Bellarmine College Radio

 

I spend too much time on eBay. I'm starting to see patterns. Apophenia is the human propensity to imagine patterns in what is totally random information. I don't think I have that problem. There is surely a good German noun that describes obsessive research radio history. It doesn't require treatment, it just requires something new to read. The internet tells me it's funkforschungsbesessenheit.

Anyway, I meant to discuss Bellarmine College Radio. On eBay I found a set of empty college radio mailers for sale. (It's an odd thing to sell, but kudos if you can make a buck on that.) The few visible postmarks date to 1971-1973. The addressee is often scratched out, but the rest of the address is usually intact. The timing is interesting because in June of 1968, Ursuline College and Bellarmine College merged to form a "co-educational" college that is now known as Bellarmine University.  

Both colleges existed before 1968 separately. Ursuline College in Louisville was founded in 1921 as Sacred Heart Junior College and renamed in 1938. It was a women's college, and only 1,100 women graduated before it merged with Bellarmine. Bellarmine was founded in 1950, and had issued 1,000 diplomas by 1964. It was the larger college and was growing aggressively. After the merger, they used the name Bellarmine-Ursaline for 3 years, then name became just Bellarmine College in 1972.  

In the early 1970s that merger was still in process. So some address variance seems normal. The address on the envelopes is always 2000 Norris Place. But 2000 Norris Place tells us nothing. That was just the main mailing address of Bellarmine College going back into the 1950s.  (Today it's 2001 Newburg Rd)  Ursaline College was at 3115 Lexington Rd and does not appear to have any connection to this.  With the name changes and possible address changes, some mailing list errors seem inevitable. But that's not what I think we're looking at.  The really unexpected detail I noticed is that there are multiple different call letters on the different envelopes: WBVC, WHUT, WBCR, WBCK and a highly unusual WBLIC.

I checked the Bellarmine college radio website and it only states that the station was founded in 2005. [LINK] They're not disavowing the past but not acknowledging it either. The modern Bellarmine College radio station does not delve into their own history at all. But with thanks to the Wayback machine, the old version of their website had just a little bit more information 

"Bellarmine University started a radio station in the fall of 2005 with the help of Dr. Len Cooper, Dr. Gail Henson, Bellarmine’s Student Government Association, and a few motivated students.  In its early stages the station broadcast a Classic Rock format but has since developed into a viable College Rock “grab bag” station with an eclectic mix of music from the 1990’s and today, all the while supporting local artists from the Louisville music scene."  

Back to those call letters. While there are 5 of them, I couldn't at first tie any of them to Bellarmine with public records. From 1959 into the early 1970s WBVC was the Voice of Boston College until it got an FM license in 1974 and became WZBC. There is no FCC record of a WHUT or a WBCR at Bellarmine. In fact there are two other roughly contemporary WBCR stations. Firstly WBCR is at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY. They were already a carrier current station in 1968 and was a member of IBS going back into the 1940s. More here.  But also Beloit College has had the FM stick for 90.3 WBCR since 1979. 

There was a 1470 WHUT in Anderson, IN from about 1965 to 1970. I think that got deleted in some sale to Moody.... Then there's WBLIC, let's just assume that's a typo. My normal "formal" sources like the FCC, IBS and  radio directories list nothing connected to Bellarmine. So this is a carrier current station or possibly a pirate. It makes it harder to research but also way cooler.

The best, and really only corroboration I found was in the official history book of Bellarmine College, High upon a Hill: A History of Bellarmine College. It  mentions radio only a few times, and in the first 170 some pages, only in the context of local commercial stations 840 WHAS-AM and 970 WAVE-AM (now WGTK-AM). Those are heritage Louisville radio stations. More here. Then, unexpectedly, there it was on page 178; a confirmation of WHUT and WBUC.

"A little known campus project was a 7-watt, closet circuit AM radio station, WHUT-AM, which featured campus news and various kinds of music, from jazz to classical. Founded by David Kirwin and John Lindstrom in February 1968 and using a volunteer staff of 31, it broadcast from Newman Hall to dorm radio from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. In the early '70's another station, WBUC lasted for several years." 

A 7-watt carrier current station was certainly possible; actually up to 30 watts was possible with off-the-shelf-hardware in that era. (For example LPB has a 2-20 system capable of an adjustable output of 2 - 20 watts.) More here. From that kernel I found a little more information. This time in a Library of Congress interview by the legendary Jennifer Waits with Dr. Kyle Bennett of Bellarmine there was, another reference, no call letters but it fits the few facts we do have.  [SOURCE] and [SOURCE] I'll quote the whole relevant section. 

