, WMNF, WMSE, WMSY, WMUA, WNYU, WPRK, WQFS, WRAS, WRFL, WRIU, WRSU, WRUV, WSMU, WTSR, WTUL, WUJC, WUMS, WUNH, WUSB, WVTK, WVFS, WVKR, WVUM, WWVU, WXCI, WXYC, and WZBC.

Chez Show and the Copacabana

The Copacabana Lounge first opened November 10th, 1940. The club was located at 10 East 60th Street in NYC. The owner officially was Monte Proser but the club was in bed with mob boss Frank Costello. Costello installed Jules Podell as his man inside the business. Eventually Podell was the name on the lease.

Jack's broadcasting career began a decade earlier at WMCA-AM where he delivered a radio version of a Broadway gossip column he wrote for a New York theatrical publication. Variety claims a plug in an Ed Sullivan column landed him this gig.

But the Copa gig began in 1947. Eigen had a program on WHN cut a deal with Copa boss Jules Podell to do a radio program. It was to be broadcast live from The Copacabana Lounge, one of New York's busiest nightclubs. Podell made arrangements with 1010 WINS-AM to carry it. The whole program was done with 2 turntables, 2 microphones and 2 phone lines. The program ran midnight to four AM, seven days a week. It debuted April 22nd, 1947. Eigen's theme song was "Jack, Jack, Jack" performed by the five DeMarco Sisters. (Interesting to note that in 1944 the club had a no blacks policy, banning African-Americans from the venue and thus the radio show). More here. Fred Allen regularly mentioned Eigen on his broadcasts, adding to his reputation beyond Manhattan. More here.

The program ended in 1950. The Copa started a new show that diminished the role of the disc jockey. New Host Johnny McKnight started in October of 1950 and the new show "Meet me at the Copa" via WVNJ-AM in New Jersey. By Then WINS had backed out and Eigns program was on WMGM. n Chicago Eigen's did a program called "Chez Show" on 670 WMAQ-AM. It was love from the Chez Paree restaurant was was 30 minutes long and ran 6 nights a week. It was similar to his Copa program and began sometime in 1951. More here.

He worked a year in St. Louis radio. Then returned to Chicago in 1960 to resume The Jack Eigen Show on WMAQ. He stayed there until at least 1966. he relocated to Florida in 1971 where he continued to broadcast on local stations. I wish I could say witch ones. He died in Fort Lauderdale in1983. Not bad for a kid from Brooklyn who started out as a pin setter in a bowling alley.

Longest Running Metal Radio Show

Recently on the CBI list there was a discussion about long running metal radio programs. There are many claimants to long running shows, locally, nationally and internationally. Heavy Metal music as we know it is older than you might think. Judas Priest, for example was formed in 1969. But the modern usage of "metal" in the musicological sense date back to 1968. I consulted with metal aficionado, and music industry guru Eric "Doormouse" Peltier to confirm and correct my assertions.

First a little etymology. We can thank our favorite heroin addict William S. Burroughs for the origin of the term. He used the words "heavy metal" in two books.  Published in 1962, The Soft Machine has a character known as "Uranium Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid". In 1964 he revisits the term in Nova Express with Insect People of Minraud with "metal music." Inspired by these books in 1967, the band Hapshash and the Coloured Coat  put out the album Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids.

In this etymology "heavy" means profound and/or potent, a 1960s slang use of the word. In 1968 both Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly prophetically used the word heavy in that context. The first confirmed use of 'metal' as an adjective to describe music appears in a review by Barry Gifford in an issue of Rolling Stone published in 1968.

"Nobody who's been listening to Mike Bloomfield—either talking or playing—in the last few years could have expected this. This is the new soul music, the synthesis of white blues and heavy metal rock."

