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WJYL
Mar 25, 2009 7:27:43 GMT -5
Post by dbsteff on Mar 25, 2009 7:27:43 GMT -5
Hi; Not familiar with the jocks. There used to be a popular song, back in the Jurassic Period.....ie. the disco era, it was by a group called "ERUPTION" and the song was "I can't stop the rain" so...I don't know if this is the same song or not, since you refer to "you can't stop the rain."
"I can't stop the rain" was available in two lengths, as well. A shorter version for radio, and a longer version for the dance floor in the disco.
"Just a thought...I might be out in the weeds...who knows.
Regards to all
Dan
BTW, my nephew is about to start his residency at a hospital in Lexington, in case any of you can recommend the "hot spots" ie. good restaurants, etc. I'll pass any info on to him.
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Post by dbsteff on Feb 24, 2009 11:42:32 GMT -5
DAN’S PANIC CART
I spoke to my buddy, Don, last evening encouraging him once more to write about his experience in 800Building when the earthquake occurred. I can’t seem to motivate him to do so. His radio days are not as big a deal as they are to me…Oh well, I’ll keep after him.
He did, however, suggest I write about the compliment that Clarence Henson paid me for having survived a blown fuse in our RCA console.
It happened out of the blue, one evening. I don’t know why. There was nothing extraordinary going on at the time, no thunderstorms or anything that would have produced an electrical surge, but, suddenly the console went dead. The Illuminated VU meters went dark and, obviously we were not sending audio to the transmitter. We didn’t have a back up studio, no production studio, as I’ve mentioned in earlier parts of the thread, so I couldn’t run to an alternate studio and feed the transmitter from an alternate location. I was in PANIC MODE!
We didn’t keep spare parts…especially fuses in the control room. I knew I could run up to the roof, into the transmitter shack, where we kept spare belts for those pesky Fairchild turntables, as well as a variety of spare parts, including fuses. We’d be off the air, actually transmitting silence, for a good long time if I did that, so I, instead, quickly ran around to the back of the cabinets, as can be seen in the pics posted here on the WLRS page, and repatched the reel-to reel (Magnecorder) to feed the Collins audio processor / limiter directly.
I loaded a program tape and started it running. This, at least put us back on the air with audio. It also gave me time to run upstairs and get a fuse for the console. During the time it took to complete this operation, we missed a station ID and numerous spots.
After the episode was over, I produced what I called and marked the “PANIC” cart.
This was one of the 7” carts…..fills up the entire bay of the cart machine, as can be seen in the studio pics on the WLRS page as well. If memory serves, it had about a half hour of capacity.
The panic cart included Station IDs every 15 minutes or so as well as music that I had transferred from one of my program reels.
A day or two later, I came in for my evening shift to find a note from Clarence.
In it he said, and I paraphrase:
Smart thinking on the “PANIC CART”, Dan. Good idea. Clarence
Given the level of respect I had for Clarence, that was a high compliment, Indeed.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Feb 9, 2009 11:35:36 GMT -5
W-L-R-S ’68 –The RED CART
I was checking out the WLRS pics I submitted to LKYRadio, as well as to the WLRS website, primarily to make sure that WLRS had NOT pulled them down. They were still there. You can see any of them here on the LKYRadio webpage. In particular, I was looking at the pic of Tim Goodwin at the console. I noticed the two red carts placed in the vertical cartridge rack next to the console. My memory was jogged, once more, with another anecdote of my time at WLRS. The same was true regarding my time at other stations during my career.
The two red carts were not spots, not PSAs, not tags, not stingers or station IDs or such as one typically associates with carts.
No, these carts were the ones we hoped to never have to play. They were associated with the fledgling (at the time) E.A.S. system. One gave instructions to the listener to tune to the local EAS station designate….if I remember correctly, WHAS for instructions regarding a C.D. (Civil Defense) state of emergency. The other was the “All Clear”.
WLRS did not have an EAS receiver….WXVW did. They were to notify us, should the thing come to life. WLRS only had to become involved if the receiver coded a real emergency, we did not have to participate in any tests. The EAS receiver, in those days, was a clunky old electromechanical box, which could display emergency codes and whether the alert was a test or the real thing.
After 40 years, it’s difficult to remember the particulars of the law, at the time, but if I remember correctly, one could not abandon the station to join in any sort of evacuation, should one be called. You had to remain on duty at the controls, no matter what the nature of the emergency. Even if a nuclear strike was pending, one was to stay at the controls.
I even had a bad, bad, nightmare at one point, that, indeed, I was stuck at the controls waiting on a nuclear strike. I, in my dream, kept announcing the evacuation to a Louisville listening audience that was still fast asleep and in despair that could not awaken them.
I awakened in a sweat, my heart pounding, and grateful that it was only a dream.
