DJ Claud Pettit

 

There is something oddly endearing about this tiny book with it's awkward idioms on the inside and rear cover. I was most taken with this one, a true product of the 1950s: "The insects must be laughing at man. We developed DDT for them but saved the H-Bomb for ourselves." 

This began with the above songbook of shapenote music. There are no call signs anywhere on the booklet. So despite the radio towers drawn on the cover, it was a struggle to find information on Claud Martin Pettit. Unusually, the sacred harp material and the time period this printing appear to have no connection with the Stamps-Baxter company. Stamps appears as the publisher on a few hymns and that's all. But on the inside page I got my first hint. Under his name was noted "Arvada, Colorado". That was enough to find a memorial page on the broadcast pioneers of Colorado  webpage.

Claude started in radio before he was even a pastor. In 1943, while still in high school he worked Sundays for KFKA at their Record Stockman studios. His pastoring began in 1952 but the two careers intersected more formally in 1952 in 1955 when he became known as "The Country Parson" on KLAK in Denver. It was a country gospel music formatted program of a type that's quite rare these days.

Most of his obituaries are about his church, and bible college, almost nothing is said about his radio career despite lasting 60 years and including at least 8 radio stations. In 1960, Claud and his wife Margaret bought 1290 KEOS-AM in Flagstaff, AZ as partial owners of CLEM, Inc with another couple: Edythe Walker and Lee Walker. The walkers were owners of KLAK so you can see the connection.  But The Pettits' sold their shares in 1961. 

In 1965 they bought KWIV in Douglas WY. In 1974 they applied to build a station in Brush, CO which was granted as 1010 KCMP-AM in 1976. A 1979 directory refers to the format as "Beautiful music, relig, spec prog: farm 12 hrs; Spanish 4 rs." Sounds like a hodge podge. I also found a slightly  incongruous citation for Claud Pettit as chief engineer on the Western Bible College owned KWBI on 91.9 in Morrison, CO.

But in 1981 they sold their station again. About then most print references to the Pettits' peter out. The last note I saw was about that sale in Broadcasting & Cable. But instead of actually retiring from radio, the Pettits' bought another radio station in 1989, and became owners  of KKDD and KKGZ in Brush, CO again.

At the time  KKGZ, and KKDD, so it was his second try on 1010 and 107.1. At that time the stations were owned by G-Z Broadcasting and were dark.and the stations in receivership according to R&R. It looks like a bit of a rescue mission. But a 2009 business directory lists Better Life ministries as owning 8 stations: KYNN, KHJR, KEHT, KOAH, KHTW, KHRX, KHUA, and KYHR across Texas, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. The citations appear to conflict.But various directories do list him as president through 2008.

Outside of radio Claud was a Trustee for Colorado Christian College (above, top center) which itself owned two radio stations and a TV station. He was the Chairman of the radio committee at Western Bible Institute. He finally retired from radio in 1991, but continued pastoring at Better Life Ministries until at least 2009 when the Denver Post profiled him [LINK]  He was 88 years old.

ATM to MSN

I had to leave town before the big show, major bummer. Who wouldn't want to see the Electric Arc Radio writers perform an original hard-boiled mystery! Of course it's sponsored in part by the artsy radio nerds at KCMP. More here. They're not quite ready for A Prairie Home Companion but good noir none-the-less.

I'm sitting here drinking a Sprecher Cream Soda which is spectacular, it tastes like honey and vanilla and smoke. I've finally tried fresh cheese curds which do actually squeak on your teeth and I've got 88.9 WORT playing on the hotel room radio. My Sybil reign as long as the sun rises on Wisconsin.

On the way out of Appleton I got lost and had to pay a homeless man for directions. He didn't know where the highway was but he did direct me to the Goodwill. they did know where the highway was and they also had a couple classic Margaret Atwood books on sale. That close to Oshkosh 1280 WNAM-AM came in clear rocking some Gladys Knight. ON the way south I stopped at a couple more Cheese emporiums: Shultz's Cheese Haus, Lynn Dairy and the Delwood Country Store. I'm going to have to smuggle 10 lbs of cheese through airport security. In wapun I caught the big band sounds of 1170 WFDL-AM just as 970 WTCH-AM was fading out the Red Foley version of Goodnight Irene.Madison is a great city. The hip part of downtown has no traffic on it except transit buses and is open to pedestrians otherwise. They have lots of bikes, and motor scooters. it's what cities are supposed to be like. There are independent shops everywhere and every other storefront is a restaurant. I hit Paul's Book Store, Ear Wax, and B-Side Records & Tapes which were all good. but it was The Exclusive Company with their quarter acre-sized used bin and Big N' Loud Music with their gigantic cymbal selection that really made the big impression. I really wanted to hit the Bethesda House of Thrift. But at their door I was greeted by a crude handwritten note informing me that they moved... damn.