It described the band Electric Flag. But the popular use of the term in the 1970s by writer Lester Bangs in Creem Magazine to describe Sir Lord Baltimore and groups was it's genesis in the contemporary sense. This leads me to believe that no radio show can claim to have begun before the mid 1970s and truly have any metal music to air. So it is no surprise that few programs can be authoritatively dated to even the early 1980s. What follows is an incomplete list of the earliest and longest running known metal programs in radio.

WERS "Nasty Habits " started in about 1980. The program released a Live CD in 2002 on their 21st anniversary. Reports indicate the program was canceled in early 2004. Matty O'Dette put together the comp. Charlie Andrews was host from 1988 to 1989. I think the first host was Travis Squier. I don't know who closed it out.


WVUA "The Metal Zone" debuted in 1981. It was hosted by Dave the Metal Guy for 27 years. It was canceled in 2008 by a 19-year-old freshman. Ouch.

KUSF "Radio Rampage" first aired in 1982. It's claims to continuing uninterrupted are somewhat disputed but it's still on air today. It's on 2-8AM Sunday morning in San Francisco.

WREK "Wreckage" has been on since 1984 in one form or another. The show airs every Friday evening at Midnight. More here.

WSUP "Heavy Metal Meltdown" began in 1983. it's run through a number of slots and hosts over the last 27 years but it's still going today.

WEOS "Metallic Onslaught" has been on since 1984 but airs irregularly. The old host was Joe Wyatt, I dont knwo who's there today. More here.WNYU "Hellhole" first aired in 1984. Hosts over the years included Jen Meola, Jackie Vendetti, and Eric Peletier. It seems to have ended around 2004 after more than a 10-year run. Jackie Vendetti reports that new host Dylan has kept the program alive today 16 years later.

WHJY "The Metal Zone" debuted in 1986. It was hosted by For 17 years by Mike Gonsalves Previous to that he had a metal show on college station WXIN. I know that's not exactly the same show but it's the same format in the same city and worth noting. He died in 2003.

KFAI "Root Of All Evil" started in 1985 (or maybe 1987) and continued even after the original host Earl Root died May 24, 2008 of cancer. More here.

WITR "Sudden Death Overtime" in Rochester had a long running show canceled in Dec 2009. It's start date is uncertain but current host Ron confirms that it's been running in one form or another since the early 90s.

CIDR "Powercord" Founded in 1985, Powerchord is Vancouver’s longest running metal show, and a probable candidate for the longest running metal radio show in Canada. The two-hour program airs every Saturday from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

WOXY "Massive Metal For The Masses" Pre-1984? This program ran on Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM. It was hosted by Mr. K. It ran through at least 1986 but assumed to be much longer. I could use more concrete details here.

WNEW "Metalshop" A program in New York city hosted by Charlie Kendall. It began in January of 1984 and ran for 11 years. It was syndicated to other stations and only died when the station flipped to AAA in 1995. More here.

Others:
KJHK in Lawrence KS, has had a metal program at least for 10 years named "Malicious Intent". WTSR "chainsaw symphony" has run over a decade. KLSU has had a program for approximately 20 years but it seems to have taken a few breaks. WCLH used to run "Metal Monday's that went on for years sometimes with full days dedicated to the genre.Razor ray was on WRBC in Lewiston, Maine for over 10 years but seems to be gone now. KPOO had a brutal metal program in the 1980s.. no corroboration on that yet. But I know that's not everyone. WVFS, WVBR, WKNH, WRHU, and WRAS, all had long running metal programs. There were surely metal programs before 1980. As is often the case... we're one aircheck away from victory. Feel free to contribute if you know more.

Transcription Mystery Disc # 53

I picked this disc up at the Mystic Disc in Mystic Connecticut. They specialize in collectible vinyl new and old. 10 years ago they were a more varied record store but have refocused on vinyl in recent years. I cant blame them. Underneath the rack of un-priced new LPs was a mixed bin of mystery which included one single undated Wilcox-Gay transcription recording. I bought it of course.