"I teach at Bellarmine University in Louisville and there was a campus carrier current station there that none of us knew about. It wasn’t in any of the official records at the university or anything like that. And then people, former DJs contacted us, it ended up in the alumni magazine and then more people contacted us. Similarly just like, February 14th, on Valentine’s Day, a new community radio station was launched in Louisville and part of just the initiative around that has led to other people recovering the city’s pretty robust radio history."

My initial theory for the multiple call letters was that there was either more than one carrier current station or a succession of them at Bellarmine. Today there are six dorms on Bellarmine. Due to the nature of carrier current, there could literally be one station in each dorm as long as they were isolated electrically. But all six of those dorms: Petrik Hall and Miles Hall were only built in the 1990s, Anniversary Hall around 2000 then Siena Primo, Siena Secundo, Siena Terzo, and Siena Quarto Halls. 

But surely there were a few separate dorm buildings in the 1970s. The two residence buildings I know existed in the 1970s were Bonaventure (a former friary) and Lenihan which housed priests. But they didn't become residence halls for students until 1982. [SOURCE]  they were town down in 2009 to make way for the Siena complex. Despite the long history, the only student dorm building that seems to have existed in the early 1970s, was Newman Hall. For a while I thought this was as much information as I was going to get. I had a rough time period and the name of a dorm. But then I found a reference in Billboard magazine. Thank you Bob Glassenberg. It is in the October 10th 1970 issue. There is a single note which describes a conflict with the administration which corroborates one set of calls and adds another name. 

"WBUC, Bellarmine-Ursuline College, Louisville, KY., is getting flack from the administration. Dick McCormick, program and music director, writes that they are on their last leg in a battle with the  administration which allegedly is trying to close the station down because of "lack of material," namely new and old albums that fit into a free form format which relies on Top 40 and underground mainly. Record Companies, the address is 2000 Norris Place, Louisville, 40205. Please help them out. They reach many people. Campus stations, if you have any dupes send them along. It means a great deal to the people at the station, in the community, and it should mean something to you!" 

So this adds a third name to the Bellarmine radio history: David Kirwin and John Lindstrom as founders of WHUT in 1968 then Dick McCormick as the continuation WBUC in 1970. It may have existed as late as 1979, but the mailers only validate through 1973. I could not find a single one of those people online. I don't normally do this but I reached out to the seller on eBay, but he politely declined to be interviewed. So I am sorry to report, this mystery still endures. I'll post a part 2 if I ever find a primary source. 

Radio House Books

This is more obscure than it probably should be. I found a book on the imprint "Radio House Books." It's publisher was George W. Stewart, Inc. His operated from at least 1936 and 1951. The earliest book I found was The Stewart Simplified Method of Mimicry and Parlor Amusement. I suspect that's a different Stewart. The other works are all primarily from the 1940s and also primarily non-fiction: history, criticism, economics, sociology and a little bit of English drama. The address in the book plate is 67 W. 44th Street, New York, NY. Note on disambiguation: there was a well-published professor at the University of Iowa by that name, a few notable military men, and a newspaperman. These are all different George Stewarts.

But then there is our George W. Stewart. He was the author of "I Have a book" published in 1940. I found a copy of the Who What Why Is radio text scanned on line. [SOURCE] It refers to the Jerome Still book as "Still in preparation."  

 

In the introduction of The Radio Station, Jerome Still thanks Robert J. Landry which is an interesting connection. Landry even writes the introduction to the book. Landry himself is a mystery. In 1963 - 1979 the editor of Variety was a Robert J. Landry. He also wrote a book This Fascinating Radio Business, published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1946. Back in the 1940s he was the Director of Program writing at CBS.  The 2004 Encyclopedia of Radio confirms they are one and the same. Jerome Sill also thanks Sherman Marshall at WOLF, Nathan Lord of WAVE, and Joseph Creamer of WOR, all unknown radio men today.

Title	Author	Year	link
Who, What, Why Is Radio?	Robert J. Landry	1942	LINK
All Children Listen	Dorothy Gordon	1942	N/A
The Radio Station: Management, Function, Future	Jerome Sill	1946	LINK
Time For Reason About Radio	Lyman Bryson	1948	LINK

The three books are all rare, but none more so than the Dorothy Gordon text. She was the moderator of The New York Times Youth Forum, a weekly radio and television program on WQXR. It aired from 1943 to 1960. In 1960 it was picked up by WNBC-TV and aired until her death in 1970. The program brought together a panel of high school AND/or college students and an adult guest in discussion. Gordon won a McCalls Golden Mike award in 1952 [SOURCE] and a Peabody award in 1963 [SOURCE]. In 1942 the book some classroom discussion guides mention Gordon's book. All together she wrote at least 7 books.