When I later attended The University of Dallas, I wrote a brief short story as part of an English course (Required course, naturally) based on the nightmare.
I may have eventually remembered the trepidation I felt regarding that hypothetical eventuality….but the pic with Tim Goodwin and the two “RED CARTS” brought it to mind. I hope no one ever has to play the red carts.
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 30, 2009 7:02:07 GMT -5
Thanks for the info. I was unaware of the UEI connection. It makes sense.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 29, 2009 10:32:40 GMT -5
WLRS Dan’s LATE SIGN ON ‘69
Once and only once did I oversleep and sign on late at WLRS. It was a Sunday. My alarm clock, an old wind-up type, had not sounded…..I don’t remember if I had failed to wind it, or not turned on the alarm function, or what. All I remember is waking up to see that the Sun was beginning to rise. I went into immediate panic mode. I jumped out of bed grabbed my clothes and ran to the car, as I was putting them on.
I had no time to shower, comb my hair, or anything else. I drove like the proverbial “Bat out of Hell” to get up Crittenden, onto the expressway and to downtown Louisville.
I was as reliable as taxes, I had never been late for sign on, or any other shift. I was, therefore, scolding myself like never before, during the drive to downtown. I reached my usual parking place in the Church parking lot, about a half block down the street from the 800 Building. My shirt and jacket were lying next to me on the front seat of my Ford Galaxie. I hadn’t taken time, in my haste,to put them on while I was still in the car. I was so distracted that I hadn’t noticed how cold it was. It was winter. Those of you who have lived in Louisville for any length of time know well, how brutal the Louisville winter can be.
I grabbed my shirt and jacket and ran up 4th street to the lobby of the 800 Building. I used my key to open the door into the building and ran to the elevator. Naturally, it seemed like forever for it to take me to the 9th floor. It finally did. I ran to our suite 908, where the studio / control room was. I ran to the transmitter remote-control, and placed the carrier on the air. I grabbed at some albums from the rack, which spanned an entire wall of the studio, and placed an LP on turntable 2, as it was closest. I pulled the sign-on cart from the rack above the console and hurriedly placed it into the cart machine and started it.
I was still bare-chested, my shirt and jacket lying on the floor of the studio, where I had thrown them when I arrived. I must have been a sight to behold. My hair disheveled, my clothes on the floor, etc.
I started the LP I had grabbed from the rack, and tried to regain my composure. Just then, I heard the door open.
OH SH---T! I thought to myself. Sure enough, in came our P.D. not dressed much more completely than I. I was expecting the chewing-out of a lifetime. He only nodded at me. No doubt my state of undress served as witness to the fact that I had beaten a hasty path to get there. He said nothing. Not then nor later. I don’t know why he decided to have mercy on me, not then, not now. We never discussed it.
He had a clock radio in his bedroom, which came on a few minutes prior to sign on. It was therefore revealed to him, immediately, that we were NOT on the air at the prescribed time. This all came to mind yesterday, when much of Dallas was shut down, due to an ice storm. And I was struggling to make it to work.
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 26, 2009 10:14:40 GMT -5
IT'S SATIN DOLL
Last evening, I attended an evening of musical fun with my friend Galen Jeter, the founder of the Dallas Jazz Orchestra. He and his group, now play, as well, as the G.J.O. (Galen Jeter Orchestra) at a Country Club in Dallas called the Village. Among the the tunes they play is:"Satin Doll".
It brought to mind an incident from my WLRS days:
I had played that tune, Satin Doll, one evening. Later, when I announced the selections I had played in the last half hour, I had barely closed the mic when the studio line began to ring.
I answered it with the usual high-energy greeting "W-L-R-S!"
The listener only responded by saying:
"It's Satin Doll.....NOT Satan Doll"
I was extremely embarrassed. What a stupid mistake. I knew the difference in the spelling.....I just wasn't paying attention.
I ignored the studio line for a while, as it continued to ring. I didn't need further scolding. I made it a point to play the tune again in the next hour, though I really shouldn't have, it was too soon......besides, it was not a favorite of mine....but I wanted the opportunity to correct the error so the phone would stop ringing.
BTW, if you're into Jazz, Galen has a heavy presence on the web, including some video snippets you can click on and watch. You can Google his name...... Galen Jeter.....and numerous web sites will appear. He's outstanding, even if you're not that much into Jazz.
Anyway, as I have promised in past posts, as these little tid-bits come to mind, I'll pass them along.
I'm still trying to get my buddy, Don, to write his own stories regarding what happened when he was on-air during the '68 earthquake....and other incidents, as well. He seems NOT as eager to write these stories, and perhaps, doesn't relish his time at WLRS/WXVW as much as I. I'll keep after him, as I'd rather he write these stories, himself.
Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 25, 2009 14:10:17 GMT -5
Interesting ! I really can't recall ever knowing the call sign of that station. I sure remember the incident, however. I have thought of it often, over the years, and wondered if that salvage crew had the necessary insurance to pay for the mishap. I'm sure they didn't find it as humorus as we students.
I can't fault them too harshly. I would never have thought that that antenna array weighed more than that big military truck. So I might have easily made the same mistake. Of course, they were supposed to be pros, so you would think that they would have taken that into consideration.
Anyway, thanks for your feedback.
I try to stick to stories about Louisvile Radio....specifically, WLRS, where I once worked, but Since TVHISTORY set the precedent by bring the discussion around to the topic of TV Stations, I couldn't resist offering the story about the Mystery TV Station.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 21, 2009 11:15:17 GMT -5
Since our new member....tvhistory, raised the issue of tv stations in the Louisville market, I thought I would tell the following story and solicit his input as to what was the call sign and any other particulars regarding the station he might contribute.
While I was working at WLRS / WXVW and going to school in Shively at the United Electronics Institute a humorous incident occurred. There was a TV station housed in the same building as UEI. It had recently gone off the air...or perhaps moved to a new location, I really don't remember. In any case, they had sold off their existing equipment, including the transmitter and bat-wing antenna array on the top of their tower. The tower was probably about 250 ft high, although, as I've said before, I'm a poor judge of such things.
Anyway, a salvage company had been hired to detach and lower the antenna array to the ground and move it to a new location, where some other station had purchased it from the original owner.
To accomplish this feat, they had installed a huge jib boom to the top of the tower and attached a block & Tackle arrangement at the base of the tower, with its ropes strung to the top of the jib boom, through a pulley and back to the top of the antenna array.
At the base of the tower, the rope was fastened to a motor powered winch attached to the front frame of a large truck. The truck was a used military style truck, with four wheels in the rear and two in the front......whatever that kind of truck is called.
The idea was to break the antenna free from its mounts with the winch, swing it away from the tower and then lower it to the ground very slowly, by driving the truck very slowly toward the base of the tower. They had had the police to block of the driveway and cross street so they could park the truck in the parking lot of an adjacent bowling alley.
All went well, initially. The nuts had been removed from the mooring bolts.The winch delivered a good, sudden jerk to the antenna array, after about three such jerks, the antenna broke loose from its moorings, and the tower monkeys, perched at the top of the tower pushed it away from the tower.
What no one had thought of was the fact that the antenna array weighed significantly more than the truck that it was tethered to. As soon as the truck begin to move toward the base of the tower, inertia took over and the antenna array began to head toward the parking lot below at, what seemed like, free-fall speed.
This event was jaw dropping to all of us students, who had been sent out of the building in case of an accident. The tower was adjacent to the building our classrooms were in, and UEI wasn't taking any chances. So we were all standing around the bowling alley parking lot watching this three-stooges affair take place.
The big truck, with its brakes fully engaged, was being dragged up the parking lot toward the base of the tower, leaving a black rubber streak from each of the rear tires as it moved.
The antenna array hit the ground at free fall speed and broke into numerous pieces. The batwings were attached to the main beam of the antenna mast with Teflon insulators. These insulators were shot into the air like projectiles when the impact occurred. I swiped one and held onto it for years, as a reminder of the event.
The most hilarious part of the scene was that another of the guys involved in the operation, ran to get in front of the truck, sit on the winch and try to dig his feet into the ground....as if he could slow the descent.
It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I'm sure that the crew involved with this episode did NOT appreciate having a hundred or so students...kids really, laughing at them, uproariously, from the bowling alley parking lot.
Perhaps TVHISTORY knows of this event and can tell us what the station was.
Regards Barry
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 16, 2009 12:03:21 GMT -5
Don & Dan and the Sign-Off races
I have hesitated to offer this story as it is actually more about my buddy and fellow WLRS DJ Don, and myself than about WLRS the station. Still, I suppose Don and I are part of the station history, so here goes:
Don and I would rotate sign-off duties from time to time. We, being stupid 19 year olds, got into the habit of seeing who could make it home to our run-down old trailer after sign-off.
It was easy to time.....one need only start the clock running when the transmitter was taken off the air, and that was easy to monitor at home.
The station, at that time, was in the 800 Building in downtown Louisville. Our trailer was in a trailer park on Seneca Drive, off Crittenden near the Airport.
One evening, the traffic was virtually non-existent....as one would expect at 1AM, and I was making record time and was so proud of myself and the few minutes that it took me to get home.
When I pulled up in front of the trailer, I saw Don looking out the window at me and pointing behind me.
I turned to find myself face -to-face with one of Louisville's finest, who had followed me home from some point on the expressway. I must have moved too fast as I turned to face him as he yelled "FREEZE" at me and pulled his gun.
Being the super-macho guy I was, I nearly soiled myself.