On the label is a single word written in pencil "Redente." It's Italian, the 1. Plural of "redento" which means redeemed. In context it makes no sense, especially since it's written on each side of the disc. It could possibly be a last name. There is an introduction on each side that explains the recording. Unfortunately there's a dent in the lip of the platter rendering uninterrupted play of that portion impossible without manual intervention. The audio below is edited together from multiple playback attempts. The piano work is competent but lacks confidence, pausing before some of the more substantial changes. But after I heard the intro that made much more sense.

The speaker clearly dates the recording to June 7th 1954. You can actually hear her turn on the mic at the start of the recording. The pianist is 11 years old and at a recital at Saint Josephs school in New London Connecticut. Despite multiple attempts I cant catch her name. Side B has a shorter recording but it has the message at the end and it ends abruptly with no additional information.

road

back tomorrow.

road

Traveling again. Back shortly.

The atmostphere is the antenna!

This may be a wild goose chase. Researchers at Samsung in Korea are now working on a way to turn the ionosphere into an antenna. A patent application filed by the company reveals plans to direct higher frequencies radio signals, at about 1 gigahertz, at the ionosphere, to alter its behavior. Is it possible? Maybe. In 2006 they filed a patent. It's inventor is listed as Sang-Hun Lee. The abstract reads as follows:

"Disclosed is a long distance communication system using the ionosphere. The long distance communication system includes an Earth station for modulating a signal having a modulation frequency onto a carrier frequency signal, which is absorbable in the ionosphere, and radiating a modulation frequency signal to a specific region of the ionosphere. The signal transmitted from the Earth station converts a DC current into an AC current in the ionosphere and the AC current re-radiates the modulation frequency signal to the Earth. "

It regards use of a portion of the ionosphere as an antenna. As a refresher please recall that the ionosphere is the layer of the atmosphere at an altitude of 50 kilometers. We already use thsi layer to bounce low frequency radio signals from one side of the world to the other. This is not what the patent is covering.

It describes a long-distance communications system using an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radio signal with a carrier frequency below 2 GHz. This signal is to be transmitted from the Earth to the ionosphere which will accumulated energy. This will change electron temperature thus causing DC current to converted into the AC current. This AC current is to be modulated by controlling the change in electron temperature. This point of reflection could then operate as an antenna re-radiating the UHF signal back down to Earth.

I have come to think that this may be a bogus patent. The Serial number and the Application data all lead to one US patent # 6904080. It's abstract is as follows:

"A receiving circuit has a speech/no-speech signal detector for detecting whether there is a speech signal or not based on data inversely diffused by finger receivers, and a clock controller for controlling operation of the finger receivers based on a detected result from the speech/no-speech signal detector. If a speech signal is detected by the speech/no-speech signal detector, then the clock controller controls all the finger receivers to operate. If no speech signal is detected by the speech/no-speech signal detector, then the clock controller controls only one or two of the finger receivers to operate."

The details of that significantly different sounding patent regard CDMA which is completely different than all I described previously. Was it all a hoodwink? Maybe so.

KEX and the Castle Jazz Band

It's a tale of a conflict of interest. Some of this relates to another post here, but I'll summarize briefly. The basic story is a to and fro for KEX-AM. They moved repeatedly from a member of a network to a station without one.It begins in Portland, OR. 1250 KEX-AM began broadcasting on December 23rd, 1926. It's important to note that date because from that time until October 3rd, 1928 all programing on KEX was local. After that date they syndicated some programming from KJR. that was when they joined the Northwest Network. The next week ABC started working with CBS and KEX was able to syndicate some of those programs as well. In August the Northwest Network folded. KEX was back into local programming (and moved to 1080.)

But in 1931 they were bought by NBC and were back into a very syndicated schedule. In January 1942, KEX's was caught up in an antitrust lawsuit and NBC had to divest KEX. They sold it to Westinghouse. (Who moved the station to 1190) Westinghouse already owned WOWO who shared the 1190 frequency. But WOWO has the clear channel license. Their interest in the property was partly to protect WOWO. KEX had to operate as a daytimer.