• Sing It Yourself - 1928
• Around The World In Song - 1930
• Dorothy Gordon's Treasure Bag Of Game Song 1939
• Come To France 1940
• Knowing The Netherlands - 1940
• All Children Listen 1942
• You And Democracy - 1951

The Jerome Sill book is easier to find, and will cost half as much as the Gordon text. I saw one with the dust jacket on eBay. This appears to be his only book, thought it's widely quoted in other radio station management texts. A similar Jerome Sill worked in advertising in the 1930s into 1940s writing for Advertising & Selling magazine. There was  Jerome Sill of WMLO Milwaukee who led an independent station revolt in 1947 against a new NAB code. Jerome Sill pops up as the Promotions director of WNEW in 1944, formerly of the Aarons, Sill & Caron an ad agency in Detroit. I think these are all the same man. His letter of protest was widely quoted:

"Should this code be adopted in it's preset form, we might be in the position of being forced to withdraw from the NAB or be dishonest in our tacit acceptance of a code to which we could not sincerely subscribe. We would choose the former course."

If it's him he appears as the general manage of WMIL in Milwaukee in 1953, part owner of WREX in Duluth. He founded WAGE-TV in Greenbay in 1954. There was a Jerome Still who owned WFPG in Atlantic City, New Jersey 1960 and 1961, perhaps the same man. as the primary share-holder of WFPG Inc. he acquired the station in 1956,

 

The interval between the book publishing dates is peculiar. Two books the first year, then none for 3 years, and then one for another two. The Lyman Bryson book does advertise the prior three titles but it's unlike them in other ways. The first three books analyze radio management, and radio programming. Bryson's book is a transcript from a series of talks on CBS from the series "Time For Reason."  The show ran for 27 weekly episodes airing Sunday afternoons from December 1946 to June 1947. Bryson went on to become a frequent guest on the radio game show Information, Please. 

Bryson had been a teacher at Columbia University, but he also moderated The American School of The Air, Invitation to Learning and from 1938 to 1946 he hosted the publish affairs program The Peoples Platform. In many ways it was the adult version of Youth Forum, assembling a panel of laypeople to discuss areas of national interest. Publishers Weekly wrote a review in 1948 in advance of it's February 19th release date.

Some mysteries persist. There was never a fifth book in the series and George W. Stewart seems to stop operating in the early 1950s. The latest books are in a new series, a "Cookery Library" with a series of specialized cook books on coffee and cheese and a random Bible Quiz. In 1951 he published a book about war propaganda and by all appearances, nothing after that.

DJ Merle Travis

I know all of two songs by Merle Travis but I bet you know them too. "Dark as a Dungeon" and "Sixteen Tons" were both written and recorded by Merle Travis in the mid 1940s. But 10 years before that he made his first forays into radio and that is where we shall begin. There are two versions of the story, but one has him playing the "Tiger Rag" at the age of 18 on 1280 WGBF-AM in Evansville, IN. He was attending a dance in 1936 and his brother talked the DJ into letting Merle play a short tune during the break. That appearance got him invited to play in the band the Tennessee Tomcats. His career would go on to include the Knox County Knockabouts, Whitley's Western Swing Band, the Drifting Pioneers, Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, Brown's Ferry Four and many others.

A year after his radio debut, he was hired by fiddler Clayton McMichen as guitarist in his Georgia Wildcats. but while the Wildcats were regulars on WAVE-AM in Louisville, KY that was years after Travis left the group in 1939 to join the Drifting Pioneers, a Chicago-area gospel quartet. They became very popular regulars on the Boone County Jamboree program on WLW-AM. The program was later known as Midwestern Hayride. Travis stuck with the station long after the group broke up and fell in playing with other country artists like Grandpa Jones and the Delmore Brothers whom he played with as Brown's Ferry Four.

He went to LA and played on Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree, which aired on both KXLA-AM and KCOP-TV. On KXLA he also played on Town Hall Party and Dinner Bell Roundup, and on AFRS on the Melody Roundup. On KNX he became a regular cast member of The Hollywood Barn Dance. It wasn't until the late 1960s Travis relocated to Nashville and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. More here.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977. In the 1980s CHM records started to reissue his old records while he recorded new material.  He died of a heart attack in 1983. The Country Routes label has since issued several compilations of his radio transcriptions from the 1940s and 1950s