I also want to state for the record that Ear Wax is a local chain of punk & metal record stores so kudos to them for that. From the three of them I got the new Saul Williams CD, an old Primal Scream CD, the Plot to Blow up the Eiffel tower LP and then a little reading for the trip back: Annie Dillard's "For the Time Being" and Debra Marquarts's "The Hunger Bone" a Collection of Rock n Roll stories. At least WSUM 91.7 is on all night. Right now is the Destructo show a bad-ass Psychedelic fest, then at night They runs a "best of"dipping into their archive of old playlists to play singles from college radio's yesteryear. Yes, you should listen online. http://www.wsum.org/

MSP to ATW

On the road for a few days but thankfully in some good radio country. I had two days in Minneapolis, and only made it out to The Electric Fetus once What a record store, it's like Mecca for music geeks. I bought a Duane Eddy Double Disc, EEVIAC by Man or Astro-Man and that album by Cast King, all out of the used bin. They gave me a MVY comp and a Bloodshot records comp. fair trade. I've been to Minneapolis before but so briefly I couldn't hit Mecca. I did revisit KFAI which now seems kind of pale beside KCMP. And I still cant get close enough to WMCN to hear it'd meager 5 watt signal. KUOM-AM still hold's it's own against "the Current" foregoing the softer Triple-A ish cuts for a far more indie playlist.

I blew town and crossed the border into the land of the Cheeseheads. Wisconsin has a simple, easily understood culture. Everything centers around cheese, beer and football. I had hoped to cut through Wasau and catch a little WRIG-AM but I took a wrong turn near Eau Claire after being very distracted by an incredible sandwitch at Moe's Diner called "the Dagwood" in Osseo. I ended up on Route 10 a couple hundred miles early. Eau Claire is riddled with LPs which was a plus.
96.3 WHYS-LP http://www.whysradio.org/
96.9 WJLM-LP http://www.wjls.com/
97.3 WHRC-LP http://www.whrcradio.com/
101.9 WRFP-LP
102.7 WIEC-LP http://www.wiecradio.org/
107.9 WLFK-LP

WJLM and WHRC are just religious talk, and WLFK closed in 2003 (story here) after less than a year of tunage. WHYS is pretty eclectic, running world beat that morning. But WIEC was MORE eclectic, "fat-free radio" mixing jump-blues and tabla jazz, the playlist is totally absurd. Piedmont College's WRFP is a college station but that one morning an inept sportscaster was fumbling his words. All this is in addition to WHWC, and WUEC, pumping NPR all night and day.I stopped in Steven's Point to catch 88.9 WWSP which was excellent. In Neillsville I stopped to see both Bessie the worlds largest talking Cow and WCCN. Bessie told me to visit the gift shop, not exactly sage advice. The building above was stolen from the world's fair in 1965 and dragged out here. Awesome, more here. Then in Auburndale on an impulse I stopped at Cutlers antiques. They had a dozen Edison Cylinders in good shape and a great collection of 78s. I picked up one cylinder and a 78 of the Light Crust Dough Boys. I couldn't resist. they had some, large print typewriters, and a working phonograph but in the back was the real beauty. Only $195 I almost bought it. I don't know idea what this is for sure. It looked like a turntable but it's not. On the bottom edge of the picture is my Size 10 boot for scale. This turntable is about two-feet in diameter. Next to it was a crate of discs sized for it. They were blanks manufactured by "audiodiscs" That shiny spot onthe disc is a penny for scale. Those discs weren't shellac or PVC, they were heavy as hell, probably copper.. I realized they were acetates. Beside it were some more normal 10 inch blank discs some by Duodisc, Microlet and more by Selmer. Yes, the same Selmer that makes Saxophones. The hint was that taped to the side of the phonograph was a small packet of "record-cutting needles" I think this was some kind of massive record lathe. It had no brand name on it and damn I couldn't think of a way to get it home.