The Castle Jazz Band were not the only band playing on KEX. Live music was a huge focus in radio well into the 1960s. Seems quaint now, but it was once the meat and potatoes so to speak. Which brings us to the Castle Jazz Band. This band came together in about 1944: Monte Ballou, banjoist, and vocalist put the first incarnations of the band together. Early members included Bob Gilbert, Freddie Crews and Bob Short, Bob Scobey, George Brunis, Don Kinch, Chris Tyle and most importantly George Edward Bruns.George Bruns (sometimes Brunis or Burns) was born July 3, 1914 in Sandy, Oregon. He played trumpet, trombone, clarinet, piano, string bass, and tuba. He was also the Music Director for KEX and simultaneously the the Music Director at 970 KOIN-AM. More here. He'd already played in the Jim Dericks Orchestra, Jack Teagarden's band and Harry Owens' Hawaiian Band. This must have impressed some people at the job interview. George joined the Castle jazz band at the end of 1945 when he returned from WWII. I dont' know which came first, the radio gig or the jazz band.. but he made it work for him.With this direct connection to radio the band exploded in Portland. Their success was so great that they opened their own club in 1949. In 1951, after the cooperative dissolved, Ballou opened a second club in Portland, with a new band which included Bob Gilbert, Freddie Crews and Bob Short. But Bruns only stuck with the band for 4 years. He left Oregon for Los Angeles in 1949. Eventually he ended up working for Disney scoring films such as Sleeping Beauty. His best work was obviously behind him. More here.

Transcription Mystery Disc #60

This one is not so much of a mystery. It was recorded in Wildwood New Jersey August 24th 1959. It's an interesting disc being a 45 rpm disc. It starts at the outer edge and was obviously recorded after the debut of the 45 and intended for playback on those early RCA devices. The recording ends abruptly with a few of the last grooves cut into the paper label, the audio ends abruptly there.
These three girls: Karen, Noel and Faye took the name "the Pips" probably from Glady's Knight and the Pips; a R&B group that operated from 1953 to 1989. Interestingly the song they sing "Lonely Girl" Is a play on the Paul Anka song "Lonely Boy" which was record in 1959. So their cover was cut at a Voice-O-Graph booth while it was still on the Billboard chart.

LMA

We see the acronym "LMA" in transaction reports, ratings reports, and other less formal articles. LMA stands for Local Marketing Agreement. On occasion I see it rendered as Local Management Agreement. Generally the former is the accepted term though in same ways the latter more accurately represents the transfer of power that actually occurs. The announcement usually reads like this:

"Champaign Partners LLC announced today it has entered into a long term Local Marketing Agreement (LMA) for WUIL-FM 107.9 JAMZ with DVH MANAGEMENT d/b/a PENDLETON BROADCASTING. The LMA for the Champaign-Urbana Radio Station will start May 1st 2009. At any time during the LMA, Pendleton Broadcasting has the right to purchase the station for $1.5 Million."

It's an agreement in which one broadcasting company agrees to operate a radio station owned by another licensee. The Broadcast Law Blog had a great article last month about a LMA violation that covered some of these points. It's worth reading. In it's most common application, the licensee is leasing the station and operating it like a franchise. There are three basic rules behind every LMA deal:

1. The licensee is legally responsible for the actions of the lessee. No matter what violations the lessee racks up, obscenity, indecency, EAS violations... the FCC fine goes to the licensee. Interestingly I hve seen LMA contracts that revert that responsibility to the lessee. The problem there is that the FCC will always collect from the licensee.

2. By law, a LMA must include the entire station's facilities studio transmitter, tower and all. the lessee cant sublease parts of the property not can the licensee lease parts to different parties.

3. The licensee must maintain 2 staff members (one of which must be a manager) at the LMA'd station's main studio. This is required even if the station is running syndicated programming or a satellite feed.

