Post by John Quincy on Feb 13, 2007 8:09:19 GMT -5
Shortly before its ownership changed in the Summer of 1991, WAVG (formerly WAVE Radio) broadcast a multi-hour special: "The History of WAVE Radio." Jim Barks recorded it off the air and has made the tapes available to LKYRadio.com.
After hearing some of the show, I tried to track down the producer of the special, John Mark Owen, to see if the original tapes of the show still exist. I was successful in contacting John who informed me that he didn't have a copy, but that all of the recordings of WAVE used in the program -- and many, many more from the WAVE archives -- were donated to the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville in the late '80s.
John and I discussed the possibility of getting copies of some of this material from UK and U of L for LKYRadio.com. He was excited about the possibility of making these historic recordings available to the world through the Internet. Since most of the WAVE audio was at UK, John contacted the people in Lexington responsible for archiving the material to try to set things up.
John Owen called me yesterday after talking to the UK folks, and he wasn't very happy with the state of the WAVE audio collection in Lexington. He asked me to put the word out on the Internet on what he found. I asked him to write an open letter, and it's below:
Dear John:
I have enjoyed our conversations regarding the WAVE radio archives as of recent. I am thankful that we re-aired several pieces of material for our 58th and 60th anniversaries of WAVE-WAVG and also preserved a bit of history about WLAP when it was in Louisville from 1922-1933. George Norton, the founder of WAVE Incorporated, owned WLAP during 1931, 1932, and 1933 before he acquired WFIW 940 AM in Hopkinsville in October 1933 and moved the transmitter to Louisville and begin WAVE 940 AM from atop the Brown Hotel in Louisville and sold WLAP to the folks in Lexington.
Fortunately the WAVE collection was sent to U of K for preservation and safekeeping shortly before WAVG's move from the WAVE-TV Building to the 800 building in 1988 and much of the materials we had were used during the celebrations were from these archives. The Kentucky Association of Broadcasters had a good idea in establishing the UK archives but unfortunately the grant that helped employ a staff person at UK has long since ran out and the archives are closed to the public and the contributing stations for retrieval of materials.
I have started efforts in contacting Gary White of the KBA, Ed and Gail Henson (former owners of WAVG) and others expressing the dilema of not funding some effort to digitize these collections and make them available in an online form. These tapes and transcriptions are much too valuable to let sit rot away. There are also some 150 transcriptions from WAVE (some glass-based) at U of L in a collection closed to the public because the staff has little idea on what they have.
Both schools have broadcasting outlets and I am sure we could find a whole lot of volunteerism to go in and help from former broadcasters to help archive and help maintain these collections, if the campus stations would loan their facilities.
I would urge anyone interested in preservation of history to contact the KBA and get them back on the ball in the preservation of Kentucky's radio history and that of television as well considering there are tons of film and kineoscopes waiting for some TLC in Lexington.
Thank you for your efforts in preserving what's left of WKLO and WAKY.
John Mark Owen
Staff Announcer
WAVG Radio Louisville
The University of Kentucky does have a Web page listing what they have in the WAVE collection, but according to John Owen, the list is far from complete. For instance, tapes of several DJ-type shows were donated (some unscoped) but don't show up in the online list.
www.uky.edu/Libraries/libpage.php?lweb_id=397&llib_id=13
After hearing some of the show, I tried to track down the producer of the special, John Mark Owen, to see if the original tapes of the show still exist. I was successful in contacting John who informed me that he didn't have a copy, but that all of the recordings of WAVE used in the program -- and many, many more from the WAVE archives -- were donated to the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville in the late '80s.
John and I discussed the possibility of getting copies of some of this material from UK and U of L for LKYRadio.com. He was excited about the possibility of making these historic recordings available to the world through the Internet. Since most of the WAVE audio was at UK, John contacted the people in Lexington responsible for archiving the material to try to set things up.
John Owen called me yesterday after talking to the UK folks, and he wasn't very happy with the state of the WAVE audio collection in Lexington. He asked me to put the word out on the Internet on what he found. I asked him to write an open letter, and it's below:
Dear John:
I have enjoyed our conversations regarding the WAVE radio archives as of recent. I am thankful that we re-aired several pieces of material for our 58th and 60th anniversaries of WAVE-WAVG and also preserved a bit of history about WLAP when it was in Louisville from 1922-1933. George Norton, the founder of WAVE Incorporated, owned WLAP during 1931, 1932, and 1933 before he acquired WFIW 940 AM in Hopkinsville in October 1933 and moved the transmitter to Louisville and begin WAVE 940 AM from atop the Brown Hotel in Louisville and sold WLAP to the folks in Lexington.
Fortunately the WAVE collection was sent to U of K for preservation and safekeeping shortly before WAVG's move from the WAVE-TV Building to the 800 building in 1988 and much of the materials we had were used during the celebrations were from these archives. The Kentucky Association of Broadcasters had a good idea in establishing the UK archives but unfortunately the grant that helped employ a staff person at UK has long since ran out and the archives are closed to the public and the contributing stations for retrieval of materials.
I have started efforts in contacting Gary White of the KBA, Ed and Gail Henson (former owners of WAVG) and others expressing the dilema of not funding some effort to digitize these collections and make them available in an online form. These tapes and transcriptions are much too valuable to let sit rot away. There are also some 150 transcriptions from WAVE (some glass-based) at U of L in a collection closed to the public because the staff has little idea on what they have.
Both schools have broadcasting outlets and I am sure we could find a whole lot of volunteerism to go in and help from former broadcasters to help archive and help maintain these collections, if the campus stations would loan their facilities.
I would urge anyone interested in preservation of history to contact the KBA and get them back on the ball in the preservation of Kentucky's radio history and that of television as well considering there are tons of film and kineoscopes waiting for some TLC in Lexington.
Thank you for your efforts in preserving what's left of WKLO and WAKY.
John Mark Owen
Staff Announcer
WAVG Radio Louisville
The University of Kentucky does have a Web page listing what they have in the WAVE collection, but according to John Owen, the list is far from complete. For instance, tapes of several DJ-type shows were donated (some unscoped) but don't show up in the online list.
www.uky.edu/Libraries/libpage.php?lweb_id=397&llib_id=13