He really read my beads BIG TIME. He never turned on his lights as he didn't think he could catch me if I ran.....that 390 CI engine in my old 1962 Ford Galaxie was, I admit, pretty awesome.
Anyway, he cussed me out good and assured me that the only reason he was not arresting me and hauling me away in cuffs was that I had run him out of his jurisdiction.
He offered the usual admonition about not trying it again while in his patrol area, or else! Then he holstered his gun and walked back to his patrol car to leave.
I looked up into the window, but was not amused to see my buddy, Don, Laughing Uproariously.
We never played that silly game again.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 12, 2009 10:45:05 GMT -5
WLRS and the “Southern Sign-Off”
I heard, by chance, “Tara’s Theme” from the movie Gone with the wind over the weekend. It brought to mind another anecdote regarding 1967—69 WLRS. I had produced the WLRS “SIGN-OFF” cart for use in those days. I used “Tara’s Theme” to read the sign-off message over as I wanted to give it a somewhat “Southern Flavor”…..”WLRS concludes another broadcast day. WLRS broadcasts with an Effective Radiated Power of 3-Thousand watts at a frequency of 1-0-2-point-3 Megahertz, as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission. WLRS transmits from the roof of the 800-Building at 800 South 4th Street in downtown Louisville Kentucky. WLRS will begin another broadcast day at 6-AM this morning……..
At the end of the sign-off message, “Tara’s theme” would fade into the National anthem, as was the custom in those days. Then the transmitter would be taken off the air. I know from my buddies, whom I left behind when I moved to Dallas, TX. In 1969, that the sign off cart was used for years after I had made my exit.
In those years, WLRS was NOT a 24 hour operation. We signed off at 1-AM and back on at 6-AM. I don’t know precisely when WLRS went to a 24hour operation. I suppose that by the time it became “The Walrus” it had done so.
Anyway; there’s some more trivia regarding the early days of WLRS.
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 7, 2009 10:58:23 GMT -5
ANOTHER MEMORY
One of the pics that John Quincy was so kind as to post on the WLRS page is of yours truly standing beneath a WLRS Poster and in front of an N.A.B Plaque.
It popped into my feeble mind last night that the WLRS poster was, in fact, a rendering or "proof" of what would become a full billboard sign, advertising the station. The billboards were placed in various parts of town, especially along the main routes into and out of the Louisville area (ie I-264)
I guess I never knew how much additional business they generated, or how many additional listeners resulted from them.
In any case, that's why the "poster" appears in the pic.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 2, 2009 10:41:48 GMT -5
Carl Blanton, as noted on the DJs page here on LKYRadio relates a brief story regarding his time at WLRS in the early 70's.....but does not relate any stories of length to the message board.
I enjoyed working at WLRS in its early days......didn't make CR---P for money, but it paid my tuition till I graduated from UEI (United Electronics Institute) in 1969....wow, that must sound like the Jurassic Period to most of you readers......perhaps it was.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 2, 2009 8:08:06 GMT -5
Pondering the gap:
I was thinking that there sure is a considerable gap in the timeline between the time I spent at WLRS 1967--69 and the stories I posted regarding my time there, to the next postings, which are, basically, air checks in the 1980's.
I know, from readin here, that Terry & Ron left WLRS on less than happy terms, so I find it understandable that they haven't posted any stories regarding their time at WLRS, but there were certainly many other jocks, who served time, as it were, at WLRS between my time there and the 80's.....yet there is a dirth of stories from the intervening time period. I find that curious.
Regards and Happy New Year to ALL....hope '09 proves to be your best ever.
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 31, 2008 7:13:00 GMT -5
I was impressed with the "coverage" related discussion. One of the smart things that has happened in Dallas-Ft. Worth, or the "Metroplex" as it is called is that several years ago, most of the major broadcasters, both radio and TV got together and built a common transmitter facility at a point halfway between Dallas and Ft. Worth on a little hilly area called Cedar Hill. It is the most prominent area of higher than average height in the North Texas community of cities. They built three towers on the site, the tallest of which, if memory serves is appx 1800 ft high. Except for the local PBS affiliate, all the commercial TV and FM (it's irrelevant, of course to AM) stations broadcast from this complex. It's GREAT, since the altitude provides maximum coverage to all who broadcast from the site, and those receiving over the air TV can use a single directional setting for their receiving antennae. They jointly fund a crew of maintenance engineers and other personnel, as required.
Other large metro areas have done the same. Any thought of the broadcasters in the Louisville market considering such a move?
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 30, 2008 12:43:37 GMT -5
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
I look forward to reading all of your remarks in '09
Thanks, as well, to all who took time to read my posts. Special Thanks to John Quincy for posting my audio snippets from a long ago era of WLRS.
REGARDS!!!
Dan
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