LMA's were governed by the sellers provisions under the communications act of 1934, relatively unchanged until August 5th 1999. That year the FCC addressed a conflict in law regarding the interpretation of an LMA. Previosu to that ruling, LMAs were not considered in ownership caps. Through LMAs a licensee could own and/or operate every single station in a market and sometimes they did. The FCC addressed this problem in MM Docket No. 87-154 and now LMA'd stations are counted toward the ownership cap on the lessee.

Bobby Dale

Bobby dale is dead, long live Bobby Dale.He was interviewed on his deathbed in 2001 and from those transcripts, a biography was written by Lou Waters. Bobby talked like a hipster, because he was one. In some ways he was an archetypal hipster embodying what was hep after the word hep went out of fashion. Lou knew Bobby from their time together on 630 KDWB-AM in Minneapolis back in 1960. Lou's own fame came from his time at CNN. The book is spectacular.

He was born Robert Dale Bastiansen on July 27, 1931, in Minneapolis. He left town at 25 for his first radio gig. But he wasn't from San Francisco at all, not even California. Bobby Dale started out in Glendive. The Bay Area Radio Museum says it's Glendive Minnesota. But, there is no Glendive in Minesota. I assume they mean Glendive, Montana. Don't feel bad, other sources also get it wrong, even citing Glendive Missouri. Bobby left Glendive in 1960 for a job at KOIL-AM in Omaha, NE where he replaced 18-year-old Gary Owens. Owens had left for KFWB, as Bobby would soon as well.

Less than a year later KDWB Minneapolis. In 1961, when the talent at 980 KFWB-AM went on strike, Booby flew down to start as a scab. In a stroke of irony, B. Mitchell Reed of KFWB flew to KDWB to take over Bobby's now vacant position. He stayed there until 1963, moving to KRLA in 1964, after a short spin at KEWB. Then he plowed through almost every station on the dial. He was on KFRC in 1966, and KSFO twice. He did a year in 1968 when it was an MOR station and returned in 1971 for another 4 year spin while they were an AC station. In between he tried weekends at KGBS and KSAN.
In the early 1980s he moved to the north side of the bay spinning swing music at 1510 KTIM-AM, in San Rafael, CA, a daytimer. Then he went back to San Francisco to work at KKCY. The station became KOFY in 1986 and he remained on board. He retired from full-time radio in 1990 but still made time to make an occasional appearance on the University of San Francisco campus station, KUSF.

Things went downhill rapidly for Dale. In 1992 he lost his voice. In the exam before an operation to remove nodules from his vocal chords it was discovered that he had diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and heart problem. He succumbed to liver cancer in 2001, he was 69 years old.

Audel's Radiomans Guide

My copy was from 1946, faux leather, with 880 polished paper pages. It has a small paper tag in the back from Gimbel Brothers Book Store of Philadelphia; which no longer exists. It starts with radio principles, and covers everything from fundamentals to batteries, measurement, transformer, vacuum tubes, tuners, speakers, antennas, PA systems, radio navigation and at the end of the book even FM radio and TV. My edition opens with the following:

"This book, the author believes, will be of the utmost service, not only to the student and radio-electrician, but to anyone who wishes to be informed on this important field of science. Radio equipment cannot be services or maintained by any predetermined set of rules or formulae, but it is necessary rather to understand the principles of electricity, radio and sound..."

It's signed Edwin P. Anderson. He was born in 1895 meaning he wrote this text when he was 44 years old. He is credited as the author of no fewer than a dozen other Audel's manuals on refrigeration, air conditioning, gas engines, wiring diagrams, home appliances, electric motors, sheet metal working, millwrights & mechanics, television servicing, outboard motors, sewage disposal, a mechanical dictionary and others. Most of these can be bought for under $5 at Alibris. But not the Radioman's Guide. That one is spendy.