I'm pretty familiar with Selmer as an manufacturer of high-end brass instruments, but not for making acetate blanks. Microlet is a bigger mystery and my picture didn't come out so I got nada. The exact type of lathe this is remains a mystery, but this"> site filled me in on acetates. It looks kind of like a Presto.. But that might be to much to hope for...

Sharing and simulcasting

With 14,000 radio signals in America, simulcasts are well known but the exception rather than the rule. half a century ago WCAL-AM and KUOM-AM spent a lot of quality time togehter. They split the limited operating hours of an AM dayshare.

On June 1, 1945 WLB-AM changed call letters to KUOM-AM. Due to clear channel restrictions they ran as a daytimer, and split the day with WCAL-AM owned by St. Olaf's college in Northfield, MN. When WCAL acquired an FM license on 89.3 They agreed to cede their portion of the AM operating hours of 770 to KUOM.

But the indie-rock obsessed Radio K, beloved to the Twin Cities only began in 1993. Previous to that 770 ran almost exclusively educational programming, it was even less exciting than WCALs classical programming. The license is owned by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Today Radio K has two small FM transmitters.

Their first aquisition was 106.5 in St. Louis park, an 8 watt Class D. That went online in April of 2003. then in September of 2005 they talked their way into a 10 watt repeater W264BR on 100.7 in Falcon Heights. While both FM sticks are very small, they both over densely populated downtown neighborhoods. But ultimately to the limited range of the FM signals, the station relies primarily on their old AM signal.

WCAL-AM had begun as a physics experiment in 1918. They ramped up and operated the with the call sign 9YAJ as an experimental station. In 1922 they were assigned the WCAL calls. Like a few other bold broadcasters they began FM experiments in 1948. As noted above they parted ways with KUOM in 1968 for their very own FM stick. In a very clever barter CAL traded their half of 770 for the right to brodacast from land owned by the University of Minnesota.

In 2004 St. Olaf got out of the radio buisness selling off WCAL-FM. In a rare decision based on the best interests of the community and not their wallet; the college sold to Minnesota Public Radio instead of EMF. Today that's KCMP a indie rock/triple A mix format blazing a trail for the future of publuic radio. The station is programmed larelgey by former staff of KUOM.

the WCAL calls went to immediate use in Western PA replacing the WVCS calls on 91.9 here. Thus improving the branding at the student voice of The University of California, Pennsylvania.

News and Reviews for 2006

Ok, I am back at home base. I merged the music mag and music zine catagories this year to add the best music blog category. I (like everybody else) expect more digital media, and less print media over time. It's the last weekday of 2006, let's all try not to kill the leftover Xmas cookies in the fridge over the weekend.

On with the year's highlights:

Best Pastrami Ruben: Mecca in Monterey California. Lisa Magadini uses sauerkraut that will do you harm. It's a sandwich to be reckoned with. In all seriousness you won't be able to eat for the rest of the day. It entirely changed my idea of what a Ruben can be.

Best Radio Show Playlist: The Minister of Swing on 90.7 WWOZ . Old swing, ragtime, and more interestingly local New Orleans Jazz artists you've never heard of in your life.

Best Record Store: Remember When Records, Greensboro, NC. I bought that classic record by Hum and a 45rpm record box in great shape. The owner was that wizened old music geek you always hope to run into. Truly, the store is almost a shrine to what real archival music nerds aspire to.

Best Music Blog: http://www.builtonaweakspot.com/ Jonathan Harnish has a taste for post hardcore that rivals Ian Mckaye. He clearly celebrates the entire Amrep catalog.

Best Music Columnist: Brian LaRue at The New Haven Advocate just for putting Bloarzeyd in his Top 10 best local artists of 2006. Article here

Best Disk Jockey: Chris Roberts, host of the Local show on KCMP Minneapolis. His program focuses on the bands of the twin cities past & present. He's got good presence and his OCD drove him to start a wiki just for MSP area bands.

Best Concert: James Kochalka at Tritone, Egads!

My Top 10 records of 2006:
1. Jack -The Impossible Sound
2. Die Princess Die - Lions eat lions
3. Don Vito -II
4. KK Rampage - Split cassette with Shearing Pinx
5. Meth and Goats - Attack from Meth & Goats Mountain
6. Ultra Dolphins - Mar
7. The Bronx - The Bronx
8. Noxagt - Noxagt
9. Tornavalanche - No Money No Problem
10 Norma Jean - Redeemer

San Jose Travel Missive

San Jose radio is pale beside Monterey. Pioneer High School station 89.3 KMTG was running commercial hip-hop as was 90.5 KSJS. KSCU never seemed to come in clearly and KPFA was running talk in the afternoon. I mean Democracy Now is an interesting program but I was looking for tunes. Maybe it was the wrong time of day. I'd heard that 96.1 KSQQ was kind of eclectic Portuguese music but that too was talk while I was in town.