It was first published in 1939 by Theodore Audel & Co. Publishers 49 West 23rd Street New York, NY. Theodore Audel is a pen name. He wrote at least 10 of the Audels guides. His real name is Nehemiah Hawkins. He was born in 1833 and was an American inventor, publisher and author. he had several mechanical patents to his name. But he did not wrote The Radioman's Guide. He died in January 1928, a decade before the Radioman's guide was written. Though it undoubtedly contains information also in the earlier electrical guides that he did write. the earliest of which I confirmed was published no later than 1897 via Audels Publishing. More here.

The Theodore Audel & Co. Publishing company continued on into the early 1960s. They were purchased sometime in the early 1950s by American Handbook and Textbook Co. But in 1962 that parent company began negotiations with The Howard W. Sams and Co. for a buy out. The deal was completed in January 1963.

In 1967 the Howard W. Sams Company sold the company Howard W. Sams and subsidiary Audels to the ITT corporation. In 1985, ITT sold it off to Macmillan Publishing. In 1987, Macmillan was in turn bought out by the Maxwell Communication Corporation. Maxwell Corp chopped up the company and sold off many of it's varied divisions. In 1989 they sold off more. I am not certain in which fire sale, Audels was purchased. But there is a inference that two former Macmillan execs bought it privately only to sell it off to Bell Atlantic in 1995. In 2000 the company was sold again dotbomb named eCatalogs, who sold everything except the brand name. But after the crash they sold it to Sams Technical Publishing. I lost the trail there but the present owner is AGS Capital.

Despite all the paper shuffling, the Audels brand faded away. The Howard W. Sams Company updated and reprinted some of these classic texts by Anderson in the 1970s, and that was the end of things.

DJ Joe Bussard

Joe Bussard has had a connection to radio as long as he's had one to music. He was born in Frederick, Maryland, on July 11, 1936 and is world-renowned today as collector of 78-rpm records. His collection numbers more than 25,000 records, focusing on folk, cajun, gospel, old country and blues all pre-WWII. It is not the largest collection in the world, but most archivists agree that it's the best. The quality of his collection is bar-none. There are several in his library which are known to be the only extant copy. He is a legend in some circles. [SOURCE]

He been working in radio for over 50 years. His collection alone makes him an appealing DJ. It has led to regular appearances on four different radio stations: 91.1 WREK in Atlanta, 740 WPAQ-AM in Mount Airy, NC, 89.9 WDVX, Clinton/Knoxville, TN, 690 WELD-AM in Fisher, WV, and 1450 WTHU-AM in Thurmont, MD. More here.
He started in radio at the age of 16 as a pirate broadcaster. he told the story in the documentary Desperate Man Blues. He began transmitting from his parents house intermittently and then one day got a house call from two FCC officials. They admitted they'd dawdled with his cease and desist for 6 months because they liked the music. His formal start was in 1955 at the age of 18 on 790 WSIG-AM. He explained how that happened in an interview for the Old Time Herald in 1999. Thankfully their back issues are online.

"I turned on the radio for some damn reason and there was Happy Johnny, he was a DJ down there. Johnny went around to a lot of the stations... he worked down there for a while on WSIG, Mount Jackson, 1,000 watts, right in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley, covered a hell of a range. I used to do an imitation of Happy Johnny. So anyway, I went up to the station to see Johnny. Oh, we had a big reunion, we talked some on the air for a while, and this and that. And Johnny says, 'By golly, Joe, there's a fellow back there you ought to see, his name is Art Barrett. He likes this old music"

Joe and Art hit it off. WSIG-AM had only signed on in 1954 as a country station. After Joe met art he began sending him reel-to-reel recordings of home made radio shows. Art began broadcasting them. The listener feedback was so positive that it became a weekly gig. Art left the station in 1958 to work in Florida and Joe's reign was over. Joe turned around and continued doing the pre-recorded program at WELD-AM which has continued until the station was bought in 2004 and flipped to oldies.

Every Friday Joe sits down and makes another episode of his program mixing country oldies gospel and a little blues. Fybush wrote up WPAQ nicely in 2008 article here.. More here. His program continues today on many of these stations. He can still be heard on WDVX Saturdays at 9:00 pm, On WPAQ-AM Saturdays 1:30pm – 2:00pm and at WREK in Atlanta every Friday from 5 - 6 pm. They also have been kindly archiving the program online.

Transcription Mystery Disc #51

I bought this disc at a thrift store. It was in San Jose if I recall correctly. It is not labeled, nor are their glue marks where a label was previously. It was recorded at 78 rpm, and starts on the outer edge. the B-side is uncut. The production includes a full string section, and a 1950s pop vocal. I almost wrote this off as a dub of a commercial release.. but I cant identify the song at all. And as much as it resembles rat pack material, I highly doubt that it actually is. Of course it doesn't have to be Tony Bennett to be of the era. There were lesser known crooners.

At the end of the recording he shouts "What the hell am I doing!" and the take abruptly ends. It may even be a blooper. Without a date, name, song title or record label I'm hard pressed to put a date to it. My best clue is the sleeve. The top edge was taped closed with a label and cut open. I scanned and pieced together above. It says "VOX RECORD," probably Vox records; and gives the address 236 West 55th Street, New York. This Vox is is Pathé Vox a distribution company. they existed in that form until at least the late 1950s. But there is no way to know if that disc and that sleeve have always been together. Vox released primarily classical music.

The Arcane Photo Archive

I have adjusted my settings in the Photo Archive of Arcane Radio Trivia. You now can access every image I have ever uploaded. That's all five years of weekday uploads. There are more than a thousand images. You can access them all directly:

HERE

The Monkeys of WBRU

This is obscure and highly arcane. I can't corroborate the story anywhere but it's too strange to just file away. The story involves a college radio station, and monkeys. Rather than re-hash the limited information I'll just quote The Encyclopedia Brunoniana.

"In 1971, after WBRU-FM increased its power to 50,000 watts and moved its transmitting equipment to the roof of the Sciences Library, some interference was created with electronic equipment in the Barus-Holley Building and Prince Engineering Laboratory, but the most unusual development was that monkeys who had electrodes implanted for reading their brain waves were tuned into WBRU."

It would be easy to confirm that WBRU increased power in 1971. The Monkeys are a different story. Not every school building has monkeys in it. But a power increase can be confirmed. And it didn't happen. In fact WBRU runs at 18,500 watts today. But there's more to the story.

Let me back up to the 1960s. In 1962, WBRU-AM incorporated as the Brown Broadcasting Service (BBS.) This made them a separate legal entity from the University. WBRU receives no funding from Brown University, but is staffed by students. In 1963 Sherm Strickhauser led the charge to get an FM stick. They applied for a signal on 93.3. it didn't happen.

In 1965, the Outlet Company, the owner of WJAR-AM and WJAR-TV donated 20,000 watt 95.5 WPFM to BBS. (Some sources say they paid $30,00 for it) The calls were changed and thus WBRU-FM was born February 21, 1966. Bare in mind at this point WBRU-AM is still a carrier current station. More here.

So fast forward to 1971. That primate accident was a failed attempt to increase their power to 50,000 watts. The interference it caused to "sensitive scientific equipment" i.e. monkey brains , nixed the plan to increase power at that location. They needed to find a new location. I found a reference in 2008 about a plan to move to the WPRO tower and increase power to 50,000 watts. Could that be the long delayed CP from 1971? Not exactly. If you fast forward to today, you can see that it's on the WPMZ tower.. and that they're still under 20,000 watts.
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But there is no way an electrode could demodulate an FM signal. It's just not possible. If this had been an AM signal I might have gone along with it for the entertainment value. But it's bunk. It may have caused interference, but no test monkey ever heard WBRU through the events described in the legend. None of this stopped WBRU from marketing T-shirts based on the monkey legend.

QSL Finland

For your browsing enjoyment: A set of QSL cards from Finland. This batch stretches from 1976 to 1981. Most of these appear to still be active today.