I caught KFOG (simulcasting on KFFG) and I can see why KPIG has been slowly gaining on them since the addition of KPYG to the market. The K-FOG playlist is very safe, mixing only the most popular classic rock tracks with the most centrist Triple A cuts. Of course neither is progressive compared to a station like KCMP.

The infamously eclectic 89.7 KFJC sounded like they were having technical problems, then I realized what I was hearing ten synthesizer keys held down at once and a woman holding a flat note over it. They followed that up with a cassette tape from 1980 of two biology students banging trash can lids together. When I checked back an hour later it was someone beating two sticks together and shouting random nouns. I can say ... as least they are original, and they plug local shows between sets of noisy crap.

I ate at a Chinese restaurant with ducks hanging in the window. I couldn't read the menu and they couldn't under stand me. Food arrived spontaneously at my table anyway. Someone in the kitchen made a safe bet I assume. It was some of the best chicken I've ear had and I don't even know what the dish was called.

I had been wondering why one metro would have three Asian AM outlets: KVVN-AM, KSJX-AM and KYAA-AM. Now I know they have an Asian population that rivals that of Seattle. Entire plazas are lit with signs in mandarin and similar-looking characters. Might be a book store, might be a bakery. I can't tell from the road.

On the drive back I caught a blues show on KKUP that ran a long set of Slim Harpo and Lighting Hopkins. The Route 101 traffic near Route 880 was thick and the friendly music was welcome. 101 thins out to two easy lanes after Watsonville giving me a little time to look at the country. The grass on the hills was yellow, but all the fields were green. I'm out of here tomorrow morning and I think I have one more chance to hit that foggy and chilly Marina beach. I kind of wish I packed a coat.

Montery Travel Missive #2

The Juniper trees by Sloat Ave. are massive and gnarled like overly muscular arms cranked from steroids. ...and the Hickory Trees have left shells all the way to Hawthorne. It was a strange thing to fixate on after a walk through Cannery Row, but it's what I remember now. I also recall vividly that the street signs were carved out of wood. I walked to the aquarium to check out the otters, and at first saw none. Then I noticed one fat sea otter lying on a rock facing away from me. It did nothing cute like the ones on TV. It's just looked fat and somewhat bored.

KNRY-AM turns out to have a studio on the row. The rest was dull tourist shops and restaurants that smelled like wine and fish. (I like neither) I met two men who used to have a show on KNRY-AM who were very funny and charming and knew just where to get a good sandwich. We went to a local joint called Randy's (10th street & church?) It's only open for lunch 11:30 -1:30 Monday thru Friday. I had the Jaws2 hoagie which had turkey, ham, salami, bologna, provolone mayo and was on a soft sesame roll. Truly a sandwich to be reckoned with. I ate that sandwich in the park and then got a ride in a Ferrari at about 90 mph in that little tunnel before Lighthouse St. Fun people out here.

I bought a couple books at Bookbuyers used books on the same street. We were only going 35 when we passed it, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to read the sign. Tremendously knowledgeable and engaging bibliophiles in there. Next door is recycled records, a viny shop, which sadly was closed for a dinner break when I finally happened by. www.bookbuyers.com

In related Monterrey News, I noticed that Melanie Walker, former morning show host of KAZU has reappeared as MD of KCMP in Minneapolis replacing Thorn. We she here I would have coughed her show, in liu I spent some time listening to a Tropical show on KKUP, their first break from the reggae. It was a set of Venezuelan harp rock. Host Cristina Boyd presided over a st of music like nothing I have ever heard before. It began with recognizable Afro-cuban jazz and ended with surreal call-and-response music with the call consisting of Hammond B3 Organ and the response being the same line etched in harp picking. The program is called Amenidades Latino Americans and only airs every other week.

I also discovered 1410 KRML-AM which runs all jazz and blues but leaning nostalgia across both. It's much less fruity than the two standards outlets KIDD-AM and KABL-AM running zero show tunes and zero Streisand. It was a relaxing discovery this evening. http://www.krmlradio.com/